Pretty tired hearing so many pro players say it's not about the money - they want to win the ring. Now Kidd is going to stay with the Mavs. Now if winning a championship is the most important thing - why would he stay there? No way mavs are going to make the finals....so it's all about the money. Trevor? LO? Shannon?

I wish these guys would just be honest and come out and say...I don't care about winning - I just want a ton of money. At least I'd respect their honesty.

To me - the only one that has really put his money where his mouth is, is "our" RonRon. Give him tons of credit for actually doing what he says he's going to do. I think he is going to work out great for the Lakers!!!

Want some, take some, get some.

Lakers still on top.

Personally, I think Sheed would have done better with the Spurs but that's just me.

Nice pick up, but will it get them past Orlando in the 2nd round?

Not so sure of that.

Did they make the move because of the uncertainty of KG coming back 100%?

Their big stars are 4 years older on avg. than the Lakers big stars.

Injuries do appen, especially when you get that old in the NBA (see KG last year)

It's a lot more fun to have superteams rather than boring parity.

This is one of those great debate aquisitions. Not unlike Artest. Sheed brings plenty of upside, but also downside that has the potential to drag the team down. Lots of Alpha males in that bunch over there. Not as many deferrers -- a la Pau and Lamar. Which is why I think that the Cs are more likely candidates for combustion/implosion than the lakers.

Doc did a good job holding Marbury in check, but Rondo has shown increasing and to add another egocentric whiner tio the bunch . . . should be quite an interesting locker room.

Besides, the age on that team -- especially after a grueling East campaign -- should wear on them physically and emotionally.

Still, it makes them long and more potent on offense (as if they needed it). Certainly helps them against the Cavs; less sure about the Magic. And I don't think they match up particularly well versus the Lakers (assuming Lamar returns).

There are reports we're trying to get Nate. Would there be any possible way we could sign him? We can only offer him the vet minimum or the bi-annual exception correct?

Sheed is good and I'd be curious if he can actually get motivated and if he gets motivated what he'll do.

Grant Who? He's still in the league?

I feel pretty good where we're at in the arms race SO LONG AS WE SIGN ODOM.

If the team with the most cap space is Portland with 9M and that team still can go after Shawn Marion, David Lee, Linas Kleiza and maybe a couple others, I feel pretty good about us signing Odom.

We should be able to offer at least 8, right? Should Odom insist he get that extra mill? Doesn't he want to make mrbarneyjangles and Jon K.'s dreams come true?

It's good to be a have!

RA, -sheed, KG, and maybe Over the Hill?

the new and fresh Boston Geriatrics

looks like the organization got their senior citizen discount

the Lakers clearly need to bring Odom back,now that the Celtics have reloadedAll this movement in the East is to get passed Orlando,which Cavsand celtics should do now that the Magic lost turkVince carter will not make the Magic better than last year!None of these team improvement make these team better than the Lakersshaq couldn't even get Phoenix into the playoffsLe Bron is a one manoperationplus cleveland can't coachLakers are still the favorites!!

I am already excited about the coming season... :)

Good thing Sheed wants to be in Boston... I want the Lakers to face them in the Championship if for no other reason but to avenge last years beating...

Go Lakers!!!

Leprechauns should be worried with their Eastern counterparts before competing with the Lakers. With the addition of Rasheed, are they going to reach the ECF? Joe Dumar will not let Rasheed go if he thinks there is still juice in him, Piston opted for Gordon than go same old Rasheed. Indeed, it is true Leprechauns are getting old, they kept on beefing up their line up with old mercenaries that were in the grand plan of Red Auerbach. Ah, this is no longer the fifties, sixties when Leprechauns dominate 8 teams besides that, Powe and Davis might skip Boston. Wow, they don't know what to do with Rondo to love him or ship him. He is the "Farmar" of the Celtics, sometimes great but uncontrollable and worst, pouting when he doesn't get his way.. However, these (Rondo, Davis, Powe, Posey, PJ Brown) were the blue collars that catapulted Celtics to prime not a technical-prone Wallace, or those high salaried prima donnas. Defense wise, Celtic players are bland and awkward to compare them with our newly acquired pit bull, RonRon? You say KG and Perkins will kill the Lakers, well, they are both lollipops and roses to the real deal. KG's framework is unstable, too bony; and Perkins ugly face is the only thing that is scary, his body is too flabby. Combined bony and flabby no deal with our muscular pit bull, they will risk their career with RonRon! LOL!

So the Celts got Sheed. Nice pick up in my opinion.
We know Sheed. We faced him against the Jail Blazers and again with the Pistons. The Celts will be formidable, no doubt. I pick them as the favorites in the East.

That's good news! The thing that Boston fails to understand is that The Lakers are not the same team they defeated for the ring. The Lakers are much tougher now, have a healthy Bynum and have an upgraded team defense. They are actually lucky they didn't face us in the finals this year. The Celts would have lost even WITH KG!

We will defeat them in the finals this next year because OUR defense was already much improved and we have now added a Pit Bull. You ever been up close and personal with a Pit Bull? LOL

Pit Bulls are awesome dogs! But you get the sense that "My Gawd, I hope this dog never goes off! It is a beast! You see Boston, when you use all that length and you start to push and pull our guys for that little something extra, our Pit will quickly subdue you. Pit Bulls don't like other people being agressive. They attack when OTHERS get out of line. It's an automatic response thing.

All things being equal, The Lakers have a real nice team. They have all year long to learn how to play together and to PERFECT the style and mentality they will use to defeat Boston in the finals. We will have our wars against San Antonio, Denver and Portland and you will have Clevland and Orlando. But we will meet in the finals. Let's figure it's destined. That's too bad for you. I guess you really wanted your shot at us and went out and got Sheed to help you. But trust in this, this time you will be defeated.

We have too many weapons and we have too much to prove. You actually helped us because you embarrassed us last time. We know we will meet you and therefore we will play all year preparing for you. But this time, you lose. We all know this in LA. You all know it in Boston.

Repeating as Champions is a hard thing to do. You have to guard against complacency and others upgrade. Well, you upgraded because you needed to in order to improve your chances against us. However, the thing that is at work here is we do not need motivation this year. We know we have all year to prepare to meet YOU. It would be sweet to defeat Clevland and I dunno about defeating Orlando again (no drama there really). But we want YOU Boston.

Hell, we have a small window of opportunity to do it because who knows when you will be good enough to meet us again! We had to wait for 20 years to see you again the last time.

So in closing, if your guys hold up through the long season, we will see you at the finals. Please don't think for a second that LA thinks you are a superior opponent. We have surpassed you. Last time we were assembled in the second part of the season and we hadn't developed the nasty close out mentality that we needed, YET.

I can't wait to see you. I can't wait to see your CRUSHED faces on national TV. You know this is true. You won't admit it to me and you will no doubt pop off about my comments, but you know.... LOL.

See you soon.

JohnnyV

Seriously, I am a bit worried. The difference is that their crazy is a bench player they can bench if he disrupts the chemistry. Thanks to Trevor's departure, our crazy is a starter who we need to play 30 minutes a game.

I'm hoping he can accept his role as defensive stopper and not the center of attention. If so we're unbeatable. If not, we could lose our championship chemistry.

Again we MUST re-sign LO now!

"Rasheed = Crazy Good
Ron Ron = Crazy Bad

Posted by: RED`S LOVE CHILD | July 05, 2009 at 11:34 PM"

As usual, Red is delusional. Crazy Pills is crazy, but Sheed is a T waiting to happen, and is not quite as young as he once was. Neither is the rest of your squad, and KG is not a complete go since we don't know how his knee is. He won't know either, until he really plays. I think Boston will be good, but we will be better. We are the reigning champions, you know. Won in 5 games and on an opponent's floor. You might not like it, but you can't take that away. Yes!

I think Boston's scared.

Also, just want to know how it feels to have Red's record broken? And all that crap about Phil and ready made teams won't fly here. You think Red won with a bunch of losers? It's sweet to break that record, and will be sweeter still when we break your 17 titles. And we will. Crazy Pills and all.

GO LAKERS!!!!
'08-'09 NBA CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!

Now we have only two remaining F/A's to be signed. Whatever Lakers will offer in salary for next season, it will be double as reported on LAT. This has been my contention before when I was accused by LTLF as anti-white players on the 2nd tier. At that time, I put it on the blog which do you prefer to have in luxury tax environment: Odom, Brown, Ariza (at that time) plus MLE Artest vs. their counterparts in the 2nd tier, these are more or less their "averaged salaries" for next year: Walton 5M Vujacic 5M, Farmar 2M (salary extension in 2010), Morrison 5M. Which do you prefer paying luxury taxes? It may be unkind to our players who were with us during the Championship but it's business, you've got to make a choice and decisions that is good for the team and also your bottom line.

You can't have both ways because it will cross the 100 million mark, don't you think it make sense in clearing up space on the 2nd tier to sign up the best players? Well, we already lost Ariza, now we on a balancing act on Odom and Shannon. We have to sign both and I don't mind dumping some of those 2nd tier players, not all that I have enumerated to avoid huge tax bite.

Sheed is an excellent fit for the Celtics. And no, I don't agree at all that he's an Alpha dog--in fact, I think it's the opposite, that he thrives in environments where others are leaders (e.g., Chauncey in Detroit). Remember Game 7 in 2000, when Blazer Sheed started short-arming shots like Chris Webber? That's what you get when Sheed has to lead. But in a veteran environment with an Alpha like Pierce and veterans like Allen and KG, Sheed will fit fine. KG was the same in Minnesota: when he had to carry all the weight and make the big shots, he cracked under pressure. But when he moved to Boston, he was free to be the crazy do-it-all guy who no longer had to be expected to take the final shots--that would be for Pierce and Allen.

Anyway, even though it's a good fit, he's still too old, and I'd be surprised if Boston made it out of the East. I wish they would, because I'd love to see Artest punk KG, and the Lakers carve 'em up for the repeat Championship.

JohnnyV,

>>> Hell, we have a small window of opportunity to do it because who knows
>>> when you will be good enough to meet us again! We had to wait for 20
>>> years to see you again the last time.

LMAO. Excellent post with some fine smack, Johnny. Thanks.

Tom

Jay Jay, how is it that Rasheed Wallace is a bench player? Wallace is an upgrade over Perkins, at least on the offensive end. would they really bring Sheed off the bench? it would be a great move if Doc could convince him to do so, but i see Sheed getting really upset at that and his production will fall-off, like AI last season. (we're talking about a guy that has been a major go-to guy and starter his entire career, and then you ask him to come off the bench? it would be like Cavs asking Shaq to come off the bench, behind Ilgauskus, lol!)

>>>We can only offer him the vet minimum or the bi-annual exception correct?

That is correct. Same could be said for Shannon Brown.

Unfortnuately, if all we offer is Biennial or vet minimum, then
New York will match. Nate is a restricted free agent, and I'm sure
they'd love to get him that cheap.

>>>I like the idea of a sign-and-trade deal with the Knicks,
>>>Odom for David Lee.

Hmmm. Interesting idea. Odom's salary would be going down,
so he wouldn't be BYC, so they'd only have to deal with the BYC
issue in the other direction.

Here's the problem.

If Buss is reluctant to pay Lamar 10 million, then why is
he going to pay David Lee 10 million?

It's not about Lamar the player. It's about the money.

Not to be a total suckup, but this blog rules. If you check the Portland or Cleveland or Orlando NBA blogs, it's not a pretty sight, I assure you. Inch and a quarter brows ain't in it.
Is it the number of unemployed screenwriters in L.A. that raises the level of discourse herein?

Leprechauns should be worried with their Eastern counterparts before competing with the Lakers. With the addition of Rasheed, are they going to reach the ECF? Joe Dumar will not let Rasheed go if he thinks there is still juice in him, Piston opted for Gordon than go same old Rasheed. Indeed, it is true Leprechauns are getting old, they kept on beefing up their line up with old mercenaries that were in the grand plan of Red Auerbach. Ah, this is no longer the fifties, sixties when Leprechauns dominate 8 teams besides that, Powe and Davis might skip Boston. Wow, they don't know what to do with Rondo to love him or ship him. He is the "Farmar" of the Celtics, sometimes great but uncontrollable and worst, pouting when he doesn't get his way.. However, these (Rondo, Davis, Powe, Posey, PJ Brown) were the blue collars that catapulted Celtics to prime not a technical-prone Wallace, or those high salaried prima donnas. Defense wise, Celtic players are bland and awkward to compare them with our newly acquired pit bull, RonRon? You say KG and Perkins will kill the Lakers, well, they are both lollipops and roses to the real deal. KG's framework is unstable, too bony; and Perkins ugly face is the only thing that is scary, his body is too flabby. Combined bony and flabby no deal with our muscular pit bull, they will risk their career with RonRon! LOL!

Posted by: Edwin Gueco | July 06, 2009 at 08:14 AM

"Joe Dumar"? Who is that? "Piston opted for Gordon than go same old Rasheed"? I didnt know they played the same position!

"Wow, they don't know what to do with Rondo to love him or ship him. He is the "Farmar" of the Celtics, sometimes great but uncontrollable and worst, pouting when he doesn't get his way" ... LMAO ... Comparing Farmer to Rondo ... I bet Joe Dumar the GM of the Piston would rather have Rondos!

Please gives us more insight on Joe Dumar and the Piston .... or better yet stick to the Pit Bull! Very stable individual and well spoken ... jjust like your post!

BTW what has the Pit Bull ever won? How many years are you stuck with this lunatic? Breaking up a Championship team to sign this idiot might come back to bite you in the a$$!

'Sheed won't be a problem chemistry-wise for the Cs. He's proved to be a team guy for the Pistons since '04.

The problem is the rest of the team. Going back to last Xmas game, when you have your starters yelling at each other, that's trouble.

And Rondo's going to be a cancer. Trouble for the Cs is they can't win without him. He has All-Star potential so the fact there are even rumors the Cs are trying to trade him is a red flag.