New Season Thread Made, Move on Over :)

[mr j 858]

Jim Buss radio interview today from ESPN LA 710 AM

http://espn.go.com/espnradio/losangeles/play?id=8290626

Cliffs:

- Started on Nash. Him saying he didn't want to play in LA intrigued him - showed he was a competitor.

- On Dwight "odyssey". Worked on some time to be part of any deal to be done. Questions the amount of detail can be given. Was 6 hours a day for month to nothing - which was fine because the deal LA wanted wasn't there. Last minute before Mitch was headed on vaca Orl called and finally
re-started talks. LA was frustrated and put 36 hour demand on deal. Which Orlando agreed and got it done.

- Loved the deal but hated to see Andrew go, talked about Bynum for a sec.

- On offense for MB - He thought MB needed someone to run the offense on floor. Tried it with Sessions - moved to another stratosphere with Nash.

- On misconceptions on Jim - This is always what he's done, now that these been on radio/newspaper now people know him so like him but he's always been this way.

- Relationship w/ Jim&Mitch - Credits Mitch for his teaching and patience. Different style but they compliment each other and get things done in doing and not doing things.

- On fans being impatience - Have to take that criticism, Came conclusion with Mitch a couple of years back the only player they would realistically deal Bynum for was Howard. That came to fruition by being patient. Unfortunate people criticize not knowing whats behind closed doors.

- On Howard's back - Doctor's were involved. Told he's looking fine. Rely on our doctor's.

- On his lowkey style - Doesn't need to take credit because they work as a team. This is what they do.

- To end, Jim brought up Meeks and Jamison shore up the bench. Asked the hosts why they didn't bring them up.

Hosts responded about Dwight being out to start the year. Jim not given a chance to respond.

- when asked if LA was done - "We're never done." Nothing on horizon but always listening. Jordan Hill resigning was huge for team also.

 

[mr j 858]

And a article about the other younger Buss son:

Behind L.A.'s Scouting Staff

The youngest sibling of the first family of Los Angeles basketball is Jesse Buss, 24, the Lakers Scouting Coordinator and D-Fenders Director of Scouting.

Buss joined us to describe his role for the team his father Dr. Jerry Buss bought in 1979, and has led to the playoffs in all but two seasons while earning 10 NBA championships. Jesse detailed the intricate scouting process he oversees, showed us how he uses an iPad application to organize the operation, explained what he and the organization looks for in prospects and more:

MT: How would you describe your role with the organization?
Buss: With the Lakers, my role is to watch prospects, send reports in to (Executive VP of Player Personnel) Jim (Buss), (GM) Mitch (Kupchak) and (Director of Scouting/Consultant) Bill Bertka and so on. It's also a job of mine to help schedule our scouting staff, and make sure we see all the prospects we hope to see. There's a group of about 10-11 people in basketball ops who scout college and international games regularly — and are in the war room for the Draft — so I help organize the schedules for our college scouts in addition to scouting players myself. With the D-Fenders, I help coordinate the draft along with (Lakers Assistant GM, D-Fenders GM) Glenn Carraro, (D-Fenders CEO) Joey (Buss), (D-Fenders) Coach Musselman and his staff. I also help with trades and waiver pick ups for the D-Fenders.

MT: How do you go about coordinating everything to make sure you as a staff are seeing every prospect?
Buss: It's definitely a whole process. There are several early season tournaments that we divy up between our front office. Since the teams participating in these tournaments are often traveling away from where they normally play, it's a good chance for someone like Irving Thomas, who lives in Miami, to see schools from the west in a tournament like the Puerto Rico tip-off. We go where the prospects are. During the season it gets a little tougher when conference play opens. I try to make it as efficient of a trip as possible when our scouts are on the road. What I mean by that is that I want our guys seeing the best possible games with the most prospects. We'll try to have five to seven day trips where we'll see several teams. Sometimes we drive from school to school in a trip where every day we are driving for several hours to get to our next stop. Other times our scouts will take five or six flights in one trip. What we try to ensure is we are seeing the best games possible and that we don't have the same guys at the same games. Efficiency is the key.

MT: To ask a simple question about what must be a complicated answer, how do you keep track of everything?
Buss: If I were a geography major it'd certainly help. But I have different tools that I use. I actually have an app that on my Ipad that has a map of where every university or college is located. It also has a feature that allows you to select a university and see how close it is to surrounding universities. I made it color coordinated depending on how important it is for us to see that school. For example, a red colored school would be classified as MUST SEE, a blue school would be one to keep an eye on, etc. Ultimately a key for me is to have every one of our scouts see all the prospects that we need to see and travel all around the country rather than just staying in a certain region. Chaz might go scout in Kansas City/Midwest area and be in New York the next week. Ryan and I spend a lot of time in the midwest/south/west coast and occasionally go to the east coast as well. It's just about figuring out what works for our scouts and if they feel like these are games of high importance.

MT: What is the main directive or point of emphasis for you when you're scouting prospects?
Buss: The question I like to ask myself is 'Will this prospect play in the NBA?' And if so, what does he project to be? In one year? Five years? Ten Years? He could be an All-star all the way down to the 15th man on the roster. Sometimes a late first round pick is a 15th guy on your roster, sometimes he's an All-Star. Every team is different on what they need, of course, and talent evaluators look for different things. Some teams want players who can play right away, some are rebuilding and want a guy to develop for down the road. Still others draft to fill in a hole at a position. And even that changes year-by-year with free agency and potential trades, and influences what you're looking for when scouting.

Editor's Note: As an example of what Buss does in his role as scouting coordinator, he took out a chart that showed how many players in each draft class dating back to 1996 remained in the NBA, year by year. So for the 2005 draft class, it showed the following: 2005-06 – 48 in the NBA for that season; 2006-07: 48; 2007-08: 39; 2008-09: 38; 2009-10: 34; 2010-11:35; 2011-12: 32.

MT: What have you learned from growing up in a basketball family, particularly from your father and older siblings?
Buss: I've been going to Laker games since before I can remember. I loved playing as a kid, and my dad would let me play at the practice facility and at the Forum when he owned it. Fast forward to when I first started working for the team, when I was about to turn 19, and Jimmy really took me under his wing. He told me what I should look for in players. I've also been lucky to have Bill Bertka and Mitch Kupchak helping me along the way. Bertka gave me the advice that you should never try to stretch on any player or force the issue with a guy; sometimes you just don't see what you need to see. Don't fake it. Glenn Carraro has also been a big help. I started as a basketball ops assistant doing projects for Glenn on statistical analysis and things like that. But as far as family goes, my father and I used to watch the games growing up and he'd always have things to say. It's been more Jimmy – through several scouting trips and in general – who took me under his wing since I've become a professional.

MT: If you see a player you like, what's the process like to get that information up the ladder to Kupchak and Jim?
Buss: We fill out our scouting reports and every time we come back from a trip, we may have 40 or 50 of them to enter into a database. First and foremost, Mitch will look at our reports, and maybe he'll see something that stands out. We then can pull the prospects up in meetings when we all discuss players.

MT: What is the most difficult thing about scouting? The most fun?
Buss: The travel is difficult, but I enjoy traveling so it doesn't bother me as much. It's certainly a lot of fun to attend some of the best college basketball games in the country, especially in the arenas with great atmospheres. With that said, evaluating the prospects is definitely a tricky thing. Nobody is 100% right every time. Jerry West used to say that if you get even half of your picks right you're doing a great job. Picking late in the second round - as we have typically done – is difficult, unless someone falls to you, in terms of finding guys that have the ability to play legit minutes.

MT: Any good stories about travel struggles?
Buss: Someone in basketball personnel told me that they were going to watch a player in Europe, and they had to take two flights to get to a small city in Italy, then drive two hours to get to a gym in the middle of nowhere. The guy ended up not playing in the game, so they literally only saw him warm up. Stuff like that happens. I was going to Oklahoma a few years back to see Blake Griffin, and he ended up having a concussion, so I missed him.

MT: And you have all the games to watch on TV as well…
Buss: Of course, I'm constantly recording games on my DVR to watch, and we use Synergy as one of our main tools as well so we can watch players on our laptops either before or after the game. I like to watch tape on a player both before and after the game to first know what I'm watching for, and then re–watch to make sure I recognize what is in front of me.

MT: What's a limiting factor for you that occurs while scouting?
Buss: It's hard to watch how good a defender is on the ball sometimes because of how many teams play zone. Syracuse for example: it's hard to see everything the individual players can do on D. And they're not playing against NBA offenses.

MT: How much do you rely on statistical evaluation compared with seeing players on film or in person?
Buss: Stats help in the sense that they confirm what you're watching. There are places where stats and scouting conflict, however, where if a guy has an ugly stroke and is shooting 40 percent from three, is it a fluke? But certain things stand out, like if you're seven feet tall and only average a few rebounds per game. Or if you are a point guard and only average two assists a game, or a lengthy center that doesn't block shots. Efficiency also comes into play in terms of shooting percentages and turnovers. Two of the most important statistics I look are are games played and minutes played. It really depends on how much a player is bringing to the floor to help contribute. Obviously, numbers can look ugly when a guy only plays ten minutes a game, but if he's doing really well in those ten minutes you start to think, 'Well what would he do if he played 36?' So I definitely use stats, but I never let any single thing govern my decisions one way or another.

MT: How many flights do you average per year to scout players? What's your favorite place to go?
Buss: I'll take about six flights a month during the season (Nov. - June), and probably about 40-50 flights a year. There are a lot of short flights to places like UNLV or (schools in Northern California). North Carolina was probably my favorite trip, with the chance to scout UNC, NC State, Duke and Wake Forest. Those crowds are wild, especially at Cameron Indoor and Dean Smith Center. At UNC, they have names on the bricks when you're walking into the arena, and I took a picture of Mitch's.

MT: We have to get that on Lakers.com. Thanks for the time, Jesse.
Buss: My pleasure.

Link:

http://www.nba.com/lakers/120821_behindlalscoutingstaff

 

[mr j 858]

The news everyone in the NBA is talking about this month is the Los Angeles Lakers’ acquisition of Dwight Howard, but it’s actually another offseason move by the Lakers George Karl just can’t seem to forget.

The Denver Nuggets head coach is still shocked the Lakers were able to orchestrate a sign-and-trade deal for Steve Nash earlier this summer.

During his second appearance on CBS4′s Xfinity Monday Live Karl told host Vic Lombardi that Nash is probably his favorite active player in the league.


“I was so angry about that trade. I don’t usually get angry about trades, but that trade, wow. It set me off. I sent (Lakers general manager) Mitch Kupchak a nasty email. Oh man, he is the luckiest guy in the NBA,” Karl said.

Karl said the Lakers were “kind of falling apart” and they were able to get Nash, who he says is “maybe the only guy in the NBA that could save that team.”

With regards to the trade for Howard, the Nuggets were actually involved and scored their own All-Star — Andre Iguodala — in the process.

But Karl knows “We probably did make the Lakers better” because they’ve got Howard now. Karl said Howard is an even better defender than Andrew Bynum, who was sent to the Philadelphia 76ers as part of the trade.

Link:

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2012/08/...nuggets-lakers-still-a-size-vs-speed-rivalry/

 

[mrdieselfuel09]

I remember when J.Rich hit that 3 against the Lakers 3 years ago during the playoffs....at that moment Tim Thomas was creeping to my mind.




Thank the Lord, Artest saved us.

 

[darthska]

[quote name="Kookcle"]2012-2013 Schedule Desktop Wallpaper

Spoiler: Warning: Wallpaper

[/quote]On FB, they had that pic & the text "33 All Star Appearances, 4 Defensive Player Of The Year Awards, 3 Most Valuable Player Awards... Starting 5"

And I couldn't help but think "Can we get a 'Rookie Of The Year Award' for Pau, though?"

 

[CHAOSE57]

Link:
http://denver.cbslocal.com/2012/08/...nuggets-lakers-still-a-size-vs-speed-rivalry/

Too much salt from George Karl I bet basedKupchack also sent stern a 'nasty' email when the cp3 trade was vetoed.lol

 

[darthska]

^ That CP3 deal was exactly what I thought of when I saw that Karl was heated over the Nash desk.

"They will pay for their basketball reasons."

 

[tupac003]

Still fresh like it just happened yesterday. Bryant for the win....BANG!

I was in staples for that game....that was the second lakers game my daughter went too. She was only 1 at the time...man how time flys...

 

[kvsm23vs24]

Im looking at that game 6 Tim Thomas 3 and Kwame wasnt really at fault.
He closed in on Nash and Lamar did not box out marion who tipped it out

 

[mr j 858]

I was in staples for that game....that was the second lakers game my daughter went too. She was only 1 at the time...man how time flys...

I was also at that game.It was my one my homie's first Laker game live at any arena.

Here it is in HD quality:



Funny things I remember was Vic The Brick storming out and running out onto the court in his Laker Pancho and celebrating with Kobe.

I miss VTB now that the Lakers radio is on ESPN and not Fox Sports Radio.

 

[mr j 858]

Long but great read coming from a Boston radio sports guy:

The Lakers Continue Their Winning Ways by Following the Same Plan

Posted August 21st, 2012 by Larry H. Russell

Damn Lakers.

Oh yes, that’s a reference to the famous old musical about the New York Yankees; the team that dominated professional sports for so long during the first half of the 20th century.

But really, how else can we react? The Lakers have done it again.

This is not a recent phenomenon either. For the past 40 years, every time it looks like the Lakers’ star is beginning to fade, they pull a rabbit out of their hat to not only get back in the mix, but to re-cement their status as the dominant team in the NBA.

So excuse me for being a little, shall we say, peeved.

I said I wouldn’t reveal any form of my agitation either. After the Lakers made yet another signature move for basketball’s elite big man (a Lakers staple for 40 years running now), I said to myself, “No column on CLNS Radio for this. Just stick to the Bob Ryan piece. Life is good. Life is positive. There is no need to be afraid of a basketball team. After all, fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to …ah whatever. Just don’t let those Angelenos see us infuriated over them acquiring another superstar again. That gives them more glee than their actual acquisition of Dwight Howard anyways.”

(Excuse the incessant rambling based on frustration.)

The emotions have gotten the best of me, however. This writer cannot get over the Lakers fortune over the last forty freakin’ years. And to put it lightly, that fortune has played its part in the Lakers being unequivocally the best franchise in all of professional sports since the 1970s.

***

For Celtics fans like myself, the Lakers establishing themselves as arguably the best franchise in the NBA has been tough to handle over these last 15 years or so.

While the Lakers have been the most dominant franchise in the league since Bill Russell walked away from the game in a Sports Illustrated column in August of 1969, it still seems like yesterday where the Boston Celtics were unequivocally the crown jewel of the National Basketball Association. They were still the Yankees of the NBA. Heck, for a while they were the Boston Celtics of everything, winners of multiple championships in four consecutive decades. The only franchise in American sports to achieve such a feat for the second half of the 20th century.

In the early, and even mid 1990s, the Celtics were given a bit of an extended grace period following the tragic and sudden deaths of Len Bias and Reggie Lewis. The Celtics had two franchise guys that were going to carry the winning tradition of the franchise cruelly taken away from them.

However, by the late 1990s, the Celtics had plenty of chances to, at the very least, get back on the NBA map after they had been dormant for much of the decade.

But they never did. All while the Lakers were continuing their winning ways; continuing to cement their legacy. Not just as a premier franchise, but their ways and means of getting to where they already were and wanted to be. Those damn Lakers had firmly established a trend of being the haven for the game’s greatest stars.

***

There’s a very simple answer to the Lakers dominance over the last 40 years.

(Drum roll …)

They always have the preeminent big man in the game during their championship years.

But what makes it truly excruciating is the Lakers have spent the last 40 years fleecing other teams to acquire their franchise centerpieces. Observe …

Back in the summer of 1968, four-time and reigning league MVP Wilt Chamberlain grew unhappy in his hometown of Philadelphia. The reasons still are abound as to why Chamberlain was unhappy. Wilt never said definitively because as us historians know, Wilt was always worried about his public image. Some said he was unhappy about his team’s coach, Alex Hannum, leaving the team.

However, Wilt’s biographer, Robert Cherry, said in his book Wilt: Larger Than Life that Chamberlain felt he was too big for Philadelphia and wanted to be somewhere where he was a celebrity amongst celebrities. Hmmmmm …

Voila! Wilt was sent to Los Angeles in the summer of 1968, joining Hall of Famers Elgin Baylor and Jerry West and the rest of the champions of the Western Conference Champions after being traded for Darrall Imhoff, Jerry Chambers, and Archie Clark.

At this point, the LA Lakers were a very good team. But they were the Buffalo Bills, before the Buffalo Bills, to the factor of about ten. After leaving Minneapolis, where the Lakers captured five championships with George Mikan as its star big man, the Lakers made the Finals six times in the 1960s prior to the trade for Chamberlain.

And all six times they lost. All to the Boston Celtics.

The Lakers would not win a championship with Chamberlain until his third year with the team, always getting one-upped by another team’s top center – Russell, Willis Reed, and Lew Alcindor in succession.

But in 1972, the Lakers captured their first championship in Los Angeles, establishing themselves as one of the greatest single-season teams in NBA history by winning 69 games coupled with a legendary 33-game win streak (uh, that’s not just an NBA record, that’s an American professional sports record if you didn’t know.) Those damn Lakers finally put Los Angeles on the NBA map.

***

Once the Lakers were finally able to grab a championship in LA, it seemed as if they were going to fall into the dreaded purgatory of the NBA – mediocrity. Wilt retired after the 1973 season, and Jerry West retired after the 1974 season following a contract dispute.

In the 1975 NBA season, the Lakers won just 30 games, and did not have one notable superstar on their roster. This was also at a time when there were only 18 teams in the league, so therefore there was plenty of talent to go around for everyone.

But sure enough, during that 1975 season, there was another disgruntled, best-in-the-game big man making a stink about getting out of a small city.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who at the time was a 28-year-old three-time league MVP and a one-time world champion, wanted out of Milwaukee. This was despite winning a recent championship, as well as being a game away from another crown the season prior.

But Kareem wanted to play in a city that better suited him personally. Whatever that meant. To be more blunt, he only wanted apart of America’s two super cities: New York or Los Angeles.

Sure enough, Milwaukee obliged and The Big Ninny (copyright: Bill Simmons) got his way. The damn Lakers scored far and away the best player in the league for a rack of basketballs (Elmore Smith, Brian Winters, and the recently drafted Dave Meyers and Junior Bridgemen.) In other words, arguably the greatest player of all time in the absolute prime of his career for four guys named Fred. Wonderful.

Now this was, and still is, the only case where the Lakers were not much of an established team before they heisted a superstar big man. Kareem joined a roster of who’s-who (remember, the ‘75 Lakers were just a 30 win team, which made the Lakers being able to put a package for him that much more ridiculous.)

But Kareem’s presence single-handedly brought the Lakers back into the title contending picture immediately, as any team with a legitimate dominant big man can win.

While the Lakers were back to competing, for the rest of the late 1970s, the Lakers were never really able to get over the hump because they never had much of a team around their superstar big man.

However, something really important occurred during summer of 1976. The New Orleans Jazz signed an aging Gail Goodrich from the Los Angeles Lakers. Following the signing, an arbitrator (who had to have been a Laker fan) criminally awarded the Lakers three first round draft choices for the remnants of Goodrich.

Those damn Lakers.

Those first rounders enabled the Lakers flexibility where they could focus on other moves to improve the team. Oh, and before we get there. Take a wild guess who one of those New Orleans first rounders turned out to be? Yes, one Magic Johnson. With Magic and Kareem, those damn Lakers now had a championship tandem heading into the 1980s.

But they weren’t done. Jerry West, who by that point had become the Lakers GM, snookered Ted Stepien for another draft choice. Stepien is arguably the most maligned owner in the history of professional sports, never focused on winning a championship – just getting to the post-season as inexpensively as possible. Early in the 1980 season, Stepien sent a future first rounder for the ever-mediocre Don Ford. That choice once again become the first overall draft selection, and the Lakers picked James Worthy.

The Lakers, and their stacked team throughout the decade became the Team of the 1980s, as they won five championships and appeared in eight NBA Finals. The Lakers success in the 1980s completely annihilated their perennial underachiever/choker aura.

The ‘acquisition’ of Abdul-Jabbar started it all. It got the centerpiece in place. His presence instantly made those damn Lakers a very good team again, and in turn, that made Los Angeles an even more attractive destination. Throughout a good seven to eight year stretch, the Lakers were able to sign great players such as Jamaal Wilkes, Bob McAdoo, Maurice Lucas, among others.

Then, once they got the breaks to go their way (ahem! Gail Goodrich compensation!), that catapulted those damn Lakers to extraordinary heights.

Also, here’s another quick caveat that this writer feels is worth rambling on about: During the 1987 season, the Lakers and Celtics were spending much of the entire year battling it out for home court advantage for their inevitable match-up in the NBA Finals.

However, the Lakers had one weakness against Boston – they could not stop Kevin McHale. McHale had always been the Lakers kryptonite. So right before the trade deadline, and right before a ginormous Sunday matinee national television match-up with those very Celtics where both teams had identical records at the time, the Lakers scooped up Mychal Thompson from San Antonio. Thompson was the number one overall pick in the same draft as Larry Bird, was still a very capable center, and more importantly, was the only player in the league who could guard McHale. They acquired him for Frank Brickowski, Petur Gudmundsson (who?!?!?!), draft considerations, and ‘cash.’ Said Larry Bird of the trade, “If San Antonio needed money, we would’ve sent them money. But to go and help the Lakers like that is just terrible.” The Lakers ended up losing only five more games the rest of the regular season (cruising to home court advantage), and then defeated the Celtics in the Finals for their fourth title of the decade.

***

Despite Abdul-Jabbar’s retirement after the 1989 season, the Lakers were still very much in the championship picture. Magic Johnson was the team’s leader and one of the three best players in the league, and the supporting cast was still very strong.

The Lakers posted the best record in the West in 1990, and reached the Finals once again in 1991. While the Lakers were far from the favorite going into the 1992 campaign (there was a team from Chicago around), they were still one of the four best teams in the league.

But one of the great tragedies in the history of sports struck their team, and the franchise suffered a colossal blow. Magic Johnson had contracted the HIV virus and was forced to retire right before the start of the season. The Lakers were built around Magic, but without him, the rest of the team looked mediocre – and they were.

LA seemed destined for mediocrity for years to come. They were old, they were overpaid, and they just weren’t very good.

But at the time, the organization was very smart, as they had Jerry West at the apex of his managing abilities.

This writer briefly discussed LA’s ascension back to the top in the 1990s and how they gradually improved their team through shrewd and under the radar free agent signings, and quality draft choices despite not being in prime draft position.

That led them to be in prime position in the summer of 1996 – just four years after Magic shocked the world and seemingly left those damn Lakers in a pretty precarious position.

And whaddya know, just in the nick of time, a 24-year-old man-child behemoth named Shaquille O’Neal, a man who had not even reached the apex of his game, (despite physically dominating his peers not seen since the days of Wilt Chamberlain), was on the free agent market and was weary of his current location.

In his first four years in the league, O’Neal averaged 27.2 points per game, 12.4 rebounds per game, and 2.7 blocks per game. He was the focal point of the Magic’s Eastern Conference Championship in 1995, and oh yeah, it’s worth repeating, he was only 24 and was also 7’1”, 280 lbs of steel, and could run the floor like a gazelle.

During the summer of 1996, the Magic and Lakers were involved in a heated bidding war for O’Neal’s services. During that summer, Shaq was teased by fellow Olympians on the 1996 Men’s US National Basketball team that he was not even recognized as the face of the team, (Penny Hardaway was), despite being far and away the best player on the team.

After the Orlando Sentinel posted two separate fan polls by Orlando residents where the fans at a 90+% clip stated flat out that O’Neal was not worth 100 million dollars, nor worth firing then-coach Brian Hill for, O’Neal took his talents to Hollywood in a matter of days, signing with a Laker team that had just traded for Kobe Bryant and had won 50+ games the prior two seasons. Those damn Lakers had done it again. They were back.

This was especially excruciating for us Celtics backers because at this time the Celtics were moribund. Their title drought had not only reached ten years, but there didn’t seem to be any hope in sight. Meanwhile, their hated rivals from Los Angeles had reloaded once again, and more championships with their newest iconic big man seemed inevitable.

And they were. Three in a row to be precise.

***

Things did not end well in Los Angeles for O’Neal. He was bitterly traded to Miami in the summer of 2004 for something that, at the time, seemed like a very weak deal. The same type of deal that the Lakers were always making for themselves. The deals where THEY acquire the big name, not to trade them away. The Lakers traded Shaq to Miami for Lamar Odom, Caron Butler (traded away a year later for Kwame Brown), and Brian Grant (who was cut after one season.)

So there it was, finally us haters of those damn Lakers were going to see some extended mediocrity from the purple-wearing tank top men. They had one superstar in Kobe Bryant, who at the time was an immensely talented yet belligerent ball hog, and a team cluttered with overpaid and overrated crappola. From 2005 to 2007 the Lakers missed the playoffs outright, and lost in the first round in two consecutive seasons. And there seemed to be no chance for those damn Lakers, because outside of Kobe Bryant, there was no one on their roster that any team wanted.

Or so we thought.

By now, you should not need me, this is recent history and the scars are still visible. But here’s a quick refresher: The Lakers started out the 2008 season well, but were seemingly not anywhere significantly better than their 2005-2007 predecessors. They were ‘good enough to make it, but not good enough to win it.’ Which is where no NBA team wants to be.

On this occasion, those damn Lakers blindsided the whole basketball world, swiftly stealing Pau Gasol from a basketball Siberia in Memphis for parts at the time that amounted to little to no value (Kwame Brown, Aaron McKie, Marc Gasol, Javaris Crittendon, and two first round draft choices.)

The deal’s egregiousness sent ripples throughout the NBA world, with members of the media and fans of the league criticizing the lunacy of the trade on Memphis’ end. Anonymous team executives got in the act as well. And four-time World Champion head coach Gregg Popovich actually went on record and went as far as saying that the trade should have been vetoed by the league.

Once the Lakers acquired Gasol in February of 2008, LA won more games than any other team for the rest of the season. They won the Western Conference before losing in the Finals, then repeated as NBA Champions in 2009 and 2010. In the seventh game of the 2010 NBA Finals, Gasol outrebounded his power forward counterpart Kevin Garnett 18-3 in what proved to be a decisive matter in their championship game victory over the Boston Celtics.

***

However, following the Lakers back-to-back championships in 2009 and 2010, (where they won the 2010 title by the skin of their teeth, or in other words, a couple of rebounds by Pau Gasol), the Lakers fell back to the pack a little bit. During the 2011 and 2012 seasons, the Lakers won a grand total of one playoff game past the first round.

Worse for the Lakers, they were seemingly a franchise in turmoil. Under the leadership of Jim Buss, the Lakers were cutting costs as if they were a small market team, worrying about profits over wins. The Lakers had fired long-time coaches, long-time members of the front office, long-time staffers, and oh yeah, they hired Mike Brown to coach their team.

They also were not as aggressive as they normally were with free agents and trades, which only seemed to reiterate their new perceived mantra that spreadsheets mattered more than banners.

And then, of course, those damn Lakers blindsided their haters with yet another haymaker. Dwight Howard to LA, while the whole basketball world’s eyes were on the Summer Olympics in London.

Howard came to LA via Orlando, following the same path of Shaquille O’Neal. In a four-team trade, the Magic got in return for Howard Arron Afflalo, Al Harrington, Nikola Vucevic, Moe Harkless, and three (late) first round draft choices. Hey, at least it was more than what they got for Shaq.

Those damn Lakers caught us sleeping again. They always do. That’s how they do it.

Some are going to say, “Well, Dwight really wants to be in Brooklyn. He’s not signing an extension with the Lakers! They may not keep him!”

Oh, puh-lease.

The Lakers, those damn Lakers, have Dwight Howard as their centerpiece for the next seven to eight years. Dwight will re-sign in Los Angeles eventually. He won’t leave a world-class organization in a world-class city with great business opportunities outside of basketball, America’s most beautiful women, as well as “75 and sunny” for 355 of the 365 days of the year, for anywhere. Take it to the bank.

Listen, Howard is a prima donna. That is safe to assume after watching his shenanigans the last few months. He will go to free agency not to seek a long-term deal with another team, but to seek the luv from other franchises and their fans. He wants to see team executives make lavish presentations towards him, and receive the same kind of hero-worship treatment that one LeBron James got in the summer of 2010. His free agency will be nothing but a carnival act for his ego. Dwight is, and will be, a Laker for his prime years, just like Kareem, Shaq, and Gasol were – you can count on that.

But Howard is a mammoth on the basketball court. And the Lakers know that. Hell, everyone knows it. Or at least they should.

Despite changes in styles of play throughout the league (like many teams trying to mold their teams after the Phoenix Suns during the mid 2000s), or catchy trends like the acceleration of advanced quasi-statistics, the Lakers have stuck with one plan. While teams embark on ‘Three Year Plans’ (whaddup Mr. Ainge!) or ‘Five Year Plans’, or ‘Nowhere Plans’ – the Lakers have stuck with their ‘40+ Year And Counting Plan.’ That is, get the best big man in basketball and go from there.

And you keep asking yourself how they do it. You keep wondering how in the blue hell can they continually stack their rosters and land the current best big man in the game. Especially recently when they sport a total of two first round draft choices in the last TEN years (Andrew Bynum and Toney Douglas) that are still on NBA rosters. My goodness.

You tell yourself to stop wondering. You tell yourself to not get agitated over it. But you can’t. Those bastids have done it again. The same redundant process has repeated itself. The cycle goes on.

Damn Lakers.

Link:

http://clnsradio.com/2012/08/21/damn-lakers/

 

[senorroboto2k5]

Great article

And in Game 6 vs. the Suns, I have always blamed Devean George not getting the rebound and thus giving Tim Thomas the 3-pt shot. I'm not sure why or if he was even in the game, as I have not looked at any footage of that game since seeing it live

 

[mr j 858]

'It was over': Retracing how Lakers got Dwight Howard after all

Mitch Kupchak's wife and kids were on vacation without him.
What was Kupchak doing? Sitting in his office. Just in case. Getting a few things done. But also just holding out hope, even if he had little reason for it.

Almost nothing material had occurred on the Dwight Howard front for three weeks.
In fact, the Lakers' general manager sat down Aug. 8 with Lakers executive vice president of player personnel Jim Buss and reviewed the roster with Andrew Bynum as the starting center.
Were Kupchak and Buss excited about it, OK with it or resigned to it? It's of no consequence (though Kupchak said they "felt great about it"). The volcano that would wake the world from its Dwightmare and give the Lakers their best chance to return to the top of the NBA finally rumbled just hours later.
In the late afternoon that same day, Orlando Magic general manager Rob Hennigan called Kupchak on the phone in his office.
The Magic had something to propose.
"It went from there," Kupchak said.
The erupting trade that gave Howard to the Lakers, Bynum to the Philadelphia 76ers, Andre Iguodala to the Denver Nuggets and various young players, payroll flexibility and draft picks to the Magic would be official fewer than 48 hours later.
Kupchak welcomed Howard to the Lakers' training facility in El Segundo the night of Aug. 10 and soon was on a red-eye flight to the East Coast to join his family – leaving behind that office where the ghosts from December finally had been exorcised.
"Bewildered and furious" was how Kupchak had been described back on Dec. 8 after the NBA stopped the Lakers' franchise-reviving trade for Chris Paul. Now the Lakers have Howard, seven months younger and nearly a foot taller than Paul, in line to continue the club's championship aspirations in the post-Kobe Bryant era – even though it took more patience than brilliance from Kupchak and Buss to make it happen.
The Lakers had some talks with the Magic back before the March 15 trade deadline about acquiring the disgruntled Howard. They didn't go far.
When the NBA's offseason market for player movement opened July 1 – with Howard reiterating his desire to leave Orlando – the Magic was far more serious about trading him. Said Kupchak of Hennigan that day: "Rob was very active."
While Steve Nash, much to their pleasant surprise, was falling into the Lakers' lap via free agency, they were hatching all sorts of ideas and chasing down several possibilities in pursuit of Howard.
The process, Kupchak conceded, was "frustrating" for him as Hennigan led him down dead-end streets that had no telling signs.
"I just never felt that there was a deal that they thought that they would do," Kupchak said. "Without going into great detail, I just felt the Magic were just canvassing the league, which is the job. ... I didn't think there would be a deal. It got really quiet a couple weeks ago. Before that, it was very crazy – and then it just died. So we had kind of moved on.
"We had signed Jordan Hill. We had signed Antawn Jamison. And we thought it was over."
But as motivational speaker Zig Ziglar once said: "Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street."
It turns out all those twists and turnarounds went into the Magic concluding that even if it didn't want Bynum, the second-team All-NBA center, because of concerns about his weak knees and how few additional assets would come with him, it still made the most sense to use him via a third team to get the package Orlando sought. Unbeknownst to Kupchak, the Magic had come up with a third team in Philadelphia, an up-and-coming but too-small team that thought it was at a dead end without someone as sizable as Bynum, 24.
"The upside was so much more than the risk," 76ers majority owner Joshua Harris told reporters in Philadelphia on Wednesday. "You talk about intelligent risk. I thought this was intelligent risk."
Hennigan learned his craft working his way up the Spurs' and Thunder's organizational charts, coming to believe in building from the ground up with youth. He liked some of the 76ers' youngsters such as former USC center Nikola Vucevic – and he would've drafted St. John's small forward Moe Harkless in June for Orlando if Philadelphia hadn't nabbed him four spots before the Magic could pick.
As widely anonymous as Harkless is, he actually was key to when the Howard saga ended. The Magic had to wait 30 days after Harkless signed his rookie contract to trade for him, and when that time elapsed, Hennigan jumped.
Hired in June by the Magic, Hennigan had sold ownership on his idea that future possibilities are gold to established talent's silver. He liked future possibilities more than taking Igoudala, 28, from the 76ers – so he figured out how to flip him to late entrant Denver for UCLA product Arron Afflalo, 26, and more picks.
Hennigan is just 30 – only four years older than Howard and 28 years younger than Kupchak. Hennigan has been widely criticized for not getting more for Howard, the 2011 NBA MVP runner-up, after reported offers from the Nets and Rockets. Hennigan's summary, though, was that there is a difference between "what's available in theory and what's available in reality."
The Lakers were always confident Howard would re-sign with them given who and where they are, besides how much more they can offer than any other club. Other teams interested in Howard were understandably worried that Howard might leave via free agency a year from now – and therefore cautious in what they offered.
Whether he's just a customer who is satisfied (Kupchak's chosen description, actually, was "ecstatic"), Kupchak praised Hennigan upon emerging so nice and dry from that waterfall of frustrating trade talks.
"Looking back on it, he did exactly what he was supposed to do," Kupchak said. "He took his time. He looked at every opportunity, narrowed it down, negotiated, went back to a different team, negotiated some more, kept on coming back to you.
"I never thought it would be a four-team deal; I thought it might be a three-team deal. So even when I thought there might be a deal there, he went out and found a fourth team to make it a better deal."
With the new No. 12 Lakers jerseys already on sale and Kupchak staying across the country with his family through next week, Iguodala was finally introduced to the media in Denver on Thursday. He had been in London playing for Team USA in the Olympics at the time of the trade.
One reason the Nuggets got him was to have Iguodala on their team to guard Bryant four times a year and maybe in the Western Conference playoffs, too. Even with that in mind, Iguodala understood Bryant's reaction in London after getting the text message from Kupchak that the Lakers, stung by two second-round playoff exits after consecutive NBA championships, had landed Howard.
"Kobe is Kobe," Iguodala said, "and he just does the nod to let you know: 'We just pulled off something. And we are trying to bring it back to L.A.'"

Link:

http://www.ocregister.com/sports/kupchak-368960-howard-lakers.html

So basically people should blame papa smurf Poppvich for teaching & influencing young under studies (Sam Presti & Rob Hennigan) who later became GM's for small market teams (OKC & Orlando) for the way they bulit teams and in Orlando's case taking a deal that looks horrible right now but we won't know & can't really grade that trade until 5 years from now and see where Orlando is at.


I just really find it ironic since Poppvich was the same dude who was complaining the hardest after the Pau Gasol deal.

 

[yagbolz]

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

http://clnsradio.com/2012/08/21/damn-lakers/

good read..

 

[runningfishy]

jesse is female?

 

[CP1708]

You guys see the list of greatest Laker teams on ESPN?

 

[geoff2005]

jesse is female?

dont know if its suppose to be sarcasm but he posted younger son and the picture is a guy....

 

[essential1]

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

http://clnsradio.com/2012/08/21/damn-lakers/

good read..

THIS MADE MY DAY!!!

 

[moe fab]

Jim Buss radio interview today from ESPN LA 710 AM

http://espn.go.com/espnradio/losangeles/play?id=8290626

Cliffs:

- Started on Nash. Him saying he didn't want to play in LA intrigued him - showed he was a competitor.

- On Dwight "odyssey". Worked on some time to be part of any deal to be done. Questions the amount of detail can be given. Was 6 hours a day for month to nothing - which was fine because the deal LA wanted wasn't there. Last minute before Mitch was headed on vaca Orl called and finally
re-started talks. LA was frustrated and put 36 hour demand on deal. Which Orlando agreed and got it done.

- Loved the deal but hated to see Andrew go, talked about Bynum for a sec.

- On offense for MB - He thought MB needed someone to run the offense on floor. Tried it with Sessions - moved to another stratosphere with Nash.

- On misconceptions on Jim - This is always what he's done, now that these been on radio/newspaper now people know him so like him but he's always been this way.

- Relationship w/ Jim&Mitch - Credits Mitch for his teaching and patience. Different style but they compliment each other and get things done in doing and not doing things.

- On fans being impatience - Have to take that criticism, Came conclusion with Mitch a couple of years back the only player they would realistically deal Bynum for was Howard. That came to fruition by being patient. Unfortunate people criticize not knowing whats behind closed doors.

- On Howard's back - Doctor's were involved. Told he's looking fine. Rely on our doctor's.

- On his lowkey style - Doesn't need to take credit because they work as a team. This is what they do.

- To end, Jim brought up Meeks and Jamison shore up the bench. Asked the hosts why they didn't bring them up.

Hosts responded about Dwight being out to start the year. Jim not given a chance to respond.

- when asked if LA was done - "We're never done." Nothing on horizon but always listening. Jordan Hill resigning was huge for team also.

This might be sig worthy

 

[essential1]

Jimmy Buss is a BAWSE..

I think he realizes that costs need to be cut eventually, but at a reasonable rate..And he knows that if he screws up, all anyone will say is he's not his father.

I think he doesn't want to be in the shadow of his dad, and wants to win

 

[tonelow]

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

http://clnsradio.com/2012/08/21/damn-lakers/

good read..

THIS MADE MY DAY!!!

We drafted Toney Douglas??

 

[pmatic]

Sold the draft pick that became Toney Douglas.

 

[essential1]

We drafted Toney Douglas??

traded him for the pick that became Andrew Goudelock

 

[senorroboto2k5]

Kobe Nearly Traded To Mavericks In 2007
Aug 22, 2012 1:49 PM EDT

The Mavericks nearly acquired Kobe Bryant in a trade with the Lakers in 2007, according to an interview Mark Cuban had on Tuesday.

“When I was doing Dancing with the Stars, I was taking breaks because I was talking to Kobe’s agent because Kobe wanted to get traded,” Cuban said. “Literally, between Dancing with the Stars practices I had thought we traded for Kobe Bryant. I even talked to their owner and thought we were going to have done deal, and [Lakers GM] Mitch Kupchak changed [Kobe’s] mind and brought him back.”

Dallas would not have traded Dirk Nowitzki for Bryant, which would have left Jason Terry, Jerry Stackhouse, Devin Harris, Erick Dampier, Josh Howard and draft picks as possible pieces.

Bryant was seeking a trade during the 2007 offseason.
Via Jon Machota/Dallas Morning News

Read more: http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/223155/Kobe_Nearly_Traded_To_Mavericks_In_2007#ixzz24IyLnGrH

Wow! I like reading about all these scenarios that fell through. Were there any others that were close? (Bulls was mentioned a lot but no way he ended up there. He wanted to play with those guys, not get traded for them)

Kobe/Dirk - I remember Buss going after Dirk in the Shaq trade, but Cuban wouldn't budge.

Were there any other close deals for Shaq now that I mention it?

 

[pmatic]

I remember Portland and Dallas going after Shaq. I think Portland was offering Abdur-Rahim, Ratliff, Miles and other players and the Mavs were offering everybody except Dirk.