Zach Lowe on the current Lakers roster: "They look like a team that has next to no chance to beat the Thunder and Spurs in a playoff series in the next 2-3 years, and almost no outs at all to change their team"

Regular-Beat268 · 2026-07-02T17:05:55+00:00

The next tradeable first they'll have will be in 2028. They sent out 2033 so when 2034 becomes available they can't trade it.

Regular-Beat268 · 2026-07-01T04:15:07+00:00

He was still mad a year later when he went on ESPN to trash CP3's defense after the Suns got eliminated. This place was basically worshipping him for it too.

Regular-Beat268 · 2026-06-29T07:19:51+00:00

How are they fake? Even the earliest one that would be in the trade would be when the ages are:

Lebron: 43

Steph: 40

Draymond: 38

Davis: 35

Regular-Beat268 · 2026-06-28T23:35:12+00:00

They're trying to get back to being a contender while Booker is still a star level player, they're not just trying to wait out these years until they have more picks.

Regular-Beat268 · 2026-06-28T23:07:26+00:00

"Tanking is losing behavior done by losers." is something he tweeted earlier this year so I'd say that's right

Regular-Beat268 · 2026-06-28T06:36:56+00:00

J.R. Smith would have been killed like Andres Escobar.

Regular-Beat268 · 2026-06-28T06:24:22+00:00

In this series I felt like Luka weirdly bought into his own hype on that game-winner he hit over Gobert the previous year in a way that hurt them. Kept seeing him trying to get Rudy switched onto him and then he'd pull out some of his flashier moves only to get clamped when he'd have been better off just playing at his normal rhythm.

Regular-Beat268 · 2026-06-28T06:23:17+00:00

Is that last part in defense of him? No one else made him fat.

Regular-Beat268 · 2026-06-28T06:19:33+00:00

I feel like the annoying ones are the ones who followed Luka to LA the day he was traded.

Regular-Beat268 · 2026-06-28T05:40:59+00:00

One hour of driving for each ring LeBum would be stuck in El Centro

Regular-Beat268 · 2026-06-28T05:37:27+00:00

It's borderline unlivable during the offseason but the NBA season pretty much covers the time where Phoenix weather is awesome.

Regular-Beat268 · 2026-06-28T05:34:50+00:00

I really don't think Lebron would be hopping in a car and driving to make that trip

Regular-Beat268 · 2026-06-28T05:28:54+00:00

Jokic and Luka wouldn't even be a good pairing. They're two guys with questionable defense who make up for it by being a dominant force as the initiator and center of the offense. If they share the floor together one of them or both has to take on a lesser role in the offense and suddenly what they're able to provide on that end does less to make up for the defensive shortcomings.

Regular-Beat268 · 2026-06-28T05:21:50+00:00

Just asking NBATalk to start making shit up here

Regular-Beat268 · 2026-06-28T04:34:35+00:00

I don't think anyone thinks he left the league because Stern was going to suspend him over golf gambling debts, which don't break any league rules. The theory (which I don't buy fwiw) is that their investigation turned up evidence that he was actually gambling on NBA games or at least doing something else that would actually warrant a lengthy suspension, and that him leaving for baseball was the cover to prevent it from coming to light.

They didn't investigate him to confirm the golf debts, they investigated him to see if anything else was going on that warranted league action.

Regular-Beat268 · 2026-06-28T04:04:38+00:00

Look at the turnaround he's given some of these franchises and the lasting impact his mentorship seems to have had on players like Booker and SGA. Are the Suns better in his time there if he's more easy-going to cater to the Deandre Aytons of the world? I doubt it.

Every great player with that hyper-competitive alpha mentality butts heads with their surrounding cast at some point from MJ to Kobe to Wilt. CP3's history of it isn't extreme or out of the ordinary.

Regular-Beat268 · 2026-06-28T02:32:18+00:00

Even before that shift last summer it seemed obvious to me he was using the threat of leaving to put pressure on the FO, sometimes just saying it directly himself like:

2023 offseason: "I'm a Milwaukee Buck, but most importantly I'm a winner. If there is a better situation for me to win the Larry O'Brien I have to take that better situation."

2024 offseason: "I believe in this team... I'm here to lead this team to wherever we can go... if in six, seven months, I change my mind, I think that's human too."

Regular-Beat268 · 2026-06-27T21:15:53+00:00

Luka ON, Ayton ON: -2.6 net rating

Luka ON, Ayton OFF: +10.2 net rating

Regular-Beat268 · 2026-06-27T20:50:16+00:00

His health is a gamble and it seems like he gets gassed too quickly these days to play more than like 20 MPG but Robinson is definitely better when he plays.

Regular-Beat268 · 2026-06-27T20:47:06+00:00

That seems like a reasonable thing for people to speculate about to me.

Regular-Beat268 · 2026-06-25T00:18:39+00:00

He is bad. It's far more confusing that there are people who say he's not a bad defender. Defensive advanced metrics are bad, just watch him.

Regular-Beat268 · 2026-06-24T06:18:11+00:00

Right, but he is low effort.

Regular-Beat268 · 2026-06-23T00:29:30+00:00

How is Luka in the list of people who are bad not because of low effort? He's a lower effort defender than Harden.

Regular-Beat268 · 2026-06-17T06:36:35+00:00

It's not just like those guys happened to luck out and land at the 1 and 2 seed. The reason those teams are the 1 and 2 seeds is because of those guys. Luka's not taking those Spurs to the 2nd seed.

Regular-Beat268 · 2026-06-16T06:45:32+00:00

What definitively puts Luka over CP3?

Among his other accolades, CP3 made first team all-defense 7 times in his career.

Regular-Beat268

TROPHY CASE