Well, that happened. Season 55. Started with hope and ended in a massive retooling of the future. Our guy of the future, Alex Caruso, we decided he just was not the guy anymore. And his trajectory did not head upward in the way we had hoped with Kenny Heard and Danny Campbell peaking (DC may not have even peaked yet - more on that later). So with a dominant defense and a decidedly lackluster offense, we decided to start over, but not for nothing. (Well, Caruso is fully purple now so life is yet again a PBSL existential crisis.)
We chose not to throw away our season but ultimately save $$$ on the taxes we were about to accrue. So with Caruso out, Zack Keller and future MVP Darius Garland in, we sacrificed very little in our current lineup. Keller is not Caruso - not even now - but he’s not demonstrably worse for what we needed from the 4 spot either.
Our next piece to fall was Blakemore, who was not holding up as our starting PG. His $30m suddenly felt like $60, and he had to go. He did well to back things up in OKC even though they got slaughtered by the Bulls in the finals (would have been a different story with Tex, but that’s how the sim cookie crumbles).
That ended up being a pretty weird trade though, huh? How many reaccepts did we do?
Moving on…
We shipped out Kenny Heard in the offseason to…the locker room down the hall. He’s a Clipper now. And Lyman Bradley is a Laker. Mamba rightfully saw the value in the all-star, and we saw the value in Bradley who, despite a rotten TC last year, should bounce back this year as a solid big man…and bloody fracking hell. We hoped he put in some good strength and conditioning training this offseason, but noooooo. Maybe Rati Andradobombvili will bounce back this year, too, but nooooo.
So we have our future starting to take shape anyway. We’re still seeking some primary offense in the next build and we are confident that the resumes of our best guys - DC, Olney, Connell and Keller - can net us that future offensive threat. Until then, expect all of our offense to run through Danny Campbell who will have the year that made the rest of the league wish they called up the Laker front office this offseason. He knows he’s languishing in LA, but until he finds the right team in contention, he’ll be out there dunking, blocking shots, grabbing boards and breaking your best players’ legs for the team that truly understands his value: The LA Lakers. Yeah, we saw him tank and then get right back to his 100 DRB, 100 PSD and 100 BLK old self, and now he will ruin you.
We don’t know what to expect this year, and it all hinges on who stays and who goes. We’ve had a few conversations around the league but no one is biting. If they bite, we’ll be in next year’s draft lottery. If not, we’ll see you in the playoffs, and our boy DC will go down swinging…at your best players’ legs, with a crowbar, calling them Nancy Kerrigan Nancies.
Generally speaking, a player of Campbell's pedigree would have found a new home by now when they've been openly shopped. What reasons do you think are causing those talks to fizzle ?
The right fit. I'm sure plenty of teams would love to have him, but they don't have the funds to trade for him. I see a few developing draft picks that would be an interesting pair with Garland, but no one has wanted to trade them because they're not ready to win with Danny on their team. And I already have some developing big men, so trading for bigs is tough, too, unless they may be on Campbell's level when they grow up...
Eazy P wrote: Fri Jan 14, 2022 1:43 pm
What is your team's goals for this upcoming season? do you see yourself stealing the division away from the stacked bulls team
LOL absolutely not. No, we don't know what the heck we are this year. We leapt from a rotten division (minus the Thunder / Wizards) to a ridiculous division with 2 of the all time ring-leading GMs, plus the commish, plus 2 recent commishes. Then we got the Mavericks who are still deciding to be good, the Suns staying active, and the Pelicans newly active and revived as well. We probably have more humans regularly engaged in this division than any other (change my mind), so I think it's going to be a pretty tough road for the duration of the life of this division.
But I am going to try and break Michael Sneed's legs. Both of them.
K-100 wrote:Does Darius Garland make his Laker debut in season 56?
I haven’t decided yet. Part of me is really bummed about his TC not taking him to green current, and he still has horrible stamina for a 6 foot PG… but I will probably throw some points at him now and get him playable. He looked okay enough in preseason.
Sham Smith, Bulls.com: The Lakers had a strong showing during pre-season. For a team that could go either direction this season, does this have any influence on what route you take?
No. Preseason results are a welcome surprise, certainly, so if we can't move players, we'll be alright. But if the right deal comes, regardless of how are team is doing, we're ready to move on it (see my trade block for the right guy for your team to go all the way!).
Sending Caruso was never the plan, especially to the enemy! But looking around the league around sim 3 time, I realized Caruso was not working out in LA- not without someone who could run a truly efficient offense, and blakemore wasn’t cutting it. Not wanting to have that problem again any time soon, we saw the enemy with the best future PG in the league and made a move. The right move. It worked out both ways and quite frankly closed the books on a contentious rivalry.
Still doesn’t mean a sequel can’t be written…! Muahahahaha