The Credits: "The Usual Suspect(s)"

Drew is olaying well right now but this was expected as his role on this team was supposed to grow.

We dont have anybody besides kobe who can attack the rim and everybody besides kobe at least tries to throw it in the post. Anytime he gets the ball its either a 1on1 or pass back out to the perimeter. Not acceptable. As of right now The best or at least the most effective player on the team is Drew. Get him the ball and work off that. Im curious as to how Kobe is going to come out next game. Will it be the Kobe who refuses to shoot at all trying to prove a point? Or will he b in assist mode? Id rather see assist machine Kobe who pick n chooses his spots to attack.

Wow, when I started typing this, I didn’t realize it would end up so long. This scenario is my hope for the future of the Lakers roster, and though this possibility is far from certainty, it is also within the realm of possibility.

After 5 or 10 games of Bynumite dominance (or just anytime before the trade deadline and before Bynum’s knees explode), LA offers Bynum + picks + maximum cash allowed + any one (or two) of the following players for Orlando to choose from: Ebanks, Barnes, Metta, Blake, Kapono, Ebanks, Morris, Goudelock or useless Luke. (Plus possibly more players if Orlando still wants to dump Turk’s contract, though Turk is starting the season playing the best he has since the 2008-2009 year, so if he keeps up his production, I don’t know if the Magic might want to keep him after all).

Fast Forward three months from now and its March and the Nets are unable to trade for an legit All-Star to pair with Deron Williams since their only asset worth anything at all started the season injured and wasn’t even a worthy trade for a legit All-Star in the first place (even if completely healthy). Deron is unhappy and the Nets know he will leave at the end of the year, putting the Nets in the same situation as the Magic are currently in. Deron mentions only a few teams that he is willing to re-sign with, just like Howard has done, which limits his Deron’s trade value to all other teams. Deron mentions his preferred teams as Dallas and…

And now I will go on a limb and use logic and deduction to try to best estimate some of Deron’s possible preferred teams to re-sign with. He will most likely either want to go a contender or his hometown team in Dallas.

"Contenders" and their likeliness of being of Deron’s favored team list:
Lakers: LIKELY, especially if we have Howard since they want to play together
Bulls: NOT likely, because Rose is PG and he obviously won’t be traded for anyone
Clippers: NOT likely, they already have Paul, he won’t and can’t be trade via NBA rules
Boston: NOT likely, since they are aging and their championship window is closing
Miami: NOT likely, out of respect for not breaking up their big three
Knicks: POSSIBLE, but if he does mention them, they aren’t a threat anyways because their only competitive trade asset is Stat and Melo, and they aren’t going anywhere imo, plus NY probably won’t be willing to trade to NY
OKC: NOT likely, since Westbrook is there, BUT there is a possible chance that OKC pushes for a trade of Westbrook for Deron anyways out of the hope that they can convince Deron to stay, and I think they could. That trade would be one of the better offers for Deron and it would make OKC much stronger in a scary way
Spurs: NOT Likely, same as the Celtics – old and window closing/closed
Orlando: NOT Likely, since if Howard was still there, Deron would just expect to swap with Howard, and both would be miserable and simply leave their new teams at the end of the year anyway. If Howard is already gone, then the Magic would not be a true contender and Deron would not want to go there. BUT the Magic may try the biggest free-agent Coup in the history of their franchise, which I will not discuss or mention at all any further and I will act as if it doesn’t exist because I don’t want to give any ideas that may hurt the Lakers (and I haven’t heard this idea for the Magic ever discussed before). This unmentioned scenario is UNLIKELY to happen anyways (I hope).

Out of these teams, the only three that I could see Deron wanting to go to that also have reasonable assets to make a competitive trade offer to the Nets are the Lakers, Dallas, and the Thunder (if they choose to move away from Westbrook).

The trade possibilities would look like this for Deron:

Lakers: Gasol straight-up (salaries match)

Dallas: The entire roster would be open to trade except for Dirk, with it being up to the Nets to choose and make the salaries work. Dallas already gave up Chandler, Barea, Butler, and Stevenson for the mere hope of signing Deron and/or Howard in the offseason so it reasons that Dallas will push extremely hard to trade for Deron if he is on the market. They may give the Nets the choice of Kidd, Terry (which makes salaries match) and whatever spare parts and bit players Dallas has, but whom are generally overpaid.

OKC: They could offer Westbrook + $7.8 million worth of players. The only problem is that OKC has no bad contracts and most of their players are playing at an insane bargain due to their youth and smart management decisions. OKC does not have a player making $7 million that they can just easily give up to make the salaries match (Assuming there is absolutely no way that they would throw Perkins in the deal). As a result, I dont know if OKC would be willing to lose 3 or so additional players to meet the salary gap. In addition, OKC can’t just give a bunch of their little-played (and little paid) rookies and sophomores because it would bring the Nets over their roster limit. While I can see OKC trading Westbrook for Deron straight-up if salaries matched (and if Westbrook didn’t live up to expectations this year), OKC might be hesitant if they need to also throw in Harden or Sefolosha since they are so high on those players. And crazy as it sounds, Harden is the 4th highest paid player on OKC, making only $4.6 million and Mohammad is 5th, making $3.8 million (For reference, Kidd is the 4th highest paid player on the Mavs, making $9.6 mill and Odom is the 5th, making $8.9 mill. Artest is the 4th highest paid player on the Lakers, making $6.8 million and Puke is 5th, making $5.7 million)

Assuming that D.Will makes a wish-list of teams that he will re-sign with just like Paul and Howard did (and there is good reason to believe D.Will will indeed make a list in order to prevent ending up in another situation like he did in NJ), there are likely to be two real competitors to the Lakers. In my opinion OKC can offer the best package, but I think they may be hesitant to give it if they need to throw in their 6th man or their starting (or even back-up) center. OKC doesn’t need to upgrade at PG to be a legit contender for years to come, so it reasons that they may be unwilling to make holes in other parts of their roster to bolter one of their already stronger positions. It is ironically the spare pieces that need to be thrown in by OKC (like 1. Perkins, or 2. Harden + either Sefolosia or Mohammad) to make the salaries match that both make this offer even more enticing to the Nets than Gasol, but also what may kill the deal for the Thunder. If the Thunder don’t offer this trade, and I’d give over a 50% chance that they won’t, the Lakers would be the team that could clearly offer the next best package. If you think Gasol is old at 31, Dallas’ Terry is 34 and Kidd is 38, and neither of those two are current All-Stars like Gasol is. There is a possible allure to the Russian of brining back Kidd to NY, but Kidd is an expiring contract and may be retiring sometime in the near future, which makes it an unwise trade.

All in all and in summary, if we get Dwight, there is a real possibility we can trade Gasol for Deron straight-up by this trade deadline.

That would make the starting line-up for the Lakers look like this:
PG: Deron Williams
SG: Kobe Bryant
SF: Ebanks, Barnes, or Turk (depending on who is traded out or in for Dwight)
PF: $9 Million trade exception player, someone like Millsap
C: Howard

Then as Laker fans, we will ask Paul who?

Fisher for Cousins?

Deron off to slow start in jersey

Kobe Bryant sat next to Mike Brown and watched the entire game, breaking it down, on the team plane last night.

Mike Brown said he never sat down to watch a full game w/ LeBron like he just did w/ Kobe (though of course they watched film).

Brown does not want Kobe to stop shooting. And he won’t. Cited wrist as an issue Kobe will figure out.

http://lakernation.com/2012/01/source-kobe-bryant-getting-pain-injection-shot-in-wrist-before-games/