The beginning of the end. I'm really going to miss this blog, and all the crazy (mean that in a good way) fans whose posts I have read. I know you've read this a lot already, but you guys really have made this a great season!!!!!!! Without this blog, I wouldn't have been aware of half of the things going on in Lakernation. What I'm basically saying is I appreciate all your hard work, and just want to say
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!

Same here, guys. Thanks for all the hard work.

Any more post-exit-interview interviews coming? I love those.

Where's Kobe's final press conference? Love to see the transcript posted! And how about Kupchak's?

The more often you can update the comments, the better. I don't know how this fits in with the rest of your schedule.

Hey K bros,

Quick request from the MBA student who's headed into the summer (of mundane activity):

You think we can a post on potential free agents and who the K brothers think that a) we should go after and b) who we could realistically get between now and training.

Also, who we should keep, trade, waive, etc.

From Clublakers

"This is from Steve Kyler at HW -

Quote:

LAKERS IN THE MARKET: The LA Lakers are starting to sniff around according to a league source. Word is the Lakers are willing to move some of their younger pieces if it yields the right veteran. The Lakers have identified point guard and small forward as areas they will target this summer, and it seem young Andrew Bynum could be moved in the right package. There has been a long running theory that the Lakers were waiting for 2007 or 2008 to get aggressive, but given the way the team came together this year it's believed the Lakers are open to jumpstarting the process - they just may not have the pieces to deal. Lamar Odom has been labeled untouchable according to Laker sources, but it seems that the team is going to be busy this offseason trying to make something happen."

Kobe and Odom untouchables. Kwame's probably staying as well. So basically they'll try to trade Bynum, mihm etc. I say we trade Bynum for Brevin Knight and Mihm + others for Boozer.

Who should stay and Who should go.
By: Peter Hong

Kobe Bryant leader and the franchise must stay.
Turiaf-Cheerleader, Hustler, Good Basketball IQ, Shined in the short amount of time he played. Good 8th or 9th man.

Von Wafer- I see loads of talent in this kid. Good 9th or 10th man.

Sasha Vujajic- Passionate and fearless player. Shined in the playoffs, but Phil Jackson didnt allow him too breakout. Good 8th man

Brian Cook-Good 9th or 8th man, spark off the bench, instant scorer shooter. Sorry version of Sam Perkins.

Chris Mihm- Good 8th or 7th man backup center. Good triangle player.

Luke Walton-Good 9th man off the bench. Sorry version of Lamar Odom.

Everyone else has got to go!

Lamar Odom-Lethargic, Plays with no passion, Cant go right, Doesnt have a jump shot. Lacks explosion. Tweener. Overrated passer. Good trade bait.

Smush Parker- Cant shoot if his life depended on it. He would be a good 10th man spark off the bench, but we already have to many bench players that we can keep( None of those players I said we should keep is worthy to be starters.) Bad attitude, Lethargic, Bad ball handler, Cant move his feet. Useful for throw in on trade. Cheap good service.

Kwame Brown-Lacks explosion or doesnt use it. Lethargic. Mentally weak. Bad hands. Lacks Basketball IQ. Too much fear. Good trade bait because his value is at the peak.

Andrew Bynum- Lacks basketball skill. Has bad footwork. Lacks explosion. Full of potential, but I dont see him being any better then a 12-7 player. Not a great rebounder. Started playing BBALL just recently. Bad Knees(surgically repaired). Potential is high and value is high, trade him while we can fool people.

Aaron Mckie- Career on decline. Cant shoot. Slow. Buy him out to make roster space.

Devean George-Lacks basketball skill. Overrated defender. Bad Basketball IQ. Cant pass or dribble. Can only go left. Wants to much money. Dont sign him.

Jim Jackson- Not a team player. 37 years old. Dont sign him.

This article has shown and strengthened the case that KOBE should have been MVP. His team is full of bench players and stiffs. Its makes no sense to me how they made the playoffs. This team should have won no more then 34-38 games. They exceeded expectations and overachieved. Kobe was remarkable and Phil did an incredible job.

If Kupchak is smart and follows logic and reason this will be the roster with many holes to fill:

Starting Lineup
pg: none (Sam Cassell comes to mind. Or get a talented rookie in the draft and let him learn. Or FIND SOMEBODY KUPCAKE!@!!)
sg: Kobe Bryant
sf: none
pf: none (Carlos Boozer, Kevin Garnett come to mind)
c : none

6th man: none
7th man: Chris Mihm
8th man: Luke Walton
9th man: Sasha Vujajic
10th man: Ronny Turiaf
11th man: Brian Cook
12th man: Von Wafer
12th man: Laron Profit

We've got major holes that needs to be filled. We lack an explosive leader and scorer off the bench(ala: Toni Kukoc). But the bench seems to be covered for the Lakers. The starting lineup is where we have major holes. There is no player on the roster worthy of being starter material. What the Lakers can do is trade (LO, Bynum, Brown, Parker) to possibly get KG or some talents to fill in the starting lineup. We can pick up Sam Cassell VIA free agency. So if this were the case(crossing my fingers) all we would need is a SF and C to fill the roster out. We can draft a Sheldon Williams or some European talent( Spurs picked up Fabricio Oberto last year do something similar to that). Sign a pretty good SF and we will be set.

So when Kobe says: "Two pieces away from championship". I beg to differ because it is obvious the Lakers are missing 5 players from actually competing in the NBA finals. How are we going to get those 5 pieces away. This can take years but KUPCAKE needs to make some serious moves because LO is no PIPPEN and BYNUM is maybe DAMPIER at BEST. So lets really hope and pray KUPCAKE realizes this. Lets hope LAKERFANS!!!!

AK, BK and to all those who contribute:
Thanks for the blog. Hope to hear more stuff on draft, trades, etc. Have a great summer and looking forward to next season.

Wow, did anyone see the Sportsnation poll on ESPN? So far, out of 68,000 people, 78% would rather have LeBron on their favorite team over Kobe.

Maybe I'm just a Kobe loyalist, but what are so many people smoking? I would even pick Dwayne Wade over LeBron.

ESPN seems like they have the same person issues everyone has with Kobe. It's really annoying. It's probably cause LeBron is still in the playoffs and Kobe's getting nothing, but knocked on after game 7!

LeBron has done some great things, but he is still the most over advertised athlete. ESPN has him on the front page like everyday. Even when the Cavs lose. They never give the Piston's any credit. No wonder Sheed was so pissed off yesterday.

AK/BK,

Thank you so much for your round-the-clock work on the Lakers Blog. I met bloggers that I do not know before and I still don't know them now, nonetheless our thoughts and dreams for the Lakers reached a enjoyable rendezvous through this kind of forum.

Au revoir on the draft day or trading time. Goodluck & Godspeed...

THANKS AK/BK for the BLOG! GO LAKERS!

Thanks for the Blog AK/BK, great work all around!

The only thing I'd like to see change for next would be to enforce a registration process (like pretty much every other sports blog/forum out there) to help keep the infantile posts and username stealing to a minimum, other than that, it was fun!

My roster thoughts for the summer:

Keepers: Kobe (starter), Lamar (starter), Luke (starter), Sasha (bench), Ronny (bench), Smush (bench), Bynum (end of bench/D-League)

Bring 'em back cheap: Laron Profit, Devin Green

Trade 'em if you can: McKie, Cook, B.Grant's contract (as if), Kwame/Mihm (keep one, trade one),

Thanks for playing, good luck elsewhere: Devean George, Von Wafer

I'd like to see them try and pry Lindsey Hunter away from Detroit (free agent) as he's an excellent defender and knows the triangle already, although if I remember correctly his overly-religious attitude caused problems in the locker room last time through LA. One of my favorite things about the Lakers is that the players rarely (if ever) do that stupid 'thanking god' thing during their courtside interviews. I'm guessing that probably has something to do with Phil, but It's nice to know that we have players smart enough to know that even if they do believe god exists, they know it's ridiculous to think he/she/it would give a damn about basketball.

And on that slightly controversial note, have a good summer everyone!

Kevin McK,

You never here the losing team say "Jesus hates us, that's why we lost". If someone did it would be the greatest quote of all time. Actually, I think Jesus is a MJ loyalist and sabotaged Kobe in Game 7.

Smush and Mitch are coming this week.

BK

And thanks to everyone for the kind words regarding the blog. We appreciate it.

Not to start any controversy, but I think if God exists, it's ridiculous to even try and speculate on what he/she/it would give a damn or not give a damn about. :-)

On that note... AK, and BK, once again THANK YOU for all your hard work. I look forward to next season when the blog is back in full swing. Have a great summer and keep us posted on any insider info you might come across.

Nyla,

I do think the current events have a lot to do with that poll. I don't say I disagree, but I would have liked to see the results of the same poll after Game 4 of the Phoenix series. Lebron just led the Cavs to a fourth quarter win over the Pistons where he had a triple-double. Timing is everything.

For Kobe Watchers like me, I think the next game to watch for will be Aug 3 USA v Puerto Rico at the Thomas Mack Center in Las Vegas. After that, the FIBA World Championships begin in Japan on Aug 19 ( I think USA plays Puerto Rico again in the first game)

And WE DON'T NEED KEVIN GARNETT!!!!!! I love KG, and I love the idea of having him in a Laker uni, but we don't NEED him. Now, if we could get him without giving up LO, I'm all for it, but KG is probably out of his prime, and I see LO turning into the player we all want him to be. I want us to compete for championships for many years, and I think LO has more left in the tank than KG.

I like Bynum and his potential, but I'm worried we could be throwing away golden opportunities to bring in players who can help right now because we're scarred of letting him go. If he pans out then good move Mitch, but if he's a bust then we would have wasted Kobe's prime years based on someone else's potential. Basically I just want to win, and I'm all for moving anybody other than LO or Kobe to get the job done.

Wade for MVP? Have you seen the talent surrounding Sha ans Wade? I know most of them are past their prime or " has been". But they have a lot of experiences. Compare the roster with Shaq & Kobe vs the Shaq & Wade. The Heat defenitely has more talent.

G_D,
If you're a Lakers fan and you can't stand the Knicks, what's up with the late 60's early 70's? You couldn't have made Willis trip on his way out the tunnel?

Kobe is going to be the special gueat on the TNT show on Wednesday with Kenny and Charles just to make sure you guys catch it. Kobe most likely asked if he could come on with Charles and it should be interesting.

Kevin McK

That was funny about the God thing. I agree that its a bit odd when players thank God for a victory, or that they made a big shot. If there is a God and he is going about operating the universe and the cosmos, would he have time to make sure that player x sinks the game winning three....would he even care? Does it mean that God doesnt like the the team that lost for some reason? Always found it ridiculous to attribute anything that happens in sports to an act of God, and i find your post funny.

Hahah McK that was funny.

I remember the one time i seriously wanted to kill someone on this blog, was when someone wrote at (close to) the end of game 6 that "everyone should thank me for this win because i promised to go to mass for 6 months (or something) if win." And then we lost. God couldnt care less if the Lakers win or lose. If there is God, im sure he has better things to be worrying about.

Putrid,

Couldn't agree more. My close second for the most annoying posts ever are those where people propose trades where we give McKie, Green, and Devean George (in a sign and trade of course) for KG. People need to realize most of our players are junk and no one is taking them for superstars.

The most seductive thing in NBA basketball is big man potential. Teams salivate over big men and dream of what they could be. A lot of teams have a seven footer who is in the league simply because of his size. That being said, I think that it is too early to give up on Baby Bynum. He's huge and getting bigger and stronger. His reviews from within the team indicate a willingness to work and develop. Until he is given a decent amount of playing time, he can only get an incomplete grade. You cannot ever have too much size. I'd like to see the Lakers give Bynum at least another year before they consider moving him.