I was Baffled, But Happy This Happened. Welcome back Pau/LO.

by TrojanRam on Dec 9, 2011 2:53 PM PST

If Lamar and Pau can get over it (though I wouldn't blame them if they don't), we will have kept two All-Star Caliber Forwards over a Point Guard with a Knee history who had his worst PPG/APG averages in four years last year.

We were basing this entire trade on what he did to Derek Fisher in the playoffs. As much as it hurts to say it, everyone does that to Fisher now. Not saying everyone is Chris Paul, but his production was inflated because of who was guarding him. And that's who we were willing to trade championship pieces for.

I thought this before these talks even started: if we go for anyone, it best be Howard. Only he could reasonably make up for the loss of size we'd have.

C Howard
PF Gasol
SF World Peace
SG Kobe Bryant
PG It doesn't matter at this point.

We could have done that with Bynum/Odom+Picks. That should have been the focus from the start.

You can blame Stern all you want, and this is an unforgivable act, but the bottom line is we shouldn't have made that trade to begin with. This is a team built to win now. I don't care about the future when we have a chance to win now, and I'm not particularly sure it was brighter with Paul anyway.

He and Bynum were going to anchor the future? Let's keep those German surgeons on the phone.

I'm happy this didn't go down. Let's just hope our guys are able to shake it off. Not off to a good start....

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i have

no arguement with this! im not sure if this trade was good or not,i hate giving up size for a point guard,maybe if okefor was part of it,and still not for sure about it!

by the fantasy king on Dec 9, 2011 3:04 PM PST reply actions

I was happy

And it does matter who runs point, Kobe needs support, I don’t trust World peace and Gasol, it’s all good though

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by BrittneyM on Dec 9, 2011 3:19 PM PST via mobile reply actions

i disagree

A year or 2 of playoffs is well worth years of mediocrity and bad contracts with this old slow and unathletic team we have now. This isn’t 2 years ago. The core are all over 30 and the needle isn’t pointing up. You bring up Paul’s injury yet as it stands 3 of our starters all battle injuries. Metta

Da Bears....enuff said

by EmmCeee on Dec 9, 2011 3:22 PM PST via mobile reply actions

has his feet,kobe knee, drew knees

Even with Howard we will have tha same problems as before and the reason for our playoff crapfest last year.pgs running circles around whoever we put at guard. We would’ve gotten younger and saved money while still competing for titles. As built this team isn’t realistically going to win a chip. We still dnt have shooters, no PG who can keep opposing guards in front of them,nobody besides Kobe who can create shots for themselves or anyone else on the team and nobody besides lo worth anything coming off the bench. Yeah we shud go all out for Howard and if we don’t get him be left hoping we can get some kinda value for over the hill players n the next cpl years

Da Bears....enuff said

by EmmCeee on Dec 9, 2011 3:34 PM PST via mobile up reply actions

our playoffs crapfested because nobody could guard dirk

we lost to the mavs…with 38 yo Jason Kidd at the helm and a team that’s just about as old as ours.

by no stance on Dec 9, 2011 4:35 PM PST up reply actions

i guess i jst imagined Barea running thru our d ala nash

Or The wide open 3’s they consistently got and hit. Or Kobe having to expend more energy guarding pgs because Fisher couldn’t. Or Pau getting bullied by smaller players and disappearing. Or our lack of any 3 point shooting which offsets The “size” by opponents jus packing in the paint. Obviously the front office saw the same thing and made the move

Da Bears....enuff said

by EmmCeee on Dec 9, 2011 6:14 PM PST via mobile up reply actions

You have it backwards

You know where the best defensive point guards in the league are? Usually the D-League or Europe. That’s because even great defensive PGs (or really wing players) get beat all the time on the wing. Dribble Penetration and hand check rules make it almost impossible to guard someone who is determined to get to the basket.

The way that you stop these people is team defense. Either through schemes designed to get the ball out of a penetrator’s hands, or to try to force that penetrator to beat you if it keeps the ball out of the hand of 3 point shooters or guys capable of scoring 50+ every night.

The Lakers team defense had its ups and downs all year last year, probably because the team never was healthy enough to practice each other. But if you look at when it was working last year, it was dominant. Oh sure on these nights they had some bad PGs score 15 points on them, but managed to still beat teams by 20 or more.

With Dwight Howard, team defense would become so much easier, the pressure to rotate to the middle would decrease dramatically and then the Lakers would be able to stay at home with 3 point shooters.

I mean if you consider some of the players the Magic have had over the years, the fact that they were able to stop anyone ever is amazing. The theoretical Laker team has much better defenders.

by Derek Fisher Fan on Dec 9, 2011 8:51 PM PST up reply actions

1st off im #Team Howard

2ndly ur right about team defense to an extent. The thing is when u have poor man defenders the rest of tha d has to overcompensate to help that guy which leaves people open. Our problem in the Dallas and NO series. Why do you think Kobe had ta check Paul during the Hornets series? What was the main selling point in getting Metta? Not his team d but his strong man to man d. Now while having strong team d is great having good 1 on 1 defenders on the perimeter is what can ultimately make your team d suffocating.

Da Bears....enuff said

by EmmCeee on Dec 9, 2011 11:00 PM PST via mobile up reply actions

Dallas had just as much size on the inside as we did

Neither Dirk, Haywood, nor Chandler are considered “smaller” than Pau, so I’m not sure what you mean by “bullied”.

Plus, as DFF just mentioned, 1-on-1 defense is almost an impossible scheme these days, especially when playing against guards and face up players.

by no stance on Dec 9, 2011 9:29 PM PST up reply actions

the Hornets series he got bullied by 6'7 Chuck hayes

Vs the Mavs he couldn’t handle Dirk who isn’t a top defender by any stretch of the imagination. As far as 1 on 1 defense goes see my above post

Da Bears....enuff said

by EmmCeee on Dec 9, 2011 11:03 PM PST via mobile up reply actions

Yeah, I agree Howard is the one we should be after.

But its just awkward now…..

by AV. on Dec 9, 2011 8:07 PM PST reply actions

i also think pau and lamar was too big a price for cp3

especially pau…

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by bernel on Dec 10, 2011 12:05 AM PST reply actions

oh lord...

"These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world... and then we fucked up the end game." - Charlie Wilson
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by Marty Mart on Dec 10, 2011 7:00 AM PST reply actions