No one still honestly thinks we gave up that much for Harden right? KMart for a yr? DAL's 20's draft pick and TOR's 12? In a super weak draft? Jeremy Lamb is the closest thing we gave up to something that mattered, and he's barely played this yr. We got our breaks on Harden. Would be nice to get some more though. We all know LAL gets plenty of 'em.
Exactly. As Carl stated. Gasol would be cool. Expiring contract so it's all good. I'm good with Smoove or Millsap on a "good" contract too. Don't discount Parsons ability to develop into a very good defensive player. He played Kobe, Durant and even Parker WELL before this past season. Hopefully he slipped a little from over confidence and focusing on improving his offensive game.
As always appreciate the inside info cyberx. Sounds like Dwight's heart is in LA so we need to have a good contingency plan...but I think we all also know he's REALLY fickle. We'll have a crack at him and see haha. 6/20, LAL peaking too early on this After 7/5 or so is when it really starts to wind down lol.
and... his large expiring contract. But, why are we sending to the Lakers in respect to matching salaries? If Howard is not coming here, I say the core of Harden, Parsons, Asik and even Lin should be kept intact.
Agree 100%. Maybe I should have said "initially thought" we gave up a lot...lol. Or "according to Morey's PR spin, we gave up A LOT".
LA is a badass city if you are filthy rich. I know I wouldn't leave if I was him. Kobe only has a few years left and then he is the guy. Free Agents will come to play with him. It's one of the most successful franchises ever which means something. Only the bulls have won more championships than the lakers in the last 22 years and no one has won more championships than the Lakers in the last 50 years. It means something more than a job to go there and put on that jersey. I get that. If you are going to be a super millionaire in a winter sport, LA is the city to do it in.
Maybe he wants the lakers to pull every PR punch to make sure everything that goes wrong isn't his fault (with what happened in the first round), maybe he really is that sensitive?
Or just getting Phil to become an "informal consultant" is enough...or the first step to ousting MDA. Watch Phil becomes the coach in a week
SMH... superstar talent with scrub mentality. only wants to go to a team already stacked with superstars and be HANDED a trophy rather than put the team on his back to GET the trophy. if he is the defensive anchor of the lakers, they will not win anything regardless of who they put next to him. does he have a vagina too?
But if nothing has changed now, why on earth would he play his hand already (I actually thought Dwight had killed the leaks which is why the media has been simply speculative recently)? It's like bluffing in poker and then showing your hand to your opponent before they make their bid/call/fold Basically this rumor reads : I want to be a laker, but you know those other teams, I'm just trying to leverage you to you make changes, i won't really leave.... Don't get me wrong, I agree this sort of leveraging is very real, but the whole point of it is to not let people know it's real, if you let people know, then you're leveraging something else altogether.
Dwight Howard can, of course, make his decision based on any and all reasons, whether or not directly related to winning. I suspect that he may well prefer a) keep living in LA, b) the Lakers brand, and c) the extra guaranteed money. And getting Phil helps alleviate some of his concerns over where the franchise is going basketball-wise. But I am not sure that LA would be best for him, winning-wise, even with Phil on board. Phil may have 11 rings, but player talent is still more important to winning. Phil couldn't coach the Kobe-Lamar-Kwame-Smush Lakers to more than 45 wins or beyond the 1st round. Phil also couldn't prevent an aging Lakers from getting swept 0-4 in 2011 during his last games coaching the team. Phil or no Phil, Kobe is still old and injured, Pau, Nash and Metta are still aging, and the rest of the roster still more or less suck. Sure, there's 2014 and cap room, but which 2014 free agent other than Lebron is really even on the level of James Harden (who is likely to get better at age 24) and what are the chances that Lebron leaves Miami to take less money to join "Dwight's team" instead of ruling his domain with either Wade and Bosh or another star he'd attract to Miami? Anyhow, this is the pitch I'd make if I were the Rockets. Not sure it'd work since Dwight may not be as rational as I am.
And that's probably how we will continue building the team and adding star players; through trades rather than straight free agency. build up our assets and trade for bigger pieces. if dwight really is on his way out of the equation, this makes LMA that much more important next year. wasn't there a rumor earlier this year that LMA wants to play for the rox? i would hope for morey to be patient rather than spend just because we can, and if nothing is there this year, then keep what we have and develop them, and go at it again next year.
Harden DID choose Houston. He agreed to sign a contract extension to come to Houston... That was already predetermined before the trade was done. (Different story if they traded him with no extension)
I would tell Dwight: The Lakers might not even make the playoffs next year. Kobe and Nash are about to retire, Gasol is declining, and the rest of the roster is awful. Kobe and Nash are not getting a year younger, they're getting a year older. Gasol is the only decent talent who is likely to play next season. If he comes to Houston, the Rockets will be championship contenders next season. The Lakers, again, might not even make the playoffs. Does he really want to miss out on several years of championship contention for not even making the playoffs?
My question is if Dwight is seriously considering LA why is he contacting other players ie. Chris Paul Harden...among others. Is he a huge tease?
This is new news to me. I was under the impression that Harden was told one night while dining that he had been traded and the extension was handled after that. From a Rockets perspective I doubt that it would have mattered much as they would have had him as a restricted free agent meaning they could match any offer anyway.
To get LA to cave in to his expectations/requests, which is exactly what they are doing. Cyberx said it himself, they wen't from "we don't need you" to "rolling out the red carpet". Dwight's plan (if it is) is working perfectly.
Back to Dwight, obviously I'd love for him to come here, because I'm not the type to say "we don't need him", when you have a chance to improve your roster, you do it. However, we are lucky to have a real starting caliber center that I'm really comfortable with. If we can add an offensively gifted PF a la LMA, Love, heck maybe even Josh Smith (not for the MAX), I like our chances going into next season. Maybe not a contender for the first seed, but certainly a very solid darkhorse, and the team continues to improve. We aren't in the same situation as we where one year ago, and that is reassuring.
