I’m giving Luke Walton a summer job guys… Shoot 400 jumpers a day and get yourself a shooting coach. He’s got size and the smarts, too bad he doesn’t have the range. If he would come out to be the Bird FA this year (which I think LA would do despite of what I think) he should come out worth the 5M that he would be paid.

I just thought you were asking (48) if trading Cook would get us far enough under the cap to sign Mo Williams for more than the mid-level. The answer to that is no. The mid-level is worth $6M a year over a 5-year deal. We would need to be around $6M under the cap to sign Mo to a contract worth $7-8M a year (which is what I think he’s worth). When you account for re-signing our free agents, trading Cook does not accomplish that. That’s all I’m saying.

But otherwise everything you’re saying makes sense. And I would be happy to trade Cook, I’m not a fan of his.

Salary Level will then be around 67M. Manageable.

Enlighten me if it might not work guys… I’m just surmising.
For all I care, Mo Wil could be worth around 7-8M / year. Hehe

Say the cap is 57M. We trade Cook away on Draft Day which lowers us to 54M. We are now under the cap. We then re-sign Mihm 2M, Turiaf 1M which brings us back to 57M. We have 10 players at this point. We get to pick 3 players on Draft Day plus 1 more from the Orlando deal. Which gives us 14 players.

%%%
35. Let’s say a team arranges for all of its players to become free agents at the same time. If they renounce everybody, do they then have a salary total of $0 and a full cap under which to work?

No. There are lots of things that are included in team salary besides active contracts — see question number 14 for a full list. Note especially that there is a roster charge when a team has fewer than 12 players under contract, free agents included in team salary, players given offer sheets, and first round draft picks.

The number that really matters is the luxury tax, every dollar you are over that number you have to pay a dollar in tax. This year, that number was $65.4 million, next year that will go up a couple mil. There is no way Buss will allow the Lakers to go way over that number. So, by Matt’s rough estimate, resigning the few guys we have puts us close to that number.

What I’m saying is that don’t expect big signings, if there are big shakeups it will come via trade.

(By the way, while the Lakers salary paid was $77 million this year, they did not pay any luxury tax because $15 mill of that did not count against the luxury tax, the money paid to Brian Grant. It was part of the amnesty program two years ago.)

Also, regarding trading Brian Cook for cap space, next year our payroll is already at $57M, and that’s before we re-sign Luke and Ronny, and maybe Shammond and Mihm as well. Signing those guys should put our payroll somewhere between $63-68M (depending on what we do with Shammond & Mihm).

This year, the cap was $53.135M. They haven’t announced the cap for next year yet, but it will probably be around $55-57M, so trading Cook wouldn’t make any difference whatsoever to our cap space.

Regarding the MVP – there IS NO criteria. It’s voted on by media members only, and they are not given any instructions regarding the meaning of the term “Most Valuable”. That’s why there’s so much debate about it. It’s left up to each individual voter to determine on their own what “Most Valuable” means.

Some years, it goes to the best player on the best team (which is why Dirk is favored this year). Some years it’s a consolation prize for a great player with a great career who has never won a ring (see: Malone, Karl ‘97, ‘99). Some years they give it to a star who takes his game to another level (see: Olajuwon, Hakeem ‘94). Some years they actually give it to the best player (see: Jordan, Michael ’88, ’91, ’92, ’96, ‘98). And some years they just give it to a white guy from Canada who plays terrible defense (sorry, couldn’t resist a dig).

The point is, it’s more of a popularity contest than anything.

I think there’s been a feeling around the league the last two years that Kobe has clearly established himself as the best player in the game, but his team just hasn’t won enough to give him the MVP. Voters don’t like to give it to a guy whose team is barely over .500. If the Lakers win 55 games next year and Kobe continues to play the way he has this year, the MVP is his, hands down. The voters know that he’s due. The team just needs to win more.

Our cap is actually not too bad next year. Brian Grant’s contract finally comes off the books.