@@ugh_naught5009 I think Ham grew during the season. He adjusted well enough in the playoffs. I'd actually give him another year. It'll never happen in the Lakers.
If it's possible to both simultaneously underachieve and overachieve, that's the 2023-24 Lakers. This is the healthiest we've had LeBron and AD since the Covid season, but we had to overcome an ass coach and constant injuries to our role players. IDK, the west was tough this year and the Lakers achieved about what I thought they would. I just can't be too upset with how things panned out.
I get that the expectation of the Lakers is to compete for championships. I mean, the Lakers have won a championship in every decade but the 1960s from the 1940s to the 2020s. That's insane. But the team went through a 39 year old Lebron which speaks to his greatness, but also the lack of younger elite talent (late 20s) that they need to survive a 7 game series 4 separate times.
@@CardsNHorns04 Exactly. And we can talk all day about how we should be up 3-2 or down 3-2 to Denver at this point, but even if we beat Denver, I would almost guarantee that we would lose to Minnesota and OKC.
reality is this, whether there’s an ass coach or not, if Lebron is paid like a max player, the rest of the roster is gonna be lame, and he doesn’t deliver true max level impact that can take an average roster to the next level
Wonder what the excuse will be when the Lakers get bounced again in a first round exit with a new coach. This team is crap outside of an old LeBron and Davis and nothing is fixing that.
If anything passing on Lebron to open cap space and build around AD is smarter I think. It's not working anymore (unless Lebron is taking minimum? also someone might just draft Bronny sooner)
@@Sparkasm Drafting Bronny for 1 or 2 years of LeBron at this stage would be silly. However the Lakers are capable of doing silly things. I dont think another team reaches for a would be 2nd round pick unless LeBron opts out of his contract. Reaching for Bronny and then having to trade assets to get LeBron i think is to much imo.
@@drumusic5665 As a Lakers fan, I fully expect them to draft Bronny and reach for a third star moving what's left of their draft capital and whatever contracts the other team would want. It'll be unfortunate but it is what it is.
@@Sparkasm How can they build the last assets they had went in the Westbrook trade. The issue they had was having the worst coach arguably in the league. Taurean Prince should be nowhere near starter minutes
I have a hot take for the Lakers, I don’t think it’ll happen but imagine this: Lakers ditch Ham and go pick up a defensively oriented coach. Lebron transitions into a pure PG, think 20-15-5 averages instead of 25-8-6. Go get another high quality big man, get AD his Aaron Gordon. Keep D-lo and AR but let them be post up shooters. Essentially, use Bron’s size and driving not as a standard scoring method but a way to keep defenses honest. Instead of Bron fighting with coach, make him the floor general. He’d basically be CP3 in Bron’s body, with multiple inside options and outside shooters. Plus Bron’s 3pt% has steadily gotten better so doesn’t need to drive as much to score anyway. Plus, as a pure PG, his body wouldn’t be as jeopardized by the physicality of his game. Main difficulty would be getting him to fully relinquish primary scoring duties, which even with AD on the team has been tough.
I feel like LA making the WCF in 2023 will have the same effect that the hawks making the ECF in 2021 had on that franchise. Theyre gonna trick themselves into thinking theyre better than they actually were and they're gonna keep this honestly mid core around longer than they ought to.
But it’s not really the “core” perse it’s the supporting cast around that core and the “Head coach”. It is kinda similar, although Lebron and AD can go toe to toe with anyone.
recent championships always make fanbases doubt coaches a ton more, i mean as a warriors fan i can safely say we're probably the second most frustrated fanbase with our head coach. to be honest i think the warriors and lakers have the inverse issue - while the warriors lack reliable size, lakers lack reliable shooting. AD and lebron were amazing, but i think a lack of 2-3 38%+ 3pt shooters was their falling point.
This iteration of the Lakers is fundamentally broken, and its not going to get better until the deck is cleared. I love Lebron, and he got a ring out of the Lakers, but this organization stinks
Brons last dance so build a proper team with an actual consistent guard play and 5 and pair it with Stotts or Vogel. Best case scenario is Clippers are stupid enough to fire Lue. After 23 leaves do an overhaul and retool around AD
As a lakers fan I’d love Nick Nurse, but there’s not much actual options out there to improve the coaching position. I would guess we hire another flyer/see what happens coach
If I remember right, pelicans can choose to either take lakers 2024 or 25 1st, in which lakers get back the one they don’t take. They also have the 2026 1st but can’t trade it until pels decide which pick they want. And lastly they have I believe 2028 1st that’s their own? As for the roster, I say just beef up the bench cuz their bunching fucking sucks ass through a straw. If they had anything resembling a competent bench this series would have actually been competitive
Western conference has gotten soooo much better. Plus injuries, Rob Polenta asinine moves, Ham and Cheese garbage coaching. I swear to God if my Lakers trade the role players for Trey Young this offseason im gonna shitvmy pants. Gonna rerun the awful Westbrook season
Vogel was good for us, he just lost the locker room and at that point unless you’re Spoelstra (best coach in the league) or Pop (coach & gm) you should be fired immediately
Lebron is a disgrace. Literally the worst sportsman and teammate in the history of basketball. Wonder who is going to pay the price for his failures this offseason.
"The Lakers do have the most delusional fanbase in the NBA-and rightfully so" No, not 'rightfully so' - _understandably_ so. The delusions of the Lakers fans are *understandable,* but not necessarily rightful. There's an important distinction.
Drafting Bronny is so wrong on multiple levels. Using a first round pick on an unproven player would be dumb by the Lakers. LeBron being so adamant to play with his son was cute 10-15 years ago. But now its kinda cringe. Like it's way too much pressure on Bronny. Especially when you look at the sons of other Hall of Fame players like MJ, Shaq, hell even throw Austin Rivers in here. If LeBron wanted what's best for his son he'd let him forge his own place in the league and not have his introduction get stamped with the biggest asterisk in NBA history
Finally, someone addressed the dire straits and bleak future of our beloved Lakers. As a lifelong fan, I’ve spent the entire season grappling with the reality that our team, frankly, is subpar. Our problems are exacerbated by LeBron aging gracefully yet undeniably, and AD, who I’m convinced can't shoulder the franchise’s future. The solution seems radical but necessary: trade almost everyone. With zero draft picks at our disposal, maintaining even a semblance of a decent roster post-LeBron seems like a pipe dream. Soon, we might find ourselves at the bottom of the league, battling with the Suns for that worst record honor. Our front office’s strategy really baffles me. Over the past few years, they’ve filled our roster with a motley crew of players. And don’t get me started on Mo Bamba-what was the rationale there? I know I may face backlash for this, but I genuinely miss Dennis Schröder. His talent on ball handling and defensive tenacity-despite the occasional off game-made him a pivotal factor in our championship run. In contrast, D'Angelo Russell’s performance in Game 3 against the Nuggets was disheartening; his lackadaisical attitude until the final quarter was infuriating. Its sad that the days are gone when Magic Johnson’s influence was felt. Now, it seems we’re more concerned with filling seats and boosting merchandise sales than building a coherent team. I envy teams like San Antonio, Oklahoma City, and Cleveland for their strategic rebuilds from similar lows. Here we are, squandering resources on a “win-now” approach, only to achieve mediocrity. LeBron, at 21, can’t be expected to carry a team the way he once did-he’s visibly fatigued in playoff defenses. We need to rethink our salary cap strategy and perhaps focus on acquiring draft picks to truly rebuild and create a sustainable future.
He was a good coach, but at the end of the day, he lost the locker room. Westbrook made scathing comments towards Vogel during the exit interview, and it was obvious that he was out no matter what. I always thought there was no way to coach a team that made no sense and did not adhere to Vogels coaching strengths which is defense. It was just another domino falling from the Westbrook effect.
He wasn’t great and he wasn’t bad. He is a good coach that was given one of the worst constructed rosters in the NBA(kinda like this years suns lol). The solution was to fire and hire the absolute worst coach possible. Ham isn’t an NBA level head coach by any means. Him being there is a detriment to the team. It would’ve been better had we not even had a head coach.
@@savethebeez I agree Vogel is mid, not a great coach, but Ham grew in this year. I think the Lakers are gonna fire him (to hire who?), but coaching LeBron is hard.
@@VeteranVandal Coaching Bron isn’t really the concern. Bron will do what he does, he doesn’t really need a coach tbh. But the other 11 or so guys need a coach that’ll take them there. You can tell by what they do on defense and the little things, that they’re not coached well. No defensive effort and constant defensive breakdowns. Can’t help but notice they look lost out there half of the time. Ham needs to be fired and the Lakers need to hire someone who would be a coach with the 29 other teams.
I agree with symbiotic relationship between coach and players. Some stuff they have to change on the fly because they are playing, but leaving them on the wind they'll scatter.
i think we’re moving past the point where you can have the players running the show or have some weak ass sets that just leads to your stars isolating and mismatch hunting. offenses have been getting more sophisticated and balanced and the good teams are also playing better defense. you really need a good coach and team chemistry to be successful.
Yeah, simply put, isolation scoring is just not efficient basketball in today's game, especially the playoffs. The best teams move the ball a lot. And that has been true for decades anyway and it's a big part of why Pop's Motion Offense and Phil/Tex's Triangle Offense won 16 championships in 25 years from 1991-2014. And in 2015, Kerr kept up that tradition by combining those two offenses for the Warriors. And the Nuggets follow Jokic and the way he plays the game with lots of passing and looking for the best shot.
Maybe Bron should go to the Knicks, they dump Randle for scraps. He’s just not a Thibs player though. Gabe Vincent gets too much hate for his play. He just missed the whole season, it is what it is. I had no idea the Taurean starting games were so bad, so I guess that means Rui has to start in this group. Shoutout Christian Wood too.
I'm not saying he's a good coach but I don't how Luke Walton was the coach for half the Warriors 73-9 season but then didn't work in LA Was 1516 GS just good enough to win on autopilot?
I think open communication is a winning attrtibute. A coach can only see so much on the floor, a player can only think so many steps ahead. You need a healthy relationship to make it work truly.
