2 of Amerika’s Most Wanted: The Official GOAT franchise Boss Angeles Lakers 2019-2020 season thread

[Sinnerman]

He’s been impressive down in the G-League this year

I think Cacok can be our Trez Harrell, but I would like to see Norvell on the South Bay Lakers

He's got some talent and he's a Chicago kid

 

[Sinnerman]

Cacok was too good for this not to happen..I am not sure about waiving Zach Norvell though, I guess they will keep Kostas because of Giannis

You just know some dikk head team like the Mavs are going to pick up Norvell

 

[Regular_P]

Athletic article on Russell was good. A few highlights:

D'Angelo Russell opens up about his twisted Lakers past,...

When Scott yanked Russell, he’d take the long way back to the bench. Using his right hand, he’s tracing the looping route — from the left wing, meandering down toward the opposite baseline before finally curling to the deepest part of his team’s sideline. It wasn’t subtle. It was done with an obvious purpose.

“So I didn’t have to shake the coach’s hands,” Russell recalled. “I’d do little shyt like that.”

Then he’d get to the bench, sit next to one of his teammates and grumble. Grumble about Scott, grumble about the imperfect situation he’d been drafted into, grumble like the teenager he was.

“But what you don’t understand is, hey, there’s a guy right here,” Russell said, pointing over his left shoulder to the second row of seats behind the bench, reserved for lower-level assistant coaches. “And that guy is relaying everything you’re saying. You don’t understand that.”

“D’Angelo came into a completely abnormal NBA environment,” Vitti said. “You know what it was. Kobe put asses in seats, right? I don’t think the world understands this: In 2016, we were the most profitable franchise. People came to see Kobe.”

But he’s ready to open up now, recorder running, sounding like a wise vet at only 23. What he’ll admit: He did himself zero favors. He didn’t know how to be a professional back then. So he wasn’t.

“When it came to shootaround, I was the young guy who wasn’t paying attention,” Russell said. “I was joking around, going around laughing, untying everybody’s shoes. Little shyt like that. People see that.”

But, at 19, context is often lost. Kobe was a legend, but, to Russell and the team’s three other young building blocks (Julius Randle, Larry Nance and Jordan Clarkson), he was also an older teammate who barely practiced yet received all the shots and minutes and fame he desired despite poor performance, while they were admonished for every little infraction. What a life.

Scott moved Russell to the bench in December. He didn’t handle it well. That’s when he rerouted his path to and from the court, making sure to avoid public hand-shaking with his coaches.

“I acted really young about it,” he said. “I did all the antics. Anything you could think of, I’d do it. Just to make a scene about it.”

Russell was awed by Kobe. He hung out with Bryant’s security guard. But their age difference was too massive, Kobe’s off-court responsibilities too time-consuming, Russell’s youthful behavior too agitating for them to interact much. When they did, it was like a college professor spouting advanced philosophy to a seventh-grader.

“Looking back on it, he dropped so many jewels on me that I didn’t even hear because I was not there mentally,” Russell said. “I remember one time we were in Houston and I went to his room with his security guard. Kobe comes in and says, ‘You know, when you go on these road trips, you want to have fun, you want to turn up, you want to do all that in these cities.’ But he said, ‘I gained an edge by taking meetings on these road trips, business meetings. What can I do to establish my brand, figure out what I like to do, advance my life after basketball?'”

Russell didn’t consume the lesson. He said he just left the room thinking: Wow, that was cool. I just talked to Kobe.

“But looking back on it, I’m like, man, he was really teaching me what’s really relevant now and a lot of kids don’t get it until they’re 8-10 years in and realize what they want to do,” he said. “Then they attack it, but they’re on their way out and their (ability to make money) isn’t the same.”

Since Kobe’s mentorship was too advanced and Ron Artest’s was probably a bit too kooky, Russell (and the other young Lakers) gravitated to another of the team’s veterans: Nick Young, nine seasons into his career but still very willing to pal around the Hollywood scene with people nearly a decade younger.

What started in the entertainment blogosphere crashed like a tidal wave into Staples Center. It quickly became the biggest story in sports. Young was the guy who cheated, but Russell emerged, to many in the league, as the villain of the situation — a teammate who violated the bro code.

“Man,” Russell sighed. “It was tough. I’d say it like this: It was tough because everyone I looked up to was kind of dogging me. I’d go into these arenas and meet these players for the first time, that I was a fan of, and they’d kind of side-shoulder me, like, nah, bro.”

His basketball heroes were afraid to be seen with him. The internet was howling at him in laughter. His older teammates — like Lou Williams, who became the face of the older group isolating him in the locker room — purposefully turned their backs. Russell was 19.

He was a knucklehead for the Nets too but I just wanted to post the LA portions.

 

[ALonelyDad]

I would've hated his fit. The last thing Lakers need his someone whose main strength is having the ball in his hands. Lakers needed a 3 and D at the point since Lebron is the PG for the offense. I think that point guard defense of Bradley is way more important.

We still would have been able to get Bradley and Green, the only guy they would have missed out on is KCP. D'LO would have also gave Lakers a legit 3rd option. With how good everyone else has been defensively, I think his fit wouldn't be that bad.

 

[CantStop]

We still would have been able to get Bradley and Green, the only guy they would have missed out on is KCP. D'LO would have also gave Lakers a legit 3rd option. With how good everyone else has been defensively, I think his fit wouldn't be that bad.

The thing is, our starting lineup right now works cause no one is a liability defensively. DLO is so bad on defense. He wasn’t gonna come off the bench and play 20 mins either. Also our offense is good right now cause we are playing bron ball. Dlo with the ball in his hands take away from that. How would we have been able to get Green? It was either sign a max guy or split up the money.

 

[Trojan 24]

Athletic article on Russell was good. A few highlights:

D'Angelo Russell opens up about his twisted Lakers past,...













He was a knucklehead for the Nets too but I just wanted to post the LA portions.

That snitch shyt was too much, he had to go at that point for better or worse

 

[Flex Luger]

 

[Rekkapryde]

It's crazy to think Lonzo would be backing up AC Fresh if he was still on this team.

Just let AD make it to the playoffs healthy. That's the ONLY thing that will stop us

 

[Lakerman0834]

Bad news Augustine usually looks like prime isiah thomas vs us

 

[FireFatMike]

I'm more worried about the Johnathan Issac vs AD.

 

[Flex Luger]

 

[Flex Luger]

 

[GzUp]

 

[Flex Luger]

Time to get this win

 

[Sinnerman]

LWO