2023-24 NBA Thread

[The Sultan]

If the Lakers want to waste a second round pick on someone just because he's Lebron's kid, who cares? There's all sorts of examples of nepotism in sports. Just add this to the list.

[WhiteTrash]

I'm sure the Buss family greatly appreciates how concerned some Scoopers are over how they're spending their spare change.

I know for a fact that some Lakers fans are not happy with the pick and use of salary cap.

As for the Buss family and James family, they are loving this. This is the business of getting eyeballs. They play it well. The actually do appreciate these posts.

[Uncle Rico]

I know for a fact that some Lakers fans are not happy with the pick and use of salary cap.

As for the Buss family and James family, they are loving this. This is the business of getting eyeballs. They play it well. The actually do appreciate these posts.

Then they shouldn't go to the games or buy Lakers merch.

I'm glad you don't care about Bronny or Lebron

[wadesworld]

I know for a fact that some Lakers fans are not happy with the pick and use of salary cap.

As for the Buss family and James family, they are loving this. This is the business of getting eyeballs. They play it well. The actually do appreciate these posts.

Which of Kevin McCullar Jr., Ulrich Chomche, or Ariel Hukporti are those Lakers fans that you know super pissed they missed out on the chance of taking over Bronny?  Because those were the only three players that were Drafted after the Lakers' selection.  They could've signed any other player they passed up on as an UDFA.

[lawdog77]

The Bucks took Chris Livingston with the 58th pick last year and gave him a 4 year, $7.6MM contract.  And he's not the son of one of the two best players to ever play the game, and his father wasn't a free agent the Bucks were hoping to keep on their team.

Same agent as Bronny.

[wadesworld]

Same agent as Bronny.

Right.  So seems like it isn't just LBJ's son that gets multiyear deals as late second round draft picks.

TJD signed a 4 year deal with the Warriors after being selected 57th overall in last year's Draft.  Toumani Camara signed a 4 year deal with the Suns after being selected 52nd overall in last year's Draft.

It USED to be unheard of for second rounders, especially late second rounders, to get guaranteed money.  It's becoming much more common now.

[Pakuni]

I know for a fact that some Lakers fans are not happy with the pick and use of salary cap.

It's like 1% of the cap.

[tower912]

Looking forward to history being made.

[lawdog77]

Right.  So seems like it isn't just LBJ's son that gets multiyear deals as late second round draft picks.

TJD signed a 4 year deal with the Warriors after being selected 57th overall in last year's Draft.  Toumani Camara signed a 4 year deal with the Suns after being selected 52nd overall in last year's Draft.

It USED to be unheard of for second rounders, especially late second rounders, to get guaranteed money.  It's becoming much more common now.

Yeah. I guess my original question was unclear. I meant bust as in who would have the worst NBA career. Not relative to their contract.

[Uncle Rico]

Looking forward to history being made.

Same.  Also looking forward to all the people that don't care about Lebron or Bronny commenting on it.

[tower912]

Pops is in the GOAT conversation.  He wants to play with his kid.   Fair.   Is this actually worse than the contortions that franchises have gone through to please AR?

[Uncle Rico]

Pops is in the GOAT conversation.  He wants to play with his kid.   Fair.   Is this actually worse than the contortions that franchises have gone through to please AR?

They're both detrimental to fielding the best roster.  The Lakers haven't tried fielding the best roster in quite awhile or severely miscalculated the talent they've placed around Lebron and AD. 

The Packers were immediately better dumping AR.  Will the Lakers be better immediately dumping Lebron?  Hard to say.  Maybe because it's still a glamour franchise

[The Sultan]

I know for a fact that some Lakers fans are not happy with the pick and use of salary cap.

As for the Buss family and James family, they are loving this. This is the business of getting eyeballs. They play it well. The actually do appreciate these posts.

Of all the dozen issues the Lakers have, drafting Bronny and signing him to a guaranteed contract ranks about 13th. If that's what they are not happy with, it is misdirected anger.

I mean, signing Thannasis is a complete waste of a roster sport, but I understand why the Bucks do it.

[Pakuni]

They're both detrimental to fielding the best roster.  The Lakers haven't tried fielding the best roster in quite awhile or severely miscalculated the talent they've placed around Lebron and AD. 

The Packers were immediately better dumping AR.  Will the Lakers be better immediately dumping Lebron?  Hard to say.  Maybe because it's still a glamour franchise

The blessing and curse of the Lakers is that it's the most star-driven franchise in the most star-driven sport.
That's to their benefit because there are always going to be superstar players willing and eager to force their way to LA (Shaq, Gasol, Howard, LeBron, AD).
On the downside, nobody in the fanbase will care if you don't have superstars, and nobody will tolerate a rebuild. They tried it with Lonzo, Randle, Kuzma, Ingram, etc., and nobody showed up.

So, even if it isn't always the best on-court decision - see: Steve Nash-Dwight Howard pairing - the Lakers personnel decisions always will be built around keeping superstar players around and happy.

[Not all scoop users are created equal apparently]

The blessing and curse of the Lakers is that it's the most star-driven franchise in the most star-driven sport.
That's to their benefit because there are always going to be superstar players willing and eager to force their way to LA (Shaq, Gasol, Howard, LeBron, AD).
On the downside, nobody in the fanbase will care if you don't have superstars, and nobody will tolerate a rebuild. They tried it with Lonzo, Randle, Kuzma, Ingram, etc., and nobody showed up.

So, even if it isn't always the best on-court decision - see: Steve Nash-Dwight Howard pairing - the Lakers personnel decisions always will be built around keeping superstar players around and happy.

Treating your stars well helps sign free agents in the future. Look at how stars have avoided Chicago because of the way the org has acted in the past. They very well could just be prepping for the next era with Lebron in the front office or something.

[MU82]

Know anyone on scoop like that, hey?

Ridiculous question. Just about all living Scoopers are white. And white people are never privileged; they always earn what they get. It's the others who have had it easy in America for centuries.

[Skatastrophy]

Ridiculous question. Just about all living Scoopers are white. And white people are never privileged; they always earn what they get. It's the others who have had it easy in America for centuries.

I attribute my successes to the long hours I've put into Scoop

[JWags85]

They're both detrimental to fielding the best roster.  The Lakers haven't tried fielding the best roster in quite awhile or severely miscalculated the talent they've placed around Lebron and AD. 

BINGO.  I dislike the delusion of some people thinking that Bronny was ever a lottery pick or that he's gonna shock the world due to some weird "people don't believe in him" that Lebron stans are conjuring up, but this is pretty par for the course for the Lakers front office for the last 5 years.  Everything has been built around catering to Lebron as assistant GM, for better or for worse.  If he wanted them to trade Austin Reeves and Hachimura to free up space for Melo to come back, they probably would.

There is a reason, save for the uniqueness of the bubble season, that they've never finished better than 7th in the West despite having 2 megastars.  They will sell a ton of tickets and generate tons of buzz, but there is nothing to suggest this team is going to be any better until Lebron retires, regardless of nepotism or otherwise.

[The Sultan]

On the downside, nobody in the fanbase will care if you don't have superstars, and nobody will tolerate a rebuild. They tried it with Lonzo, Randle, Kuzma, Ingram, etc., and nobody showed up.

If that rebuild would have been successful, they would have shown up. They drafted and developed Magic and Kobe, so that franchise has done it in the past. They could do so again, but I think their "we have to have stars" mindset is limiting their thinking.

[Pakuni]

If that rebuild would have been successful, they would have shown up. They drafted and developed Magic and Kobe, so that franchise has done it in the past. They could do so again, but I think their "we have to have stars" mindset is limiting their thinking.

They drafted and developed Magic with team that had won about 60% of their games the previous three seasons and already had multiple stars (Kareem, Wilkes, Nixon). And Adrian Dantley was with them the year before Magic. Not a rebuild.

They drafted and developed Kobe to a team that already had Shaq and multiple other all-stars (Ceballos, Eddie Jones, Van Exel) plus aging stars (Kersey, Scott). Not a rebuild.

These situations just aren't remotely similar to what they tried to do in the years between Kobe and LeBron, when they had no stars and tried go young.

[Uncle Rico]

Giannis will be one of Greece's flag bearers at the upcoming opening ceremonies of the Olympics.  Another great moment for the Milwaukee native and ambassador

[The Sultan]

My point is if they had been successful at going young, and the team won in the process, people would have showed up at the games.

[Pakuni]

My point is if they had been successful at going young, and the team won in the process, people would have showed up at the games.

My point is they didn't give it a chance to to be successful - Ball, Ingram and Deangelo Russell all lasted three years or less, Randle lasted four - because the team and city don't have the patience for it. It's not in the franchise's DNA. Or at least hasn't been since Dr. Buss bought it.

[WhiteTrash]

Then they shouldn't go to the games or buy Lakers merch.

I'm glad you don't care about Bronny or Lebron

I don't care Bronny has been treated differently than others because of his dad.

I like the NBA and LeBron has been fun to watch. I do care that it looks like the Lakers are not setup to compete in maybe his last year. Not a Lakers fan but it would be nice to se him compete in the playoffs one last time.

[BM1090]

I hope people are able to separate Bronny the person from this situation. By all accounts, he's a really good kid and he knows he got this opportunity because of his dad. And he's going to work his ass off daily to try to capitalize it and turn it into a long NBA career. He's not just riding coattails.

If he sticks in the league for 10-15 years as a backup PG it'll be because he's a contributor and I hope people can find it in themselves to be happy for him.