[:: LAKERS 2014 THREAD | POLL: Who Should Coach Next Year? ::]

[sea manup]

getting a guy like embiid would really help us recruit lebron

kevin love's agent needs to be at the meeting too

 

[phillyzphan]

Here's the plan you roll with:

Trade Gasol, take back our 2015.... Don't even ask for a 2014 pick from Phoenix.

Trade Blake to a team that needs a PG for a run.

Kaman & Hill. Wes. All gone.

You go after Lebron.. Roll out the red carpet bigger than ever. Kobe, Phil, Magic, Mitch, Rambis, Big Game, Shaw, hell make a damn parade for him. Coordinate with Kobe & Lebron and settle on a coach. If Lebron is fine with MDA, you stay with him. If not let him go. (Only circumstance I'd get rid of him). Lebron or bust. If Lebron accepts his option, re-signs or goes elsewhere..

You do not sign anyone to longer than a 1 year deal unless it was a bench player $3mil or less (Farmar, Meeks, Young, Xavier would be the only guys possible for that in my opinion). No Deng, no Lowry, no Stephenson, no Bosh, no Melo... NOTHING!

You punt 2014-2015, you just say screw it, and just sign a bunch of guys to 1 year deals.

And you wait.

You make no trades of picks.

2015 you go after Kevin Love & Hibbert (if he declines his option). Not saying we succeed.

2016 Kobe's gone, you go after KD, or Bron (if he hasn't signed an extension). Not saying we succeed.

Anything else is asking for a world of hurt.

I agree that you gotta roll out the carpet to sign free agents. But, is Magic still associated with the organization? Jimmy Buss may not wanna have him as part of any Lakers delegation. Shaw? As in Brian Shaw?

And what if the Lakers luck out this year in the draft and get either Wiggins, Parker, Smart, or Embiid. Would you still basically tank the offseason if they don't get LeBron?

 

[essential1]

I agree that you gotta roll out the carpet to sign free agents. But, is Magic still associated with the organization? Jimmy Buss may not wanna have him as part of any Lakers delegation. Shaw? As in Brian Shaw?

And what if the Lakers luck out this year in the draft and get either Wiggins, Parker, Smart, or Embiid. Would you still basically tank the offseason if they don't get LeBron?

Whoops my fault. I was typing quick.. Byron Scott. Bout to edit that now. Any one connected to the Lakers organization that has any pull; Hall of Famers and Champions.

If we luck out on the draft, and don't get Lebron. I just sign a bunch of guys to 1 year deals again. Overpay for mid-level role players, and six men for a year. And just play basketball.

You going to sign Luol Deng & Kyle Lowry to 4 year deals playing with just Kobe & a rookie? Nah man... Don't do it.

 

[sea manup]

have the lakers girls walk in first, each one carrying a trophy 

 

[Johnny_Cakes]

I can see Magic having some pull with LeBron. Who's opinion can matter more to LeBron than someone more accomplished than he is and whose playing style is often compared?

 

[sea manup]

kobe playing a few games to show he still has it is also important

 

[freeze]

what part of 'Magic not ******* with us' are you guys thick on? dude doesnt **** with us like that. due been given us shade and hating on us for years. you want somebody loyal to help, talk to big game james, or lou alcindor. magic a bandwagon *** *****

 

[noblekane]

How **** sick would the nba thread get if the lakers ever somehow pull off getting lebron and kd?

10 suicides and 20 bans tops

Lol

 

[essential1]

what part of 'Magic not ******* with us' are you guys thick on? dude doesnt **** with us like that. due been given us shade and hating on us for years. you want somebody loyal to help, talk to big game james, or lou alcindor. magic a bandwagon *** *****

He wants to be wanted that's really all it is.

He feels upset because he isn't wanted.

You ask him to do it, he will jump quick to do it.


Kareem, Magic, Phil, Kobe, Mitch, Big Game all walk into a room....... Mannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn you better listen.

 

[sea manup]

 

what part of 'Magic not ******* with us' are you guys thick on? dude doesnt **** with us like that. due been given us shade and hating on us for years. you want somebody loyal to help, talk to big game james, or lou alcindor. magic a bandwagon *** *****

He wants to be wanted that's really all it is.

He feels upset because he isn't wanted.

You ask him to do it, he will jump quick to do it.


Kareem, Magic, Phil, Kobe, Mitch, Big Game all walk into a room....... Mannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn you better listen.

ironicaly we are getting the old team back together to steal a player from pat riley

 

[had pants]

These injuries mayne...

 

[had pants]

 

[essential1]

Found this looking around.


Kobe Bryant, Lower Merion HS
Name: Kobe Bryant
College: Lower Merion HS
Height: 6'6"
Weight: 192
Position: Shooting Guard
Other Position: Point Guard
Strengths: Maturity, finishing
Weaknesses: 17 years old!, ball handling

(Scout: Jason Sean Fuiman )

I played against and watched Kobe Bryant at Lower Merion and in summer leagues so I might know a little.

Strengths- Kobe's number one stregth is his maturity. He is a lot more mature than a lot of the college players and some NBA players as well. This is a huge asset because he isn't going into this without thinking like some people might think. Extremely intelligent player and student. Sees the floor very well because of his height and is an excellent
finisher. Knows the game of basketball and what needs to be done to win (won the state championships without his point guard and top outside shooter). Is a true leader who often dominated games with triple teams most of the time. Can hit from three with accuracy (good %). Fierce competitor with a lot of determination. Played all 5 positions in high
school so he can also work down low. Has perfected the turn around fall-away jumper (Jordan's tradmark) A lot of people think he doesn't like to lift to bulk up but he'll do whatever it takes to make it in the league.

Weaknesses- True, he is 17 (close to 1 which is huge but as his dad said "he's 17 going on 25". Has questionable ballhandling skills (to be a projected point guard). May not be ready for the rigors of the NBA life and does not have the body for it right now (although his father, ex-nba player, will be with him most of the time). Does not have a true
position. Played all 5 in high school and didn't perfect any one of the five. Is very good at all 5 but not great. I project him just as everyone else going no lower than 12 or so and I
wouldn't be suprised if he goes much higher. Don't everyone jump on me at once who read this but I read that the 76ers might be intersted in keeping him home. He practiced with them in the summer and they loved him. Even said they would draft him when he came out.

(Scout: Owen P. O'Malley)
"Has been compared to Grant Hill, but some scouts feel he doesn't have the ballhandling and shooting skills to be an effective guard."

Sports Illustrated
May 6, 1996

School's Out
Philadelphia schoolboy Kobe Bryant is headed straight for the NBA
By: Michael Bamberger

On Monday at 2:25 p.m., the final bell rang at Lower Merion High, in the leafy suburbs of Philadelphia, and the school's gymnasium, a museum piece circa 1964, began to fill. Boys with knapsacks on their backs scurried up the bleachers, and girls with lacrosse sticks in their hands sat cross-legged on the hardwood floor. Teachers, feigning disinterest, filled the gym's double doors. The school's athletic director, wearing his best suit and tie, tested the microphone.

On the edge of the basketball floor reporters from The Main Line Times and from the Merionite, the school newspaper, accustomed to covering events at the creaking gym without competition, found themselves making space for ESPN and The Washington Post. Members of Boyz II Men, who hail from Philadelphia and are friends of the featured speaker, hovered in the back. The name of the singing group never seemed more appropriate. On Monday at 2:35 p.m., in the same gym where he scored more schoolboy basketball points than anybody will remember, an amiable prodigy named Kobe Bryant, 17 years old, announced his plans for the future. He couldn't, after all, be a Lower Merion Ace forever. But what would come next? La Salle University, where his father, Joe (Jellybean) Bryant, is an assistant basketball coach? Villanova? Michigan? The NBA, where Joe spent eight seasons with the San Diego Clippers, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Houston Rockets?

Bryant, a 6'6" shuffler—except on a basketball court, where he moves like lightning—ambled up to the podium in a vent-less sport coat and fine dress trousers bought at the last minute and in need of a tailor, his sunglasses positioned on the top of his shiny shaved head. His coat had puffy shoulders, masking his frame, which at 190 pounds is as skinny and malleable as a strand of cooked spaghetti. He leaned his goofy kid's mouth toward the microphone, mockingly brought his fingers to his unblemished chin as if he were still pondering his decision, and delivered the news that insiders had been expecting for a week.

"I've decided to skip college and take my talent to the NBA," Bryant said.

The gymnasium at Lower Merion, a school of high academic achievement, filled with whooping. Bryant—a B student who scored 1,080 on his SATs and speaks fluent Italian, which he learned while living in Italy during the half-dozen years his father played professional basketball there—was beaming.

He will enter the NBA draft on June 26 and will be, league scouts and general managers say, one of the first 13 players chosen, a lottery pick. In his first four years in the NBA, if he plays four years in the NBA, Bryant could earn $10 million—or more. Of course, he could also spend those four years earning a college degree. He chose to pass up that option, he said, not because of money or parental pressure or a desire to emulate Kevin Garnett, the teenage forward for the Minnesota Timberwolves who went from Farragut Academy in Chicago to the No. 5 pick in last year's NBA draft and proved by midseason that he belonged in the league. Bryant's family does not need the money, and his parents did not influence his decision. He's going pro to fulfill a dream.

"Playing in the NBA has been my dream since I was three," Bryant said, and he's old enough to know that a dream deferred can peter out to nothingness. He is taking no chances, not after averaging 31 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists, four blocks and four steals a game in leading the Aces to the state class AAAA title as a senior.

What, precisely, he will do in the NBA is anybody's guess. In the last three decades only six U.S. players have joined the NBA without playing college basketball, and all of them have been big men, centers and power forwards: Moses Malone, Darryl Dawkins, Bill Willoughby, Shawn Kemp, Thomas Hamilton and Garnett. Bryant played the entire floor in high school—his Lower Merion coach, Gregg Downer, compared Bryant's style of play with Michael Jordan's and Grant Hill's—and could score seemingly at will from inside. The cumulative effect of all those inside points was to give him a reputation as the best high school basketball player in the country.

In the pros he will be a guard, but whether he's an NBA shooter remains to be determined. Also unclear is whether a 17-year-old who is truly happy with a book in his hands should be going straight into the workforce without stopping for a college education.

"I think it's a total mistake," says the Boston Celtics' director of basketball development, Jon Jennings, who opposes any schoolboy's going pro. " Kevin Garnett was the best high school player I ever saw, and I wouldn't have advised him to jump to the NBA. And Kobe is no Kevin Garnett."

That note was not sounded at the Lower Merion gym on Monday. The athletic director, Tom McGovern, set the tone. "In the last four years he's brought us joy, happiness, national recognition—and a state title," McGovern said. "We will be behind him 100 percent. We owe him that much."

Take that Celtics

 

[jumpman91023]

Any chance Terrence Williams gets a call up?

 

[essential1]

Any chance Terrence Williams gets a call up?

Unless we start trading all of our wing players. None.

 

[CP1708]

I disagree with y'all, I absolutely endorse pursuing Stephenson.

He's 24-25. We gettin a 19 year old. Love in 2015 will be 27ish???? Old man Kobe.

Fill out with 2-3 solid pieces

Sacre-Kelly extra bodies (develops)


We know Bron ain't comin. And if Pau can become the Indy pick, that player may, or may not become decent enough to join the 8-9 guys I spoke of.

Saying no to a 24 year old, barely scratching the surface of his soon to be prime?????

I'm not on board with that. If he'd come here, I get him. And if I know Love will follow, pretty clear, grab a C or PG in this year's lottery and keep Kobe upright an extra year to help at SG.

 

[pmatic]

I'm just not a fan of spending on free agents that won't move the needle long-term.

He's a good player and all, but he won't justify a yearly salary in the $8-11 million range to me.

 

[pmatic]

And I'm in the camp of if Nash won't retire this summer, I'd rather he return for the last year of his contract than having to use the stretch provision on him.

I don't want $3 million of nothing on the team in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

 

[had pants]

Welcome back Shawne

 

[sb]

Shawne Williams is back

We don't need your Chris Broussard services around here

 

Kaman tweeted this

View media item 787336

post more lol

have the lakers girls walk in naked first, each one carrying a trophy 

fixed.

How **** sick would the nba thread get if the lakers ever somehow pull off getting lebron and kd?

10 suicides and 20 bans tops

Lol

NT would self-implode. ska and CP would have heart attacks of the excitement. rck would become a laker fan. essential would not have much trade scenarios to work up during the season. sea would elevate blake gawd to another level. LTB would change his avi to a kobe 'you mad?' jpg. meth would lock this thread due to the trollin that would ensue. had pants will finally see an event that he has no possible gif to explain the circumstances that would of just taken place. PMatic would move back to cali. AC would go into ultimate jimmy rustle mode.

Welcome back Shawne

he cursed swaggy

 

[CP1708]

I'm just not a fan of spending on free agents that won't move the needle long-term.

He's a good player and all, but he won't justify a yearly salary in the $8-11 million range to me.

Yeah well you just limited the entire league to 3-4 guys then.

Bron, Durant, George (heading that way) and CP3 the only guys that would move the needle.

We can't sit til 2016 for the hopes of Durant, we need to build a core. Top 5, Born Ready, and Love is a decent start. Gives us longer term guys to build around, keep our picks after 2015 and stack as many assets as possible, maybe you find that Harden type trade in the future. (Kyrie?)


Agree 100% on Nash. Bite bullet on one year, don't stretch for 3.

 

[sb]

I'm just not a fan of spending on free agents that won't move the needle long-term.

He's a good player and all, but he won't justify a yearly salary in the $8-11 million range to me.

Yeah well you just limited the entire league to 3-4 guys then.

Bron, Durant, George (heading that way) and CP3 the only guys that would move the needle.

We can't sit til 2016 for the hopes of Durant, we need to build a core. Top 5, Born Ready, and Love is a decent start. Gives us longer term guys to build around, keep our picks after 2015 and stack as many assets as possible, maybe you find that Harden type trade in the future. (Kyrie?)


Agree 100% on Nash. Bite bullet on one year, don't stretch for 3.

durant is not leaving okc. russy would, not durant. the dude is loyal and management will do what it takes to keep him.

 

[mrdieselfuel09]

Durant won't leave OKC? That's a joke. If OKC doesn't win a ship by the time he hits free agency him and Russ are out of there.

It's already speculation that he's going to Houston to join Dwight and Harden

Speculation on Russ leaving OKC joining Love on the Lakers.

Will it happen? Only time will tell. But OKC is a joke of a franchise that are penny pinchers.

 

[lovehateself]

2015 you go after Kevin Love & Hibbert (if he declines his option). Not saying we succeed.
 

while i somewhat agreed to most of your post, Hibbert?...Roy hibbert? dude doesnt even avg 10 and 10 and het gets paid 13-15 mil.

you can get that from a stop gap player like kaman on a lower deal. id take deandre jordan over hibbert any day. hibbert is a better player but you dont give that guy that type of money to be the #3/4 option ( which he is right now). going after hibbert would essentially be like resigning pau 9 which id rather do) 

 

[lovehateself]

Durant won't leave OKC? That's a joke. If OKC doesn't win a ship by the time he hits free agency him and Russ are out of there.

It's already speculation that he's going to Houston to join Dwight and Harden

Speculation on Russ leaving OKC joining Love on the Lakers.

Will it happen? Only time will tell. But OKC is a joke of a franchise that are penny pinchers.

durant to houston... how do we get parsons out here in purple and gold