Lakers Will Recoup... Here's Why

This season is a compilation of many many things. It will come to pass, and the Lakers will be back to normal. Let start with a quick recap of things that led to this.

CBA related issues:

1. Lakers agree with owners on a revenue sharing scheme right before the new CBA. Most of the money from the revenue sharing is thus provided by the Lakers.

2. The new CBA is adopted with a high luxury tax and repeater penalty (aimed at particularly at penalizing teams like the Lakers)

3. Stern blocks CP3 trade

Laker Management Mishaps:

1. Lakers get Steve Nash (who eats away at cap space like pacman eating away at white dots when there are no ghosts around)

2. Lakers fire Mike Brown, promises of Phil Jackson return every where, but we get a new Mike as coach (D'antoni)

3. Howard walks cause, lets face it, D'antoni Sucks

4. Lakers resign Kobe at 2 years 48 million

5. Lakers continue rumors on trading the one player that actually has any worth whatsoever on the team (Gasol).

So if you add all those facts together, and throw in injuries to key players, you get a season that pretty much looks like this. When you have a coach with a specific system, and have players in place without talents for that system, you get this. 21-42. (0.3333).

But I don't necessarily think its doom. Here's why. The new CBA relies on teams like the Lakers to make money and revenue share. Big market teams bring in the funds, and support little teams. So burying teams like the Lakers is not in its best benefit. Lets face it, NBA owners (asides from Jim Buss) are smart business men who made money and are in the know how of how to continue making that money. They wouldn't kill their cash cow for a quick fast food style burger. The Lakers were able to keep the time warner deal out of the CBA, so the only revenue stream coming from them is through ticket sales. The NBA will not survive without the Lakers selling out nose bleed seats at $80 a pop. So trust me, there is a way for the Lakers to succeed. Loopholes were purposely set in place to allow the Lakers to continue being the Lakers. As dumb as Jim is, we have Mitch, he'll find a way to win. Don't believe me? Who do you think authored the CP3 trade. It wasn't New Orleans, I can tell you that. And because of the time warner deal, the Lakers will be forced to have good teams, hence they'll have money to throw at the repeater tax and continue to laugh their way to titles and the bank. And for those of you who think the NBA doesn't need the Lakers because they have the Clippers... Sorry I couldn't stop laughing long enough to type out my rebuttal. But trust me... LOL I keep laughing at the thought of the Clippers being a legitimate team in the NBA. Maybe when sterling passes the team on.

Now on to the Laker mishaps...

The D'Antoni hire. Probably the biggest mistake the Lakers made. It pushed Lakers into rebuild. The Lakers never planned on rebuilding. They traded way too many draft picks to get into the position they did. And D'Antoni's incompetence really hurt them. His failure to adhere to a scheme that utilized maximum efficiency out of his roster isolated Pau, a very competent and amazing talent, and chased Howard away. If that wasn't enough, he overused Kobe to the point, that he broke Kobe's body down. But, we were lucky enough that all of this occurred when it did. This was the only year we had a draft pick. This is the strongest draft group since Lebron and Anthony. So all in all we will recover stronger despite this coach's incompetence.

The Steve Nash fiasco. Well, you could have never predicted that. And I was actually excited when they signed him. The only person who was dead on when we traded for him, Charles Barkley. He called it. But lets be honest. All we gave up was Lamar Odom's TPE and draft picks in years that aren't going to pan out for the most part (to be determined). I'm not sure if I would use the stretch provision on his contract, simply because Kobe is going to be eating away at the cap next year anyways. But this mishap was a good gamble in my opinion. It shows that they're willing to put money on the table to acquire talent.

So with all the things that have gone wrong… why do I think that the Lakers will still be able to progress? That is a good question. But, here is why. Rebuilding processes are a 5 year project. I feel like we are in year 3. The Mike Brown year acting as year 1. All of the signs around also point to a 5 year project. Kobe’s contract kills any chance of contention. And guess when it ends… 2 years from now (when 5 years comes into fruition). In the meanwhile, we get a team that can contend for playoff position. Bring in a few stars to play along side Kobe, while bulding a team that is ready to sign a top tier free agent when kobe retires. A blank slate, that is polished with a promising top pick in this years draft, and a great top tier co-star that will help bringin a champion. Also, along the way Jim learns how to run an operation, and the importance of a good coach. While Mitch finds out the ways to maneuver the loopholes to make our team great again.

We'll be contending next season. Good read. I'm REALLY tired of the crazy pessimists that think we'll never make the playoffs again.

Excellent post, my man! Repped!!!

Thanks for the rep vote

Contending next season? I don't believe so. That's my personal opinion. Playoff team? Pretty good chance. I say we won't be a contending team next year because I don't believe the front office will spend all the money necessary this offseason. Plus, odds are D'Antoni will still probably still be the coach. I would say the Lakers will be a contending in two years, with their 2014 pick with a year under his belt, possibly a new coach, and a big time free agent such as Love.

That opinion is fine. At least it makes sense. Some people think we'll be just as bad next year or worse so we'll get our top 5 pick.

thanks for the optimism guys! I agree with this post.

I think this year will be used to pick our bench players, and let the rest go. our roster is full of bench players, so we should spend the rest of the season evaluating them and picking the best ones who will stay for cheap.

barring a superstar coming here, this offseason will be to add quality role players/starters while maintaining cap space. the season will feature a healthy Kobe with the best players from last season and a few marginally better pieces, and hopefully a developing lottery pick. I expect us to be a playoff team, and a sleeper pick at best.

then, the 2015 offseason will be for adding the superstars that will bring us to contention. following that, Kobe's contract comes off the books, we add another superstar, our 2014 lottery pick continues to develop, and we remain contenders for the foreseeable future.

that's how I see it. go Lakers!

Not bad.

I don't believe it will be as bad next season. It can't get any worse. Hahaha. As long as the HC goes along with his brother. We have a great bench. Top 3 in the league and that is saying something considering we have a bunch of players who could not hack it there rookie season. I'd keep people like X, Johnson, Marshall, Farmar, Young (if he accepts his 2nd year option), Hill. That would be a good bemch with good back up rolls IMO. And they will come cheap. Once again as long as the HC is gone. Because no one will play for him. Now that I think about it. I might also want Bazemore and or Brooks. Looking at there few games. They have a real bright light glowing.

Seriously, think about this, you sign ONE free agent, ONE, and you don't mess up the draft, and next year you are adding three stars (FA, draft pick & Kobe) to the same team and adding a coach that can at least manage their minutes and you're getting a team that's 3 x as good as this one.

Just imagine this team with a coach that plays the good players, has a consistent rotation, doesn't alienate half the team & cares a lick about defense. That team might not make the playoffs, but would be more like the 9th in the west. Not dead last. And that would be any coach. Those are just basics of coaching. Then you add Kobe, a draft pick & at least one free agent. That team is a lock to make the playoffs.

Finally someone with optimism. This season is awful, I don't know nothing about Kobe's injury but I can suspect he didn't do everything to come back. And who can blame him for not trying to come back to this mess.

If we can draft a good player and Kobe gets healthy, it can be the foundations for what comes next.

That's what I'm saying, Finally some optimism.

Aaawww, that is so touching reading all these posts about optimism. Unfortunately I'm a realist and when you're a realist it sometimes can seem like being a pessimist. Let's recap again shall we?

• D'Antoni wasn't the only person to chase Howard away. Kobe played a nice part as well.

• Nash trade was bad no matter how you look at it. Too many people were caught up in the Nash name and not the Nash age and back issue. A few of us who seem to understand sports new it was a bad trade for the lakers. It doesn't matter if the picks were lower. First rounders can be packaged with a current player to obtain someone else. No first rounders kills trade flexibility/incentive. You never know when you may be ravaged by injuries and that expected 25th pick may become a top ten.

• Mitch authored the CP3 trade so that means we will be okay? Mitch also authored the Nash trade and he also authored the Howard trade even though Howard didn't want to come to LA and Howard didn't even promise to sign when he arrived.

I don't think the Lakers will be as bad as this year because they really don't have much choice in letting Toni go IMO, the olayer's body language says it all. The lakers can't expect big men to sign in LA if Toni remains coach. All signs point to LA possibly drafting a big man unless they gamble on waiting for Love and why have a young big man's confidence killed under Toni?

Coaching change will change some things but management which includes Mitch and Jim will hurt the team again at some point unless they have truly learned from their buffoonery. Kobe's greatness has carried these guys for years and now since he's dwindling down their moves can't be covered up by Kobe's greatness anymore.

Gemfow AKA Captain Hindsight to the rescue! Lol

you might be a realist too, but you're also a pessimist because there was no real reason to make that entire post over again. your points were already mentioned in this thread. everyone else still sees opportunity in the future. What makes you a pessimist is that you thought repeating what we already knew about the past would make us doubt the future.

even the "aaawww" you put at the start of your post has a mocking tone. realists don't have a reason to mock anyone, but pessimists do, because they're mad that their opinion isn't enough to make everyone pessimists.

Lmao! Gem has smart posts, but this is a common occurrence on this site. Everyone talks bad about trades that looked great at the time but eventually didn't work out. You can talk about "back issues" all day, but the truth remains Nash still looked very good just months before we got him. And the same people that blast trading those late first round picks say it's because we could have used those first round picks in a trade.

I can see where you're coming from but in all honesty, I think it would be a bad idea to sign a big name free agent this offseason. Why? Because I don't believe there is anyone out there worth all the money it would take for the Lakers to get them. Anythony will be 30 and is a one way player. It would take a max contract from us to get Anthony and I just don't believe he is worth the money due to his age and the idea of Kobe and him playing together hurts my head. There's only one ball to go around and they are both big volume shooters.

The other players out there that are young and good are restricted free agents which mean they would have to overspend to get them. I've said this before and I really believe it, the best scenario for the Lakers in the long run is to wait until 2015. They could put a more competitive team together that would last longer.

Funny! However, I've said plenty of this well before it went belly-up. I wasn't too happy with plenty of the moves.

Mad that I can't sway other people's opinions to mirror my own? I'm pretty optimistic that you don't know what you're talking about. How's that for optimism? I'm also optimistic that you were wrong about me recapping the entire post. I'm pretty pessimistic in regards to you actually realizing that you're going to reread my post and realize you were a little off-base.

I'm not feeding the pessimist troll lol. ignore for the win

I'm for spending the money, but what I'm saying in this post is you don't even have to to make the playoffs. You could just sign 1 guy. Deng or Hawes or Ariza. Add Kobe, Deng & Exum and a real coach and we make the playoffs easily.

I think everyone on here can assume it doesn't get any worse. We lost a star FA to free agency, two others to injury, and Pau has been anything but himself. Kobe may not be the same, but a healthy Kobe improves upon this year. Pau traded, resigned with organization commitment or just walking away makes us better. We need a committed Pau or no Pau at all. Our draft pick will likely be better than everybody but Pau, Kobe and maybe Young. That's a huge upgrade. A new coach may happen, but I think it depends on the new roster and who is available. I would be glad to have george karl, jerry sloan, hollins or rambis.

I'd take Hollins or Byron Scott. Thibbs is t available so I'm not going to pretend he is.

Yay an optimistic thread

Let's just hope they're not trying to recreate "showtime", because that's what d'antoni did in Phoenix, a lot of scoring and no defense. He if back next year we'll have our answer! !!!

Thanks for taking the time to read my post guys. I really enjoyed reading all the the responses. I liked all of them. However, in reading a few of them, I came up with a few more thoughts I wanted to share. Gemflow, you are absolutely right on one thing. Kobe also chased D12 out of town, and I will come back to this. But the other two points I disagree with wholeheartedly. The fact that you think Mitch bringing in Dwight means that he doesn't know what he's doing is completely off. How many people would have been standing here, complaining at the idea that Mitch could have brought in Dwight and didn't if this trade wasn't made. Lets use some of the hindsight people mentioned and evaluate other scenarios. This trade shipped out Andrew Bynum as the centerpiece. Let me tell you his attitude has been his biggest handicap, and that's considering that he should officially get a handicap placard for his knees. He is so much of a cancer, that not only did Philadelphia let him walk, but Cleveland paid him to go away. So tell me, using hindsight: Would you have pulled off the trade for Howard, knowing Bynum wasn't going to play for you again anyways? I would. Without being rude, I'd like to point out that if you wouldn't, your judgment might be impaired. The Nash trade may have been an awful trade. And true it did cost us 2 first round picks. But lets face it, our scouts suck. We weren't going to get anything at the projected 24th position anyways. Lets look at the people that were on the board at that time and who we picked in the past. We could have had Kendrick Perkins, instead we got... you guessed it, Brian Cook. You're....

I hope D'antoni comes back.

Umm, Fuk your last point about keeping MDA around! Especially for the dumb a** reason of basically running Kobe out of town!

What the hell is up with that?

You can't respond and say ignore for the win. That makes as much sense as your earlier post about me being mad because I can't sway other people to be a pessimist.

I respectfully disagree with the Bynum statement. He may have had an attitude problem but it's well documented that Howard did not want to come to LA. Howard had Orlando going through a media circus in regards to his contract status and he was a known primadona. What does Mitch do? He brings Howard to LA with no sort of insurance of him staying past one season. At least Bynum wanted to be in LA but Howard didn't and we lost another draft pick with that trade as well. If they wanted to trade Bynum then why not trade him elsewhere? Why not trade him to bolster a weak bench or to get another big who doesn't require the ball and take shots away from Kobe's 21+ or Gasol's shot attempts? Mitch was enamored with the big name and the so-called idea of building around Howard. I considered it a lateral move then and it ended up being a terrible move after a monstrous gamble of trying to change Howard's mind about coming to play in LA. In hindsight I would not have made that trade. Why? Our record became worse with Howard. I would have traded him elsewhere. Only one draft has passed in regards to the Nash first and second rounders we gave up. I don't know who Phoenix drafted in 2013. I guess we will see who Phoneix drafts in this deep 2014 draft with that 2nd rounder that should be high up there. We will also see who they draft in 2015 with what I think will be a top 15 pick. The Lakers were so arrogant apparently that they didn't even see the point of lottery protecting the....

Gemflow I appreciate the rep and I also appreciate your response. I don't think we will agree on the topic, but I do appreciate that your arguments are well thought out. I hope the discussion keeps up.

JJ Cali. I'm sorry, but I got lost trying to follow your argument when you misspelled a curse word.

LA has a good history of bouncing back. Yeah I know it was under Dr. Buss but he had some down years as well but still managed to get back to the promise land multiple times. Even though the new CBA is a bytch, I'll personally lean on LA's history until I see something that makes me rethink my position. The FO has made some poor decisions but they have time to get it right, meaning do whatever they need to do to right the ship. I'm a realest so I'm not expecting something overnight but at least in the next two years. If we can do it next year fine but I'll go two years. Oh and if they don't do it in 2 years, I'm still LA4life....

LMAO, it was spelled that way on purpose since it won't post the correct spelling. Lol

I wasn't trying to argue with you either.

Your post was so good until you were like "screw Kobe, keep MDA."

This franchise does have a history of bouncing back but what this FO has done has really sapped my confidence. What West did after Magic's sudden retirement was pretty amazing. He picked guys like Lynch, Peeler, Van Exel, Jones, etc... They weren't all home runs but most of those guys stayed in the league a while but 96 is what kept the franchise at or near the top for almost two decades. Nine years after Magic's announcement and Worthy's retirement is not bad at all to have won a championship and have the Lakers in the thick of it from 97 until 2004. From 2004 until 2009 is a good bounce back to win a championship, back to back championships. However from 2004 to 2009 there were issues, it was saddled with bad contract signings and a lack of activity while trying to wait for Yao Ming because they felt they could throw money at him due to a larger Asian community. Even after our back to back rings some of us were wondering what's going on? Yeah this new cba may be tough due to penalties but that shouldn't stop sound management.

You may disagree with his point but as well thought out as his post was and well-written I would say he deserves more of a response of F U K your point. You even admitted the post was good until you saw that. It would have been a better discussion with differing points of view but you didn't uphold your end of the deal, lol

Lol yeah sorry about that. Couldn't believe he switched it up with rush Kobe out, keep MDA.

Only time will tell and I have plenty of it Lord Willing.....

Lol, that's how I felt when I read this. Who cares. Doesn't really impact us. Yes I'd like him to be here, but oh well.

It sure looks like PJ might be gone from the Lakers family.

If Jim loses Phil, he will in essense have lost everybody -- besides firing all the scouts. And Bernie is gone too. What a genius!

As to impacting us, it does. It further denigrates our reputation -- we can't even keep Phil?

But worse is that KLove and other big name free agents could sign with the Knicks if Phil runs that show. We will be COMPETING with Phil. Jim Buss vs. PJax? A complete mismatch. And if you want Carmelo, fuggetaboutit.

Did Jim Buss read a book entitled, "How To Ruin A Franchise In Three Years."

Disgusting.

I never really thought the phil to the knicks thing would happen. now I have to think about how that affects our offseason plans for the next few years. still optimistic though, since we have cap space, lottery picks that want to be here, and players recovering from injury

LOL We don't have Phil, Baadmaster. And all of this sounds like some high school stuff. Our reputation? You think these grown men/millionaires are out there thinking, "Phil Jackson works for another organization now. Maybe I shouldn't go to LA."

Why would NBA players care that Phil doesn't work in LA. So Chicago has never gotten a free agent since Phil left?

lmao, the hating is hilarious to me. Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak have been running this team since the mid 2000s. Some of you act like he suddenly got control and power. He and Mitch have worked together for almost 10 years. The pieced together a roster that went to 3 straight NBA Finals, winning 2. And then this notion that he hired D'Antoni over Phil. Multiple people in the Lakers organizations have said that Dr. Buss was the one who made that decision. And guess what? Phil Jackson himself said in an interview that Dr. Buss was the one who made the decision. He said Jim Buss was all on board for him coming back. The only thing that has changed is Jim Buss now has the authority to say yes or no instead of his father. Dr. Buss didn't do any of the grunt work that Jim and Mitch do, piecing together the team. Let's not forget, Phil and Dr. Buss didn't exactly have a harmonious relationship. I'm not sure if many people know this, but there was friction there. He felt Jackson was trying too hard for a power grab, so while he did hire him, let's not act like everything was lovey and dovey between the two. It wasn't.

Yes, the FO with multiple championships sucks!! Lol smh