Lakers 2016 Presser

[TrayWithAnA]

Good morning all,

We have finally gotten to the completion of the rebuild. I would have expected us to be better last year, but once we hit a skid, I realized it may not be ripe enough yet. We took a big chance by acquiring DeMarcus Cousins from the Sixers for a future first, but he helped round out our front court. In the end, I am not sure a late lottery/middle of the pack draft pick would have been as impactful over the next few years as DeMarcus will be. He may create some cap issues when everyone else is up for renewal, but for the time being, he gives our team the best shot to succeed.

The big FA move this offseason was locking down Jennings for the next 4 years at a sub-max contract deal. Is there a chance we overpaid? Yes. Was there another option out there at the one? Not really.

In addition to Jennings, we acquired George Hill and Kendrick Perkins to play pivotal roles off of the bench. There still very talented players who will help out a lot this year to take some of the load off of the minutes-laden core that is our starting 5.

In TC, Giannis and Gustave took leaps forward in their development, albeit not quite as big as we would have liked to have seen with Lecroix. The rest of the team survived mostly unscathed.

In the next few weeks, we have identified a trade to acquire two additional bench players for the price of one. We want to keep the starters from getting worn out, so a little more depth will help here and there.

Anyways, I am late to the game here but open for questions... Let me know what's on your mind.

[WigNosy]

RFA for Giannis looms after this season... do you feel any urgency to add to your stable of talent before big contracts start eroding your cap flexibility?

[garbageman]

Sham Smith, Bulls.com: I asked a similar question to the Warriors, so I'll flip the script on you. Despite much to do about the Warriors being the team to beat out West, your team, though a little lean (even after your Larkin swap goes through) packs a lot of talent 7 deep, like a leaner version of last year's Knicks. While the Warriors made bigger moves in the offseason, do you think the Lakers have developed enough since last year to take the Pacific division?

[TrayWithAnA]

RFA for Giannis looms after this season... do you feel any urgency to add to your stable of talent before big contracts start eroding your cap flexibility?

We want to add to the team in a smart responsible way but it is hard to do when you are restricted to a limited crop of UFAs. I don't know how much flexibility we have given ourselves in the next two years. We feel like we're playing checkers when the real contenders are playing chess. Hoping that the big three develop into a deadly trio because otherwise this is bound to start all over again.


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[TrayWithAnA]

Sham Smith, Bulls.com: I asked a similar question to the Warriors, so I'll flip the script on you. Despite much to do about the Warriors being the team to beat out West, your team, though a little lean (even after your Larkin swap goes through) packs a lot of talent 7 deep, like a leaner version of last year's Knicks. While the Warriors made bigger moves in the offseason, do you think the Lakers have developed enough since last year to take the Pacific division?

I think the talent is there. We have a coaching problem that we need to address and quickly. Management has done an ok job but the coaching has been consistently terrible for years. This staff has only sniffed the conference championship once. Pretty consistently misses the playoffs and underperforms when they do make it. Stupid game sometimes, and we are among the worst at it. Such is life.


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