FanPost

Are you glad LeBron came or do you wish the Baby Lakers had been allowed to grow organically?

It's too late to change, but I have to say that I was one of the people who really enjoyed seeing the Baby Lakers grow and was against getting LBJ from the get go. I think they would have turned into something really special if the process had been allowed to play out and there's something to be said for having your guys grow from seedlings into Big Trees. Instead it's one big soap opera which I have no faith will turn into a title and the young guys are like fruit that's not ripe being picked before its time, just not ready for primetime.

Randle and the years spent developing him got thrown away for some idea of cap space for somebody who never came. Bryant a lesser case but might be useful if still around.

If Ingram and Lonzo get ruined because they've been thrown into the fire too early, before they were ready, that's throwing away the picks and the time invested in them and throwing away all the time and coaching involved in putting a team together and teaching the team a system that was starting to work, before it all got torn apart.

If Nance and Clarkson hadn't been traded last year's team would have won 40. If that same team including Julius returned this year with the addition of a couple of vets, maybe holding onto Lopez, they would win 45-48 games and still probably make the 6-8 seed, about what this team is probably going to do. One more year would result in much better Ingram and Lonzo. Next year add in one big free agent and you have a real contender.

One of the big problems with having LeBron is that mentally everybody starts depending on him. I realize that they still have to perform without him and the players and coaches are responsible for that, but it's still a big mental issue. All the commercials say "the king plays here". It's great marketing but makes for a mentally weak team.

Magic was fixated on LeBron and STARS, whatever other free agents would come. Understandable, but throwing away valuable assets like Randle is not good business and timing is everything. Did Magic mis-time this?

Maybe LeBron will come back strong as ever and not get injured again and then Rondo will come back and not get injured again and everything will be fine and they'll get into the playoffs and make a deep run and some big free agent will come next year and everybody will live happily ever after.

Maybe not.