Young center Ivica Zubac has kept close tabs on his former team and says he could have made a difference for the Lakers if they hadn’t dealt him, Mirjam Swanson of the Orange County Register reports. Zubac was a part of the deal that landed brought power forward Mike Muscala to the Lakers. Zubac has averaged 8.6 PPG and 7.7 RPG in nine games as the Clippers’ starting center. “I’ve been watching almost every game,” Zubac said. “I feel like every time I watch them, I’m like, ‘If I was there, I would help them. I would definitely make a difference on the floor,’ you know? But they’re not my team anymore.”
We have more from the Pacific Division:
- The longtime trainer of Kings guard De’Aaron Fox is now his agent, Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports tweets. Chris Gaston is newly certified as an agent and has launched the “Family First Sports Firm.” Knicks guard Damyean Dotson has also hired Gaston to co-represent him, Haynes adds.
- Lakers owner Jeanie Buss and members of the front office believe that rival teams have taken great pains to cause internal damage to the franchise, a knowledgeable source told Sam Amick of The Athletic. President of basketball operations Magic Johnson felt the Pelicans didn’t negotiate in good faith during Anthony Davis discussions, Amick notes. The fact that specific trade packages were being reported throughout the process gives credence to those suspicions that other teams want to cause the Lakers grief.
- While the Lakers could trade for Davis and/or land a top free agent, it’s also quite possible that they will strike out in those endeavors, Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report writes. The future holds nothing more than “maybes” for the franchise and this disjointed season has given it a black eye, Pincus adds.
The Lakers issues stem directly from taking Paul George for granted and not trading for him when they had the chance. Unlike the Kawhai and AD pursuit the Pacers were actually willing to deal with the Lakers and Magic blew it
Well pacers wanted Ingram and Lakers didn’t want to trade him
They’ll be fine once they sign Kyrie and give up nothing
If they were to sign a free agent to a max contract, they won’t be able to sign AD in 2020 unless thhey trade for him, and the Pelicans have already shown they aren’t interested in the Lakers offer. They blame the Lakers for AD saying he wanted traded.
Kyrie isn’t leaving Boston. And, if he does. He’s definitely not going to LA with Lebron.
Sadly I agree. As a Nets fan I’m worried it’s the Knicks. It seems like it’s them or Boston. If Boston has AD lined up that could get him to resign. If NY has KD lined up, then he might choose NY. I’d be happier with the Boston situation. I feel like Clippers and Nets are dark horses though.
This angle by Buss should prove much more fruitful. “They” ARE out to get the Lakers. There were offers made, but there were damaging leaks and “hot takes”. The Lakers have taken a “black eye” but the fight is not over.
*This angle as opposed to yesterday’s damage-control angle, when Buss claimed the Lakers made no offers to the Pels*
I’m a Lakers fan and I’ll admit it… Pelicans did the right thing.
Better to see if Knicks get #1 pick.. Better to let the Lakers pick become lotto.
Demos got fired but made the right choice.
One thing that I don’t think matters is Celtics involvement.
As in Celtics would be out of their minds if they traded Tatum for AD..
Celtics had their chance to find a 3-team deal involving Kyrie.
So they’re arguably the big losers, while Lakers still have 75% chance of landing AD in the off-season, as 1 yr rental of AD isn’t as worth it to other teams as playoff run + 1 yr.
I agree. I’m not trading Tatum along with half the team for Davis. You do that you are worse off than Toronto without Leonard. They are saying the difference between Tatum and the Lakers young guys is the Lakers players are near their potential. They see a lot more room for potential in Tatum.
The only thing about the Lakers is if they don’t trade for AD, they’ll have to sign players to 1 year contracts this year, so they’ll have cap space for Davis in 2020. Davis will get a $40mm contract wherever he goes, so everybody better save their money.
As if a team like Portland or Houston, Who is constantly on the fringe, wouldn’t want to sign AD for one year and potentially being enough to get over the line to win a ‘Chip. I would. 50-50 chance of winning and retaining him if that’s the case
Read Zubac was traded because McGee felt threatened. On the trade offers, all the reports came from the Los Angeles Times reporter. The Athletic article I read said the media wasn’t even in the top 10 of the Lakers problems. It said the Lakers push for the playoffs is their biggest problem. On the trades, obviously the Pelicans weren’t listening. Pop said he wanted every valuable asset the Lakers had. They said no. The Pacers said they wanted Ingram or the 2nd pick in the draft (to take Tatum), but Magic said no.
Reports are coming out now from NBC Sports and Sports Illustrated that Walton is almost certainly gone after the season. @bowserhound. Like the guy said yesterday, the only ones who thought the Lakers would be good were Lakers fans. For my comment, you guys constantly complain about the press. They aren’t always right, nobody is. If I didn’t believe them, I wouldn’t read their stuff.
I think he’ll be gone immediately if they lose tonight.
The Lakers are starting to resemble the current White House. Conspiracies everywhere!
I mean, come on, is it not clear that the only hope the Lakers had of landing Davis now (and avoiding competition in July) was to blow the Pelicans’ out of the water with a big offer? Are Jeannie and Magic trying to say they didn’t try to do that? OK, so if they did, who was in that offer? How would you “blow away” the Pels?
With a lot of players and draft picks, that’s how. And that’s what they did, and that’s also what they’ll do in July.
Who do they think they’re kidding?
Lakers need to look in the mirror not point fingers. They should have said when AD came out wanting to go there that its 2 years away. instead they gleefully thought they would get him cheap. Why should NO trade him just because AD wants to go there? They could have easily came out and said we are going to wait until he is a free agent.
USA Today has a story “Anthony Davis should be wary of joining Lakers.” Says he has to consider the Lakers collapse this season, and if the Lakers were to trade for him, they’d have LeBron, AD, and not much else.