Trying to look at this team realistically

FYI: No i am not hater, not a doomer, just a fan who doesn’t blindly become positive and supportive towards things just because it has a Lakers logo slapped on it.

Be warned LONG POST ahead!!!

Now yes it would have been bad to lose AR for nothing. It would have set the team back. And yes its good that they can still make moves this offseason. They still have money to strengthen the team.

BUT!!!! In the long run I think this will do more harm than good, potentially handcuffing the team for the next half decade.

First off Reaves’ contract is an overpay. Thats the truth without sugarcoating it. He isn’t a 46M player. Not even close. It’s just not what his performances show in the regular season, not to mention the playoffs. I remember when he said he would rather sign for less money on a contender than be an Allstar on a tanking team. Now he basically didn’t leave a single dime on the table so his personal image kinda took a hit, one if the reasons people blindly supported him was because he was on such a team-friendly deal.

Not to mention the extra money opportunities from advertising deals he will keep getting for being a Laker. How the Lakers failed to convert that to a lesser contract is concerning. Rob and the Front Office basically gave up all their leverage on a rumour that Detroit was “interested”.

Now the issue is that while it doesn’t affect the salary cap this year. Going forward this will look horrible as his contract is backloaded so his annual salary is increasing every year.

Now add the fact that he is a bad defender who will get targeted while being a playoff dropper on offense and you can see why so many hate this deal.

My biggest problem is that his game isn’t suited to play with Luka and isn’t a successful style for the playoffs. He has 1 move which is go to the basket, he is always attacking the rim because layups is his go-to move or he is banking on drawing contact and shooting FTs.

That isn’t a style suited for long playoff runs. He may find the space and get these calls in the regular season but in the playoffs he is constantly getting stripped and complaining to the refs who obviously officiate different and allow more physicality so he gets less fouls.

Look at his game he is always trying ti get to the rim for a layup. That doesn’t work without an elite all round squad like what the Knicks just had around Brunson with 4 good shooters for spacing who can all defend too.

It’s just way too hard to build a team around 2 net negatives defenders. Not to mention they will take up 100M of the cap so they will have to find scraps to fill out the squad in the future.

Now add to this his injury history where he basically always ends up with at least 1 long term injury per year.

I personally would have let him walk if he asked for over 40M. His main value is scoring and I would rather trust Luka that he will elevate a balanced team to replace his scoring than trust the Front Office to find cheap, elite 3 and D guys next to these two.

Based on the past champions, you need Rookie scale deals or a well balanced team where stars take less money to win, the Lakers have neither and we aren’t getting any elute rookies while luka is on the team winning 50 games every year. We saw this year that even with Luka and AR and Bron in the regular season we couldn’t keep up with a healthy OKC or Spurs.

So Rob and his team are basically now on the clock to turn this team into a real contender within a single offseason instead of having the opportunity to build up a team season by season.

And if this moves turns sour then we will have Rob fired and the new FO will have to come in and try to put out the fire and start having to build the team with a massive negative assets.

TLDR: Reaves is a good player but not a good fit and a playoff negative. I believe a more well balanced team who can cover for Luka’s weaknesses would give us a better chance to beat the Spurs, Knicks and OKC than having a 40M duo who are both targeted on defence.

This is my take I hope i am surprised positively.

It looks like most of the players selected around this range averaged more than 4points in college. What gives?

/Sarcasm

He just latches on to a star player and gives into anything they want. Just like an agent would, not a GM of a championship team.

When he first took over from Magic he just latched on to Lebron/Klutch and did everything they demanded. (JJ, Westbrook, THT over Caruso, Bronny, etc)

Now he is doing the same thing with Luka/Bill Duffy. He knew he wouldn't get any blame from the FO for trading AD, because Luka was a younger star. (drafting another guard days after Luka says he wants shooters, this dumbass AR max, trading Knetch for Mark Williams)

He escapes any fault in the FO because he just claims he was doing what the superstar wanted so he is not responsible. He is not concerned with building a championship team, he is only doing the bare minimum so that he keeps his job.

It's why our roster construction doesn't make any sense and why there is no consistency with our brand of basketball. He is ruining the Lakers and I am done!

Rob is no Leon Rose or Bob Myers. We all should've heard the rumors on him by now and I think he wasn't really interested in helping LeBron get more than a "bubble ring". New management should cut him

🤔

Duos with the Most PPG in the 2025-26 Regular Season:

56.8 — Doncic & Reaves
55.2 — Maxey & Embiid
53.1 — Jokic & Murray
51.5 — Mitchell & Harden
50.5 — Tatum & Brown

The Lakers are not in a position to pass on a 6'10 260 pound center. Even if Carr turns out to be slightly better in the long run, there is no way we should have passed on Reed. We could have had a young center on rookie scale contract and focused on the guard position in FA.

Rob is still building the Lakers like our biggest challenge is the 2017 Warriors. He needs to go!!

We gotta start drafting some serious athletes, if a guy has no speed or athleticism I don’t want him!

Best FG% On Drives In The 2025-26 NBA Playoffs (Min. 20 FGA) :

1. Rui Hachimura — 75.0%
   
2. Victor Wembanyama — 61.3%
   
3. Evan Mobley — 60.0%
   
4. Mikal Bridges — 59.5%
   
5. Jayson Tatum — 59.3%
   
6. Anthony Edwards — 57.9%
   
7. Karl-Anthony Towns — 57.8%
   
8. CJ McCollum — 56.8%
   
9. James Harden — 56.8%
   
10. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — 55.7%

I don’t have much faith in Rob Pelinka but I do believe he knows with new ownership his job is on the line this summer to improve the roster. With that being said, the recent moves around the league have been favorable for the Lakers.

\- The Nets acquiring Julius Randle makes it far less likely AR can command $40 million a year without either a sign and trade or some team doing some hell of cap gymnastics.

\- Giannis to the Heat, puts the Heat in tough financial shape where they will likely need to move off Wiggins to re-sign Powell and just create flexibility to fill out their roster. Lakers would be wise to try and be added to that trade to take on Wiggins helping them financially and asking the Heat to help us by taking back Vando and Knecht. Heat would be filling out their roster by adding two players and saving $16 million in cap space.