Howard ready to be a Laker

[Titty Meat]

[BIG_DADDY]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Oh yeah, the trade was definitely worthwhile, even if for one year and one more championship.

Bynum is a woman. I'm glad he's gone.

I thought I read the Lakers were going after Barbosa. That would be a nice addition to the bench. We are still very weak there.

[chiefzilla1501]

It's a pretty great precedent that the elite players in this league have the power to dick over their teams and pout their way to a select group of 2 or 3 teams they want to go to. And it's a bad sign if a team that's supposedly on the cusp of "cap" issues goes out and makes a blockbuster signing for a guy who will be one of the highest paid basketball players in the league.

For all the shit baseball gets for its lack of parity, it doesn't even come close to the NBA. In the past 29 years, there have been 8 different championship teams. EIGHT.

[BIG_DADDY]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

It's a pretty great precedent that the elite players in this league have the power to dick over their teams and pout their way to a select group of 2 or 3 teams they want to go to. And it's a bad sign if a team that's supposedly on the cusp of "cap" issues goes out and makes a blockbuster signing for a guy who will be one of the highest paid basketball players in the league.

For all the shit baseball gets for its lack of parity, it doesn't even come close to the NBA. In the past 29 years, there have been 8 different championship teams. EIGHT.

Queens fan? Guess it's not enough that the commish already stepped in once to mess up the Lakers and they did end up losing the 2nd best big man in the league who would have received just as much money.

[The Bad Guy]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

It's a pretty great precedent that the elite players in this league have the power to dick over their teams and pout their way to a select group of 2 or 3 teams they want to go to. And it's a bad sign if a team that's supposedly on the cusp of "cap" issues goes out and makes a blockbuster signing for a guy who will be one of the highest paid basketball players in the league.

For all the shit baseball gets for its lack of parity, it doesn't even come close to the NBA. In the past 29 years, there have been 8 different championship teams. EIGHT.

The NBA is, and always will be a super power league. The league loves the ratings from the major markets.

Let's stop acting like the Lakers didn't trade some good piece here. Bynum is a max player, Howard is a max player. Salary wise, they aren't adding additional besides Duhon's 2.5 and Earl Clark's garbage deal.

[The Bad Guy]

Originally Posted by BIG_DADDY

Queens fan? Guess it's not enough that the commish already stepped in once to mess up the Lakers and they did end up losing the 2nd best big man in the league who would have received just as much money.

In all reality, I'd rather have a team of Nash, Kobe, D12 and Pau over Bynum, Paul and Kobe.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by The Bad Guy

In all reality, I'd rather have a team of Nash, Kobe, D12 and Pau over Bynum, Paul and Kobe.

Absolutely. Mitch pulled off what was previously thought to be impossible.

[BIG_DADDY]

Originally Posted by The Bad Guy

In all reality, I'd rather have a team of Nash, Kobe, D12 and Pau over Bynum, Paul and Kobe.

Funny how things work out. **** David Stern.

[BIG_DADDY]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Absolutely. Mitch pulled off what was previously thought to be impossible.

Considering we still have Gasol, yes.

[The Bad Guy]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Absolutely. Mitch pulled off what was previously thought to be impossible.

I firmly believe he's the best GM in all of sports. He gets things done on his terms all the time. Literally every big time move, he nails.

Picks Kobe over Shaq, trades Shaq for a nice return, gets Gasol when no one expected it, convinces the Suns to trade their most popular player ever to their biggest rival, and then just waits out Hennigan.

The Logo was a great GM, but I think Mitch has surpassed him now.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by The Bad Guy

The NBA is, and always will be a super power league. The league loves the ratings from the major markets.

Let's stop acting like the Lakers didn't trade some good piece here. Bynum is a max player, Howard is a max player. Salary wise, they aren't adding additional besides Duhon's 2.5 and Earl Clark's garbage deal.

I'm not too disappointed in the stacking of good teams as I am players manipulating the system that they get to dictate where they go at the expense of the teams they leave behind. Not to mention the disturbing trend of big market cities having an unbelievable advantage in attracting players. Unlike any other sport.

Here's what really blows about Stern's system. It's one thing for a small market team to be cheap. It's another when they're willing to pay a king's ransom and superstars are choosing to play elsewhere. Or that superstars are colluding with others to create superpower teams. There needs to be some protection against the small market teams, especially if the luxury tax isn't going to affect an owner's willingness to spend. This isn't a knock on what the Lakers did as much as it is that Orlando got absolutely dicked over because Dwight Howard basically backed the team into a corner in a way that no superstar should have the leverage to do.

[The Bad Guy]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

I'm not too disappointed in the stacking of good teams as I am players manipulating the system that they get to dictate where they go at the expense of the teams they leave behind. Not to mention the disturbing trend of big market cities having an unbelievable advantage in attracting players. Unlike any other sport.

Here's what really blows about Stern's system. It's one thing for a small market team to be cheap. It's another when they're willing to pay a king's ransom and superstars are choosing to play elsewhere. Or that superstars are colluding with others to create superpower teams. There needs to be some protection against the small market teams, especially if the luxury tax isn't going to affect an owner's willingness to spend. This isn't a knock on what the Lakers did as much as it is that Orlando got absolutely dicked over because Dwight Howard basically backed the team into a corner in a way that no superstar should have the leverage to do.

I don't think Howard backed them nearly in the corner that you think. The Magic could have gotten Andrew Bynum straight for him, but he wasn't what they wanted to rebuild.

Orlando got what they wanted. A garbage team that is likely going to be picking in the top 3 for the next 3 years. That's how they want to build.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by The Bad Guy

I don't think Howard backed them nearly in the corner that you think. The Magic could have gotten Andrew Bynum straight for him, but he wasn't what they wanted to rebuild.

Orlando got what they wanted. A garbage team that is likely going to be picking in the top 3 for the next 3 years. That's how they want to build.

Was that the reason? I thought I heard that the reason Bynum didn't go to Orlando is because he refused to go there? Bynum seemed to also have a pretty picky short list of teams he wanted to go to (which, in this case, is his right because he didn't insist on the trade as Howard did).

Howard backed them into a corner because he refused to negotiate with all but a small handful of teams. There are lots of players the Magic probably could have traded for straight up, but Howard would have rejected the trade.

[BIG_DADDY]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

Was that the reason? I thought I heard that the reason Bynum didn't go to Orlando is because he refused to go there? Bynum seemed to also have a pretty picky short list of teams he wanted to go to (which, in this case, is his right because he didn't insist on the trade as Howard did).

Howard backed them into a corner because he refused to negotiate with all but a small handful of teams. There are lots of players the Magic probably could have traded for straight up, but Howard would have rejected the trade.

You are really misinformed. Bynum wasn't interested in doing a sign and trade and wanted to become a free agent just like Howard. Lakers pulled the trigger and Orlando Magically didn't. Both teams would have been able to offer more $$$ when it came to free agency. If my memory serves me correctly neither player had the ability to refuse trading either.

[The Bad Guy]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

Was that the reason? I thought I heard that the reason Bynum didn't go to Orlando is because he refused to go there? Bynum seemed to also have a pretty picky short list of teams he wanted to go to (which, in this case, is his right because he didn't insist on the trade as Howard did).

Howard backed them into a corner because he refused to negotiate with all but a small handful of teams. There are lots of players the Magic probably could have traded for straight up, but Howard would have rejected the trade.

Howard had no choice. He sits out a year, the trading team holds his rights. Howard didn't have much leverage at all, but the Magic gave him tons. The one thing a trading team had was Bird Right's that they could hang over his head.

Bynum's agent absolutely denied that he wouldn't play in Orlando.

The Magic wanted relief, picks, to be bad for a few years, and not to trade with the Nets due to them talking to Dwight last year when they weren't allowed to.

Bynum would have been the best piece they could have gotten anywhere, but they just didn't want him. That's on them.

[BIG_DADDY]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

There needs to be some protection against the small market teams, especially if the luxury tax isn't going to affect an owner's willingness to spend. .

The Lakers will have a tax bill of around $30 million next July, and in retrospect, will view this season as their salad days — it’s the last one where the tax rate is dollar-for-dollar. Starting in 2013-14 the new “incremental” tax takes over, where being $30 million above the tax line will mean paying a whopping $85 million tax bill.

And it gets worse. Starting in 2014-15 teams will pay an even higher rate for being repeat offenders — defined as paying tax in at least three of the four previous seasons. A team $30 million over the tax line will pay — brace yourself — an additional $115 million in luxury tax.

After adding up their payroll, luxury tax bill, and revenue sharing contribution (projected to be $49.4 million in 2013-14), even the Lakers have to stop to consider whether this simply can be written off as the cost of doing business — and that’s the future if they’re paying players with salaries like Bryant, Howard, Gasol and Nash.