I don’t know how realistic this is unless KG waives his trade kicker. I guess we will just have to wait and see if it happens.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2954127

It was too good to be true to think that KG would come to LA, especially given the ex-Celtic GMs dealing with each other as well as Minnesota’s reluctance to trade KG to a Western team. We’ll see if this deal fully goes through…but if it does, the Celtics will be legit for the next 3-4 years…

I can see the Laker brain trust watching Pat Riley celebrating an NBA championship and saying:

“We’ve been had.”

I can see Jerry Buss looking the others and saying,

“How do we get even?”

I can see Mitch saying,

“Well, we could always sign the Smusher and make him our starting point guard–then release him so that Miami would think they were stealing him from us.”

“And what would happen?”

“Well, we wouldn’t do so well for a few years.”

“And then?”

“Smush would be a virus in their system and they’d totally melt down.”

“let’s do it!”

That’s what all the Miami blogs will be reporting in a couple of months. It’s not true. You heard it first here.

Here are some things to look for in Miami:

The look on Shaq’s face when Smush telegraphs his first inlet pass and the other team intercepts–or it sails out of bounds.

The look on Shaq’s face later in the season when he fully realizes the limitations of Smush, the passer.

The look on Shaq’s face when Chucky Atkins blows by “you know who” and converts a teardrop.

The look on Smush’s face if he spends most of the time on the bench.

The look on Riley’s face if Smush spends most of the time in the game.

I might have to go back and make that Smush piece a little less positive. Just kidding, you can’t really blame him, I’d probably be excited to be chilling in Miami with Wade and Shaq (for non-basketball related purposes) as well.

Glad you guys enjoyed post.

Good job and congrats on your site! It helps to put many of your FB&G posts in context–and they fit together well. I think that your cap space arguments, using Rashard Lewis as an example, are especially powerful.

Your cap space value thinking may lead you to create trade scenarios that pose other problems. Just as a technical matter, the more players included in any trade, the less likely that the trade will happen. With multiple agents pulling in different directions, adding caveats here, and contingencies there, conflicting details can destroy even the most solid deal.

Adding a third team radically escalates the difficulty of any deal. Adding a fourth makes it virtually impossible.

The biggest issue cap arguments face involves the development of players–especially centers. Drafting late and trying to make up for it in trades won’t work forever–and not at all for centers. If they are reasonably good, they are picked and locked away for life (i.e. Yao Ming). Everyone else is picked and locked up–just in case.

Cap guys are upset that the good guys get too much pay, and they want to trade the young ones as soon as they develop value.

Stats rarely meet salaries.

It used to be that guys like Kareem and Bill Walton–not to mention Wilt–came out of college and made contributions almost immediately. But they had played their full college eligibility and were 22 years old when they entered the league. They hadn’t played too many college games, and they had time to learn fundamentals.

Not any more–not often.

Andrew Bynum didn’t even play many games in high school! Assuming that Andrew has the potential of Kareem (an awfully strong assumption), and assuming that he needs similar development (a very reasonable assumption), he’s got another year before he “graduates” from college–with very limited pro time to really work on the basics he would have learned. Then, he would be ready to get into the complexities of the pro game.

The injury realities of last year forced Andrew to learn a more meat-and-potatoes version of the center position “on the job.” He’s probably done better than anyone could have expected.

The Lakers currently have 3 (count ‘em) high first round picks at center in their roster. Mihm and Brown are finally at the age when they should be showing their stuff. Bynum finally has some real players that are further along to learn from. It’s “value add” time for all the bigs.

Combining “value add” with your cap management approach is the biggest opportunity to improve the Lakers by trade this season.

Right now, the only one with added value is Andrew Bynum. Kwame’s current subjective value is a negative (against his salary), and Chris’s value is neutral. It is my expectation (and the Lakers) that both Kwame and Chris will improve their value.

It would be easiest to trade Bynum, since he has garnered a whole year of invaluable experience. The Lakers seemingly were willing to package him with Kwame or Odom for a superstar.

Other teams laughed when Kwame’s name was mentioned. If their mirth is justified, the Lakers still have a dangling expiring contract to trade–or $9 mil of cap space to drop off next year.

Though other teams were more polite about the other injured “bigs,” they may have still been laughing on the inside. The Lakers are hoping that by October, they will laugh no more.

Not only Kwame, but Chris, VladRad, and Lamar will all be healthy.

Watch them get paraded ASAP.

The Lakers have already planted the seeds, added some fertilizer, did some fumigating and spraying, training of the vines, and timely watering. It’s time to watch those pumpkins grow.

Then you can trade them for a pot of gold!

Nick Young was drafted too high, in my opinion, and I think he will be a 2nd string, spot player with little defensive ability and a blockable shot. Brendan Haywood is the next thing to a bust at this time. Kwame & Brendan didn’t work well together before and I suspect they won’t be any better now.

http://warrenweelim.multiply.com/