725 replies to this topic

[SBTarheel]

There's your PG, Web.

Enjoy.

[ChaosLex]

I was hoping my boy would end up on a contender. F'n awesome!

[SportsGuy]

Web has a lot of crow to eat.

[SportsGuy]

Gasol for Derrick Williams and Bynum for Howard?

[ChaosLex]

Gasol for Derrick Williams and Bynum for Howard?

A better team on paper than the Heat, IMO.

[BSLMikeLowe]

Gasol for Derrick Williams and Bynum for Howard?

If I'm the Lakers, I'm not seriously entertaining either of those deals.

Jason Kidd to the Knicks....surprise. What a brutal offseason for Dallas so far. Looks like it's OKC and LAL for the best in the West.

[SportsGuy]

If the Lakers get Grant Hill, I will definitely root for them to win the title.

[mweb08]

No crow at all. What I said was true as this is not a good fit at all and no one foresaw the Lakers be able to pay him 3/27 through a sign and trade.

Even though he's not a good fit, he's obviously a very good player and a huge upgrade for the Lakers so I like it. I just hope they can make additional moves to make the roster make more sense. I haven't been paying much attention to sports of late so I'm just now catching up with everything; thus, I'm not sure what other rumors there are besides possibly Grant Hill.

[SportsGuy]

No crow at all. What I said was true as this is not a good fit at all and no one foresaw the Lakers be able to pay him 3/27 through a sign and trade.

Even though he's not a good fit, he's obviously a very good player and a huge upgrade for the Lakers so I like it. I just hope they can make additional moves to make the roster make more sense. I haven't been paying much attention to sports of late so I'm just now catching up with everything; thus, I'm not sure what other rumors there are besides possibly Grant Hill.

You said he wouldnt want to play with Kobe.

[mweb08]

You said he wouldnt want to play with Kobe.

That was one of the multiple reasons I gave. Not the most important one either. And I don't recall being definitive about it and yeah, that also made sense.

The biggest reasons he's playing in LA are because he can stay pretty close to his kids, got a big contract, and has a chance to win. I admittedly didn't think of the first reason, but I didn't see anyone else mention it either, no one was thinking the Lakers would be able to deliver on the second reason, so that just left the third reason, and other teams had the Lakers beat in that department and had other more favorable things going for them.

[Pedro Cerrano]

No crow at all. What I said was true as this is not a good fit at all and no one foresaw the Lakers be able to pay him 3/27 through a sign and trade.

Even though he's not a good fit, he's obviously a very good player and a huge upgrade for the Lakers so I like it. I just hope they can make additional moves to make the roster make more sense. I haven't been paying much attention to sports of late so I'm just now catching up with everything; thus, I'm not sure what other rumors there are besides possibly Grant Hill.

I think they'll make it work. Best team in the West on paper IMO.

[SportsGuy]

I think they'll make it work. Best team in the West on paper IMO.

Perimeter defense still not great. Could use Howard as a deterrent when they get beat off the dribble.

[Pedro Cerrano]

Perimeter defense still not great. Could use Howard as a deterrent when they get beat off the dribble.

No it's not great and Nash is a terrible defender. But Kobe isn't awful at defense and Artest, if they keep him, can still hold his own.

[mweb08]

I think they'll make it work. Best team in the West on paper IMO.

They'll make it work to a degree, but it won't be ideal imo.

The Thunder are still the overwhelming favorites imo.

The Lakers are now in a good position to make it to the WCF's and challenge OKC and will be in a great spot if one of the key Thunder get hurt.

[Pedro Cerrano]

They'll make it work to a degree, but it won't be ideal imo.

The Thunder are still the overwhelming favorites imo.

The Lakers are now in a good position to make it to the WCF's and challenge OKC and will be in a great spot if one of the key Thunder get hurt.

Well what's more ideal than Nash? You obviously wanted Chris Paul, Nash is just as good a facilitator as Paul and he's as good, if not better a shooter, the main difference is defense. Is that what you mean? Is Nash's defense so bad that you think he will be that detrimental?

Look, this is really the first time other than Gary Payton that Kobe is being paired with an elite PG (and Payton was way way past his prime in 2004). Nash will want the ball, but he will want the ball to be a distributor -- to help his teammates get better looks. How many times last year did Kobe have trouble shaking his defender? I think, with Nash on the floor, the Lakers will be able to spread defenses out more and keep help defenders on Kobe more honest.

Kobe wants his 6th ring. I think he knows that with Nash "leading" the offense the Lakers will improve significantly on offense.

Finally, assuming health, I'll take this Laker team over OKC. If the Lakers can get Howard somehow, forget about it.

[mweb08]

Well what's more ideal than Nash? You obviously wanted Chris Paul, Nash is just as good a facilitator as Paul and he's as good, if not better a shooter, the main difference is defense. Is that what you mean? Is Nash's defense so bad that you think he will be that detrimental?

Look, this is really the first time other than Gary Payton that Kobe is being paired with an elite PG (and Payton was way way past his prime in 2004). Nash will want the ball, but he will want the ball to be a distributor -- to help his teammates get better looks. How many times last year did Kobe have trouble shaking his defender? I think, with Nash on the floor, the Lakers will be able to spread defenses out more and keep help defenders on Kobe more honest.

Kobe wants his 6th ring. I think he knows that with Nash "leading" the offense the Lakers will improve significantly on offense.

Finally, assuming health, I'll take this Laker team over OKC. If the Lakers can get Howard somehow, forget about it.

There may not be anything more ideal than Nash for the price the Lakers got him. However, this team is still not ideal for maximizing his skill set.

I wanted CP3 because he's a top 5 player in the NBA, and they were getting him at a good price, not because I thought he was a good fit for the team, because I consistently said otherwise.

There's a reason why Kobe hasn't been paired with real PG's, and that's not a shot at him as the same can be said about MJ.

Well if I recall correctly, you thought the Lakers were better than OKC this past season and we saw what happened. OKC has gotten further in the playoffs two straight years and are only getting better; meanwhile, the Lakers, while adding a really good player, are expected to be getting diminishing returns on many of their players.

[Pedro Cerrano]

There may not be anything more ideal than Nash for the price the Lakers got him. However, this team is still not ideal for maximizing his skill set.

I wanted CP3 because he's a top 5 player in the NBA, and they were getting him at a good price, not because I thought he was a good fit for the team, because I consistently said otherwise.

There's a reason why Kobe hasn't been paired with real PG's, and that's not a shot at him as the same can be said about MJ.

Well if I recall correctly, you thought the Lakers were better than OKC this past season and we saw what happened. OKC has gotten further in the playoffs two straight years and are only getting better; meanwhile, the Lakers, while adding a really good player, are expected to be getting diminishing returns on many of their players.

I can't argue with any of this.

(disappointed? )

[mweb08]

I can't argue with any of this.

(disappointed? )

This is quite the landmark moment.

So what Lakers rumors have been floating around while I've been at the beach?

Anything with Gasol?

While Kobe, Bynum, Gasol, and Nash may stack up fairly well to Durant, Westbrook, Harden, Ibaka, I think the Thunder's group fits much better. Gasol's game is negatively affected by Bynum's emergence as the go to low post scorer, Kobe (plus Artest) should ideally be in the post more, but can't with the two bigs needing touches down there, and Kobe's style of play along with the lack of fast break players and shooters minimizes what Nash does so well. Nash will be effective in a pick and roll with any of the other stars, though.

So trading Gasol could help make the team fit better even though I like him a lot.

[Pedro Cerrano]

Who are you trading Gasol for?

[Pedro Cerrano]

BTW, not a ton of rumors. The Howard for Bynum thing will always be out there. The Sessions rumors are obviously a thing of the past.