[negguaryParticipant]

Why aren’t the Lakers catching media scrutiny for being horrible??? Since the Sixers started the process, the lakers have been equally as bad. This year they are utterly atrocious, losing by almost 50 to an even more horrible team, the mavs, and the have lost by more than 40 points three times this season!! I just saw a bleacher report article basically praising the lakers for losing and calling them wise for tanking and keeping their top three pick is the most important. Which brings me back to my question WHY THE DOUBLE STANDARD??? When the sixers tanked to get more talent it’s bad for the league, when the Lakers tank, it’s good for them. Please if you negg hints my name negguary please come with facts not emotions.

Peace

[highflyer0Participant]

 I don’t think they are getting a pass for being horrible.  They are a laughing stock amongst a lot of NBA fans across the country.  To be honest, the reason why they aren’t getting as much media scrutiny as the 76ers is simply because the Lakers’ management isn’t even intelligent enough to tank correctly.  They give the appearance of kind-of sort-of putting a serviceable team together (i.e. signing Mozgov and Deng), when, in reality, the team is worse than this year’s Sixers.  The Sixers did not get ridiculed for being awful.  They got ridiculed for blantantly losing on purpose.  Some of the teams the Sixers have had out there prior to this year were D-league level.  The Lakers are not trying to lose.  They just suck.  And their front office sucks.  To be honest, if the Lakers were smart, they would have followed Hinkie’s lead and avoided veterans like Mozgov and Deng.  They would trade Lou Williams and probably Clarkson and keep their pick this year (which they may keep anyway).  Unfortunately, Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak are too inept to have that sort of vision.  

I’m a Lakers fan, and I’ll admit that I’ve always been in favor of avoiding the tank.  I was adamant about them signing guys like Isaiah Thomas and Greg Monroe the last few years (productive, young players).  This may not have been a great strategy either, but their current strategy, if there even is one, is atrocious.  Basically, they want to be competitive and let the young guys develop at the same time.  That sounds like the perfect balance, but, unfortunately, you have to have established, high level players to make that a reality.  It is nearly impossible, unless you are an organization as genius as the Spurs.  
 

In conclusion, although you will start to see the media focus more on the ineptitude of the Lakers after today’s spectacular loss, the reason why the Sixers got more hate than LA is because the Lakers are too stupid and too stubborn to outright tank and invest in youth, while Hinkie had a clear plan to be awful. Parents and teachers are much more frustrated by a smart kid with bad grades than a dumb kid with bad grades.  The 76ers failed calculus on purpose.  The Lakers are failing because they don’t know how to add single digit numbers.  

[llperez]

I don’t think lakers are tanking, they just suck. They have attempted to go after all the big name free agents year after year and spent on lesser free agents after striking out on the big ones. And I wouldn’t put stock into bleacher report, isn’t that site just basically blogs from fans of teams? Every article I read from there comes across as about as official as a thread here at nbadraftnet. It was probably just some laker fan being biased. As for why the sixers got ripped, they were intentionally putting an inferior product out there to stockpile young assets and were trading away their best players for draft picks. People didn’t care for that approach of tanking intentionally.

[BasterdInABasketParticipant]

 I just looked at the standings to see where they were.. they are 4.5 games out of the playoffs! Not saying they’ll make it but there is a clusterf*** of horrible teams 8 on down and GS is going to get a nice long break after playing their first round series.

And lakers aren’t as bad as Philly the last couple years. As much as they overpaid and didn’t really factor in team chemistry, They at least somewhat tried to put a little bit of talent on the court.. I guess??

[binetParticipant]

 Tanking is obvious. The 2019 unprotected first to orlando is an asset they cannot afford to lose right now in their rebuilding process. If they somehow manage not to give the 76ers their pick this year they get to keep that 2019 pick and just give Orlando some 2nd rounders.

They are criticized of course but at the end of the day it’s not a bad idea. They are locked with some bad contracts and their ‘young core’ is decent but has no clear cut superstar talent (not saying none of them could end up that good, just not contributing enough to be sure things.). Tanking while developping Ingram, Russell and Randle should be good.

 

 

 

[BeastMode716Participant]

 But we are clearly Tanking. Starting Zubic over Tomas Robinson & Starting Brandon Ingram & actually playing him at pg for parts of the game is a joke. Ingram put up one the single worst stat lines I have Ever seen in that historic loss to the Awful Dallas Mavericks.

36 min played; 6 points, 1 rebound, 0 assists, 1 steal, 3 turnovers, 2/12 fg, 0/3 3pt fg, -45 +/-

I never had a problem w/ what the Sixers did b/c to this day I have not heard any talking head tell me what Hinkie could have done differently when Doug Collins blew up the franchise in the Bynum trade. He had no Draft picks in 2015 & 2017 & Collins traded away Vucevic, Igudola & Harkless (2012 – 1st round pick) & the only tradeable assets they had were the 3 decent players signed to long term deals: Jru Holiday, Thad Young & Evan Turner. When you look at what they had to work with when Collins quit in May of 2013 – One month before the 2013 Draft Lottery it’s actually Stunning how quickly they re-built a foundation & they are now set up for YEARS

My issue w/ the 76ers & Hinkie in particular was that he Never did a good job Explaining his plan b/c he was Super paranoid about being secretive. They did not reinvent the wheel & the public would have understood if he explained:

"Hey did u guys see how Golden State got Draymond Green by making a trade w/ New Jersey / Brooklyn to take on Troy Murphy’s $13.7 Million salary in exchange for the Nets’ 2nd pick? Well we are going to do the same thing but in order to clear space & accumulate draft picks we need to trade our only decent veterans & then we will use our salary cap flexibility as leverage where playoff teams who need cap space can literally BUY cap space from Us in exchange for 1st or 2nd round Draft Picks….."

People still would not have liked it (b/c we All know that works) but at least you can’t criticize unless you have a better plan. But Hinkie never did anything like that.

My problem w/ the Lakers management is that they have been Completely inept & uncreative! Look at the 2015 Draft. No One believed D’Angelo Russell would be a Super Star. 2015 was a ONE super star draft – KAT. If u remember the Knicks tanked like Crazy that year & finished w/ the 2nd worst record & we had the 4th worst & jump up to #2 & the Knicks fell back to #4. Phil Jackson wanted Okafor – b/c Okafor was supposedly the only other potentially Great player & Okafor w/ Melo working a 1, 2 punch high / low could have really made Phil Jackson salivate. Why not trade back top #4 & get the Knicks 2017 1st round pick for moving back?

 Or if you don’t like that something else but do Something other than ASSUMING that Every Free Agent is going to Want to come here. Who remembers the LaMArcus Aldridge free agent meeting where they sell job was "Hey yea we totally suck but it’s the lakers, it’s sunny here & there are tons of hot chicks around, should we get the peb so you can sign now?…."

It was a Total embarrassment & even this year there just seems to be no plan. It’s a whatever happens happens management philosophy. If you look at the Great teams especially in the 3 major American Sports – the Dynasties were ALL built by teams with Great ownership. It starts at the Top & the Lakers, Celtics, Yankees, 49ers, Cowboys, Patriots all have experienced self made business people running the show & it’s not a coincidence. 

W/ the new CBA we’ll see even less free agent movement of the very top players, so the Lakers absolutely Must get it together b/c the ownership & management seem utterly clueless. So no I do not think it is a double standard the main anger towards Phila that no in the NBA upper circles will ever admit is that anger was born out of Fear b/c Hinkie appeared to know what he was doing & now we see the results. David Silver & NBA execs are not bothered by incompetance one bit. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sewok15Participant]

 The Lakers organization has avoided criticism because they were run so well for so many years and won many rings in the Kobe and Shaq era. Both of those players are long gone and we can see how fall the Lakers have fallen from an organizational leadership aspect but the casual fan recalls the somewhat recent titles and that makes the Sixers the easier target.

The Sixers losing on purpose may have been a point of contempt for many but as a fan of the team I loved it because I understand there are only a few ways to build a championship contender and this was the most viable option in Philly. 

I really hope that Lou Williams doesn’t get traded and scores enough to keep the Lakers out of the top 3 this year. 

 

 

 

 

[Ahkasi ClayParticipant]

 Kobe only retired 7 months ago.  And the teams that he was on the last couple of years where worse than this one.

[nill650Participant]

 I doubt anyone should have really expected much yet. They might be pseudo tanking but they are just a porr executing team and not just due too youth There isn’t a player on that roster that doesn’t "know" they cannot contend with the current roster, so the motivation to play well isn’t even there yet other than individual value not collective value.

With the Clips still being near the top of the west the city that had Laker bias is not going to be the draw the Lakers can profit from like in the past.

They are poorly managed as far as I can figure otherwise they would not be in the mess they are in having to do well in the lottery just to have a lottery pick. 

No GM should ever agree to trading away picks as only top 3 protected, should always be lottery protected , giving more fuel for a genuine success outcome durring a rebuild. Why ? the team has to lose a lot to just to add 1 more piece when they need 3 more minimum. 

Don’t be surprised if they pull another bogus deal to bring in some body who was on a great team but isn’t anymore so they can sell jerseys until that player wants out.

 

[SlickBouncePassParticipant]

This is a great draft, but there are no superstars.  Sure they’ll get another player to add to their mediocre core that cannot handle the limelight of playing in LA.

Russell, no legs.  Randle, compared him to Lebron coming out, Ingram is their gamer but is behind the other assumed "talent" because of his age.  Clarkson is an average scorer.  Larry Nance is a nice player, a good bench player.

What do you add to that?  Josh Jackson would be a nice fit but he is struggling with shooting.  Lonzo Ball to help run the team and then play Russell at 2guard?  Fultz is a better Russell but then what do you do with Russell?  That would be nice to see actually…the both of them in the backcourt with Ingram but there isn’t enough basketball to go around to watch them trade taking shots.  Dennis Smith would be a nice piece.

The Lakers have players to fill 1, 2, and 3, and 4 if you think Randle is good….

They just don’t have a gamechanger.  Philly, hopefully, has 2.  

I was really hoping to complete the core and get the Lakers pick in this draft.  We’d fill out our perimeter players in a guard heavy draft.  I just don’t understand why its so brilliant for the Lakers to tank.  There is no one I see in this draft that would make them significantly better.  

Maybe Lonzo Ball would be the best fit to get their offense in rhythm.  

 

 

 

 

 

  

[binetParticipant]

 I think they are more tanking for the 2019 pick than the 2017 pick.

If they do send their 2017 pick to Philly then they owe their 2019 to Orlando unprotected.

If not, they send their 2018 to Philly (with possibly a better team/record) and only owe Orlando 2 secound round picks.

They are essentially not only tanking for one of this year’s bests, but also to get their 2019th pick back.

As far as team fit, I think Ball is an incredible fit alongside their offensive firepower, and they should expect him to fall to them if they are top 3, with Fultz and others more attractive to other teams.

They are also reportedly trying to trade some of their guys, and I would not be surprised if one of D’Angelo and Clarkson is part of these discussions, as well as most of their veterans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ahkasi ClayParticipant]

 The Lakers have been the joke of the NBA for years. Atlas we knew that the 76ers had a plan.   

 

BTW,   just cause I am curious,  who are you on B/R?

 

 

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