who does every one want to win the NBA championship

[Natey]

me nuggets GO DENVER

[TimTwoFace]

Phoenix Suns.

GO STEVE NASH! :)

At least those Laker-bums don't even have a chance this year. It'd be nice to see the Clippers finish ahead of them in the standings, too - just to mix it up a little.

-Tim

[Tapout]

Phoenix Suns.

GO STEVE NASH! :)

At least those Laker-bums don't even have a chance this year. It'd be nice to see the Clippers finish ahead of them in the standings, too - just to mix it up a little.

-Tim
Concur and Concur. I'm hoping Phoenix can finally pull it off, and nothing gives me greater pleasure than the fact that the Lakers probably won't even make the playoffs. Nice move sticking with Kobe. I'll be watching Phoenix play Shaq and the Heat in the finals.

[Natey]

Phoenix Suns.

GO STEVE NASH! :)

At least those Laker-bums don't even have a chance this year. It'd be nice to see the Clippers finish ahead of them in the standings, too - just to mix it up a little.

-Tim
i think da suns r guna win. but i aint goin 4 them. (remmber go nuggets) and lol yea i just can kick back on my sofa and watch laker fasn ball their heads off

[email2003]

GO ROCKETS!!!!!!!!!!!

[TheEvilClown]

Guys don't discount SA. Yeah sure they may of had there off nights but you got to remember they were without Duncan. Yeah Suns still have a chance but remember the Season is not over and what SA is just one game behind. You don't want to give SA the HCA over you they are tough at him with duncan.

[BonyT]

The Lakers :p . But since they can't win it this year ... I really don't care much who does, to be honest. I don't have a "second-favorite" team in basketball. (I am pulling against the Heat, though. Sorry, Heat fans -- no offense intended to you; I just can't pull for Shaq's team.)

As for who I think will win it, I've said it already: The Spurs. When they're healthy, I just think they're head & shoulders above everybody else, West or East.


At least those Laker-bums don't even have a chance this year. It'd be nice to see the Clippers finish ahead of them in the standings, too - just to mix it up a little.

-TimActually, that would have at least one positive aspect for the Lakers: a little bit better odds in the lottery. I always hate to see the Lakers lose any game; but I do expect them to be trying out lots of different & "experimental" lineups as they play out the string, without too much concern if those experiments should cost them some wins. If you're in a playoff position race, you can't really do that sort of thing; but the Lakers can now afford to evaluate some guys who don't normally get much p.t., to see who they might want to try to move this summer & who they might want to try to hang onto.

[Fan of Sponge]

Hey are the Cavliers still in the hunt? Anyways go Heat! Shaq and company can bring the trophy to Miami just like Shaq promised.:D

[DarkAngel]

The Lakers :p . But since they can't win it this year ... I really don't care much who does, to be honest. I don't have a "second-favorite" team in basketball. (I am pulling against the Heat, though. Sorry, Heat fans -- no offense intended to you; I just can't pull for Shaq's team.)Same here, pretty much. My attitude right now is any team but the Heat. I've been backing the Lakers and had been hoping they'd make the playoffs. And living in Ohio, I've also been following the Cavs closely. In fact, I've been more interested in them this year than LA, though this last part of the season has been very disheartening.

Obviously, both the Cavs and Lakers have been a disappointment, so right now it's any team but Miami for me. They've been playing so well, though, I've been afraid they'll most likely take the championship. But I'll trust in your assessment of the Spurs. I hope so.

[krazymed]

The Lakers won't make the playoffs. That's good enough for me.

I would like to see Indiana or Miami go far. They have really good-looking cheerleaders.

[rrarbecy]

GO SIXERS!!!!


I'm picking them to go to the East Finals. We'll catch Boston, become number 3, and beat Washington. YEAH!!

[Supernovametalstar]

The Bulls! Hey, they're the #4 seed in the east this year, so it could happen. After what happend with the Illini, we need someone to root for :D.

[rrarbecy]

I wouldn't mind seeing the Bulls win.

[Ajax]

Obviously, both the Cavs and Lakers have been a disappointment, so right now it's any team but Miami for me. Ironically, the Cavs have not been a dissappointment. I don't think they were even slated to make the playoffs at the beginning of the season. They really overachieved in the first half of the season, and their weakness were only magnified once they went through those horrid losing streaks. Much like the Lakers (even though they have more talent) the Cavs are a one man team, only Lebron knows how to at least take advantage of what he has. If Lebron had Lamar Odom, oh man. I mean this kid made Drew Gooden look like what Jerry West must have seen when he drafted him with the third pick.


I'm picking them to go to the East Finals The thing with the Sixers is that there team sucks, I mean they really suck. But this fact only makes Iverson look more like an MVP. He's taken this team on his banged up back and willed them to win.

[rrarbecy]

Then how do you explain the Wizards win without Iverson and Webber, and the Pistons blowout last month, and their 4 game winning streak?

[DarkAngel]

Ironically, the Cavs have not been a dissappointment. I don't think they were even slated to make the playoffs at the beginning of the season. They really overachieved in the first half of the season, and their weakness were only magnified once they went through those horrid losing streaks. They might have overachieved during the first half of the season, but they're better than what we're seeing now. Except for Lebron, the team hasn't been putting forth the effort that's needed (and that they're capable of) and they've been very much a disappointment recently.

Believe me, I'm aware they're not one of the best in the league. I don't mean to suggest that. But they should have been much better over this last month or so. They're playoff hopes should not be in as much jeopardy as it is right now.

[Tapout]

Actually, that would have at least one positive aspect for the Lakers: a little bit better odds in the lottery. I always hate to see the Lakers lose any game; but I do expect them to be trying out lots of different & "experimental" lineups as they play out the string, without too much concern if those experiments should cost them some wins. If you're in a playoff position race, you can't really do that sort of thing; but the Lakers can now afford to evaluate some guys who don't normally get much p.t., to see who they might want to try to move this summer & who they might want to try to hang onto.The fix is already in for that one. We all know LA's gonna finish the year stinking, then they'll freeze the envelop so David Stern will know which one to grab like with Ewing and the Knicks. Then LA will be right back in the playoffs next year, unless somehow Kobe can ruin the team even more.

[Ajax]

Then how do you explain the Wizards win without Iverson and Webber, and the Pistons blowout last month, and their 4 game winning streak?The same way you explain the T-wolves losing to the Hawks. Plus Wizard are in the middle of a very bad losing streak.
Anyways you missed my point. I was praising A.I for his play. He was given a new coach, six new teammates, and was put at point guard, and yet they are still in the playoff hunt.

Take a look at there roster if you don't believe they suck. Only three players average double digits. It use to be only A.I and maybe Korver until Chris Webber was added. Hey it ok if your team sucks. My team sucks. :D

[rrarbecy]

Jackson, Dalembert, and Iguodala. I love them.

[BonyT]

The fix is already in for that one. We all know LA's gonna finish the year stinking, then they'll freeze the envelop so David Stern will know which one to grab like with Ewing and the Knicks. Then LA will be right back in the playoffs next yearHmm ... I like it.

Maybe I'd better call Dave up though, just to make sure he's up to speed on the mechanics of the scam & won't screw things up.
(I tell ya', sometimes it's just like talking to your kids when you're giving him instructions. Oh, I don't mean to be too hard on him; he wants to follow orders like a good soldier. But frankly, he's just a little bit slow on the uptake. So you've really just gotta watch him every step of the way.)

One problem though: there certainly aren't any Ewings in this draft -- no franchise players at all, for that matter.

You know, maybe instead, what the Commish needs to do is send some of his boys up north to break a few kneecaps in the Minnesota organization, & force them to trade KG for Laker garbage.

And maybe just to be safe, we should also make Cleveland pony up 'Bron for Devon George, Luke Walton & a bag of peanuts.

[Tapout]

Oh, come on. I'm definately not one for conspiracy theories, but the whole "NBA hates New York and/or LA not being competetive" thing is one I actually buy into. Granted the recent mediocre-to-awfulness of the Knicks kind of debunks that, but I can't really even think of another reason to have the stupid lottery in the first place. Why not do it like the NFL does: If your team sucked the worst, you get the first pick. Sounds pretty simple to me.

Regardless of what goes on now if you think there wasn't anything fishy about the 1985 draft your high.

[BonyT]

Oh, come on. I'm definately not one for conspiracy theories, but the whole "NBA hates New York and/or LA not being competetive" thing is one I actually buy into.Well, I'll grant you this: there's little doubt that the Lakers being an elite team does help the NBA financially. (I'm not familiar enough with the Knicks' situation to be able to comment on them.)

Fact is, the NBA doesn't have anywhere near the general popularity that, say, the NFL enjoys -- not even close. People will tune in on Sunday just to see NFL football -- doesn't matter who's playing; same thing definitely goes for the Superbowl. Not so for pro basketball. It's a whole different dynamic.

Back in '03, when the Spurs made the Finals instead of the Lakers, the TV ratings plummeted versus 2000, 2001, & 2002. Now, that's certainly not fair to the Spurs, and the hard-core basketball fans still tuned in, because the Spurs were & are a fantastic team. But there's a lot of casual fans who just weren't interested in a non-Lakers Finals. Why? I've said it before: because the Lakers are to hoops what the Yankees are to baseball: they're the team that's identified with their sport. To the general public, the Lakers ARE basketball, just as the Yankees are baseball. The Yankees & Lakers are the teams that everyone either really loves or really hates -- but nobody's neutral. Everyone wants to see them, whether to root for them, or to see them get their comeupance (and since both fan-groups' interests had already been addressed -- one way or the other -- in '03 by the Lakers not even being in the Finals, many of those casual fans saw no point in tuning in). Some comments already posted in this thread bear ample evidence of what I'm saying.

And that mindset re: the Lakers also means that, if anything ever just happens to bounce L.A.'s way, the haters will cry foul. It might be no more than a call in a game that goes the Lakers' way. But never mind all of the calls that don't go their way. Never mind the fact that every team has some controversial calls go for them, & some against them. It's the Lakers, so the fix must be in.

Never mind that everybody, every team, gets lucky sometimes & unlucky other times. Never mind that this year's draft offers only role players at best -- not ANY franchise players at all. Heck, for that matter, never mind that the Lakers have had rotten luck all year long, & might be due a little good luck just on the averages. If the Lakers' envelope gets pulled out even one draft position ahead of where the odds predict, it's got to be a league conspiracy.

Sorry, Dirtbag, I'm honestly not trying to be argumentative here. It's just that the idea's a little silly on its face. A conspiracy would be wasted on this draft. Even with the number one pick, the Lakers would get at most some help for one of their gaping roster holes, not somebody who could single-handedly change the direction of the franchise.

In fairness though, the same is true on the flipside of the coin. Lakers fans sometimes see conspiracies where there's no good reason to see them, like the idea that teams put pressure on one another not to trade with L.A.


Granted the recent mediocre-to-awfulness of the Knicks kind of debunks that, but I can't really even think of another reason to have the stupid lottery in the first place. Why not do it like the NFL does: If your team sucked the worst, you get the first pick. Sounds pretty simple to me.
But that's the whole point of the lottery setup: even if a team loses the most games, that doesn't guarantee them the number one pick, because of that random element. The idea is to discourage teams from simply tanking it in their last games in order to secure a specific spot in the draft -- because with the lottery, that plan could backfire.

[stwasm]

Being a long-suffering Bullets/Wizards fan (and let it be known that the 1977-78 Washington Bullets were the first local team I ever saw win a national championship), I gotta say


GO WIZARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:D

[Ajax]

One problem though: there certainly aren't any Ewings in this draft -- no franchise players at all, for that matter. Why the hell would the Lakers want to draft a Ewing type player, for all you know that player my never win a ring:D



You know, maybe instead, what the Commish needs to do is send some of his boys up north to break a few kneecaps in the Minnesota organization, & force them to trade KG for Laker garbage.

And maybe just to be safe, we should also make Cleveland pony up 'Bron for Devon George, Luke Walton & a bag of peanuts. That's really cute. But anyways, it doesn't matter what big star the lakers could bring in. As long as Kobe wears the purple and gold he's never going to share the spotlight with any other player again. The Lakers could draft a player with the potential to be a franchise player, but he never develop because as long as Kobe stays selfish the Lakers our going to keep battling the Clippers for that 11th spot in the western conference:D

[BonyT]

it doesn't matter what big star the lakers could bring in. As long as Kobe wears the purple and gold he's never going to share the spotlight with any other player again. The Lakers could draft a player with the potential to be a franchise player, but he never develop because as long as Kobe stays selfish the Lakers our going to keep battling the Clippers for that 11th spot in the western conference:DWell, that's many people's take on it, CBG. But I for one am certainly not prepared to write off Kobe's future or his maturing process, including the impact on that process of all that he & the Lakers have been through recently. People sometimes forget as they look back on the guys who we laud as great team players that some of those guys too had been labeled earlier in their careers as being too selfish.

And frankly, I think a big part of the rub between Shaq & Kobe had to do with Shaq's work ethic. I don't think it would be quite the same situation with somebody who would come in & work hard.

I admit that I'm consciously taking the optimistic view. I've always stood with the Lakers, & I always will, through thick & thin.

Another thing is that there's a "pile-on" mentality regarding Kobe right now. It's just a little bit too easy for people to jump on & lay everything at his doorstep, and I think that's too simplistic.

[Ajax]

But I for one am certainly not prepared to write off Kobe's future or his maturing process, including the impact on that process of all that he & the Lakers have been through recently. People sometimes forget as they look back on the guys who we laud as great team players that some of those guys too had been labeled earlier in their careers as being too selfish.. And yet Kobe does not learn from their experiences. Obviously you are referring to MJ and how selfish he was in his first six seasons. Until he learned the concept of a team was he finally able to win. Their is no urgency for Kobe. He has already won three rings so its seems he's really in no hurry to win. If he did he would at least make a coniscous effort to invole the rest of his team, namely Lamar Odom. That's what I get from watching him play.




Another thing is that there's a "pile-on" mentality regarding Kobe right now. It's just a little bit too easy for people to jump on & lay everything at his doorstep, and I think that's too simplistic When you dismantle a dynasty like Kobe did, that pile-on mentality tends to happen. Kobe is the one that made it a bit too easy for people to jump on him. I mean, even the fans are booing his ass.

[DarkAngel]

And frankly, I think a big part of the rub between Shaq & Kobe had to do with Shaq's work ethic. I don't think it would be quite the same situation with somebody who would come in & work hard.I haven't watched the Heat much, but I've heard Shaq's in much better shape than he's been the past few years. And from the little I have seen of Shaq and the Heat, that appears to be true. In my eyes, he deserves a lot of criticism as well. He wasn't taking care of himself the way he should have with the Lakers, but now after leaving LA, he was willing to get off his butt in order to prove a point and show what a mistake the Lakers made. The thing is, I find myself wondering whether he'd have trained as well and performed like this if he was still a Laker. I doubt it.

[BonyT]

And yet Kobe does not learn from their experiences. Obviously you are referring to MJ and how selfish he was in his first six seasons. Until he learned the concept of a team was he finally able to win. Their is no urgency for Kobe. He has already won three rings so its seems he's really in no hurry to win. If he did he would at least make a coniscous effort to invole the rest of his team, namely Lamar Odom. That's what I get from watching him play.Well, you may prove to be right, CBG. As I said, a lot of people -- many of whom know a LOT more about basketball than I do -- would agree entirely with your assessment. I hope I didn't sound like I was arguing with you in my last post, because I really don't mean to be doing that at all. I'm not disputing the validity of the reasoning behind your analysis; I'm simply consciously choosing to allow my analysis to be influenced by optimism.

It's a valid point about MJ not having any championships, which made him hungry & open to the possibility of changing his ways, whereas Kobe's already got 3 under his belt. But remember, those 3 were "Shaq" championships. I think Kobe does feel the pressure to make the Lakers a winner now, precisely because Shaq's gone.

But only time will tell. :)

Understand, I'm not a Kobe-jocker. I'm all about the name on the front of the jersey, not the back. Thing is, Kobe chose to remain a Laker. So he's one of "us," & that buys him some benefit of the doubt with me. But I assure you, if he had left (or were to leave), like Shaq did, I would've said, "Fine. Don't let the door hit you in the rump on the way out."




When you dismantle a dynasty like Kobe did, that pile-on mentality tends to happen. Kobe is the one that made it a bit too easy for people to jump on him. I mean, even the fans are booing his ass.See, laying the whole dismantling of the dynasty on Kobe is the sort of thing I had in mind when I was talking about oversimplification. I'm with DarkAngel on this one; and he stated it better than I could, so I think I'll just quote him here:
I haven't watched the Heat much, but I've heard Shaq's in much better shape than he's been the past few years. And from the little I have seen of Shaq and the Heat, that appears to be true. In my eyes, he deserves a lot of criticism as well. He wasn't taking care of himself the way he should have with the Lakers, but now after leaving LA, he was willing to get off his butt in order to prove a point and show what a mistake the Lakers made. The thing is, I find myself wondering whether he'd have trained as well and performed like this if he was still a Laker. I doubt it.Man, I think that analysis hits it right on the head: Nothing galls me more about the Shaq situation than the fact that he refused to take care of himself in a professional manner year after year in L.A., despite all of Jackson's prodding & cajoling (and btw, those Jackson jabs used to infuriate Shaq, if you recall), but he gets to Miami and then decides to take Phil's advise to heart. If Shaq had taken care of himself like he should've in L.A., it might have helped some in things with him & Kobe.

And I think you're probably right, DA: If Shaq had gotten the contract extension he wanted from the Lakers, he'd most likely be calling in an order to the Orange County Krispy Kreme right now.

When the trade to Miami happened, I actually predicted that we would see a brief renaissance in Shaq's work ethic; but I predicted that it would only last about a season before the Daddy went back to his L.A. pattern. I guess time will tell whether the second part of my prediction holds as true as the first part.

[DarkAngel]

Nothing galls me more about the Shaq situation than the fact that he refused to take care of himself in a professional manner year after year in L.A., despite all of Jackson's prodding & cajoling (and btw, those Jackson jabs used to infuriate Shaq, if you recall), but he gets to Miami and then decides to take Phil's advise to heart. If Shaq had taken care of himself like he should've in L.A., it might have helped some in things with him & Kobe.And this why I do not want to see Miami take the championship. It'll just lend credence to this attitude that he's completely in the right over the whole situation with the Lakers. To me, he's doing all the right things with the Heat for the wrong reason: building himself up in the eyes of the league and the fans. It's hard for me to respect him when he was capable of this kind of effort all along, but only puts it forth now to make the Laker's organization look bad.

[Natey]

Why the hell would the Lakers want to draft a Ewing type player, for all you know that player my never win a ring:D

That's really cute. But anyways, it doesn't matter what big star the lakers could bring in. As long as Kobe wears the purple and gold he's never going to share the spotlight with any other player again. The Lakers could draft a player with the potential to be a franchise player, but he never develop because as long as Kobe stays selfish the Lakers our going to keep battling the Clippers for that 11th spot in the western conference:D]

lol i think their like 1 game back in the race for 11 LOL!

[Ajax]

See, laying the whole dismantling of the dynasty on Kobe is the sort of thing I had in mind when I was talking about oversimplification. I'm with DarkAngel on this one; and he stated it better than I could, so I think I'll just quote him here. See what I mean is that it was because Kobe dislike for both Phil and Shaq that they were let go. Laker management did everything in it's power to try to keep Kobe, and they did what essentialy Kobe wanted, both Phil and Shaq removed from the picture. See that's what I mean when I say Kobe's selfish, all he wants to do is score and have the offense go through him and Phil and Shaq were not letting that happen when they were there. Kobe couldn't understand why the offense was going through Shaq when it was him who was wroking out hard during the off season and Shaq was coming in out of shape to training camp. So when the 04 season ended Laker management had a choice, keep Shaq and Phil or keep Kobe, arguably the best perimeter player in the league, and they choose Kobe and Management did everything they could to keep Kobe happy.


And I think you're probably right, DA: If Shaq had gotten the contract extension he wanted from the Lakers, he'd most likely be calling in an order to the Orange County Krispy Kreme right now..Like I said above, Shaq was never going to get the contract extension, if Laker management was going to keep Kobe then they had to get rid of Shaq


If Shaq had taken care of himself like he should've in L.A., it might have helped some in things with him & Kobe. That has a ring of truth to it but in the long run that just navie thinking (no offense). It wouldn't of matter if Shaq had been in shape or not, after three rings Kobe wasn't going to share the spotlight with another superstar, Kobe wants the spotlight to himself either with the lakers of with another team.

[DarkAngel]

That has a ring of truth to it but in the long run that just navie thinking (no offense). It wouldn't of matter if Shaq had been in shape or not, after three rings Kobe wasn't going to share the spotlight with another superstar, Kobe wants the spotlight to himself either with the lakers of with another team.There was ego on Shaq's part as well. This situation with Kobe wasn't a first for Shaq. I recall him having similar problems with another talented player back in Orlando.

[MJC]

I want the Pistons to take it again. People don't give the champs the respect they deserve. :mad:

[rrarbecy]

How far behind the Heat are they? Far. I dislike the Pistons because Larry Brown is their coach.

Damn Sixers. They let the third seed slip out of their grasp tonight. Stupid Chris Webber...*grumble*

[Majin_Megabyte]

I'm probley be the only one here rooting for the underdog team in the playoffs, The Denver Nuggets. I mean come on they been beating almost everyone in the last month or so. In my opinion I think they will be the most dangerous team in the Western Conference playoffs.

[Knight]

Heat

[BonyT]

Kobe couldn't understand why the offense was going through Shaq when it was him who was wroking out hard during the off season and Shaq was coming in out of shape to training camp. So when the 04 season ended Laker management had a choice, keep Shaq and Phil or keep Kobe, arguably the best perimeter player in the league, and they choose Kobe and Management did everything they could to keep Kobe happy.That's a very accurate summary of what happened at the end of '04, but it does leave out one important piece of the puzzle. In fact, the piece that you left out is the REAL reason Shaq was traded. Let me explain. (WARNING: This is gonna be a long post -- sorry.)

The current Collective Bargaining Agreement represented a sea change in the free agency culture of the NBA. It put SERIOUS limits on the total payroll cap that each team was allowed, and it gave those limits teeth via the dollar-for-dollar Luxury Tax. However, Shaq's original Laker contract was signed before the current CBA ever came about, so it was grandfathered in. That means, among other things, that Shaq could ask for increases in his contract based on the contract's original value -- again, NOT subject to the normal CBA limits. (That's because another provision of the CBA forbids any contract extension that would involve a pay cut for the player -- only pay raises are allowed. So as long as Shaq keeps extending his original contract, rather than signing a new one, he gets around CBA max limits.)

The problem with that is, Shaq's contract was roughly TWICE what any player could get as a MAX contract under the CBA. So that means that Shaq was, in effect, taking up TWO max contract slots in the Laker payroll, all by himself. To give some perspective on the impact of that, it means that if you have Shaq & just ONE other normal CBA max contract (Kobe) on your roster, then you ARE over the cap -- period. Even if you have the smallest allowable roster & the rest of your roster are all making only league MINIMUM, you're STILL over. That means that you can only offer free agents either the veteran's minimum (based on their years in the league) or one of the two exceptions the CBA allows (the mid-level & the lower-level).

Jerry Buss actually led a group of owners in protesting this. Their position was that grandfathered contracts (like Shaq's) should only count as a normal CBA max against the cap. However, the league flatly rejected this proposal (which kind of shoots holes in the theory that Stern & the league are in the Lakers' & Knicks' pocket, doesn't it?).

So as long as Shaq was on the roster, it meant that the Lakers could only be pretty much Shaq, Kobe & the Merry Minimums -- and that's fine, as long as that's enough to win. But one thing that '03 & '04 made clear was that that wasn't enough to win it all anymore. The league had caught up. In particular, Shaq's effectiveness took a SIGNIFICANT dive in the '04 Finals with their new format of very few rest days between games.

So there the Lakers stood, looking out over their prospects for the future. Shaq, though still VERY effective, was now no longer in the stage of his career where he could be expected to get better each year; because of his age, he was quite naturally leveling out, and the downhill portion of his career loomed ahead (as evidenced in the '04 Finals particularly). The team had done better at "reloading" after the '03 season than any team with only the "minimum" contracts to offer had a right to hope for, miraculously adding Karl Malone & Gary Payton for a bargain-basement combined $7 million (I think that was the figure) -- but even that addition didn't prove to be enough.

But when you're a team over the cap with only minimum $ to offer, you can just forget about getting the young free agents; they've got plenty of time to win a title later in their career, so they go for the money now. The only FAs the Lakers could hope for were older guys willing to sacrifice some $ for a last chance at a title; and among those kind of guys, it just doesn't get any better than landing Payton & Malone both in one summer. The Lakers were never likely to get even that lucky again. So if adding those guys didn't prove to be enough, what hope was there in the future for the strategy of trying to win by just adding cheap acquisitions around Shaq & Kobe?

The handwriting was on the wall. Shaq was screaming for an extension that would make his contract even larger & longer-lived (and ditto for the problems that come with that contract). If the Lakers maintained the status quo by giving Shaq the extension, all they could look forward to was a slow death: It would be year after year of watching the team move further & further out of title contention, as Shaq kept going down a little more each year, with no prospect of adding talent around Shaq & Kobe because of the cap situation, & Kobe growing more & more frustrated at being stuck on an old, declining team not suited to his talents even as he himself was peaking.

The logical choice really should have been clear at that point. There was only one route that held any real hope for the future: trade Shaq, get out from under the albatross of his contract before his trade value disappeared, and rebuild around Kobe.

But that WASN'T the Lakers' choice at that point. That's right -- their decision was NOT to choose between Shaq & Kobe. Instead, they offered Shaq a contract extension with a hefty raise that would make him the HIGHEST PAID PLAYER IN THE LEAGUE. However, it was not the absolute max percentage that his contract could have gone up. (Thus, it was a compromise that would raise Shaq's salary, but still get the team a modicum of financial relief.)

But Shaq rejected this flatly. Even though he would've been the league's highest paid player under that deal, he said the offer was "insulting" and that it "devalued" him. (Now, bear in mind that this is the same Shaq who had lobbied Payton & Malone to leave HUGE amounts of money on the table & take peanuts to play for the Lakers. So apparently Shaq doesn't have any problem with his teammates being "devalued" -- it's just Shaq being devalued that bothers him. :rolleyes: ) Shaq said it had to be the absolute max dollars and years possible, or nothing.

THAT, CBG, is when the decision was made to trade Shaq -- and SHAQ is the one who made the decision for Lakers' management. He forced it -- made it absolutely inevitable. He left the Lakers with only two alternatives: Keep Shaq and just forget about any more titles as long as his contract & its crippling effect on your ability to improve the team lasted, or else trade him. On the one hand was five more years of having to just watch the team slowly dying before you could even think about starting the rebuilding process (and probably losing Kobe along the way to boot); on the other was starting the rebuilding process now, with Kobe as your cornerstone.

At that point, Mitch Kupchak got his orders from Buss. In a press conference, when asked about trading Kobe, Mitch replied "Absoultely NOT." When asked about trading Shaq, he said, "If any player demands a trade, we have to at least listen to that demand." That, of course, was a comment calculated to make Shaq angry & make him demand a trade; and it worked to perfection.

But at the end of the day, Shaq is the one who gave the Lakers no alternative but to choose Kobe over him.


That has a ring of truth to it but in the long run that just navie thinking (no offense).None taken. :)


It wouldn't of matter if Shaq had been in shape or not, after three rings Kobe wasn't going to share the spotlight with another superstar, Kobe wants the spotlight to himself either with the lakers of with another team.You may be right. Here's how & when we'll really know:

Eventually, the Lakers will manage to bring in some star-level talent to put with Kobe. Maybe it's this summer, maybe not; but eventually.

When they do, we'll see for sure: Will Kobe show increased maturity and leadership in helping the group come together as a team, or will he run the new guy(s) out of town?

Time will tell.

[BonyT]

I want the Pistons to take it again. People don't give the champs the respect they deserve. :mad:You're right, MJC -- the Pistons should NOT be overlooked.

Don't let the fact that they didn't finish the regular season first in the East fool you. They're a team that's built for the playoffs.

I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Detroit as the East's representative in the Finals.

[rrarbecy]

I'm probley be the only one here rooting for the underdog team in the playoffs, The Denver Nuggets. I mean come on they been beating almost everyone in the last month or so. In my opinion I think they will be the most dangerous team in the Western Conference playoffs.
And the Sixers are not an underdog?

[DarkAngel]

In fact, the piece that you left out is the REAL reason Shaq was traded. Let me explain. (WARNING: This is gonna be a long post -- sorry.)No need to apologize. Very insightful post. Thanks for taking the time.

[BonyT]

No need to apologize. Very insightful post. Thanks for taking the time.I'm just glad somebody got something intelligible out of my ramblings. :)

I've often been tempted, when the Shaq trade is being discussed, to go into the whole story, because there's more to it than is often recognized. But getting all of that down in writing is daunting for somebody with my modest typing skills. It ate up a chunk of my precious lunch hour! ;)