Is Dallas the New Threat to The Lakers?

no

The team is giving serious thought to letting go of JJ Hickson and Ilguaskas. I don’t want Amare Stoudemire, we have enough forwards as it is. JJ Hickson is young and is developing into a great talent, and Amare is not getting better. Antwan Jamison would help out our somewhat thin lineup of guards, but Shaq needs a backup center really bad. And Varejao isn’t suited for it.

I’m new to the blog, I like what you said Purple and Gold for life, let me just play devil’s advocate for a second. In the playoffs the bench plays a lesser role than in the regular season and if the cavs have those three bigs, I see PJ playing chess with Mike Brown in terms of matchups, I think the Amare trade would be like a shield to block the Lakers from certain keys in the game. We all know PJ is too cool for school. Lakers are still on top until further notice. Peace!!!

Butler for Howard is a wash, besides the fact that Butler might be a better choice to defend at the two guard spot; otherwise, both have been having pretty dismal seasons by their standards. If Dallas was getting the Butler of two years ago, then I might start looking at it differently, but that part of the deal doesn’t worry me.

The big part of the trade was getting Haywood, who has legitimate center size and can defend against Bynum or Gasol, but even then, it’s not a game-changing piece. It’s essentially a band-aid for Dampier’s decreased production due to injury, and Bynum still has the size to overwhelm Haywood.

As far as the Stoudemire-to-Cleveland trade goes, it’s befuddling that Kerr would agree to do something like this when he has much better alternatives available to him. In Cleveland, Stoudemire would more or less be a glorified jump shooter most of the time due to the driving lanes being closed by Shaq’s and LeBron’s presence, although he is a very good jump shooter at that, so he’s an upgrade on Hickson as far as that’s concerned. On defense, a team like Orlando is just going to torture Cleveland even more on the pick-and-roll, as Stoudemire is completely inadequate as far as defense goes.

Nah but I understand the point you are making PAGFL, Denver is still the only team out West the Lakers should be very afraid of, other then that, Lakers should handle everyone else easily but again the Lakers Gasol, Bynum and LO have to be dominate, very dominate, none of these teams can handle the Lakers with those three playing at FULL potential.

teams wish they where

i still think denver is the ultimate threat to the lakers in the west
dallas imo still has some ways to go before they can re-emerge as contenders…

http://www.tnt.tv/sports/nba/allstar10/?ls=iref:nbahpt1

LakersMania makes a good point in saying the Lakers are their own biggest threat, but in terms of another team Denver is it.
I see in Denver’s drive and chemistry some of what I saw in the Lakers last year: a giant chip on their shoulder. Denver is scrappy and will be out for blood in the playoffs. They have enough talent that if healthy will give any team fits.
If the Lakers have the same drive as last year then I’m confident they’ll prevail in a series, so long as they bring physicality and stick to fluid team play.
The question for still is: Is the quest to repeat enough of a motivator for the Lakers? I hope so.

@Purple and Gold For Life: I hate to see the Cavs and Mailman, Jr brought into every blog post in existence, but if LeBron departs, northern Ohio will die on the vine. The Cavs become lottery fodder, the franchise loses half of its value and the heart and soul of Cleveland will be gone. Home grown talent like that rarely happens and if the Cleveland loses him it’ll be as dark as the day James Garfield was assassinated.
As for the Mailman, Jr, if he leaves and wins a title elsewhere he’ll fare just fine, but if he doesn’t his image, popularity and resume take a big hit.

wow that would suck if the cavs got Amare…. they are already good right now, and getting amare for basically no one…. ouch

we Laker fans are all fully aware of what Powe did to the Lakers while he was on the Celtics

i don’t want to talk about it

IS UBER SCARY! but not as much as team with kobe, pau, odom ,and bynum

they are not a new threat. same old dallas.