wtf are you talking about- the Lakers have 3 all-star caliber players balling their ***** off.  the problems are 1) Fish 2) Metta 3) Fish + Metta 4) the bench

Fish + Metta are so so bad that pretty much any clown in the world will upgrade them, the lakers will absolutely be a threat in the WC playoffs with somebody like Sessions and any generic SF taking their spots.

And double wtf- "Bynum will never be Hakeem.  Get what you can for him."  Ya so he'll never be a top 10 player in the history of the game so he should be traded?  I mean obviously you trade him for Dwight if you can, but other than that he should pretty much never be dealt.  Serious question- are you actually retarded?

btw Im not hating Troy Murphy or Matt Barnes as bench components (and Blake would be alright too if we didnt have to rely upon as much as we do)

Posted by felonius on 2/24/2012 11:32:00 AM (view original):
btw Im not hating Troy Murphy or Matt Barnes as bench components (and Blake would be alright too if we didnt have to rely upon as much as we do)

I don't hate them either.

But when your best bench players are "don't hate" status, that's a problem.  A lot of playoff teams have legit good players coming off the bench- look at Denver with Andre Miller, Rudy Fernandez, Al Harrington, Birdman (when the 1st unit is healthy, at least).  Any one of those would be your best bench player.  The Spurs' somehow always have a bench that can hang with opponents' 1st units against all odds, Thunder have Harden, Mavs have Terry, etc.

I think you're fine with McBob and Murphy as your backup bigs (they're a bit "meh" but won't be your undoing).  Barnes is fine in the starting lineup or off the bench- he just needs to get more PT than Metta.  Blake sucks but it's not a huge deal as your backup PG.  No matter what your bench won't be good but that's OK since the playoffs are about 1st units anyway, and you can get away with the guys you currently have.  But giving 25 mpg a piece to Fish and Metta is just lethal- replace them with Ariza and Sessions and the Lakers are the 2nd best team in the West.

Posted by deanod on 2/24/2012 10:13:00 AM (view original):
wtf are you talking about- the Lakers have 3 all-star caliber players balling their ***** off.  the problems are 1) Fish 2) Metta 3) Fish + Metta 4) the bench

Fish + Metta are so so bad that pretty much any clown in the world will upgrade them, the lakers will absolutely be a threat in the WC playoffs with somebody like Sessions and any generic SF taking their spots.

And double wtf- "Bynum will never be Hakeem.  Get what you can for him."  Ya so he'll never be a top 10 player in the history of the game so he should be traded?  I mean obviously you trade him for Dwight if you can, but other than that he should pretty much never be dealt.  Serious question- are you actually retarded?

Where to begin....
Are other teams simply going to donate players to the Lakers in your world? 
What did the current Lakers, plus Odom and PJ do last year?  Oh yeah, they got blown off the effing court. 

If you want to build your team around Bynum, go for it.

Badja, you realize you're talking to deanod and not felonius, right?

Yes, Ash.  felonius actually has reasoning behind most of what he says. 

think of it this way - they dont need stars, they just need to get better than Derek Fisher


and they do have 2 first picks this year and a TPE so it's not completely unthinkable that they could do a few small things that would make them much better

Posted by felonius on 2/25/2012 9:04:00 AM (view original):
think of it this way - they dont need stars, they just need to get better than Derek Fisher


and they do have 2 first picks this year and a TPE so it's not completely unthinkable that they could do a few small things that would make them much better

Ya exactly- they could upgrade Fish + Metta by signing players from the D-league.  Between the TPE and marginal assets, it should not be too hard to swipe a couple of vet rotation players from non-contenders.

Stephen A Smith said this morning that the Lakers are pushing hard for a Gasol for Bass and Rondo swap with the Celtics.

sigh.... I guess it's better than Rondo and the corpse of JON - math doesnt quite work without one more piece from the celts though - just for cap purposes

of course aside from screaming A - there are a lot of people talking about a revamped Lowry/Scola deal in the works

Posted by moranis on 2/28/2012 12:35:00 PM (view original):
Stephen A Smith said this morning that the Lakers are pushing hard for a Gasol for Bass and Rondo swap with the Celtics.

whoa

i think the celtics need to accept that

I'd be surprised if Morey trades Lowry.  That trade is great for Houston with KevMart + Scola but sorta meh with Lowry + Scola.

The fact that Pau for Rondo could happen also sorta makes me sad that the old people on the team are old.

if you look at how Houston stacks up for next year they'd suddenly have a ton of cap space - half their team is on a team option this summer and after the trade they'd be committed to just about 32m give or take cap holds

Posted by felonius on 2/28/2012 2:44:00 PM (view original):
if you look at how Houston stacks up for next year they'd suddenly have a ton of cap space - half their team is on a team option this summer and after the trade they'd be committed to just about 32m give or take cap holds

Not if they are paying Pau $19M

They can keep Lowry for insane value making $5.7M and just amnesty Scola instead.  Lowry's pretty much the only good thing about that team right now (NFI how they're 20-14), I'll be SHOCKED if Morey trades him.  I'm sure he has some advanced metric that tells him Lowry is a top 15 player.

They are 20-14 because they have a well constructed roster that is very young and have a lot of depth (10 man rotation of all at least 15 minutes a game).  I mean seriously Scola at 31, Dalembert at 30, and Martin at 28 are the only people on the team older than 26.  I don't think they are a deep playoff team though, as they don't have that premier player, which is where a guy like Gasol would help, but not if they have to give up Lowry and maybe even Martin to get him.