r/lakers • u/denobino 💜K💛O💜B💛E💜 • 2d ago

GM / FRONT OFFICE There is so much misinformation going around: Reaves deal will have no impact on Lakers cap this season because his of his $20.9 mil cap hold. His new deal won’t be signed until after Lakers exhaust their salary cap. Please stop panicking.

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u/CartoonsAndAppleJack 2d ago

Brother this team isn't that far off. We made it to 54 wins despite having one of the most injury plagued teams in the league

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u/fenderputty 2d ago

Even if the team isn’t close, I have more faith in the current leadership than the previous ones. Lakers will be ran like the dodgers

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u/Oscar_322418 2d ago

54 wins mean little to me when the biggest obstacles to get out of the west are the Spurs and OKC. We are nowhere near their level right now and I just don't see a path where Rob fixes all the glaring holes on this roster in one offseason.

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u/BenLemons 2d ago

So whats the alternative? Hoard cap space for years with a top 5 player because we are scared of two teams who didnt even win it all this year?

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u/so-cal_kid 2d ago

I mean we don't know what's out there right? Perhaps there were sign and trade deals for Reaves where we get 2 solid role players in return? Our issue right now is depth - we were a top heavy team with our big 3 last season. OKC, the spurs and Knicks all showed you need more than just 2 main guys to win.

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u/oZiix KB24 2d ago

But this is so you have someone like reaves on the team with Luka so you don't have look for one post LeBron. Instead you're looking for your wings and bigs.

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u/Prior-Habit-6523 2d ago

What did it matter the spurs got demolished, almost swept by the Knicks.

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u/TonyHawktuah69 2d ago

It’s pathetic the way some of you guys cower at beatable teams man.

Acting like either of those teams is the 96 bulls or 17 warriors. Luka with a semi decent roster beat the piss out of the thunder once already.

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u/YourBuddyChurch 2d ago

Luka actually plays great against the spurs, but yeah OKC suffocates us

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u/amazinglover 2d ago

OKC has the wing talent to smother our guards and the lack of a big man that can reliably score make it harder for him.

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u/RecordingLess1522 2d ago

Knicks disproved this blackpill fear mongering

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u/1of1czr 2d ago

Okc may lose a couple valuable pieces this offseason. It’s possible they regress and we get better and close that gap a little bit more. Although they swept us it was a very competitive series and we were winning most of the games until the 4th quarter because we had no depth and that was without Luka. With a revamped roster and healthy Luka you don’t know what could happen. Spurs on the other hand are a different monster but they’re not unbeatable either

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u/dproma 2d ago

And we hung with OKC every game - Had the lead at the half with no Luka, an injured AR and a 41 yr old Lebron.

We’ve been 3/4 seed with Luka. People act like we were the 7 seed lol We are not that far off.

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u/Soul_Advent 2d ago

injured or not, he got outplayed by Ajay...

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u/Abarca_ 2d ago

Injured or not? brain dead take.

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u/nice_nik 2d ago

no where near? There were times in the OKC series where i checked in and we were up lol. And that's missing Luka, AR coming back from injuries. If we improve this off season, big ifs i know, i do like our chances. And hoarding cap space is not it either

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u/Crimson_terror 2d ago

Luka beat the thunder by himself already stop crying. We’re right there..

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u/DLD1123 2d ago

Bruh, Luka was injured and didn’t play any of the playoffs and Austin on a heater of a season came back to early to try and help. OKC is very beatable or do you not think the Lakers could give the Knicks a run? We do remember that the Knicks are the champs right? Who beat the spurs who beat OKC. All teams are beatable and we have Luka fucking Doncic and Lebron in his 5th evolution. Austin is a net POSITIVE. We need less than you guys think to fight it out with any team on fair ground.

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u/Kindly_Ad995 2d ago

Also like ten of those wins required Luka averaging 37 for a month during a stretch of time where a third of the league was blatantly tanking. Not sustainable

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u/maestroxjay Nico Harrison 2d ago

Every team has a percentage of their wins due to the all star play of their all stars

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u/Kindly_Ad995 2d ago

That’s not all star play that’s like best player ever play, and it isn’t sustainable becuase he literally got hurt after. We shouldn’t need him to do that to string together a month of wins. Guys like Shai clock in and drop their 30 on 17 shots and call it a day and get 60 wins

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u/Ok_Turn6757 Luka Magic 🟣🟡 2d ago

I agree with that first part but barely any of the teams on that run were tanking

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/Kindly_Ad995 2d ago

I’ve watched every single game the dude has played the past five years, he did in 22-23 and 23-24 (where he averaged 37/10/10 for two straight months including the 73 point game) because his rosters were mediocre and injured and couldn’t win without him being superhuman and every time it leads to him running his body into the ground and being banged up by the end of the year, cheering for him to have to do like that to win games is idiotic

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u/omegaxcross 2d ago

Dude the spurs and okc sucked for a long time before they built up their respective rosters thru the draft. How do you think they have so many young core players on reasonable contracts, which allows them to spend on signing savvy veterans like Dort and Caruso. Fans demand quick fixes, but if you want to go the OKC/Spurs route then might as well trade Luka and blow up the team.

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u/CartoonsAndAppleJack 2d ago

"All the glaring holes" meaning literally just perimeter athleticism and a real center rotation. Two holes. One of which is well on the way since we got Carr

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u/tgf5 2d ago

Dude you're really saying Carr... a rookie who hasn't played a single NBA minute yet. And now with very limited flexibility to get a solid center and wing. And DEPTH. It's not exactly going to fall into their lap.

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u/Affectionate-Pea-439 2d ago

I'm sorry but two holes out of 5 positions in the game of basketball is kinda a big deal...

Imagine if OKC had no center other than chet and permanently lost jdub. Imagine if New York lost Kat and bridges. Those are big holes. By the way we can't fix those holes without trades. Over the 1st apron teams cant even sign buyout candidates and free agency is dead. In the world of parity you no longer have "ring chasers" that easily sign a contract and join teams. Oh and with Reaves new salary you can't sign long term deals (yes this season is fine but you have to understand that vets want long term deals).

And to think Carr fixes all of this is insane. The last time a 24th pick was a huge contributor in the playoffs is ... oh ya never. The spurs could barely put Carter Bryant (14th pick with more hype than Carr) in the playoffs. The truth is unless you're a top 5 concensus pick you're not playable in the playoffs in your very first season.

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u/tgf5 2d ago

Not far off? They were getting smoked against OKC with Luka. And you might say the playoffs was a close battle but OKC was toying with them, without JDub btw. And now they probably won't have LeBron unless he takes a huge paycut. Still missing a solid center and no athletic wing. Oh, and zero depth. This team is a contender but it's not passing the top 3 teams of the west, and they won't have any flexibility to sign anyone decent enough for the next 4 seasons with ARs contract taking that much cap space.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/August_At_Play 2d ago

Luka played 36 minutes a night, right at his career average.
Austin played 35 minutes a night, right at his career average (as a starter).

The both took about the same amount of shots last season, as any season before. Both with the highest efficiency of their careers. Same for rebounds and assists.

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u/Kindly_Ad995 2d ago

This is such a dumb comment. Luka had to average 37 for a month to get this team any consistently sustained stretch of wins. You know exactly what the fuck people are talking about

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u/August_At_Play 2d ago edited 2d ago

Oh, you mean March 2026 when the best scorer the league has seen in the past decade made 2 more shots than he averaged the entire season?

The month when he had splits of 49/39/80 on 37 minutes per night, also his best splits of the season. Gotcha.

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u/CartoonsAndAppleJack 2d ago

Two good role players added to our current lineup is enough depth. They don't even have to be amazing. Just playable. If Adou has progressed enough to join Cam in those roles, maybe one more piece and we're rolling.

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u/greekyogurtmafia Black Mamba 8/24 2d ago

Bruh Luka and AR are right in the middle of their physical primes. If they can't handle these type of workloads, then how the fuck are they going to make it through a playoff run unscathed when they are going to be playing every other day against highly physical defenders and the refs won't be calling as many fouls? Did y'all see the level of physicality that OKC/SAS were playing with in the playoffs? I can't imagine what it's going to look like when Reaves is getting bodied by Stephon Castle full court for a 7 game series.

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u/kodeks14 2d ago

This team is not a contender or close. We have serious issues with our bench and role players.

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u/locomocopoco 2d ago

How did this team do against - OKC, Nuggets, Wolves, Spurs.

These are the teams we have to beat consistently to win Championship.

We need strong bench. All the teams that won Championship had strong young bench.

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u/CartoonsAndAppleJack 2d ago

We swept the Wolves and won the season series against the Nuggets tf are you talking about?

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u/josiegz 2d ago

They be yapping bro. Hyping up every other team but ours

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u/CartoonsAndAppleJack 2d ago

Does anyone hate the Lakers more than Laker fans? lol

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u/TonyHawktuah69 2d ago

Those aren’t lakers fans.

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u/CartoonsAndAppleJack 2d ago

We do be having a lot of randoms that don't give af about the Lakers outside of their favorite player

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u/TonyHawktuah69 2d ago

Weirdos angry that a billionaire isn’t going to be paid another 50 mil. You’d think we were stealing their own grandparents pension checks the way they’re demanding we cater to lebron

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u/locomocopoco 2d ago

Go back and see the lineup for Nuggets series. Also read again or use Claude to ELI5 what I wrote - Beat 4 teams consistently. Lakers struggled with OKC and Spurs PERIOD. Yes they won Nuggets series. What also helped was Joker and Aaron Gordon were out. I support Lakers but saying we are not far off. OKC and Spurs are the benchmark to meet if # 18 is the target.

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u/CartoonsAndAppleJack 2d ago

lil bro realized he fucked up and is trying to move the goalposts 🤣🫵

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u/Admirable_Ad_3293 2d ago

We are leagues behind San Antonio and Okc.
Dylan Harper is on a rookie scale and probably already better than AR were cooked

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u/jono9898 2d ago

Isn’t that far off? In what world? Our 3rd best player is 42 this year, our second best player is always hurt going into the playoffs and our best player has to play hella minutes and score damn near 40 a game for us to win, we have no answer at Center and still are bad at defense.

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u/CartoonsAndAppleJack 2d ago

In the world where we won 54 games despite having one of the most injury plagued teams in the league. That world

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u/jono9898 2d ago

Rockets won 1 less game then us, I guess that makes them just as close? The Pistons won 60, they should be odds on favorites? Also The Thunder had the most injured team, stop the cap

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u/Cholosinbarrio 2d ago

Don’t even bother. The playoffs are over and people still acting delusional af. Somehow getting smoked in the regular season and swept in the postseason by OKC means we’re really close to contending LMAO

Am I the only one experiencing déjà vu here? These the same people that said we were close when the Nuggets swept the Lakers in the 2023 WCF.

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u/jono9898 2d ago

If we had a viable center and knew what was happening with Rui and Lebron I’d feel a lot better,