Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
Hell of a good news/bad news scenario, ain't it?
James isn't likely to be this good again next year - just a reality of aging. Or stay this healthy.
Davis has the ability to be this good again next season but it's a coinflip if he gets to the finish line healthwise and effort-wise is always a crapshoot.
So when your plan is "Let those two cook and the role players do enough" and those two absolutely cooked, what more is there to do? You can move things in the margins with the role players but that 3rd guy isn't likely to be a massive improvement over Russell.
I guess your hope is that whoever it is plays to the regular season Russell level? Maybe you move for Trae Turner and hope that the performance you got from Russell in the regular season is the same thing that Turner gives you in the playoffs?
It's just not a roster that's really capable of being fundamentall transformed. They finally have 3 first rounders to trade away again come the end of the season so you know they'll give that a shot. But the bottom line is ultimately that you need a 3rd guy that can hang with MPJ (with the hopes that you can get roughly a draw from LBJ/Davis vs. Jokic/Murray - they did this time around).
Oh, and you fire the hell out of that mongoloid reerun, Darvin Ham. God almighty is he bad at this. That's a Peter Principle guy through and through - seems like a very good assistant that's largely respected by the players...until he has to coach them. He lost the room quickly once he had to show real chops and they realized he didn't have them.
Still think they blew it firing Vogel. He's nothing special, but he's competent. He's a solid veteran coach in a league that has maybe 8-10 of those. A guy who, if nothing else, doesn't take anything off the table.
Could Budenholzer be that guy? I would think so. Maybe Stotts? Eh...less confident there.
They'll probably just promote Phil Handy because he's a LeBron guy. Which would suck awful because he was ON the staff this year and clearly wasn't out there moving mountains as a primary assistant.
Timing wasn't quite right to get Jordi Fernandez, unfortunately. He'd have been an exciting snag. Maybe we can get Budenholzer in here for a couple years and snipe Fernandez from the Nets for a post-LBJ era.
|
I don't see any way for the Lakers to get good enough to beat Denver unless another star somehow falls into their lap. I still think LeBron will return to LA to finish his career (despite his non-committal response last night), but it looks like he may force them into drafting Bronny to sit on the bench before he does.
I was also quite impressed by Jordi Fernandez when he coached Canada at the World Cup last summer. He had those guys playing hard and organized and they ultimately ended up beating USA for the bronze for their best result in program history.