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When i like the Lakers, I like Shaq's Lakers. I think this is now Dwight's Lakers and I am starting to like them. They have the best center in his prime, Kobe who will still be Kobe, and one of the best point guards in this league. I mean how could you hate a team that has three of five starters average double-doubles (except when they play the hornets).
Okay Deuce, the Lakers have drafted both James Worthy and Andrew Bynum since Magic in the late 70's. Also A.C. Green, Vlade Divac, Elden Campbell, Eddie Jones and Derek Fisher all had very successful NBA careers and a few played significant roles on Championship teams. However, I wasn't arguing that the Lakers don't trade for impact players. Obviously they do. But the reason they do isn't because the organization couldn't identify and/or develop talent. Jerry West (and to a lesser extent Kupchak now) was regarded as one of the best personnel men in the game.
The Lakers are always looking to compete for Championships. Waiting to develop talent doesn't line up with this thinking so they make big trades or FA signings to speed up the process. Very similar to what the Yankees do in Baseball...
The Lakers will NEVER be high pick lottery team and their will NEVER be NFL style parity in the NBA, which again is pretty much impossible when considering how much the league lacks franchise altering talent. Some people need to stop having a hard time coming to grips with reality.
wow now its hard which team I hate more the Heat or the Lakers :)
Nash and Kobe are professionals.. but howard is just concerned about his image (and making kids and hide them)
I like that :
Howard is known for having a personality that often lacks the proper seriousness even during games.
"That will be an interesting dynamic," one ex-teammate of Howard told Yahoo! Sports on Friday. "Not even just with Kobe. I don't think [Steve] Nash and Pau [Gasol] will enjoy that at this point in their career."
With Howard, Bryant they'll live in the penalty. The FT numbers will be absurd. Because this team will be deconstructed when we're good, I don't really care. If they buy a team after Kobe and Pau are gone, they'll incur the really terrible luxury tax which will limit their mobility, so I'm not that worried.
Then keep hope alive waiting on the day for the Lakers to become as bad as the Charlotte Bobcats and the day that NBA lottery constantly produces sure fire can't miss draft picks that allows small market teams to build their teams through the draft like the NFL.
Interesting stat (And scary for us) to whoever was arguing that the Lakers don't draft their own talent:
Q. Since the NBA instituted its draft lottery in 1985, how many No. 1 overall picks have won a title with their original teams?
A: 2 David robinson and Tim Duncan...
Just saw that in this SI article.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...sct=nba_t11_a0
Quote:
Since the NBA instituted its draft lottery in 1985, how many No. 1 overall picks have won a title with their original teams?
Five? Six? Eight?
Try this: two.
David Robinson and Tim Duncan. That's it. And Robinson only did it with Duncan. If you consider Duncan a power forward, Orlando lucked into the two best young centers of the last 20-plus years: Shaquille O'Neal and Howard. And for that, the Magic will get zero rings.
This is the thing that people miss about the NBA. Yes, it is a stars league, but stars alone do not win championships. A star just gives a franchise a head start.
Uhp. May as well trade Davis now then.
Excuse me...
http://static.themetapicture.com/med...the-window.gif
You mentioned two drafted relevant players in the last 40 years. My point is that other teams just give them ammunition to build their championship foundations and that they cant draft players, which you just mention in your latest post! You are bringing nothing against my argument; therefore I'm not addressing you any longer haha.
That's not the point. The point is someone is attacking the lakers for not selecting their own players and building around them to win chmpionships. Saying that people "give players away" to the lakers when the draft a player number one and win a championship isn't really how the league works, so why blast them on knowing the economy of their own business.
No reason to stress, lets be real, Howard's stats will diminish, and Nash's role will not be as big, or it will lessen Kobe's ball holding
Well how does the league work? Since the 90s most teams that have won championships had a model of building around talent (Bulls, Spurs, Pistons, Mavericks, 1st Heat championship) and not just acquiring talent from other places. The Lakers are really the only team that consistently adds stars that are at the top of the game to compete for championships. Bostons big 3 hard their run and they are done and we'll see how long Miami can keep up theirs. There's a reason why most trades with big stars or FAs involve the Lakers because quite simply that is how their organization works and that's fine...what I dont think is fine is how these GMs make lopsided deals with them not realizing that their own teams arent going to benefit as the Lakers will. The Magic got the worst end of the deal, yet they had the centerpiece. In the Gasol trade people feel it was fair; however, the lakers already had their star in kobe to take them to championships...neither gasol was going to lead memphis to the championship with them not having a star to complement them. So instead, memphis trades a missing piece to the lakers to cement their title hopes while they essentially get the same player and a journeyman in Kwame Brown. We forget that the Lakers should have had CP3 also (since the other deal involved gasol and odom leaving the lakers could still conceivably have traded bynum and the first to the magic and had all 3 stars). I just find it funny that when it comes to the Lakers, stars just fall into their laps as teams trade people with wreckless abandon usually at their own detriment. The Magic had other better trade options to acquire young talent and better picks and turned it down...for this?? It just doesnt make sense why teams, usually in the same conference, choose to keep them afloat when there are other deals to be had.
The mavs had Jason Terry, not homegrown; Jason Kidd who was drafted by Dallas but then traded for later after stints with other teams; Chandler traded for; Shawn Marion a trade.
The Pistions were: Billups- traded for,; Hamilton- traded for; Prince- Drafted; Rasheed Wallace- traded for; and Ben Wallace- Traded for.
1st heat championship had Shaq, TRADED FROM THE LAKERS and the major piece in the championship run besides d wade being called for a foul every time someone breathed around him.
The Bulls and Spurs were mostly homegrown, but the bulls were a different era IMO and the spurs were on that cusp.
Right and in going backwards, and knowing that they weren't going to win a chmapionship, they got a guy that was near as good. they ended up being able to draft: Mike Conley, Rudy Gay, and OJ Mayo creating a young core. Do you think they were like oh man, Clevelands offering us a better deal, but the lakers are offering something and you know they ARE the lakers, let's give him away?
If I'm a western conference team owner/gm I'm not trading my best asset to another Western conference team so that they can go win a championship. That's nuts. I dont know what's on their minds and im not gonna sit here and speculate what they are thinking. But I will say that the trades are lopsided. And the Laker picks netted the grizzlies our very own Vasquez and Donte Green...They got the thre players you mentioned from their own poor play....not because of anything related to the lakers unless you wanna say that they traded Pau in order to tank to get those players...which I think is a stretch.
I don't think it's a stretch at all sir. They traded Pau for Marc who was still in the euro league for a season or two. What do you think they traded him for; for heir best win now team for a guy that plays in Europe? No, they knew they'd suck, they could get young guys on the cheap, and they could shed a max contract in the process. I'm clearly not talking about the lakers actual picks. I mean what do you think the Hornets just did? Sure if EG wouldn't have been hurt, we would have been better, but we certainly didn't get a top 5 player back. I think anytime a star is traded, no one ever gets back equal talent. it just matters which route you want to go: rebuild completely or try to win soon.
If we can somehow get the eighth seed next year, we will more than likely be playing LA again... Man I feel like that'd go badly.