NBA 2024-25 Season Thread
Lettuce NBA!
and lettuce lol @ James Harden
Pistons would blow these frauds out if Cade was playing. Sigh
Here goes LeBron pushing for 25 again. He'll make it again, probably.
For Laker fans, or non-Laker haters. I'd appreciate a delusion check.
Before this Doncic trade, JJ had the Lakers playing extremely connected, dominate basketball for 2+ months once he worked out the rotations. Pundits were finally recognizing that the Lakers were title contenders. I think OKC would have been the biggest obstacle.
I'm old enough to have watched a lot of Lakers championships, and I know what a connected, championship level team looks like. The ball movement, the anticipation, the shot creation, the unselfishness, and the 4th and 5th efforts on D. Non championship teams don't do that.
Enter Luka.
Before I say anything else, I'm going to preface this w/ I'm not a hatter and I'm actually extremely neutral on Luka as a bball player. The only thing that bugged me about his game, was his constant bitching at refs. Other than that... didn't really think about him at all.
Since I've gotten to watch him now more closely, I'm scratching my head a bit. If you took Doncic off the back of his Jersey, and replaced it with nearly anyone else's name, I think people would say, "wtf is this guy playing so much?". Because he's playing like dog sht. But he should rightfully get some grace, as he's coming back from injury, on a new team, and has shown he can play much, much better than he is right now.
However... as he currently is playing, you cannot win in the NBA when your least efficient shooter, worst defender, and highest usage player is taking the most shots on your team. You just can't.
I feel for JJ, as I don't think there's a good solution here, but this team went from dominating teams (almost toying w/ them), 2 months before Luka arrived, and in 2nd place, to struggling to beat any team.... scrub team or not.
This Lakers team w/ Luka now, has zero chance at a championship. The one prior, w/ AD & Max, had a solid outside chance imho.
And I get why you make the trade... that's not what this post is about.
But if you're JJ, what do you do, and does anyone think the above isn't accurate?
I'll disagree. The Lakers had zero chance with AD to win the championship and now have a slight shot since getting Luka. The Lakers have 3.5 good players and their bench is horrific. This didn't change with the trade, but you got a higher ceiling player now.
Luka trade was obviously a long-term thing. Anything this year was a bonus.
You also overrated the Lakers before the trade. They had very little equity.
I'll disagree. The Lakers had zero chance with AD to win the championship and now have a slight shot since getting Luka. The Lakers have 3.5 good players and their bench is horrific. This didn't change with the trade, but you got a higher ceiling player now.
Luka trade was obviously a long-term thing. Anything this year was a bonus.
You also overrated the Lakers before the trade. They had very little equity.
Agreed with everything here.
Luka is still ****ing amazing at basketball. He can have some off games.
Luka trade was obviously a long-term thing. Anything this year was a bonus.
You also overrated the Lakers before the trade. They had very little equity.
You're a Laker fan, or what's your team(s)?
Mmm... they had the #1 offense, and #1 defense over a 2+ month span and second in the west. Even typically Laker hating pundits were saying the Lakers are contenders this year.
It took awhile for JJ to figure out the rotations and approach, but once he did, the games they were playing weren't really close. Scores sometimes ended closer, but they were never close. The team was the most connected team of any team I watched this year. Looking a bit like the 17/18 GSW, 04' Pistons, 01' Lakers.
So what's your reasoning that they weren't? OKC too good?
No one will know or care, but Aaron Nesmith is quietly going to hit 50/40/90 this year. He won't technically qualify due to his games missed due to injury earlier in the year, but he's having an incredible year since coming back.
You're a Laker fan, or what's your team(s)?
Mmm... they had the #1 offense, and #1 defense over a 2+ month span and second in the west. Even typically Laker hating pundits were saying the Lakers are contenders this year.
It took awhile for JJ to figure out the rotations and approach, but once he did, the games they were playing weren't really close. Scores sometimes ended closer, but they were never close. The team was the most connected team of any team I watched this year. Looking a bit like the
Because AD is one twist of his ankle from being out, his jumper isn’t what it was in 2020 and it was never going to make sense for the Lakers to get a centre to start alongside him at the 4. Which is what he was ultimately obsessing about as the path to success.
As much as DFS was a big upgrade over D’Lo; as much as Reaves has taken another step forward and Gabe Vincent has figured it out, etc; the idea that Reddick could be the fundamental reason the Lakers could win a series against Denver or better after losing 8 of their last 9 playoff games with healthy AD / Bron (or as healthy as they’ll be playing in April / May) was fanciful imo. AD / Bron are not as good as they were in 2020, and OKC and Jokic exist.
This Lakers team has a higher ceiling in a playoff series imo, and that’s what you should forever want to shoot for as a fan. In a crunch game in early May, you have three guys on the floor at any one time who are buckets. Defensively, they are a weird type of big in some of their lineups - lots of length and size in the backcourt. It’s not perfect, they still have issues. But Luka > AD and this teams ceiling is higher.
Maybe its floor in a series is lower, because AD on his day brings that defensive shield and the times his offense is also there and Bron is being Bron it’s formidable. But very likely two nights later they are both phoning it in on at least one end of the court. The idea here is Luka can bring it across an entire series and that is worth more imo, and it’s not really close.
And then you have all the future considerations…
It's such a cluster**** if they 0-2 vs OKC they could drop down to 6-8th
Because AD is one twist of his ankle from being out, his jumper isn’t what it was in 2020 and it was never going to make sense for the Lakers to get a centre to start alongside him at the 4. Which is what he was ultimately obsessing about as the path to success.
As much as DFS was a big upgrade over D’Lo; as much as Reaves has taken another step forward and Gabe Vincent has figured it out, etc; the idea that Reddick could be the fundamental reason the Lakers could win a series agains
Well... in fairness, anyone is a bad landing away from the IL, and AD has been more resilient lately. More than most stars, but he also has a narrative behind him that's hard for people to break.
Once the version of the Lakers I'm referring to, figured it out, they trounced Denver, barely lost vs them with everyone but AR out, and beat them handily again. I don't think Denver was going to be their biggest obstacle this year. That Denver team isn't the same one that narrowly beat them in the PO games in the last couple of years. It's just not... at all.
Ty for saying this: Luka > AD. I think that's what most fans get stuck on, and arbitrarily say because of this, the Lakers are better now. It's just terrible reasoning imho.
It's not about which player is better, it's about what the TEAM needs more. Only 5 players on the court at the same time... do the Lakers need 3 versions of the same player? Or would they benefit more from a lock down perimeter player in Christie, and a perineal defensive player of the year contender in AD?
Also, AD is much more efficient with his shots. Luka this year, for whatever reason, is really struggling w/ efficiency.
Any ways.... thanks for the discussion. I know what I saw though, and now being 51, and having watched a lot of championship teams, coached, and played, it's hard to unsee that. I mean other teams and players and coaches were even commenting on how connected that team was... which you rarely hear that kind of language from other players unless it's overtly true.
This current team imho has zero shot at a title... the AD/Max one had a shot imho. It's about fitment and effort at this level, not just about talent.
You're a Laker fan, or what's your team(s)?
Mmm... they had the #1 offense, and #1 defense over a 2+ month span and second in the west. Even typically Laker hating pundits were saying the Lakers are contenders this year.
It took awhile for JJ to figure out the rotations and approach, but once he did, the games they were playing weren't really close. Scores sometimes ended closer, but they were never close. The team was the most connected team of any team I watched this year. Looking a bit like the
I think either you or I are in some alternate reality. My memory was that after the Luka trade is when they surged to 2nd. Prior to the trade they did start to look better but that brought them to like 6th or something, not that they couldn't eventually get to 2nd or something-but they didn't.
Gus put it better than I could so is won't repeat him, what he said is correct. Even if AD has good injury luck (lol he already has shown he can't in his first game) you still make the trade. I am a Laker hater and thought that maybe, just maybe they lost a bit of equity this year but definitely not moving forward.
Have you really watched them this year? Reeves has been playing out his ass since the trade.
Lakers were only in 2nd pre-Luka at the very start of the season so that doesn't really count. Then they were in 3rd for a few days in November. Luka's first game was Feb 10th, and they had a short run in 2nd at the beginning of March.
Spoiler
I'm here for the Okc title run.
Shai about to be the first Canadian ever to win NBA Finals MVP.
George Saint Pierre was a ufc champion and that's probably the closest comparison.
You're a Laker fan, or what's your team(s)?
Mmm... they had the #1 offense, and #1 defense over a 2+ month span and second in the west. Even typically Laker hating pundits were saying the Lakers are contenders this year.
It took awhile for JJ to figure out the rotations and approach, but once he did, the games they were playing weren't really close. Scores sometimes ended closer, but they were never close. The team was the most connected team of any team I watched this year. Looking a bit like the
Warriors started the year 12-3, but they weren't Championship contenders. Teams have good runs.
Also, now the Lakers are like the 17/18 Warriors? Come on...
