Few exercises can bring a more effective smile to the face of sports fans in a way that reminds them of last year’s popular role players.You can spend hours just by saying the former name Lakers Its name doesn’t hang on CryptoDotCom Arena (still weird) and the number has since been reused. Still, names such as Derek Fisher and Michael Cooper live forever in their own way.
The Lakers stopped worrying about players in effective roles somewhere under Rob Pelinka’s command. This is a recurring mistake that cripples the organization. Now that some different paths are laid out from them, they have to break that bad habit.
Kyrie Irving sits behind the number one door this offseason. He was as talented as angry and quickly injected Star Power, which fits exponentially better than Pelinka’s last ever best point guard.
Behind the second door is the Myles Turner and Buddy Hield trade package. He never reaches the heights of his career in Russell Westbrook or Irving, but he is a very capable NBA player who goes very well with LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
Oh, and there are few questions about their interest in appearing in work every day.
Technically there are some other doors that represent some other options, but for now, these are the focus of this week’s “Anthony Irwin Shaw” episode. Also, admitting that the Lakers can technically perform last year’s core back seems pretty depressing, and I would rather pretend that the door is padlocked forever.
Let’s look back at the championship team from 2020. Yes, James and Davis were undoubtedly the engines and rotors of the boat, but the crew was very important to ensure that they were running at the optimum level. Since then, the groups tested in that battle have been removed and replaced by a collection of unrecognizable, unstimulated people who are not aggressive and can steer the boat in the right direction.
All this annoyance has been played by Rob Perinka, who was essentially a championship team role player, to get rid of that valuable role player’s championship roster. Message at every step: If you are not a star, you can substitute. Lessons from every scene: It’s an incredibly stupid message!
Yes, James almost certainly prefers the Irving route, even after getting a superstar point guard. Only a year ago he blew up cheerfully on his face. Yes, Pelinka is currently fighting for his job, and soothing James is probably the surest way to keep it. And yes, Irving is tackling basketball in a way that hasn’t been in the last few years and is probably offering the highest caps.
But if you really want to show what the Lakers have learned from the disaster that was the 2021-’22 campaign, the choice here is actually relatively easy. Perform trades that bring in players with multiple NBA calibers. Go back to the approach that won them the championship just a few seasons ago.
Role players do not earn headlines and do not sell tickets individually. However, people like Turner and Hield are more likely to help win a basketball game. Somewhere, the Lakers forgot that it was the whole point, and it’s been enough time to remember.
This week I brought back DNVR’s old friend Adam Mares to discuss this, a huge swing against Tim Connelly’s fence, and Kobe Bryant’s admiration for Nikola Jokic.
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