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The Lakers remind me of the nWo back when it first formed.
1) Celitcs didnt look like a lottery team sans KG in the playoffs last year
2) The KG for Al Jefferson and a lottery pick trade hardly compares to Gasol for Kwame Brown (and a couple of late picks).
The Lakers remind me of the nWo back when it first formed.
Not so much that he didn't build the team, but that he only built a portion of the team. IMO, by far the hardest part of building a championship team is finding a player capable of leading a team to a championship. When you're a GM and you take over a team with a player capable of that, things get a lot simpler. Building around a Kobe Bryant is a lot easier than finding a Kobe Bryant to build around.
Mitch isn't the only GM I think is overrated btw., it's not like I'm singling him out. Danny Ainge is terribly overrated.
wow..so getting 91% of the team is not building the team. okie dokie.
Artest was a ringer for the Lakers. Odom, Kobe and Magic conspired to recruit him, giving Ariza the brush. Consequently, I can't see Odum then turning around and forsaking the Lakers. He must be fixed as well.
You mean Rasslin', Gino?
It's not as black and white as you're trying to paint it and I think you know that.
Everyone but Kobe is here because of Mitch. How else can we twist that fact?
Only leverage is what Portland does. If they offer LO a big K, LA probably has to jump to match.
If Por signs/trades for anyone else, LA has all the leverage with no one else with cap space and LA offering much more than the MLE.
Without LO, LA goes back to the pack with the other great teams with a key flaw (SA, Orl, Cle, Bos). If he's back, LA is clearly #1.
Yes, this is accurate. But if LA plays hardball and do not keep Odom happy, he could:
1) Not be as cool with his role
2) Could lead to problems with chemistry
3) He could go somewhere else for the same/less money like Ariza if he does not feel appreciated.
But the scenario you outlined is accurate.
Fisher isn't there because of Mitch. He's there because of Kobe and Phil. If Mitch was general manager of the Suns and Kerr was general manager of the Lakers, Fish would have still signed with the Lakers following the 2007 season.
Odom is there because of a HOF center trading chip Mitch inherited. Odom was an established player when Mitch traded for him, it's not like Mitch saw talent/potential no one else saw, he traded an established player for an established player.
Gasol is there because of many things. Again, he traded for an established player, he didn't see potential that no one else saw. Being able to trade for an established player like Gasol way below value was mostly due to timely cir stances and luck. It didn't take an extremely crafty GM to execute that trade. If Mitch was GM of Memphis and Chris Wallace was GM of LA, I highly doubt the tables would have turned and Memphis would have ripped off LA.
Kobe, Phil, Luck, established players...all excuses to take credit away from Mitch. No point in arguing this. If Shanon Brown turns to gold, you'll find a way to discredit Mitch.
I know lets blame Mitch for all the bad stuff and give credit to luck and Phil and Kobe for the good stuff.
Crappy ass mitch...dumbest GM ever.
Now you're just putting words in my mouth. Are you gonna offer a counter argument as to why every thing I just said was an excuse?
And Shannon Brown will be completely different than the examples I mentioned. He traded nothing for Brown when Brown was a nobody that no other team wanted, similar to Ariza. He gets credit for both of them because he more or less traded nothing for either one whereas they were both players no other team wanted. He saw talent no one else did. You're comparing apples to oranges.
If I went out and bought a Ferrari cheap because I was lucky enough to have a friend who needed money to pay the mortgage and was willing to sell his car significantly below value, it wouldn't make me car savvy, anyone with the slightest amount of car knowledge knows a Ferrari is a baller ass car.
If I was able to buy a beat up car cheap because I knew that it had a lot of qualities while it's problems could easily be fixed, and I successfully repaired it to be equally as awesome as a Ferrari, then that would make me car savvy, because it took a good amount of car knowledge to do what I did.
You guys need to define the parameters of what makes a good GM before debating whether or not cupcake is a good or bad one.
I would say his resume is starting to speak for itself. Whether or not he landed in a primo position in another story. The fact that he's added Artest, Gasol and Fisher while keeping Kobe is pretty impressive.
andrew "hakeem" bynum will step up.
It would be a huge blow if Odom didn't resign. He's an vital part of what we do and his unique skill set would be impossible to replace. It would probably mean no championship considering our big man depth would be ruined and we wouldn't be able to find anybody to replace him with the vets minimum. Fortunately the front office knows these things and aren't gonna let him go and Lamar really doesn't want to leave.
Artest and Fisher signed largely cause they got to play with Kobe.
Mitch is by no means a bad GM, anytime you assemble a championship team you obviously did something right, I'm saying that he didn't have to make extremely savvy roster decisions. He didn't pull off Joe Barry Carroll for McHale and Parish type trade to get the Lakers where they are.
Without Odum it would not be the cakewalk to the '10 Finals that it'd be with him, but, to say "ruined" is just absurd. Odum, until this his contract year has been drifting thru games/seasons doing a Vinnie Barbarino impression. Afore this season he could not do one thing with the ball until his babbled it. Will he go back to that after garnering his ring & money?
Fisher signed largely cause his daughter has eye cancer.
Pau Gasol for Kwame Brown doesn't count?
wtf are you talking about? He put up identical numbers in 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 as he did this year.......he had the same drift through games problem this year that he has had every year, this was by no means a fluke "contract year" for him at all.
Lakers would have NO bench and depth if Lamar leaves, seriously, Lamar is the Lakers bench and security for Bynum. He leaves the Lakers road to another championship becomes a lot harder.
Point taken, but, he straightened out in the playoffs, the deeper in the less drifting, till finally he was actually finishing his layups and holding onto the ball initially, instead of fumbling it and then holding onto it. I think Walton taught him that fumbling trait.
I'm sure you're an authority on what Odom and what he brings to the team when you don't even know how his name is spelled.
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