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Those of you who have attended Laker games, what has been the best game you have ever attended at Staples/Crypto? I think mine would have to be the game AD scored 50 in his first season on the Lakers.

Celtics fans saying that are wrong. Tatum was insanely unclutch today and generall tends to struggle in the clutch in critical playoff games.

Luka had reasonably better stats than Tatum in the finals last year as Luka carried his team that imploded that series, especially Kyrie, while Tatum considerably underperformed and was outplayed by Brown, as well as benfiting from his elite supporting cast elevating to the occasion.

Just wanted to clarify and make sure we all know that Luka’s better than Tatum.

Please delete this if it’s not appropriate, mods.

Let's say Rob fails to get an elite center with Reeves as a part of the package

We then decide to keep Reeves on the team and trade Knecht, First Round pick, and whatever other pieces not Lebron, Luka, Reeves, or DFS. Then we still have some expiring contracts we can use at the trade deadline to fine tune. What are our realistic options for center with this package?

Luka Doncic was an absolute beast. Willed the team to 7 games in the series against a healthy beastly clippers team. The clippers went on to get to the WCF but Kawhi missed the whole series because he got injured in the 2nd round. The clippers had a chance to win it all if they were healthy,

Source

What are some REALISTIC offseason moves that the lakers can make to become a real contender next year? If you were the gm of lakers what would you do?

For me: - figure out LeBron player option - Bring back Dorian - sign/trade for 3 point shooting, defense(interior/perimter), athleticism(lob threat, size(with mobility), rebounding) obviously the more of these things a player can do I say the higher you should prioritize -depth -Get Clint capela -decline shake Milton’s trash ass - determine if you should trade reaves or not -Dalton, Gabe, Rui/Reaves trade package

When looking at trades and potential big men, don’t forget we can offer the Jazz a little more than we can offer other teams.

The Jazz have our 2027 First Round Pick but it’s top 4 protected. If we trade with them, we can remove the protection and make it truly unprotected while also offering our unprotected first in 2031. That’s two unprotected first which might be enticing to someone like Danny Ainge

I found this Lakers TV commercial on an old VHS tape that I found at a garage sale. Apologies if this kind of thing doesn't belong in this sub. Feel free to delete is so!

Lakers vs Celtics KCAL 9 Commercial (1991)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6yaiMkQkYo

Does anyone know who the musicians are? Are they a real band?

Darvin Ham during his first year with the Lakers did a better job than JJ did with the Lakers. He had to make the difficult decision to bench Westbrick and navigate the team from a 0-5 start. Just cause he couldn't beat Denver, he got shit on.

He beat a good Memphis team and an elite Warriors team before getting swept by the greatest iteration of the Nuggets team in 2023. This was btw with an injured LeBron and AD. On the contrary, JJ made no adjustments, got outcoached badly and quite frankly gave up.

So the Mavs reached the finals with Luka and Kyrie backcourt.

Kyrie is straight up a way better player than Reaves, but most importantly he gave other dimensions to Mavs offense. Kyrie is athletic and fast, has a super tight handle and is an amazing mid-range shooter. Mavs also had 2 elite lob threats, 3 very good to elite defenders and yet it still did not work at the end. Mainly for me because even all-nba small guards like Kyrie tend to have some problems against certain lineups and then the hit on defence with Luka became too much.

That is why I think that Austin is completely redundant on the Lakers, cuz he plays similarly to Luka and his offensive production has not even reached all-star level yet, especially in the playoffs.

But nevertheless, he is a good player so fandom aside, I wonder how you think all can work out if we keep Reaves.

I can see a scenario in which Luka and Kyrie maybe, maybe (big if) win if they have much better shooting around them. However, with Luka and Kyrie you have to adjust to defending a a tall and bulky 3-level scorer with magical playmaking and then you have to guard an insane mid-range shooter and overall scorer with the best handles in the NBA.

With Reaves you basically have a smaller and worse Luka, with arguably worse defence than Kyrie.

So to make up for it you need even better players around. So my opinion is that with so many stacked teams in the league you will basically need to have a center and a wing who are absolutely elite defensively, the wing must shoot the 3 great and then another wing who basically has an all-star production on both sides rn.

Do you agree and how do you think we can accomplish that? Honestly, seems impossible. Another option is to put Reaves on the bench, but then you will have a 25 million per year player coming off the bench that can't play defence and can't play much with Luka??

What do you think? Genuinely asking.

Losing in the first round when you have home court in five games sucks, and any fan that says they don’t feel shitty about it is lying or not that invested in their team. It’s reasonable to want change and in looking at the Minnesota series some obvious areas of need become apparent.

However, the offseason won’t be anywhere near full swing for awhile, and although the Lakers can provide no more data points, it’s easy to want to extrapolate based on how their most recent opponent performs, but this would be a mistake.

It’s possible Minnesota wins against Golden State easily, taking advantage of their size and physicality to punish an undersized roster that’s a mixture of very young and very old players. Some could look at this potential result and think “alright, well, maybe the Lakers are much closer than they look!” but this would mean nothing. Maybe the Lakers could have defeated Golden State but they can’t build a roster to beat the seventh seed, they have to have a roster to beat any western team, including the physically daunting Timberwolves.

Conversely, if Minnesota gets beaten, especially if it’s quick, it would be easy to say “massive changes are needed! This team isn’t even close!” and want to see a total roster overhaul, but this too would be a mistake. First, there’s really no massive move to make. With the new CBA even the best case scenarios for contracts are still relatively limiting. Trying to force a big move would likely lead to a “Carmelo to the Knicks” situation, for those old enough to remember NY giving up all their assets only to see Melo basically trying to solo the East.

The Lakers current roster is deeply flawed, but it’s not a total tear down either. It has three players, ranging from starter to superstar, who can perform very well offensively but are liabilities on defense; it has a handful of rotation to bench guys who are inconsistent at best on offense but solid defenders; it desperately needs a starting big who can be a lob threat, space the floor, be a rim protector, or, in a dream scenario, all three.

Small moves to try to turn one of the offense only guys into a couple of defense first guys, and diversify the bench, on top of a big man that does at least one of the previously mention things at the starter level, could elevate this team from good to really good, and maybe even to great. More importantly, it sets up a scenario for the future where bigger moves can be made because a foundation already exists.

Panicking because Minnesota loses to a generational player like Steph, or doing nothing because the Wolves beat an exhausted, and injured seventh seed, are both horrible options.

Free agency:

• Brook Lopez
• Nick Richards
• Kevon Looney
• Jericho Sims
• Clint Capela

Trade Market:

• Nic Claxton
• Daniel Gafford
• Goga Bitadze
• Kessler
• Valancuinas
• Vucevic
• Jakob Poeltl

Me personally -i would love Claxton starting and Hayes as backup but who we gonna trade

P. S-suprised no one said robert williams so far

Which starting 5s of Lakers is considered the best of all time? Is 1972 starting 5 better than the 2003 starting 5? What was the best 5 Lakers basketball players that ever teamed up.

Lakers season is over. Talk about the other playoff series, what offseason moves we should make or whatever you want.

What happened to the fanbase? This is supposed to be a Lakers page, but fanboys act like it’s controversial to like Kobe, Luka, and Bron. They all are Lakers, you can love them all. Being a fan of one will not make you less of a fan of the others. A lot of us are from LA and want our team to thrive and keep grabbing stars.

We probanly will not and should not trade AR unless is is for a star that fits perfectly and can play next to luka for years.

Reaves is not as bad as some people make it out to be. He played very well last season, the fit with luka was very good. He had a bad playoff series but when the report came out he was injured on his toe this made a ton of sense. He lost explosiveness because of this He could nog get by defenders because of that. His whole driving game got way worse. His defense got worse because of this as well.

Reaves is a great player, he averaged 20 ppg as the 3rd guy on the team not that many players have done that and (most of) the ones who did have been 2nd options on good teams as well. He usually gets better in the playoffs not worse.

We lost this series because We didnt have a big who could protect the rim and rebound. This openen everyone up for the wolves who were a terrible matchup for us and even than we lost all in close games with reaves injured, lebron injured, luka being sick. Some weird calls from the refs in late game. The wolves losing game 1 to the warriors says nothing as it is all matchups these playoffs and it is just 1 game. All west playoff teams are very, very good. Don't overreact come on guys, next season will be great, we get bigs, we will get a full offseason for luka and lebron and reaves to learn how to play together and maximize each others skills. All 3 are smart they will work together very well.

Hes got Identical if not better per 75 possessions stats than those of Adams and Kessler. Advanced stats love him too. At the very least he would be an amazing back up center. Everyone who watches Boston knows just how good he has been next to Tatum this season, no reason why he wouldn’t be just as good with Luka

Keon Ellis - Id assume the kings would want something like the williams trade package as well as taking jonas from their hands, so maybe knecht, vincent, frp, and pick swap for jonas and ellis

Ayo Dosumno - Bulls seem to finally be in rebuild, so theoretically everyone should be on the table (except matas) for the right price. Once again something similar to the willims trade package may be required

Andrew wiggins - Not sure if the heat still wants to compete or not, but wiggins shouldnt be untouchable. Not entirely sure what his price would be

KCP - He has obviously fallen off, but still have some value and should be the easiest to get on this list

Royce Oneal - If the suns blow it up and trade KD, O Neal can be of great value on a small contract

I know this sub is tired of the same names being thrown around so I tired to be different but still realistic. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk

Did I miss something I thought they normally do exit interviews the day or two following an elimination? Unless they just did those interviews right after the loss and made those the exit interviews.

Watching Buddy Hield be a good bench scoring option for Golden State despite being a terrible defender makes me feel like Knecht could have helped us against Minnesota. I’m not saying he would have been the difference, but he could have given us much needed bench points which were non existent. I feel like he’ll probably be included in a trade for a center, but if it’s possible we can get a starting level big and keep him, I’d prefer that. I think he can develop as a defender and be a 10-15 ppg scorer. Which centers would you be willing to part ways with him in a trade?

I can't recall a team making so many stupid brain dead mistakes in a game to lose before. 2 times foul up 3 on basically end bound has soon has ball is caught taking up basically zero time instead of making them take a dribble a few times first. Also up 10-12 multiple times when time was starting to be a issue foul in the back court giving nuggets points without taking 10 seconds or so off the clock. So many head scratching plays that has a basketball fan in general just mad me annoyed and mad

I am watching the OKC game and was just remembering having Caruso on our team, those Lakers had elite defenders in Danny Green,KCP, Dwight, McGee's rim protection and blocks , and none other than AD .

Those games were really something else, seeing all those Lakeshow lobs and dunks , the blocks , the way they moved the ball. Rondo with his IQ, a younger Bron, Kusma when he caught fire, JR Smith with his nonsense which really cracked me up.

Man, I really miss that team.

Seen this stat on a video and thought it was interesting

Since 2000 the NBA franchise with the most wins is the Celtics at 155

Lebron James who was drafted in 2003 has won 184 playoff games

Despite having 3 extra years on him Lebron has nearly 30 more playoff wins

Something else I found cool: he’s got more playoff wins than all but 8 franchises

1. Lakers - 468
2. Celtics - 427
3. 76ers - 251
4. Spurs - 222
5. GSW - 216
6. Knicks - 204
7. Pistons - 191
8. Bulls - 187
9. Lebron - 184
10. OKC/Seattle - 174

I am truly realizing how much this sub underestimated how good OKC truly is. Some people here said we would sweep them which is crazy. They have 3 bigs to throw at Jokic, which is causing him to turn the ball over and get fatigued. OKC is incredibly deep as they can go 10 deep, all versatile and extremely good perimeter shooters. The main thing that differentiates them from everyone else is they legit have 0 bad defenders, everyone contributes to scoring as well.

Pelinka has his work cut out for him this offseason. Can he get multiple bigs? Can he provide a bench that can contribute? Can he have more 3 and D-role players to help the stars?

They like Reaves and Dalton, and they have some interesting players for the Lakers like Isaac, Carter Jr., Goga, and Black. What do you think about this?

In all honesty, we don't have strong trade assets right now, and the market itself isn't looking great either. It's highly likely we'll need to overpay to land even a decent big. That said, I really don't like the idea of giving up Austin Reaves unless it's for a legitimate star or all star not just a "decent" or "great role player."

it's probably best to wait and see how the market develops (whenever the market opens after the post season) and what other teams are planning. Monitoring their intent will be key.
There are plenty of teams that will look to rebuild after the postseason, and others that may have to let go of players due to cap space and roster decisions.

Players I want to keep
Luka, LeBron, Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, DFS.
DFS is a winning player—versatile, tough, and valuable on both ends.
Rui has really stepped up this postseason and earned his spot.
Reaves should only be included in a deal for a true star or all star, nothing less.

Decent depth or backup options
Jaxson Hayes – Still just 24, athletic, and serviceable as a backup big despite his flaws.
DK – A natural shooter and the kind of a offensive weapon that can come off the bench that's hard to find these days. It's too early to give up on him.

On the fence
Maxi Kleber - just his history with Luka and ability to stretch the floor are valuable, but his age and injury history are a concern.

Players that need to go
Jarred Vanderbilt, Gabe Vincent, Shake Milton, and everybody else
All I am saying is I do not want to trade AR just because he had a bad series

https://preview.redd.it/d0l6c50nz9ze1.png?width=1612&format=png&auto=webp&s=408fc618e668728c83a83212ac52b535eb2aa24d

Bucks get young talent and picks'

Nets get cap relief. Maybe another 2nd from MIL. Gets them a possible lottery pick in 2031 from LA

Then again, would the Bucks want Clax instead of Cam ?

Source: Eurohoops.net

For the unfamiliar, Nigel is a 2x All-EuroLeague First Team selection (both in seasons 2023–2024 & 2024–2025) and has been enjoying a stellar career so far as the star of European championship contenders Fenerbahçe Istanbul. He has also led the club in back-to-back Euroleague Final Four appearances last year and this year, while solidifying his place today as one of the Euroleague’s most talented players. Nigel also holds the record for the most points scored in a Euroleague game ever, going off for an incredible 50 point performance during the 2023-2024 regular season.

This season, he’s averaging 16.8 points, 5.2 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.3 blocks per game, while also holding 46/41/90 shooting splits from the field and the free throw line.

Hayes-Davis stands at 6’8 ft, while also possessing a lengthy 7’3 wingspan which helps him thrive in the NBA as versatile role-playing wing. I honestly don’t mind giving him a chance and bringing him in for a workout in the offseason if I were the Lakers, as NHD’s feel for the game has also been able to show in his ability to thrive in off-ball situations. He also has a beautiful stroke from deep too, often finding success as a catch and shoot guy in the system that he plays in. There’s a pretty good reason why this guy is being sought after now for the upcoming NBA offseason.

Let me know what you guys think!

If Randle ops in, wolves would have to choose to pay naz or Nickeil. Perfect pairing for Luka and brings size at the guard position.

Capela give you a lob threat, rob undersized but can give some energy.

Brogdon good vet guard, good size, some shot making ability.

Probably would have to move away from Vando, Goodwin, Jaxson, and gabe probably. I’d like Dalton to get more run

Thoughts?

LeBron declines player option and signs for less to get the full MLE.

Sign Gary Trent Jr. to the MLE, coming of a min with Milwaukee, would be perfect along-side Luka, however there's a risk a team overpays for him based on his Playoff production.

DFS picks up his player option, else we should re-sign him. Need him for wing depth.

Sign Koloko and Goodwin to standard contracts (minimum I hope), give us a rim running big for Luka and a defensive guard who hopefully can hone his 3 point shooting.

The biggest stretch:
Trade Rui/Gabe/Kleber/2026 FRP/FR pick swap for Bam Adebayo/Kevin Love

Don't re-sign Len, Hayes, Milton (salary is non guaranteed), keep Kieff

If we are able to get Trent and Adebayo, I consider moving Austin into a 6th man role.

We'd need to fill other rosters spots to get to 14, for instance, keep Markieff Morris for vibes, but with the above deals we'd have a roster of:

Starters: PG - Luka Doncic, SG - Gary Trent Jr., SF - Jared Vanderbilt,
PF - LeBron James, C - Bam Adebayo

Main rotation bench players: PG/SG - Austin Reaves, SG/SF - Dalton Knecht, SF/PF - Dorian Finney-Smith, PF/C - Christian Koloko

End of bench/situational guys: SG - Jordan Goodwin, PG - Bronny James,
PF/C - Kevin Love, PF - Markieff Morris

Could roll out a "death lineup" of: Luka/AR/DFS/LeBron/Bam.

The moves above would, in theory, solve the lack of size problem (Bam is a legit center), solve the lack of 3 and D guard (Gary Trent Jr.), and solve the lack of bench production (move Austin to a 6th man role).

Lakers season is over. Talk about the other playoff series, what offseason moves we should make or whatever you want.