ESPN.com news services The Lakers, in need of a big man since trading Shaquille O'Neal to Miami last month, had to give up Gary Payton to get one. A source within the Celtics organization has told ESPN.com's Bill Simmons that Boston has dealt Chris Mihm (in a sign-and-trade), guard Marcus Banks, forward Chucky Atkins and a future second-round pick to Los Angeles for Payton, Rick Fox and a lottery-protected first-round draft pick. Boston also receives cash in the deal, the source told Simmons. The Celtics have scheduled a 4 p.m. ET news conference to announce the trade. Payton, who in June exercised his $5.4 million option to play with the team next year, struggled in his only season with the Lakers' triangle offense. He started all 104 games the team played -- 82 in the regular season and 22 in the playoffs -- but averaged 14.6 points, his lowest output since the 1992-93 season, and a career-low 4.2 assists in the regular season
wow I didnt see this coming... The Lakers now have a decent frontline with Divac and Mihm, and Atkins is serviceable as a PG...The Celtics got a scoring guard to help Pierce, and they'll end up being a nice team with Mark Blount on the rise...not a bad deal for either team, just unexpected...
Hoopshype.com has it reported as Payton and Fox for Mihm,Atkins and Marcus Banks...LA would be doin nicely if this deal gets done... edit: reported by espn... ======================= On Friday, the Boston Celtics GM pulled off his best deal in 15 months on the job, signing restricted free-agent center Chris Mihm, then trading him to the Lakers with Chucky Atkins, Marcus Banks and a 2005 second-round pick. In return, the Celtics received Gary Payton, Rick Fox, a conditional No. 1 pick (lottery protected in 2005, top-10 protected in 2006, top-three protected in 2007, unprotected after that) and cash. ========================
The only part of the deal that surprises me is Marcus Banks. Looks like Ainge gave up on him, and prefers West.
The Lakers are going from...... Hall of Fame lineup to the No name lineup. *laughing hystaricaly at my joke**wiping tears from eyes*
Seems like everyone besides me likes this trade for LA.. I'll tell you why I don't like it. Atkins is overpaid and he just reminds me of a smaller Fisher who can't defend as well, and GP would have had a big year with us if he would have stayed. Bringing in the two young guys Mihm and Banks is something I like for the future, but with so many young guys in our rotation and no TRUE PG, we're basically set to go no where but lottery. We also gave up a first round pick, something I believe is important when you're rebuilding a team. I didn't like the Jason Kidd rumors I was yearing because of his long term contract, but I would have loved to have seen that one go down rather than this one.. Mitch Kupchak = Danny Ainge 2.0?
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Banks:</div><div class="quote_post">The only part of the deal that surprises me is Marcus Banks. Looks like Ainge gave up on him, and prefers West.</div> Yeah, the only thing I like is that we get Banks, a future star.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Phreeze:</div><div class="quote_post">Seems like everyone besides me likes this trade for LA.. I'll tell you why I don't like it. Atkins is overpaid and he just reminds me of a smaller Fisher who can't defend as well, and GP would have had a big year with us if he would have stayed. Bringing in the two young guys Mihm and Banks is something I like for the future, but with so many young guys in our rotation and no TRUE PG, we're basically set to go no where but lottery. We also gave up a first round pick, something I believe is important when you're rebuilding a team. I didn't like the Jason Kidd rumors I was yearing because of his long term contract, but I would have loved to have seen that one go down rather than this one.. Mitch Kupchak = Danny Ainge 2.0?</div> You aren't the only one. Now I'm hoping Vujacic is better than expected, and that Mihm will do more than just stand and wait for the ball to come to him. What a blow to the Lakers :thumbsdow
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting realdealbneal:</div><div class="quote_post">You aren't the only one. Now I'm hoping Vujacic is better than expected, and that Mihm will do more than just stand and wait for the ball to come to him. What a blow to the Lakers :thumbsdow</div> There goes any chance of trying to make a run for Kidd. Might as well say "Bye-bye Malone" too.
I like this beacuse I am High on Banks and I think he can be great in the future but with him and Vujacic...one of them have to get the spot..looks like Kidd isnt coming to L.A... PG-Atkins/Banks/Vujacic SG-Kobe/Rush SF-Odom/Butler/George PF-Vlade/Grant/Slava C-Mihm/Slava That is just a wild guess..
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Jordan-esque:</div><div class="quote_post">There goes any chance of trying to make a run for Kidd. Might as well say "Bye-bye Malone" too.</div> Yeah you're right, thats exactly what I was thinking when I saw "Breaking News: Payton and Fox to Boston" on ESPN.com... stupid Kupchak.
I dunno...I have this feeling the Lakers just traded themselves out of the playoffs... I hate Atkins' shot seletion, and the Lakers have gotten even younger with Banks and Mihm. The only part of the trade I like is that we finally have a "quick" PG in Banks, someone who can chase around the Tony Parkers and Mike Bibby's of the West
I like this trade as a Laker fan. They get a young point guard in Banks and I think he could still be a good player. They got Chris Mihm, and they needed another big man cause Vlade is only going to give you 20 minutes a night. And, quite frankly, that's the biggest reason I like this trade. Chris Mihm is a good center and he's going to give them a big body outside of an old Vlade. So, in essence, I do like this trade.
It's hard to peer into the minds of Ainge and Kupcheck. With Shaq's departure on the horizon, Kupcheck had a chance to seriously rebuild by trading for expiring contracts, but chose instead to try to remain somewhat competitive by making the deal with Miami. It seems like Payton would have been a contributor (if his attitude was ok after having Shaq traded out from under him and Karl certain to leave). But then he turns around and trades him for unproven talent. The main knock on Banks and Atkins is that they don't have very good assist to turnover ratios. I heard Ainge it trying to get under the cap next year, and these guys will help. We'll see what they can do with it next year, since they have a lot of money in guys like Raef and Davis.
Cool. So who are you guys going to pick with the 13th pick of the draft? Kobe is going to find out what T-Mac went through in Orlando. I feel sorry for the guy now. Oh wait, no I dont.
The trade is good for the Lakers in the long run. I just didn't like the fact that GP sacrificed a lot of $$$$ to come to play in L.A., just to be traded like that. <font color="navy">He left behind his job, his friends, he even took a paycut. And do you know what houses cost around here? And he did it all for you. The Glove has got the love. Come with me baby show me a sign. </font>
I like this trade. The Lakers said they wanted to get younger and faster and that's what they just did. Plus, we don't have the BIGGEST man in basketball anymore but we have a few decent big men in the rotation. I don't think people realize that Payton's style of basketball was clashing with Kobe's. They both play one-on-one and we all know that Kobe's gonna shoot a lot more than Payton. Payton was never an all star passer and his infamous D was lacking last year becaues of his lack of quickness. Now we have 2 scorers in Kobe and Odom and some nice role players to go around them. I just hope that Sasha gets playing time now that they have 3 PGs. Maybe Kupchak's planning another trade...
I'm with Phreeze, not a great deal for the Lakers. I think Payton had something to prove and would flurish in a new offense. Could the Lakers screw their chemistry up any more?
