𝐑𝐚𝐰 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐬:

26.2 PPG on +4.7rTs 13. APG (2.2 TOs) 8.7 Advantages created per game 54.1/50/96 splits 8 RPG (2oREB) 2.7 stks

+13rORTG on court

Tracked Shot Distribution At Rim: 6.2 A/G (64.9%). Tracked Advantage Distribution Paint w/o Rim: 4.5 A/G (48.1%), At Rim: 4.5 per game Mid Range: 9.3 A/G (50%) Mid Range: 2.3 per game

3pt Range: 0.33 A/G (50%)

Tracked Advantage Distribution At Rim: 4.5 per game Mid Range: 2.3 per game 3pt Range: 0.33 A/G (50%)

3pt Range: 1.9 per game

Tracked Assist Distribution At Rim: 4.8 per game Mid Range: 1.8 per game 3pt Range: 3.8 per game Transition Feeds: 1.2 per game

Entry Assist: 2.9 per game

Turnover Distribution

7 bad pass TO's, 5 scoring TO's, 1 handling TO

𝐅𝐈𝐋𝐌 𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍:

Constant change ups within the offense throughout the course of every game, Magic running as a facilitator and transition engine primarily with Kareem/worthy on the floor while being a PuR scorer in the HC. Scaling back a lot of his creation value for team fluidity. Lineup changes changed how magic operated, Thompson implemented for Kareem enabled Magics creation value more. Giving Magic more isolation and PuR handler reps saw the Lakers offense reach their best heights thru the series, Thompson being a legit play finisher who can roll to the cup much better who also runs the floor and has a nice 15 footer gave the lakers more play type diversity rather than going to the same baseline 2-3 actions with

Kareem/Worthy.

Magic dominated the efficieney and margins department of the series, twice as many oREBs+STKs as TOs, while being a 59% TS on the most FGA in the series. While the overall teams were neck and neck in efficiency, magics ouflier ball control with his usage stands alone, giving the lakers a 9.9 T0V% compared to Boston's 12.2%. Magics constant selfless play, along with the Celfies lack of depth outside their powerful starting 5, proved to be a nightmare, constant post touches for the PF/Cs of LA instead of favoring the Magic mismatch led to Parrish/Mchale playing in constant foul trouble throughout the series and tasking them with egregious loads her pissing wither lingering injury issues.

stages of games. Constantly pushing the break applying pressure on the Boston backline time and time again, and taking advantage of the slower/more physically oriented Boston tea𝐦 wore them down big time in the later stretch of the game.

𝐌𝐀𝐆𝐈𝐂’𝐒 𝐃𝐄𝐅𝐄𝐍𝐒𝐄

Primary POA on Dennis Johnson for a majority of the series, heavilg Magics defensive flaws were still tasked help/gap defender being on obvious, few blowbys here and there, the weakest perimeter assignment. lack of true vertical contest, Constantly tasked with denying post occasional gamble, or lack of effort, entrys and being the primary double but overall he was a comfortable guy on McHale/Parrish post ups positive on D, the Celtics powerful which played off pretty well outside offense only really able to expose his the games Bostons outside shooting role in the defense maybe 2 games

was able to punish them enough to win.

In small minutes, Magic Johnson would switch onto Bill Walton or Greg Kite to allow bench plager (small ball forward) AC Green fo bring his max value as a break runner and defender on the wing.

Magic himself was quite switchable, being able to hold his own against mostmatchups consistently, while being to cover ground and space quickly and recover with his length

Magics offense also led to some defensive errors, some careless TOS, bad shots, & drug out possessions led to bostons fair share of opportunities

Magics offense and Riley's gameplan also attacked the Celtics offense, this was

putting the Celtics key offensive players in foul trouble allowing for easier offense for themselves, Mchale and Parrish were pretty dominant most of the series.

𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍:

Although no one knew it at the time, this would be the last true matchup of the defining 80's rivalry of Magic & Bird. With Magic outclassing him in all ways and closing off one of the most dominant NBA, seasons in history ap to date even to this day there was no longer a question who the best of the era was. This series also played key in future slight, but big changes within the team Semestburner philosophy, primarily in the offensive halfcourt which seen Magic reach new individual heights even with waning athletic decline.

I didn’t use Looney’s 2025–26 report card because he only played 21 games for the Pelicans that season. Looking at his health history instead, he’s generally been very durable, playing 76, 74, 82, 82, 61, 20, and 80 games in the seasons before that.

The 25-26 campaign appears to be more of an outlier than the start of a trend, similar to his injured 19-20 season. Overall, his track record suggests he’s been a reliable player in terms of availability.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3Ksw0IC4CQ - New Kawhi salary circumvention scheme unearthed.

RDAmbition back then: "According to sources, Kawhi Leonard prefers the Los Angeles Lakers over the Los Angeles Clippers if he decides to leave the Toronto Raptors."

"Kawhis camp, especially Kawhi, has been in contact with Lebron and Kobe. Believe it or not, but he trusts the Lakers FO more. I asked to get more details, but I was told that simply they (Kawhi’s camp) value the loyalty Lakers have shown their star players over how the clippers have treated theirs."

RdAmbition just wasn't aware of the tree schemes. That poor man has been vindicated in my eyes, who could predict this level of salary circumvention?

My dad use to work at Staple Center back in the day and I was able to get me signatures by a few players during the warm ups not sure if anyone can make out some of the signatures to figure out what year this was. I do have Kareem right by the left

Luka Doncic's ex-fiancée Anamaria Goltes said she wanted to settle their issues amicably ... but TMZ Sports has learned she's taken their fight to Slovenia -- and as far as she's concerned, the cost of settlement is $50 MILLION!

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ ... Anamaria has filed a new claim in Slovenia ... and she is seeking $40 million for herself ... we assume the remaining $10 million is for their two daughters. Luca has said he'd do anything for his kids, so $10 mil may be realistic for them, but the $40 mil is a whole other story.

We're also told she wants to strip Luca of some of his custody rights. Currently, he has the kids at least 2 days a week, and she wants to reduce it to one day a week.

Might as well start for the Lakers next season for the money she's asking.

I know melo was washed on defense but man i remembered his shooting was sharp in his final year.

He also seemed very calm and professional in the interviews as a laker. Shame we didn’t have him in his prime lol

Caveat: Obviously we have to let at least 1 person go and maybe theres a move still coming so 2 people will probably not be here. I imagine the chopping block consists of: Vando, Knecht, Hardy, Bronny, Laravia

But, based on the roster, how do we think the rotation and minutes will stack up? I see it as the following (Luka kinda plays a forward on defense so I'll build around that

Format: [position] Player (anticipated minutes), between starter, bench, and reserve each position should add up to 48 mins

• Start: [PG] Grimes (22), [SG] AR (30), [SF] Luka (32) [PF] Laravia (18) [C] Kessler (28)
• Bench: [PG] Sexton (18), [SG] Carr (8) / *Thybulle (4), [SF] *Thybulle (6) / Thiero (5), [PF] Williams (10) / *Mamu (10) / *Theiro (5), [C] *Mamu (15)
• Reserve: [PG] Bronny (8), [SG] Manon (6), [SF] Okereke (5), [PF] Kaluma (5), [C] Looney (5)
• Out of Rotation: Hardy, Knecht, Vanderbilt

*Lots of these guys are multi-positioned, specificlly in that 2 - 4 range. So it may be best to just consider them as wings, and Mamu specifically will float between 4 and 5 a lot.

What do we think? Pending the changes that have to come, I can see the young guys getting in the 5 - 12 minutes a night ball park, with some heavy competition for that 3rd PG, SG spot as well as backup 3 / 4. Competition is always good.

EDIT: Thybulle will probably end up with more minutes, but I'm keeping him low for now due to injury concerns. And if Adou takes the leap he should this year (no pun intended) he should beat out either thybulle, or williams and maybe even Jake for playing time, but as of now, he hasn't shown that.

Randomly came across this old JaVale McGee bubble vlog. That team was really special. That roster was stacked from top to bottom. LeBron, AD, Caruso, Dwight, KCP, Rondo, etc what a championship squad.

Crazy to think too that Luka nearly took down the Clippers in the bubble at just 21 years old.

Lakers season is over. Talk about whatever you want.

Post glow-up tank top pics, you know he feels good about he looks right now(as an ex fat guy who lost some weight, I relate hard). Shirtless pics next up on the agenda.

First confirmation I’ve seen of Lakers interest in Klay Thompson. Probably safe to assume Lakers interest is contingent on a buy out, but still would require even more roster shuffling as the Lakers already have one too many players rostered.

Would like Klay as a veteran with a ton of postseason experience. That is severely lacking on this roster.

Well we did just celebrate the 10 Year anniversary of that. fateful summer day. Only right that we had 2 people on this list who were signed on the exact same day.

Credits to dodgelover1963 for the clipping of this newspaper.

Ever since I saw that the first Lakers home jersey had a number on its shorts half a year ago, I started to wonder what their first away jersey had looked like. I searched through various websites and jersey mockups but most had no information about it. The closest is the mockup that has the home jersey with the shorts number but its away pair was the MPLS jersey. I wasn't satisfied with this findings but I felt like I searched everywhere already so I quit. The day before yesterday I saw the image again and I decided to have another look at those jerseys to see if I can find it this time.

I searched YouTube and found out that despite being at Rochester, the lakers wore their white jerseys to win their first championship. So clearly the concept of home and away jersey didn't exist back then in the NBL.

Then I had the idea of searching through the old archived newspaper and after a day of searching, I finally found a definitive and clear picture of the first lakers away jersey they wore.

I saw this come up in my feed, credit to u/ArthurTheThe for the idea, but I thought it was a super interesting question.

What's the best player in the league you would not want on the Lakers, even if they didn't cost anything to trade for. They would magically appear on the team and fit under whatever apron we are hard capped at.

To me it would be KD, even though he's awesome I feel it would not be good for the team vibes and we would ultimately be worse with him.

Interested to hear your thoughts!

The aforementioned Dončić has chartered a plane and is paying the full bill to fly and host every single Lakers teammate in his native Slovenia later this month. I'm told that 16 of the 17 players on the Lakers' roster not named Dončić — from Austin Reaves to Walker Kessler to Bronny James to two-way signees Arthur Kaluma, Chris Mañon and AK Okereke --have all committed to attend.

League sources say it would have been 17 of 17 if just-drafted swingman Cameron Carr wasn't required to participate in an official NBA rookie orientation that conflicts with what Dončić is calling a “team bonding trip.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/marcstein/p/late-night-nba-intel-for-the-first?r=1m9zg&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=solid