My Short Apology to Team Petty
At the time of the D'Angelo Russell trade, some people jumped on it right away and called it a bad trade. They didn't care that it got the Lakers Brook Lopez, or a pick which was used for Kuzma (though team petty would insist that it was really Josh Hart), or that it cleared one of the worst contracts in Lakers history off the books. They just didn't want to give up on a young player with as much upside as Russell without getting more in return.
My argument wasn't that Russell was bad. My argument was that it would take time to know how the deal turned out. If the Lakers signed two stars and kept most of the other young players, it was worth it... in my argument. If they got Brook Lopez to stick around for a few years on a home town bonus, that would be great! If the player they drafted turned into someone good, that would be great. And at the time, it Russell could have improved as much as he did... or he could have flared out a little bit and become another high-volume shooter.
But it's now two years down the road. Russell improved to All-Star level. Magic shit the bed and let Brook Lopez walk for nothing to Milwaukee where he was a key player in making them contenders. I still feel that the extra cap space was one of the reasons LeBron came to the Lakers, because they COULD sign a second star (just like having a second star was essential for the Clippers to get Kawhi). But if the Lakers hadn't gotten LeBron then they still could have a bunch of their young talent for AD, and then perhaps Kawhi would have chosen the Lakers over the Clippers.
The Lakers are still in contention to win championships for the next 3 seasons (assuming AD re-signs). But they had to give up all the other young drafted players to accomplish that. Hopefully the team Rob puts around them is better than what Magic put around LeBron last season and our big two stay healthy.
But I'm here to declare the D'Angelo Russell trade a failure. In part because of the bad decisions made AFTER the trade, but the ultimate outcome seems worse than where the Lakers would have been if they hadn't traded D'Lo. My apology to the team petty for doubting their foresight.