Kobe won't be in jail for the next two years - the DA's office will take the next two years to determine if they are going to file any charges against him. We don't even know if he did anything, anyway, so don't rush to judgment.
mfclark: I agree with your strategy. In #1, I assume you're talking about playing GP and KM with spirited one-man defense, right? As far as the Magic comments go... I think Orlando can beat the Lakers in the DF Waterwheel Arena (or whatever corp the Orena is now called) on any given night, but they haven't won at LA since the respective PG/Cs were Penny/Shaq and Magic Johnson/Divac. The TMac/Kobe thing is overblown. It's a popular misconception that Kobe is "stopped" by anybody. Imo, the best Kobe defender is Ruben Patterson and even he gets burned particularly bad some nights. Bonzi Wells is pretty good on him too. Portland does a good job of giving Kobe different defensive looks and Bonzi posts him up as much as possible on the offensive end.
Yes, in #1, I'm talking about not giving them special treatment moreso than you would any other 3rd or 4th option - aggressive defense to limit their contributions. In that respect, you aren't "worrying" (that's not the right word, but I don't know what is - you still have to be concerned about them) about them and instead are focusing moreso on Shaq and Kobe. It's tough for any team to beat the Lakers in LA; that's why I definitely don't think the Magic could win in a 7 game series (it'd go 5 or 6 w/ the Lakers winning). But one game...maybe.
Tell me which center in the West will do that? Certainly not Divac, Nesto, or whoever. The acquisition of Malone and the possible re-signing of Horry will go a long way in shielding Shaq's lack of defensive mobility. The best way to beat LA will be to get Shaq in foul trouble. "Limit" LA to having "only" Kobe, Payton, and Malone. That way you can at least for LA to be a perimeter-oriented team.
While a bit crude, I was thinking the same thing. Get enough of the team in jail and it could be an easy season.
Now that Kobe is out of the way, if we can get Shawn Bradley to hip check Malone and Shaq Remember what he did to Hakeem and Charles?
They have a trash talker in payton, a dirtiest player in malone, a racist in shaq, a rapist in kobe. Now they just need to get the coach choker spreewell. What a wonderful team !
Can we find all hotels where Shaq Diesel, Karla Malona, and Gary PaidTons stayed the last couple of weeks? harder even, can we find 3 more "19 year old losers looking for attention" as NKYRule puts it in his eloquent post(http://bbs.clutchcity.net/php3/showthread.php?s=&threadid=61593)?
