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Podcast: Lakers Trade Talk, Ingram vs. Cousins, & More

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I’ve never seen a player actually be in the All-Star game and then get traded within an hour of when that game ended, but that’s exactly what happened Sunday night when the Kings dealt DeMarcus Cousins to the Pelicans for a package which is being widely mocked around the league.

Stemming from that deal was the report the Lakers were discussing a deal for Cousins themselves before refusing to include Brandon Ingram. In the latest episode of the Laker Film Room Podcast, Pete and I discuss that Lakers’ decision, trade rumors focusing on Lou Williams, and what types of deals the team should explore heading into Thursday’s trade deadline.

Click through to listen the episode.

https://soundcloud.com/user-456873398/lakers-reject-cousins-for-ingram


Reader Interactions

Comments

  3. fern16 says

    Read the article i just linked. It gives a bigger insight of what has happened the last 7 years. Sone if the stuff gets me really mad.

  4. Clay Bertrand says

    fern16

    I read it earlier.  Good bits of insider info in there………..That’s why I want Magic to interrogate these guys separately in sound proof rooms…………

  5. fern16 says

    I don’t find it scathing, i see the truth with a lot of stuff explained that we didn’t knew, not trading CP for Bynum? Even after The Dr himself was advocating for it? . And then the veto and all the fall out of triying to break up that championship core which wasn’t what the good Dr intended and disgruntling Pau and sending Lamar career and life in a downward spiral? This will create a dumpster fire with the fanbase and rightly so. It’s time to right the ship. Enough is enough!!!

  6. Clay Bertrand says

    fern16

    You don’t think it was a piece that was critical of the FO????  Is has the words “…Damning case against Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak” in the HEADLINE!!!!!!!!!!! LOL

    Like I said, good bits of insider info that we didn’t know. It reveals a bigger, clearer picture of Jim’s ineptitude mainly.  

    I just would like to know how much Mitch was forced to basically go along with, and how many of HIS decisions were actually bad.  He is an employee and he could have been just toeing the company line and giving his input but always yielding to Jim.  

    He has always maintained that its a group decision. But Mitch is a very careful public speaker and he gives measured yet very empty responses 80% of the time.  

    It’d just hate to fire Mitch if it means losing a valuable FO mind that is going down with the SS JIM BUSS sinkage.  Reassign him to a more senior role if he’s worth keeping.  

    I basically want to know if Mitch was the driving force or whether it was Jim.  It SOUNDS like it was mostly Jim.  

    If Dan D’Antoni has to play Sacre or risk his job, what is Mitch forced to stomach???

  7. bluehill says

    That article, if accurate and with appropriate context, is pretty damning and supports the idea that Dr. Buss’ passing left a leadership vacuum that was filled by people with different agendas/ideas. The stuff about Jim doesn’t seem that surprising and to be fair to Jim, it’s not he’s the first owner to think he knows how to run operations (see Jim Dolan, Dan Syder).
    The stuff about Mitch is more concerning. It seems like it wasn’t all Jim in terms of some of the FA misses. What’s the saying? Generals always fight the last war. I still think that Mitch is a talented GM and hindsight is always perfect. I know Thomas wanted to play for the Lakers, but Sacre probably still wants to play for the Lakers. However, a theme seems to be emerging about Mitch’s comfort/belief in going full-rebuild and playing the new guys vs rebuilding through free agency.

    I think a lot of this aimlessness is the result of not having someone at top setting the direction in the way Dr. Buss did, so maybe that’s what Magic believes his role is. If that’s the extent of it, I think that it could be positive especially when it comes to recruiting. However, still wonder if the rest of the Buss kids are comfortable with this arrangement.

  8. fern16 says

    You misunderstood me, i said is not scathing because is the TRUTH. Is an indictment of the current regime supported by facts. That’s what i meant…

  9. mattal says

    Ireland said on the radio that Mitch green lighted Mozgov/Deng. The article pointed out his obsession with middling vets over talented youth. I like Mitch too but his hands, like Jim’s, are also covered in blood.

  10. Clay Bertrand says

    mattal

    “Ireland said on the radio that Mitch green lighted Mozgov/Deng”
    __________________________________

    Final nail for me on Mitch then.  Those guys don’t even pass Stevie Wonder’s eye test…………..

  11. Clay Bertrand says

    fern16

    I was just messing with you bro…..I know you were more saying its not bashing criticism so if its just the plain truth.  

    It all sounds bad for the FO.  

    I think the point about BAD LEADERSHIP being worse than merely doing a BAD JOB rings true.

  14. bluehill says

    Clay Bertrand bluehill Exactly! Certainly makes you wonder what the reasoning was behind those decisions, especially the length of the contracts. 
    I’ll say this about Magic and his business abilities – I have no idea how big his business ventures are, but assuming they are substantial, he has to have some skills. It’s hard not only to build a business but even more to sustain it. Magic appears to have done both.

  15. Clay Bertrand says

    bluehill Clay Bertrand

    As long as by SHOT CALLER he means, he will do the HIRING to retool the FO.  Clearly he empowers his business employees to run things so that he doesn’t have to.  Let’s hope he takes the same approach here.

  16. FredP says

    The Cousins deal still makes little sense even after reading analyses on different sites.  Ainge clearly did not have any interest in him given how little NO gave up.  In a way, the Nash deal prevented the Lakers from being able to make a successful pitch.  They simply do not have the young players to make the deal without gutting their lineup since they do not have the precious first rounder to sweeten the deal.
    The Ding article is very disturbing but illuminating on what has been going on for the past few years.  How comfortable can you be with Mitch and Jim making any deals at this point?  Magic does have a chance to come in as a savior depending on how he handles the GM position.

  17. FredP says

    By the way, thanks for the timely podcast.  As usual it was very informative and fun to get the different thoughts on good deals for the Lakers going into the trade deadline.

  20. _ Robert _ says

    Cousins: I did not want him as the cornerstone SuperStar at this point in time in our development.   I do think it is a good move for NOLA as they now arguably have 2 of the top 10 or so players in the league and they are young.   That is a formula for success. 
    FO:   The article is pointing out why Magic is here.   I have been slamming the FO since right after the VETO and often I have been met with vocal defenders of Mitch and Jim.  Those defenses have been a lot quieter as time has gone on  (in fact some of the most vocal ones have left this board entirely).   Now that Magic is adding some “official” (now that he has been named consultant) question marks to the equation, people are listening in mass.  This is simply building a public consensus before the actual action of major change.
    Jeanie:  She is certainly not innocent in all this.  My preference is for the Buss Family to sell the team.  However – barring that – if she gets her brother out it will be a major accomplishment.
    bluehill:   Yes – I have used the Dan Snyder analogy many times.   He and Jerry Jones are the best examples of playing Fantasy Football with a real team.  Dolan has wised up a little and nobody has really done this in basketball well except – Jim Buss.  in addition to Snyder, the parallel is incredible.  One of the greatest owners of all time Jack Kent Cooke leaves the team in Trust and his son John Cooke takes over and chaos ensues.

  21. new rr says

    _ Robert _

    The Lakers now have seven guys age 19-25:
    Ingram/Zubac/Russell/Randle/Nance/Clarkson/Black
    That could combine into a group that could draw the next star, or help to leverage such, like Jerry West was able to do between Magic’s retirement and the acquisitions of Shaq and Kobe. Perhaps Lou Williams can be leveraged into an 8th guy/pick to help out, with Kelly Oubre being one obvious candidate. 
    But the problem is that Deng and Mozgov are taking up as much cap space (a little more, actually) than most max guys will over the next three years, which will make taking that next step much harder, even if the young guys develop.

  22. bluehill says

    Then again you read this and think maybe Mitch is pretty good after all
    – Asked why [Divac] didn’t wait until closer to Thursday’s trade deadline to make a move, he said, “Most likely we would get less, because I had a better deal two days ago.”

  23. Clay Bertrand says

    bluehill

    Some are reporting that what he meant and what he was inferring, is that he could not pull the trigger on the “better deal” because he could not get the green light from Vivek.  

    The initial response to his statement were gasps of, “How stupid are you???”   There has been some context to indicate that his comment was made in reference to his trying to do the deal previously but was somehow unable to duw to ownership or FO conflict and it was “pulled” by the pissed off other team.

  24. new rr says

    bluehill

    The funny thing about the Jim Buss/Sacre narrative in the article is that the I mentioned a few weeks ago that if the Lakers wanted “size and clubhouse affability” then it would have been better to keep Sacre on a small deal than to pay big $ for Mozgov. If the Jim/Sacre stuff is true, Jim should have followed his heart on that one. 
    The other noteworthy thing for me in the piece was the Paul/Bynum/Jim Buss stuff.

  25. drrayeye says

    Robert, other long time bloggers on this site:

    I’ve been thinking the same about the front office for a long time.
    Hopefully, the FO does some sort of trade with the Wizards for a first round draft pick +.  Young and Calderon as part of any package.

    I also hope that Magic and Jeanie can keep Jimmy and Mitch from doing further damage before they are “reassigned.”   The details in Ding’s writeup should be unnecessary to those of us who have followed the Lakers from at least the late Jerry years.

    There are many many possibilities to consider once the Lakers have fresh vision this summer.

    These are interesting times.

  26. fern16 says

    Well, i doubt anyone here knew about the possibility of trading CP for Bynum and Jim Buss refusal or that Dr Buss still wanted CP here after the veto and authorized any means necessary and Jimbo basically blew him off. Or why a useless scrub like Sacre spent 4 seasons in the team…

  27. bluehill says

    Thanks. Should have guessed there was more to the story. Sounds like SAC’s FO is as, if not more, dysfunctional than our own. Here, Jeanie is the one that publicly throws people under the bus no pun intended.

  28. _ Robert _ says

    drrayeye: Yes – interesting times.  Different from when Ken was posting 20 times in a game thread complain complaining about the Lakers,  or different than when I was complained about us having the “6th” best team in the league (little did I know),   and different than when Aaron lectured us daily on how the Lakers had a master plan.   Still a few of us around – like rr.

    Wizards:   No garbage from them.  Nicholsons belong in the stands not on the bench.

  29. fern16 says

    I been here since like 09, who can forget Ken and his endless complaining during games and every season he picked a player to hate on. I argued a lot with him mostly one sided lol. Aaron was a character lol. I remember being worried about the Lakers not having the best record in the West. Times has changed. I remember not guving a crap about the Draft.

  30. Clay Bertrand says

    bluehill

    Actually, they are now saying that the claims by Cousins’  agent that he would not re-sign with any team trading for him apparently caused the “BETTER OFFER” team to back out.  

    Basically, Vlade is bad, but he’s not as bad as his awkward admission made him look at his job.

  32. Clay Bertrand says

    SO no Magic and FO meeting today after all!!!!???? That’s ok……..not like its urgent to try to keep Jim from trading away the whole team before the Trade deadline IN 3 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!  SMH……….

  33. Clay Bertrand says

    new rr

    “NO I won’t be flying back today!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Whose idea was it do have this damn meeting during Marte Gras anyway??!?!??!?”

    – Jim Buss down in the Big Easy partyin with his boy Sacre

  35. david__h says

    so if it was in fact just an ingram for cousins trade toss up;  I would have included both mozgov and deng as a take it or leave it proposition to see if sacto was in fact stupid enough to take that offer.

    liking how you and pete opened up the podcast with a little levity to start off;  darius “tyreke” soriano.
    keep it coming guys.