I've said this before, but I'm way more worried about CP3 leaving even though everyone says he's 90% gonna re-sign (as long as we get a black coach apparently). I'm a Clippers season ticket holder that has been waiting for decent seats to open up for the Lakers. Much like the Dodgers and Angels out here, the Clippers could be the best team in the league for many years, but I still can't get in on good Lakers seats. I mean the Dodgers have sucked for more years than I can remember, but they are still the main show even though the Angels have a super-team. If Dwight leaves, I may finally get my shot at Lakers seats in the lower sections...that is of course if they don't sign Lebron in 2014. The reason I don't think the Dwight will leave the Lakers is that he gets to be in the main show at the Lakers games with all of the celebs out in force. And if Kobe misses half the season, it will be Dwight as the main act. Harden is an awesome player and the Rockets have some good pieces in Asik, Parsons, and Linsanity, but lets be honest, those guys are a dime a dozen in the NBA. Those are definitely the types of role players that the Lakers can easily pick up in 2014 when they don't have any room on the books. Harden is good, but at this moment he's a one year wonder as the alpha player on an NBA team at this moment. He will face some adjustments for sure and we'll see how he handles it in year 2 and year 3. The media is certainly on the Rockets side in the whole Howard scenario, but seriously, this is a terrible season for both CP3 and Dwight to enter free agency. If the Knicks or even Brooklyn had some cap space, there may be some real drama being that those are also more glamorous settings, but they don't. The media must make the most out of what they got by creating these random rumors. That said, Dwight is a pretty gullible dude so you never know. Because the Clippers are the most random team in the history of American pro sports, I almost think it's more likely that CP3 ends up in Houston or Dallas just because. And I will get totally jacked on my season tickets and never get into the Lakers club. So yes, I definitely prefer the Rockets sign Howard for my personal benefit. Lakers will be back on top in no time and I will have my window to get in. Oh...and F the Miami Heat.
I agree with this. But the real life NBA is not NBA2K13 so people are actually involved in these decisions.
CP3 is silent, who knows what he's thinking, Dwight seems to have entered don't give a **** any more mode though, he's more than likely leaving, but one things for sure, the media is too interested making up stories than trying to understand the guy, which is why he's moved in that don't care what the media or fans think direction. they're basketballers, but only for a few more years. They're going to go to the situation they think is best for winning, it's not about glamour, it never was. And slestack, allow me to be the first to congratulate you on your lakers club seats.
So much wrong with this post but I'll start with "the Angels have a super-team". The Angels are 28-38, 3-7 vs. the Astros. I don't know how Dwight to Houston is a "random rumor". Not saying that it's a certainty or even probable but it's not a rumor.
They way I read you post, you really REALLY should become a Kings fan. Get their season tix and it's the latest sports fashion in LA! If you know nothing about pucks, blue-line, or faceoffs, I can refer you to some sites.
How do you feel about lakers giving Rudy Gay the max in 2014? I understand lakers will not be relevant for the next 10 years or so but I feel like rudy gay may not enough to keep laker fans happy. Afterall laker fans are 90% bandwagoners and it would be a shame to see them come over and support the rockets. It would be like a bunch of squatters showing up.
I'm not basing the "super-team" on record, but more on high priced players brought in. I'm talking about 2012 when they brought in Albert Pujols, Zach Greinke and CJ Wilson to a team that already included Jared Weaver, Dan Haren, Mark Trumbo, Vernon Wells, Tori Hunter, and a great rookie in Mike Trout. So they sucked...super-teams seem to be doing that these days. And in 2013 when they added Josh Hamilton to the mix. But I guess the Dodgers technically have a super-team not too with Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Zach Grienke, and Hanley Ramirez added to Clayton Kershaw, Matt Kemp, and Andre Ethier. Super-teams seem to suck these days. Look at the Lakers "super-team" last season. They had a starting lineup that consisted of Steve Nash, Kobe, Metta World Peace, Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard. Granted, they were cursed by injuries all season, anything but a championship would have been a disappointment and they were one and done. And even though they had the 4th best record in the NBA after the all-star break, having Kobe, Nash and Steve Blake out in the playoffs hurt...Steve Blake only because Nash was out and they were looking at a backcourt of Darius Morris and Andrew Goudelock vs the Spurs in round 1.
Hi ultimate6thman, I'm out of the office today so I don't have access to my team files. I'll just assume your numbers are correct and comment on your strategy. 1) July 1st is when negotiations can start. There is a ten day moratorium and contracts can be signed from July 10th. 2) I think you're working from an old post of mine. One thing that BimaThug was kind enough to point out to me was that you must have the cap room calculated on 12 roster spots before you sign a free agent, not after. Think of it as a 13th roster spot with a minimum cap hold of $490,120. So if you were going to sign CP3 outright with whatever cap room we have left after waving all non-guarateeds except Parsons, Beverley and G.Smith, you could only offer CP3 about $16.1m. That's $2.6m less than his max of $18.7m. Remember also his pay rises for the next 4 years (4.5%) is based on that first year's salary. 3) I like your idea of using the S&T on Dwight instead of CP3. In this way you minimize what we have to give away in salary using the 150% rule. If your calculations are correct: Lin+TRob+White ($13,621,066), allowing Dwight to sign for $20,431,599 using the 150% rule then that saves us from having to trade away Asik to obtain the 3rd star. 4) Timing and priorities are very important. I understand this is a scenario where both CP3 and Howard agree to sign before we execute these trades, however, signing CP3 first has me concerned. I think Howard is the main target and CP3 is motivated to come because Howard is already coming and he wants to form a big 3. By signing CP3 first, Houston is in jeopardy of losing Howard (and p-off CP3) if the S&T with the Lakers (or trades with other teams) fall through. There is risk with reversing the priorities and timing even though they both agree to come here. 5) Most importantly the weakest link to your scenario is getting CP3 to take a $2.6m pay cut and leave behind an extra guaranteed year at the Clippers to come to Houston. His knees are a real concern and I think he needs the extra guaranteed year salary because of health more than Dwight does. 6) Forcing the Lakers to do a sign and trade for Lin, T-Rob and White is extremely difficult, especially after they learned we signed CP3 outright. I think the Lakers are going to demand Asik at a minimum but actually, I don't see the Lakers agreeing to a sign and trade after we used our cap room on CP3.
Even with a full roster, the Lakers never had a chance against the Spurs, the Spurs were in cruise control down the stretch, they went 3-7 over their last 10 games, and have gone 14-3 through game 3 of the finals since, they were playing possum. Even with Dwight Howard, the Lakers defense was worse than ours, that was never going to win anything.
LA fans are bandwagon (Bill Simmons had a good article on it a while back), but they are bandwagon in that they support LA and not sports in general. Only in LA can we be the 2nd biggest market and not have an NFL team. Nobody here really gives a damn about sports...well I do I think...but most don't. They just roam around for the next winning team and migrate to it as a punchline in their superficial lives. There are tons of things to do out here that sports are a side conversation while we are drinking at the club. There are hardcore Lakers fans for sure and they will support a last place team forever if they have to. And many of those fans are celebs so I really don't think there is much of a chance that free agents won't be lining up to sign if the Lakers have cash to play with. Being an NBA player is like being a potential Lakers season ticket holder...you stand in line and hopefully get picked. Dwight would be an idiot to give this opportunity up. Yes, winning is important, but not as important as the lifestyle he will gain being the Lakers alpha assuming Kobe never makes it back from the achilles. Only in LA can Lebron join D-12 and the fans will come out of the woodworks making Staples the best pre-party to hit before a night of partying. One thing is for certain, LA basketball fans don't jump on bandwagons for teams of other cities. They just tune it off and move on until the Lakers are in contention again. The NBA probably will do whatever to take to make sure it gets tuned back on as soon as possible being they are a gravy train with the NFL out of the picture at the moment.
The Lakers beat the Spurs in one of their last games of the regular season with playoff implications at stake and no Kobe or Nash. I think they might have a chance in the playoffs vs Spurs with Kobe and Nash. And lets not forget that the Rockets were the #8 seed because they couldn't beat the Lakers without Kobe or Nash in the lineup. Rockets were a nice surprise team last season, but lets face it, they were the #8 seed. Dwight is not the sort of player that takes a #8 seed to the promise land. Lebron maybe...
Everyone beat the Spurs down the stretch, they were 3-7, which btw was worse than Charlotte, thinking that would translate is laughable. The Spurs don't run any of their schemes during the regular season, because they don't need the wins from them, and they don't want their opponents to see them. Our gm also traded away both of our rotation pfs to create space for this offseason, we weren't trying to get far, thoroughly outplayed the lakers too, shots just didn't go down, **** happens.
If the Rockets weren't trying to get far, they should have given Thomas Robinson more minutes to see what they had before apparently looking to move him this offseason.
I totally agree with this statement and all of the posters that post all those regular season shooting percentage stats to justify why the Rockets have such a great playoff team is funny to me. But you can't argue that Kobe is a somewhat decent factor to consider come playoff time. He does have 1 more ring in the Kobe/Duncan era of the NBA.
Mchale did say he was "playing players for the front office", but ultimately the GM isn't going to keep pushing, take that as you wish... Kobe might have gotten the lakers one game, but no, the no d triplets of nash, kobe and gasol weren't getting anywhere, the media crowned them champions, and as usual forgot basketball isn't just about offense. We wouldn't have stood a chance against the Spurs either, very few teams do, once you're down, the foot isn't coming off your throat til you're out, but for us it was never about this year.
I can't believe someone just said Asik and Parsons are dime a dozen players in the NBA that the Lakers could pick up easily once they're at cap. Lin, maybe, but it'd be REALLY hard. Asik and Parsons? Not a snowball's chance in hell.
You are absolutely right. They support LA in general so most of the laker fans have already migrated to the clippers. Lakers will probably be the clippers of the last decade +, fading into irrelevancy and the laughing stock of the league, with kobe eventually going to the celtics for one last shot for the title. Maybe to the rockets too as harden's backup.
