How come this core couldn’t even make finals?

20 comments

1. Eddie Jones was my guy!

2. Too much ego.

3. I always liked Eddie Jones and just learned him and Jalen Suggs and Tyrese Halliburton are cousins.

4. Coaching mattered. Soon as we got Phil we 3-Peated. Along with the maturation of Shaq & Kobe

5. Youth and inexperience. The jazz and spurs were worthy opponents

6. This squad is why I am a Lakers fan.

7. Because of Del Harris

8. Nick the quick baby. One of my favorite Lakers ever.

9. I highly recommend the Jeff Pearlman book ‘Three Ring Circus’. The main focus is the Shaq-Kobe-Phil era, but the book covers the post Showtime rebuild era too. Basically that whole team wasn’t ready to win. They all had conflicting insecurities, goals, and egos. Jerry West had to flip the roster and bring in strong veteran players.

   Loved that team tho. Nick + Eddie will always be Lakers to me.

10. Coaching. This man hadn’t arrived yet.

    

11. Kobe and Eddie look like they can be brothers here. 😂

12. fuck utah

13. The Eddie Jones love in this thread makes me happy

14. Because it’s HARD to make the finals…😂😂

15. Too young. Eddie and a Kobe was too redundant and unbalanced on the floor at the same time. Nick put Up stats, looked good doing it but didn’t lead to many wins. And of course, coaching.

16. The Mailman delivered!

17. Kobe was in his first and second years, he was still a while away from his prime and learning to play with Shaq

18. Dull Harris

19. They were young and immature. Del Harris sucked as a coach. And the 98 Utah and 99 San Antonio teams were elite.

    The 96-99 Lakers were fun to watch though. I remember being on top of the world when they smoked the Blazers in the first round of the 97 playoffs.

20. He existed