u/danevans369

I have been seeing a lot of negative posts on how Rob/Lakers were fleeced and how this team is worse and I want to show the other side that many of these people do not see:

Before Luka

Prior to the Luka trade, we were on a crash coarse with LeBron and AD. Lets pretend for a moment we continued on the path of trying to win with them….

1. We could never trade LeBron and get anything back for him and ADs value is so cooked due to his injuries I don’t think we would have been able to trade him (or gotten peanuts)
2. We would have gone all in with our trades for older pieces to appease LeBron and try to compete which would leave us in a terrible spot post LeBron

Now with Luka, AR, and Kessler, we have a future.

If things do not work out in a year or two, we can punt and trade them for draft picks and young players.

So we actually have a future which we would NOT have had we continued with LeBron and AD.

Kessler Trade

People are complaining that we paid too much for him.

Here’s the deal…we are all in on Luka which means he needs a top tier Center. Without one, Luka would complain that he cant maximize his style of play then we'd be worried he would want to leave. We just saw what it looks like with Ayton which was shit. Kessler gives Luka all he needs and was the ONLY option available. Duren would have cost more than Kessler and Duren just proved he could not perform in the playoffs.

Kessler can block, catch lobs, shoot the 3, pass, and can actually run on a fast break unlike Ayton who is super slow. Kessler is not an “amazing” player. He is “what we need” to maximize Luka.

We gave up 2 first picks and 2 swaps but no other player. We had NO other player worth trading (other than AR)  because we were playing catchup from the Westbrook fiasco and frankensteining teams to appease LeBrons win now needs.

If we used one of those picks to select Kessler, then technically we only gave up one extra first round for him. The swaps are almost useless since our picks will probably be late rounders and take years to develop.

We also had no other options. Robinson and Timelord would be AD all over again where we are constantly dealing with injured centers. We need stability and Kessler gives us that.

As for overpaying him. Yes we did because there is now a “Wemby tax” and centers values have skyrocketed. Every team will now have to overpay for centers to compete against Wemby and to a lesser extent Jokic and IHart/Chet. Same thing happened with 3-point shooters when Golden State was running the league.

Lastly, Kessler was never maximized on the Jazz since they were always trying to lose so we have yet to see Kessler at 100%.

Old and Slow

LeBron, Marcus, Luke, and Rui are older and slower. We got younger and faster which is what we need to compete against the Spurs and OKC. If we continued on the same path we were on last year, we would basically be in the same spot: First or Second round exit with no hope.

I don’t think this current team is much better than last year. Its more of a lateral move for the long term. So our future is brighter than where we were. There is definitely room for improvement.

It took us 8 years of shit before LeBron came after the Kobe years. We just skipped those shit years!

Father Time

I have mad respect for LeBron. But Father Time is unbeaten and any day now he is gonna pop with an injury. Continuing to prioritize him would be a huge mistake.

Same goes with Marcus: I love him and he is a dog. But he is old and injury prone.

Lakers knew we had to get younger and move away from the older guys. 

All the guys we have now are 28 and younger.

Total Trade Perspective

For Luka and Kessler, we gave up: 

• Injured AD
• Max Christie
• 3 First Round picks
• 2 Pick Swaps

That is TOTALLY worth it!

Remember, Luka needs a center like Kessler to be fully unlocked so you have to see it as One Trade.

I saw AD play on the Mavs last year and besides his first game, he looked like he was ready to break. So I say thank God we got off him and I am pretty sure this is why Rob never got the Center he asked for.