The Goat Pen

if

Yeah, that's not a given right now. What they are really saying is that they are putting their faith in Bynum and his knees. If Drew stays healthy, then Odom would not get the minutes and he makes about $9M (and LA thinks they can sign a serviceable power forward to play 18 minutes a night for much less money). The big IF is not D12...it's A17's hinges.

I say it's about 50/50 they land Dwight. If Drew comes out the gate balling in games 6 - 10, then I'll moving the needle to say Orlando would be more up to do a deal than they are now. LA's not sending Drew and Gasol, though...so Hedo is not coming West.

Okay, either Stern is truly a fucktard or this is all just a ploy to move the team out of NOLA.

http://eye-on-basketball.blogs.cbssport ... 4/33833708

Damn, apparently this sentiment is starting to gain traction. A comment from the above blog:

Contract the league down to 6 teams. Then all the little pussies of the LeBron generation that couldn't lead their teams themselves can have all their buddies with them on their own little AAU teams. LA, Dallas, Chicago, Boston, New York, and Miami. Fold the rest. The rest of us can be free to go watch other sports where the players have enough pride to try to win the right way (the HARD way, you know like how Michael Jordan did it the first 3 titles). Whoever wins then can call themselves the NBAAU Champions. What will LeQuit do when he actually has to play against someone really good when they contract to 6 teams, and the guy he's going against is Kobe Bryant every night? He'll lose again, and try to get everybody on his team so he can make superstar money, and still be a worthless pud in the 4th quarter. Lord, why did the owners ever end the lockout? I was really hoping for a 5-6 year vacation from this crap as a sports fan.

Told ya. Total garbage.

I was about to say, I think BRM wrote that...

Apparently Lamar's tweeting was just the tip of the bitching and moaning iceberg, so they dumped him to a rival contender for a contender's level draft pick. Not sure what was eating Pau during the playoffs last year but let's hope he can continue to suck it up.

http://www.ocregister.com/sports/gasol- ... hness.html

/_\

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/734 ... le-offense

So … was this the beginning of the end?

I don't want to overstate things, because the Lakers will still be very good this year. And there is still time for them to make other transactions that get them back toward the front of the contender line.

But one has to wonder whether the baffling Lamar Odom deal is the first surrender in a backward creep away from the league's elite. The Lakers lost in four games in the second round of the playoffs a year ago and just traded the league's best sixth man to the team that beat them; at the moment, that leaves them with three good players and a bunch of mediocre-to-awful ones. Not one other player on the roster could plausibly claim to start for more than a few of the league's teams.

This might have been acceptable if, as first thought, the Odom deal was some kind of grand prelude to a deal for Dwight Howard, or a tactical move that set up some other jaw-dropping deal.

I wrote at the time that the Lakers had to be using the trade to go after Howard, because the only other alternative was that they were complete idiots.

Well, folks … time to consider that other alternative. There's been an ongoing low-level concern in L.A. that once he got control of the reins Jim Buss would turn into Chris Cohan South, and this isn't going to allay those fears one bit.

The Odom deal is shocking on a number of levels. For starters, this was a flat-out salary dump by the richest team in the league. There wasn't even some kind of maybe-he-works-out rookie flotsam coming back; all the Lakers got was a first-round pick that will be 21st or later in the draft. Some prize.

Oh, they also got a trade exception, and that may be helpful at some point … but it won't bring back a player nearly as good as Odom. Just look at the difficulty that teams like Cleveland and Toronto have had trying to use an even larger exception than L.A.'s. The Lakers, by the way, already had an exception nearly as large from trading Sasha Vujacic last spring, and have shown no inclination to use it.

Which reminds us that this isn't the Lakers' first dip in the salary-dumping pool. They've made a trade like this each of the past four years: Chris Mihm, Vladimir Radmanovic, Sasha Vujacic and now Odom.

You see stories leaking out trying to sell the idea that this wasn't insane -- Odom didn't stay in great shape, his TV stuff was a distraction, he's 32 -- and I would add to that the statistical observation that he's a Fluke Rule player and has virtually no chance of shooting as well next season.

With all that said …

They sent their fourth-best player to the team that knocked them out of the playoffs in four games and is the defending champion, and got virtually nothing in return. Several other teams were under the cap or had large trade exceptions and could have taken Odom; none has given any indication that the Lakers ever called them. That, combined with the hurried nature of the deal, leaves the impression that the Lakers' "shopping" of Odom consisted of Buss having one phone call with Mark Cuban and calling it good.

So what, exactly, are they doing?

We'd all like to think this is part of some larger plan to lure Howard, but the Odom trade makes no sense as part of such a plan. If you buy the premise that getting Howard required that the Lakers had to trade two of their three bigs (Andrew Bynum and either Odom or Pau Gasol) and leave the other one as a starter alongside Howard, then this trade is a head-scratcher.

And if you're thinking the trade exception from Dallas will help them swallow Hedo Turkoglu's contract, it doesn't. The Lakers get an exception for $8.9 million; Hedo makes $10.6 million. Lakers fans keep asking me whether the Odom exception can be combined with the earlier exception from dealing Vujacic; it can't. So the best the Lakers can do, as far as helping Orlando's cap situation, is receive Jameer Nelson or J.J. Redick with the Odom exception and then swallow Chris Duhon with the Vujacic exception.

(Somewhat related side note: There were reports that Turkoglu had a trade kicker in his deal that would change his cap number, but that bugger already kicked in when he went from Toronto to Phoenix. He's on the books at $10.6 million in any trade).

What we're left with is two possibilities. First, that the Lakers intend to trade Bynum and Pau for Howard, with other contracts included on both sides to make it cap-kosher, and they figure just about any cheap power forward will work for them as long as they have Kobe and Dwight as the centerpieces.

Second, that the Lakers think they can get Howard for Bynum straight up. Personally I find this daffy, especially since the Lakers have no free-agent leverage. It's one thing for Carmelo Anthony to strong-arm his way to New York when the Nuggets know he can sign with the Knicks after the season, but that possibility doesn't exist for Howard -- the Lakers won't have cap room until 2014-15. (Well, unless they plan on using their amnesty exception on Kobe Bryant. I'm thinking that's a long shot).

In the meantime, are the Lakers content to just be Kobe, Pau, Bynum and a bunch of flotsam? They already dumped Odom for pennies for the dollar, but there's plenty more evidence that they're in cost-cutting mode. The Lakers let Shannon Brown walk with hardly a whimper and, perhaps more amazingly, have shown no inclination to use their midlevel or biannual exceptions.

Even the nixed Chris Paul trade was a stealth salary dump: The Lakers were sending out nearly $27 million in contracts and only taking back $16 million. It was puzzling then that the Lakers were so willing to include Odom rather than just trading Pau for CP3 straight up, but now we know why: Even while making a glitzy move, they were slashing costs.

Needless to say, this is beyond bizarre. I know it's still money, and the Lakers remain $12 million over the luxury-tax threshold -- a number that will likely go up once they add a veteran or two. I'm sure they want to get their financial house in order before the more draconian tax levels hit in 2013-14, and that they need to begin thinking about a post-Kobe future.

Nonetheless, we're talking about a franchise that's getting a gazillion dollars in television rights and has a loudly ticking clock on its contender status in the form of Bryant's knees.

Yes, they're older now, and also not nearly as deep. Nonetheless, a week ago their championship window remained open. I don't understand why they're in such a rush to slam it shut.

Of all the great trades, this may prove to be one of the worst trades ever for the Lakers. Make yourself weaker while making a close rival even stronger.

They'll be desparate now to get Howard, but will need even more help from another team. Seems to be now they have to include both Bynum and Pau Gasol plus draft picks from another team.

I still think they can win with this team...if Drew stays healthy. Bynum is arguaby the second best center in the L after Howard...when he's playing. He's been killing in practice, so far. He's worked hard in the off-season. Bynum for all 61games, plus playoffs, with Gasol > D12, IMO.

The health is the key. So, I just quickly package them up and away without serious thought.

I think Vanessa is filing for divorce...

One thing we do know...Kobe is no Tiger Woods. His ballgame should wind up getting better.

[youtube]mPR9iFRiUkE[/youtube]

Go to the 4:28 mark for Pau's reaction.

In advance of the Lakers v Lob City Preseason game tonight, Kobe interview...

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=m ... nba_121811

Kobe has torn ligaments in his wrist from the fall Monday night. He will not play tonight and is listed as day-to-day.

He's gonna act like a bitch all season

If you're gonna have Euros and Duke alumni on your team, maybe you can get someone to hit a fucking free throw.

thought Deng went up-&-down, and I thought it was even funnier ABC tried everything they possibly could to not replay it

Yeah, I thought he traveled, but it shouldn't have come to that.

Phase I of Operation: Impress Orlando is working well...