VCoug wrote:Why would the Lakers fear the cap? When you play in the second largest market in the country and you're a championship contender it doesn't matter how much money you spend because you're going to be printing money.

Right now the Lakers lineup looks like this: Bynum, Gasol, Artest, Kobe, Nash with Blake, McRoberts, and Hill as the main backups. The only thing they could use is a backup SF/SG who can shoot. I believe Barbosa, Delfino, Josh Howard, Pietrus, and Jodie Meeks are all still available.

One could say the same thing about the Knicks in terms of not fearing the cap..oh wait.

It's gonna be a pretty frickin interesting season. If Howard is healthy he might be the one guy in the NBA other than Chandler than can cover up for Nash and Kobe on defense.

VCoug wrote:

jrodmc wrote:Yes. Let's all get upset that Bynum, who the Lakers obviously have little to no confidence in (and Kobe has repeatedly thrown under the bus for years) is now with Philly.

Welcome Andy. Eastern Conference, say hello to the next Emeka Okafor. I'm sure Philly's well on their way to a chip now.

Little to no confidence? The only reason they're trading him is because they're getting Howard in return. Bynum has shown that if he can stay healthy he's the second best center and a top-20 player in the NBA. Okafor has never even come close to being as good as Bynum is. And he's still only 24 years old.

As for Philly, they're going to be building around 24 year olds Bynum and Hawes, 23 year old Evan Turner, and 22 year old Jrue Holiday. They're built to be good now and they should only be getting better over the next several years. And, unlike Brooklyn, they might be better than us.

Bynum has one season in 7 where's he's shown anything. And that suddenly makes him something to build around? Tell me, how great was the healthy Bynum in the playoffs this past season, I forget.

Tell me you didn't say "building around ... Hawes" 8.5 PPG and 5.8 RPG Spencer Hawes, that Hawes? Do the names Joe Kleine and Brad Lohaus mean anything to you?

You know, I've seen the light! Maybe we should have built something around Moz. I hear Greg Oden's coming back! Let's go build a contender!

GodSaveTheKnicks wrote:

VCoug wrote:

CashMoney wrote:

VCoug wrote:Why would the Lakers fear the cap? When you play in the second largest market in the country and you're a championship contender it doesn't matter how much money you spend because you're going to be printing money.

Right now the Lakers lineup looks like this: Bynum, Gasol, Artest, Kobe, Nash with Blake, McRoberts, and Hill as the main backups. The only thing they could use is a backup SF/SG who can shoot. I believe Barbosa, Delfino, Josh Howard, Pietrus, and Jodie Meeks are all still available.

The Lakers also have Jamison.

Shit, I completely forgot about him. As long as Kobe doesn't screw everything up I don't see how LA isn't the favorite to come out of the West.

They're also depending on Steve Nash (without the Phoenix witch doctors),Dwight Howard, and Kobe staying healthy through 82 games. Most likely all of them will be playing heavy minutes since their backups are...

I dunno. Who are their backups? Steve Blake? Devin Ebanks? I don't even know who their backup bigs are.

They still have their mini-MLE that they can use, not sure if any PG's that are FA are worthy of it though.
Think they should have resigned Sessions if they could have and don't mind having a 100m team.
Delfino would be a great addition that would fit in very nicely though that can start/finish or come off the bench.
While they probably don't even have to use the whole 3m for Delfino.

Even vet minimum players, would be fine for the team.

Fisher
Mike James
Barbosa * i think he is done, he doesn't have that speed/quickness he once had*

Younger talents that can use Nash as a mentor

Machado
Lester Hudson
Flynn

martin wrote:What the heck is Orlando doing... do they have any C/PF position players left on their team?

Jameer Nelson, Nikola Vucevic, Glen Davis, Arron Afflalo, Kyle O'Quinn, Al Harrington, Gustavo Ayon, Justin Harper, Maurice Harkless, Christian Eyenga, Andrew Nicholson, Quentin Richardson, J.J. Redick, Hedo Turkoglu.

God, how sad.

Orlando just cut a **** load of salary.

Now they tank and collect draft picks. I'd hate be a season ticket holder in Orlando right now.

K22 wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:Henigan looks pretty bad. I think all that the rockets gave up to get picks and cap space set them back. Getting asik and Lin is ok but I don't think either of those guys are cornerstones for a franchise.

He's a new guy that got thrown into a situation he really wasn't equipped for yet so he might actually get a pass. None of this madness happens if Dwight opted out.

Its hard to write the obit for Hennigan right now because we don't know if ownership had a part in the decision making process. Also, with all those draft picks, even if the aren't the highest picks, they are going to also have some lotto picks over the next few years. Enough for him to build a team from the ground up. Have to see what kind of a team they have in a few years to really judge this move. Like I mentioned in another thread, the Magic have one of the best track records at reloading in the league. Its what they do after is the problem.

Houston's plan went bust for the most part because they were trying to land one player. It looks like the Magic are going another route which will give them a good deal of flexibility to build the team they want.

Combine the picks they have now, the cap room and the lottery picks they will have, the Magic could build a very good team if done properly. Right know we're looking at the wreckage of a team that was just blown up so its pretty ugly. It comes down to the organization from the scouts to the GM making something all those picks and future cap room. Time will tell.

loweyecue wrote:

VCoug wrote:http://www.nba.com/magic/news/denton-magic-trade-howard-four-team-blockbuster

It's official. LA gets Dwight, Duhon, and Earl Clark; Philly gets Bynum and JRich; Denver gets Igoudala; Orlando gets Afflalo, Harrington, Vucevic, McRoberts, Eyenga, Harkless, a protected 1st from Denver in 2014 (the lower of ours or Denver's), a protected 1st from Philly in 2015, a protected 1st from LA in 2017, and two 2nd rounders.

Why did ORL wait this long to do this crappy trade? They didn't even offload Hedo?

Seriously. How do you unload the best player and don't get back the 2nd,3rd or the 4th best player that was traded by the other teams? Then you don't reach your other objectives which were to unload other horrible contracts (Hedo) or receive valuable lotto picks? This trade was horrendous on Orlando's end!!!