Lets look at it this way: Benefits for Butler to stay with the Lakers: * stay with his friends (Kobe, Odom). * play in a city that he loves. Benefits for Butler to go elsewhere: * get the opportunity to showcase his all-star caliber game and become a franchise player. * get the money and financial stability he deserves for himself and his family. Laker_fan, what do you think?
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">* get the money and financial stability he deserves for himself and his family.</div> I think getting payed nearly 2 million will be enough financial stability for his family if he stays with LA. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">* get the opportunity to showcase his all-star caliber game and become a franchise player.</div> He won't just turn into a monster in DC, it will take time for him to settle in. Say he never does settle in with his new teammates? He will be a "could have been" type player. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">* stay with his friends (Kobe, Odom).</div> Your forgetting that great chemistry with teammates means better results. You are also forgetting that he put up 20 points a night when Odom was injured. He now has the confidence and may be putting something near that now that Odom is back. His scoring average will definatly increase, the question is by how much. I believe he could score 18ppg. Caron's talents have been proven and Kwame's haven't, so there is no reason for us to trade Caron.
the point is, we have a bulk of small forwards including odom. i think the lakers want to take advantage of odom's size in SF so they switched him to SF leaving no one in the PF spot therefore they marketed butler to the wiz and got a PF in brown. brown is definitely an IF (!) but the opportunity was there to take an athletic PF.
On the subject of Kwame, I hope the deal falls through if the trade involves Caron. I hope that they can't make a deal as Kwame wants three years and the Lakers want him for two years to clear cap space when Yao and Amare because free agents. Or the Knicks have something planned and make a better offer.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Laker_fan:</div><div class="quote_post">I think getting payed nearly 2 million will be enough financial stability for his family if he stays with LA.</div> How would you feel if all of your peers, especially players that are no where the level of you, are getting paid twice as much? <div class="quote_poster">Quoting Laker_fan:</div><div class="quote_post">He won't just turn into a monster in DC, it will take time for him to settle in. Say he never does settle in with his new teammates? He will be a "could have been" type player.</div> How do you know he won't blossom? Say his game explodes because now he doesn't have to share playing time behind Kobe and Lamar. If he stays with the Lakers, he may never reach his potential. If that happens, he will always be thought of as "what if he didn't have to play third fiddle behind these two guys? He could be a franchise player." <div class="quote_poster">Quoting Laker_fan:</div><div class="quote_post">Your forgetting that great chemistry with teammates means better result.</div> Of course team chemistry is important. But what about playing time? Great team chemistry from sitting on the bench will only take you so far. Everyone playing up to their potential is just as important as great team chemistry. <div class="quote_poster">Quoting Laker_fan:</div><div class="quote_post">You are also forgetting that he put up 20 points a night when Odom was injured. He now has the confidence and may be putting something near that now that Odom is back. His scoring average will definatly increase, the question is by how much. I believe he could score 18ppg.</div> "when Odom was injured," as in when Caron was the 2nd option on the team, not the third. The question is how well will he play when he plays a whole season as the 1st/2nd option of a team. How well was JOneal playing in Portland when he was 3rd in line behind Rasheed and BGrant? What happened when he went to Indy and got the playing time he needed? <div class="quote_poster">Quoting Laker_fan:</div><div class="quote_post">Caron's talents have been proven and Kwame's haven't, so there is no reason for us to trade Caron.</div> Lets look at this carefully... What positions are we strong at? SG, SF What positions are the Lakers weak at? PG, PF and Center What position has the most depth? SF Now we're presented with the possibility of addressing one or our weaknesses at the expense of a player that plays positions that we're already strong at. Now of course you're right that Caron is proven and Kwame isn't, but hey, big risks reap big rewards. And when you have guys like Jerry West and Shaq that are also trying to recruit Kwame based on his potential, wouldn't you be optimistic as well? And say he doesn't pan out the way we'd want him to....we hold an option on his 3rd year, which gives us the cap space to make a big splash in the free agent market that summer.
Also another thing to note -- Washington runs a guard friendly offense, Caron is going to love it over there. Caron is a workhorse and outside of Kobe Bryant, Gilbert Arenas is probably the hardest working player in the league. Caron is going to love it in Washington, and Washington will love Caron.
