Without trading, Lakers aren't going places

[iml84myd8s]

http://www.dailynews.com/sports/ci_3524441

Without trading, Lakers aren't going places
GM Kupchak needs to go West
Vincent Bonsignore , Staff writer

Remember the good old days when the trade deadline actually meant something to the Lakers?

Who can forget 1987 when Jerry West sent Frank Brickowski and $800,000 to San Antonio for center Mychal Thompson, whose defense on Kevin McHale was a decisive factor in the Lakers dethroning the hated Celtics for the NBA Championship later that year?

The Lakers' giddiness over prying Thompson from the Spurs was matched only by the Celtics dismay. Upon hearing about the trade - and what it took the Lakers to make it happen - Larry Bird told reporters he would have wrote a check to the Spurs himself had he known they were just looking to make a cash play.

Ah, the good old days.

The only similarities between this year's Lakers and the 1987 version is they wear the same colors and Jerry Buss still signs the checks.

In 1987, they were one player away from cementing the first back-to-back NBA championships since the Celtics in the late 1960s. This year, they're closer in record to the worst team in the league than they are to the best - and it's really not even that close.

The postseason is still within reach, but their dwindling lead over Utah for the final playoff spot in the West - it's down to one-half game - will vanish all together with a few more losses like the one against Atlanta right before the All-Star break.

If any team needs a move to spark a second-half resurgence, it's this one. But with the organization in a virtual holding pattern until its 2007 salary-cap windfall, general manager Mitch Kupchak seems content to let things play out rather than shake things up.

Kupchak hasn't ruled out making a deal before Thursday's deadline, but he doesn't expect to make one, either. In other words, don't hold your breath.

Kupchak is nothing if not cautious, which is fine if he was still driving the sleek Ferrari he inherited from West in 2000. Back then, Kupchak had two responsibilities: Get the required oil check every three thousand miles and try not to veer off the road. Beyond that,the thing pretty much drove itself to two more NBA titles.

But this isn't 2000 anymore and its time Kupchak incorporated a little more daring into his management style.

He's wise to preserve the 2007 cap space, but like his predecessor, West, he needs to be creative and courageous as he goes about rebuilding the Lakers.

That being said, here are some suggestions for Kupchak as the trade deadline approaches. Keep in mind these moves are for the future and the present.

1.Trade Lamar Odom to New York

Reports out of New York this week - OK, so it was the Post - suggested the Lakers approached the Knicks about a deal involving Odom for Penny Hardaway and rookie Channing Frye. According to reports, the Lakers backed off when the Knicks asked the Lakers to throw in Andrew Bynum.

I'd draw the line at Bynum, too. But I also wouldn't let this deal die. Knicks coach Larry Brown fell in love with Odom during the 2004 Olympics, and he's just the sort of team-oriented veteran Brown needs right now.

Hardaway's contract comes off the books after this season, so the Lakers would get more cap relief on that end of the deal. But the key is Frye, a 6-11 rookie from Arizona who's averaging 14 points and six rebounds. Down the road, Frye projects as a versatile power forward alongside Bynum.

Odom fills out the stat sheet as well as anyone - he flirts with a triple double almost every night - but the Lakers expected much more from him as the centerpiece of the Shaquille O'Neal trade two summers ago.

The compelling reason to keep him is how effective he might be on a more balanced team. But the cap relief from Penny's contract and the intrigue of a promising young power forward like Frye are too much to pass up.

2.Trade Chris Mihm, Devean George and Slava Medvedenko to Utah for Carlos Boozer.

Mihm's name hasn't surfaced as possible trade bait, but he'd draw some interest if the Lakers decided to make him available. He's got an attractive salary cap number - $3.7 million this year, $4.2 million next year - he's having a solid season and he'd definitely help a playoff team looking to beef up in its frontcourt.

The Lakers bring on salary beyond 2007 in Boozer, but moving Odom in the other trade negates Boozer's figure. George and Medvedenko's salaries make the trade feasible from a salary cap standpoint.

Boozer, who played last week for the first time this year after recovering from a hamstring injury, was reportedly headed to the Lakers in a trade last year. But someone got cold feet and nixed the deal. The trade makes better sense for both clubs this time around.

By making these two deals, the Lakers future big-man rotation could look like this: Bynum, Frye, Boozer, Brian Cook, Ronny Turiaf and Kwame Brown - if they pick up Brown's 2007 option.

As for the remainder of this season, Brown would star at center with Bynum or Frye backing him up. Boozer would start at the four, backed up by Frye, Cook and Turiaf.

3.Sign Latrell Sprewell for the remainder of the season.

Sprewell balked at signing for anything less than $5 million dollars during the offseason, but with 30 games left in the season what does he have to lose?

Ladies and gentlemen, your new 2005-2006 Lakers.

C: Kwame Brown
PF: Carlos Boozer
SF: Kobe Bryant
SG: Latrell Sprewell
PG: Smush Parker

Bench:
Brian Cook
Channing Frye
Luke Walton
Andrew Bynum
Sasha Vujacic
Devin Green
Von Wafer
Ronny Turiaf
Aaron Mckie
Penny Hardaway

[iml84myd8s]

Jerry West is the master of trades. It's awesome watching him work his magic!

[madsen35]

Mihm is better than Boozer, so it'd be stupid to give up so much for Boozer, who is injury-prone.
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Good Laker book I recommend, "The Biggest What-If's in Lakers History" http://www.amazon.com/Biggest-What-Ifs-Angeles-History-ebook/dp/B00BB3OEC0

[Sage_10]

[iml84myd8s]

I would agree. If Kwame could be in that trade versus Mihm, that would be ideal. However, the Jazz are too smart for that.

I thought the article was right on the money about making moves. Now a days, we expect Lakers management to be safe and conservative. However, I remember the good old days when we expected to be surprised by Jerry West and then shocked by the moves he was able to make. Oh yes, the good old days with the Logo!

[AirKobe8]

Mihm > Boozer
George's tri exp > Boozer

Kwame + Slava < Boozer(but I wouldnt do it)
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www.lakersbrasil.com
Fan site made by me and others, dedicated to posting Laker news and articles in portuguese.

[iml84myd8s]

Is George for 30 games better than Boozer?

George is getting a 5-year deal from someone this summer. George is a better prospect than most of the guys who just got 5-year deals.

[Darkndeep]

With trading, the Lakers aren't going places, THIS YEAR, people have to realize that and not mortgage the future.

The Lakers aren't going to beat San Antonio and Detroit (or probably have a dozen other teams if they ran into them in the playoffs) and win the championship this year, period. Nor, next year. They just don't have the weapons yet, or goods to trade for the weapons, to beat the elite teams. The Lakers are the next to the youngest team in the league and their hope lies in the development of youth and players who come together as a team. What is needed most is patience, to see who among the young players blossoms, both as an individual and as team player within the (triangle) system. Trading Sasha, Cook, Smush, etc. now would really bring back little or nothing; in a year or two, one or more of these guys could take off and be far more valuable as trade bait, if not outright indispensible to the Lakers. The risk in keeping them and being patient? We don't win it all and their value drops further. Again, we're not going to win it all in the next couple of years, anyway, and it's not like we'd get a whole lot back for them now, anyway.

I have no problem in making trades in the hope of improvement, but we cannot lose sight of the reality that we really have to be looking a couple of years or more down the road for any realistic title hopes, and plan accordingly. Teams that make trades for the sense of making trades go nowhere. If you have watched the NBA for awhile, you realize that championship teams usually come out of teams that have floundered for awhile as young, growing teams that were patient in sticking to their core and did not opt for the false "quick" approach of trading and trading and trading their way into contention. Trades disrupt development and rarely are a "quick" road to championships: look at the teams that live off them and see how many championships they have won (the active trading teams in the past few years that come to my mind, the Knicks, Portland, New Jersey, Celtics, Mavericks, Miami haven't won anything).

The trades discussed in this article would net us Frye and Boozer for Odom and Mihm (I really don't see Slava and George as being part of the future of the team and would include them in any trades that might result in improvement). Is this terrible? I'm not sure, but we wouldn't have a center, would be giving up any possibility of a big free agent in 2007 or 2008 and aren't putting ourselves in a position to win any championships right away with the new guys, so I don't see how they are really any more than trades for the sake of trades--the type of moves we really have to be careful about.

Columnists like to stir things up to sell papers, but they aren't any more sports experts than most of us--and will be the first to criticize when the team follows their "advice" and it backfires.

[Mailman04]

I wouldn't trade either Mihm or Bynum or Kwame to get Boozer. I don't like trading Lamar to the Knicks either. I'm all for a trade, but not any of these. Those are worse trades than Mitch does.

[Bergamotichek]

Those trades are even more assinine than B-Scott's crap.

Odom for Frye? No thanks.

Mihm AND George (oh yeah... and Slava)!? No bleeping way in Hell!

Guy should be looking for a job at McDonald's... not writing articles for the Daily News.

[angrypuppy]

The Boozer trade scenario is looney, as it wouldn't take much more than expiring contracts to set him free. Either he hates Utah with a passion, or he's an extremely fragile player coupled with a cap-killing contract. It doesn't matter which is the case, because either make him a major potentially dangerous acquisition for any team.

Hardaway and Frye for Odom only makes sense if it was one-leg for a three way trade, with the third team wanting a huge expiring contract and prospects to rebuild. I could see it if KG had asked Taylor to move him to the Lakers. The Tpups would probably want Frye, Bynum, picks, and expiring contracts (this may also be the reason why Isiah mentioned that he would only trade Frye for a "Kevin Garnett-type player" and demanded Bynum. Isiah's figured out why we're trading Odom, and wants to do the Garnett deal himself). But this is conjecture. A straight-up trade between just the Lakers and Knicks would be stupid.

[Mailman04]

Hardaway and Frye to me only makes sense if you write this year and next off. I thought the purpose of the trades were to make the Lakers better now and still preserve the future. If the Lakers can't do that, I am all for standing pat. All I really care for them to do is use some imagination and improve the depth a little. I am not asking for Garnett, Francis or whomever. Just one or two more for depth.

[angel]

I don't see a lot of movement if the Lakers want to make the Playoffs this season. Even good players take time to adjust.
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"Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that." ~~Martin Luther King Jr.~~

[thumpinghead]

[sodapoppenski]

[GameCock-MD]

[Fan0Bynum17]

this guy had me going until his lameass trade suggestions. what is he suggesting mitch hold a gun to isiah's head until he gives up frye?

[And 1]

[Vlade]

Ladies and gentlemen, we know have the answer to who could possibly be a worse GM than Kupchak, and his name is Vincent Bonsignore!
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"All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie."

[angel]

I believe making the Playoffs is a big step. It's part of developing the confidence to make it to the next level.
_________________
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that." ~~Martin Luther King Jr.~~

[GameCock-MD]

[iml84myd8s]