[BostonCard]

The Lakers are a mess.  My guess is Westbrook will be traded.

They really should trade LeBron James. It's not like he is anything other than a mercenary, and he has said he will sign with whatever NBA team drafts his son.

To make the Westbrook trade, they would need to part with their only remaining first round picks the rest of this decade because the only way a team is taking him on is they want the draft compensation to do so. 

If they trade LeBron they can at least get something back to build on in the form of draft capital and or young players with big upside.

As it is now, they could get Buddy Hield, not be good enough for title contention, and also piss away the draft picks. LeBron wants to win now, so put him on a team he can.

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That said, after watching them against the Warriors, wow are they not contenders.  When you are starting Patrick Beverly you have major problems. But their bench is dreadful as well, like really bad. 

I see we are back to making sweeping conclusions after one game.

BC

Make a case for us as to why the Lakers as constructed now shouldn't be written off.

The case is that we are one game into an 82 game season, and that was against the defending NBA champs. Do I expect them to be great, no, for the reasons that Leftcoast articulated.  But until they tank in order to get into the Wembanyama sweepstakes, I’m not going to write them off.

BC

[BostonCard]

The Lakers are a mess.  My guess is Westbrook will be traded.

They really should trade LeBron James. It's not like he is anything other than a mercenary, and he has said he will sign with whatever NBA team drafts his son.

To make the Westbrook trade, they would need to part with their only remaining first round picks the rest of this decade because the only way a team is taking him on is they want the draft compensation to do so. 

If they trade LeBron they can at least get something back to build on in the form of draft capital and or young players with big upside.

As it is now, they could get Buddy Hield, not be good enough for title contention, and also piss away the draft picks. LeBron wants to win now, so put him on a team he can.

---

That said, after watching them against the Warriors, wow are they not contenders.  When you are starting Patrick Beverly you have major problems. But their bench is dreadful as well, like really bad. 

I see we are back to making sweeping conclusions after one game.

BC

Make a case for us as to why the Lakers as constructed now shouldn't be written off.

The case is that we are one game into an 82 game season, and that was against the defending NBA champs. Do I expect them to be great, no, for the reasons that Leftcoast articulated.  But until they tank in order to get into the Wembanyama sweepstakes, I’m not going to write them off.

BC