let larry bird keep jermaine, he'd be an absolute terrible fit with this team. Remember folks, we still run the triple post offense! Do you think if jermaine struggled with indiana's offense, he'd probably struggle with the lakers. I'd much rather have Zack randolph ( i prefer people who have played college ball at this point)

most desirable trade scenario

trade zaza pauchulia and the eleventh pick of the draft for bynum, radman, and both second rounders (atlanta gets a potential all star and a pretty good shooter, who can occasionally rebound well)

then trade the 19th, 11th pick, and sasha as a parting gift to whoever drafts corey brewer

sign either charllie bell or morris peterson to the MLE

a summer acquiring brewer, pachulia, and either bell or peterson has to be a successful one!

small line up

bell/ jordan farmar/ shammond
bryant/ maurice
corey brewer/ luke walton
lamar/ ronny
pauchulia/ kwame/ chris mimh

or

big line up

corey brewer/ bell/ jordan farmar
bryant/ maurice evans
lamar/ corey brewer/ luke walton
pachulia/ ronny turiaf
kwame/ chris mimh

pretty good! if not completely impossible

Dirk will get the MVP trophy next week. Unbelievable... shame, shame, shame. How can an MVP totally disappear like he did against GS? What happened to all the Dirk supporters? They surely are quiet now. Dirk is a 7 footer who cannot dominate a 6-7 or 6-8 defender. How can he win this award? You media types... it is just freaking unbelievable.

NBA should make the current players vote for the MVP. Kobe has been robbed of the MVP award for two years in a row. I have really given up on Kobe ever winning the MVP. The media types will never allow that to happen. Then, at least give it to someone who really deserves it... give it to Lebron, give it to McGrady, give it to Duncan, or Marion. It's not Dirk.

Neither Dirk nor Nash deserve it. They don't play defense and they have all-star teammates. Oh... I forgot... they are white!

Shame on you all who voted for Dirk or Nash.

For the record, who's the guy who didin't give Kobe his first place vote? Can't be Hickman again, can it?

Congrats to Our Kobe! with LO healthy next year we'll go all the way; "Hope spings eternal" as they say.

BK
By the way, who won the MVP? Nowitzki?

Congrats for Kobe, and he's not far off as we think from having a contending team. Good thoughts from MICHAEL A in a previous blog. I was going to make the same point but he beat me to it.

I really don't think we need Garnett here in Lakerland. You can just look to Houston and see the Laker's future if we pursue KG. McGrady and Kobe have similar games (perimeter shooting, slashing to the basket, sometimes over shooting) as does KG and Ming (mid-distance jump shots, yet easily pushed away down deep). And during the MIng/McGrady era, the Rockets have yet to make it out of the 1st round. There's many teams that have 2 scoring threats, but no rings (Denver Nuggets, et al). Today's NBA is about consistent players (Detroit/San Antonio), and pure athletes (Utah/Golden State/). The multiple superstar era is coming to an end.

So no, Garnett coming the Lakers IS NOT a good idea unless it can be done for cheap, which it won't. What we need is a strong PG (Mike Bibby/Kidd would be perfect), and a consistent scorer (Rashard Lewis). We can get rid of Kwame and VladRad to get Bibby. And we don't sign Luke and get Rashard.

So I think a championship Laker roster would be composed of

1st team/2nd team
PG- Bibby or Kidd/Farmar
SG- Kobe/Mo Evans
SF- Rashard/VladRad
PF-Lamar/Turiaf
C- Bynum/Mihm

Troy,
You make an excellent point. Giving up all our bigs (LO, Kwame and Bynum) in a package for Garnett would not make sense. Trading for a stud at the point like either Bibby or Kidd would be perfect. And then being able to sign a scorer like Rashard would give the Lakers more offensive options. That way, Kobe wouldnt have to bear such a load throughout the season. My only concern with your proposed 1st team lineup is the potential lack of defense. But nonetheless, it's a heck of a better looking starting 5 than we started this past year with.

Lakers fans, We need to start to be realistic about our trade talks for this off season. The Lakers dont have the horses to bring in a KG type player and I dont know of Oneal would be the answer either if it were just him alone. Kupcake is going to have to earn is $$$ this off season. Now here are some more realistic options that he could go with Bynum is our best trade bait with huge upside but not yet proven and he will not help us short term. you could package him with a Radmon or a walton and get a qualtiy good proven players just under that that allstar caliber player plus a lottery pick. I suggest a trade with a team like Charlotte were you could get a Tysen Chandler and Jannero Pargo and a Lottery pick if you could get a guy like Noah in he draft. starting line up could be Pargo, Kobe, L/O. chandler and Noah/kwame These are the kind of trade you we need to c onsider if feels our needs for Today and yet gives us a player for the future.

"Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was named MVP in 1976 in his first year in Los Angeles even though his Lakers failed to reach the playoffs that season. "

If this is true....which it most likely is since it was written in an article on ESPN.com, why are people so against Kobe getting the award????

Kareem did it during a season when his team didn't even make the playoffs! Thsi goes against everything the critics have said. It also goes to show that this whole thing comes down to more than what happens on the court. It used to be about the bsketball court.....now it's about the image.

At the close of Kobe Bryant's career, the glaring reality that he doesn't have an MVP selection will speak volumes of the mistreatment he has received. How can the voters explain giving Kobe 2 votes? Going a step further, how can they explain not giving anyone else any votes? Did Dirk and Nash have such a great season that no one else deserved serious consideration?

Troy/deepak -

Nice idea. Why don't we trade Smush and Sacha for Steve Nash while we're at it? Then Chris Mihm for Tim Duncan.

Come on - do you REALLY think the Queens will take our Kwame/Vlad trash for Bibby?? And how exactly do we "get" Rashard?

The only way we're going to trade for anyone decent is to let go of Drew and/or Lamar. Which might be worth it for a REAL all-star big with heart like KG or JO. I agree we could use an upgrade at the 3 since Vlad was a bust there and Luke is better as a 6th man - but if we give up either of the only 2 Lakers with real trade value (who are bigs), we must get a strong big in return.

By the way , as a seperate observation - I think the All-NBA voting is skewed. Kobe and Nash ARE the all-star backcourt, but the voting should be by individual position. The "forwards" are both power forwards who play center half the time. If it was true position-by-position voting, LeBron would have made the team, as he's clearly the best 3 in the league.

JJ thats another reason why there should be an award for 'player of the year'...it would add more credibility to the MVP award because as it stands they were realistically the only two in the running under the current 'rules'.

A player could potentially win both 'POTY' and MVP...and in the same way winning MVP in the regular season and finals indicates a dominant season...the ultimate would be the trifecta...how fun would that be?

Although I dont agree that kobe was the MVP...I think special individual seasons should be recognised in the award process.

Jay Jay, I agree, the Lakers only have enough to bring one star if that, Bibby and Rashard without giving anything seems unrealistic. Plus Rashard will probably re-sign, as said before, with Seattle.

"If it was true position-by-position voting, LeBron would have made the team, as he's clearly the best 3 in the league. "

And if it wasn't by position, there's no way Amare makes it, because he certainly wasn't one of the 5 best players in the league

Kiwi, don't forget Allstar game MVP!! Win all four and you reach high status

jay El

If you get all four you win a new Mini... haha

Jay El-

Honestly, I don't. Kareem in '76 and Dirk this year (meaning an eliminated MVP) are the exceptions to the rule, to say the least. It's one of those things that's done the way it's done in part becuase it makes some sense- you can argue that an outstanding performance on an elite team is inherently more valuable than one on a lesser squad- and in part because, more or less, those are the rules that have been established for voting. Like Parliamentary procedure.

I think that basic rule of taking a guy off a high level team isn't a problem as long as it's not carried too far (i.e. that the bottom level isn't too high). For example, had the Lakers not totally gone into the toilet over the second half and pushed the 50 game mark, then it would have been very hard for people to ignore Kobe, especially if he continued to play as he did earlier in the season, in that high percentage shooting, high teammate involvement style.

This year, I think a stronger case could have been made for Duncan than it was.

But it's easy to forget how good Dirk was during the regular season b/c of the way he totally crapped out in the playoffs, and I think Nash was better this year than last. It's always a tough arguement, based in part of how each person defines and grades the V in MVP.

BK

Nice post Jorema I enjoyed that

LAL_Fan: I like the idea of Randolph and Gasol (I've mentioned Gasol before, definitely). It doesn't really get us any stronger on defense, but seeing as how we might be able to get either of them without giving up Lamar, it would allow us to have three real scoring options. LO wouldn't feel the pressure to be the second option, so he could continue to do all the intangibles that he does now anyway.

Memphis might be looking to move Gasol, seeing as how he's made it clear that he's unhappy there, and Portland seems to be moving towards building around LaMarcus Aldridge and dumping the Zach Randolph plan.

Keep the MVP as it is if you want honest hearted fans to continue to question it. Remember only 129 people are chosen to be on the voting block and they are chosen by the NBA.

There are hundreds of basketball vets like AK/BK that do not have a vote. Guys that make a living of studying the game, unlike many of the voters who some of them admit they only have time to watch highlights or read some articles.

It has been suggested here to have more involved in the choice, like more writers, coaches, players and even fans. Maybe Kiwi, more different types would be best. Fans choice? Players award? Media? Like you see in college football. A worthy discussion for the blog one day, for sure.

Fatty

Kiwi, there you go, with the four trophies as the wheels/rims

It is always true...we talk defense, but we vote offense.

Thank god Mitch is running the show, not us bloggers.

BK, I agree 100% with what you said. I wasn't thinking about Kobe necessarily as MVP, but other players who are valuable and may be looked over because their team didn't win all 82 games. Thank you.

We all know Kiwi baggage.

He isn't a up-front kobe heater.

But inside, he spell bad karma against Kobe.

Kiwi is the double jeopardy oximoronian guy.

When Kobe takes over and win the games for us, he is depress.
He things anything Kobe does in the court is a egocentric parade or tirade.

When Kobe take over and we loose, obviously he will use the ballhog epitete, the bad teanmate cliché to justify Kobe fault

When we loose and Kobe doesn't shoot too much is also another chananigans of #24. He is teaching a lesson to those who question his ballhog practice.,

When kobe praise his teammates... he is a hypocrite, politcally correct animal, hiding his real narcisistic self.

When Kobe call out , like Shaq do constantly, and demand better talent for this roster. As usual, he is unfair with those guys. He wants to blame others and not himself.

If Phil praise Kobe, he is afraid of Kobe.
If most of the NBA players think he is the best player in the NBA, he will use the excuse of Dwame Wade in the all-star game after Kobe won the MVP, you can tell that's what he looks and care for, stadisitics, accolades, individual praise.

In the end, when somebody can only see faults and sin in others, in reality what he is triying is to negate his own self. We are all a combination of good and bad. We alll have ego . We all try to justify ourselves and blame others(remember nash calling out teammates, recently). Team oriented people is a plus. A team always have a leader, who usualy trace the paths of that team. But when a leader see best playerhis team unfocused in the task in hand, he step up.

We know Lamar, our second best player, he is reluctant to take over or play consitently the role of a good scorer.
Do you want Kobe to wait for Lamar to get in the mood.
Do you want Kobe to wait for Kwame strong showing when he please r feel like it.
Do you want Kobe to wait for Smush to play with assertiveness and enthusiasm.
Do you want Kobe to wait for Bynum to play with enthusiasm and fire.

Yes, he can be "a good teemmate", and let' the water run under the bridge. Most of the times that Kobe takes over you can seein his face frustration, anger, impotence.
He can't wait for those pseudoteammates to show passion and courage.
He can't wait for the next game to force the destiny for this team.

A team leader who doesn't care let the boat go south.
A team leader who cares fight on till the end to save the boat, even if he later is called by his own teammembers
that he does it for glory of himself.

The most unfair treatment that a athlete can receive, is the one Kobe get.
MT will crucify him just for justify his stupid and mediocre lover boy, Kwame Brown.
Magic Johnson is always ready to give encourage to Nash, Lebron, Wade, Shaq and even to the suddenly Baron Davis heroics, (playing for a new contract).

Everybody in the league say Kobe has inferior teammates. And yes, some Lakers, like Kiwi, still see him guilty for not trusting them enough,
for not making them stars.

Unbelievable, Kiwi..
The unfairness parade still going on, and on.
Yes, Kiwi, go ahead with your agenda, after all, liying is a pretty good game.

Generic_one, thanks I did not see the reply. The only thing that would bring us into that situation is if a team wanted to dump salaries for Kwame's expiring contract, which you said already Seattle was probably not wanting to do. There is not point giving up Lamar in that deal, I hope I am with everybody when I say that Lamar should only be given up for KG or even that.

Basically we should think about someone to work well with Kobe and Lamar, a scorer and defender, I mean we need a lot of work to get this team back to the elite

exhelodrvr

Agreed. Scary that Jimmy boy would put LO in that category when the whole league knew what Wade was. He hit all the clutch shots that year in the playoffs. I love Lamar's skill set but he's not on that rung of the ladder.

Meanwhile:
Quoteable?

Maybe the Suns should keep Amare away from the microphones. Poor baby, almost got hurt and wants the league to punish the bad boy Spurs. That free flow mid season offense doesn't flow as well with an elbow in your kidney. That's playoff defense. MORE BLOOD!!

"Double standard?
Is Lebron selfish telling to the coach he will take over the game?
is Kobe selfish when he does it?"

On Lebron's first possession after saying that, he drove to the hole and dunked it while being fouled.

On the next possession, he found Gooden open and got an assist for 2.

That's why it's not a double standard. Lebron knows what it takes to win and makes the right decisions. Kobe knows what looks amazing and makes decisions to shoot fadeaway jumpers into double teams. That's the difference

Zach Randolph is a guy who quietly had a great season, I remember people talking about how he was having and allstar season.

Although he was mentioned to be at a strip club with Darius Miles and there was gun shots. When will these guys learn.

Jorema...you summed me up in a nutshell

Kiwi
Thanks for the paraise to the posting article.
Now...that just reinforce my believe that for others players taking over is sign of courage and lidership.
Kobe does it and he is a egomaniac.

Jay El.:

"The only thing that would bring us into that situation is if a team wanted to dump salaries for Kwame's expiring contract, which you said already Seattle was probably not wanting to do."

Right... see, it's kind of a difficult situation up here right now. Part of the contract of the sale of ownership was that the new guys from OK had to make en effort until the end of October to keep the Sonics in Seattle. Talks have broken down for the moment, but this is mostly posturing on their part in an attempt to get more financing from the local government. Governor Gregoire has been one of the biggest backers of keeping the Sonics here, as she doesn't really want to see them slip away while on her watch, so it's very likely that talks will resume soon. They've made an offer on some land up here near Bellevue/Renton (suburbs of Seattle) and even had plans drawn up for the new arena, but everything is hinging on how much funding (public or private) they can get.

That's just a basic rundown of what's going on. So, everything's kind of in a holding pattern until we find out for sure in the beginning of November as to whether or not they'll be sticking around. Unfortunately, that's well past the free agent signing and draft period. I don't think it's likely that they'll make major financial decisions before then.

I guess it's possible that they might try and dump Earl Watson's salary, but I'm not sure if Kwame's expiring contract would be the right thing, seeing as how they've got enough project bigs. With Shard, if they decide to move the team or keep them in the Seattle area, they're going to need some sort of draw to keep the fans coming in. As Ray Allen isn't getting any younger, Shard is their best shot.

Edwin,

Yeah, definitely agreed. See my response to ex above about Jim Buss. Also, I think it's likely that we will see some sort of change before July 1st, as trade movements after lottery drawing (May 22nd) are going to be a large part of the off-season.

Also, I hope you saw my response in the other thread about not pointing fingers at you necessarily. I've noticed Mike T doing that a whole lot recently.

REPOST

jorema=kobe in disguise,
“You keep getting atention and feeling a superstar because you mention Kobe. Now looks like you believe that he is a brilliant mastermind, a writer of promise, a think tanker with gusto and flair. Hahahahahah. People answer you, KLBEAST, because you talk abot Kobe. that's it.”

yo kob', how do you like watching the playoffs and eating Doritos?? j/k. Jorema, a very good observation. I’ll give you credit for not being as dimwitted as I originally thought. BTW, I know I’m a slobbering fool who doesn’t know jack.

G_O,
“KL: If both of them had been mature about it, then Shaq and Kobe could have just let bygones be bygones and made up over the summer. The reason that PJ is mostly to blame is he tried playing sides, switching back and forth over the years. He'd back up Shaq and then back up Kobe; he aired grievances in the press, and while underacheivers like Kwame will never do anything about it, hamming it up about two uber-egos isn't going to help things.”

I can’t say I disagree. I would add that laker mgmt could have played their cards better by convincing Prine Kobe that shaq will be traded AFTER kobe signs, that way at least the laker org can get better players (this is the argument from those in lakertown who believe that “kobe got rid of shaq"), but I digress (or is it regress??). Like I said to jorema, I’m a slobbering fool who don’t know jack about jack.

“Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't be opposed to trading Kobe if (and that's a very, very big IF) the right situation came along. Hinrich + Ben Gordon + Deng? Definitely. Miller + Korver + Igoudala? Probably. Crawford + Q Rich + David Lee? Yep. Jesus... talk about the deep team we might have.”

Whoa, you’ll piss off lakertown with that blasphemy; although it wouldn’t be a bad way to start over. Did you notice how AI2 (Igoudala) became a stud once AI1 left? I actually saw AI2 at the LA Auto show. He's not as big as I imagined (I've been dunked on by guys like him. haha!) Hinrich/Gordon/Deng is a very good nucleus, although, I think Bulls can use an inside scoring guy to free up the shooter and slashers. I’m not completely sold on Crawford, but “da White” Howard (Lee) is good hustle guy. I’m indifferent on Q.

I was sincere with my remarks of not trading kobe and giving the kid a chance to redeem himself to kobe-haters. Winning in professional sports cures all sins. I think next year will be a big year for the laker org. kobe might actually try and be a good teammate, a good leader and, most importantly, a winner next year.

Lakergurl,
“KL the Beast (a Kobe hate regurgitating machine)”

I love you too sweetheart (I rescind if your male).

eniq 0x00,
“Here's an idea...
1. TRADE LAMAR ODOM FOR MARBURY (Kobe's equavalent talent)."
Yes, that talent is so equivalent that he's been on multiple All-NBA teams, has multiple championships and NBA records like Kobe does.”

kobe didn’t win no stinkin championships, kobe was riding shaq’s back.. haha! for reals, Starbury is a cancer and not even at kobe’s level. BTW, scoring titles and regular season MVP (ask Dirk) and all-star MVP means jack. the only title and MVP that matters comes in the form of “Finals”.

exhelo
His defense was very so so...ah?
And even playing "so so", he is in the first tem NBA defense.

I know, you will say. Is more image of a past good defender that reality.
Really?
How come the opposing coaches don't se what you see.

BK,
The only reason I think Nash was better this year was becuse of the return of Amare. If Nash makes his team better, what happened to Diaw? Does he make Raja a supreme defender? Does he make Amare and Shawn all stars? Bottom line is that the Phoenix offense is catered to his skills and moreover, he has guys who know how to cut, set screens, and most importantly, finish. If Nash came to the Lakers, I doubt he could make Kwame catch the ball.

Jorema,
" he is in the first tem NBA defense."

He didn't deserve that this year; that seems obvious to me.

Bibbiy will cost more than Kwame and Vlade. A #1 and Farmar would have to be in the mix. There'd be plenty of competition for Bibby.

Nash legacy.

Two MVP winner Nash, playing with 2 all stars never had won a championship.

Two mvp Nash playing with Dirk, with Antoine Jameson and not championship.

It was a ilustrious, individual career, but his teams never won it big, even with excellent talents surrounding him.

Why?

Exhelo will say:

Winning is not important, competing is, and passing the ball is more important than that. As a matter of fact, passing the ball is like passing the championship to others. At the end, you get tthe satisfaction that you put others in position to win instead of yourself, and that's the mother of all acomplisments.

Well said, Exhelo.

Kiwi wrote: "Did it occur to you that had Kobe won everyone would be questioning how a guy who played one decent playoff game out of 5 as his team loses in the first round can be MVP? ...you cant have your cake and eat it too!"

...unless you're Kwame Brown, and then you can throw it as well.

Jorema,
"If you thing that the MVP is by default the guy with more Assists in a season, there isn't any need to vote.

If you thing that playing defense isn't valuable in the concept of Team and valuable teammates, then Carmelo Anthony should be the MVP. His offense is oustanding."

Please point out where I said that. Now you are making things up, rather than addressing the points I made.

Clearly playing defense is important. Equally clearly is that defense has never been a significant part of who is given the MVP award.

Whether you like it or not, historically one of the biggest factors (please note, I said ONE of the factors, NOT the only factor) in winning the MVP is being a player that helps optimize the game of his teammates. (Which is different than "making a player better.)

Clearly Nash does a better job at that than Kobe does. Equally clearly is that Kobe is a better scorer than Nash. It depends on how much weight you give to each factor which of them you prefer as MVP.

And no matter what you might want to happen, voters DON'T give much weight to defense with this award. They never have.

LA Guy,

They probably could, the question is what Blazers wants to do this summer? Upgrade team or dump salary? You're wrong if you think it's going to be long line of teams competing for Randolph. Why? Just take a look at his contract - Portland owe him more than 61M over over next 4 years. Do you think you can find a lot of takers on this kind of salary? Its very possible Portland will be looking for to dump the salary which basicaly saying in sense 'Randolph plan failed and we're going to take a different rout'

Marty,
"By the time his career is over, he will have received the award at least two times, and maybe three."

Regular season MVP is fools gold (ask Dirk)......finals MVP is what matters becuase it usually goes to the guy on the winning team. all you fools talk about kobe MVP don't get the bigger picture........it's all about winning a championthip. What you do in the regular season is irrelevant. scoring title, all-star MVP, 81 points, youngest to 1900, 1st team NBA is all fools gold.

KL Beast, "Fools Gold",
Makes sense to me Beaset

Bill Simmons has a good column on espn.com today:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/blog/index?name=simmons

Best point:
"Well, the basketball playoffs are just as simple. If you made a list of the top five things that invariably kill playoff teams in May and June, it would look like this in some order:

1. Can they control the boards when it matters?
2. Can they bury their foul shots in crunch time?
3. Can they get a defensive stop when they absolutely need one?
4. Can they maintain their poise at the most crucial times?
5. Can they get quality shots when it matters?"

The Lakers don't do real well on that list!!

***********************************************************************
And another great article (linked to in the Simmons article) about the old Detroit-Chicago rivalry.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070504/COL08/705040324/1051/SPORTS

It would be nice if the Lakers would react like this (quotes from BJ Armstrong):

"Others looked at the so-called 'Jordan Rules' as a blueprint for stopping him, but we looked at it as more of a reflection of what the rest of us on the team weren't doing to take some of the pressure off Michael. It all helped change our collective mind-set. We knew we had a special, one-of-a-kind player, so the rest of us had to keep the game close for the first 44 minutes so that our great player could take over and win it in the last four minutes."

"But Detroit was clearly the better team that day. And I think that woke everybody up to what we needed to do to get past them. And the proof of that was that just a week later, everybody showed up for the first day of off-season conditioning"

Mamba24,
"The reason they gave Kobe !st team defense is because they know he really deserved the MVP last year and since they cheated him out of that- as every major NBA star agrees - then they figured they would throw him this bone."

We cool, so i'll be nice about your remark. Aren't you stretching a little? Cheated? Was PHX even on the contender radar before Nash?? Remember, winning is the key. No one's going to give the MVP to Josh Smith because without him, Atlanta wins 1 game.....

let's be reasonable.

KL "the beast"
"all you fools talk about kobe MVP don't get the bigger picture"

I was just making a declaration that he would receive it eventually. I didn't say it was a good thing. As far as Finals MVP goes, I'm looking into my crystal ball and it says he'll receive that award once.

For the record, my crystal ball has a margin of error +/- 20%. When we got Shaq and traded for Kobe, the crystal ball told me they'd win 3 of the next 5 Finals (they won 3 of next 6), and I predicted they'd catch fire and break the 33 games in a row record (they caught fire and almost swept the playoffs--darn you, AI!) What the crystal ball didn't take into account was that Shaq doesn't care about the regular season.

But take it to the bank: 1 Finals MVP for Kobe in the next four years, and 2 reg. season MVPs. I'm not making any value judgments on the whole thing; I'm just the messenger. Blame the crystal ball.

KLBeast," let's be reasonable.here"
There's nothing to be reasonable about. Miami won the championship and everyone
was saying Dwade should have been MVP but what did his own teammate
Alonzo Mourning say? He said Kobe Bryant should have been MVP. Steve Nash
won the MVP last year but when they asked his own teammate Amare Stoudamire
who the MVP should be what did he say? Kobe Bryant. I rest my case

Marty,
"But take it to the bank: 1 Finals MVP for Kobe in the next four years, and 2 reg. season MVPs. I'm not making any value judgments on the whole thing; I'm just the messenger. Blame the crystal ball."

Mr. Marty, if your prediction comes true, i will change my opinion of "kid kobe" to "man kobe". i hope your crystall ball is working well for the sake the lakertown. Thanks for not ripping me a new one. LOL. either the blogging community is upbeat today or i'm being compeletly ignored, eitherway, i appreciate the reply.

LA_Guy,
"Scoring isn't everything, and everyone in the know has always realized that."

Thanks for being the voice of reason. It's about winning. All these individual accoldaes should be accomplished via winning or it's fools gold.

“I listened to the broadcast still had a mixed emotions on Jim Buss statement. In summary, he was saying: we are OK, managed the course well except from some changes in the team, on PJ's coaching style and in Kobe's perceptions. Since the playoffs ended and gauging from exit interviews of players, they are saying, "we are not OK".
Well, as I told Guy O, let's see what will happen after July 1st, then we can really say where we will be?”

Edwin,

The Lakers are ok.

It's not like the Lakers just posted a losing season with everyone healthy. The won 42 games despite serious injury problems that had multiple players shuffling in and out of the line-up all season long. They, as they are currently constructed, are a decent team with a balanced roster. They are probably just not any better than decent even when completely healthy.

While, it may be a stretch to say that the Lakers are one big move away from becoming a contender, they at least have a number of viable options that they can explore because they are in very good shape contractually. Virtually all of their players under contract are legitimately tradable.

Kobe: starting in 2007/8, has 4 years at $19,490,625, $21,262,500, $23,034,375 (player option), $24,806,250. Obviously, he’s worth every penny. His value couldn’t be higher with virtually everyone in the L agreeing that’s he’s the best player on the planet right now. It’s true that it would a huge risk to trade such a good player. But trading him might very well give the Lakers the flexibility to build a dynasty in the future (w/o all the baggage). For example, if Memphis were to get the #2 pick and acquire Durant, would be unfathomable that they’d be willing to deal him, along with Gasol who wants out anyway, and say a athletic freak prospect/project like Rudy Gay for Kobe? If Memphis would, would that be a bad move for the Lakers to make considering the young talent they already have?

LO: 2 years at $13,524,000, $14,559,000. Not obviously, worth every penny. But, I’d say he’s worth relatively close to that amount if he stays healthy. His contract may not be so appealing now as at the trade deadline when he’ll only have a 1½ years left (assuming he stays healthy). The bottom line is that he’s a unique talent who is only entering his prime years with a slightly overpriced but fairly short-term contract. The Lakers should definitely be able get a decent value for him, if they decide he can’t be the #2 guy here.

Kwame: 1 year at $9,075,000. I would say that he is overpriced, except all the bigs in this league get overpaid so he really is available at the going rate. The most important part here is that he is now an expiring contract, so he’d be a no brainer for a team short on a big who is looking to dump some money (New Jersey for example). And let’s not forget that Kwame has the rare ability of being able to defend elite low post scorers in this league one-on-one and would be asset for a team who have no such player (Dallas) or who have only have one such player who also happens to be the team’s most important player who would be better served not using extra energy on defense if it could be avoided (San Antonio).

Radmanovic: 4 years at $5,632,200, $6,049,400, $6,466,600, $6,883,800 (player option). This is our one truly bad contract. The only likely way were moving it is if we’re getting something bad in return. All I can say is that this is at least not a huge contract that kills our team flexibility and that if Radmanovic was able to at least return to the form he showed with the Clippers/Sonics we wouldn’t be overpaying him all that ridiculously.

Cook: $3,500,000, $3,500,000, $3,500,000 (player option). While he may not be a fan favorite and is something of a wasted spot on our roster, he perhaps surprisingly is something of a value around the league as a big with a relatively low salary who can flat-out shoot the ball and can score in bunches coming off the bench. Teams like Phoenix and Golden State who thrive on drawing opposing bigs from under the basket and who aren’t as worried about defensive mismatches on their own parts would love to have this guy.

Mo Evans: $1,500,000. An absolute value at this price. Is athletic and can score and defend for a buck fitty… are you kidding? Certainly is worth more at this price than most other vets we could get for him. But he could be used to sweeten a bigger deal or perhaps to take a risk on a rookie contract player who hasn’t lived up to his billing.

Sasha: $1,756,951. Perfect as make-weight trade fodder who can be cut immediately following the trade.

Bynum: $2,172,000, $2,769,300 (team option), $3,771,786. Despite the silly mutterings on this board and despite his late-season swoon, Bynum is an elite prospect who help can get us an all-star or even an aging great-player (like Kidd). Personally, I wouldn’t want to trade him quite yet, ‘cause if the light turns on for this guy in the near future like it did for Al Jefferson this year, who also had some issues with his motor, then watch out (even this season when playing like a deer caught headlights much of the team, Bynum shot a .558 fg% while relying on a legitimate back to the basket game and was our most effective rebounder leading our team in per48 rebounds at 12.9 while being second in blocks at 3.42). Regardless, we’re not getting a special player to ride or die with Kobe in the next year or so without trading him.

Farmar: $1,009,560, $1,080,000 (team option), $1,947,240 (team option), $2,874,126. He’s definitely a prospect but I think he’s still pretty undervalued around the league. I think it’s because he plays under control so much (perhaps a little too much) that people don’t realize what an elite athlete he is. Still, he’s a legit 1 with decent size, all the tools, a great brain, and world class work ethic. He’s just very young at this point to be a reliable starting 1. In 2 years, he’s running the team no problem. The question is whether the Lakers wait for him. If they are going to trade him, they’ll need to showcase him a lot more than they have done up to this point to get the value that they should get for him.

So, we’ve got options. Of course, we still have a very average GM. At least Kupchak tends to error from being overly conservative (such as waiting way too long to make a move on the Shaq-Kobe issue). While not getting us ahead, Kupchak hasn’t set our team back by making roster wrenching panic moves (like Bird). Of course, Kupchak is hardly in complete control. But that only makes me feel better, because we still have the Busses running things. And unlike other people who seem to have forgot, I remember that Jerry Buss has been the most successful owner in all of the 4 major American team sports since he bought this team. I’ve seen 8 championships. It makes trust just a little bit.

LA Guy and KL Beast,

Take Kobe out of Lakers and they're easy worst team of NBA, you don't need to argue, look how they finished barely making playoffs. And we're not talking 12 games; it's more like 20-25 games. Only blind can't see this. Take Nash out of Suns and they are still playoff bound team. The same true for Dirk/Mavs.

"Take Kobe out of Lakers and they're easy worst team of NBA, you don't need to argue, look how they finished barely making playoffs. And we're not talking 12 games; it's more like 20-25 games. Only blind can't see this. Take Nash out of Suns and they are still playoff bound team. The same true for Dirk/Mavs. "

That's pretty easy to argue. I'll do the Mavs.

Let's look at the Mavs this year: do they have a single player who contributed as much as Lamar Odom? Do they have a single all-star other than DIrk (and I'm not talking alternates)? Their center position is horrible - Diop was starting games for them by the end of the year. Their point guard is a 3rd year guy with no outside shot who averages 3 assists a game. Greg Buckner started a number of games for them this year! And where did Devean George go? He started 17 games for the Mavs, more than he'd started for the Lakers the past two years combined. If they're so stacked, how do you explain that?

"And we're not talking 12 games; it's more like 20-25 games. Only blind can't see this."

So replace Kobe with an average guard (say, Jason Terry or Corey Maggette) and they become a 17 win team?That makes no sense whatsoever. You might have noticed that the Lakers were 3-2 without Kobe this year - what makes you think they would then go 14-55 in the rest of the games without him?

Hey , I just realized something very important.
We have exited the playoffs in the first round as well as Champs and the team with league MVP and best regular season !
We even managed to win one more game than defending NBA champions.
This should console you , my fellow Lakers fans ! LOL

On the serious note , J O'Neal just expressed his desire to become either Laker or Knick.
Lets see if your management can work this one out.
I am coming from the standpoint what nobody wants to play for us anymore , so we should be more than glad an established superstar with a real desire to win , even looked in our direction.
I say give up Bynum and try to keep Lamar