Trading Russell when you are about to land PG13 and James is not a mistake but that said, Russell is going to shine in Brooklyn under Kenny.
Only upside for them is winning 30 games, finishing over .500, or grabbing a low seedThat the Lakers found a way to get out of that horrific Mozgov contract is nothing short of amazing.
LWO should be ecstatic.
The Nets however...I don't see the upside here, unless they think Russell is a real star in the making.
We Couldve traded Russell from Cousins at the deadlineEVEN IF THEY DONT GET BRON
THEY CAN SIGN PG AND COUSINS.
IT WAS A GOOD DEAL FOR BOTH TEAMS.
That the Lakers found a way to get out of that horrific Mozgov contract is nothing short of amazing.
LWO should be ecstatic.
The Nets however...I don't see the upside here, unless they think Russell is a real star in the making.
Difference is that Duncan even in his prime showed willingness to not be the center of attention on offense and allow others to take over. I don't trust a past his prime Lebron to turn over the offense to anyone and pick his spots. He may have it in him but hasn't really shown it up to this point.Yup. True but I still will take an out of his prime LeBron over most SFs in the league. He can be like Duncan was on the Spurs his last 5 years and allow George and Lonzo to be Kawhi and (hopefully) a better version of LaMarcus. Bron has always been able to attract skilled vets at great contracts. Lakers will play with the unselfish basketball mindset (Bron, Ball and Magic are all about that). This will helo make it an attractive place to ring chase. Add in a few scrubs and we have a contender to make the NBA finals. I ain't guaranteeing titles but they will be closer than at least 25 teams in the league.
Jeff Green/Jody Meeks, future 1st for Deng/IngramNow we need to find someone to eat that deng contract and we in in business
The young core loved D'Tective.Snitches get stitches
I like this move.
> gets D. Loading's 'I'm a SUPER STAR' ego off the team (you don't build a franchise around D. Loading. You build a outside 3-on-3 weekend tournament team around him)
> brings back locker room trust
> allows space for Lonzo Ball
> only 1 PG leader on the team, no Russell vs Ball stress
I like it
A 34 year old LeBron is still better than 99% of the players in the league.You wanna max out a 34 yr old LeBron?
If Russell develops into a star it'll be great for the Nets.They literally could've added damn near nobody to the roster this year. Instead they add a still developing #2 pick with the keys to the offense. They weren't adding anyone in FA anyway so it doesn't matter if they took the Mozgov contract or not. When they are allowed to draft again Mozgov's contract will be expiring, it's a win/win for them. They made out like bandits in this deal too because the Lakers didn't need to get rid of Russell yet because the first man up for RFA is actually Randle.
If Russell develops into a star it'll be great for the Nets.
For now the view is that the Nets took on an ugly Mozgov contract for the privilege to give D'Angelo Russell the opportunity to "develop" in a worse situation than Los Angeles.
The Lakers won this trade, in large part because they got rid of Mozgov, and perhaps less quantifiably, because they will avoid any confusion/drama on the floor with Russell/Lonzo Ball.