Fully understand they are missing Ja. And Adams is out for the year. But they still have 2 max contract guys in Bane and JJJ. Plenty of teams miss their star play and play fine. An example this year is the Kings missing Fox for 70% of their games, and they are chugging along fine. When the Grizz missed Ja a lot last year, they actually had a better W/L with Tyus Jones at helm.
I’m not expecting them to be a top 5 seed or anything. But 1-8??? The worst team in the league?? They’ve also had the easiest schedule in the league with playing the Blazers 2x, Jazz 2x, and Wizards (1-5 in those games). They gave Desmond Bane a $210 mil max contract to lead their team to a 1-8 start? Something is not adding up
Both of those guys are overrated
The excuse/reason is that Bane and especially JJJ are overrated
5 of their 9 games have been against the trail blazers, wizards and Jazz
Couldn’t happen to a more likable team
Refs
Bro why do people talk like 8 game losing streaks are a catastrophic disaster. Most teams have one of these per season, chill
Still can’t really believe they just got rid of brooks for nothing and shit on him cause of the laker series,at least get something in return, really stupid.
Even elite role players get max contracts now. Both Bane and JJJ are really good players but not All Pro levels guys that can carry a team. They are elite cogs in a machine…
Losing Ja was one thing but the loss of Adams was a knockout…best rebounder, set the league’s best screens. Screening is a super important of good defense, they create space and can knock a dermfense off axis. A lot of guys dont have the 1st step to beat a defender…they depend on that bone crunching screen to give them room to work and get to the lane
Also Adams lets JJJ be able to play free safety which he is best at defensively. Now JJJ has to stay in lane more and tussle with bigger centers
Well also too it’s not as if they had a string of close losses.
Both Bane and JJJ are overpaid, and kind of overrated. Bane is nowhere near a max-level player and JJJ is a great defender but inconsistent everywhere else. They are good, but both of them would be like the third or fourth best player at best on the rest of the West contenders. They need Ja.
Give me Bane as my #2 on a solid roster and I’m very happy
Just shut down ja for year too. Get a top pick
Because they traded all their depth for young players, and all those young players are not not actually good. Tyus gone, Melton gone, Anderson gone.
Beyond J and Adams they also had other people out too.
The simply fact is that they wanted to get younger and younger despite already being good, and that’s what we are seeing.
All the drama around Ja and Dillon have taken a toll
There’s no grit and there’s no grind.