I guess Kobe has quite a bit of gas left in the tank.

Girls' Club

 

Damn, I wish I had kept watching the game. The Lakers are winless, people!

 

Their on pace to to finish 66 games behind the Clippers.

 

I still think that Kupchak has a plan to add some significant talent to the roster. My best guess: KMart gets signed in March with the $9 mil traded player exception.

 

Don't crow too loudly yet. The Bulls are supposed to be a top team, the Lakers were without Bynum (now their main player) and the Bulls still had to rally to win by 2.

 

What is LA giving Denver?

They screwed up dumping Odom for nothing, there's no magic fix.

 

God, I hope they waste their money on KMart. He's been a below average, injury plagued, NBA player for at least five NBA seasons. He missed 34 games last season, 24 the year before that, 16 the year before that and 11 the year before that. Notice a pattern?

He turns 34 in 4 days. The Lakers already have 8 guys on their roster 31 and older.

Yeah, I'd love to see them waste their trade exception on Kenyon Martin. But, I'm afraid they they may actually find someone useful instead.

BNM

 

Denver gets nothing. KMart is a UFA and the Lakers have a $9 mil traded player exception that can be used to sign a player even though they're over the cap.

 

You may be right. From what I saw in a report I just read on his China experience, he wasn't very productive. Apparently he's reached a buy-out agreement with his China club and has returned to the US looking for a new contract. Somebody will give him a shot, but probably not at anywhere near $9 mil.

 

Post for the economy!

 

Watched most of the game and I agree. On paper, with the Lakers talent without Bynum - they should not have been in the same zip-code as the Bulls.

 

Kobe had an ok game yesterday but age, and that wrist are taking a toll on him.

The Bulls are struggling a bit and so is Rose.

 

I read that his teammate Patty Mills outshone Martin (paid much more than Mills), causing the coach to be replaced midseason.

 

It's a TRADE exception, not a free agent signing exception.

 

This... A trade exemption can only be used to trade a player of equal or lessor value. Lakers are over the cap; so they couldn't offer that amount to an unrestricted free agent.

 

True. I wasn't thinking straight. It would have to be a sign-and-trade deal where Denver received a pick (and their own traded player exception) in return for for facilitating the deal. There are probably better options for the Lakers, but I just thought about them when I saw that KMart had left his Chinese team.

 

They can't even offer a pick with the exemption. It can only be used for one player; without anything or other players involved. Example: you can't use TE + pick for said player. It must be 1 player for TE only. You could get creative like Portland did, when they used the TE for James; with another deal to buy their first rounder. Rumor had it that Phoenix wouldn't sell us the pick unless we took on James's contract.

 

So Denver could sign him and trade him to the Lakers for the exception and a pick (or $3M). But it's certainly clear that the Nuggets don't need him right now.

I also agree that the Lakers either need Dwight Howard or a complete tear-down. Unfortunately tear-downs never last long for them because they're a top free agent destination. Unlike us (which is why cap space isn't so valuable to us).

 

That's not right. Technically, there is no such thing as a traded player exception; the CBA talks about simultaneous and non-simultaneous trades. In other words, a non-simultaneous trade is one where a multi-team deal takes place in two parts over a period of a year or less. Here's an example from Larry Coon's CBA FAQ page from the previous CBA. As far as I know, there weren't any changes to this in the new deal:

https://webfiles.uci.edu/lcoon/cbafaq/salarycap.htm#Q72

 

No you are right that you can accumilate the TE to higher value. What I'm saying is the TE can only be used for 1 player. So Lakers having a 9 mil TE means they can only aquire a 9 mil or less player in return. They can't use it for a pick and a player.