nba playoffs aka the 'offs (which includes the 'ins) 2021

Another prob now is will they attract the normal vets that lebron always plays with? Not sure anyone’s signing up for what they just watched. Lol at kuzmas salary not kicking in til next season.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/contracts/LAL.html

i think he should go for 40k career points and then call it quits

kuzma is the perfect guy who no one would know his name if he played for the hornets

totally unclear where the idea that kuzma is good came from even

at least L. Dort is a memorable name to see in the box score. K. Kuzma is nothing.

He almost scored 20ppg on the baby lakers. But if you just watch him play from game to game you know he’s not very good. Typical has one good game every 3-4 games guy

we all love lu dort dont we folks

oh wait Dort is OKC the other team no one knows a player on

im p sure kcp and kuzma are on the trade block, but who're they even getting in return for that? i mean if they wanna sign and trade demar, that might be the best they can do. that would give bron another playmaker but would not help their spacing at all.

his rookie year he made some shots as while guys like lonzo and ingram were struggling on a terrible team so he seemed “good” esp for a low draft pick and ppl needed some young guy on the lakers to be good, d’angelo russell was awful too. meanwhile the last two playoff runs he’s been completely inconsequential to their team meanwhile his 3/39 extension hasn’t been kicked in yet, it’s just brutal

its not a huge contract but you want at least like a borderline starter for that money

"if u make above mle you should be a starter-level player" is a good rule of thumb

the thing that’s hard to figure out about lebron is whether his injury this year was just a freak thing or if it actually signals a newfound weakness in his body. i remember feeling on several occasions when he was on the heat that he had just sprained his ankle severely during a game while he like writhed on the floor then 3 mins later he’d jump 13 feet in the air for a dunk. but maybe this one was just bad i mean solomon hill is a big guy, it’s not like lebron turned his ankle so much as he has 230 pounds crash into it at a bad angle

yeah kuz is playing more in the 7-10 range

bron has missed a ton of games the last few years i think its safe to say hes not invulnerable to injury anymore

re: kuz its not a turrrrible contract, its just a bit of an overpay by a team that didnt have many avenues to sign outside FAs, and its only 3 years so its p movable but they're p limited as far as moving picks is concerned.

yeah its hard to see how they get any meaningful deals done without picks

High ankle sprain different than a normal one and he’s just old now so they don’t heal as fast. Prob time to stop playing him 35 mpg but not sure that’s possible with ad as a teammate and a team that won’t make the playoffs without him playing a lot

kuzma is about to be the lakers third highest paid player and he averaged 6 ppg in this series while not being good at anything else, they don’t have much room for error with their team building. what’s even his trade value?

theres prob a dumb team that still thinks hes good but yeah youre not gonna get much

lakers should prob prioritize keeping their guys healthy over playoff seeding especially now since 10 teams make it, they kinda did that this year except it turned out bron and brow were actually just badly injured

also feel like the lakers didn’t need to give kuzma an extension at the beginning of the season, they could’ve just waited until after the season maybe they’d feel differently now that it’s clear they need to remake their roster in a pretty real way. classic case of a team overvaluing someone they drafted and developed into a reasonably decent player. this tweet is funny

Player option on a non-max rookie extension is a first in league, a creative wrinkle that allows Kuzma into unrestricted free agency in his prime at 28. Smart move and great benefit for Kuzma should he out-perform this deal headed into summer of 2023.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 20, 2020

ah nevertheless

Crazy that like not one single rotation player played well.

Lakers shooters this playoffs

Schroder:
14 PPG
40 FG%
31 3P%

Kuzma:
6 PPG
29 FG%
17 3P%

KCP:
6 PPG
38 FG%
21 3P%

Caruso:
6 PPG
37 FG%
29 3P%

Matthews:
6 PPG
30 FG%
28 3P%

Morris:
2 PPG
22 FG%
25 3P%

McLemore:
2 PPG
22 FG%
33 3P%

Literally no one even shot 35% from three. pic.twitter.com/gtorfkMddF

— StatMuse (@statmuse) June 4, 2021

just checked, lakers owe nola their 2022 1RP no matter where it lands, swaps in 23 and 24, so i guess the lakers have 2025-28 1RPs to play with

i mean at this rate u just say fuck it and trade those too to maximize your AD+bron window, right?

Lebron was having fun just a couple of games ago

LeBron was showboating in Game 3 and proceeded to lose 3 straight games and get eliminated 😭 pic.twitter.com/MtqUOoqgvK

— Guru (@DrGuru_) June 4, 2021

those swaps could turn out pretty nice for the pelicans

Don’t blame crowder for Salsa dancing on his grave

crowder is one of those guys who's a Gamer

i loved crowder on the celtics

Do they want to go even further down the hole and sell away those picks? Do they even have salaries to swap?pelinkas got his work cut out

KCP+kuz is $26M next year. it's a start.

they could toss in marc gasol or alfonzo mckinnie to get closer to $30M

if they dont trade those picks are they really the lakers

exactly

sign and trade for kyle lowry

i love that crowder can't stand lebron. it's funny.

re: kuzma he desperately needs a change of scenery, i think there is a player in there somewhere but they kept jerking around his role and minutes and it sure seems like he lost confidence.

i mentioned demar as a possible free agency signing. he’s from LA, he idolizes kobe, this is probably his last big payday, and after years of getting curbstomped by lebron he can join up with him instead.

sign and trade for demar

he would relieve bron of having to shoulder so much of the offensive load. I guess you would just trust the rest of the lakers to remain a good defensive team to cover for his deficiencies there.

i love that crowder can't stand lebron. it's funny.

idk who else the lakers could reasonably get at this pt. theyre not getting beal with that offer. its 2 role players and probably a late 1st rounder at best?

I can imagine lebron being very excruciating to play with, saddles his teammates with super high expectations, complains a lot, has the front office by the balls, and is a sore loser who on multiple occasions has quit on his teams in a playoff game

on the one hand he’s the single most valuable player in the league and your chances of winning are really good just by being on his team, otoh if you don’t win it’s always your fault and the drama is maxed

yeah championship or bust is not a fun set up

whoa lots to catch up on here

I think getting to play with Bronny for a season could be the carrot that keeps him going. Just a question of what the hell he does until that can happen (if he's actually good enough to hold a roster spot, I haven't been following)

DeMar is actually a great idea for them and a lot more gettable than most options, as you all have said

Kuzma ceiling, if he is given a defined role that isn't asking too much of him, is probably like a poor man's Rashard Lewis, but he needs to get a lot more consistent in basically all aspects of his game. upthread comments otm about how his immediately exceeding expectations for his draft position (+ being a laker obv) really skewed his reputation in the league. he's been coasting off that for too long now

last I checked brony wasn’t a real NBA prospect but that would be cool for sure

Jae Crowder’s latest IG post

“Ain’t no fun when the rabbit got the gun.” pic.twitter.com/YrhFf6u7Vz

— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) June 4, 2021

i kinda wish jae didn't have a green light to shoot whatever he wants all the time but that is a funny post

I'm not rooting for LeBron to retire, but it will be nice to have an NBA with a post LeBron vs MJ discourse