Lakers Flame Out

Any post season Lakers rant has to begin with we aren't winning squat without a healthy Anthony Davis no matter what (LeBron James too for that matter).  That said, a healthy AD is a one-man menace on D.  However, on O he's basically just a mid-range jump shooter.  I mean his go to move is a contested fade away jumper.  He really has no low post game.  Just a roundabout way of saying he gets paid a max salary but can't carry a team night in and night out on the offensive end.  Oh yeah, and he’s injury prone too. So, we have that going for us, which is nice.

Now to the good stuff. 

What the hell were you thinking Rob Pelinka?  I said it at the time, but not including Talen Horton-Tucker for Kyle Lowry was a major mistake.  Let's start with THT. 

Yes, he's only 20 and flashes lots of potential, but what's his ceiling?  Does he max out as a 20-point a game scorer?  Or is he a starting caliber PG?  Or is he just a streaky scorer that can shoot the 3, play a little D and create for others?  I tend to lean toward option 3, but 1 and 2 are still in play.  The thing is, options 1 and 2 are 5 years away at least and that timeline doesn’t match the Lakers current trajectory.

Bottom line, he could turn into something that makes me sad we gave him up, but I think the chances of that are really slim.  I think he maxes out as maybe a do-it-all type of role player and possible 3^rd option on a title team.  Again, that is years away though.

As for Dennis Schröder, he turned out to be a fraud when it mattered most just as I expected he would all season.  He’s not a good teammate, has a low BBIQ, is contact averse when he drives and is way too streaky a shooter to deserve a big pay day.  Not to mention his defensive ability being completely overblown.  He turned down 2-years $34 mil and 4-years $84 mil and just put up a 9.56 PER over six games.  Give me a fucking break with him.

Motrezl Harrell is the king of empty stats and was basically benched for the second playoffs in a row (on two different teams mind you) for being a liability on D.  I don’t know what else to say about him that isn’t already evident?  He’d be perfectly happy putting up big numbers on a terrible team and yelling “AND ONE!” 10 times a game.

So that poo-poo platter was not worth Kyle Lowry?  I get that he’s 35 and certainly on the downswing of his career.  But he’s a better defender, scorer, shooter, leader and play-maker for others than Schröder or THT are now or are going to be. Sure, you’d have to overpay him to keep him this summer. But would you rather overpay Dennis or Kyle?  Especially when Lowry would be happy with a 2-year contract.

Now Pelinka is left with 1) overpaying Schröder or having him leave for nothing (singing-and-trading him is a long shot IMO).  2) Hoping Harrell finds a team to pay him more than the mid-level so he opts out of the last year off his deal (if Trez opts in his $9.7 mil salary has to be put into play on the trade market immediately). 3) Overpaying THT or losing him for nothing when another team makes an offer they can’t match (which has a decent chance of happening with him and Alex Caruso both).

Again, even if they do trade for Lowry, AD’s injury would have ended them anyway, but they’d be set up much better to return to contention next year.  Which right now is going to take some MAJOR gymnastics by Pelinka to pull off with only 5 guys (6 if Harrel opts in) under contract and them already up against the salary cap.

I’m not done with Pelinka yet either. Everyone was handing him Executive of the Year before the season but all he really did was ruin team chemistry.  Marc Gasol/Harrell/Andre Drummond was not as productive as JaVale McGee/Dwight Howard for what the Lakers needed.  Which should have been clear to Pelinka since he dumped two defensive minded guys who were happy in their roles and team leaders for guys who all complained about their roles during the season (well, maybe not Drummond, but he wasn’t around long enough to do so).

Then there is the backcourt.  Schröder/Wes Matthews was nowhere near as good defensively or leadership wise as Rajon Rondo/Danny Green.  Plus, the aforementioned chemistry issues with Schröder. 

I’m not saying the Lakers should have run it back with the same exact crew, but one of Dwight or JaVale had to be kept (Harrell never made sense as one of their replacements).  They couldn’t pay Rondo, which I get, but there were cheaper options at backup PG for them to find.  The Green trade caught me by surprise, even though he played poorly in the bubble.  I think part of that deal was him wanting out of LA after he and family got death threats.  Which ok, if has to be traded then fine, but for Schröder?  I mean really Rob, did you ever like watch him play at all?

In addition to LeBron and AD the other returning Lakers are Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Kyle Kuzma, Gasol and maybe (hopefully not) Harrell.  KCP just put up a 5.04 PER and shot 37.9% from the field and 21.1% from three over 5 games.  Kuz played 6 games and managed an almost unbelievable 2.92 PER on 29.2%/17.4% shooting.  Key-ripes...those two were bad in the playoffs.  Gasol is still a semi-useful player as a nominal starter or a 15-20 minute spot bench player, but his days as a big-time player are over.

Long story short, I think Laker and LeBron haters can rejoice. I don’t really see a way back to contention for them unless a boatload of legit rotation-level players come to them on minimum deals.  They can blame injuries all they want, but running it back with a crew that just lost in the first round is sheer folly.