Is Our Season (Possibly Our Future) Screwed?

I always try to look on the bright side, but this situation is really making things look bleak.

Pau Gasol was mentally broken after last season. And if you know Lamar Odom by now, he's an extremely kind but sensitive person.

The fact that this deal was killed is horrible in my opinion -- both short term and long term.

First and foremost, we're stuck with two integral mentally-fragile players who are probably going to give a half-hearted effort this year (and that's assuming they even show up for camp tomorrow).

I also think we lose a huge change at getting Dwight Howard.

In addition, I think the trade value of Odom and Gasol has plummeted now. Everyone knows they're available and we're going to have a tough time unloading two guys who probably will under-perform from here on out.

You can debate whether or not the trade was a good one (with our without the addition of Howard in a separate deal) all you want. However, what can't be debated is the fact that we would have received a young star who would be able to carry this team another generation after Kobe retires.

I've never been so disgusted with the league, its owners and David Stern. They've forced the Hornets to get nothing in return for CP3 and ultimately screwed over the three teams involved in this deal.

I really saw a bright future with this deal, but now I don't see it that way at all.

What's your thoughts on this? Am I being too pessimistic here?

I think you're overreacting.

We still have a great team. This isn't the first time that either of them have been part of trade rumors.

kray28 wrote:I think you're overreacting.

We still have a great team.

It remains to be seen. I doubt Pau and Odom will give it their all knowing they were extremely close to being shipped off. And can you really blame them?

Agreed

Of course we still have a great team in terms of the roster, but are we considering Gasol & Odom's mindset?

Chemistry was horrible last year on the court. I can only imagine it will get worse as a result of this.

Without Gasol & Odom being productive, we're not going anywhere anytime soon.

Do you think they're gonna give 100% right now? Odom's already talking about not showing up to camp tomorrow. Who knows with Pau.

The team will need to work together to get them refocused.

Mgmt needs to reach out to both of them and reassure them that despite the trade, they are still valued assets to the team.

BDG wrote:Of course we still have a great team in terms of the roster, but are we considering Gasol & Odom's mindset?

Chemistry was horrible last year on the court. I can only imagine it will get worse as a result of this.

Without Gasol & Odom being productive, we're not going anywhere anytime soon.

Do you think they're gonna give 100% right now? Odom's already talking about not showing up to camp tomorrow. Who knows with Pau.

I absolutely agree with all of your concerns BDG and share them. These are the two guys who no-showed the biggest in the playoffs and now what can we expect of them?

I'm afraid this trade and the fact that it was nixed by the NBA has really hurt us. I don't even understand why we had to have Odom included in this trade considering the redundancy of NO getting Scola in the deal and us losing two PF's for one PG. But beyond that, we're stuck now with two disgruntled guys who have been at our core for our championship run. The cat's out of the bag.

I guess the other owners got their wish. They've been out to destroy us all lockout and now it's all coming unraveled over here.

Reminds me of the Morrissey song "We Hate it When Our Friends Become Successful."

Buss (sr.)/kupchak needs make one of this two things:

- Shipp off them as soon as possible

- Promise them this season they will not be traded no matter what

Another situation would be quite untenable.

kray28 wrote:The team will need to work together to get them refocused.

Mgmt needs to reach out to both of them and reassure them that despite the trade, they are still valued assets to the team.

Yes, but to me ... that's easier said than done given the situation.

How does Mitch & Buss reach out to Odom/Pau? "We didn't feel like we needed you a day ago, but we need you now. You've got to stay focused."

Even if management tries to coddle them, Pau and Odom will be listening to them with mistrust in their minds.

I just don't see it being repaired.

Sorry but i am losing it over here too. Just listened to Odom's interview with Stephen A and its obvious how hurt he was. This whole thing is just over the top and ridiculous and it will be a while before i'm over it. Its just unreal and i honestly thought we gave up too much in the deal.

I have faith in this franchise. Yeah, I'm mad as all hell about this, and these recent developments may set us back a bit, but I feel Mitch and co. will find a way to overcome.

That Laker name carries weight. Eventually we'll end up on top again...as we always do. That may sound arrogant, but it's what I truly believe.

As far as our current predicament (assuming we start the season with the roster as is), we're going to need Kobe and Fish to pull this team together. The leaders have to instill an "us against the world" mentality, and prove that they can get it done.

^ I've got faith too, but at the same time we can't afford to waste Kobe's prime and we've never had to overcome such an obstacle.

In fact, no team has ever had to overcome such a thing as far as I can remember. Our #2 and (arguable) #3 best players are showing up disgruntled and might be untradeable.

That's severely messed up.

We might as well trade them for something else now. Oh no, hope we don't get vetoed again.

SOAD wrote:We might as well trade them for something else now. Oh no, hope we don't get vetoed again.

That's part of my point though -- do you really think we're going to get decent value for those two at this point?

Their trade stock just plummeted as a result of this deal getting nixed.

We're screwed. I'll believe Lamar and Pau can get over this when I see it. This was not just a rumor, they were going to be traded and it was stopped by an evil wizard. Knowing that they would be on another team had it not been for the evil wizard might be too much for them to handle. It's obvious in Lamar's interview today. I'm definitely worried.

BDG wrote:

SOAD wrote:We might as well trade them for something else now. Oh no, hope we don't get vetoed again.

That's part of my point though -- do you really think we're going to get decent value for those two at this point?

Their trade stock just plummeted as a result of this deal getting nixed.

Fine...then tell them that, and say look, you're getting your wish and not getting traded.

Lamar's been part of trade rumors before, so has Pau....they know the reality. Lamar's the only acting emotional about this. I think there's some near term fallout from this, but beyond that I think this blows over.

There is only one way this can all be done right.................the trade getting done this weekend or whatever.

we got through the Kobe/Bynum, ship his a$$ out/ "insider"/ no deng no deal fiasco .
Kobe and Fish will pull this team together through this

If this was Bynum, Fisher, Luke, Barnes, or RonRon, no big deal.

But we're talking about our 2 most sensitive players.

More importantly, the NBA screwed us out of a combo of Paul / Howard. How are we gonna replace those two? We're not. We had a chance to see Kobe retire with 7 or 8 rings. Now he's gonna be stuck on 5.

This is going to negatively impact us for a LONG time.

BDG wrote:^ I've got faith too, but at the same time we can't afford to waste Kobe's prime and we've never had to overcome such an obstacle.

In fact, no team has ever had to overcome such a thing as far as I can remember. Our #2 and (arguable) #3 best players are showing up disgruntled and might be untradeable.

That's severely messed up.

Yeah, it's messed up.

But Kobe will be the loudest voice in the locker room. He of all people, is aware of the clock ticking down on his career. He won't allow anyone to mope and pout and squander a season of his waning career.

They (Pau and Lamar) can feel bad for themselves or they can prove everyone wrong, pull the boot straps up and get the job done by coming out with a fire in the belly. We'll have to see how they respond to this adversity.

lakerswiz wrote:We were just in a position to get a superstar player through a pretty damn fair trade. One could say we were even giving up too much.

The NBA said no, basically because we would be they thought we would be too good and it wouldn't be fair to the league.

Think about that.

They didn't want us to pull off a trade that all teams agreed to because they thought we would be too dominate.

I'm done.

Yeah they lost me tonight. Screw the NBA for this. Apparently you can now throw a fit and get your way and have trades vetoed that you don't like. This is a joke. I'm already done with the NFL and I'm done with the NBA. This league is run by morons.

I think Gasol will be professional throughout all of this. Im worried that LO might sabotage his play and get traded for less his value so he`s not a lockeroom distraction.

As for the future and this applies to every big market team, are blockbuster trades not allowed anymore? New Orleans got an awesome deal, if this was the pau gasol robbery i'd understand, but the lakers actually gave a lot up. The league says players can't pick and choose where they want to go, but aren't they bring hypocrites by picking and choosing what trades go through?

John3:16 wrote:If this was Bynum, Fisher, Luke, Barnes, or RonRon, no big deal.

But we're talking about our 2 most sensitive players.

More importantly, the NBA screwed us out of a combo of Paul / Howard. How are we gonna replace those two? We're not. We had a chance to see Kobe retire with 7 or 8 rings. Now he's gonna be stuck on 5.

This is going to negatively impact us for a LONG time.

^^ Agreed. It's a problem, and a big one. Pau and LO's sensitivity really is an issue here, and like you said, the NBA just completely screwed us over twice in one shot - by pulling the plug on the deal they took away the chance for CP3 and Howard, which hurts badly enough, but also in so-doing they destroyed any chemistry we had on our team by exposing LO and Pau as being moved today. We're doubly screwed.

Does nobody else think that they can actually use this as fuel?

I mean, sure it'll be an awkward camp. But Kobe and Fish will find a way to use this to pump them up and show them that this team is not the crap they showed in the playoffs?

If CP3 to LA looms on, then yes it's a big distraction. But if this is the end of it, maybe they can get motivated even more by people thinking they can't win it.

Maybe Im seaarching for unwarranted optimism.

Perhaps this group of guys can recover by using the failed trade as motivation...

That simply isn't the point, however. The point is that David Stern is willing to do absolutely anything to enforce HIS vision of what the NBA product should be. If he is willing to act unethically even in public decisions, imagine what he is doing behind closed doors?