NY Times--Lakers Pursue Deals for Paul and Howard

By MARK HEISLER

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Desperately seeking Chris Paul and Dwight Howard?

That’s a lot for one team, but the Los Angeles Lakers’ aura and revenue growth make many things possible, not to mention necessary, as they learned last spring when Dallas swept them in four games of ignominy.

Within weeks, Laker officials were mulling over grandiose plans to pursue Howard, the Orlando center, and Paul, the New Orleans point guard.

With labor peace; two years before the new agreement phases in limits on sign-and-trade deals; Howard and Paul spurning extension offers, and the Magic and Hornets weighing alternatives, the Lakers are in both conversations.

From the beginning, the team’s plan depended on both upcoming free agents’ desire to be Lakers, and the tradability of the team’s seven-footers, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum.

So far, so good, for the Lakers, anyway.

The Magic just announced they have given Howard’s agent, Dan Fegan, permission to speak to three teams: the Lakers, the Dallas Mavericks and the Nets.

The Lakers’ deal for Paul, which Commissioner David Stern rejected, has been tweaked with the Hornets and the Houston Rockets, and resubmitted to the N.B.A., although the organizations and the league declined comment.

Occupying a rare niche, preceded only by Boston’s Red Auerbach, the Lakers are feared, envied and roundly hated by other teams for stealing players, with the Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert having just excoriated the first Paul trade, asking Stern in an e-mail if 25 teams would be “renamed the Washington Generals.”

Nevertheless, the Lakers’ pursuit of Howard and Paul was based on more than larceny, with two valuable big men, Gasol and Bynum, plus the versatile 6-foot-10 Lamar Odom.

Lakers history turned on the kindness of other teams’ centers, like Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who forced their teams to trade them, and Shaquille O’Neal, who came as a free agent.

Sometimes, it was pure luck, like the draft pick the Lakers got when the New Orleans Jazz signed Gail Goodrich in 1976, which turned into No. 1 over all and Magic Johnson in 1979.

Sometimes they were in the right place at the right time, as in 2008 when Memphis gave them Gasol for Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton and Gasol’s younger brother, Marc, a roly-poly prospect playing in Europe.

The Lakers only made the offer because Bynum had gotten hurt.

Of course, the Lakers also offered Odom. The Grizzlies, whose priority was cutting payroll, turned him down.

In the end, however, the Lakers got Gasol because Jerry Buss was the only owner who would take his contract — worth $45 million in its last three seasons, triggering another $45 million in luxury tax.

If Buss had to declare an austerity program, of sorts, with Coach Phil Jackson taking a $3 million cut in his $12 million salary last season, those days are over.

The Lakers, who now get $30 million annually for local TV rights from Fox Sports West, go to $150 million next season when their $3 billion, 20-year Time Warner deal kicks in.

A source, speaking anonymously because he is not authorized to discuss the matter projects revenues to rise to $170 million.

Even offset by the Lakers’ new assessment for revenue sharing — $50 million, plus the $20 million or so in luxury tax they already pay — annual profits should surpass $100 million.

Profits in any league are a closely guarded secret, and a subject of debate even in those that show the players their books.

For comparison’s sake, Forbes’s last NBA projections had the Knicks at No. 1 with a $64 million profit in the 2009-10 season, $13 million more than the No. 2 team.

The Lakers may come close to doubling $64 million.

Rich or not, all that makes this Lakers dream possible is the fire sale nature of trade talks.

Had N.B.A. owners gotten the ban they sought on future sign-and-trade deals, the Lakers would have been out of luck, with all their cap space committed through 2014.

However, the owners’ push for the most dollars—which they got, at least $2.5 billion over 10 years — led them to accept a compromise on this key competitive balance issue.

Instead of a ban, the owners accepted restrictions on sign-and-trades, starting in the 2013-14 season, giving the glamour teams this season and next to load up.

Demonstrating the limits of what they had achieved, reports of the three-team deal for Paul surfaced as owners prepared to vote on the new collective bargaining agreement last week.

The agreement had been advertised as one that would stop the superstars from dictating terms, as LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh had in 2011.

Unfortunately, the version the owners were about to vote on wouldn’t even begin to slow the superstars down for two years.

Sources familiar with the N.B.A. office, speaking anonymously since discussing internal matters is punishable by fines, suggest the pressure on Stern may have been a factor in his controversial decision to stop the trade.

In any case, the Lakers may not need two seasons to jackpot the system, again.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/sports/basketball/nba-basketball-roundup.html