I dont think Kobe is that much better than Tmac skill wise... I think it comes down to the fact Kobe knows he is good... Tmac just thinks he is good...
then you would understand... if Tmac didnt leave Toronto... after his first year... he would have made it to the second round already.... probably even got a title...or 2
oh really, and have vince carter as the first option??? if u think tmac is bad, vince is worse. tmac would have stayed if the team knew how good he was. toronto was fully committed to vince, not tmac. but then u can say if grant hill was healthy. if yao was at his full self. a bunch of what ifs
Skills - edge Kobe Health - edge Kobe Teamwork - edge T-MAC Desire to win - edge Kobe There are other factors to consider of course but the Rockets should not be faulted or second guessed for making the deal.
thats why I rag on Tmac... he left Toronto because he wanted to be first option.... what did he say in Orlando? "these guys are nothing without me"???? what did he say here? "I wanted to impose my will" "its on me" his response... when he couldnt do it..... was he wanted to take the pressure of his teammates... lets face it he is really a second option player a (Scottie Pippen)... who gets his points by taking lots of shots... his fg% is no better or no worse than most players in the league... right now we have 2 2nd option players in Yao and Tmac... 1 or the other needs to go...
and though i am a tmac fan, if i was houston, of course i would do this deal. the health, the revenue, the excitement... kobe brings it all the reason i'm defending tmac is the way some posters on here feel kobe is miles better than tmac, which is untrue. like i said, we beat the lakers twice WITHOUT yao. and u take yao out, this team is very similar to that lakers team. and that's all i'm saying.
KCAL sports news at 5pm mention that the Rockets might pursue on Kobe Bryant's service. My cousin from LA just called me and i don't care, because it's a long shot to work it out!
then u say AI is a second option? his fg% is one of the worst of all superstars. then u say gilbert arenas is a 2nd option? a first option is beyond taking shots. a first option is a guy who can create. who can score multiple ways. who can create in multiple ways. pippen cannot do that. tmac is a first option. but JVG wanted to make yao a first option too. therefore, tmac has to defer. u can't have two first options without one deferring. look at kobe deferring to shaq. but without shaq, he's first option. without yao during his injury, tmac suddenly scored like a mutha again. that's a sign of a first option. he can score v. double/triple teams or he can create when he has another guy there.
good, this should be a slap to tmac and should motivate him to work out even harder for next yr, playing for whoever that wants him. it's a business after all. but tracy has to be listening to all of this. even richard justice put out an article clamoring for a tmac-kobe trade. cmon tmac, listen up.
Trade is simple yet hard. Talent level and desire are in Kobe's favor. Does T-Mac have the heart? Will his back go out? There are a lot of possible's. I would never make the trade unless I knew that T-Mac's back is going to be bad. Kobe is healthy, but I don't want a player that will throw everyone under the bus when he doesn't get his way. Plus, how can Yao progress if Kobe is a shoot first never pass player. However, you have to look back at the championship days, did he pass more then? I remember that he didn't pass to Shaq very often, it took the other guys to get it to him. His stats say that he about even with Tracy McGrady on assists. T-mac and Kobe can see the cut to the hole, the difference is that T-Mac will make the pass, Kobe will take it on his own. The bottom line is, it doesn't matter if we have Kobe or T-Mac, we still need a third player that can create his own shot.
Seven trade possibilities for Kobe May. 30, 2007 | feedback Well, it finally happened -- Black Mamba came out and demanded a trade from the Lakers. The proclamation happened during an interview on Stephen A. Smith's radio show in New York City on Wednesday. Here were my first three reactions: 1. Cool, I actually have something to write about today! 2. Stephen A. Smith still has a radio show? 3. Time to hit ESPN's Trade Machine! Sure, Kobe recanted the trade demands three hours later -- almost like someone backing out of an eBay bid or something -- but that didn't stop me from hammering the ESPN Trade Machine like Joe Cazalghe pummeled Peter Manfredo. After all, it's not often when an NBA team is forced to trade a marquee superduperstar in his prime. We might as well enjoy the moment while it lasts, right? In the past 35 years, only nine players were traded after a season in which they made a first or second All-NBA team. One of those players was past his prime (Gary Payton), and three were great players but not "superduperstars" at the time they were traded (Paul Westphal, Dennis Johnson, Jason Kidd). Here were the five superduperstar deals. 1975: Milwaukee trades Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to the Lakers for Elmore Smith, Brian Winters, Junior Bridgeman and Dave Meyers … or as some would later call it, the "pu pu platter." Kareem ended up winning five more rings, three MVP awards (it would have been four if Bill Walton didn't win in '78 for a 55-game season) and even starring as Roger Murdock in "Airplane!" 1982: Houston trades Moses Malone to Philadelphia for Caldwell Jones and a No. 1 pick that turned out to be the third pick in the 1983 draft (Rodney McCray). It's worth mentioning that the '82-'83 Rockets bottomed out and ended up with the No. 1 pick (Ralph Sampson) as well. It's also worth mentioning that Malone won the MVP and led the '83 Sixers to a title. 1992: Philadelphia trades Charles Barkley to Phoenix for Jeff Hornacek, Andrew Lang and Tim Perry … or as some would later call it, "the pu pu platter deluxe." Barkley lost 20 pounds, won the '93 MVP in Phoenix, and would have won a title if Kevin Johnson didn't completely melt down in the Finals against Chicago (everyone forgets this). 2004: Orlando trades Tracy McGrady (with Juwan Howard) to Houston for Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley and Kelvin Cato … a trade that worked out so poorly, it led to the one and only time in NBA history that a GM (Orlando GM John Gabriel) received death threats from his own fans. 2004: The Lakers trade Shaq to Miami for Caron Butler, Lamar Odom, a future first-rounder and Brian Grant's gigantic contract (that was eventually used for an Allan Houston Exemption). The Lakers won four playoff games total in the next three seasons; Miami won the 2006 title and would have won in 2005 if Dwyane Wade didn't get hurt. (Hold on, we have to give Lakers fans a few seconds to clear the vomit out of their mouths.) (OK, we're good.) With Kobe finally demanding out, two questions remain: 1. For the love of God, what took him so long? L.A.'s game plan for the post-Shaq era was so illogical, it earned Mitch Kupchak a seat at the First-Annual Atrocious GM Summit last year. Why would you build a young team around a franchise scorer in his prime? Why give him a degree of difficulty? What's the point of rolling the dice with projects like Chris Mihm and Kwame Brown, or wasting a lottery pick on a high school center (Andrew Bynum) and passing on players who could have helped the team right away (like Danny Granger)? How could they pass up a chance to acquire an impact player last February (like Jason Kidd or Jermaine O'Neal) when they had expiring contracts, draft picks and Bynum as potential bait? 2. What can the Lakers get for him? To properly figure this out, you need to include a couple of variables. First, Kobe has a complete no-trade clause and is too image-conscious to play in a small market. He's not going to Memphis. He's not going to Milwaukee. He's not going to Sacramento. Kobe will want a big market that keeps him in the national limelight. Second, he'd want to play for a team that could contend right away; there's no way he'd agree to shepherd another rebuilding project or youth movement. And third, as much as a mega-deal makes sense with Kobe and Carmelo as the principles, you'd see O.J. move back to Brentwood before you'd see Kobe accept a trade that puts him in Colorado. One more thing to remember: Right now, the Lakers are sitting at $57.66 million in salaries for the 2007-08 season. Conceivably, they could use a Kobe trade to clear enough cap space to sign a marquee free agent in 2007 or 2008. As Shaq and Kareem proved, NBA stars will always want to play in Los Angeles if they can pull it off. Between the weather, the women, the wealth and the Hollywood scene, the Lakers have an enormous free agency advantage over every NBA team but New York, Phoenix, Orlando, Miami and maybe Dallas. Keep that in mind. Three other mitigating factors: (A) A year ago, the Clippers had the assets (specifically, Shaun Livingston) and cap space to pull off a mega-Kobe deal. Not anymore. (B) I liked Golden State as a prospective home for Kobe -- but Jason Richardson, Monta Ellis and the No. 17 pick isn't getting it done, and the Warriors don't have enough friendly cap contracts to pull off anything bigger. (C) Sadly, tragically, there's no conceivable scenario in which the Knicks can offer a decent enough package for Kobe. They're not getting him for a Jamal Crawford-David Lee-Nate Robinson-Quentin Richardson package, and they're not getting the Lakers to bite on Stephon Marbury unless they can frame Kupchak for murder and blackmail him with the photos between now and June 30. It's not happening. Sorry, Knicks fans. Anyway, with help from the Trade Machine, here were the seven most logical deals in descending order from "least likely" to "most likely." Deal No. 7: Houston trades Tracy McGrady, Bobby Sura (expiring contract in 2008) and the No. 26 pick for Kobe and Vladimir Radmanovic. Comments: The Lakers aren't getting LeBron or Gilbert Arenas, and 'Melo isn't happening (see above). So that makes T-Mac the best under-30 scorer available. Where would he take the Lakers though? They were already a .500 team with Kobe, right? And wouldn't T-Mac inevitably be unhappy going to another rebuilding team? Too big of a risk for the Lakers -- the last thing they need is another unhappy superstar. They're already going to have 15,000 unhappy season-ticket holders as it is. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/blog/index?name=simmons&entryDate=20070530
aiite this is how it went down kobe went on a local radio station YESTERDAY screaming out his frustrations. but apparently, NO ONE called him to console him and talked to him about it (the team). so he got pissed and took it national w/ SAS. then phil called him and he calmed down a bit and kinda backed down. after dan patrick and interview at another local station, magic and jerry buss called him. now kobe doesn't want to be traded at all. is this dude for real? he can't wait 24 hrs for phil/buss/magic to call him? man, this dude is ALL ABOUT HIM. unbelievable. he has EVERYONE on strings.
