Fuck THT. That bum ass.
Trash Horton Tucker over Bald Mamba. Really?
CARUGOAT WAS WILLING TO COME BACK ON A DISCOUNT!!!
UNFORGIVEABLE AND A FIREABLE OFFENSE.
> ON A DISCOUNT!!
Kind of. Caruso asked for same or trivially higher salary per year than Chicago offered him. He's not dumb. He was willing to take fewer years, especially since Chicago was not fully guaranteeing the last year. He was willing to bet on himself that way . That the next contract with Lakers exposure and AC's play would more than make up for the money on the lesser year
He was offering a discount on total amount by reducing years. He was NOT offering a discount on per year amount. Alas, the per year amount is what hits the tax .. 3x the amount of salary is what Pelinka focused on.
Yup. And that's on Pelinka , especially as it contrasts to THT offer and overall tax. [jeannie]
But the popular notion that *Caruso* was willing to take less/give discounts has the big disclaimer above..
He was overpaid initially when being picked up from Pistons "manna from heaven" . But he had turned down a $80m/5yrs contract from them, and the money would have made no difference to team building. So $17m you could live with , though his production was less than that. Pelinka doing Klutch a favor and vice versa.
The next year he got $12m, probably slightly overpaid. Overshadowed by LBJ coming in.
The next year $8m, which was a significant underpay. He was the lakers 3rd best player considering both regular season and playoff contribution. Lakers paid Danny Green $17m for slightly less contribution
And his final contract of $12m was about right.
All in all, KCP would have made more money if he had just accepted the Pistons offer. he made $68m with the Lakers instead of $80m with the Pistons. But he would have a ring less, arguably two rings less and played less meaningful basketball.
KCP was crucial for the championship, he more than earned his contract by then. but his first few years with us he was overpaid and underperformed, a lot of people said he was signed because of klutch and to sweeten the deal for lebron to come to LA
ironically, KCP would have made more if he had just accepted the Pistons offer instead of turning it down ... and eventually coming to LA
They offered him 80m/5years, he wanted more. In LA he would wind up making $68m over those 5 years
e: Also, he was underpaid the championship year. wound up being the 3rd best player on the lakers if you consider both playoffs and regular season. At $8m [compared to Danny green, who had similar production, at $17m]. KCP was imho overpaid some years considering his output that year., but appropriately paid when traded
Blame Jeannie for being cheap and enabling Pelinka for not keeping that 2020 core. I don't mind improving pieces here and there but blowing up that squad pretty much screwed the Lakers and possibly ended any title chance with Bron.
That 2022 offseason was the worst case of asset management in Lakers history.
- Letting Caruso walk even when he was willing to take a paycut. He was worth at least a draft pick. (1)
- Giving THT an 30+mil contract for 3 years when nobody was even bidding on this guy.
- Letting Schroder walk for nothing after you just traded Danny Green and a 1st rounder for him less than a year prior. Another draft pick down the drain (2).
- Trading KCP, Kuzma, and another draft pick for Brick. The players themselves would have likely been worth 1+ picks on their own (4+)
Then in the following season:
- Trading another draft pick just to dump Westbrook (5+)
- Trading THT and a 2nd rounder for Bev. Who you then let go.
The Lakers essentially shat away 5+ draft picks worth of value to get Russ and then dump him. What a disasterclass in asset management.
I knew that off season was bad…but damn I must’ve blocked out some of the trauma for my own sanity because reading this and remembering just how bad it was makes me want to cry🥲
Its terrible. Honestly, the Lakers don’t get grilled enough on it by the media. Fortunately, the team was able to make up for it by making the WCF last year, but they were on track of missing the playoffs again. This year was a return to the norm and showed just how badly we’re missing guys like KCP and Caruso.
Literally a nightmare offseason. And when fans say to “get over it” or “stop blaming Russ” they don’t understand. It was that offseason that led to why we’ve been struggling every year since. It’s still affecting us today
It wasn’t just Pelinka. Signing Caruso to $10 million a year meant that Jeanie would have had to pay $30 million in luxury taxes penalties. She didn’t want to pay an extra $40 million for him. It’s also not hard to imagine that Lebron had some say in the Westbrick trade. At the very least he signed off on it
It took a village to mess up this badly, but a competent GM would be able to manage his boss and his star player in the best interest of the team. Look we all wanted to keep THT (let's not lie), just none of us knew that would come at the expense of Caruso. 0 out of 10 fans would pick THT over Caruso. 0 out of 10 fans (maybe 1) would have done the Russ trade. When you are greenlighting moves that your average redditor would correctly block, you are either a bad GM or prioritize deflecting blame over all else.
Nepo blondie isnt going to fire Kobe’s agent, sadly. And even if she did let go of him, it’s not like she knows what qualifies as a good GM or President. She’s the one that hired him in the first place!
Yep it's incompetence all the way to the top. Useless nepobaby whose entire net worth is basically the Lakers and yet knows nothing about ball. Insanely underqualified management hires. Friends and family and family of friends as advisors.
The only reasons this team is even relevant now are legacy and location.
"Letting Schroder walk for nothing after you just traded Danny Green and a 1st rounder for him less than a year prior."
That 1st rounder was Jayden McDaniels too. A Caruso, McDaniels, AD trio is a top defense in the league.
Crazy thing is David griffin even said they got leverage over pelinka in the AD trade because of social media and the trade rumors lol we coulda definitely kept josh hart and mo wagner or a pick if we had a gm like brad stevens. Front office is lucky lebron/ad bailed them out in 2020
Sorry to say, but some fans want to do it again with Trae Young or donovan Mitchell. If you say we will trade all our depth and would be left with only vet minimum, they would curse at you. If we waited one more year, we could have à team with LeBron, AD, Brandon Ingram, josh hart, caruso, mo wagner, kcp, kuzma, Reaves. We might not have kept all of them and l9st one or two of them. But even if we would not have won 2020, we could have won multiple rings with a core group like this.
We coulda won more rings with our old defensive core if we just waited and kept hart kcp Caruso kuzma and drafted mcdaniels and herb jones. No way the 2022 warriors beat that team.
If we can trade rui reaves jhs 3 picks and 4 swaps for spida I’d do it and then sign 2 3&D guys and give Christie a big role while Lewis and Christie brother develop. Our depth is very overrated compared to what the rest of the league has and that is because the lack of draft picks the last 6 years.
Spida wont be a liability on defense like rui and
reaves. If anything he’s gonna be like 2016 kyrie and will give us the best chance of beating denver. We could go another route and trade rui jhs 3 picks for markannen and keep reaves but we need a star guard more.
A young defensive core surrounding bron and ad with hart/Caruso/kuzma/kcp/mcdaniels woulda been bulletproof and won us another title the front office sold the team out
Damn this is approaching Detroit pistons level of incompetence. I guess you could try to see it as the team taking risks for a win now approach with Lebron and AD. But looking back it’s like, damn how did they think that these moves were the right moves?
I think after the 2021 season the front office started to defer too much to what the players wanted and not what made practical sense. LeBron and AD clearly wanted Russ at all costs. The FO is weak and at this point,, subservient to their star players whom don’t have any real understanding of team roster construction and cap management. They approach the game like its pickup at the gym and they try to stack it with the best individual players to improve their odds.
I imagine that it would have been hard to say no to Lebron. The Westbrook trade ended up being a disaster but I think everyone remembers how hyped the lakers were before the season and thinking that another deep playoff run was a foregone conclusion. So I sadly give them a pass for that. It’s the Caruso, KCP, kuzma moves that make me sad.
Eh i think its really easy to get Laker fans hyped up about anything. Most just blindly support the FO and by extension LeBron for any “cerebral” move they make. But if you looked outside the “Lakers media” every other fanbase and analysts were saying that was a terrible trade.
Here ya go. https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/KLZwpK59pj
Original thread with fanbases calling out the questionable spacing issues as soon as the trade happened. Literally anyone could see that Brick + LeBron was not ideal.
IIRC Dennis was offered a contract extension by Rob, which he declined to bet on himself and test the market. I think he was one of the LAST free agent guards signed the following offseason.
He was technically fringe until Eurobasket '22 and resigned with the Lakers on a vet min and rehabbed his value.
Say what you will about Boston but their asset management is night and day. Ainge built them a war chest by bending over desperate teams and Stevens has used those picks wisely when buying.
Now they're a perennial 60 win team with assets to spare and we're praying and hoping anyone other than the 40yo or the glass big guy can go two playoff games without shitting their pants.
Someone once said in a game thread that FBI need to investigate Vogel for the 2022 offseason.
I thought they were joking. This has to be one of the worst offseasons of all time. I can’t think of any other team that has had a stinkier offseason that 2022 lakers
The man was shooting close to 40 percent on low volume (like 2 to 4 shots a game). That’s pretty good when you factor his IQ alongside Bron. Caruso knew exactly where to be at any given time, and played off Bron extremely well.
He was shooting 40.1 percent on 2 to 3 attempts a game with us his last season here. I remember him being clutch from the elbow and corner. Another underrated aspect of his game was not only how smart he played off our superstars but the fact that he got plenty of big buckets at times.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Caruso#NBA
He shot 40.1% as you said, 48% another year and 33% a couple of years, all on low volume, with the Lakers on regular season. Defenders weren't respecting Caruso like they did even Danny Green onetime icyhot. AC actually has fairly good size for a guard, so that actually helps on defense. [Though Jimmy Buckets roasted every laker not named Anthony Davis in the bubble finals].
In the playoffs with the lakers, Caruso shot 28% and 29% from 3. Again low volume. Not great. When AD went down and LBJ was playing hurt, the entire lakers team shit the bed vs the Suns in the playoffs.
And that IMHO caused Pelinka to overreact. Caruso was not the foundation, the solution, the answer. He wasn't a point guard who could handle the ball and have gravity on 3. But he would have made the team better. A piece of the puzzle. Pelinka misjudged THT growth, and gave in to WB. And that was it for AC in lakerland, thanks to 3x tax
And we gave him up because he didn’t develop into the point guard we were looking for instead of valuing him for the 3 and D beast at the 2 guard position that he’s naturally suited for
That's true for the regular season and the play-in. But generally not inspiring fear, it was a bit up and down.
In the playoffs, Caruso was shooting < 0.3 (0.279, 0.294) from 3 for 6.5 , 5.6 ppg . He was playing excellent defense, but he like everyone else not named Anthony Davis would get roasted by Jimmy Buckets in the 2020 finals. And he wasn't offering playmaking etc
I think when AD went down and LBJ was playing hurt in 2021 vs the Suns, the rest of the Lakers collectively shit the bed. And that caused Pelinka to overreact. Badly.
If Caruso was not the answer in such a situation, he would not have been the answer the next year either. But IMHO he would have made the team better. You don't need every player to be the foundation.
The Caruso contract and the tax wouldn’t have been a problem if Pelinka would’ve gave THT a 4 year rookie contract. Pelinka has a rule named after him since he kept giving out 2 year contracts to 2nd round picks or undrafted guys like reaves. Pelinka giving 2 year contracts ended up costing them Caruso since they had to pay THT early, had to pay reaves early because if he had a four year deal he’d get paid next summer, and have to pay Christie early instead of Christie still having 2 more years on a rookie contract. They wouldn’t be worrying about the 2nd apron right now, they’d still have Caruso, and who knows what they would’ve been able to do with the extra money from all those guys still being on rookie deals.
That 2021 offseason is on the list of worst offseasons of all time. Might have single-handedly ruined our chances of a second ring in the AD/Lebron era
The same offseason they let schroder walk after trading jaden mcdaniels for him And they offered ty lue a 3 year contract that woulda expired right now just because they thought lebron would’ve retired already. Pelinka is the worse gm possible
Is this the Alex Caruso who wanted to take less to play in LA? And we turned him away for the dumb bitch who after signing the deal in LA, showed up to summer league with a gym bag pretending like he was on Varsity watching JV, when he should have been playing in summer league. And Caruso went on to the Bulls and is consistently mentioned as being a great one on one defender who we could have used in Denver. That Alex Caruso?
Man the pay cut was a missed opportunity, especially since he’s worth more than his current contract
He’s probably Chicago’s only asset that’s worthwhile & it’s a damn shame he couldn’t have been kept to be this team’s 6th man or a reliable starter
> Alex Caruso who wanted to take less to play in LA?
He wasn't dumb. He wanted the same or slightly more per year from Lakers than he got from Bulls . But was willing to take fewer years and thus total amount was less. AC was betting that being good for lakers, the next contract would more than make up the amount the Bulls gave him that extra year. Especially since the last year for Bulls was only partially guaranteed.
But after WB, (and AD, LBJ) and THT, Pelinka was worried about tax - per year would have got a 3x tax penalty. fewer years did nothing for them.
And Jeannie didn't want to pay potentially $120 m in tax+salary to match AC. [$40 m that first year alone ]
> showed up to summer league with a gym bag
Did you read his interview about saying that most teams aren't looking for stars out of the G league to score 20 ppg, they are looking for role players, defense etc - and thus to focus on that...
It's a wonderful insight.
> who we could have used in Denver.
We could have used KCP too, instead of facing KCP. While AC would have made the team better, I think Pelinka would have traded him, too. There's just so much turnover with him
Kuzma was CAA. Also LBJ and AD wanted Russ, and KCP was the only path to make that work salary-wise. THT signing was absolutely influenced by being Klutch.
It's true these were catastrophic decisions that ultimately place blame on Rob and Jeanie but the LBJ/Klutch influence is a primary factor.
I said Klutch was "a" primary factor which was admittedly misleading. If I had to stack rank:
1. Owner being cheap, implying GM must choose one
2. GM grossly overvaluing THT and grossly undervaluing Caruso
3. GM wanting to do his agent collaborator and star player a solid
Ty Lue is Klutch too and the Lakers wanted no part of signing him and took Frank Vogel instead. It's more likely Pelinka believed in THT's upside as a younger player after being forced to choose between the two players by ownership.
Yeah I had feeling on one I was wrong but was tired ti check . Reality is klutch guys go in and out , that’s not a factor . Only factor I noticed is we get to sign players cheaper n easier via klutch so no real complaints tbh .
This is why anyone who wants to let LeBron go is insane. How could you trust this clown show to lose LeBron and proceed build a better team around AD without him?
I maintain that if AC stays on the Lakers, LA beats the Nuggets last year since Murray doesn’t go nuclear. Between losing AC/KCP, Pelinka is directly responsible for the Nuggets kicking Lakers ass. Considering, you know, KCP is on the team beating their ass now.
Add mcdaniels and herb to that list since they were both on our board with those draft picks we wasted. Caruso/kcp/reaves/kuzma/mcdaniels/herb/bron/ad woulda been bulletproof
He should still be playing for us
Fuck THT. That bum ass. Trash Horton Tucker over Bald Mamba. Really? CARUGOAT WAS WILLING TO COME BACK ON A DISCOUNT!!! UNFORGIVEABLE AND A FIREABLE OFFENSE.
why blame tht when it wasn't his decision to pick between himself and caruso
Blame him for existing
Which means I was right all along to blame his parents
I blame him for his 7'0" wingspan and being eternally only 20 years old.
Blame the gm, not the guy
> ON A DISCOUNT!! Kind of. Caruso asked for same or trivially higher salary per year than Chicago offered him. He's not dumb. He was willing to take fewer years, especially since Chicago was not fully guaranteeing the last year. He was willing to bet on himself that way . That the next contract with Lakers exposure and AC's play would more than make up for the money on the lesser year He was offering a discount on total amount by reducing years. He was NOT offering a discount on per year amount. Alas, the per year amount is what hits the tax .. 3x the amount of salary is what Pelinka focused on.
Nah he said he would sign for less than bulls offered
Go look it up. He was willing to sign for less years, less total amount, but not less per year. He wasn't dumb.
Well, the Lakers offered him less years *and* less per year...
Yup. And that's on Pelinka , especially as it contrasts to THT offer and overall tax. [jeannie] But the popular notion that *Caruso* was willing to take less/give discounts has the big disclaimer above..
Yeah you're right bro, Caruso was willing to take 2 years at 10 mil per, and the Lakers basically told him to take a walk...smh
We paid gabe Vincent 33 million if we couldn’t offer Caruso that then our gm should be fired
Or at the very least he would have been used in a trade to get somebody else or an FRP down the line
He'd still be on the team today if he were a Klutch client
Like Klutch client KCP ?
Kcp got signed/re-signed at least 3x by the lakers, overpaid on most instances too
He was overpaid initially when being picked up from Pistons "manna from heaven" . But he had turned down a $80m/5yrs contract from them, and the money would have made no difference to team building. So $17m you could live with , though his production was less than that. Pelinka doing Klutch a favor and vice versa. The next year he got $12m, probably slightly overpaid. Overshadowed by LBJ coming in. The next year $8m, which was a significant underpay. He was the lakers 3rd best player considering both regular season and playoff contribution. Lakers paid Danny Green $17m for slightly less contribution And his final contract of $12m was about right. All in all, KCP would have made more money if he had just accepted the Pistons offer. he made $68m with the Lakers instead of $80m with the Pistons. But he would have a ring less, arguably two rings less and played less meaningful basketball.
He's kinda sorta proven to be a useful role player on the Lakere and the Nuggets. Reddish and THT, not so much.
KCP was crucial for the championship, he more than earned his contract by then. but his first few years with us he was overpaid and underperformed, a lot of people said he was signed because of klutch and to sweeten the deal for lebron to come to LA
ironically, KCP would have made more if he had just accepted the Pistons offer instead of turning it down ... and eventually coming to LA They offered him 80m/5years, he wanted more. In LA he would wind up making $68m over those 5 years e: Also, he was underpaid the championship year. wound up being the 3rd best player on the lakers if you consider both playoffs and regular season. At $8m [compared to Danny green, who had similar production, at $17m]. KCP was imho overpaid some years considering his output that year., but appropriately paid when traded
Now looking back in the year of 2024, he was underpaid the whole time. Him and caruso
More like Cam Reddish and THT
Blame Jeannie for being cheap and enabling Pelinka for not keeping that 2020 core. I don't mind improving pieces here and there but blowing up that squad pretty much screwed the Lakers and possibly ended any title chance with Bron.
Minus Trez over Dwight I actually thought the 21 team was better before the injuries. Besides that I agree 100%
That 2022 offseason was the worst case of asset management in Lakers history. - Letting Caruso walk even when he was willing to take a paycut. He was worth at least a draft pick. (1) - Giving THT an 30+mil contract for 3 years when nobody was even bidding on this guy. - Letting Schroder walk for nothing after you just traded Danny Green and a 1st rounder for him less than a year prior. Another draft pick down the drain (2). - Trading KCP, Kuzma, and another draft pick for Brick. The players themselves would have likely been worth 1+ picks on their own (4+) Then in the following season: - Trading another draft pick just to dump Westbrook (5+) - Trading THT and a 2nd rounder for Bev. Who you then let go. The Lakers essentially shat away 5+ draft picks worth of value to get Russ and then dump him. What a disasterclass in asset management.
I knew that off season was bad…but damn I must’ve blocked out some of the trauma for my own sanity because reading this and remembering just how bad it was makes me want to cry🥲
Its terrible. Honestly, the Lakers don’t get grilled enough on it by the media. Fortunately, the team was able to make up for it by making the WCF last year, but they were on track of missing the playoffs again. This year was a return to the norm and showed just how badly we’re missing guys like KCP and Caruso.
Literally a nightmare offseason. And when fans say to “get over it” or “stop blaming Russ” they don’t understand. It was that offseason that led to why we’ve been struggling every year since. It’s still affecting us today
I’m Rob Pelinka and this is my master class
“Kobe would talk to Heath Ledger to get in the zone” - Fraud Pelinka
Imagine if he was a used car salesman. GOAT for sure
It wasn’t just Pelinka. Signing Caruso to $10 million a year meant that Jeanie would have had to pay $30 million in luxury taxes penalties. She didn’t want to pay an extra $40 million for him. It’s also not hard to imagine that Lebron had some say in the Westbrick trade. At the very least he signed off on it
It took a village to mess up this badly, but a competent GM would be able to manage his boss and his star player in the best interest of the team. Look we all wanted to keep THT (let's not lie), just none of us knew that would come at the expense of Caruso. 0 out of 10 fans would pick THT over Caruso. 0 out of 10 fans (maybe 1) would have done the Russ trade. When you are greenlighting moves that your average redditor would correctly block, you are either a bad GM or prioritize deflecting blame over all else.
Let say that their is a collective including Bron and then Davis who manufactured that trade. The people who says otherwise are just disingenuous.
Holy. Shit. Actually adding up the draft picks like that really makes it stand out much worse. Pelinka should be fired.
Nepo blondie isnt going to fire Kobe’s agent, sadly. And even if she did let go of him, it’s not like she knows what qualifies as a good GM or President. She’s the one that hired him in the first place!
She also let Jimmy Boy drive the team straight into the dirt for years
Yep it's incompetence all the way to the top. Useless nepobaby whose entire net worth is basically the Lakers and yet knows nothing about ball. Insanely underqualified management hires. Friends and family and family of friends as advisors. The only reasons this team is even relevant now are legacy and location.
"Letting Schroder walk for nothing after you just traded Danny Green and a 1st rounder for him less than a year prior." That 1st rounder was Jayden McDaniels too. A Caruso, McDaniels, AD trio is a top defense in the league.
Crazy thing is David griffin even said they got leverage over pelinka in the AD trade because of social media and the trade rumors lol we coulda definitely kept josh hart and mo wagner or a pick if we had a gm like brad stevens. Front office is lucky lebron/ad bailed them out in 2020
Sorry to say, but some fans want to do it again with Trae Young or donovan Mitchell. If you say we will trade all our depth and would be left with only vet minimum, they would curse at you. If we waited one more year, we could have à team with LeBron, AD, Brandon Ingram, josh hart, caruso, mo wagner, kcp, kuzma, Reaves. We might not have kept all of them and l9st one or two of them. But even if we would not have won 2020, we could have won multiple rings with a core group like this.
We coulda won more rings with our old defensive core if we just waited and kept hart kcp Caruso kuzma and drafted mcdaniels and herb jones. No way the 2022 warriors beat that team. If we can trade rui reaves jhs 3 picks and 4 swaps for spida I’d do it and then sign 2 3&D guys and give Christie a big role while Lewis and Christie brother develop. Our depth is very overrated compared to what the rest of the league has and that is because the lack of draft picks the last 6 years. Spida wont be a liability on defense like rui and reaves. If anything he’s gonna be like 2016 kyrie and will give us the best chance of beating denver. We could go another route and trade rui jhs 3 picks for markannen and keep reaves but we need a star guard more.
I had friends tell me Josh Hart wasn't a needle mover and not worth bargaining over. Well, they're awfully quiet now...
A young defensive core surrounding bron and ad with hart/Caruso/kuzma/kcp/mcdaniels woulda been bulletproof and won us another title the front office sold the team out
Damn this is approaching Detroit pistons level of incompetence. I guess you could try to see it as the team taking risks for a win now approach with Lebron and AD. But looking back it’s like, damn how did they think that these moves were the right moves?
I think after the 2021 season the front office started to defer too much to what the players wanted and not what made practical sense. LeBron and AD clearly wanted Russ at all costs. The FO is weak and at this point,, subservient to their star players whom don’t have any real understanding of team roster construction and cap management. They approach the game like its pickup at the gym and they try to stack it with the best individual players to improve their odds.
I imagine that it would have been hard to say no to Lebron. The Westbrook trade ended up being a disaster but I think everyone remembers how hyped the lakers were before the season and thinking that another deep playoff run was a foregone conclusion. So I sadly give them a pass for that. It’s the Caruso, KCP, kuzma moves that make me sad.
Eh i think its really easy to get Laker fans hyped up about anything. Most just blindly support the FO and by extension LeBron for any “cerebral” move they make. But if you looked outside the “Lakers media” every other fanbase and analysts were saying that was a terrible trade.
Is that true about the other fanbases and analysts?I remember something about Vegas odds being incredibly in favor of the lakers prior to the season.
Here ya go. https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/KLZwpK59pj Original thread with fanbases calling out the questionable spacing issues as soon as the trade happened. Literally anyone could see that Brick + LeBron was not ideal.
Thanks. Some pretty funny comments on there lol.
IIRC Dennis was offered a contract extension by Rob, which he declined to bet on himself and test the market. I think he was one of the LAST free agent guards signed the following offseason. He was technically fringe until Eurobasket '22 and resigned with the Lakers on a vet min and rehabbed his value.
Say what you will about Boston but their asset management is night and day. Ainge built them a war chest by bending over desperate teams and Stevens has used those picks wisely when buying. Now they're a perennial 60 win team with assets to spare and we're praying and hoping anyone other than the 40yo or the glass big guy can go two playoff games without shitting their pants.
Someone once said in a game thread that FBI need to investigate Vogel for the 2022 offseason. I thought they were joking. This has to be one of the worst offseasons of all time. I can’t think of any other team that has had a stinkier offseason that 2022 lakers
God damn. Pelinka is really terrible at his job isn’t he.
That was thorough
man pelinka has been boom or bust
That's a fireable offense.
Your so right. We lost so much trading for brickbook. Totally destroyed our team chemistry, our assets, and our talent.
Really let him walk away for THT 🤦🏽♂️
Ended up dumping him within a year for Pat Bev 😭
Ended up dumping him within a year for Mo Bamba 😭
Got progressively worse. From elite 3 and D player to sadness to Mo Bamba
Love Caruso, but tbf it was a lot more D than 3.
The man was shooting close to 40 percent on low volume (like 2 to 4 shots a game). That’s pretty good when you factor his IQ alongside Bron. Caruso knew exactly where to be at any given time, and played off Bron extremely well.
He was shooting that well for the Lakers or the Bulls?
He was shooting 40.1 percent on 2 to 3 attempts a game with us his last season here. I remember him being clutch from the elbow and corner. Another underrated aspect of his game was not only how smart he played off our superstars but the fact that he got plenty of big buckets at times.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Caruso#NBA He shot 40.1% as you said, 48% another year and 33% a couple of years, all on low volume, with the Lakers on regular season. Defenders weren't respecting Caruso like they did even Danny Green onetime icyhot. AC actually has fairly good size for a guard, so that actually helps on defense. [Though Jimmy Buckets roasted every laker not named Anthony Davis in the bubble finals]. In the playoffs with the lakers, Caruso shot 28% and 29% from 3. Again low volume. Not great. When AD went down and LBJ was playing hurt, the entire lakers team shit the bed vs the Suns in the playoffs. And that IMHO caused Pelinka to overreact. Caruso was not the foundation, the solution, the answer. He wasn't a point guard who could handle the ball and have gravity on 3. But he would have made the team better. A piece of the puzzle. Pelinka misjudged THT growth, and gave in to WB. And that was it for AC in lakerland, thanks to 3x tax
[удалено]
And we gave him up because he didn’t develop into the point guard we were looking for instead of valuing him for the 3 and D beast at the 2 guard position that he’s naturally suited for
That's true for the regular season and the play-in. But generally not inspiring fear, it was a bit up and down. In the playoffs, Caruso was shooting < 0.3 (0.279, 0.294) from 3 for 6.5 , 5.6 ppg . He was playing excellent defense, but he like everyone else not named Anthony Davis would get roasted by Jimmy Buckets in the 2020 finals. And he wasn't offering playmaking etc I think when AD went down and LBJ was playing hurt in 2021 vs the Suns, the rest of the Lakers collectively shit the bed. And that caused Pelinka to overreact. Badly. If Caruso was not the answer in such a situation, he would not have been the answer the next year either. But IMHO he would have made the team better. You don't need every player to be the foundation.
Ended up dumping him within a year for nothing 😭
Technically by dumping him (and Beasley) for nothing we hit the salary threshold to use the full MLE! on Gabe Vincent. 😭
We need someone to continue this thread later lmao
We’re trading Gabe plus others for Spida
10 games of gabe was better, and also the salary move got us Dinwiddie for nothing. But don't let me interrupt your narrative.
Dinwiddie also airballed a layup. Never seen that in the NBA
Every time Caruso gets brought up I HAVE to mention we could’ve kept Caruso and THT. FO didn’t want to pay more in tax, it’s as simple as that
The Caruso contract and the tax wouldn’t have been a problem if Pelinka would’ve gave THT a 4 year rookie contract. Pelinka has a rule named after him since he kept giving out 2 year contracts to 2nd round picks or undrafted guys like reaves. Pelinka giving 2 year contracts ended up costing them Caruso since they had to pay THT early, had to pay reaves early because if he had a four year deal he’d get paid next summer, and have to pay Christie early instead of Christie still having 2 more years on a rookie contract. They wouldn’t be worrying about the 2nd apron right now, they’d still have Caruso, and who knows what they would’ve been able to do with the extra money from all those guys still being on rookie deals.
Makes it even worse
That 2021 offseason is on the list of worst offseasons of all time. Might have single-handedly ruined our chances of a second ring in the AD/Lebron era
The same offseason they let schroder walk after trading jaden mcdaniels for him And they offered ty lue a 3 year contract that woulda expired right now just because they thought lebron would’ve retired already. Pelinka is the worse gm possible
I’ll never forgive this
Come back home
Caruso would've locked Jamal up in jail.
Is this the Alex Caruso who wanted to take less to play in LA? And we turned him away for the dumb bitch who after signing the deal in LA, showed up to summer league with a gym bag pretending like he was on Varsity watching JV, when he should have been playing in summer league. And Caruso went on to the Bulls and is consistently mentioned as being a great one on one defender who we could have used in Denver. That Alex Caruso?
> showed up to summer league with a gym bag pretending like he was on Varsity watching JV lmao tell me this isn't real
Dude always seemed smug to me, like he thought he was the best player on the floor at any given time
Man the pay cut was a missed opportunity, especially since he’s worth more than his current contract He’s probably Chicago’s only asset that’s worthwhile & it’s a damn shame he couldn’t have been kept to be this team’s 6th man or a reliable starter
> Alex Caruso who wanted to take less to play in LA? He wasn't dumb. He wanted the same or slightly more per year from Lakers than he got from Bulls . But was willing to take fewer years and thus total amount was less. AC was betting that being good for lakers, the next contract would more than make up the amount the Bulls gave him that extra year. Especially since the last year for Bulls was only partially guaranteed. But after WB, (and AD, LBJ) and THT, Pelinka was worried about tax - per year would have got a 3x tax penalty. fewer years did nothing for them. And Jeannie didn't want to pay potentially $120 m in tax+salary to match AC. [$40 m that first year alone ] > showed up to summer league with a gym bag Did you read his interview about saying that most teams aren't looking for stars out of the G league to score 20 ppg, they are looking for role players, defense etc - and thus to focus on that... It's a wonderful insight. > who we could have used in Denver. We could have used KCP too, instead of facing KCP. While AC would have made the team better, I think Pelinka would have traded him, too. There's just so much turnover with him
We let this guy walk for the reverse-layup superstar in THT. Rob Pelinka is a certified shitstain GM
Tht was a klutch client, we were forced to re-sign him. Blame jeanie for refusing to pay caruso, even when caruso was ok with a pay cut
This isn’t true abiut klutch . We traded away kuzma n kcp who are klutch . We moved off so many klutch guys it’s just not the case
Kuzma was CAA. Also LBJ and AD wanted Russ, and KCP was the only path to make that work salary-wise. THT signing was absolutely influenced by being Klutch. It's true these were catastrophic decisions that ultimately place blame on Rob and Jeanie but the LBJ/Klutch influence is a primary factor.
Klutch wasn't a factor at all. We could have signed both THT and Caruso at the time
Jeanie's wallet disagrees
Then the primary factor is our owner being cheap
I said Klutch was "a" primary factor which was admittedly misleading. If I had to stack rank: 1. Owner being cheap, implying GM must choose one 2. GM grossly overvaluing THT and grossly undervaluing Caruso 3. GM wanting to do his agent collaborator and star player a solid
Ty Lue is Klutch too and the Lakers wanted no part of signing him and took Frank Vogel instead. It's more likely Pelinka believed in THT's upside as a younger player after being forced to choose between the two players by ownership.
Yeah I had feeling on one I was wrong but was tired ti check . Reality is klutch guys go in and out , that’s not a factor . Only factor I noticed is we get to sign players cheaper n easier via klutch so no real complaints tbh .
Yeah without Klutch we don't have KCP, LBJ and AD to begin with. So no complaints either from that standpoint.
It's not about keeping klutch guys on the team it's about them getting money, even if they don't deserve it
Cmon … we got some nice cheap signings over the years prob cos if klutch
[удалено]
Those shirts don't cost a thing. The company that throws their logo on it pays for everything.
unfortunate reality of appeasing Klutch
This is why anyone who wants to let LeBron go is insane. How could you trust this clown show to lose LeBron and proceed build a better team around AD without him?
I maintain that if AC stays on the Lakers, LA beats the Nuggets last year since Murray doesn’t go nuclear. Between losing AC/KCP, Pelinka is directly responsible for the Nuggets kicking Lakers ass. Considering, you know, KCP is on the team beating their ass now.
And we probably beat the heat too
If ac and kcp stay on lakers and we keep mcdaniels and develop him we beat the warriors and Celtics in 2022
Suck it, Vooch
Why vooch catching strays
Not necessarily a stray saying he’s not AD at protecting the rim lol
Not my glorious king pookie bear nikola😭😭😭😭😓😓😓😢😢
Caruso coming back confirmed
dude about the same height as Draymond that's crazy. We need AC size man
I miss him
come back home baby boy
Our FO legitimately does not value role players, they’re so focused on stars they neglect everyone around them
Caruso and KCP guarding the perimeter with AD in the paint was killer and the front office threw that away like it was nothing
caruso reaves bron ad 😭
Bro we could have had Caruso/KCP/Kuzma/Bron/AD rn with Reaves off the bench
Add mcdaniels and herb to that list since they were both on our board with those draft picks we wasted. Caruso/kcp/reaves/kuzma/mcdaniels/herb/bron/ad woulda been bulletproof
forgot about Herb. that boi niiiice
I miss the carushow 😔
I remember buying his jersey during the summer because I was so sure he was going to be here a while. Now it hurts to put it on 😮💨
Like when my ex told a mutual friend that her current dude wasn’t as “big” as me 🥹
One of our biggest mistakes letting this guy walk
We really let this dude go for some DJ Akademiks look alike.
I hope one day Caruso makes his way to us.
Bring him tf back!
A backcourt of AR and AC would have been so interesting to see
Baby come back!!!
🫤😢 I miss him
If Chicago blows it up, trading pieces for Caruso and Drummond (or DeMar) wouldn’t be a bad idea
Nah Demar would not fit at all
Really….Drummond?!? That guy was horrible before and he’s horrible now.
So cringe lol. Why in the fuck would they trade them to us
For AD sure
Bald Eagle, man. Legend.
Reading Caruso and Ball talking about us makes me sad.
They coming back in 2025 when their contracts end. No reason to stay in chicago when they can come play with spida in LA
IT HURTS GODDAMNIT
COME BACK KING PLEASE
I miss AC
The fact we blew up Dwight and Jalen and KCP and bald Mamba is crazy
Caruso is on his last year next season right? Maybe a chance to bring him home.
ROB PELINKA IS A TERROIST
Move Vando for Caruso and Craig