[KingPapasParticipant]

Magic has been Lakers President Of Basketball Operations for a little over a year and I cant help but think of what a horrible job he is doing.He has made countless mistakes that will cost the Lakers for years to come.

-1st D’Angelo Russell, He never gave him a fare shake and is now regretting it. He is now an Easter Cofferance all start 20.4 points and 6.8 assists. This is better production then we are getting from anyone at the lead guard position.

2nd Drafting Lonzo Ball – I am a SoCal native and Lonzo never wowed me to be the 2nd overall pick. Even at UCLA he benifited from having the right peices around him and his arrival coincided with TJ Leaf’s. They are not the same caliber of plaers but on the collge level they both had a great impact for UCLA in their lone season. I know its hindsight but Tatum or Fox was there for the taking. 

3rd Letting Julius Randell and Broke Lopez  go in FA – They were two of our best players last year and to let them go for nothing when you paid similar salaries to bring in Rondo and Magee is crazy.  Lonzo KCP Bron Randell and Lopez is way better then any lineup we have played this year. 

You cant be a succesful francise and make this many mistakes in a short time span. You still will need some luck to go your way to be a championship contender. 

[SwatLakeCityParticipant]

 Yeah, totally agree with you. You don’t put all your chips on the table when your team wasn’t that bad in the first place. I agree, getting Lebron is worth it for what he does on the court, but even he doesn’t account for what the team can do. Yes, the Lakers were bad before Lebron but not this bad. They just looked awful when Lebron was injured right after Christmas but before the all star break. Yet they weren’t that bad last year when Lebron was still with the Cavs. That tells you something. 

[RUDEBOY-Participant]

 i highly doubt the lakers fire the man that has been the face of the franchise for 40 years…he did help bring the best player in the league to the team..i agree with u he did make some mistakes 1.signing a bunch of what he called playmakers,instead of surrounding lebron with shooters..2.resigning kcp..3. letting randle walk…but he did acquired a pick in the russell trade turned out to be kuzma..so that trade doesnt sting as much…and magic dumped alot of bad contracts which allowed the team to have cap space for max players…

[Scott42444Participant]

 You are right.  Because of the cap space, he still gets an INCOMPLETE for his handling of the front office.  You are also correct that he will NOT be fired.  I think they would just change his job title/responsibilities so he has less of a direct impact on decision making and more impact on remaining an ambassador for the franchise.  If the Bulls loyalty towards John Paxson is as strong as it is, how strong must the loyalty be for Magic to the Lakers?

[HobbyOGParticipant]

 Stop it…

1. If you don’t trade D-Russ you don’t have Kuz..Russ needed a fresh start, he burned his bridge in LA with the whole cell phone thing, teammates didn’t trust him, fans were booing him..who says he puts those numbers up in LA..in the west? Lakers did the right thing at the time..

2. Rumor has it Magic didn’t want Ball, That was Buss call..here’s a link lonzowire.usatoday.com/2019/02/05/lakers-rumors-magic-johnson-lonzo-ball-deearon-fox-2017-nba-draft-jeanie-buss/ not sure if this is true but it’s on a ton of websites..he wanted to draft Fox

3. Yea, I prob wouldn’t of left Randle go and would of kept Lopez. I said last year, if you’re not going to keep Randle trade him last year before the trading deadline for a draft pick..whatever team who traded for him would have his RFA rights..that was a very dumb move by the Lakers. 

4. Also they go rid of that terrible Mozgov contract to create room to sign FA this upcoming season…

5. Let’s not forget Magic is just a "face" he’s not the GM. Rob Pelinka and Jeanne Buss are calling the shots..Magic wanted to fire Luke but Jeanne said no..

[OhCanada-Participant]

No matter how many times you say it, I say it or the Lakers say it 80% of people still wont even acknowledge that. Its like people prefer just following the fictional narratives the NBA imposes.

[joe2324Participant]

Isaiah Thomas or Magic. Bottom line, both have no business anywhere near a front office. He actually had a decent collection of young talent and a coach with some promise. He destroyed everything hoping he’ll get Lebron from 2010 and 2 or 3 other superstars. 

[Scott42444Participant]

 Isaiah Thomas is worse.  That question is answered.  I will cite the Eddy Curry trade and his running of the CBA (not the collective bargaining agreement but the Canadian Basketball Association).  I will also include the sexual misconduct charges that ran throughout the Knicks organization during that time (that he WAS included in).

[OhCanada-Participant]

Wait a second. Earlier in the season everyone was praising Magic for signing Lebron and finally landing a marquee free agent which is always the goal implemented by Lakers ownership. Every year goal is to land a marquee free agent. Magic Johnsons team landed him.

Goal two is to acquire more superstars…Its LA. The season blows up because New Orleans wouldnt play into the BS and thats Magic’s fault? His team offered the whole freakin roster! LOL whats he supposed to do he’s trying to do his job as his employer intends.

The guy’s just a puppet anyways, a beloved Laker figure who was supposed to be a ray of sunshine for the fans. Kobe would never be stupid enough to accept that position.

[Andv1 WaitingParticipant]

 The goal was to have cap room last offseason and this offseason he achieved that.

Another goal was to get Big names to consider Lakers again Lebron answers that one for them also..

Moving Russell was the casuality of Moving Mosgov as people said above, he burnt his bridge in L.A and Atkinson is a PG’s coach so lets not forget that…Atkinson is a big reason for the intial linsaity and Spencer dinwiddie career revival. Whats to say under look he stayed the same mediocre player that fans call for to be traded. Also Kuzma basically does everything Russell would have done on this team.

Drafting Ball… Was not a mistake he was brought in to elevate the team members and help bring showtime back… So he has proven he a) is essentially the key part to their defense, B) helps get Kuz and BI easier looks(Plus other team mates) this is shown in lower numbers without him..everywhere he has gone he has won at a pretty high level, apparently he turned UCLA around from being a joke to making tournament with some big wins along the way..

Fox couldn’t shot at that point and personally looked like he would have done the exact same things as Russell was doing which wouldn’t have helped him be as good + He has had an off season which ball didn’t(he looked like he was rounding into shape just before injury) and Jaegar is also a really good developmental coach. Taytum, They dont take him because a) B.I was meant to be their guy and b) Kuzma does essentially the exact same things with bigger scoring outbursts, he is killing taytum in 30+ point games..Kuz is also on a way cheaper deal than Taytum and was their a good guard at 27th pick that would have the same value as ball not really…Not saying Taytum or Fox aren’t good just not what the Lakers needed IMO…

Lopez..Was an odd fit for this system(the bucks use him like Al H so he looks alright)and defensively he couldn’t stay on the court for them, Randle was a bit of a black hole at time IMO, you give him the ball and he would think he was Kyrie irving and go coast to coast which I didn’t fully like about him.. However I will say this much he and Ball were getting nice Chemistry near the end he just couldn’t space the floor though which hurt him

If Magic flames out this offseason I would give him until the end of next season as he might have something at the deadline  before I demote him/fire him..Their ideal offseason though would be this:

Lebron buys into whatever is happening, Sign one of Kawhi or Butler and trade Kuzma and Ingram for Beal and have Ball run the point..

 

 ..

 

 

 

[HobbyOGParticipant]

 Really can’t believe you have the thumbs up for this post..lot of people do not know basketball and know who runs what..sad. 

[llperez]

 its been one year and magic came into a team with 2 terrible contracts in mozgov and deng and he has gotten them both out to put lakers in good salary position and also landed lebron james.

Right now its easy to shit on everything lakers with the way things are going but too early to rip magic johnson too much. Going all in for davis was understandable. I scratch my head at people criticizing magic for doing that, i mean he would be criticized for NOT going for him too so I guess there was no winning in the eyes of the fans unless the trade went down.

Im more confused about trading away zubac for muscala which made no damn sense. 

[SeattleSuperChronicsParticipant]

 how dare you

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