Yeah, and maybe we can package him and Mbenga and Luke and Vlad and every other crappy player/contract that nobody wants for Kevin Garnett or Tim Duncan! It'll work. I swear!

Is today the last day to match Turiaf?

Since nothing has really changed in the past week except for maybe the posey signing, I don't see the Lakers doing anything.

Kwaminus I can teach you, but I have to charge Brownicus,

QUINTON ROSS!

QUINTON ROSS!

QUINTON ROSS!

QUINTON ROSS!

GO LAKERS!

By the way, JLF & LT, if Andrew's agent walks out of a meeting
where the Lakers offer him an incentive laden contract that has
the potential to earn the max, then I'll bet he won't be Andrew's
agent by the end of the summer.

Love for Kevin. Not the that Kevin
http://tinyurl.com/5swejg

Well how long do they have to wait before they could trade Turiaf? Since the luxury tax doesn't kick in till next June, couldn't they package him before the trade deadline. It's a nice chip to have, maybe an Eastern Conference contender would take him for a draft pick before the Feb. deadline, who knows. And if they trade Odom for Artest, Ronnie would be good to have around...

chat link pleas.

Kwaminus I can teach you, but I have to charge Brownicus,

Actually, Quinton Ross's defense is significantly better than Sasha's.

He also excels at doing all the little things that don't put up impressive numbers, but make other players better. I think Quinton Ross would be the perfect player to replace Ira Newble.

GO LAKERS!

giantsquid,

>>>>> No, no they didn't. I save me shivers for truly special occasions:
>>>>>Tyree's Super Bowl catch or Kobe's 81 for instance.

I have always preferred to shiver at will. Why hold it back when you can enjoy it any time. LOL. Although I will admit, some shivers are better than others.

Tom

Long Time,

>>>>> So you've sat in on NBA players negotiating their contracts
>>>>>frequently, huh? That must be interesting.

Yes, let me tell you about the time I negotiated George Mikan’s first pro contract way back…

OK, while I have never sat in on an NBA player negotiation, I have been on both sides of the table negotiating business contracts worth millions of dollars and employment contracts worth hundreds of thousands. Incentives in NBA contracts are handled similarly to how incidentals are in a business contract or benefits are in an employment contract. They are dealt with after the principle terms of the deal have been reached.

Long Time, I am not saying your idea for an incentive laden contract for Drew is without merit. I understand the reasons you want to do it. In a perfect world, I would even agree with you that it would be a better way to compensate players. But in the real business world, the last thing you are going to do is to risk NOT getting Andrew signed to an extension by trying to sell him on a radical new type of compensation and contract. That is the business reality of the situation.

>>>>>Unique situation. Unique player. Unique contract offer.

Critical situation, Franchise player, NOT the time to monkey around.

Tom

Kwaminus I can teach you, but I have to charge Brownicus,

The issue with Kwame Brown is that his calves have a hypnotic ability to beguile GMs around the leauge into thinking maybe, just maybe, he could be a 25 and 15 type of player. I mean, for the love of God! Look at those calves! He just needs the right guidance and a bottle of French dressing with him at every restaurant he goes to! That's it!

As a result, someone (Miami? Atlanta? Utah?) is going to offer Kwame a three year-16 milion dollar contract! Why? We can't let the Lakers or San Antonio have those magic calves!

So...

Even though I think Kwame would be just great to have back on our roster to play about eight minutes a game. I would be outraged if the Lakers paid more than 1.75 million a year for him. In fact, Kwame should owe US money as payback for each and every layup and dunk he missed over his illustrious Laker career.

I think after a penalty of $1000 per missed layup/dunk, Kwame would owe the Lakers organization about $1 million. So, calculated against his salary, I think Kwame Brown for $750,000 for his first year would be something I'd be completely in favor of.

However, we all know Atlanta or Miami is going to offer him something like $5.25 million a year under the hypnotic power of those magic calves. And then we can sit back from afar and watch the "Curse of the Magic Calves" work its nefarious forces upon that team as Kwame Brown--bottle of French dressing in one hand; cake in the other--causes heartbreak, confusion, and misery upon his newest fans.

I think the only way to break the "Curse of the Magic Calves" is to underpay Kwame Brown. Overpaying Kwame Brown simply magnifies the terrifying powers of the dark sorcery which is the "Curse of the Magic Calves."

There you go. Now everything is clear.

GO LAKERS!

"I think Quinton Ross would be the perfect player to replace Ira Newble."

--

I dunno. Nobody warms the bench like Ira.

On Mihm, no, no, no, I'm not talking about running in a straight line to the other side of the court, I'm talking about on defense, Mihm was always somewhat "late" to put himself in the proper position on defense. That's why he was always picking up those cheap fouls. Some of it was definitely caused by people blowing past our guards but when the other team swings the ball around and Mihm is leaning right and the ball comes back around and the guy on Mihm's left suddenly has the ball and is moving towards the hoop, Mihm can't get himself back in position to stop the ball and either has to back off and allow the layup or otherwise risk a foul.

Also, you talk about the big, muscly, gnarly men who pound down low and the league lets them get away with a lot of pushing and shoving. Mihm just isn't built that way. I'm not taking anything away from all of his hard work but that's just how it is. Trying to push Kwame around would be like trying to push your car uphill, you might get it to move a few inches... until it started to push back and then you're crying for help... LOL!

AK: technically, you are correct in the general RFA terms. However, FredJ was speaking specifically about Ronny who has signed an offer sheet. So, we can quibble as to who was right/wrong but I would say it's the difference between A- and B+. LOL

GO LAKERS!

Here are my issues with Kwame Brown:

1) On offence it becomes 5 on 4, you don't have to guard him closely, even when he's right next to the frakin' basket. I have been a basketball fan for 33 years and I've never seen a guy miss more lay-ups, dunks and alley-oops than Kwame 'Hands' Brown. He's not just a liability on offence, he's an albatross that threatens to sink an entire game at any given moment.

2) His hands. Nuff said.

3) He plays nervous now, he has never had a competitors fire under his butt and not even PJ and Co. could bring it out of him. I don't see him as the type of guy who comes back from a disappointing game or season hungry. He's content to be as he is. Like Shaq, he's never worked on any kind of outside game. Does anyone remember his 10' jumpers? Scary stuff.

4) History. This guy has had every single player bash him for his lack of skills, lack of work ethic, lack of fire, lack of ldeserts to throw at passerbys. He has a label that will be very difficult to change. The Lakers are already being touted as the best 'soft' team in basketball, I don't see him as reversing that image at all.

5) Not good for the triangle. He can't pass out of a double team effectively and is actually more likely to just drop the rock. Without any other real dominant player besides KB 24, it's imperative that we cut down on TOs and he does not help in that department.

What's to Like?

1) He does play defence. Not showy, shot blocking intimidating defence, but he does body his man and he does clear space in the post. He's an average (maybe) rebounder.

2) Evidently the guys a hoot and just absolutely great to have in the locker room. I believe that Ronny would be both better in the locker room and on the court, but I'm not the GM of this team.

All in All
The luxury tax is going to be a problem this year for certain. Next year, however, you won't be paying Lamar or Chris Mihm. If you end up giving Kwame something like 8-10 million for two years, you're not really staving off the luxury tax and I think that you're losing alot in team ability, compared to eating the luxury tax this year and keeping Ronny.

I am biased, however; I've a Ronny fan ever since the Lakers drafted him and even more so after the heart operation. I never liked Kwame for Caron (even though it eventually resulted in Pau Gasol, although I'm still not convinced that a Caron-Lamar-Bynum back court wouldn't dominate), I thought that Kwame sunk us in the 2006 Phoenix series with turnovers and missed shots and I don't think he plays well as a back up. His confidence has been seriously eroded at this point. He'd be better off playing in a smaller market with less expectations. That's why I think he'd be perfect for Atlanta. Don't get me wrong, I like all of our ex-Lakers and wish them all success (although not at the expense of our team), I also know that PJ likes to bring in guys who have a famialiarity with what we do, but I don't think Kwame is the answer.

Re-sign Ronny, raise tix another 1.2%, re-sign Sasha and let the season commence.

GO LAKERS!!!!!

Long Time Laker Fan,

I must plead guilty to being corrupted by the evil hypnotic powers of the magic calves.

At the same price, I'd choose Kwame Brown over DJ Mbenga.

I'm.... just..... not.... sure..... why....

GO LAKERS!

LOL,

Before the Clippers made the deal for Camby, they were trying
to get New York to salary dump Zach Randolph on them...

cnnsi.com is reporting that the trade they offered was Brevin
Knight for Zach Randolph, a first round pick, and 3 million
dollars.

nice.

Dude, we can't let Ronny Turiaf go to another team. That would just be... well... WRONG.

GO LAKERS!

Letting Ronny go will turn out to be a hug mistake !

Okay, next question...

If you needed to bring in a cheap backup PF, would you prefer
to sign Robert Horry or Nik Caner-Medley.

I'm not talking "in their prime", I'm talking right now. With Horry
just having come off a season where he played poorly and looked
old and Caner-Medley playing like the energizer bunny, but
only in Summer League.

Mmm.... I'd be more apt to give Kwame a shot if we weren't so short on roster space. As it stands, I'd rather use that slot on somebody who's more of a natural 4 but can put in time at the 5 if need be (in other words, like Rony but not Rony since he's basically out the door). I really don't have anything against Kwame and I recognize his value as a defensive presence. The larger picture however, is that he is a limited player who was given every chance to succeed here and it just didn't work out.

At any rate, he did bring something very valuable to the team - Pau!

Von Wafer? with International b-ball experience? He has to go to Beijing this summer....Key to the gold baby...but not purple n gold.

Long Time Laker Fan,

Robert Horry.

Like Derek Fisher, winning's not just about what you can bring to the court, gametime. It's also about leadership, wisdom, and experience.

Robert Horry would make other Lakers better players.

GO LAKERS!

I hope we keep Ronny.
He's just got such a feel-good vibe that he brings to everything he does!