What mistake or occurence during the season made you angry or the most frustrated? I can honestly say Francisco Elson dropping 21 on us was the thing that got me the most angered. Seriously Wtf!?
Probably the most heated moments are when 3rd rate players get career highs off Lakers because of their laxed defense.
...not trading for Artest, there had to have been a way to get him, I know we wouldn't give up Odom, but there must be someone else the Pacers would've taken.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Pittsn0gle:</div><div class="quote_post">...not trading for Artest, there had to have been a way to get him, I know we wouldn't give up Odom, but there must be someone else the Pacers would've taken.</div> We had a deal on the table, Lamar for Artest. Everyone was willing to do it except one person, Jim Buss, Jerry Buss' son. Mitch was even willing to do the deal.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting shapecity:</div><div class="quote_post">Blowing a 3-1 series lead against the Suns.</div>I hear ya. That was the most painful thing all season for me as a fan. Especially losing in the way we did. Threw away a 50 point game from Kobe in an OT loss and then got smoked in game 7.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting TheBlackMamba:</div><div class="quote_post">We had a deal on the table, Lamar for Artest. Everyone was willing to do it except one person, Jim Buss, Jerry Buss' son. Mitch was even willing to do the deal.</div> the lakers needed a real 2nd scoring option and lamar wasnt willing to take that title and i wouldve been happy if the lakers traded him even though hes a decent passer and good rebounder
In retrospect, I'm glad we didn't trade Lamar. He came on strong at the end of the season and in the playoffs. Sure he disappeared in game 7, but he came on strong. He was aggressive and looking to score. When he does that, the Lakers are hard to beat. This is going to sound sick and selfish, but I think the death of his son is going to inspire Lamar to go out there and dominate in a lot of games. I fully expect Lamar to average close to 20 PPG, 10 RPG, and 5 APG.
just a little aside on the odom/artest trade: i would've been pissed as **** if artest came to the lakers. he's a drama king already, and he comes to the team where even the smallest drama gets blown all over the news? come on. and don't tell me oh phil could handle rodman he can handle artest. phil couldn't handle shaq and kobe, but that's because shaq and kobe went beyond just the team and became a public affair. anything artest does will immediately be all over the news in los angeles. i prefer odom. especially after watching him manhandle marion. could artest have given us the same matchup problems that our lineup caused with the suns? granted, we lost that series, but still...i don't think with artest we would've really been that much better. unless he guarded steve nash, our problems on defense would've been the same (can't stop the nash+diaw pick n roll) and our problems on offense would've been in my opinion, much worse. <font color="blue">I think you need to read the JBB guidelines, the content of your posts are violating. Please, read them and understand them. -TBM</font>
defense? artest is one of the best defensive players in the nba, also he won the defensive player of the year award
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting LongLiveChickH.:</div><div class="quote_post">just a little aside on the odom/artest trade: i would've been pissed as **** if artest came to the lakers. he's a drama king already, and he comes to the team where even the smallest drama gets blown all over the news? come on. and don't tell me oh phil could handle rodman he can handle artest. phil couldn't handle shaq and kobe, but that's because shaq and kobe went beyond just the team and became a public affair. anything artest does will immediately be all over the news in los angeles.</div> Was the news talking about the Lakes win record when Shaq and Kobe has their public affair? No 'cause they were winning. If Artest brought wins I wouldn't care how much drama he brought with him. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">i prefer odom. especially after watching him manhandle marion. could artest have given us the same matchup problems that our lineup caused with the suns?</div> Yes he could have. Artest could have shut down Marion while still getting his points. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> granted, we lost that series, but still...i don't think with artest we would've really been that much better. unless he guarded steve nash, our problems on defense would've been the same (can't stop the nash+diaw pick n roll) and our problems on offense would've been in my opinion, much worse.</div> What? Our problems on defense would have been the same? Odom is nowhere near a defensive threat as Artest is. Granted I would still want to keep Odom but I would have loved Artest here.
I don't know if Artest could have produced offensively the way Lamar did in the playoffs against Marion. The reason why Marion was so effective was because of his height and length advantage. Because of that, he was able to post up Marion and not worry about having his shot swatted because of how much taller and longer he is. Artest, on the other hand, is about the same height and doesn't have the offensive game Lamar does. Lamar is an inside out player that has tremendous passing and ballhandling skills, Artest is a banger who can spot up and hit the jumper. Plus, if you think about it, if we'd have brought in Artest, our frontcourt would have been unbelievably thin. We'd have traded away our best post player in Lamar, plus Mihm was hurt. That'd have left us with Turiaf, Bynum, and Kwame. That's thin and definitely not something I'd want.
There's been two unverified Artest rumors. One had the Lakers sending out Odom for Artest and Croshere, and another had Bynum + fillers being shipped out for Artest. I could understand not wanting to trade Odom because of the risks involved with Artest and leaving our frontline thin. However, I think the deal didn't involve Odom, and had Bynum as the player headlining the package for Artest. Both Kobe and PJax were pushing for this trade to win now, which leads me to believe Odom was never discussed. I don't think either Kobe or PJax would want Odom sent out for Artest, but I could see both on board to trade Bynum. This would have given us a core of Kobe-Odom-Artest-Kwame. The deal was definitely in place for Artest to be a Laker, and he really wanted to join the team. I think he would have been fine and under his best behavior in LA.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting shapecity:</div><div class="quote_post">Blowing a 3-1 series lead against the Suns.</div> Oooooooooooo man, i am not even a big LA fan, just kobe. And that ticked me off. Btw whenever the lakers playt he wolves, for some reason i hate you guys because u ruined minny bball. Seriously there are no lakes in LA
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting shapecity:</div><div class="quote_post">There's been two unverified Artest rumors. One had the Lakers sending out Odom for Artest and Croshere, and another had Bynum + fillers being shipped out for Artest. I could understand not wanting to trade Odom because of the risks involved with Artest and leaving our frontline thin. However, I think the deal didn't involve Odom, and had Bynum as the player headlining the package for Artest. Both Kobe and PJax were pushing for this trade to win now, which leads me to believe Odom was never discussed. I don't think either Kobe or PJax would want Odom sent out for Artest, but I could see both on board to trade Bynum. This would have given us a core of Kobe-Odom-Artest-Kwame. The deal was definitely in place for Artest to be a Laker, and he really wanted to join the team. I think he would have been fine and under his best behavior in LA.</div> yeah, that's the trade I was talking about. I heard of the same rumor and I even heard of us getting Jeff Foster back with Artest. I wanted to keep Odom, but I definately would've given up Bynum for the chance to see Kobe-Artest-Odom.
A kobe/odom/artest trio would have been sick! OMG! two of the best defensive players on the floor at the same time! I would have gave up Bynum in a heartbeat to win now!!! besides, Odom/Artest/Kobe are still very young. If this was the deal and mitch didnt pull the trigger, I would be very pissed off.
