No way! I'd hate to lose C.J. for about a billion reasons, but I'd hate to help accelerate any chance of the Lakers returning to relevancy even more.
C.J. became a 21 ppg scorer in his first season as a starter. And, he's an efficient scorer than can knock down the catch-and-shoot 3, as well as penetrate and create his own shot. Because we also have Dame, I think some people take that for granted. They shouldn't. It was like when MIN offered GSW Kevin Love for Klay Thompson. GSW could have said, you know what, we have Steph, we don't need Klay's 3-point shooting. I'm pretty sure they're pretty damn happy they never even seriously considered pulling the trigger on that trade.
Sending C.J. to the Lakers would help them get better faster - and I don't want that. I know a lot of people around here consider being a 40-something win lower playoff seed to be the worst thing in the world. I don't. Almost every eventual champion passes through that phase - especially the young teams, like us. To me, being stuck on the lottery treadmill, winning between 15 and 25 games year, after, year, after year is the real definition of purgatory.
Champions don't rely on the lottery. Losers do. Until this year, the Lakers had only been in the lottery 4 times in 30 years. The Spurs have only been in the lottery 3 times. Teams like MIN, the old Clippers and PHI go a decade, or more, of missing the playoffs and playing lottery roulette without ever getting significantly better. That's the fate I want to see for these Lakers. I want them out of the playoffs and winning 15 - 25 games a year for the next decade and beyond. The draft is a crap shoot and they may eventually hit a winner, but until then, every young player they draft will take years to develop. some will become decent, but some will also become busts. The point is, unless they can also acquire real, proven NBA talent, like C.J. McCollum, they won't escape that lottery treadmill anytime soon.
BNM
