MMG....look at it this way...I am a New York Knicks fan.
My team was in an even better situation than the Lakers were a year and a half ago.
Back then there was only 1 team that Melo wanted to go to and that was the Knicks, but there were still teams trolling, in the hunt, to try and use his fear of the new lockout rules to bag themselves a superstar...with the Nets being the #1 perpetrator.
1. He didn't want to go to NJ.
2. We had the cap room to sign him outright in the off-season.
3. He had outright said that he only wanted to go to New York and didn't change his tone.
4. He flat out told Denver that he was not signing any extension or picking up any option.
Denver's leverage was...we have a superstar we wanna trade. But...no you don't want to trade him. And he only has 5 months left on his contract? And he won't resign with 29 of the 30 teams? And the one team he will sign with can just wait the 5 months and sign him? So there's only one real bidder? And you have no leverage, except that the deal has to be better than getting absolutely nothing?
And if you try to call his bluff and see if he would really walk, you have only to look at what LeBron did the summer before?
Great.
Now Orlando...talked Dwight into signing an extension, so they added another year to that 5 months of leverage? And he's said he's willing to go to 2 different teams? And neither of those teams can sign him in free agency? And one of those teams is so desperate, they'll sell their children for him? And outside of that, some teams are willing to trade big for him with no guarantee of an extension? That's a nice way to be.
So then NJ starts trolling the Melo trade/Rockets start trolling the D12 trade. And it sounds nice...cuz of course they have a better offer...but it doesn't really matter, the star doesn't want to go there. Then the home team's front office starts helping the trolling. Stirring up the media and trying to get someone to flinch.
What happens next is where the Lakers front office aren't lucky, but geniuses. Orlando used every damn trick in the book to try and get Pau and Bynum. They tried everything they could to get that Rockets, "why are you giving us all of this" deal. They leaked 50 times that it was done and Dwight was a _______. They kept pushing and pushing and every week, we thought alright...LA is in the sticks, they're completely out of it..He'll be a Net/Rocket this week, I guarantee it!
Denver did that too. Remember when Melo thought he got traded to NJ? Denver/NJ were relentless the same way Orlando/Houston/NJ were. They had a new thing leaked every 5 minutes and would call NY just to troll and hope stories leaked there too. They kept trolling and trolling and trolling. Now...we had our own Mitch...Donnie. But Donnie's new. Mitch has been there. He's got people's respect. James Dolan respects no one...except his 'friend' Isiah Thomas. They get shook, hijack negotiations and don't give Denver what they asked for...they give them everything that wasn't nailed down, when they had all the leverage...made just a little bit more painful when the world finds out that D-Will was floating around waiting for a home.
But the Lakers...with less leverage...weren't punks about it. They called their bluff. Then Brook Lopez gets re-signed. Then the Rockets get told what it is. Then silence. Then the Lakers get everything they wanted.
Any normal team, in that position, would've gave in to Orlando a month and a half ago. They had all that leverage of Houston, NJ and the stupid option Dwight picked up.
That's not luck.
The advantage is people want to go there, but it takes a lot more than that to not get raked over the coals time and again.
Humps was playing in the paint, rebounding / putbacks wise and brooks was playing outside , it worked for them.
24 wins...yea that worked out quite nicely for them.
Hibbs cause he anchors defensively but gives on the offensive end
