The future is freed

Tanking? or Taking?

I don't know if I have a sense of humor, I didn't get it. I got stuck at "taking" lol.

Faith,

It's indeed "tanking." Typo. My bad. Thanks for the pick up.

AK

(1)
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=981~617~1016~2421~25~1708~1013~615~497&teams=11~11~11~11~13~12~13~13~23&te=&cash=
Lakers Clip Pacer King (Heavy)
(2)
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=981~25~497~1708&teams=11~13~23~12&te=&cash=
Lakers Clip Pacer King (Light)
(3)
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=110~294~2775~568~1724~3235~434~3015&teams=8~13~13~26~26~26~8~13&te=&cash=
Lakers Piston Jazz
(4)
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=110~2381~1981~3224~3028~3032&teams=4~13~13~13~13~13&te=&cash=
Lakers Bulls
(5)
One impossible/perhaps Lakers get short stick
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=110~617~532~1722&teams=10~10~13~13&te=&cash=
Lakers Rocket (needs a few more players thrown in to make it work)

I would like to mention these Trade Idea to everyone

Is it just me or does Phoenix look like it has a very very seriously weak bench? Wow! Their starters are going to have to go huge minutes in the regular season.

mike

That Coby Karl one is hilarious. I'd pay to see that.

Personally, I think he could take him.

CALI KING

To: Mike T

If the Lakers can finally play the triangle, defend the pick and rolls, protect the basket, and beat the weaker teams, I wouldn't be worried about the suns, even before the session starts they have a rotation of 8 players, 82 game season, they have gone mid way into the play offs for the past 2 years with the same guys.

Suns haven't improved so much in the draft and the guys outside of the first 3 guys off the bench won't be able to able to play the fast style.
The Suns have no back up center, they don't have a single 7 footer.
They are a fun team to watch, they have a great basketball concept that is creative and unique and they found guys to fit the system. However, just because they have their own style of play doesn't mean it is the best way to win championships.

REPOST

The Lakers should not trade Kobe this year for no reason whatsoever. IF things appear to still be heading in the wrong direction next summer, they should then look to possibly trade him on draft day IF a good trade presents itself. However, IF Kobe is on board at that point, they should leave the trade discussion alone indefinitely. There is no reason top trade him at this point because it won't accomplish anything positive for this season.

It is better to utitlize his presence this season both financially and experience-wise as it works to help some of the others continue their development. This is also the benefit of having Fisher on the team this year. This idea of going completely young, void of any veteran presence is totally crazy. It is always best to have at least 1 or 2 veterans on the squad to help build up the young players. Otherwise you will be leaving their growth to on the job training "on their own". That is not a successful way to build a team or develop a player. Instead, history has proven that having a young player develop while playing with a veteran has always been a successful way to build a champion. Duncan had Robinson. Olajuwon had Malone. Magic had Kareem. Barkley had Dr. J, Moses Malone, and Maurice Cheeks. Each time the young has had the old and they have been better for it.

As it relates to the lineup, it is pretty simple. Instead of continuing to look for some unique lineup, just go with the one that is right in front of your face.

PG - Fisher
SG - Bryant
SF- Odom (for now....Radmanovic)
PF - Turiaf
C - Brown

2nd Unit
PG - Farmar
SG - Evans
SF - Walton
PF - Radmanovic (right now.....Cook)
C - Bynum

Extras
Vujacic & Cook

Inactive List
Crittenton, Mihm

The first unit needs to play a slower tempo half-court offense and focus on being a strong defensive lineup. However, the second unit needs to push the tempo focusing on getting quick shots and playing more of a trapping defense and a helter/skelter style of basketball. When a half-court set is necessary, they will have Bynum in the paint to take the entry pass. Although Crittenton showed some strong play during the summer and preseason, I would recommend not using him regularly yet. However, as the season progresses, if the Lakers start to develop and become a solid team, I would recommend taking some time to rest Fisher and at that point, I would move Crittenton into the lineup and move Fisher to the inactive list to rest. As Mihm starts to get back into real game shape, I would move him in to replace Cook as a regular lineup player. However, as injuries happen, this may all be adjusted. Except for point guard and center, the starters will be expected to play the bulk of the minutes at their positions. At point guard and center, the reserves will play the bulk of the minutes, although the starters will be expected to start and end both halves. It is during those times in the game that both Fisher and Brown will demonstrate their true value to the team. However, during the other parts of the game, the reserves for both positions will be able to provide more on the offensive end of the court. Kobe and Lamar (once healthy, should play roughly 35 minutes night, with one of them always being on the court if at all possible. Turiaf should be relegated to 25-30 minutes a night, with Radmanovic normally picking up the remainder of those minutes once Lamar is back. Once again, this is all subject to adjustment according to injuries.

As far as the preseason is concerned, I believe that it would be a rash emotion at this point to begin to panic. After the first 20 games, based on the development at that point, then we will be able to make a clear assessment. At that point, 1/4 of the season will have been played for the Lakers. The pace for this team will be winning 3 of every 5 games over the course of the first half of the season. After 41 games, the hope is that they will be 25 - 16. I believe they were 26 - 13 last season after 39 games. That will be a solid pace heading into the second half of the season. It is expected that if they are at that record at that point, they will be coming together as a team obviously. That should mean a slightly better record over the remaining 41 games. The hope there will be going 28 - 13. That will give them an overall record of 53 - 29. Based on the projections for the season, considering the increased parity of the league, I believe that 60 wins could be the maximum amount for a team next year, making 53 wins a rather solid season. With that, I believe the Lakers would be in position to have the 5th record in the West which is where they were trending last season before the rash of injuries and the huge drop off.

You left this one off!

Arroyo, Carlos: Tearfully admits that he can't play any instruments

Carroll, Matt: At some point is going to really piss somebody off

Trio,

"Mike T, you think Kwame can defend Yao Ming the whole Game? I think we should put Bynum in the Starting Line-up against Houston.... We have to keep Kwame going full swing against this team.. We try not to give him so much work against Yao, I believe he's still not fully healthy.."

The Key to Yao Ming is understanding his weakness. It's difficult to stop Ming but if you approach it to expoit his weakness we can beat him.

What's his weakness?

He's too huge. He's always winded at about the 8 minute mark of the 4th quarter. In the 4th quarter he starts missing shots. That's when, if the Rockets go to Ming, the Lakers defense should be able to come up with stops.

I don't know about Kwame's health. If he can go he has to go.

mike

Oberto, Fabricio: Finally gets his own personalized fragrance

Okay, I'm done.

In other words Kwame has to use his stength to wear Ming down for the 4th quarter.

mike

haha,

That's true.

mike

McGarnagle,

I've always thought Oberto looks like a guy would have spent his life chain smoking at Euro discos, had he have ended up a few inches shorter. haha

AK

JJ

Does the 25-16 include 2-6 to start the year? With no practice time for the full squad, no Lamar, and 3/4 of Kobe, it's hard to imagine taking out the playoff elite waiting in the first 8 games.

I hope you're right about the number, it's just hard to imagine given the last 6 months of Laker post season, off season and pre season.

There is no reason to panic. No one expects this team to do anything. Worst case, they live up to the prediction.

whats up lakerville, quick question... do you know why dan patrick left espn?.. i was listening to am 570 and i hear him on the radio... i liked his morning show.. thanks guys!!! GO LAKERS!!!

"Love in the Time of Najera."—magnificent,

I may just have to write that on a sign when he comes to Atlanta—my boyfriend may breakup with me, but it might be worth it.

i know im gonna catch flak for this...but im sorry, that was the most stupid list ive read in a long time. just not funny at all. okay, maybe the coby karl one, but thats it. wow, i feel bad now.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned a kobe trade to philly for Igoudala and Dalembert and a bunch of picks, that would be a pretty good trade for both teams and Kobe can play for his hometown

AK BK

Do you think that koe would accept that trade?

Jackson getting paid 10 MIL to baby sit KWAME?

Has somboedy told KWAME it is his conrtract year?

The Wolf,

No reason to feel bad. If you don't think it's funny, no worries. There's no rule saying you must have as brilliant a sense of humor as me. (just kidding).

AK

Richtown,

"I'm surprised no one has mentioned a kobe trade to philly for Igoudala and Dalembert and a bunch of picks, that would be a pretty good trade for both teams and Kobe can play for his hometown. AK BK, Do you think that koe would accept that trade?"

Honestly, I'd be nothing short of jawdropped if Kobe signed off on that. He'd be playing for an even worse team that the Lakers (especially without Iggy, their best player) and in a smaller market city that always boos him, despite the hometown roots (Of course, they basically boo every current athlete except Jimmy Rollins. haha).

Feels like a pretty big reach. Sorry.

AK

No point reminding Kwame that it is his contract year.
He can't prove anything anyway.
He's a looooooooser

Mike T,

"In other words Kwame has to use his stength to wear Ming down for the 4th quarter."

I agree with your assesment of Yao Ming and I agree, Kwame can wear him down but he ain't 100% healthy. I rather not gamble with him against Yao this time of a season..

Last season if I remember correctly, Bynum done a very good match up with Yao.. So I supposed he should start against Houston. By this, we can see the improvements and potentials of Bynum against an elite center.. I'm really eager to see the match up....

Edwin,

>>>If PJ is still the coach, he can make them work for him. I don't consider the attitudes of players as a hindrance the way they play, I tried to find good players first then the motivator - second or the leader - third that will gravitate their professionalism....Like for example we had Madsen, a Stanford grad, great guy good in defense but there is something lacking, isn't it?

Edwin, our choices are not limited to only players like Arenas and players like Madsen. There are plenty of high skill players in the league that don't require personality rehabilitation and psycho therapy from our own Dr. Phil. Most top players in the league understand that true glory comes from winning and not from padded personal stats. For every Arenas, Kobe or Marbury, there are plenty of Duncans, Garnetts, LeBrons, Brands, Nashes, Kidds, Wades and so on and so on. You don;t handicap yourself with such baggage off the bat. When the chips are down, players like Arenas don't have much of a shot against those other guys. It's boys versus men.

Just say no to Arenas!!

Faith,

>>> I'd like to see Bynum play 38-48 minutes. The question right now is his conditioning. He can't play that many minutes.

Not many players average even 38, and certainly our Baby Drew looks exhausted at the end of his 20. The kid has plenty of work to do in many areas.

Do you think they should have traded him for Kidd?

Lakers can play with 3 teams and run out the best one for the fourth quarter

Fisher, Kobe, Radman, Turiaf, Brown
Farmer, Sasha, Walton, Odom, Bynum
Critter, Karl, Evans, Cook, Mihm

Hell if Turner played well enough to make the team we could have him on the third unit and play cook at small forward.
Nice depth with the Laker squad, they need to get to the point, my scrubs vs your scrubs first to play defense wins.

Seriously now, of the three units which would be the best
too bad they didn't have a 3rd true power forward or shooting guard

I like the balance scoring of unit 2, running the floor, passing, and rebounding.

But then again, that would mean trading Kobe could make unit two even better.....

Mike T,

What's happening with you boy today? His biggest, if not only supporter is dissing him. Guess it takes a little more than big calves to be a Champion.

And that's no bull..

"I talked to him a little bit after practice [Wednesday] and he was complaining a little bit about it, but he said he thought it was going to be OK," Jackson said. "[Thursday], it was a little bit stiff and we thought it would be a good opportunity to just let him stay at home . . . and let them play without him and see how they do."

The sitting at home... is he talking about Thursday's practice of Friday's game? Is Kobe not traveling to Vegas with the team?

Some roster thoughts,

Crittenton should really not go on the IR. If the Lakers are going with a youth movement...why should one of the cornerstones of the youth movement rot on the bench? Who cares about Phil not willing to play rookies? Crittenton will be around longer than Phil.

Brian Cook is absolute garbage. He shoots the ball on any spot on the court in any situation almost immediately after he gets the ball. Did you guys see that play in the Jazz game where Cook got stripped (should have learned) then Bynum hustled to get it away from Boozer, the ball goes to Cook and the idiot just goes for another shot and misses again. Cook needs to go. Hes just dumb. Hes no Toni Kukoc. He shoudl go on the IR.

And after watching Coby and Sasha, at this point I would take Sasha. I know Karl seems cool and trendy, but I think Sasha is a better basketball player at this point. It would hurt to see Karl leave beacuse he will probably get picked up during the season by another team. But he sort of looks lost out there against NBA playes and Sasha looks like he has more heart than he did last year. Plus I think Sasha is a better trade commodity. Dont overlook Sasha's size either.

About the whole 14 man roster thing, I think its about a possible Kobe trade. What guys are available out there right now that could help the Lakers during the season? Allan Houston? Reggie Miller? Tony Massenberg? Unless Im missing somebody, i really dont think theres a team changer as a free agent. So it has to be about a Kobe trade where the Lakers would receive more than they shipped out.

As far as the other guy who should go on the IR, it has to be Mihm. Until he can not only play at the NBA level again, but also physically be capable, should he be playing. He looks really bad out there. Plus his ankle is not healthy, he will play in pain all season. To me it sounds like the end of a career in about two years.

Starting 5 when season starts: (assuming Luke and Kobe and Kwame all play)

C Brown
PF Turiaf
SF Walton
SG Bryant
PG Fisher
second unit:
C Bynum
PF Radmanvoic
SF Evans
SG Vujacic
PG Farmar

reserves: Crittenton, Cook, IR Mihm.

And when Odom returns:

C Brown
PF Turiaf
SF Odom
SG Bryant
PG Fisher
second unit
C Bynum
PF Radmanovic
SF Walton
SG Crittenton
PG Farmar

I'd rotate Sasha and Evans in with the first unit for special situations..defense, shooting. Also, while it seems like no cook and mihm the lakers are small, instead Odom who would start SF could also slide to PF to fill a need like foul trouble. Id use that lineup against the Suns, Warriors, Hornets, Mavs.

Richtown,

Check out the trade proposals I made reguarding Kobe and every NBA team. I did that post back in the summer, like June-ish, when everybody kept saying that you couldnt trade Kobe. I did a Igoudala, Kyle Korver, Jason Smith deal. The Sixers would keep Andre Miller, Salem Dalenbert, and Kobe, creating a one-two-three type punch. Of course they also would have Reggie evans for rebounding, and Thaddeus Young. But thats about how best it goes, because than the Sixers have no bench.

The best deal other than the Chicago or Dallas way, is really Kobe and Mihm for Joe Johnson, Marvin Williams, Josh Childress and Zaza Pachulia

C Bynum
PF Odom
SF M. Williams
SG Johnson
PG Fisher

second unit
C Pachulia
PF Turiaf
SF Walton
SG Childress
PG Farmar

reserve: crittenton, radmanovoic IR Cook, Sasha, Evans

to me that starting line up is not as good w/o Kobe obviously, but with Joe Johnson, Marvin Williams and Bynum growing together, and with childress, Pachulia and Farmar off the bench they have a Portland TrailBlazer type future. Of course, the Lakers could trade a guy like Odom for Shawn Marion and reunite Johnson and Marion as a wing tandem. That I think would be a playoff team.

Kobe gets a mystery injury? I personally think Kobe is about as good as gone right now. I know I sound like conspiracy theorist, but I think Kobe is hardly playing because Phil wants the team to get used to playing without Kobe. He doesnt want them to get old habits, or hamper their development if Kobe is in the game.

Also, if Kobe did get hurt than it would hamper his trade value. Imagine if he blew out his knee? That would destroy the Lakers because than they would get nothing for him and theyd have to trade him in the opt out year and really get nothing for him.

Phil might also be trying to lower Kobe's trade value to force a move.

But I find it odd that guys like KG, Steve Nash, etc are playing a lot of minutes, but Kobe is not. Are KG, Nash hungier than Kobe? I thought they were all pretty equal, but right now it seems very unKobe-like.

I feel that the whole roster thing, Kobe not playing, and when he is playing, only "experiementing" means that hes getting traded muy pronto.

great talk about roster rotations

dividing playing time will be big for the lakers to have success and to keep kobe and odom from getting injured

Question

For the team to win does Kobe have to carry the Lakers or just play basketball and his own limit mistakes?
Is Kobe a Laker among many Lakers or does he have the right to free lance at will?

My thoughts: Kobe does not have to score 40 every game for the Lakers to have the best chance of winning.
The Lakers need to play team basketball, they need to pay tribute to the basketball gods, defend the pick and roll, boxing out, rebounding, transition defense, defensive rotation to cover the open man, passing, triangle dictated spacing, and attacking whatever weakness the other team gives us.
These are fundamentals, where is Tex?

The Lakers, 6th worse defense, 103 points allowed per game. The coaching staff is right about focusing on defense.
Kobe can not hold the ball and take 30 shots a game. He needs to play in the system and take high percentage shots.
This team will be killed if they can't rebound and they give up truckloads of turnovers.

Sac should try to unload Douby, Salmons, Rahim and Thomas ugly contracts the only good thing about them is Bibby and Martin.

There has got to be a way to pry Artest away from Sac this season without giving up Kobe, Bynum, Odom, or point guards.
Why can't Sac just cooperate and swap him for Brown and draft picks.

If the Lakers did move Kobe to say the Bulls, and they don't get Deng, I hope the GM has the guts to fight for first round picks on top all their talent and power forwards.

That is how the discussion should start.

Mitch/Buss: How about Deng, Gordon, Noah, Tyrus and Thabo and 2 first round picks.
Pax: No Deng. What about Gordon, Tyrus Nocioni.

Mitch/Buss: Oh really, you better give me Noah or else 10 first round picks then
Pax: What.... ok you can have Gordon, Tyrus, Noah, Nocioni

Mitch/Buss: Ok great ...and since Noah was a first round pick you owe us 6 first round picks now.

The draft picks will be very useful for future trades to bring the players we need. We don't need 2nd rounders, just first rounds.
Has Mitch even watched football drafting, remember the 8 draft picks Ditka gave up for Ricky.
You want Kobe, you gotta pay the price. If you don't have the players we want in the deal then you better start counting your picks as mine for a long time.

Kobe's made up his mind to not carry this team to the playoffs this year. Look in his eyes. He's finally learned that one player amounts to a hill of beans in a TEAM game. Bynum and the other guys need to step up and get their team some wins.

Just give Darko ONE more year......

This is my favorite:

Devin Brown: Is so underrated that he sucks

Think about it, its deep

BrewCoJay in the D

Staples 24,

"Has somboedy told KWAME it is his conrtract year?"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Funniest post on this thread!

ROTFLMAO!

--FearlessWhackJob

Why isn't anyone on this blog even considering a trade for channing frye? He's a real possibility because HE'S ON THE BLOCK!!! And he's got value... a PF/C, he's got skill, he's got trade value if we package him for another star, he's got youth if we rebuild... what's the deal?

Everone keeps throwing around these trades that are impossible... seriously, Houston would riot if they traded Yao and McGrady for Kobe and Odom!!!

Whatup?

I think it's far more likely Yao would wear Kwame down, he's probably stronger. On the other hand, who would notice?

Michael A.,

All I ask is that Kwame makes those free throws and Yao Ming gets his 6th foul for keeping up with Kwame. That will be a job well done.

Edwin - it's a much better bet Kwame fouls out. Much better odds.