What's with all this positive talk about Bynum? Have you guys seen him in practice? And if so, do you think that he can become a major contributer?

jorema,

"WHO ROCK’D IT BETTER?: RIHANNA OR VANESSA Bryant?"

http://concreteloop.com/2007/05/who-rockd-it-better-rihanna-or-vanessa

I WOULD DEFINATELY HAVE TO SAY WITHOUT A DOUBT RIHANNA ROCKED IT BETTER.. THIS GIRL IS SO GOOD TO ME RIGHT NOW.. SHE IS ON FIRE, THERE IS DEFINATELY SOMETHING ABOUT THIS GIRL LATELY.. BEYONCE WHO? LOL, THANKS FOR THE LINK

Props to BK for best quote of the summer (so far lol): "Jerry Buss would sooner start dating in his age group before he’d trade 24"

LOL, and so true. So double points!

Violator, it was about if Kobe had arrived before Jordan. I can't seem to find a link. But it's a must read.

If Fisher had not come into the picture I would have liked to have seen the Lakers FO take a run at Desmond Mason. He would have been a good upgrade at SF. It looks like he could have been had for the MLE (if he wanted to be a Laker).
I wonder if the Lakers ever made a call in his direction?

The team is not much better than last year, but it IS better. By how much depends on Critt, Fish, and Mihm making solid contributions.
Speaking of contributions, why don't we all pitch in and buy Kwame a years supply of Stick'em. I know, I know, why doesn't he buy his own...

Maybe there will be some pleasant surprises this season. Along with everything else, another year of experience for Bynum and Turiaf. And if Kwame isn't motivated in a contract year, he'll never be.

ESPN'S WHO'S NOW?

BREAKING NEWS: SHAQ O'NEAL REACHES THE QUARTERFINALS

Looks like an old, fat, lazy, Big-Mac-Eating-Elephant, $30-million, lose-in-the-first-round Shaq has defeated Pepe Le Pew (Tony Parker) on ESPN's popularity contest. BTW, how's kobe doing? Not "now" i bet?

For those of you who don't know who Pepe Le Pew is, see link below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pep%C3%A9_Le_Pew

Faith,

No, Bynum was drafted, then they traded for Kwame. That was one of the specific reasons why the logic of that trade didn't work for me.

AK

Faith,

thanks, i'll try to keep that in mind and look out for it, another good one is the "Driven" exclusive article by Kobe Bryant in Dime Magazines March 2006 issue, i'm sure all the bloggers here bought that "must have" issue

Kudos to AK/BK.

I like it all of their assessments and answers. Very balanced opinion,not wordshipping of Kobe , neither talking gratuitous negativism.

I'm impress.
I thing also, that their opinion is a reflection of the mayority point of view of the bloggers here.

If you haven't read it...do it...
Is worth the reading.

I'm proud to be here, between jokes and numbness, knowing that behind all this AK/BK are truly smart guys, even when they downplay themselves to let the bloggers flourish as should be.

Jorema,

I certainly didn't mean to slight the K Bros. They know I got Sasha-like love for both of them lol.

By the way thanks for the award. That is so me! lol.

THE GOOD OL' DAYS.... 1/25/2001

http://espn.go.com/nba/columns/aldridge/1036981.html

Great Article!

I'm torn between the worse trade - Shaq to Miami or Caron for Kwame.

I wish we had gotten Grant Hill and a couple of draft picks (including the one that became Dwight Howard), though on paper Grant/Odom/Butler didn't look that bad.

Just imagine - a three way trade:

Miami got Shaq
Magic got Odom + Butler + Brian Grant
Lakers got Wade + Howard + Grant Hill

That would have been SWEET! Ya, Ya, I know hindsight being 20-20 and all that. I still feel we could have done a lot better than what we ended up with.

On the other hand, Caron for Kwame was one of the things I never got - though Phil was definitely on board with that decision. Why would we trade Caron away when we could have prolly gotten Kwame with the MLE ? Keep in mind that he didn't exactly set the league on fire the previous season. So though there was upside, we could have sold him on the Lakers without having to give Caron away.

Again, great article!

Aloha AK?BK

Thanks for the link it was good stuff. To me it seems like nothing very big is going to happen between now and the trade deadline. If a few guys do step up early in the season it could possibly give us more tradeing pieces at the deadline. Kwame needs to step up more then anyone else on the team. Right now he is looking at a 4 million dollor pay cut. With 08 potentially the best free agent year ever, he is looking at MLE money next year at best.

In the article, just about every one said Bynum was looking very good this summer. Perhaps you guys could do a little story about Andrew. At this point all I read on the blog is KG and JO trades that will not happen and KL kobe rants. A story on Bynum would be a nice diversion from the same ole same ole.

MH

Aloha LT79

Two reasons I do not share your optimism on a KG trade 1st we offered the T-wolves just about anything they wanted except Kobe and were turned down. 2nd
I will feel like KG was pulled off the trading block because he has been expressing a desire to stay in Minny. The whole point of trading KG was because of his opt out clause next year. But if he doesnt want to go, why trade him? That is why the owner stepped in and all but said straight out that they would not trade KG. Doenst mean things couldnt change at the trade deadline if the T-Wolves get off to a terrible start but I really do not see any KG movement until at least the trade deadline.

MH

** repost**

RespectMyAuthoritah,

You said: so you'd rather he leave than the Lakers win. Brilliant.

My response was to a question which contained the following phrase:

he will never sorround kobe with a good team

I'll flip this around and also open it to the rest of the blog: If the front office
*NEVER* surrounds Kobe with a good team, do you want to continue to
watch Kobe carry a bunch of bad teammates?

For *me* Right now, Kobe is the equivalent of Barry Sanders. The best in
the business shackled to people who aren't on the same train. It is absolutely
tragic that Barry Sanders doesn't have a Superbowl ring. He's arguably the
best all-around running back to ever play the game. Playing with a bunch of
scrubs broke him and he eventually quit within spitting distance of breaking the
record for most yards by a running back. Kobe is capable of everything that
MJ did and he has already surpassed him in some individual accomplishments.
I wish to see this "Once in a generation" player play at his absolute best.
The questions will always be asked. He will always be compared. We
might as well have good answers, right?

When I listen to Mozart, I don't want to listen to it on AM in a busted Geo metro. When I'm feelin' the bass in "Candy Shop" tiny speakers just won't cut it. When I'm watching the Fantastic Four, a cell phone is not the appropriate media.

Rembrandt should not be using paint brushes from Home Depot and Kobe should
not be sharing the floor with Smush Parker!

I hope we can agree, if not my "toes are still tappin".

KL,

You said: no argument from me that kobe wants it, hell i want it too, but b-ball is team concept and if kobe truly "wanted it" he would not have allowed his ego to supersede winning, which would have meant not allowing shaq to be traded. you can call shaq all the names you want, but shaq has 4 rings and 3 finals MVP awards plus countless years to making it deep into the playoffs.............kobe can't even lead his team past the 1st round. why? cuz kobe's guys don't respect kobe enough to play defense and get rebounds for kobe so kobe can get all the credit. you see, good leaders share credit when things go well and deflect blame from his guys when things go bad. as you can see, kobe takes the credit and deflects blame from himself to his guys, his management and now, his owner. that's my problem with kobe. I DON'T CARE HOW HARD KOBE WORKS OUT OR HOW "HUNGRY" THE GUY IS, THE DUDE CAN'T LEAD AND ISN'T A LEADER OF THE LAKERS. HELL KOBE STILL WANTS OUT OF LA.

You make the argument that Kobe could have stopped Shaq from being traded.
Kobe, Shaq & Dr. Buss have publicly denied this allegation. If you can give me
a reason why I should believe you over them I'm willing to consider it. Otherwise,
I'm rollin' with the printed statements of the parties involved and we can agree
to disagree.

You made the statement that Kobe's guys don't respect him enough to play
defense and get rebounds for Kobe. If what you say is true: EVERY SINGLE
LAKER not named Kobe SHOULD HAVE THEIR CONTRACT VOIDED IMMEDIATELY! I dont' mean at the trade deadline or during pre-season I MEAN THIS VERY INSTANT!!! What sort of a pathetic scrub of competitor plays so
that their teammate will like them??? This is a COMPETITION! If you're not
playing to win GO HOME!!!!! Watch it on TV. That sort of attitude is guaranteed
to lose. I thought you'd have understood that .... Maybe that's why we disagree.
With that mentality we wouldn't be good teammates. I probably wouldn't be supportive enough for you and you wouldn't take personal responsiblity enough
for me. It's all good though. Variety is the spice of life.

Your comments about Kobe sharing and taking credit do not match what
happened for the first half of the season. Nor do they match the playoffs
of year #2 without Shaq.

re: Kobe being a leader. It seems to me that there have been a number of leaders
with different styles. Because Kobe was unable to change lead [ smush
parker & co. ] into gold [ getting past the phx. suns ] you deem him an uncapable
leader. *I* think you have an unrealistic vision of what is possible and so do
many other sports personnel. This would explain why they believed the phx.
suns would win. I once remember Magic saying "He doesn't make his teammates
better. " He stopped saying that. Everybody stopped saying that. [ except you ]
One reason that they stopped is because they saw him single-handedly stop a
six game losing streak. Do you remember *any* of our losing streaks? Do
you remember Kobe passing the ball and smush parker missing a jump shot.
smush parker missing a free throw. Lamar Odom missing a 3. Vlad going
snowboarding. Luke missing a jump shot. Mo Evans missing a jump shot?
Kobe is averaging less than 1 assist different that MJ. He's passing the ball a
lot. His boys haven't come thru. That's why I'm excited about D-Fish. He's
steady and makes his shots. [ You remember .4 don't you? ]

Nice Obe-Wan shot. May the Farce be with you.

hariyahu, sure, that would be great. I don't think it would have been possible though. Why would Miami give up all of that to get Shaq when they could have gotten him for less? And they weren't giving up Wade, period. Riley knew what he had. Also, salary-wise, it wouldn't have been possible. Grant was included because of the salaries, nothing matches up there.

But yeah, we'd be a lot better off.

OMG AK thinks the Lakers should have let Kobe go and re-signed Shaq

By many bloggers opinions here, doesnt that make him a hater?

I am struck by the constant references to 'bad' trades. 'Good' trades or drafts are often not recognized for years, unless they happen in the top 5 picks. In the last draft, Jeff Green - for instance - is view by various sources as a great professional and a vastly overrated player. We won't know the result for years, regardless of what he does next year.

There are relatively few nuggets in the draft or being traded. Our FO not only has to be good, but they also have to be somewhat lucky. It looks like we got some solid players over the last three drafts - and we have two possibles to stash this year. I am not sure you can do better over the course of three years, when drafting where we have.

As for trading/signing, I admit this is the FO weak point. Kobe's tirade just reinforced the volume for us bloggers. They have to improve here, but presuming they can just do something because they want to is really an idiotic assumption. We bloggers at least need to look at possible trades from the other team's point of view. Only when the trade seems to fill equal needs for both sides is it possible. Stop with this 'nobody wants to help the Lakers' statements. No team ever wants to help any other team. All teams must see a trade as helping themselves before they will give up anything.

Looking back, Caron was NOT going to be paid because he duplicated a lot of what Kobe did - friends or not - and the team couldn't have three players with similar skills being paid the majority of the salary cap. That is a real receipt for disaster - see Atlanta. It was a calculated risk that didn't work out. Remember AB was a high schooler with little experience and the Lakers needed a big body to help Kobe down low for the next 3 years, while Andrew developed.

If Kwame can help us this year - great, but don't trade him now. Wait till the trade deadline. If he is really helping the team keep him for the remainder of the year. If he is no better than last year trade him because someone will want his cap numbers to come off next summer. That is kind of a 'no brainer'.

That Hoopshype article is absolutely fantastic and not the least because of the eloquence of the K Brothers (even though I found myself agreeing with Paul Henderson more than anyone else.)

I almost feel everyone on this blog should read read that Hoopshype article and then we should call off all discussion until pre-season workouts begin. It's difficult to disagree with the concensus logic of their words.

In addition, the concensus of these experts that Kwame Brown is NOT the second coming of Wilt Chamberlein tends to prove that Michael Tienete is a moron.

GO LAKERS!

Laker Lover,

"OMG AK thinks the Lakers should have let Kobe go and re-signed Shaq."

I must have missed the part when I said that.

AK

Fkillah, MIchael A,

In talking with a couple people (in addition to what I've heard), the word is that Bynum's offseason work has been very impressive and productive. Granted, I'm getting this second hand/third hand, since I haven't been there to watch the workouts. But it's all pretty consistent, so hopefully that's a good sign. Time, of course, will tell.

AK

AK,

" I'm expecting my statement that Mitch should have let Kobe go in 2004 and used the cap space to build around Slava to be somewhat controversial"

Right there in your opening. Plain as day you said you hate Kobe and that means you love Wade, Lebron, and of course Shaq. You're crazy, you're not a fan. Also, everyone knows Slava probably would have opted out to play for a ring somewhere else. Slava was always about winning, it was never about the money with him.

Rambis said Bynum was working hard everyday and looking very good.

Still, players can have great games, but they can't become consistently great over a summer.

It's reasonable to expect better conditioning, fewer inexperienced mistakes more good games vs bad ones, and overall improvement on both ends of the floor.

Is that good enough? Not good enough to win it all. Lamar would have to have an injury free year beyond what he's produced so far in his career, and the rest of the roster would have to achieve beyond expectations to get us into the WCF.

That and a whole lotta luck. What the hell, we're due for some luck.

AK:

Why didn't you use the interview as a platform to promote "The Critter" as J.C.'s nickname? This perplexes me.

AK/BK,

I enjoyed the round table and all, but would you agree that Paul Hershenson (IntheRefrigerator.com) is a total spaz?

Martin

Andrew Z,
"Slava was always about winning"

That's why he went east, to follow Shaq and win. But he got sidetracked by an available shot.