OT: Lakers, Pelicans agree to AD deal
No. Lakers should sign another star. Keep in mind, the NBA is a soft cap. The Lakers have plenty of money to skyrocket the payroll for the next 3 years of lebron.
The Pelicans win a championship before the Lakers
Would you like to make this bet ? $100 ? I’m true to my word.
?? Dan Gilbert, is that you? NBA draft picks are not worth much outside the top five. AD is a proven superstar and the Lakers are playing to win now. I hate the Lakers but they could still get another max level guy this offseason, which would leave them stacked in a suddenly now longer top heavy western conference. Houston isn’t winning a title as currently constructed bc Harden ball is not reliable in the playoffs and Chris Paul is hurt all the time. Denver is too young, Golden State will likely be too hurt (and I think KD leaves anyway), my beloved Spurs are shooterless in shooter’s league, and Portland would just be happy to make a conference finals.
Brahahaha...did Lonzo Ball secretly take over your account?
He’s still not going to win a title out there. The East is the new West.
Philly, Boston, Toronto and Milwaukee can all take those teams down on any given night.
Toronto could be garbage next year, it’s all on Kawhi.
What a great move by lebron. He left the east at the exact right time.
I think someone has a crush....
Toronto and Boston will likely lose their best players this off-season, and Philly will probably lost Harris and Butler, or else spend so much to keep them they'll have 0 depth. Milwaukee looks good and should be a force next year.
Brooklyn is likely to get better, especially if they sign a solid FA (probably Irving). If that also means Durant comes along, that makes the Nets a true championship contender in two years.
The East is better than it has been, but it's not nearly the gauntlet the west was/is.
NO needs a stretch 5 if Lonzo and Zion are going to be on the court together. They're definitely going to be an interesting team to watch.
Brook Lopez and Dewayne Dedmon are free agents
The Lakers better pray that AD and Lebron avoid injury, or this could prove to be a catastrophic trade for them. AD's injury history isn't promising, and with Lebron getting older and coming back off that extended groin injury, he might be starting to break down as well. An injury or two this year and/or next and the Pelicans end up with maybe another lottery pick or two.
Lonzo and Ingram both played fewer games than Lebron and AD this season.
Don’t tell him facts lol.
And if course injuries to superstars are bad. What an obvious statement lol.
You want facts? Look up AD's injury history, add Lebron's age and lack of depth on the Lakers bench, and voila: short term conference finals contender that's one injury away from being a lottery team without the lottery pick.
To be fair it's quite normal to worry about a guy's health when he's entering his 17th season (where does the time go?). LeBron battled injuries last year, which makes you wonder if that was the beginning of the end.
And then Davis has tended to miss 15-20 games a year.
The three first round picks are what's killer, though LA offered 4 at the deadline.
Lonzo is never going to be a good point guard. His shooting mechanics are god awful AND he has injury history too.
Maybe Pelicans can draft players like Lonzo and Ingram with those picks, and if they are lucky they can trade those players and additional picks to another team in the future and get a star like AD.
With Durant and Klay injured, LA sees an opening to win the championship next year. If they don't win it next year then this trade is a massive failure for the Lakers. Lebron will only be getting older and they traded a lot of assets for AD.
New Orleans makes out great. Jrue Holiday is a really good PG so they will be able to trade Lonzo for even more picks if they want.
I personally like Ingram. We seen how well Randle and DLO started playing once they left LA. I expect Ingram to make the same improvements
I wish Mo Wagner was traded in this deal. Lakers have treated him like shit. Barely got any time on the court to develop.
What do you like about Ingram exactly? I have watched most of his games as a Laker, and I am just curious. He can’t stay healthy, he makes Durant look like a body builder, he doesn’t make other players better (Lonzo did for what it is worth), and he doesn’t have a killer instinct. There is a reason the Lakers refused to let Kuzma go, but have continued to dangle Ingram. Pelicans should have insisted on Kuzma being part of the deal.
The Lakers, as currently constructed, have at most a 2-year window. Lebron is going to be 35 in December, and has already played over 46,000 minutes in his career. He's going to be an old 35. This will be his 17th year in the league. Kobe played just under 49,000 minutes in his career, and only 6 guys have topped 50K in their entire careers. He already broke down this year, and if you think he's going to stay healthy and the Lebron we know for anything longer that 2 years, well, I've got a bridge to sell you.
Lebron has 2-3 more years of being a top 5 player. He has 3-5 years of being a top 20 player. Don’t worry about lebron. He will be just fine. He has kept himself in amazing shape.
Lebron probably won't even be in the league for 5 more years. Those minutes are going to catch up to him. I suspect that they are already starting to do so. He's played an awful lot of ball, between the regular season, postseason, and even the Olympics.
Its not the age. It's the mileage.
Think about the basketball minutes LeBron has actually played. Back in the day they didnt really play a ton of summer ball as a high school kid,they didnt practice all year long (NBA players actually had a second job sometimes)
LeBron has probably played more minutes than any NBA player and its probably not even close
I suspect he starts shifting his game more into the post as his quickness wanes, but I bet he’s still on a roster (I think he goes back to Cleveland eventually) in five years. He has no more mileage than a Duncan or a Kobe.
Lebron right now (16 years): 46,235 minutes
Duncan's career (19 years): 47,368
Kobe's career (20 years): 48,637
...and I don't think Lebron would enjoy the last three years of Kobe's career. Kobe was effectively crippled his last three seasons.
The only reason Lebron would be sticking around at 40 would be if he had not yet caught Kareem.
Duncan had 4500 college minutes Lebron didn't have, though.
....or wants to wait for his son and be the first father/son pair to ever play together in the NBA.
Toronto had a 1 year window because Leonard is leaving...and they won the NBA Championship.
Next year the Warriors are going to be without Klay for almost the entire year, Cousins is gone, and KD is gone for the entire year (and may never be coming back). Next year is the best chance any Western Conference team not named the Warriors has had in the last 5 years to make it to the Finals. And now the Lakers have 2 top 10 players, arguably 2 top 5 players when healthy.
Already talking about the Pelicans trading that 4th pick....NBA is about 5-6 teams and the really dont care about the other 25
I wonder who cracks 1st LaVar Ball or Pelicans owner? Mr Ball has said all three of his boys will be Lakers for life and he has the power to veto any trade and the Pelican owner said "Davis would be going to the Lakers over her dead body"
LaVar says what he needs to say to keep The cameras on him. You think the Lakers would actually give him some kind of veto power over trade? Especially when his son is not at all a superstar?
At the end of the day, Lonzo is nothing more than a role player in the NBA. Good player and by all accounts a good kid, but he’s not a superstar. LaVar has zero leverage to try and keep him in LA because Lonzo is not going to be a guy that helps LA win a championship.
So let LaVar think his voice still matters. When the history books are written, his voice will be nothing more than a fart in the wind.
They have athletic directors in the NBA?
Sorry makers mark post game celebration
They gave up a lot in terms of draft assets; I've been largely unimpressed with the Lakers's young players, and New Orleans isn't necessarily a great builder of talent, so that's not a huge loss. LA's future relies heavily on the other FA they sign; if they get a solid starter then they are probably the class of the West. But if they wind up getting, I don't know, Jimmy Butler and the fit is bad then it might blow up in their faces.
But this was a good move for everyone involved, and considering LA's window is maybe a year or two I can see why they paid the price.
I’m just here to watch LaVar Ball lose his shit and pretend like his opinion still matters.
It's not going to be long before no one gives a flying fuck about LaVar, because his kid is in New Orleans.
I see all the cum guzzling Lebron/Lakers fans are in full force tonight. Wow. You guys got AD, a potential one year year rental, to go along with your King (age 35??) - who lead you to the #4 pick in the draft this year. (Fucking Awesome!!)
This isn't the year 2008. Times are a changing. But good luck though.
AD is absolutely not a 1 year rental
You must be a Cleveland fan.
I guess it sort of makes sense because of the injuries to KD and Klay. Trading a possible title now for being terrible in a few years.
These are the kind of moves the Lakers always make, mostly because they always bank on the model of pairing a young homegrown superstar with an import. West and Wilt, Magic and Kareem, Shaq and Kobe, Pau and Kobe. This time the model broke down a bit, but the Lakers will always make a big move, because thats what they are.
The Lakers won this deal. Absolutely and if you can't see this then I don't know what to tell you.
Let me simplify it for you. The Warriors are wounded right? Is Houston beatable? Yes. LeBron isn't getting younger so getting a perennial all star who is a big man fits with LeBron. Get him a 3rd scoring option from the perimeter and you have a legit contender.
Now, what did the Lakers really give up? Ball who is flawed and what has he done so far in his career. Let's not even discuss his circus clown father. What are these 1st round draft picks worth in reality? I guess the 4th is pretty good. The other guys are solid role players.
What did the Lakers really give up other than a bunch of solid 2nd tier bench guys on a good team. What a great move by the Lakers. Not a fan of any NBA team but the Lakers won this trade. Not saying the Pelicans didn't win by getting something for AD but you have to be a Lakers hater not to like this trade.
No worries. I'm pretty sure Pierre's best days are behind him.
Crap, I was hoping we wouldn't have to hear from Lavar Ball ever again!! Then again, hearing him rant about how the Lakers are doomed and will never win a championship is pretty funny. Then again we could be talking about the Ball curse in 30 years. Crazy dude, funny comments.
This is what's called throwing good money after bad money. They messed up signing Lebron just as he's going off the cliff, so now they commit even more to the imaginary window of opportunity. They'll obviously be better with AD but not NBA title better..which would be the only thing they could reasonably define as a successful outcome given the investment.
Really interesting trade. For the Lakers it's high-risk, high-reward. Does LeBron still have the legs to survive a 9-month season and bring home a title at age 35? We'll see.
The Lakers may have gotten the best player in this deal, but the Pelicans won this trade. Right now the Pelicans have the 1st overall pick (Zion), the 4th overall pick (could be Garland out of Vandy, but who knows), and future 1st round picks.
I'm not counting on Ingram to provide much - bloodclots with players is never a good sign (see Chris Bosh). Lonzo is a wild card - he's a good PG but can't stay healthy.
The Lakers are basically LeBron, Kuzma, and AD at this point. They don't have great bench depth, still no 3pt shooters LeBron likes to have, and no legitimate PG.