You spend 10 million dollars a year on a new coach and your GM doesn't take the time to get him a roster he can work with. How can you go through the whole off season including the lottery and not work with your coach to get at least a balanced roster of players that he would be happy with? What is management doing and why does Mitch still have his job? Why wasn't Phil asked the same question he was this week five months ago? ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THIS ROSTER? Why was nothing done about it?
It seems to me the Lakers have accepted that they are in a rebuilding process, albeit not from the ground. I think they just wanted to ensure that a couple of sure-fire pieces (Phil Jackson and Kobe) were there as well as some enigmas who provide hope with unproven potential (Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum, Kwame Brown, heck pretty much everyone else on the team). I think they'd rather go live with what they've got and see where they need to go with those pieces. Hey, it's how Phil started out with the Bulls. He just had Jordan who was awesome and a load of question marks. I think Phil really wants Lamar to take that Pippen role as the champion of the question marks. On top of that, I think Phil believes he can make Kwame Brown obedient. Lakers fans better hope Kobe leads by example.
I'm confident this laker team will be good within 2-3 years. And if they are in championship contention by the end of Jacksons contract I'd bet he'd be willing to sign another one, even if he has no intention of fulfilling the entire time. like he's said "who wouldn't want to win the championship" and it would cement his status as one of the best, if not the best coach ever. I think he also feels he kind of owes Kobe a favor since his book didn't exactly make Kobe look great.
I don't know Phil personally as you may guess, but I'd be willing to make a wager of anything that he'd tell you straight up he doesn't owe Kobe jack. I think both he and Kobe feel the other owe's them.
Future, what future? <div class="quote_poster">Quoting ilive4ball:</div><div class="quote_post">I'm confident this laker team will be good within 2-3 years. .</div> Based on what? There is no young proven talent, just question marks with bad histories. Not one of the players on this roster except for Kobe can call himself a proven winner, not one.
Personally, I don't think this roster is as bad as you guys may make it out to be. They finally have a solid point guard who can set up the offense in Aaron McKie, that way Kobe doesn't have to have the ball in his hands at all time. Odom is still there and is coming off a solid season. They pulled the trade to bring in Kwame, who still has loads of potential because the Wizards never really played him. Overall, this roster is more appealing than last years if you ask me. We can finally move Odom down to the 3, we got our frontcourt help that we needed last year, and we got a point guard that isn't going to have a shoot first mentality like Atkins. Beyond that, we drafted our center of the future and have him waiting in the wings. Overall, I think this team could surprise, it all depends on whether or not Kobe can trust his teammates more than he did last year. And if he can do that, and not feel as if he has to shoot everytime down the court, I think the Lakers could be a lot better than what they were last year.
It's funny how people seem to believe they are all of a sudden a GM themselves... Thinking that they can do a better job, like they've been in the league as long as Mitch himself... It's unfortunate that for the last few years, the way things have gone with the lakers, you would think that he doesn't know what he's doing, but even Jerry West has said that it took him a while to start seeing positive things happen with the picks that he's made... Yah, things could've gone better for the Lakers with the Kobe & whats-his-name deal, but when it comes down to it, whats-his-name wanted out, due to his premadonna reasons, not because of Mitch... Plus Jerry Buss wanted him out as well; you think Buss felt like meeting his offer after being disrespected? Fact of the matter is, things happen for a reason, if whats-his-name ends his career with no additional rings and causing more drama in Miami, then I'm sure that the thought of him staying in LA would start to differ. All we could do is wait till the season starts to see whats going to happen... Plus with whats-his-name adding pounds again from hitting the weight room, I'm predicting that he's going to lose his stamina again, thus making his big toe flare to the size of his ego...
