If I were in charge of the Lakers and wanted them to do well, hell no. 7'1 centers are rare, especially a young one like Bynum, he can give any top center trouble, his length and defensive presence can change shots a lot better than Gasol would at center, or Amare and his general not great defense.
Amare is at $16M & Drew is at $12.5M so one of those 3 would need to be part of the deal as "filler."
We might even be able to use the full MLE on another perimeter player if we got those contracts out of here.
They all roughly make 5 million. Morrison has 1 year left. Vujacic has 2. Walton has 4. You could only trade 1 of them, and Walton would give you the most savings. So Bynum + Walton for Amare. I still wouldn't do it if my goal was for the Lakers organization to win. I'd pay the extra 1.5 million a year and keep Walton. You would also have to deal with re-signing Amare, and you can't guarantee he wouldn't walk.
If Walton leaves as well he can pay for Amare's new contract. We already gambled 12+ million a year on Bynum. If he walks though, we're still incredibly deep in the front court and we can actually get a point guard. Probably some ring chasing PF too so we should still be well-rounded. Any SF could replace Luke, I'm good either way.
Straight up I wouldn't. But we include Sasha I would. Luke's contract really isn't that bad in the grand scheme of things, it's just too lengthly. Now if Drew could stay healthy for once, I'd say hell no. Actually I'd have second thoughts about the swap even if we include Sasha. I don't like Amare as a player at all. He'll give us zero defense, he's a prima donna, his game revolves around athleticism, so an injury, or age will make his game deteriorate dramatically. So actually I dunno, it's a tough one. On second thought I'd probably just stay pat. I still believe in Drew, and I've never been a huge fan of Amare's game anyways.
If they tossed in Steve Nash, I'd do it easily though. For us to shed Sasha, Luke, Farm/Morrison that's what we'd have to include. Ain't going to happen of course, but funny deal anyway. :]
I don't want Steve Nash, he's too old. I want Barbosa and Earl Clark. Mitch is our GM, he can get whatever the fuck he wants.
I'm sure Mitch will tackle that after he gets back our free agents. Ammo and Farm are begging to get traded for something.
