**LA LAKERS THREAD** Sitting on 17! 2023-2024 offseason begins

[trynafeelmink]

I think Doc had a good analogy, AD is more of a suped up Scottie Pippen, defensive terror that offense will just come and go and he'll just float sometime on that end. It is what it is at this point, but post LBJ have no idea what that means if he's our franchise guy.

That's kind of my point tho, that isn't a good analogy at all when it comes to the offensive side of the ball, Scottie averaged over 20 pts 4 times in his career, the highest he ever averaged was 22 ppg.

AD has been a top 5 scorer in the league 3 seasons, a top 10 scorer in the league another 3 seasons...... Scottie cracked top ten once in his entire career

Outside of the the first season here he's fell back to top 20 in scoring, which shouldn't come at a surprise when you have Bron who is still very much a 25-28ppg scorer .

So does AD have Stinker games, games where he isn't as aggressive as he should be... without a doubt, but people use those rare games as an indictment of his scoring and it's FAR from the truth man. He's inconsistent in comparison to the KD's, Stephs, Brons, Tatums of the world, but he's still easily one of the better scorers in the game even with his jumper falling off a cliff recently.

 

[trynafeelmink]

For whatever reason, he is a lightning rod and held to different standard. Probably because of his New Orleans exit and teaming with Bron.

Mixture of being a Laker (Obvious that comes with a lot of hate criticism, but also are fanbase is EXTREME when it comes to player expectations) & definitely some of the Lebron light as well. It has happened to every single one of his star teammates as well.

 

[MVP]

That's kind of my point tho, that isn't a good analogy at all when it comes to the offensive side of the ball, Scottie averaged over 20 pts 4 times in his career, the highest he ever averaged was 22 ppg.

AD has been a top 5 scorer in the league 3 seasons, a top 10 scorer in the league another 3 seasons...... Scottie cracked top ten once in his entire career

Outside of the the first season here he's fell back to top 20 in scoring, which shouldn't come at a surprise when you have Bron who is still very much a 25-28ppg scorer .

So does AD have Stinker games, games where he isn't as aggressive as he should be... without a doubt, but people use those rare games as an indictment of his scoring and it's FAR from the truth man. He's inconsistent in comparison to the KD's, Stephs, Brons, Tatums of the world, but he's still easily one of the better scorers in the game even with his jumper falling off a cliff recently.

You conflating to things we all know what AD has done in the past but we're speaking to what he is or seems to be now. His offensive talent and capabilities are to be a better scorer than he is on a consistent basis. I mean I don't think Bron wants to shoulder as much of the offensive load as he does at this juncture of his career it's just kind of a necessity due to AD not being consistent to take over that aspect of the team. Bron keeps saying over and over and they mentioned it last night again on the telecast, the Lakers only go as far as AD goes, he's been trying to hand dude the keys for 4 seasons now but idk, dude just doesn't want to take them. He's content being in the running for DPOTY when his talent warrants him being in the MVP discussion like he was in New Orleans. That's the difference.

 

[trynafeelmink]

You conflating to things we all know what AD has done in the past but we're speaking to what he is or seems to be now. His offensive talent and capabilities are to be a better scorer than he is on a consistent basis. I mean I don't think Bron wants to shoulder as much of the offensive load as he does at this juncture of his career it's just kind of a necessity due to AD not being consistent to take over that aspect of the team. Bron keeps saying over and over and they mentioned it last night again on the telecast, the Lakers only go as far as AD goes, he's been trying to hand dude the keys for 4 seasons now but idk, dude just doesn't want to take them. He's content being in the running for DPOTY when his talent warrants him being in the MVP discussion like he was in New Orleans. That's the difference.

Lebron Saying it and what's actually happens on the court are two completely different things tho, I'm sure Bron genuinely wants to take a step back but your talking about a dude who's the all time leading scorer & has ALWAYS been the hub of offense from day 1, his usage rate has been the same in L.A as it has been in CLE & MIA, now of course some of that falls on AD's hands, A LOT on the coaching & personnel.

To put this in perspective people talk all the time about how Kyrie was the perfect sidekick to Bron because he could take over the offense & be aggressive.... during that Cle stretch with Bron he averaged

Kyrie: 22.5 on 18 shots with a 28% usage
AD: 24ppg on 17 shots with a 28% usage

This teams is built to Lebrons strengths (I'm not really arguing that's a bad thing), so while some of the things that help Lebron also help AD, there's still a lot hampering his scoring when Bron is out, because it relies on AD being an elite Self creator with no other elite scorers on the court. Secondly even at his best AD is a big who can occasionally make guard like plays, he's not going to be the guy to be the hub of your offense, ESPECIALLY not in this era of ball.

The only Big who's capable of that in today NBA is Jokic, some may argue Embiid & Giannis, when it matters Embiid has been a MESS in that role, Giannis did have a great Run when he won that championship (ala AD in the bubble) but they didn't just trade JRue & every asset for Dame because they believed in Giannis being the guy to give them a dominant offense. AD has had several stretches over the years where he's gone a month or two just dominating by scoring as well as being the soul backbone of the defense, what it usually leads to is a mediocre record & him being burned out, because no matter how good & efficient he is as a scorer, he's an average playmaker for others (Like 95% of bigs)

So yea i think AD showed last year that it's very possible for him to still get 28-30 ppg pretty consistently if the team force feeds him the ball, However due to how much responsibility he has on defense & his injury history i don't think that's the best thing for the team.

I feel like what he did last year is the perfect balance with this new roster. I agree he can't be hovering around 21-22, but if he's in the 24-26 range, while still being the best defender in the league & also having actual other defenders/rebounders around him who take a lil pressure off on defense..... that's the sweet spot & that's when this team is most dangerous.

 

[pmatic]

 

[trynafeelmink]

And while going down on this rabbit hole I came across this as well, We've heard people say that AD's bubble shooting was fluky (which we can't argue when we're speaking from three)

But i found this interesting, In the Bubble i remember Jokes about AD shooting the middy like Kawhi

Bubble: (10-16 feet) = 40%, (16-3Pt ) = 55%
Last years playoffs: (10-16 feet) = 40%, (16-3Pt) = 58%

He actually shot the ball better from the field in last years playoffs than he did in the bubble minus the three

 

[SORIANOTRON]

I'll take AD's defense and disruption over Embiid, Jok and Giannis offense any day of the week.

AD always been my main man.

ALWAYS DEFENDING

 

[CP1708]

I'm not sure why people are still confused about how and why AD gets questioned, it's literally been discussed for 3 years in here.

Bron turns 39 in 3 weeks and he shouldn't be the best player on the team, AT ALL. Testament to him, of course, but AD HAS to take that mantle from him.

Why?

Because while Bron has been an absolute tank for 21 years of his career, (And of course, Bron has started to miss more games with us than he did with the Heat or the Cavs due to advanced age)
AD has not been that, not even close.

And AD will earn:
40 mil at age 31
43 mil at age 32
57 mil at age 33
62 mil at age 34
66 mil at age 35

The final 3 of these years will be without Bron on the roster with him. He has had injury concerns all thru his 20's, am I supposed to expect him to suddenly be an ironman in his 30's? And if he's not going to carry the team with a 39 year old on it, are we to expect him to fill that role two years from now? (Or year from now, whenever Bron does finally hang it up)

That is my concern. I would rather trade him BEFORE a severe/costly injury takes place and before that contract really kicks in.

Kareem aged out, and Magic absolutely carried the mantle.
Shaq was starting to age out, and Kobe absolutely carried the mantle.

AD hasn't shown/proven he can carry the mantle after LeBron. But we owe him 228 million dollars over the next 4 years.......THAT, is a major concern. Not whether he scores 24, or 26.

Now, if we go win the whole damn thing this year, then I won't have anything to worry about as we will have passed Boston, gotten 18, Bron to 5, AD to multiple titles, I'll let it go. But if we come up short, we don't have a lot of time left for Bron to play at this level........do we? (Maybe we do, I don't know )

 

[SORIANOTRON]

AD hasn't shown/proven he can carry the mantle after LeBron. But we owe him 228 million dollars over the next 4 years.......THAT, is a major concern. Not whether he scores 24, or 26.

I thought it was very clear we need to pair someone with AD post lebron

AD is a great #2, complimentary piece to an OFFENSIVE minded star

We need to move on from AD taking the mantle and carrying the team every night scoring 28ppg as a #1

Its not happening, how many years ya'll been saying this???

 

[Maximus Meridius]

Calling AD a Scottie Pippen is wild. AD has a great offensive arsenal. He's more skilled than Giannis but he just don't have that drive to dominant and embarrass

 

[darthska]

I'm not even going to search to find wherever Scottie Pippen was mentioned with AD, because I appreciate what AD is currently doing right now for our squad. I'm going to choose to live in that space as a form of self-care.

 

[CP1708]

I'm not even going to search to find wherever Scottie Pippen was mentioned with AD

Doc. Rivers.

 

[darthska]

Doc. Rivers.

 

[had pants]

 

[atlsfinest]

 

[tupac003]

What does his age matter?

 

[lovehateself]

Robbery Pelinka mixtape

 

[Maximus Meridius]

Ok Rob

 

[htg designs]

one of my favorite logos ever

 

[sohi 23]

Looking way ahead but pelicans are going to choose the lakers 2025 first rounder over the 2024 first rounder so I hope the Lakers take Bronny in the 1st next year.

 

[pmatic]

Indy doesn't help on defense, so should be plenty of chances for Bron to go to the rim with little to no resistance.

 

[Glorfindel]

Pacers are small but they make it up with youth and speed coz all of them are young. What surprised me most is the salary. Brown as the highest paid player at that roster at $22 mill. Hot damn!

 

[CHAOSE57]

DLo revenge game on Brown tonight?

 

[had pants]

 

[sohi 23]

DLo revenge game on Brown tonight?

That’s funny I was thinking the same thing