You don’t always get a player just because you want him, and you don’t always get rid of a player just because you don’t want him.

BTW–eventhorizon04, thanks for the draft analysis. Great stuff!

As a result of the Ramon Sessions trade between Cleveland and Los Angeles last year, the Cavs have the right to swap picks with the Lakers as long as that pick is not a lottery pick. To further complicate that situation Cleveland’s right to swap picks is based on their choice of picks and they will not only have their own pick, but also Sacramento’s (unless it’s a top 13 pick) and Miami’s. This means that the Lakers getting into the playoffs will likely mean that Cleveland will swap their pick via Miami with the Lakers pick.

In short, more balls in the lottery for Phoenix

Dwight wants to be with an organization committed to winning – for the long term. Just because they’re not in a position to win this season doesn’t mean they won’t be in a better position next season or the season after. And he’s smart enough to know that once Kobe’s big contract comes off the books in a couple years the team will have a lot more options. I’m sure he’s thinking long term about this. And there’s no guarantee that Dallas or any other team will be in a better position. And let’s not forget about the money he’d have to leave on the table to leave LA to take a chance somewhere else. Even with the poor record this year and no playoffs LA still has to be the front runner to keep him. That seems pretty obvious to me and most people with common sense.

They probably won’t get things together this season. And if they don’t improve much soon, we can probably expect a couple players to be traded to help reduce the luxury tax (like Gasol and Artest) for younger players, but not necessarily better players. Not to get better, but to get cheaper, with secondary hopes of getting more athletic.

Mike Brown is still laughing his ass off, with or without Phil.,
Sucker MC

Making sure you get back on defense is about effort not some sort of gameplan. It’s one thing if your a slow team which the Lakers are but they also don’t box out very well, play clueless on defense and they jog back in transition. These are all effort issues. You dont’ “figure out” effort you either have it or you don’t.

Pat Riley traded down from the first round to the second round of the 2012 NBA draft for Philadelphia’s lottery-protected first round pick in 2013, so the Heat might have Philly’s draft pick in 2013 if the 76′ers make the playoffs. But they won’t have their own first rounder because of the LeBron sign-and-trade.

I’m just pointing out that the Lakers HAVE to try to win with what they have this year, or trade Gasol (whose trade value isn’t exactly being helped with his knee problems, his concussion, and his numbers being down while playing next to Dwight).

And TONS of blame to be shared… D’Antoni won’t adjust his system to the personnel…but to let the season go down in flames without even attempting to make things work within two different coaches’ systems is just as bad…and what kind of owner/manager brings in a coach who only wants to run when there’s nobody on the entire roster who can do that any more?

However, then the the Howard and Gasol injuries struck. Gasol’s injury is short term, but having him anchoring the defense and grabbing rebounds is a huge downgrade from Dwight. I expect Gasol’s numbers to improve without Howard but the team overall to be worse without Howard.

I watched the LA Lakers-Houston Rockets game. The Lakers came out and played like a team with something to prove, but the fact that the Lakers got worse as the game went on is closely tied to the fact that they lack depth.

As Kurt noted, “the Lakers need to go 30-18 the rest of the way to get to 45 wins this season, which is pretty much the minimum needed to make the playoffs out West.”

The next 2-3 weeks (the time they won’t have Howard), the Lakers face Spurs, Thunder, Cavaliers w/o Varejao, Bucks, Heat, Raptors, Bulls, Grizzlies, Jazz, and Thunder. My prediction is 3-7 through that stretch, which means with Howard back at the end of January, the Lakers would have to then go 27-11 to finish the season. A 27-11 pace is equivalent to a team winning 58 games (A top-2 seed). Doable, but virtually impossible given how this group has played together (around 0.500-level). And again, even if they do all that, their reward is an 8th seed, so they go on the road against OKC or the Clippers, and they won’t be able to rest players before the playoffs…

Hellooooo…they scored 112 points last night and still found a way to lose by 13. Helloooo…as long as the Lakers play the worst defense I have seen in years by any team in the NBA, they will continue to lose games, and by wide margins. I can’t imagine them winning any games at this rate, and I have been a Laker fan for over 45 years.

It is indeed an amazing thing to watch.

Nash got injured once, that doesn’t make him “injury prone.” How was a great acquisition. There are no doubts about it.

The coaching choices were bad, but all three are blamed, not solely Jim Buss.

Your last statement about me being compensated is idiotic and doesn’t deserve a response.

Plus as long as Dumbtoni is coach the Lakers will never turn it around, no matter how much Kobe tries to help the team win. Dumbtoni is trying to force the personnel to play his idiot small ball garbage when they have a team built to play a slower paced set offense game. When will you write about how stupid Dumbtoni is and why it’s his fault that the Laker’s season isn’t turning around? Kurt, when will you start blaming the little idiot buss boy for making stupid decisions like bringing in the two worst coaches to ever disgrace the Laker bench in Clueless Clown Brown and Dumbtoni.

Fire Dumbtoni!!! Trade Away Ancient Nash!!!

Everybody would make those same trades again. What kind of year is Bynum having? Fish can’t even make it in the league anymore. Sessions is doing alright, but he picked the Bobcats, he’s not ready for the spotlight (or is just trying to avoid it completely).

Just because it’s not working out the way most people (myself included) expected, doesn’t mean the trades were bad. The coaching fiasco should have been handled way better, and that’s a Jim Buss f-up. But the trades were the right moves.

If the Lakers miss the playoffs:
1. The Phoenix Suns get the LA Lakers’ lottery pick
2. The Cleveland Cavaliers get Miami Heat’s draft pick.
3. The Lakers and Heat have no draft picks in first round.

If the Lakers make the playoffs:
1. The Cleveland Cavaliers get the LA Lakers’ non-lottery draft pick, but the LA Lakers would get the Miami Heat’s draft pick in exchange.
2. However, the Phoenix Suns would THEN get that Miami Heat draft pick from the LA Lakers.
3. The Lakers and Heat have no draft picks in first round.

Two trades for point guards in the past 2 years mean the Lakers have no first round draft pick in 2013.