IT was a stud last year, IDC if lonzo is the future, just like b.i. and randle... it takes a few years , we should resign him, let Frye walk, we win this trade! Late 1st and IT.... sucks to lose nance , I bet he'll start there eventually, he'll be a fan favorite b/c of his dad...
I’m afraid of IT’s influence on the locker room. The guy seems like a little big man who wants everyone to know that he’s the guy. He’s been absolute trash this season as well, if he wants to start he’s going to have to be a ton better.
Short term I don't like this trade at all. Thomas seemed like a cancer in Cleveland and is already calling to be a starter.
Channing Frye at least adds some 3pt shooting but he is going to take minutes from the core. So what's the point.
Long term if they end up getting players in with the cap space I think it will be worthwhile, but that's a huge if.
The pick is meh, I don't even know why people are getting excited. Who was last year's 24th pick? Go Google it and get back to me.
Channing Frye at least adds some 3pt shooting but he is going to take minutes from the core. So what's the point.
Long term if they end up getting players in with the cap space I think it will be worthwhile, but that's a huge if.
The pick is meh, I don't even know why people are getting excited. Who was last year's
24th pick? Go Google it and get back to me. 
They are again hoping to create and hoard cap space for free agency. We have already gotten rid of half the core we had, in the hope striking big in FA. We keep forgetting the last big superstar we acquired in FA was in 1996...Shaq. Lmao.
There is no guarantees that the late 1st rounder would be anywhere close to the caliber of Nance or JC. Nance was indispensable on the defensive end and other intangibles he brought to the team. The team actually needed some of Jc’s instant offense and “shooting without a conscience” mentality. We had a good diversity of individuals/talent.
We were beginning to gain an identity on both ends of the floor and it looked apparent that we were turning a corner.
I just don’t want IT to poison the locker room. Just shut him down or buy him out. We have worked too hard to create this healthy culture out here.
Hope that's true as well because he ain't going to be a starting PG in LA. Noway, Nohow.
Magic already said Zo is our starting pg, and they'd be crazy to put IT at sg. But I'm sure there will be times where Zo is at sg, IT at point.
But yeah ,he's coming off the bench. Imo
Channing Frye at least adds some 3pt shooting but he is going to take minutes from the core. So what's the point.
Long term if they end up getting players in with the cap space I think it will be worthwhile, but that's a huge if.
The pick is meh, I don't even know why people are getting excited. Who was last year's
24th pick? Go Google it and get back to me.
I don't know who was 24th but we all know who the 27th and 30th picks were
Channing Frye at least adds some 3pt shooting but he is going to take minutes from the core. So what's the point.
Long term if they end up getting players in with the cap space I think it will be worthwhile, but that's a huge if.
The pick is meh, I don't even know why people are getting excited. Who was last year's
24th pick? Go Google it and get back to me.
Who cares who last year's 24th pick was. Lol
Think the excitement is them picking so well in late 1st rd ,so hoping they can do it again.
Hey guys- I've split off some of the posts into this new topic. Personally I don't think Isaiah Thomas should start unless he starts playing way better as a 6th man for now- what do you guys think?
Absolutely.............................NOT.
No. Ball is our PG of the future.
I think he will 100% start until Lonzo comes back. Then when Lonzo is back playing normal mins, I think Luke will give them 2 a shoot to play together as much as possible). Move him to the ben ch but staggers mins to where they get some time together. To test out what they can do while playing next to each other. On paper it could work. Lonzo is a passing PG and IT is a scoring PG. Positions don't matter, right now we have Ingram as our PG.
Personally I am ok with Luke testing out Lonzo and IT together. What he did for Celtics last year was special, maybe that light will start shinning again, you never know. But we all know that light was there was year.
This is free experiment that we can cut ties with at any point. If he truly starts causing problem in our locker room, I could see the Lakers buying him out so he is off the team. But they are for sure going to give this experiment a real test.
He's here for a few months, if he helps win games, than great. If he's a problem, than buy out. Either way, doubt he's part of any future plans.
Cavs pay tribute to IT. Lol
He can absolutely start...for the South Bay LAkers.
Hell no.
Ball is the guy we need to know about. Thomas is a scorer who can't play defense and is too small. He would also kill the passing culture that is spreading on this team since Ball arrived.
I wouldn't even play him over Hart who is developing fast and looks like he can be a terrific player.
Thomas is only here for the cash dump. I wouldn't cost any of the young players a seconds worth of time to give Thomas.
With time to elaborate on this topic, I think he will come off the bench, but will work his way into the starting line up, the mystery injury to Ball may be more than we think, as they've already said, they're gonna work Ball back slowly... at the end of the day, maybe IT fits perfectly... maybe not... we shall see.
As far as IT being a cancer, let's be real, most guys I know who are short have a chip on their shoulder, but in his case that's what made him work extra hard to achieve the successes he has had. I wouldn't worry about him calling out a team full of veterans (or primadonnas) in my state of OH who forgot that being a professional meant hustling and being a team.... obviously there was a problem there. I bet had this trade happened exactly a year ago everyone would have thought we won the lottery!
I don't think overall we got worse, and as I see it maybe we're trying to make the playoffs with a trade to bring playoff veteran experience to a inexperienced team. Had you told me we would be In a position to get in the playoffs 15-20 games ago I would have laughed, but I love the way they're playing and I don't see this hurting us.
Thanks Dave for choosing my post to create the poll! Its been 10 years since I regularly posted here, I'm glad to be back.
Brian Geltzeiler and Jared Greenberg on nbatv discussing IT’s role/future and implications with the lakers.
PS: Poor quality vid, turn up the volume
Exactly the reason why I don’t want this guy anywhere near the locker room. Even if it’s for the remaining 29 games. I saw what happened in 15 games in Cleveland. Buy him out now!!!
Seasoned, weather beaten vets and nba champs like Lebron, Wade, Love could not deal with him or reign him in. How do you expect toddlers on our team to handle this nuisance? Then he has a propensity to call out the coaching staff and point out the lack of in game adjustments. His agent has already fired the shots before his client landed in LAX.
His goals are incongruent with ours. Conflict of interests written all over it.
Well maybe we are jumping to conclusions already. Lets give IT a chance. I know the kid can shot and I know he always wanted to be a Laker. So before we put him to the cross lets see what he has to offer. I think Luke will use him as a shooting guard combo coming off the bench. With his shooting skills and as a guard with the passing ability of Ball, we might have something that the lakers have been missing and that is somebody you can trust to make that three point shot.
And if he is a cancer in the locker room, then I am positive Luke or Magic will not sign him up after the season. They will get rid of him. But he is here and lets hope it works out.
I honestly do not believe he liked playing with LeBron the man. I know I would not like somebody yelling at me all the time.
Now I am all for Paul George to come to the Lakers, but I am not in favor of LeBron. He has turned down the Lakers so many times that I would not give him another chance now that he is at the end of his career. Most of them old super stars took cuts to play on stacked teams and then when they have failed so many times they want to come and milk the Lakers for the full maximum payday. I say BS.
Guess he didn't won't the buyout so he decided to come of the bench. Just don't mess up the flow we have going on Luke and FO. Well hell on second thought, I guess you can say that's already been accomplished by trading JC and Nance Jr....oh well, half empty and half full...lol.
The part which I find slightly hard to reconcile to, is that they were finally turning a corner collectively during this 12-4 run. Chemistry is a very key ingredient for productivity and job satisfaction. I had issues with Jc, but then again he kept the locker room loose with his humor and light hearted banter. All the teammates loved him. I overlooked his on court nonsense, when I saw how he bonded with the teammates and kept them together. He was actually playing the best ball this year. He did everything the coaching staff asked him to do along with Randle.
Nance was also a great mentor for a lot of these youngsters and his 4 yrs in college made him a smart player on defensive rotations and setting hard screens, put backs rebounds etc. They had actually become brothers, like Randle and KCP alluded to in their interviews. I would have seen how far this group could have gone for at least the remaining 28 games left in the season. Especially when they were playing the best BB in this current stretch. There was no one else on the team like Jc, who could create his own shot and provide instant offense. Then there was no one like junior with his energy and hustle for loose balls and other intangibles which cannnot be quantified. I was beginning to like the diversity of talent on this team.
Freeing cap space is good unless Magic doesn’t throw a curve ball and sign Melo. Remember he wanted Melo for the lakers on the SA show. LOL! So far the front office has done quite well but we also have to point out that they signed Ennis to mentor Ball...what a joke...and now traded for IT. LOL.
Like they say one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure.
I think too much negativity is being made about Isaiah Thomas. When he was with the Celtics and before he got injured several of the critics in this forum were saying that they wish the Lakers had gone after Isaiah Thomas instead the Kings got him last of the second round draft.
He actually was very impressive with the Celtics, but then he got a serious hip injury and the Celtics traded him because they got the super star Irving, which I do not blame them. Irving is probably one of the better point guards in the nba.
I always thought he was too short to play in the nba, but sometimes for the position of point guard I guess it might be a plus because you should be able to advance the ball fast. Just look at JJ Barea of the Mavericks. He is also short and look how he has killed the Lakers before.
Lakers do not need to give him a contract until after the end of the season. We do not want another Mozgov, Deng disaster with the Lakers. Only thing that does bother me is Magic and Isaiah Thomas SR used to be real close friends. I hope he does not give this kid a big contract just because his father was a close friend.
But I say lets see what happens before we start listening to McGrady and others. We do not want to demoralize the other team players with rumors about a new teammate. And now days with social media word does get around fast.
Let’s hope IT’s father, IT SR. ex bad boy pistons helps him with his game.
LMAO .
Magic and Pelinka are doing their job well in trading with Cleveland. The same criticisms arose when they traded with the Nets during the start of the season. Now all those criticisms turned out to be garbage. Even topnotch NBA analysts considered KK as a steal in the draft, and Josh Hart is following his footsteps. I guess these pseudo-basketball experts will again eat their words when these two high caliber new players start producing factors contributing to the win.
Anybody who thinks this trade is turrible (Barkely) is....ah...turrible.
Getting a draft pick and shedding salary and getting a free look at IT -- whom we all wanted a year ago is awesome. All for one good player (Clarkey) and one "dime a dozen" player (Nance, Jr.)
At least with this deal, Magic is....ah...MAGIC!
Hmmm! Does Isiah know that Isaiah is his son?
I wonder if the Ingrams know about it.
Only the Ax man.
Yes we wanted him when he was 100% healthy and minus the baggage he brought with him to the Cavs. It’s funny how much carnage was created in just 15 games on a veteran team. Well we have the golden opportunity to witness double of that now on the youngest team in the league.
Laker fans don’t view LNR as a dime a Dozen player. We all supported him and rooted for him ever since he got drafted, while you were on the wrong side of staples rooting against us. These are not commodities.
But I say lets see what happens before we start listening to McGrady and others. We do not
want to demoralize the other team players with rumors about a new teammate. And now
days with social media word does get around fast.
LMAO!!!! Axle, IT is not Isaiah Thomas who played for Detroit, son.
ROTFL!!!!!!
ROTFFL!!!!!!! At first I also thought about that too but wondered why there's no jr in his name 
Nobody is eating their words. We'd be better now and long term if that trade hadn't happened.
Look at the top of the page ^ even Dave refuses to take D. Russell down! 😂
Getting a draft pick and shedding salary and getting a free look at IT -- whom we all wanted a year ago is awesome. All for one good player (Clarkey) and one "dime a dozen" player (Nance, Jr.)
At least with this deal, Magic is....ah...MAGIC!
I'd rather have a good player than cap space. You want cap space in order to get a good player. That's the whole point. Had we kept Russell & Clarkson, we'd be set at SG for the next decade! Instead now we have cap space.
Hart looks pretty good to me. Lol
Fair enough. Hope he turns out great! Although Magic would probably trade him for cap space if he gets to be any good. Either way, hope he turn out great, but not banking our future on his current 9 points, 1 ast and 2 reb.
Magic would trade anybody to get LowBrawn
Sad but true.
LMAO, like Russell and Clarkson were on a tear their rookie season. Russell can't even get his starting spot back on a bad Nets team. And I know that for sure because I watched that game, Nets coach said he'd come off bench till he earned a starting spot and played better.
Umm, well, yeah. Actually they both looked a lot better their rookie seasons. One of which only played 1 year of college ball. But ok.
Not on both ends !!! And I said on a tear, they looked ok !!!
LOL! I know now, I heard it on one of the sports stations. I alway thought he was his son. OH WELL!
No, but he's named after him. His Dad lost a bet and had to name him Isaiah.
LMAO!!!! Hope I don't get in trouble for posting this.
https://twitter.com/TotalProSports/status/962489106910490624
"Mr. Change His Mind" (me) watched LeBrawn today and he looked like vintage LeBron. Of course, as athletes age in the NBA they have fewer great games and more lousy games. I hope Maginka is following him closely. Last thing we need is another Steve Nash.
https://twitter.com/TotalProSports/status/962489106910490624
Hilarious!!!
Might not have to worry about it, think LBJ is going to be all right just where he is. Lol
https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/962821210391199744
I have no problem about him starting, sit him during the fourth quarter, he can't guard anybody and we don't need somebody that cannot defend and switch because we will definite lose 100% because we have a 5'7 player. Isaiah is not 5'9 he is closer to 5'7.
https://twitter.com/TotalProSports/status/962489106910490624
How bout that...Classic!!!!....lmao!!!!
