Quote from: danherbias07 on Today at 12:08:57 AM

Quote from: wheelz1200 on December 03, 2022, 04:54:30 PM

Long season they need to stay healthy. That has been their downfall is they can't stay on the court for long stretches of the season. If AD can stay healthy they will contend. Also need to trade for another piece. A deep threat wing or shooting guard to space the floor more would go a long way on that team.

I have this bad feeling that the Lakers will be nothing again when AD is injured. That should not be the case. They cannot be an AD-dependent team because they won't know what could happen.
Darvin Ham should try to bench him and experiment with some player combinations. Maybe in times of a back to back games.
There's one game where he didn't play but that's against the Spurs, one of the weakest teams in the league now and they only won by 5 points in a high-scoring game AD-less.

I do not think they can afford to bench AD yet. He is at his prime right now and the Lakers should not waste it. They are still catching up with wins, they badly needed, to at least get up to top 10 for a possible play in. Maybe, when they are in a comfortable position in rankings, they can give some rest to AD either by not playing back-to-back or giving less minutes to rest his body. They cannot afford AD getting injured, but they also cannot afford to sit AD out. A very difficult situation for Darvin Ham to balance.

Quote from: beerlover on Today at 12:51:11 PM

Honestly Portland realized that they won't be able to do anything in Dame era, and looking to find new and younger players to build around a new star. They will need great players coming up draft, first it can't be a superstar right away, would be very hard to get number one pick this year for example, there is a huge expectation out of Wembayama and if they can get him, then they could build around him.

I would say the smartest thing Dallas could do this year would be that for example, get the first pick, give WHOEVER they want outside of doncic, that's it, get Doncic and Wembayama on the same team, or for Portland Dame and him again, would be great improvement.

It is still a lottery, so even both teams tank, they are not secured they will be able to get Wembayama. I think that is also the target of the Spurs.

Also, even the top pick of the draft can go bust. It happened in the past and could happen to the top pick next year. Sometime, a player play really great in college or high school but cannot convert in NBA.