fisher
kobe
walton
webber
j oneal

that simple, pull the trigger.

Houston, Spurs, Mavs, Nuggets, Jazz, and Suns

Larry Turner didn’t exactly bounce right from college basketball to the NBA.

There was plenty of unfinished business the 6-foot-11 Turner needed to tend to after graduating last spring from Tennessee State.

Eventually he signed a two-year free agent contract with the Lakers. He arrived in Los Angeles just this week, and Wednesday went through his first workout, a one-on-one session with Lakers’ forward-center Kwame Brown.

“I’m excited and looking forward to it,” Turner said. “It’s always been my dream to play in the NBA.”

Hearing that Turner, who averaged 5.8 points and 6.1 rebounds for TSU, had signed with the Lakers came as a surprise for some. The 2005 transfer from Oklahoma was never a consistent contributor for the Tigers and didn’t even stay in the starting lineup.

After leaving TSU, Turner relied on a local training facility, Velocity Sports Performance in Cool Springs.

When Turner showed up, he was 233 pounds and determined to get bigger and stronger, according to Mick Weber, Director of Sports Performance at the facility. Working two-hour sessions, five times a week, Turner increased his bench press from 300 to 335 pounds, and bulked up to 255 pounds. Turner worked feverishly to improve his game. He worked one-on-one with Pistons star Nazr Mohammed and the Celtics’ Rajon Rondo, and played in the NBA Summer League.

Under the deal, Turner will have to play well in next month’s camp to make the team, said his agent Holman Harley. He’ll be guaranteed his yearly salary — which Harley refused to disclose — if he can stick until Jan. 10.

“I was able to run the floor pretty well in the summer league,” Turner said. “I led the Lakers in blocked shots and they liked that.”

“He’s a big guy that runs the floor, plays hard, listens, blocks shots, rebounds the basketball,” Lakers assistant coach and former player Kurt Rambis told Lakers.com. “He’s big and strong and has a big body.”

That said, after seeing Bynum sulk for the rest of the season and not really improve at all, it was probably a move that LA should have made. No way they get run ragged by the Suns like that if Kidd is on the team.

Last year, at around February, the Nets were holding onto the East’s 7th spot treading on very thin ice. Vince Carter was at the culmination of his contract and there was no assurance of a playoff spot given that New York was chasing the spot and so did Orlando. The Atlantic, surprisingly, was won by an obscure Toronto squad who had learned to play team ball under Mitchell. Nobody could have predicted that at the beginning of the season.

Given the situation NJ was in, they tried to gauge what they could do since Carter was also hinting on moving to his home in Orlando and therefore, the team was better off rebuilding than get nothing in return. After the deadline, Kidd showed in the playoffs averaging a triple double and even upsetting the Atlantic Division champs.

This year, VC has signed a near-Max contract for NJ and RJ is still locked in for the next 4 years. It would make ZERO sense to trade Kidd now, coz as little a chance they have of winning the East, it is actually the more logical thing to do than rebuild with 2 near-Max contracts at hand. My assumption is, Kidd will now retire a Net.

In all honesty, it would have been easier for this Laker squad to head into last season’s playoffs without a center than go into this season with how it is made up. Kidd was offered for a bargain and the Lakers did not think well. In the end, we now regret that decision EVEN IF Bynum breaks out this year. We could have done that deal to contend THIS YEAR.

NJ could have taken: Mihm, Kwame, Bynum, Shammond, McKie for Kidd and Collins

If we are to assess “what could have been”, this is how the Lakers would look coming into draft day:

PG – Kidd, Farmar, Smush
SG – Kobe, Evans, Sasha
SF – Walton, Radmanovic
PF – Odom, Cook
C – Collins(from NJ), Turiaf

With the Lakers picking 19th, the way the draft went up till 18, the Lakers could have picked Jason Smith from Colorado for the 19th, Miami would surely take Crittenton, or remain with Cook (IF NJ picked Critt at 17).

On the 2nd round, at #40, Josh McRoberts would have made sense, and at #48, Marc Gasol would still be selected.

For the MLE, the Lakers could have negotiated Jamal Magloire’s 4M per year (very cheap) and could have re-signed Mihm anyway since NJ would have certainly not re-signed him. The remainder of the MLE could be used to select a veteran like PJ Brown who would almost certainly appreciate playing with Phil Jackson, Kobe and Kidd.

Imagine:
Kidd / Farmar / Sasha
Kobe / Evans /
Walton / Radman /
Odom / PJ Brown / Turiaf / Cook
Magloire / Collins / Jason Smith

The Lakers may not trade for anybody, but pressure is rising–and the Lakers are better prepared to do something. There is no need to even go into the scenarios.

AK47, Gasol, Jermaine O’Neil, and Jason Kidd are all players who are on everyone’s radar screen. One of the things that makes it interesting to be a fan (or fanatic) is to try to anticipate.

When I was in the forest service, I used to know guys who sat up in towers and looked for smoke. If they found smoke, sooner or later we would find fire.