Rick Bucher just reported that Karl Malone has agreed to sign with the Lakers - check espn.com's front page- no story just yet.
Wow. This is some pretty big news however I dont think Karl will be a good fit here. Just to many players that need the ball and there is only one ball. I dont see how Malone will break the all-time scoring title in LA. I just dont see it with Shaq, Kobe, Payton and him all needing their touches. A team must have a supporting cast and maybe two leaders at the max. The Lakers now look like they have 4 if Malone signs.
Malone only needs to average 12.3 a game in two years to get all-time record..but it seems he isn't too bothered with that..i don't think it will be a problem for those guys to share the ball....
kobe and shaq's scoring will go down, so it looks like either tmac or ai will lead the league in scoring next year.
here how i see it pg-payton 15pts 8 asst pg sg-kobe 25ppg sf-fox/6ppg pf-malone 14ppg 8rpg c-shaq-23 ppg 10rpg nice team, i think the season's over already
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">A league source told ESPN the Magazine's Ric Bucher that Karl Malone has decided to join the Los Angeles Lakers. The move comes just days after Gary Payton joined the team as well. Malone showed strong interest in the Lakers from the start of the free-agent negotiations on July 1, to a degree that the Hall of Fame-bound power forward is apparently willing to join the dethroned champions for a mere $1.5 million -- a cut of almost $18 million from his 2002-03 salary. The $1.5 million figure is the most L.A. could offer Malone next season after committing its $4.9 million mid-level exception to Payton. Malone would have likely been able to get more money if he signed with San Antonio, Sacramento or Dallas.</div> http://msn.espn.go.com/nba/news/2003/0710/1579083.html
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting "knicks235":</div><div class="quote_post">here how i see it pg-payton 15pts 8 asst pg sg-kobe 25ppg sf-fox/6ppg pf-malone 14ppg 8rpg c-shaq-23 ppg 10rpg nice team, i think the season's over already</div> looks good to me, i think that payton will have over 10 assists though, seeing that he has 3 of the best players in the league on his team now. i agree, the season is basically over already.
i think that the third scorer will just be a tossup between GP and malone....it'll probably depend more on who they are playing. for example, against east coast teams, malone might get more open looks because they might gamble to double team shaq. the east coast is screwed because they have such undersized centers...none of them stand a chance at stopping shaq one-on-one.
the easat just sucks. it will be contracted and the players will be disperesed to tthe western conferenacew teams
I agree, It is not as much of an accomplishment as it used to be to make the playoffs in the East, a team in the East will make the playoffs next year with a record under .500 and Don't forget about the rest of the West before you go handing the title to the Lakers, just look at what happened this last season with them.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting "knicks235":</div><div class="quote_post">here how i see it pg-payton 15pts 8 asst pg sg-kobe 25ppg sf-fox/6ppg pf-malone 14ppg 8rpg c-shaq-23 ppg 10rpg nice team, i think the season's over already</div> 8rpg for Malone? he didn't even average that this season and it's not like there was anyone else on his team that made up for it. Shaq is gonna get all the rebounds close to the basket (he should..) so that doesn't leave much for Malone. Shaq will probably get 25ppg+. i think he made it known that he better have the ball in his hands most trips up the court
