Yeah, Damp and Diop scares people...PLEASE !!!
I'd take a (young stud) Bynum + a (27) Gasol over your damp and diop
any day. We'll be contending for the next 5 years...can't say the same for allas.
Oh, btw, Bynum WILL be abusing your frontcourt soon...very very soon !!
We'll, your "vagina" is your first option...our "vagina" is the third option.
Goodluck winning a championship with Dirk.
I've been saying all along...Spurs are the only team right now in the west that are the real deal. Everyone else has something to prove.
What people don't understand is this Laker team is gonna keep getting better as the years go by. We're not the Celtics whose big 3 is all over 30 years old. Kobe is 29, Gasol is 27, and Bynum is only 20 years old. As Bynum begins to tap into his true potential and develops his base the Laker offense will be very potent. Teams have trouble guarding Bynum as is, imagine what he will be like with 20-30 lbs more muscle. Defense will not be an issue with Bynum and Gasol manning the paint, while Kobe and Ariza can neutralize most perimeter players. The Laker bench is also very deep with guys like Sasha Vujacic and Jordan Farmar playing huge this year. This Laker team is flat out balanced from top to bottom and built to dominate this league for years to come. Outside of Odom at the SF position there really are no weaknesses, and is Odom bad enough to be considered a weakness? no.
I'm not worried about the Lakers as far as stopping us from a championship. They're good enough to make the Western Conf. Finals, but no away are we going to have an Andrew Bynum or a Paul Gasol in the Finals. It's not happening...
Great supporting evidence to back up your argument.
Dirk is a poor man's athlete himself.
LOL and what have the underacheiving rockets done since 94? nothing. You can call Gasol soft but he is hardly as soft as Yao and T-mac.
Damn, who the did the Lakers sign? This city is hyped! The NBA is back in a big way, I'm sure Stern is elated. The phone is ringing off the hook and it is the conversation where ever you go. The bandwagon is filling up fast! I even saw a couple of car flags. I expect to see plenty soon.
Good Move but we still have to play the game. The great thing about this trade is that we now don't have to move Odom. Kidd! If we can get Gasol with Kwame's expiring contract, with Odom's expiring contract next season,...hmmm Lebron James?Well you see what I'm saying. Odom's contract next season is another gold mine for the Lakers! The Lakers are Back! In a big ing way! Damn, Life is good!
Well, let's see they got another NBA le the following year in 1995 you dumb ass, and then from there nothing. Looks like the fakeshow is headed the same way..........
wow, Gasol the big vagina...I'm so pumped the lakeshow is back
oh and btw, if you think Yao is soft, you are a dumb .......he will monkey rape all your big men and foul their sorry mother ing asses out of the game....................he'll get 35 pts 20 rebounds and 3 or 4 blocks and several power dunks and dumb s like you will put gasol over him in toughness...please.
gasol = vagina.
94-95 season, same freaking thingWell, let's see they got another NBA le the following year in 1995 you dumb ass, and then from there nothing. Looks like the fakeshow is headed the same way..........
wow, Gasol the big vagina...I'm so pumped the lakeshow is back
oh and btw, if you think Yao is soft, you are a dumb .......he will monkey rape all your big men and foul their sorry mother ing asses out of the game....................he'll get 35 pts 20 rebounds and 3 or 4 blocks and several power dunks and dumb s like you will put gasol over him in toughness...please.
gasol = vagina.
Facts are you can't say Lakers are headed the same way when their top 3 are still young..Bynum being only 20. they have great coaching and depth.
Yao's not soft because morons like you say so? please....If Yao was so tough he wouldn't keep losing in the first round while having a guy like t-mac by his side....
no rockets fans should be talking trash when your joke of a team isn't even a playoff team. reason why your team sucks is due to the fact your two best players have no balls.
That's 3 words, moronTwo words for the rest of the league.....WE'RE BACK!!!
No dumb , the first trophy was awarded in 19 mother ing 94(93-94season), and the second was awarded in 1995(94-95 season). So no dumb , it is not the same thing. So, what did they do after 1994? They won another one face. Your ing pathetic ass team has NOT done since Shaq left and you wanna tell me about postseason success or lack thereof.. STFU please you moron dumb . Yao ming is better than any bigman you guys have now, and probably will ever have in the next 20 yrs. Tmac has been the man in the posteason and the rox lack of success has NOT been b/c of him, its the scrubs that surrounded him. That just shows your ing ignorance about pro ball.
gasol=vagina.
Contractions are consider one word.
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooo
But you don't have the best player. We do.
Damn, who the did the Lakers sign? This city is hyped! The NBA is back in a big way, I'm sure Stern is elated. The phone is ringing off the hook and it is the conversation where ever you go. The bandwagon is filling up fast! I even saw a couple of car flags. I expect to see plenty soon.
Good Move but we still have to play the game. The great thing about this trade is that we now don't have to move Odom. Kidd! If we can get Gasol with Kwame's expiring contract, with Odom's expiring contract next season,...hmmm Lebron James?
I haven't watched much Lakers this year but isn't Odom pretty good?
When I logged on ESPN the other day and saw you guys got Gasol, my first reaction was..."damn, they didn't even give up Odom for him."
Bynum
Gasol
Odom
Kobe
sounds pretty damn stacked to me, but I haven't watched you guys other than when against the Spurs & Suns.
Odom is a very good player, he's just not a scorer or player you can depend on to be consistent scoring. He will be a great role player at the three. Lakers fans are on him because he couldn't score consistently but he is a valuable player to have. The thing that will make it even better for the lakers is that odom can bring the ball up and lead the break too. He'll excel without the pressure on him to score.
Yes we do.
And the reason Duncan passes Kobe in my book is that Duncan excels on both ends of the court. Kobe's defense is okay, but it's nowhere near the level of Duncan's.
Duncan has proven that he can win Championships with different casts of role players around him. This year is the first time Duncan has his same team back to try to repeat.
Kobe has yet to prove that he can go all the way without Shaq.
Kinda ironic that a Spur fan is talking about poor athletes..your best player definately comes to mind.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/basket...13,full.column
Mark Heisler:
NBA
A Lakers steal? NBA just has to deal with it
Gasol trade looks even more one-sided than Garnett-to-Boston deal. Around the league there's grudging admiration, though in Chicago they're just mad.
8:18 PM PST,February 2 2008
So much for the notions that:
* Jerry Buss is saving for the estate tax bill his kids will face and won't spend money anymore.
* Mitch Kupchak is a stiff.
* Kwame Brown never did anything for the Lakers.
* Minnesota Vice President Kevin McHale pulled off the worst trade of all time.
A lot of misconceptions went up in smoke in the time it took to announce the Lakers had acquired Pau Gasol for Brown, Javaris Crittenton, Aaron McKie and draft picks.
Or, in other words . . . who?
That's two contracts, two picks in the 20s and one of the Lakers' two promising young reserve point guards.
In comparison, the package McHale took for Kevin Garnett, which included Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes and a reviving Sebastian Telfair, looks like an All-Star team.
Of course, McHale was sending Garnett to his old team, the Celtics.
Memphis owner Michael Heisley, whose payroll-slashing mandate led to this "deal," has no Laker connection but can have Buss' suite when he visits from now on.
It must be a new day if everyone is giving their All-Star players to the Lakers and Celtics, but as Commissioner David Stern would say, "Mazel tov!"
"I think that the addition of Gasol makes the Lakers the most talented team in the NBA," said ESPN's level-headed Jeff Van Gundy.
"I think they could have fallen in the standings without Andrew Bynum and have been a sixth, seventh or eighth seed [or] possibly fallen into the lottery. . . .
"When Bynum comes back they have the most versatile front line in the NBA and the best closer in the game in Kobe Bryant."
In 28 NBA cities, there's reluctant admiration and/or consternation as the great preening purple-and-gold darling-of-La-La Land arises once more.
There's utter dismay in Chicago, where Bulls fans were finally over not getting Bryant and focused on something doable, like Gasol.
As a Chicago Tribune headline put it:
Joke of a Deal . . . to Bulls
Gasol trade's laughable terms make Bryant, the Lakers and the NBA happy
"Before the season, Bulls players indicated they were distracted by trade talk involving Bryant," wrote the Tribune's Sam Smith.
"Now that there's unlikely to be any movement, will they play better?"
Scratch one rising power in the East. If you want to know what time it is in Chicago, blizzard or no blizzard, it's baseball season!
Of course, being in the business of explaining everything, this is because . . . because . . .
Uh, stuff happens?
It's actually because of the difficulty of moving big contracts in the salary cap era, which becomes even more difficult the longer a team puts it off.
Amazingly, the Lakers faced that very dilemma four months ago when Buss said he "would certainly listen" to offers for Bryant . . . who then proceeded to send his agent out to solicit some . . . which turned out to be laughable.
Laughable is the name of the game when teams put stars on the market, since everyone knows they wouldn't do it unless there was a big problem.
The natural inclination is to recoil at the lowball offers . . . after which the star gets closer to the end of his contract and his value drops even more.
Nor are there any secrets.
Minnesota drew the process out for years, giving us more chances to write about it, until even we were getting tired of it.
A child could have figured out the Timberwolves' dilemma (which is why we were all over this one).
Garnett was increasingly frustrated, venting periodically, although he remained true blue, or forest green, to the end.
The team got worse annually.
His contract was running out in 2009.
He wanted an extension.
Conclusion: Duh.
Finally realizing he was at an impasse, Minnesota owner Glen Taylor decided not to give KG $20 million a year to finish No. 12 with nobodies and it was time for action!
For his part, Heisley thought he had his team sold last season but his buyer, the Christian Laettner-Brian Davis group, turned out to be more like a comedy act.
With Heisley determined to slash costs, the long-anticipated deal for Gasol, his highest-paid player at $13.7 million although he was midway between a franchise player and a No. 2 option, was a foregone conclusion.
Lakers fans' jubilation notwithstanding, their team will have transition issues with a front line that goes 7-0, 7-0 and 6-11, and Bynum out until March.
So they're not a lock and may not even be a favorite in the playoffs against all the battle-tested West teams that have been together for years . . . this season.
The really good news for the Lakers was already unfolding. If Bynum keeps improving, as he has, and Bryant comes back to them, as he is, they're back.
Last week Bryant called Bynum "the player I prayed for" but this deal seemed to remove the last doubt from Kobe's mind.
In what amounted to a blanket apology for last summer's week-long barrage, Bryant said, "It shows a level of commitment that I questioned over the summer. I have to take my hat off to Buss and Mitch. . . . Now it's on us."
That's us, as in if they can't do it this season, he thinks they can next season, not to mention the ones after that.
As Stern might say, "Don't ever leave me again."
Gasol's arrival makes Lakers contenders now and later
Trading for 2006 All-Star Pau Gasol without having to surrender any core pieces lifts the Lakers into realistic championship pursuit and pleases Kobe Bryant, who scored 46 points against Toronto in a 121-101 victory.
By KEVIN DING
The Orange County Register
Comments 5 | Recommend 20
TORONTO — Kobe Bryant need wait no longer for the Lakers' bold move for championship immediacy.
Power forward Pau Gasol, a 2006 All-Star, arrived in trade Friday from the Memphis Grizzlies with a second-round pick for Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton and two future first-round draft picks. It is a deal that catapults the Lakers into championship contention both now and later.
And it moved Bryant to offer his strongest affirmation about perhaps again staying a Laker for life.
"It shows a level of commitment that I questioned over the summer," said Bryant, whose 46 points led the short-handed Lakers to a 121-101 victory Friday over the Toronto Raptors. "I have to take my hat off to (Jerry) Buss and Mitch (Kupchak) for going forward with this. Now it's on us."
The 7-foot Gasol, 27, has averaged 19 points and 9 rebounds amid rampant trade speculation once Memphis concluded he could not anchor its rebuilding team. The Lakers expect by sometime in March — they insist Andrew Bynum's knee injury should not cost him the rest of this season — to plug Gasol into a skyscraping, skilled frontcourt with Bynum and Lamar Odom. That would give them three top-shelf interior players — all 6-foot-10 or taller — to go with Bryant.
"It's amazing to be on a team full of history as the Lakers," Gasol said on his Web site. "But not only because of their past, mainly because of the present: playing along with Kobe Bryant is a privilege, which is not easy for most of the players in this league. And there will be lots of opportunities to be in the playoffs and do great things in this league, as I always wished … winning and fighting."
If Gasol, tournament MVP when Spain won the 2006 FIBA World Championship, helps the Lakers make a renewed push in the Western Conference, Buss and Kupchak might have just helped Bryant secure his first NBA MVP trophy, too.
"Now it's just time to put the work in," Bryant said, "and work on the chemistry."
Said Toronto All-Star Chris Bosh of the refashioned Lakers: "They will be tough to match."
Lakers coach Phil Jackson welcomed Gasol by leaving a playful voice message with some spotty spoken Spanish. But Jackson already issued a few public caveats about the success of the deal hinging on Gasol firming up his fundamental defense.
The Lakers lose some defense but little else in the mistake- and injury-prone Brown, whose expiring $9.1 million contract provides salary-cap relief to Memphis. The 13-33 Grizzlies, who saw Jerry West retire after last season and replaced him with Chris Wallace, wanted out from under the remaining $63.1 million over four years of Gasol's contract (counting this season). Crittenton, the Lakers' 2007 No. 1 pick, has huge upside but no spot in Jackson's rotation — and the Lakers already have a point guard of the future in Jordan Farmar.
The Lakers also gave up cash and protected first-round picks in 2008 and '10 but get back Memphis' 2010 second-rounder. They included Aaron McKie, who re-signed to help the salaries match, and the draft rights to 2007 second-round pick Marc Gasol, Pau's younger brother.
Jackson said there was discussion about Pau Gasol for about a year — meaning former Lakers executive West was at least aware of such a scenario before leaving Memphis — with trade talks intensifying in recent weeks. And now the Lakers have three of the NBA's 27 highest-salaried players in Bryant ($19.5 million, ninth), Gasol ($13.7 million, 25th) and Odom ($13.3 million, 27th) — with Bynum set to ascend with a big-time salary in 2009-10 once he gets his hefty extension this summer.
In sharp contrast to the rejected-by-Minnesota offseason proposal of Bynum and Odom for Kevin Garnett, the Lakers didn't have to yield any core pieces. Even if Odom doesn't have the ideal quickness to defend opposing small forwards, the Lakers still have Luke Walton and Trevor Ariza or Bryant to pick up that burden. The depth is evident in Farmar and Sasha Vujacic remaining potent backup guards for Derek Fisher and Bryant, and Ronny Turiaf, Vladimir Radmanovic and Chris Mihm offering other options inside.
"We can do multiple things with this team," Jackson said.
Although the Lakers could have chased available New Jersey point guard Jason Kidd, he turns 35 next month and doesn't play as great of a need position. Jackson said after he agreed to his contract extension in December that the missing piece was an inside force. Gasol isn't necessarily the most physical big man, but he is a big man who can be physical — and fill in for Bynum now.
There is an outside chance that all three active players in the trade pass physicals in time for Gasol to play Sunday in Washington. Gasol has missed time lately with a sore back, but that shouldn't be a major problem.
The 2002 NBA Rookie of the Year, Gasol has a gentle, ambidextrous touch around the basket and a mid-range jumper ideal for the power-forward slot in the triangle offense. He is adept as a shot blocker, having averaged 1.8 blocks per game for his NBA career — which includes an 0-12 postseason record. Gasol is not considered a clutch player and will be willing to defer to Bryant.
"He's extremely talented," Bryant said.
The move goes a long way toward ending talk of Bryant wanting to be traded. Even though some of his issues with individuals in the organization remain, Bryant's desire to win more championships stands at the fore. Asked if the trade helps ensure Bryant won't opt out of his contract after next season, he said: "It doesn't hurt, absolutely not."
Lots of overlap with this story.
I posted the Kevin Ding article in the Spurs forum Gasol thread this morning.
http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthre...&page=15&pp=26
Yeah, that's why I posted them here instead of starting other threads. I visited that thread, they're talking too stupid over there and they talk about Suns fans?
As much as I like the free society of Spurstalk, I certainly wouldn't mind it if we had less Laker fans. They have enough places to go. Most of them are here only to troll.
Spurs fans would never get this much run on Fakerground or whatever purple/gold message board there is out there.
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