I’m sure he didn’t want the Laker job or he would have resigned earlier.

Glad he waited and we already hired Ham instead. That dude will get you to the playoffs and that’s it. Question is where Spida goes from here..doesn’t seem like he’s gonna be in Utah much longer either.

LMAO. Heat have been consistently overrated and underperformed. Haven’t won anything since LeBron’s two rings. Only 3 championships total despite great city and no state income tax.

The Heat are nothing but a blip compared to the Lakers and their 17 championships. Like I said earlier, Heat culture is overrated. They can prove me wrong by coming back and winning this against the Celtics but don’t count on it.

Even if they come back, the Warriors would sweep them. If you want to admire an organization who has it together, then appreciate the Warriors. The Heat don’t even come close.

You do understand that the Heat haven’t been around since the 50’s Tom. Lol. Since 2006 the Heat have won 6 conference championships and 3 rings and could win another this year. The Lakers have won 4 conference championships and 3 rings. Plus over that period of time the Heat haven’t had as many bad years as the Lakers have. Riley had been solid for them. And they probably will contend next year, while we have no idea how the Lakers will look next year.

They’re the anti-Lakers darlings but without LeBron they’re just another team Lakers haters like to elevate into a cultural fiction.

To their credit, they’ve had great stability and continuity but even that has not turned into championships. Just my opinion but scream away.

Would I prefer the Lakers to have had an excellent GM and head coach for long period of time like the Heat? No doubt. As I’ve said many times, I think we left 2 or 3 additional championships on the court due to poor ownership and front office management and coaching.

But the Lakers are still in a tier above pretenders like the Heat.

I wonder whether any of the Bucks free agents (like Pat Connaughton or Bobby Portis) might suddenly have a desire to play for the Lakers and Darvin?

Nothing can compete with coaching your kids. Or grandkids.

Michigan job might be more desirable than working for Jeannie & Rob at this point. Coaches not named Phil don’t last more the 3 seasons here….

Naw, he always breaks down on his own. Mentally or physically it’s all but guaranteed.

While I didn’t expect a beat down, you could see the Suns were vulnerable even in the Pels series. CP3 is 37. Even with the added rest you get in a playoff series it wore on him. He was fresh for the first couple and then he couldn’t recharge. This is one of the things I worry about LeBron. He’s been injured a lot 3 of the 4 seasons he been a Laker. And while he still was a powerhouse on offense his defense has been declining. It was telling that during the season LeBron was no longer guarding the best offensive player. I mean Frank had Russ guarding PAul George and others. Those are two big warning signs. Just never know when a player is just going to be done.

Personally I would go with a highly respected assistant. A lot of the retreads make shudder ie Mark Jackson. Every coach in the hall of fame had that first gig.

Dirty play all the way. Should be out for rest of series just like Payton.

True. But to be fair, nobody predicted DeMar raising his game to an MVP level like he has. No excuse for the Caruso debacle tho…..

Man letting Alex walk is unforgivable. His defense, the blocked shots, offensive boards, the assists, actually staying in front of the Greek freak and making him pass. Then watching him coach up the team like Rondo. Sigh indeed. One more thing, why didn’t we bring Wes Matthews back? He’s been much better than a lot of the old guys we brought in.

After he left he said he was in favor of it but, honestly, it’s hard for me to take anyone involved in the debacle that was last summer at their word.

Yup. We traded Green and a draft pick for Schorder then got all miffed when he wanted to look for a bigger deal. Fans can get miffed, Rob should act like a pro and he didn’t, he acted like a whiny little man-baby and the result was assets tossed out the window for no reason at all.

Outstanding post, Jamie. You’re right that we’ve focused on shooters who in most cases have forgotten how to shoot when dressed in purple and gold but the bigger problem was we did not have a head coach capable of creating an offense to utilize that shooting because of the terrible roster construction where Russ used up one of the spots you could put a shoot while DeAndre Jordan used up a second spot, leaving room for just one shooter on the floor. And no plays run to create shots for our best shooters like Monk.

I hope we learned three things this terrible season:

1. We need size at every position. That’s how we won in 2020. We can play small ball style but we need to do it with bigger players.

2. We need to surround LeBron and AD with three players who can shoot the three and defend their positions.

3. There’s still room for elite midrange shooting, especially to close games or take advantage of players like Melo.

Build a team following modern offensive and defensive philosophy but understand there are big and small teams out there so be prepared to be elite playing both ways.

Thanks Buba.

I think LeBron is really just driving less and less. Since the high ankle sprain he is far more reliant on the three ball.

His midrange kept us in many games, Buba. He’s proof the midrange is not dead. It’s just limited to a handful of guys for whom those shots are layups.

Aloha Jamie, excellent post. Many people don’t understand that through the Warriors successful season the foundation has been a rock solid defense. And continuity is really important on the defensive side of the ball. Wiggins never was a great defender until he came to the Warriors. After a few seasons there he is solid. It is really hard to build the way the Lakers tried to do. The Warriors drafted 4 of the 5 players you mentioned. But we had a solid core that needed to be tweaked not tore down. If we had run last years squad back, we would have made the playoffs. Even without Dennis. Alex as the secondary ball handler played so well with LeBron we really didn’t need a ball dominate point guard. Even Wade and Kyre became secondary ball handler with LeBron. If we had added Monk, Melo, and Dwight, along with the emergence of Austin, that would have been a good squad. But instead we went the star route. Besides the obvious poor fit on offense, Russ was never a good defender and it was folly to believe that Frank could turn him into one, this late in his career. I really have low expectations as to what we can do. Good health could get us back into the playoffs but that’s about it. Looking at the realistic trades out there for Russ, there isn’t one that is a big game changer. Brogdon is a good defender but Buddy’s not. Hayward use to be pretty good but it’s anyones guess how effective he can still be. Ombré is decent or if Rozier comes he is undersized. And Wall and Wood from the Rockets are both poor defenders. If we are going to make some noise it really is going to be up to the guys we already have, regardless of who comes over in a trade. Hopefully we can keep Malik, he grew as a defender over the year. Gabriel and Stanley need to take steps offensively because they are actually pretty good on defense and a full summer and camp will help. Nunn didn’t play but he is a tough defender and has some offensive skill. He is a bit like a young Avery Bradley with better handles. THT and Austin both need growth spurts and consistency but are promising. And please sign Damion Jones as a back up center! That is a lot to ask but it really is are only chance if we are to become somewhat relevant.

Outstanding post, Jamie. Living in NorCal, I’ve probably seen more Warriors games than any other NBA team than the Lakers. I’ve always thought they’ve been the best run franchise in the league since Joe Lecob bought the franchise.

From a coaching standpoint, I don’t think there’s a better two-way coach in the league than Kerr. They play the ultimate share the ball team that plays great team and individual defense. His assistants keep changing but the vision and identity have been there since day 1 of Steve’s reign.

It was tough living in NorCal and being a Lakers fan when the Warriors were playing like I wanted the Lakers to play and winning while the Lakers organization was dysfunctional. Hell, even my son, who grew up bleeding purple and gold and my two granddaughters now consider themselves Warriors fans. I was only able to keep my wife and my grandson Nick as Lakers fans.

Talk about a tough act to follow but the Lakers would be wise to look north and emulate some of the savvy organizational and on-court vision the Warriors have. Lakers couldn’t go wrong copying everything Golden State’s front office and coaching staff does. Makes me wonder too whether Mike Brown should be given more consideration as the Lakers’ next head coach.