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LA Lakers Thread: Welcome Brandon Ingram! (1 Viewer)

JMon348

JMon348

Footballguy
Picking up off our thread from last year

Final preseason game is tonight, the real season starts in 6 days.

Current depth chart:

PG- D'Angelo Russell, Marcelo Huertas

SG- Jordan Clarkson, Lou Williams, Jabari Brown

SF- Kobe Bryant, Nick Young, Anthony Brown, Metta World Peace, Johnathan Holmes

PF- Julius Randle, Brandon Bass, Ryan Kelly, Larry Nance Jr.

C- Roy Hibbert, Tarik Black, Robert Sacre

Sounds like the last spot is coming down to Jabari Brown and Metta. Holmes is hurt and looks like he stays on the roster until he is healed. Hoping we go with Metta, Jabari hasn't shown me that much.

Key number 1 is hoping Kobe stays healthy. Number 2 is developing Russell, Clarkson, and Randle and hope they become the best they can be.

Hoping for an exciting year, and we look back at this year as the bridge from our past to our futue.

 
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On a personal note, as many of you know through PMs, I'll be in LA for opening night on Wednesday. I always told myself that before Kobe hangs them up that I have to watch a game at Staples. I've seen many many road games here in Washington, traveled to Philly, and even watched a NBA FInals game in 2002, in New Jersey. So I'm very much looking forward to watching my first game and being a part of cheering for the home team. Getting nervous with Kobe's latest injury about him missing the game. They are down playing him not playing opening night, but its troubling that he hasn't' played or practiced for a week. It would be devastating, so I'm just hoping for the best and the injury is minor.

Thanks again for the return PM's from everyone with recommendations for my trip. I'll be there Wednesday to Sunday and have it mostly planned out thanks to you guys.

One question about tickets. Haven't got any yet. Stubhub and other ticket sites charge outrageous fees to go along with the ticket prices. How is scalping in front of Staples? any other recommendations for tickets?

 
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JMon348 said:
One question about tickets. Haven't got any yet. Stubhub and other ticket sites charge outrageous fees to go along with the ticket prices. How is scalping in front of Staples? any other recommendations for tickets?
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There's always several guys in front and/or across the street.

 
Keeping Sacre instead of Upshaw makes no sense. I don't care that Upshaw is clueless out there, Sacre is a waste of a roster spot. If you have to give him minutes, it means your season is probably over anyway and he's not suddenly going to develop into a good NBA player at this point. Keep Upshaw, let him learn from/practice against actual pros. Bad move waiving him.

Jabari Brown isn't worth keeping over Metta. It's not like they've got a shortage of chuckers, at least Metta might teach some of the young ones how to play some D and hustle.

They should probably end the Ryan Kelly experiment too. I'd rather see Nance get whatever minutes Kelly would take.

 
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Yikes. Maybe the Lakers will keep their draft pick this year. :oldunsure:

Interesting choice of who got run and who didn't. I don't really understand it.

Very, very unimpressed with Russel. I thought they made the right call taking him at #2. So far I haven't seen him do much to justify it.

@Jmon have you tried the Laker ticket exchange: http://www.ticketexchangebyticketmaster.com/la-lakers-tickets/los-angeles-lakers-tickets/?extcmp=gw000150&partnercode=lakers

I got my share of my season seats earlier in the week. Every single ticket has some picture of Kobe on it - think the Lakers are ready for him to retire?

 
JMon348 said:
One question about tickets. Haven't got any yet. Stubhub and other ticket sites charge outrageous fees to go along with the ticket prices. How is scalping in front of Staples? any other recommendations for tickets?
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There will be guys selling outside. You will probably need to go across the street from the arena. It is illegal to sell tickets on the same property as the venue in California. Also check StubHub the day of the event. You can regularly find some good deals if you wait long enough. You could even buy the tickets on your phone when you get there and StubHUb has a office at LA live (across the street) where you can have them print the tickets for you.

 
So sick of hearing how Kobe is anti-team. He must be the only anti-team player in team sports history to have 5 championships.

 
timschochet said:
So sick of hearing how Kobe is anti-team. He must be the only anti-team player in team sports history to have 5 championships.
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Maybe with only 5, but Jordan and Pippen with 6 didn't seem much like team players either, they just happened to have very complementary skill sets.

 
timschochet said:
Kev4029 said:
timschochet said:
So sick of hearing how Kobe is anti-team. He must be the only anti-team player in team sports history to have 5 championships.
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Maybe with only 5, but Jordan and Pippen with 6 didn't seem much like team players either, they just happened to have very complementary skill sets.
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I regard all 3 as great team players by any real definition.
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Pippen

Jordan to Horace Grant: "You’re an idiot. You’ve screwed up every play we ever ran. You’re too stupid to even remember the plays. We ought to get rid of you."

Kobe was such a great teammate that he forced the most dominant big man of his era (ever?) and arguably the greatest coach ever out of LA.

All three of them were poor teammates with great basketball skills.

 
I actually don't think staples is that nice if an arena. The area around it has really built up but I think there are a lot of bad seats and the whole thing feels like three different teams play there, which is true. It's worth going to see your favorite player just once on his home court, but I don't think staples itself will awe you.

 
Abraham said:
I actually don't think staples is that nice if an arena. The area around it has really built up but I think there are a lot of bad seats and the whole thing feels like three different teams play there, which is true. It's worth going to see your favorite player just once on his home court, but I don't think staples itself will awe you.
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It's a modern cookie cutter multipurpose indoor stadium. Nothing special. The food should be better there too. It's still a zillion times better than the Forum in terms of amenities. But the Forum had/has a ton more character, and I think in terms of seeing the game the Forum was better. Too bad they couldn't update that. Still the Forum is in a less than ideal location.

 
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Gr00vus said:
Abraham said:
I actually don't think staples is that nice if an arena. The area around it has really built up but I think there are a lot of bad seats and the whole thing feels like three different teams play there, which is true. It's worth going to see your favorite player just once on his home court, but I don't think staples itself will awe you.
Click to expand...
It's a modern cookie cutter multipurpose indoor stadium. Nothing special. The food should be better there too. It's still a zillion times better than the Forum in terms of amenities. But the Forum had/has a ton more character, and I think in terms of seeing the game the Forum was better. Too bad they couldn't update that. Still the Forum is in a less than ideal location.
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Lots of fun forum memories, but there were some horrible seats up in the rafters in the cheaper forum sections.

I like the renovations they've made there recently and it's a fun place to see a concert now.

 
Gr00vus said:
Abraham said:
I actually don't think staples is that nice if an arena. The area around it has really built up but I think there are a lot of bad seats and the whole thing feels like three different teams play there, which is true. It's worth going to see your favorite player just once on his home court, but I don't think staples itself will awe you.
Click to expand...
It's a modern cookie cutter multipurpose indoor stadium. Nothing special. The food should be better there too. It's still a zillion times better than the Forum in terms of amenities. But the Forum had/has a ton more character, and I think in terms of seeing the game the Forum was better. Too bad they couldn't update that. Still the Forum is in a less than ideal location.
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Is the Forum close to Staples? Are you able to walk up to it? Would love to take some pics.

 
Gr00vus said:
EYLive said:
How does Russell look so far? Mediocre?
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Mediocre at best so far.
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He's had some flashes. Definitely a slow start but you can see once he gets it and is allowed to have the ball in his hands and run the team he can be special. At least that's what I'm hoping.....

He's been the 2 guard the last three games with Clarkson at point.

 
Not close enough to walk. Forum is in ingle wood while stapes is the southwest corner of downtown.

 
Had a great time. Thanks again for all the suggestions, they were very helpful in making it a great trip for my wife and I. Being outside Staples and just seeing everything for the first time was a bit overwhelming. The statues, all the fans wearing purple and gold, the Kobe chants, being at the center of LA Live was awesome. Inside the arena seeing the banners and the retired jerseys, and just in general seeing things live for the first time after seeing them hundreds of times on TV, just awesome. Hearing Lawrence Tanter introduce the starting lineups and being in the crowd going crazy as they introduced Kobe was so, so special. It is an experience I will never forget and glad I got to see my guy play a home game, before he hangs them up, definitely was at the top of my bucket list.

 
As for the team. It's obvious that the calf injury to Kobe in preseason, and it causing him to miss time if effecting him. Once he gets, 100%, I'm hopeful he will get better. I've learned to never doubt him, but being realistic, as they say father time is undefeated. I'd be a little less worried with a great coach, but I don't see Byron developing this team. Randle and Clarkson have had their moments, but it's all 1 on 1 at this point. The offense is ugly. All the points seem like they come off of individual effort, no flow on offense at all. This scares me the most because I think it's hurting D'Angelo. He's the guy that has to be the man running the show in this offense. To see Byron take him off the ball and play him at shooting guard, letting Clarkson run point is maddening. Yes, Jordan is probably the better point guard right now, but we need Russell to learn and develop, to make mistakes and fix them. Byron needs to ask what Russell wants to run and run that offense, and see him use his skills to get others opportunities. Byron is trying to win and coaching like it, and that's just not whats best for the team right now.

 
Saw a funny/sad tweet from some ESPN guy that said using their BPI rankings (whatever those are), the Lakers are currently only favored to win in 5 of their remaining games this season - the next one on 11/22 vs Portland.

Time to start getting ready for the lottery, baby!

 
This is the fourth season in which I've lived down the street from Staples and I have yet to go to a Lakers game during that time. Went to games as a kid during the Magic era, went to most of the home playoff games during the Kobe-Shaq era, including the Horry game against Sacramento. But now that I could walk to games the team is unwatchable. So sad.

 
I don't have a problem with the initial decision. They were swinging for a franchise type guy and didn't think Okafor was it. But I'm not seeing franchise guy at this point - and I don't see much there showing me he'll develop into that. He seems more like a Monte Ellis who has better floor vision/distribution skills. Doesn't look like a championship cornerstone to me. I hope I'm wrong.

 
At least we're seeing flashes from Randle that he could be a low-end franchise type guy with improvement. Front office might have been blinded by Russell's fancy passes. He has good vision and passing ability, but it's hard to create when you can't drive to the basket and aren't a threat shooting the ball.

 
14 points in the second quarter for Russell.

Oops maybe not all in the second.

 
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FINALLY!!

Just so dumb for D'Angelo to play only 23 mins last night. He finally had a decent game and he played like 30 seconds in the 4th quarter.

I did like the rotation better last night. Instead of giving Kobe 4 separate stints, he had 6. Still struggling to start the game though. Had a couple of good moments, but his shot is still off. Also loved Larry Nance and Metta getting run instead of Bass Huertas and Kelly. Metta still has the hands to play some great D, and he gave the team a different energy when he was in. I really like what I see out of Nance, he has the potential to be rotation player on a good team. If he keeps developing his shot, he could be a real weapon. Kelly shouldn't see the floor anymore, Bass and Huertas haven't played bad, but I think Nance and Tarik Black give the 2nd unit more energy.

The best news though:


Mark Medina ‏@MarkG_Medina 9h9 hours ago
Kobe: "I'm a Laker for life. I'm not playing anywhere else no matter what. It's not going to happen. I bleed purple and gold."

200 retweets 179 likes















  2. Mark Medina ‏@MarkG_Medina 10h10 hours ago
    More Kobe on Phil suggesting he'd play somewhere else after this season: "That's Phil baiting you guys like he always does."

    51 retweets 84 likes



  4. Mark Medina ‏@MarkG_Medina 10h10 hours ago
    Kobe on Phil's comments about him maybe leaving the Lakers after this season: "I'm a Laker for life."

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