AUhawksfan

Dwyane Wade-esque move, taking less and being loyal. Let’s not Pat Riley this.

Man….I used to love Dame’s commitment to Portland. I get him wanting to try something different but I hope this isn’t true. It’s one thing to want to move on, and another to try and start leveraging that for what you want.

Ferry’s trades with Schlenk’s drafting. I’d be down with that.

Better sign into your Schwab account then if you're wanting that.

While I don't see the move as great for the Lakers, it's a good one for Cam. It's a good chance to see what he can become on a team of some proven vets.

A salary dump can be seen as value and I see it that way. Think about how handcuffed some of those New York Knick teams were in the 2000s. Salary dumping and saving on our cap does inherently does have its own value to a lot of teams. Depends on how you view it. It wasn't about John's value to get something in return (due to mismanagement of his situation, which I don't agree with). At the end of the day though, to me it seems the best "value" they could get was shedding his contract and having the flexibility to do more which I'm hoping will be the case. I'm ok waiting to see what happens.

Fair enough, I honestly haven't had the time to keep up on all the info here with my busy schedule so if that's true then there you go. I appreciate you saving me from parsing through all of this.

I realize a lot of people don't like this trade, but Schlenk deserves blame on this one. He didn't sell Collins when he was at his peak and this forced Landry's hand at this point. I though Schlenk was great at assessing talent but it seems obvious to me that he was losing the foresight on how to keep a balanced roster and not force contract negotiations that ended up handicapping us. I don't hate the trade at this point in time with Collins' value so low because it got us in a good financial place but as many have said, it depends on what we do with it now. Landry didn't have any other options and personally I'm happy that John won't have that weight on his shoulders anymore, he deserved to move on after being the longest tenured rumor mill fodder I can recall. I'd expect to see his play improve from that weight removed in Utah. I feel hopeful Landry will stay active but remains to be seen of course. I'd give it a solid 'C' for the move. Not great but about all we can expect given the circumstances - I'd give Schlenk an 'F' though on his previous handling and non-action with Collins when the timing was best.

When you go to bed, only to wake up and see 3 pages of rants and @NBASupes getting all up in his feels.

If the goal of playing in the NBA is to win a ‘chip, what has Horford done? Winning or not, if you can’t reach the ultimate prize what are you really worth?

While I’m underwhelmed, the feedback on Bufkin sounds good. Sounds like he can definitely work his way into being one of the first guards off the bench with AJ if he is ready right away.

This is just dumb media. The Lakers can have internal discussions all day about who they want. Plenty of teams do it but how is that even headline worthy? Until you have the other side discussing what is the point of even mentioning this? The second they come talk us and we say "no" this is over. It takes two to tango.

I've realized come playoff time that being consistent holds so much more value than being able to go off in games. Defensive and offensive side. Nobody on the Lakers has gone off a ton, they've just been solid throughout. Jokic and Jimmy are just different and have dominated all playoffs and I feel like Tatum just happened to show up at just the right times to get to where they are while Philly disappeared again. Every other team that's on the outside looking in have had some pretty polarizing performances to say the least.

I picked the Heat over Bucks, because 5 games....5 games?!?! Hawks would be my second pick. We beat a really confident Miami squad in Miami and being able to get 2 against a championship caliber Boston team - including the win in Boston - has me feeling better about our chances next year.

I’m building an “anti-closers” team or butthole pucker team a la @JayBirdHawk I got Harden, Joel, Randle, Ayton, Dillon Brooks, with Doc at the helm and Poole coming off the bench. Who ya got? Guys that really know how to let you down when it matters most.

Sure, I have mine too. I hold Joe Johnson in high regard, higher than most logical folks would I'm sure but there is a healthy limit to this lol. How many times have you posted about Rip compared to the number of times we have heard Al's name here?

You're just looking for more reasons to hate the Warriors. #spudagenda

Sounds like a pretty tasty Italian treat. That’s my answer and I’m sticking with it. Mama mia!

Why does Horford still get so much mention here? It’s like the psycho ex that can’t let it go and is way over infatuated. @NBASupes please move on, for all of us. Sheesh.

It’s not just that Ayton disappears, it’s that he tends to do it when the spotlight is biggest. If you want any sort of postseason success, you stay away from those guys. All it takes is some other slight or getting pulled in a game with us and he’d be right back where he was with the Suns.

I get the "team up" thing but at this point it's one of those things that most stars are doing and some to a degree more than him (i.e. Durant, Kyrie, Harden). That said, he was the one that opened the floodgates so I get that but I'm sure it would have eventually been done by someone else. As for Dame, I have mad respect for him and I think a lot of non-casual of fans do. Problem is, the media doesn't and Lebron is good clickbait for the casual fan so if there's a lack of respect to me it's more the media than anything. Regarding the self-proclaiming, that's why I'd say I'm only a partial fan. I can't stand that stuff and the lack of being humble about his gifts and instead wanting to create a branding and messaging for himself. It is off-putting. I just mainly have a respect for what he can do on a nightly basis and at his age - from a strictly athletic standpoint it's still pretty impressive. The amount of times he drives and put his body at risk is no small feat, he doesn't just stand behind the 3 point line and throw up shots. I don't really see him whine and complain anymore than any star player in the league - I think that's just a byproduct of him being featured/talked about more than any other player so it gets spotlighted more. But, if he is going to crown himself as such then he needs to deal with that backlash.

I don’t have a problem with the Lakers. I’m indifferent to Lebron, maybe a minor fan (don’t hate me y’all) and at least appreciate him shutting up Dillon Brooks. Even if you don’t like him I really love the way Reaves plays the game, and seeing Schröder kind of come back after struggling to find a team I like seeing. Hachimura has been a solid player too. A lot of solid role players to like IMO. Guys that are being given a chance and thriving.

Collins and Hunter really let me down after that jump ball. Unacceptable.

So the trade of Murray brings up the question: if we resigned Murray to a decent contract, would you rather trade him or Trae if you had to choose who goes on the block? I have a hard time with this one. I lean towards Murray because of defense and more consistency than Trae, but I also think Trae can even out nicely and play smarter given some more time with Quin.

The prize is significant for a young or up and coming player but I still don't think that's enough to motivate your superstars on large contracts. I could see there being a lot of "resting" of stars during this time. Guys like Draymond have eclipsed well over $1 million in fines for their career and then you have folks like Lebron that make so much more on sponsorships, and other non-NBA ventures. I don't see it having that much luster for the big names.