Alright, unfortunately im not a memeber of the insider. But Mark Stein from ESPN wrote an article on Phil Jackson toughts of AI. He also quote Phil Jackson as saying that, "When I was with New York, we had a really good basketball team, [but] the chance to pursue Earl Monroe came to the Knicks ... which would give us [Bill] Bradley, [Dave] DeBusschere, [Willis] Reed, [Walt] Frazier and [Earl] Monroe," Jackson said. "The natural assumption is, 'How are you going to accommodate a guy who scores 26 points a game and takes that many shots?' [But] when I expressed concern to Bill Bradley, he said, 'Oh, we'll fit him in, he's a good team player.' And we did." It appears that Phil Jackson will love to have AI on the Lakers. Its seems that he is pushing some sort of trade. Can there be a possibility of obtaining AI with out trading Odom, Kwame, Bynum, Luke, Turiaf, and Farmar? My other question is, can we trade for AI and if we are short on the salary match pay off the Sixers and offer first round picks?
The Lakers would need a third team to land Iverson if they weren't going to give up the players you listed above. With Odom out for a month, it's hard to see the Lakers making any serious move, because it would likely mean Kwame or Bynum is being traded and the Lakers don't have any depth in the frontcourt. Lakers have about $8M to $10M in expiring contracts (Mihm, McKie, Shamu) and the injury exception ($2.1M) they can ship out. They would need to come up with another $8M to match Iverson's salary. Kwame makes $8M, so the Lakers would have to find a taker for Kwame and that team would send Philly pieces they want. Or the Lakers would have to find a taker for the expiring contracts and that team would send Philly pieces they want. I don't think any team in the West would want to help us, and the East is limited.
