MY mind is definitely at ease. I've never doubted Luke's abilities as a player and I love his tremendous passing ability but the number did seem a little high initially.

After looking at some absolutely ridiculous salaries, including Mr. Carroll's, I think we got a bargain.

I can't believe I'm saying this but...props to Mitch (i just puked in my mouth). LOL just kidding!

AK,
You'd have to pay me a heck of a lot more money to live and work in Charlotte. I've been there and unless you're a NASCAR driver, it's not a very exciting place to be. I don't think beach volleyball is very popular there, either.

Most of us who are not happy with the deal Walton got most object to the length of the contract. Six years for a guy who's yet to have a break-out season is a long commitment. Also, with his proven weakness as a defender, and as an offensive player who is only effective in the Triangle, it's not like Walton has a lot of value to other teams.

I, for one, can't buy the comparison.

Did Vlad even have hand surgery? If not, he had better not complain about it this year...

Wes

wesjoenixon

I agree with you on the Vlad deal... I honestly would have voIded his contract after his little snowboarding accident. That could have been money we used to get KG.

Vlad just hasn't shown me anything to be excited about.

Rick Friedman,

I hear what you're saying, except Carroll also got six years, he's an even worse defender than Walton, considerably more limited as an overall player, and he got only 500K less per season. If you don't raise eyebrows over his contract, then it really is hard to shake your head too much at Walton's. Throw in the fact that the Lakers really weren't in a position to pass on Walton in this particular season with their cap situation, it's even harder.

AK

"We shouldn't discount Carroll...he averaged 12 points per game last season and shot 43% from trey. It's hard to put a price tag on having that reliable a shooter on the floor, especially in terms of the impact on spacing."

Luke was leading the league in 3-point shooting before everyone started going down with injuries. When our spacing is correct and everyone's playing team ball like we were at the beginning of the season, Luke can certainly knock them down.

Mike T,

I can't WAIT for your "Buss" paper in August. It will be sad to see you go, but like they said on this blog, you DO what you say and SAY what you do.

The only problems that I have is that Luke was injured during the second half into the season and in the postseason due to that ankle injury. That injury is very nagging because it can re-injur itself easily since there isn't much ligaments in the first place. I am just hoping that management took that into consideration when re-signing Luke and if he had completely healed. Luke makes the offense run and he did a spectacular job in the first half of the season and he did deserve that money, but not in the second half of the season. The second problem is the length of the contract. Five years would have been suffice becasue we don't want to get stuck with another Vlad aka I dropped my coffee cuz it was too hot and I didn't want to spill it on the icy floor because then it was going to melt the ice and I could have fallen and broken something so I dived after it and dislocated my shoulder for trying to be a hero and saving myself. I added a little to the story line to make it sound more believable.

AK/BK,

What ever happened to taking our feedback and changing the site?

1) There are still no sports links on the side. I speak for your target audience and believe "Food" and "obituaries" are not something we go to every day.

2) You guys still talk "Dodger Blue" on your intro.

Are any changes happening?

Weaveman,

Walton's passing and rebounding are both considerably better than Carroll's. They're both average defenders at best. Neither is particularly athletic. You take away three point shooting and there's nothing Carroll does better. Walton's also been a bigger part of better teams and they're the same age. If Carroll is worth 27 mil at 6 years, Walton is easily justified at 30 mil for the same years.

Again, I'm not trying to sell Walton as a better player than he is. He's never going to be more than a nice role player. My point was just that in today's NBA, 5 mil gets you a Luke Walton-ish player. Just sorta how it works.

AK

Oh wow - this is a topic? Luke Signs! I like him a lot - big deal. House of Buss
is burning down and we grab a glass of water from the refridgerator. Stop fiddling, folks - concentrate on what matters. When the owner dates women who are younger than whiskey and is never in town when we need him, the answer is clear - Buss should sell the Lakers and go buy China, since he and his family seem to like cheaply-built things that don't work. Or, are you all too young to remember the Championships?

DFish probably just thinks he can dupe Isiah into giving him a max deal.

Tripgame,

BK and my father is a retired opthamologist/eye surgeon and I talked to him about the Fisher situation. He told me that two of the leading centers for this particular disease are in NYC and Boston. Those were the places that immediately popped into his head. I wouldn't attempt to read between any lines with this. I imagine Fisher is thinking about geography based on his daughter first, second and third, with basketball fourth at best.

AK

AK,

What's upsetting about the walton signing is not that he's grossly overpaid, it's that we've invested 60 mil at the same position. Wnen ski vlad got signed last season, my first thought was why didn't we spend the mid level exception on a guy like marcus banks or mike james to address our pg problems. Also as Mike T. has often pointed out, resigning luke does not help address our defensive woes.

Also it ain't like Carrol is a dud either, he average more ppg at 12.1 than Luke's 11.4 and did it in less time 26.1 vs Luke's 33mpg. He's also a 91% free throw shooter vs luke's 75%. Luke has the edge in rebounding 5rpg compared to 3rpg for Carrol and also holds an edge in assists 4.3 vs 1.3 for Carrol. Bottom line, I don't think you can parade Carrol as someone that's Luke is much better than. And also I don't think you can parade the bobcats as an organization with a good front office, so hence their signing would be seen as good decision. Most analyst questioned their judgement in the jason richardson trade, and we've also got their FO to thank for making Kwame a #1 pick.

Besides kobe, only two people seemed to show heart on the court on a consistent basis, and that's lamar and luke. My only problem with the signing is we already gave vlad and cooke about 40mil to play arguably the small foward position. And that's not to mention the fact that Lamar is very effective at that position too.

Hill signs with Phoenix for 1.8 mil.

Never,
Your in Spain but you can't afford the Espn Insider ??? Hmmm Interesting.

I'm glad we resigned walton now if healthy lets get Mihm re-signed for a Mil or so.

And as for Caroll...the dude knocked down 3's without playing with a superstar and on a bad team ! Imagine what he could do on a team like Phoenix or San Antonio !

AK,

Thanks for the info man. I assumed that LA would be one of the top 2 but I was wrong. I was just curious b/c I read an article on foxsports where he kind of sided with the Laker FO by saying you never throw someone under the bus for any reason and I totally agree with him. Also FO should never throw anyone under the bus.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/6989160

Paul H:

"When the owner dates women who are younger than whiskey"

They're older than bad whiskey (or whisky depending on what you're drinking), at least. And is there really that big of a problem? Buss dating young women? If I get to be his age and am capable of dating the kind of women that he does, you can bet your bottom dollar that's exactly what I'll be doing.

"Or, are you all too young to remember the Championships?"

Seeing as how we have to be at least 13 years of age to post on this board and the most recent Laker championship was in 2002, I would bet it's safe to say that we all remember what a championship is.

I preffer Milicic than the fragile and ankles question mark of Chris Mihn.

I like MIhn as a player and as a person, but if we have to give all the MLE exception to Mihn. let's do a sign and trade with Chicago and another with Milicic (VLAD RAD).

Milicic fro VLA (If Orlando agree)
Mihn for Sefolosha and Duhon.

Duhon could be a piece we can ship later in other trade.
Sefolosha is a big guard, great defender (Remember? he shutted down Wade)

Milicic could be a effective offensive player and also a good block shocker with more upside than Kwame and less pricey. Milicic played very well in the Playoffs against Detroit.

Taliq,

I understand what you're saying about the money invested at SF, but keep in mind, Vlad also plays the 4 a lot as well. It's not like he's exclusively used as a 3.

There also just aren't a lot of small forwards who'd qualify as upgrades that the Lakers can afford as free agents or that are being offered as trade bait. Ron-Ron comes to mind. Maybe Mo Pete. That's about it. If the Lakers can sign either, great. Let Walton come off the bench, as the Lakers would prefer, anyway.

But otherwise, if the Lakers don't have much opportunity to upgrade at the 3, they might have to make due and try to improve other spots. And given the Lakers' limited ability to bring in players and how poorly Vlad played last season, you can't really allow the guy who outplayed him by a long shot to walk. Honestly, the issue isn't really Walton's contract. It's Vlad's.

I agree with you, by the way, that Carroll has use as a player. I'm not trying to say he sucks or anything. But he's much more limited than Walton when it comes to versatility, only does one thing better, is equally limited as a defender and an athlete, plus they're the same age. My original point was just that if he's making 6yrs/27mil, 6yr/30mil for Walton is pretty reasonable.

AK

Imagine Vlad, Kwame, and Darko in the lineup at that same time.

BTW, wasn't Darko the fifth Marx brother?

AK and BK:

I wonder how many other bloggers appreciate reading this thread as much as I have. The difference? The obvious absence of the Kobe haters and their repetitive vitriolic posts.

It’s almost as if we turned the clock back a year. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that it will last very long. KL and his various aliases have driven away many of the long time posters that made this blog the best place in the world for Lakers fans to meet and post.

Theirs is a victory for hate and negativism over appreciation and optimism. They have ruined a good thing and offered nothing but senseless antagonism in return. You don’t even have to be an elder like me to wish we could turn the clock back to the times before they discovered a new sand box to desecrate.

Think about how much more pleasant it would be to be able to click a button and filter out any posts by these guys. If you want the blog to continue its phenomenal success, you need to get with the times (not the Times) and implement a way for users to block unwanted posts. If you don’t, the blog will never again be as good as it was in its earlier headier days.

It’s up to you guys to save us. Otherwise, the landslide of vital and intelligent bloggers leaving will continue and the special place that you created will become just another virtual dump overrun by juvenile junkies who think their clever innuendos and comments hide the hate and disrespect in their hearts.

Save us, AK or BK. Or lose us and the blog.

Tom

ex:

"Oh, come on now. Buss wouldn't trade the Lakers for all the teat in China!!"

Exactly! He'll always do what's breast for the team!

Taliq,
"He (Jordan) wasn't making major dough in the early stages of his career so he and his agent made sure he got paid in the latter stages."

That may be true but the fact remains that yes he was resigning each year for only one year and pulling like 30 million per. That is a lot of dough even for Jordan so i totally agree with AK. 30 million for six years is nada my friend. Besides thats probably all Walton will see when his career is said and done, in six years he will be 33 i think correct me if i'm wrong.
Also Jordan made more cash with endorsements then he did with the Bulls.

Generic,
"Exactly! He'll always do what's breast for the team!"

A-pair-ently, the current situation has made him meloncholy.

ex:

"BTW, wasn't Darko the fifth Marx brother?"

How about a lineup of Beno, Marko, Hedo, Darko and Zarko?

Zen

""Food" and "obituaries" are not something we go to every day"

How else are we supposed to keep up with the twilight of Shaq's career?

Taliq,

I've read posts like yours on here for the past couple of years and they continue to baffle me. You and others continue to devalue guys like Grant Hill and state how they wouldn't help the Lakers and all, but then I see those same guys really help other teams to the point of being very successful. You and others are so focused on getting the BIG SCORE that you miss all of the solid role players that exist on the market. You claim that Grant's ankles would make him as productive as McKie was, but the numbers suggest otherwise.

At this point, the Lakers would be wise to take a strong look at the older players on the market. When Hill goes on to have a great season with the Suns, what will you say then?

As a matter of fact, I recall several calling out that Kidd was too old and wouldn't be a good fit for the Lakers. Well, now those same people would be happy to sign him in a trade for next season. Jermaine O'Neal is now being called a bad fit as well. You fail to realize that with every season that the Lakers let slip by not sure if they should pull the trigger on one of these players, it only adds another year on to that player and pushes the Lakers back further. Now signing Kidd would be less attractive because he's another year older. In 2 seasons, Grant Hill won't be as attractive either. You have to strike when the opportunity is there.

GREAT ANALYSIS OF THE POTENTIAL KG DEALS!

http://www.bleacherreport.com/nfl/nfl/kg-and-kobe-bryant?%3A-where-kevin-garnett-should-land-200707041692/

This is an excellent recap of the pluses and minuses of the four major KG trades that have been considered by Minnesota: Bulls, Warriors, Suns, and Lakers. It includes some very good analyses of how KG would fit into each team’s game plans as well as how the Wolves would fare as a result of each deal. The best deal for the Wolves AND the team they trade KG to would be the Lakers.

Tom

AK:

Hey, thanks man, I... wait a second here. Were you guys thinking of banning me??!?! :(

What do you think of this bench:

Stanko (Holy cow, how did I miss that one?)
Maceo
Kyrylo
Cuttino
Theo
Tiago
Alando

and...

Didier Ilunga-Mbenga

Generic,

No, you weren't ever close to getting banned. I just meant after that genius post, you just earned the blog equivalent of "diplomatic immunity." haha

AK

Tom,

How about a sign and trade with Kobe and Chris Mihm to the Bulls.

The Bulls wouldnt give up Ben Wallace in a trade with the Lakers because that would leave them without a center. How about including Kobe and Mihm for Gordon, Tyrus Thomas, Ben Wallace. The still could make that Joakim Noah, Duhon, nocioni trade.

The Bulls would be stacked with
C Mihm
PF Gasol
SF Deng
SG Kobe
PG Heinrich

and the Lakers
C Wallace
PF Thomas
SF Odom
SG Gordon
PG Farmar

Fow what we needed Luke Walton is actually a better signing. I'm not saying in terms of money but of skills (though that doesn't reallly make sense). Matt Carroll is a shooter, he's a horrible weak defender. Luke Walton isn't a shooter, he's a passer and he's a horrible one-on-one defender, but he's got the edge in help defending.. My only problem is so what if they over pay, we shouldn't (add 6 years to a slowwww player with an injured ankle). The market is getting crazy out there.

Faith,

"The market is getting crazy out there."

You hit the nail right on the head.

AK

Mitchell:

I think the Lakers made the right move in re-signing Luke. There is no doubt in my mind that for approximately the same amount of money, Luke will be a better teammate and player for the Lakers than either Carroll or Kapono, both of whom are one-dimensional shooters, would be. While he may not be the natural shooter that Carroll or Kapono is, Luke is a far better passer and rebounder and thus will contribute more to the team than the latter two. Additionally, Luke is a more physical player than Carroll or Kapono with a much greater ability to take the ball to the hoop and draw fouls. There are definitely situations where Luke can isolate and punish the guy defending him. All Carroll and Kapono can do is hit the open shot. Neither guy can take it to the hoop and score as well as Luke can, when healthy.

Aside from the above, signing Luke was allowed by the CBA since we owned his Bird rights and could sign him despite being over the salary cap. Signing Carroll or Kapono, however, would have cost the Lakers their MLE, which was one of the only ways the team, could add new players to improve the roster. Signing Luke still left us with our full MLE to spend on a veteran point guard, including possibly Derek Fisher. When I first posted about resigning Luke on the day the news broke, I predicted that we could easily end up viewing Luke’s deal as a bargain. The recent free agent signings of Carroll and Kapono clearly show that the Lakers got a fair deal when they signed Luke. It was the right move to make – not the major move we still need – but the right move to make to keep a valuable player.

Tom

jorema,

You and others keep saying that, but I don't see where those other teams are losing much when they take the risks. We take risks on guys that are unproven and inexperienced, and we don't take risks on the guys that are proven.

For instance, Chris Webber was available before the end of the season and we didn't take him. He would have fit in nicely with the Lakers, but a lot of you thought that he was a bad choice.

Withn this team....
Kobe will score fourty in 30o minutes.
Or if they double him...
Gasol will score 30 easily, or Deng and Hinrich will be a 20 points players every game

C Mihm
PF Gasol
SF Deng
SG Kobe
PG Heinrich

If a trade like that happen...

Kobe will say ALELUYA!

La fans will riot every game.

JJ:

Thanks for the pipe dreams...

Fisher isn't coming to L.A. His daughter is his number 1,2,3,4,5,6 & 7th priotity on his list. I wouldn't be shocked if he didn't play another game for the rest of his life.

I agree w/ AK. Darko could be a great fit. He'd average 10, 10, & 2. Decent numbers & potential great upside for someone who commands 8 mil/year. We could easily do a sign & trade with Orlando on that deal and send them Cookie & VLAD (Reunite Lewis & Vlad). Also, I like the idea of a sign & trade with the Baby Bulls. Mihm would be better of playing alongside Ben Wallace and he's a poor man's Pau Gasol. I feel that stubborn Paxton would seriously look into a deal that sends us Sefolosha and cap relief!

Also, what the hell is Mihm agent trying to serve the Lakers! Tasts like a spoonful of s&*!. How could he possibly ask for anything more than the minimum is beyond me. He's a bum and the faster we get rid of him the better.

My vote is get Ron Ron. He's a stopper and can guard the 2, 3 & 4 on the court. He's an older Marion with vet experience. It's so similar to the Rodman deal in '96 when nobody wanted him and the Bulls took a chance on him. If Phil can zen master Rodman, than he can handle Ron Ron.

Potential roster:

PG: MLE (Mo Willimas or Blake), Sefolosha, Farmar
SG: KOBE, Sasha
SF: Artest, Walton, Evans
PF: Odom, Turiaf
C: Darko, Bynum

If Darko & Bynum Combine for 20, 20, & 5...also 12 fouls...I like that. You can rotate on all big men! Also, they command the big men to guard them, putting them in either foul trouble or a lesser defender on them. Again, I like it.

You also have Artest & Odom who can potentilly command a double in the post, and make the outside shot with decency (at least more consistantly than Sasha).

You can go big lineup and small lineup to match w/ the Spurs, Houston & Suns, G.S.

BIG:
DARKO, BYNUM, ODOM, ARTEST, KOBE

SMALL:
ODOM, ARTEST, KOBE, FARMAR, EVANS

Best part: Our bench become VERY DEEP...

BENCH: WALTON, BYNUM/DARKO, EVANS, FARMAR

That's pretty good if you ask me...This may not win a championship, but they'll have an outside shot just like the Jazz did this year.

Would this work???
What do you think AK???

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=3028~2175~549&teams=13~13~4
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=25~981&teams=13~23

GO LAKE SHOW!!!

Jeff

"What five guys (Two guards, a center, two forwards) would you most like to have purely for the fact that there would never NOT be any dry news days? Skill matters not, purely entertainment value on (Von wafer)
or off (Ron Ron, Jackson) the court. any players, any team, only rule is they musty be active."

That is an OUTSTANDING question. Give me a little time to mull it over. But I'll give one hint, simply because I guarantee he's cracking the starting lineup.

Two words. Slava... Medvendenko.

AK

This is an interesting post from Mark Cuban regarding blogs and the media:

"When I started writing this blog more than 3 years ago, it was in response to traditional media's habit of twisting interviews to fit the headlines they wanted to create. Major newspapers and TV News outlets were given the benefit of the doubt when it came to credibility. I wanted to believe that there was a goal of getting the facts right that extended as far as the sports and entertainment pages. I actually thought that by posting email exchanges that were the basis of articles, media would respond by increasing their efforts to get the story right. Their fact checking would become more stringent.

Less than a year later, I questioned who had higher standards, bloggers or traditional media like the NY Times and used this blog to give another example of conclusion intersecting with an interview to create an article. I wrote the blog posts because I still wanted to believe that traditional media had every reason to maintain their integrity as a differentiation from bloggers.

That was then, 2005. Its much different today. Today, the story is the asset. Credibility. Integrity. Get the story right. Each are concepts of a bygone era. The fact that these elements of big media are gone are proofed in the most simple of lines in a newspaper or TV crawl.

Today in the Transactions section of the sports page of the Dallas Morning News, I read that Chauncey Billups agreed to sign a deal with the Detroit Pistons. This is the simplest of questions. Its completely binary. Either he did or he didn't, Its in the most throwaway of all sections of the sports pages and the newspaper itself. There is no incremental value to readers or the paper to have this tidbit in the paper. Its not a scoop. Its not going to sell papers. Yet the Morning News proved it didnt care enough to get the answer to a Yes or No question correct.

Wanna bet they just pulled this as fact from a sports blog ?

****UPDATE ** as of this morning i read on this Justin Rogers' blog just how the "signing" of Billups became fact, According this report it was a beat writer on talk radio that "reported the signing" after which it was reported through various outlets as fact. So if this blog is accurate, (I dont have the time or inclination to fact check for this element ) would have lost my bet that it came from a blog, but the fact that the Morning News reported this in their transactions section without taking the very simple step of calling the player's agent as Justin did, just further confirms my point that accuracy is no longer part of the program for many in media. *****

Thats the simplest example I could find, but there are many.

Today traditional media uses blog posts as authoritative. If its written in a blog, it must be true. This creates the opportunity to create "single source" stories. Get one interview, read an interview of the same person on a blog and use that as "confirmation" that whatever your source told you is true

Its actually pretty amusing that daily newspapers with hundreds of thousands of readers per day have so little regard for their credibility that they will use as a resource, blogs that are probably only read by the author, a few friends and the media person who found it in a search

Here is a newsflash, 99.9 percent of blogs are long tail and have fewer than 25 readers per post.. They write because they can.

It creates a lot of humorous situations that entertain at least me.

The past few weeks one of my former employees wanted to make a statement about our legal relationship and get his perspective covered in the media. No problem at all. The media people he spoke to asked me for a comment. I didnt give one. One media outlet wrote it as fact, then bloggers jumped in. The more bloggers jumped in covering what the other bloggers had to say about what the first bloggers said.

When I asked a local "reporter" why he was covering this when he only had one side and he knew i wasnt going to give a response, he said it was because his "editors thought it had become a national story", I guess his bosses read blogs.. Then another media outlet, despite my no comment email response decided to take responses from months ago and present them in their story as if they were made in response to their current request. Nice.

Then several media national news organizations decided it was a story to be put on the wires. My favorite was the AP headline of "Cuban Claims...." then went on to say that neither I, nor the Mavs would respond to an email request. Next in the humur line were the typical talk radio idiots with the "Just Shut Up " stuff. One of my buddies emailed and asked me how I would like for him to vote. I guess No Comment doesn't work anymore.

Sports media is not alone in this. One of the cable news networks was having fun with me after I had done an interview with them. Now they could have just used the interview material they had, but instead, each time they presented the story they created, my role in the story changed just a little bit. Their producers would email me, i would tell them that i had nothing more to say. Then I would watch for their comments during various shows and each time, it morphed. At somepoint they must have gotten bored with it, or thought i was being too entertained at their expense, so they stopped covering it.

Thats how the media has evolved in 3 years. In 2004 they misused quotes. Today, they don't even require quotes. They just make things up"

The only reason not to re-sign Walton and Mihm this season would be if the Lakers were giving up on this year, and trying to maximize the cap space available next summer.

Otherwise, because of the lack of cap space, it is pretty much mandatory to re-sign them.

J.C.,

"Pipe Dream"???? His agent said that the Lakers look to be the most likely option right now and you call that a pipe dream???? What do you consider a 50/50 chance????

I would consider Ron Artest more of a longshit than Fisher, yet you seem to think it's highly possible. Plus, you state that a trade with Orlando could easily be done using Vlade and Brian. Are you serious?????

TaosHum,

"are you guys being paid by Kobe to improve his image?"

Nah we're just fans and we believe the media, our barbers, friends and anyone with a mouth is already more than willing to talk about kobe's faults so we his apoligists feel a need to go the distance in touting his admirable qualities. It's for the same reason that I can't stand green bay's qb (bret), no matter what the dude does the media always seems to give him a pass. Nothing in life is black and white, there's always shades of gray. Since it is in our humble opinion that the media currently portrays kobe's action in a bad light, we've made it our duty to highlight what he does well.

"What about NOW, after the radio tirades and the video in front of the shopping mall? Everybody connected with the Lakers is an idiot, right? Mitch for not making trades, Jerry Buss for ??? supporting Kobe during his rape trial? Bynum for being young and not asking to be traded for Jason Kidd, Odom for not being more of a scorer?"

Umm show me an article saying he said odom was not much of a scorer. Consistently through out the entire season kobe's always been positive about lamar. His only criticism sounds like this ... i'm in awe of lamar's talents and i'm constantly telling him he could be regular allstar, he just needs to be more assertive ... i.e. it ain't enough to be good, you have to know you're good, and armed with that knowledge make the choice to dominate. As for Bynum, he simply stated the obvious. He's not willing to wait 4 years for Bynum to become great, so why in lord's name did FO decide it was a bad decision to go with kidd now because 5 years down the line bynum might be better. Even if it's for certain that Bynum will be the next shaq five years from now, all kobe is saying is I can't wait for that so trade me if that's the direction you want to go. As for the lakers supporting kobe during his trial, how did they do that?? Let me guess by flying him with a private jet to ensure he makes it in time to play before a sold out arena that bought tickets to see him. That's not support, that's business.

"You guys list out all the ridiculous questions, name 5 of this, 5 of that, that are totally off subject. What about NOW. What about team chemistry IF Kobe comes back and plays for the Lakers next year? How badly do you think the team will do when we get close to the trade deadline? Every player will be looking over their shoulder because the star player doesn't have their back and the front office has no choice but to back the star player? Talk about the rug being pulled out from under you..."

Perharps that's why he's stuck to his guns about being traded. I'd imagine he's also aware of the tension this could cause in the locker room. Through in the constant media circus we'd have next season with kobe on the team and it could get really ugly. Having said that should FO continue to stick to it's 'kobe apologist' mentality and insist that nothing kobe could possibly say or do would merit trading him, then these guys just have to learn to get along. Also if you believe the marketting slogan, there's no such thing as bad publicity, then maybe laker FO is happy with things as the currently stand.

"Now, am I a Kobe "hater" or am I asking a realistic question?"

Yes dude. Your whole attitude puts a biased negative focus on Kobe.

For example an unbiased analysis of kobe's play in the 2004 finals woud be ...

now whilst kobe definately helped us get to the finals and gave his all in the finals, i feel he should have taken 4-5 less shots, especially since prince was doing a great job on him. having said that there's plenty of blame to go around in the loss ... ala malone getting hurt, and payton getting abused ... (much better than just stating he was a selfish ball hog during the finals and overlooking all the positives he brings to the table as well as follies of others )

"I miss VE and EJ:

First off, I don’t. Both guys were good Lakers but those teams really sucked."

Sucked, huh? The 1995-96 team went 53-29. The year before, they went 48-34 and knocked the Payton/Kemp Sonics out of the playoffs. Were they the best team in the NBA... of course not. But they were young and good, and, most importantly, showed enough promise that Shaq was willing to come here (despite the promise of more $ and a bigger limelight, Shaq would have never come here if he didn't think that the Lakers could match enough talent with him to win a championship).

Mitchell,

Your "This is an interesting post from Mark Cuban regarding blogs and the media: " post was great

AK/BK,

What say you to defend your media brethren. We apologists see above as further evidence of what we've always maintained. The media is evil and not worth it's weight in salt. And an argument of oh those are the few bad eggs only works if you have evidence that such bad cases were punished for it and a public apology made by the newspapers. Honestly seeing what politicians get away with these days (ala the mess now known as iraq), I'm of the opinion that news has become media and the goal is to sell what the masses want to hear as opposed to the actual truth. The latter is spun and woven until they have a pattern that resembles the former.

Ex: "BTW, wasn't Darko the fifth Marx brother?"

No, but Jake Gyllenhaal made a movie about him and that Osmond guy.

Ex, G1, The D: "Buss wouldn't trade the Lakers for all the teat in China!!" etc.

He might if he were to have a lapse in his short-term mammary.

JJ...

Yeah, I seriously don't think Fisher would welcome coming back to LA now that his daughter doctor is in NY. Not to mention the status of turmoil it's in at the moment. You actually believe what a players agent says??? They'll tell you whatever you want to hear...

Also, sign & trade Darko...otherwise they'll lose him to free agency. They might as well get something back in return.

And Artest, why wouldn't it be a possibilty? Maloof's are entertaining a Hedo trade for artest at the moment (are you kidding me)...I bet if Buss could somehow get a week's vacation @ the Palms thown into the KB Deal for Artest, the Lakers would already have it done by now. KB expiring contract i feel is much better of an incentive than Hedo (especially since the F.A. market next year is going to be the best possibly ever).

I know that a Darko deal would be hard, but use the right positioning and you could get him...(Orlando is preparing to lose him for nothing remind you)

Thoughts?

G1 and Ex,

Thanks for the back and forth. I came back from lunch and that was good stuff.

JJ,

I think the reluctance of the front office to bring in older players like Webber or Hill is predicated on two points, 1) we have some young players at those positions that we'd like to get more playing time, and 2) we're not in the position where we need vets to "put us over the top" (i.e. 2004 with Malone and Payton).

Teams like the Spurs and Suns will land those players for the next couple of years because these vets feel like their 15 minutes or so a game will be spent helping a team, and them, win a title.

If/when we get back to that level you'll see us get those rent-a-vets. At a certain point these guys can pick and chose where they want to go with complete disregard for salary. Right now, do you think the Lakers look like a team an aging guy with a desire for a shot at a ring would want to go to?

I don't think so either.

Jeff, AK/BK,

"That's one of the changes I suggested in the feedback thread- I love the off the wall humor stuff you guys do (LVP, All Laker draft, etc) and I suggest that you feel free to let loose when the creative bug hits you. "

I second that.

repost

MESSAGE FOR GUNNER, TAOSHUM, TALIQ & SAMIR

GUNNER,

“Hill is said to have talked to the Heat and Pistons, but felt that the Suns were a better fit. Their up-tempo style suits him well and he should get significant minutes.”

funny no mention of coming to LA. Not even a disingenuous “I want to play with the best player on the planet” comment.

TAOSHUM

“That will affect his on-court performance but again, nobody wants to talk about this, they just try to paint everything as if you are "for" or "against" Kobe”

nice post.

“I haven't seen any stories about Kobe calling say, Blake or Franchise or ??? Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. OH! They won't get me anybody! and at the same time, not raise a finger to help bring anybody in...”

This is the intangible that good leaders have……….learning how to seek help to achieve the ultimate goal. Kobe ain’t no leader. Kobe is a talented specialist, that’s all. It takes a complete package of on- and off-court performance to win a championship as the #1.

TALIQ

“Tag you're it. Bored at work (sigh one day this blog will get me fired). Anyway I'll be responding to your last post on the latest thread. And yes your post makes you a hater :)”

Pretty funny dude. I did I piss you off last week? If I did, I’ll apologize. You take care.

HARI=SAMIR

“KLBeast = Jim Buss……Ha Ha - thanks for acknowledging you are a TROLL :)…….TROLL!!!”

I feel violated.

Grant Hill will sign with the hated Suns. Is Kupcake actually working the trades or not? Why hasn't the Lakers signed a veteran free agent yet?