M Cupcake is giving away good talent for cheap

Honestly guys the lakers could be a whole lot better if the GM, M. Cupcake, didn't give away good players for little to nothing. He traded Shaq and got punked by Pat Riley. Shaq was worth at least 2 or three really great plays and all we got was Lamar, an injury proned foward and C. Butler. Now if he gives K. Brown and Farmar up he better get more than just Jason Kidd. The Lakers need K. Brown's size in the paint. We cannot afford not to have at least two or three rebounders in the paint. If I was trading Shaq I would have sent Him to Indiana for J. O'neal, Ron Artest, A Cruscher, one more really good player. Mike just gave Shaq away. I think that sucks. Nothing we can do about it but we've got to stop making these bad trades. M. Cupcake need to get more for the talent he is giving away.
One more thing we need at least 3 old guys on the team to keep things running smooth. If we could get S. Pippen, and couple more older guys that would be great. If M. Cupcake was going to get anyone I would say go after J. kidd this year and Carlos Boozer next year. Imagine this:
Kobe, Evans, L Walton
J. Kidd, Farmar, Vulichic
K. Brown, Bynum,
L. Odom, S Pippen
C. Boozer, Artest

I pray one day that Boozer and Artest sign with LA!

The Lakers need to desperately add some guys that will bring TOUGHNESS to the team. Kobe the best all around player but we need to tough guys that don't take crap to bring seriousness to the team.

This team could win a title for sure.

Thanks,
Coolingwater

Kwame Brown! Not Qwame Brown

You say we gave away Shaq for nothin and that we should have traded Shaq to f.e. Indiana for Jermaine, Psycho Artest and crap, sure i would do it, but Shaq wouldnt go to Indy to play with garbage, and if we would try to trade him to indy, he would just say that after one year he will opt out and be free agent, leave indy with nothin, so indy would never do it.

Think about this.

coolingwater921 wrote:Honestly guys the lakers could be a whole lot better if the GM, Mike Cupcake, didn't give away good players for little to nothing. He traded Shaq and got punked by Pat Riley. Shaq was worth at least 2 or three really great plays and all we got was Lamar, an injury proned foward and C. Butler. Now if he gives Q. Brown and Farmar up he better get more than just Jason Kidd. The Lakers need Q. Brown's size in the paint. We cannot afford not to have at least two or three rebounders in the paint. If I was trading Shaq I would have sent Him to Indiana for J. O'neal, Ron Artest, A Cruscher, one more really good player. Mike just gave Shaq away. I think that sucks. Nothing we can do about it but we've got to stop making these bad trades. M. Cupcake need to get more for the talent he is giving away.
One more thing we need at least 3 old guys on the team to keep things running smooth. If we could get S. Pippen, and couple more older guys that would be great. If M. Cupcake was going to get anyone I would say go after J. kidd this year and Carlos Boozer next year. Imagine this:
Kobe, Evans, L Walton
J. Kidd, Farmar, Vulichic
Q. Brown, Bynum,
L. Odom, S Pippen
C. Boozer, Artest

I pray one day that Boozer and Artest sign with LA!

The Lakers need to desperately add some guys that will bring TOUGHNESS to the team. Kobe the best all around player but we need to tough guys that don't take crap to bring seriousness to the team.

This team could win a title for sure.

Thanks,
Coolingwater

First of all, it is Mitch Kupcake NOT MIKE KUPCAKE. Second it is Kwame Brown NOT Qwame Brown.

From looking at your post, the team you posted is unrealistic. How are the lakers going to afford Kobe, Artest, Boozer, Odom, and J Kidd at a decent price? Sure this can happen if J Kidd, Boozer, and Artest make 2 million each. Think about it, even if you take out Brian Grant's contract (15 mil) with just Kobe, Odom, and Brown they are still over the salary cap and you want to add 3 more starters? I understand the frustration from the shaq trade but this is simply a pipe dream and it will remain a pipe dream because there is NO WAY IN HELL the lakers can assemble all those players you mentioned.

Lakers U.K wrote:Kwame Brown! Not Qwame Brown

There goes your basketball IQ credibility.

coolingwater921 wrote:Honestly guys the lakers could be a whole lot better if the GM, Mike Cupcake, didn't give away good players for little to nothing. He traded Shaq and got punked by Pat Riley. Shaq was worth at least 2 or three really great plays and all we got was Lamar, an injury proned foward and C. Butler. Now if he gives Q. Brown and Farmar up he better get more than just Jason Kidd. The Lakers need Q. Brown's size in the paint. We cannot afford not to have at least two or three rebounders in the paint. If I was trading Shaq I would have sent Him to Indiana for J. O'neal, Ron Artest, A Cruscher, one more really good player. Mike just gave Shaq away. I think that sucks. Nothing we can do about it but we've got to stop making these bad trades. M. Cupcake need to get more for the talent he is giving away.
One more thing we need at least 3 old guys on the team to keep things running smooth. If we could get S. Pippen, and couple more older guys that would be great. If M. Cupcake was going to get anyone I would say go after J. kidd this year and Carlos Boozer next year. Imagine this:
Kobe, Evans, L Walton
J. Kidd, Farmar, Vulichic
Q. Brown, Bynum,
L. Odom, S Pippen
C. Boozer, Artest

I pray one day that Boozer and Artest sign with LA!

The Lakers need to desperately add some guys that will bring TOUGHNESS to the team. Kobe the best all around player but we need to tough guys that don't take crap to bring seriousness to the team.

This team could win a title for sure.

Thanks,
Coolingwater

Q.Brown?

This is one of the funniest threads ever! Q Brown, Mike Cupcake, and then the guy thinks it's easy to land Kidd, Boozer, and Artest? To be alongside Kobe, Odom, and Bynum? And Kwame?

Lakeshow24 wrote:This is one of the funniest threads ever! Q Brown, Mike Cupcake, and then the guy thinks it's easy to land Kidd, Boozer, and Artest? To be alongside Kobe, Odom, and Bynum? And Kwame?

If you're not savy enough to know I meant to spell Cupcake for Mitch's last name your cred is the one in question. As far as the Q instead of the K that was a boo boo. Get over it and man up to the fact we need to get more bang for the talent we trade.
Stick to the issue, M. Cupcake needs to stop giving away good talent for injured and weak talent.

coolingwater921 wrote:

Lakeshow24 wrote:This is one of the funniest threads ever! Q Brown, Mike Cupcake, and then the guy thinks it's easy to land Kidd, Boozer, and Artest? To be alongside Kobe, Odom, and Bynum? And Kwame?

If you're not savy enough to know I meant to spell Cupcake for Mitch's last name your cred is the one in question. As far as the Q instead of the K that was a boo boo. Get over it and man up to the fact we need to get more bang for the talent we trade.
Stick to the issue, M. Cupcake needs to stop giving away good talent for injured and weak talent.

First of all, you're giving yourself way too much credit. You referred to Mitch Kupchak as Mike Cupcake. Now, it would have been slightly funny had you not called him Mike as well. Second off, your repetitive usage of the letter Q is hilarious. You didn't realize something was up when your pinky finger kept stretching out to that Q? I mean, seriously, who uses the letter Q that often? Third off, your trade scenario is unbelievably stacked in favor of the Lakers. Nobody trades that way. You don't get Kidd, Odom, Kobe, Boozer, Artest, Bynum, and Kwame. Too many big names; it just isn't realistic at all.

Paul wrote:You say we gave away Shaq for nothin and that we should have traded Shaq to f.e. Indiana for Jermaine, Psycho Artest and crap, sure i would do it, but Shaq wouldnt go to Indy to play with garbage, and if we would try to trade him to indy, he would just say that after one year he will opt out and be free agent, leave indy with nothin, so indy would never do it.

Think about this.

Exactly! It is so easy to say we don't like the trade but you need to take in the entire picture... like Paul said, Shaq vetoed the Indy deal.. what else (in reality) was available? "Gave up Shaq"... try "Shaq sh.. well, pooped on the Lakers Organization and took away all leverage they had and needed to deal the big cry baby or else be faced with him draining the team and leaving for nothing."

As for Mitch giving up talent for nothing, how about you throw out better examples to support your rant.

Q Brown

Lakeshow24 wrote:

coolingwater921 wrote:

Lakeshow24 wrote:This is one of the funniest threads ever! Q Brown, Mike Cupcake, and then the guy thinks it's easy to land Kidd, Boozer, and Artest? To be alongside Kobe, Odom, and Bynum? And Kwame?

If you're not savy enough to know I meant to spell Cupcake for Mitch's last name your cred is the one in question. As far as the Q instead of the K that was a boo boo. Get over it and man up to the fact we need to get more bang for the talent we trade.
Stick to the issue, M. Cupcake needs to stop giving away good talent for injured and weak talent.

First of all, you're giving yourself way too much credit. You referred to Mitch Kupchak as Mike Cupcake. Now, it would have been slightly funny had you not called him Mike as well. Second off, your repetitive usage of the letter Q is hilarious. You didn't realize something was up when your pinky finger kept stretching out to that Q? I mean, seriously, who uses the letter Q that often? Third off, your trade scenario is unbelievably stacked in favor of the Lakers. Nobody trades that way. You don't get Kidd, Odom, Kobe, Boozer, Artest, Bynum, and Kwame. Too many big names; it just isn't realistic at all.

I don't think it's unreasonalbe to get Kidd, Kobe, Boozer, Artest, K. Brown, and Odom. Look at the big names in Miami: Shaq, Wade, Morning, Payton, E Jones, J Williams, and a couple others.
Big name in Detroit: Webber, Billups, R Wallace, R Hamilton, Prince, and couple other really good players.
Our team is the LA Lakers and LA is the land of Legends. If these teams can get older vets with great talent and some great young names to play for them, it is not unlikely that the Lakers cannot do the same.
The Lakers need a good salesman in the GM spot, not a Cupcake who gives good talent away cheap.
Even Houston has MacGrady, Ming, Mutombo, J Howard, and some other great young guys.
We can do much better with the Lakers. We have some really great pieces and all we need is few more to add size, toughness, experience and J Kidd as the floor general. We don't have enough older vets on the LA squad this year. The old guys bring experience, calmness and wisdom to the younger players. On our Championship teams in 2000, 01, 02 we had some older veterans on the squad( Salley, Harper, Grant, Green, Horry,) with Shaq and Kobe. We need some now and always to get to the next level. Older guys are cheap so salary is not an issuee. Add that to a team 7 or 8 younger players with quickness, and passion for the game then you have a Championship team.

Lakeshow24 wrote:

coolingwater921 wrote:

Lakeshow24 wrote:This is one of the funniest threads ever! Q Brown, Mike Cupcake, and then the guy thinks it's easy to land Kidd, Boozer, and Artest? To be alongside Kobe, Odom, and Bynum? And Kwame?

If you're not savy enough to know I meant to spell Cupcake for Mitch's last name your cred is the one in question. As far as the Q instead of the K that was a boo boo. Get over it and man up to the fact we need to get more bang for the talent we trade.
Stick to the issue, M. Cupcake needs to stop giving away good talent for injured and weak talent.

First of all, you're giving yourself way too much credit. You referred to Mitch Kupchak as Mike Cupcake. Now, it would have been slightly funny had you not called him Mike as well. Second off, your repetitive usage of the letter Q is hilarious. You didn't realize something was up when your pinky finger kept stretching out to that Q? I mean, seriously, who uses the letter Q that often? Third off, your trade scenario is unbelievably stacked in favor of the Lakers. Nobody trades that way. You don't get Kidd, Odom, Kobe, Boozer, Artest, Bynum, and Kwame. Too many big names; it just isn't realistic at all.

I don't think it's unreasonalbe to get Kidd, Kobe, Boozer, Artest, K. Brown, and Odom. Look at the big names in Miami: Shaq, Wade, Morning, Patton, E Jones, J Williams, and a couple others.
Big name in Detroit: Webber, Billups, R Wallace, R Hamilton, and couple other really good players.
Our team is the LA Lakers and LA is the land of Legends. If these teams can get older vets with great talent and some great young names to play for them, it is not unlikely that the Lakers cannot do the same.
The Lakers need a good salesman in the GM spot, not a Cupcake who gives good talent away cheap.
Even Houston has MacGrady, Ming, Mutombo, J Howard, and some other great young guys.
We can do much better with the Lakers. We have some really great pieces and all we need is few more to add size, toughness, experience and J Kidd as the floor general. We don't have enough older vets on the LA squad this year. The old guys bring experience, calmness and wisdom to the younger players. On our Championship teams in 2000, 01, 02 we had some older veterans on the squad( Harper, Grant, Green, Horry) with Shaq and Kobe. We need some now and always to get to the next level. Older guys are cheap so salary is not an issuee. Add that to a team 7 or 8 younger players with quickness, and passion for the game then you have a Championship team.

coolingwater921 wrote:

Lakeshow24 wrote:

coolingwater921 wrote:

Lakeshow24 wrote:This is one of the funniest threads ever! Q Brown, Mike Cupcake, and then the guy thinks it's easy to land Kidd, Boozer, and Artest? To be alongside Kobe, Odom, and Bynum? And Kwame?

If you're not savy enough to know I meant to spell Cupcake for Mitch's last name your cred is the one in question. As far as the Q instead of the K that was a boo boo. Get over it and man up to the fact we need to get more bang for the talent we trade.
Stick to the issue, M. Cupcake needs to stop giving away good talent for injured and weak talent.

First of all, you're giving yourself way too much credit. You referred to Mitch Kupchak as Mike Cupcake. Now, it would have been slightly funny had you not called him Mike as well. Second off, your repetitive usage of the letter Q is hilarious. You didn't realize something was up when your pinky finger kept stretching out to that Q? I mean, seriously, who uses the letter Q that often? Third off, your trade scenario is unbelievably stacked in favor of the Lakers. Nobody trades that way. You don't get Kidd, Odom, Kobe, Boozer, Artest, Bynum, and Kwame. Too many big names; it just isn't realistic at all.

I don't think it's unreasonalbe to get Kidd, Kobe, Boozer, Artest, K. Brown, and Odom. Look at the big names in Miami: Shaq, Wade, Morning, Patton, E Jones, J Williams, and a couple others.
Big name in Detroit: Webber, Billups, R Wallace, R Hamilton, and couple other really good players.
Our team is the LA Lakers and LA is the land of Legends. If these teams can get older vets with great talent and some great young names to play for them, it is not unlikely that the Lakers cannot do the same.
The Lakers need a good salesman in the GM spot, not a Cupcake who gives good talent away cheap.
Even Houston has MacGrady, Ming, Mutombo, J Howard, and some other great young guys.
We can do much better with the Lakers. We have some really great pieces and all we need is few more to add size, toughness, experience and J Kidd as the floor general. We don't have enough older vets on the LA squad this year. The old guys bring experience, calmness and wisdom to the younger players. On our Championship teams in 2000, 01, 02 we had some older veterans on the squad( Harper, Grant, Green, Horry) with Shaq and Kobe. We need some now and always to get to the next level. Older guys are cheap so salary is not an issuee. Add that to a team 7 or 8 younger players with quickness, and passion for the game then you have a Championship team.

Ok so now we'll play a game, you're MIKE CUPCAKE (LOL) and you send Shaq to Indiana, Lets see how we get this line up of?

\\ Kidd, Kobe, Boozer, Artest, K. Brown, and Odom. Because you said " don't think it's unreasonalbe to get Kidd, Kobe, Boozer, Artest, K. Brown, and Odom."

1) Odom we aquired him through the trade for Shaq, in your case you're sending Shaq to Indiana. Odom would not be in this line-up

2) Kwame or (Qwame in your case) We had to trade for Kwame via Caron Butler, again this wouldn't happen because Shaq went to Indiana remember?

3) I don't know how you ended up with Boozer? remember he bolted from the cavs for more "money" Lakers would of only been able to offer him MLE, You called Caron an injury prone forward, isn't Boozer worse? but they are both all-stars this year

4) Right now we're offering Kwame, Farmer etc for Kidd .. The trade you made to Indiana, would of ruled this out .. Even at that the Nets are still mulling at the idea of this.

5) Why would you sign Pippen? Yea he was good in his prime, he's 41 and hasn't played in the NBA for years. It might be a good idea now, since Mr. Vlad decided to fall on the ice. Now we're short at SF

Try buying NBA Live 04 or something and see if this pans out for you, Mitch is not doing a great job but hey aleast we didn't keep Shaun Livingston and gave up a chance on Iverson.

Paul wrote:You say we gave away Shaq for nothin and that we should have traded Shaq to f.e. Indiana for Jermaine, Psycho Artest and crap, sure i would do it, but Shaq wouldnt go to Indy to play with garbage, and if we would try to trade him to indy, he would just say that after one year he will opt out and be free agent, leave indy with nothin, so indy would never do it.

Think about this.

Yes, I agree with you Shaq was a big problem but he wasn't in charge.
If I were the laker GM I would not care if Shaq cried like a big giant baby. I would have made him do the deal that favored the Lakers the most. I know that Buss wanted the deal to work for Shaq too but M. Cupcake didn't have to give the Big Whopper away for just a kids meal. It time for us to stop making these huge mistakes. The lakers are not as desperate we were last year. Our roster right now is just two or three players away from bringing home a World Championship. We need all the size we have right now so say no to giving up K. Brown or Bynum. Give Jersey Smush, A Mckie, C Mihm, maybe Cookie and a first round draft pic. That is more than we got for Shaq and he help us win 3 titles. In fact I would throw the deal at them without Cookie at first to see if they would bite. If the Lakers are smart they would play on the fact that Kidd wants to be in LA.

FutureLakerGM wrote:

coolingwater921 wrote:

Lakeshow24 wrote:

coolingwater921 wrote:

Lakeshow24 wrote:This is one of the funniest threads ever! Q Brown, Mike Cupcake, and then the guy thinks it's easy to land Kidd, Boozer, and Artest? To be alongside Kobe, Odom, and Bynum? And Kwame?

If you're not savy enough to know I meant to spell Cupcake for Mitch's last name your cred is the one in question. As far as the Q instead of the K that was a boo boo. Get over it and man up to the fact we need to get more bang for the talent we trade.
Stick to the issue, M. Cupcake needs to stop giving away good talent for injured and weak talent.

First of all, you're giving yourself way too much credit. You referred to Mitch Kupchak as Mike Cupcake. Now, it would have been slightly funny had you not called him Mike as well. Second off, your repetitive usage of the letter Q is hilarious. You didn't realize something was up when your pinky finger kept stretching out to that Q? I mean, seriously, who uses the letter Q that often? Third off, your trade scenario is unbelievably stacked in favor of the Lakers. Nobody trades that way. You don't get Kidd, Odom, Kobe, Boozer, Artest, Bynum, and Kwame. Too many big names; it just isn't realistic at all.

I don't think it's unreasonalbe to get Kidd, Kobe, Boozer, Artest, K. Brown, and Odom. Look at the big names in Miami: Shaq, Wade, Morning, Patton, E Jones, J Williams, and a couple others.
Big name in Detroit: Webber, Billups, R Wallace, R Hamilton, and couple other really good players.
Our team is the LA Lakers and LA is the land of Legends. If these teams can get older vets with great talent and some great young names to play for them, it is not unlikely that the Lakers cannot do the same.
The Lakers need a good salesman in the GM spot, not a Cupcake who gives good talent away cheap.
Even Houston has MacGrady, Ming, Mutombo, J Howard, and some other great young guys.
We can do much better with the Lakers. We have some really great pieces and all we need is few more to add size, toughness, experience and J Kidd as the floor general. We don't have enough older vets on the LA squad this year. The old guys bring experience, calmness and wisdom to the younger players. On our Championship teams in 2000, 01, 02 we had some older veterans on the squad( Harper, Grant, Green, Horry) with Shaq and Kobe. We need some now and always to get to the next level. Older guys are cheap so salary is not an issuee. Add that to a team 7 or 8 younger players with quickness, and passion for the game then you have a Championship team.

Ok so now we'll play a game, you're MIKE CUPCAKE (LOL) and you send Shaq to Indiana, Lets see how we get this line up of?

\\ Kidd, Kobe, Boozer, Artest, K. Brown, and Odom. Because you said " don't think it's unreasonalbe to get Kidd, Kobe, Boozer, Artest, K. Brown, and Odom."

1) Odom we aquired him through the trade for Shaq, in your case you're sending Shaq to Indiana. Odom would not be in this line-up

2) Kwame or (Qwame in your case) We had to trade for Kwame via Caron Butler, again this wouldn't happen because Shaq went to Indiana remember?

3) I don't know how you ended up with Boozer? remember he bolted from the cavs for more "money" Lakers would of only been able to offer him MLE, You called Caron an injury prone forward, isn't Boozer worse? but they are both all-stars this year

4) Right now we're offering Kwame, Farmer etc for Kidd .. The trade you made to Indiana, would of ruled this out .. Even at that the Nets are still mulling at the idea of this.

5) Why would you sign Pippen? Yea he was good in his prime, he's 41 and hasn't played in the NBA for years. It might be a good idea now, since Mr. Vlad decided to fall on the ice. Now we're short at SF

Try buying NBA Live 04 or something and see if this pans out for you, Mitch is not doing a great job but hey aleast we didn't keep Shaun Livingston and gave up a chance on Iverson.

Life must have been pretty rough for you being so small and all.
Just keep repeating this " I am loved, I am loved and I am important."
You are sweating small stuff and normally small people do that.
Grow up and get over your it. Your stuck on a Q and a Cupcake - How mature is that?
I am not dealing with the Shaq trade now. We brought it up to show a pattern of giving away good talent cheap. That is the title of this post thread. Stay with us We are talking about M Cupcake giving away great players for cheap and we don't want Him to continue.

I've already talked about how I would try to get Kidd. How would I get Boozer and Artest? I would pick up the phone and call their Agents. You know those two guys don't like Utah and Sacremento(cow town). I would sell them on living in LA and ask them to come be apart of a Championship Organization. I would sell LA and sell them my plan to bring other great players to LA. They could tell their teams they want to be traded to LA or wait to be signed as free agents.
As a GM your job is to sell your franchise to the players you think would fit into your vision for a Championship team. The question is...........Does M. Cupcake have a vision for LA or is he running this day by day?

coolingwater921 wrote:

Paul wrote:You say we gave away Shaq for nothin and that we should have traded Shaq to f.e. Indiana for Jermaine, Psycho Artest and crap, sure i would do it, but Shaq wouldnt go to Indy to play with garbage, and if we would try to trade him to indy, he would just say that after one year he will opt out and be free agent, leave indy with nothin, so indy would never do it.

Think about this.

Yes, I agree with you Shaq was a big problem but he wasn't in charge.
If I were the laker GM I would not care if Shaq cried like a big giant baby. I would have made him do the deal that favored the Lakers the most.

But thats exactly what we did, Shaq wouldnt go to Indy, if u would like to trade him there, he says he will opt out after the season, Indy jumps off the trade and everythin is back at 0 again.

You make this a little bit to easy for you, it aint that easy to make a trade.

Yeah, we just had so many much better offers for Shaq. Face it, we were pigeon holed. We had to trade Shaq quickly, and he held all the cards, becuase teams wouldn't trade for him if he wasn't willing to re-sign. So two years go by, Miami did get a title (thanks mostly to Wade and some shady officiating), which saves that deal for them. They got a title it was worth it. But the fact of the matter is they owe Shaq $80 million over the next 4 years (including this one) and...

Lamar Odom This Season:
16.6 points, 9.4 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 0.8 steals, 0.6 blocks. Played in 33 games

Shaq this season:
13.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 0.3 steals, 1.8 blocks. Played in 13 games

Looks like injury prone Odom is outperforming Shaq on his own, for half the price, and being 8 years younger. With each year that passes that deal becomes better and better for us. And for what its worth Odom has missed 32 less games than Shaq over the past two and a half seasons.

BTW since your so high on Farmar, you should note that he was drafted with a pick from that Shaq trade. And we turned Caron Butler into Kwame Brown, a wild card type manuever. But Kwame and Farmar may wind up being the two pieces that land us Jason Kidd. So in essence we received Odom and Kidd for Shaq if that went down. So what are you complaining about?

I'm for signing Pippen because we have some useless players on our roster, his leadership could help. But I don't think he can provide us much more than that. Scottie was done on a crappy Bulls team several years ago before he retired. You think that sitting at home doing nothing but aging has made him a better player in the past few years?

Fat chance of getting Boozer now. We had our chance a couple of seasons ago and it fell through. He's playing like an MVP candidate this season, we don't have the pieces to trade for him unless it involved Bynum.

Ron Artest would help us the same way he helped Indiana and Sacramento. He would give them a false sense of hope, and then implode on them, splitting the team apart and then being traded away for less than face value.

J.C. Smith wrote:Yeah, we just had so many much better offers for Shaq. Face it, we were pigeon holed. We had to trade Shaq quickly, and he held all the cards, becuase teams wouldn't trade for him if he wasn't willing to re-sign. So two years go by, Miami did get a title (thanks mostly to Wade and some shady officiating), which saves that deal for them. They got a title it was worth it. But the fact of the matter is they owe Shaq $80 million over the next 4 years (including this one) and...

Lamar Odom This Season:
16.6 points, 9.4 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 0.8 steals, 0.6 blocks. Played in 33 games

Shaq this season:
13.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 0.3 steals, 1.8 blocks. Played in 13 games

Looks like injury prone Odom is outperforming Shaq on his own, for half the price, and being 8 years younger. With each year that passes that deal becomes better and better for us. And for what its worth Odom has missed 32 less games than Shaq over the past two and a half seasons.

BTW since your so high on Farmar, you should note that he was drafted with a pick from that Shaq trade. And we turned Caron Butler into Kwame Brown, a wild card type manuever. But Kwame and Farmar may wind up being the two pieces that land us Jason Kidd. So in essence we received Odom and Kidd for Shaq if that went down. So what are you complaining about?

I'm for signing Pippen because we have some useless players on our roster, his leadership could help. But I don't think he can provide us much more than that. Scottie was done on a crappy Bulls team several years ago before he retired. You think that sitting at home doing nothing but aging has made him a better player in the past few years?

Fat chance of getting Boozer now. We had our chance a couple of seasons ago and it fell through. He's playing like an MVP candidate this season, we don't have the pieces to trade for him unless it involved Bynum.

Ron Artest would help us the same way he helped Indiana and Sacramento. He would give them a false sense of hope, and then implode on them, splitting the team apart and then being traded away for less than face value.

J.C. your post is wasted on people who belong into a interjection of two very distinct groups - "Instant gratification seekers" and "Coach GMs".

I liked your post, as usual, and encourage you to post more, but the comprehensive mind would be needed...

Nasty crowd here poor guy just has a few posts.

Anyway the guys are right. Shaq would not go to Indiana and MK hands were tied in that case.

coolingwater921 wrote:

Paul wrote:You say we gave away Shaq for nothin and that we should have traded Shaq to f.e. Indiana for Jermaine, Psycho Artest and crap, sure i would do it, but Shaq wouldnt go to Indy to play with garbage, and if we would try to trade him to indy, he would just say that after one year he will opt out and be free agent, leave indy with nothin, so indy would never do it.

Think about this.

Yes, I agree with you Shaq was a big problem but he wasn't in charge.
If I were the laker GM I would not care if Shaq cried like a big giant baby. I would have made him do the deal that favored the Lakers the most. I know that Buss wanted the deal to work for Shaq too but M. Cupcake didn't have to give the Big Whopper away for just a kids meal. It time for us to stop making these huge mistakes. The lakers are not as desperate we were last year. Our roster right now is just two or three players away from bringing home a World Championship. We need all the size we have right now so say no to giving up K. Brown or Bynum. Give Jersey Smush, A Mckie, C Mihm, maybe Cookie and a first round draft pic. That is more than we got for Shaq and he help us win 3 titles. In fact I would throw the deal at them without Cookie at first to see if they would bite. If the Lakers are smart they would play on the fact that Kidd wants to be in LA.

Really, the only problem I'm having with your trade scenarios are that you are far too optimistic. You speak as if you know for a factual reason what deals Mitch Kupchak attempted to work out. Just because you cough up offers doesn't mean the other team accepts them.

Quite frankly, the Lakers are proving how valuable Kwame is to the team. Ever since Kwame has been out of the lineup, the Lakers are coughing up rebound after rebound because opposing players are not feeling the beatings that Kwame dishes. If the Lakers trade for Kidd, they'll have to get a big man. And not Jason Collins. He's probably as bad a center as I've ever seen in the NBA.

Kidd will bring excitement, he'll bring scoring, but we'll still need a big man with muscle and quickness. And Kwame has that. Lakers shouldn't bite if the offers aren't good enough.

J.C. Smith wrote:Yeah, we just had so many much better offers for Shaq. Face it, we were pigeon holed. We had to trade Shaq quickly, and he held all the cards, becuase teams wouldn't trade for him if he wasn't willing to re-sign. So two years go by, Miami did get a title (thanks mostly to Wade and some shady officiating), which saves that deal for them. They got a title it was worth it. But the fact of the matter is they owe Shaq $80 million over the next 4 years (including this one) and...

Lamar Odom This Season:
16.6 points, 9.4 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 0.8 steals, 0.6 blocks. Played in 33 games

Shaq this season:
13.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 0.3 steals, 1.8 blocks. Played in 13 games

Looks like injury prone Odom is outperforming Shaq on his own, for half the price, and being 8 years younger. With each year that passes that deal becomes better and better for us. And for what its worth Odom has missed 32 less games than Shaq over the past two and a half seasons.

BTW since your so high on Farmar, you should note that he was drafted with a pick from that Shaq trade. And we turned Caron Butler into Kwame Brown, a wild card type manuever. But Kwame and Farmar may wind up being the two pieces that land us Jason Kidd. So in essence we received Odom and Kidd for Shaq if that went down. So what are you complaining about?

I'm for signing Pippen because we have some useless players on our roster, his leadership could help. But I don't think he can provide us much more than that. Scottie was done on a crappy Bulls team several years ago before he retired. You think that sitting at home doing nothing but aging has made him a better player in the past few years?

Fat chance of getting Boozer now. We had our chance a couple of seasons ago and it fell through. He's playing like an MVP candidate this season, we don't have the pieces to trade for him unless it involved Bynum.

Ron Artest would help us the same way he helped Indiana and Sacramento. He would give them a false sense of hope, and then implode on them, splitting the team apart and then being traded away for less than face value.

JC in regard to S Pippen I agree with you totally. That is what we need in LA, older veterans that can bring leadership, experience, poise, crediblity, and wisdom the team. As far as getting older players to come to LA- what seasoned veteran would not want to live in Hollywood and live the life of a pampered NBA player? LA has always had great players because LA is an easy sale. That is why Shaq left Orlando to come to LA and Why Kobe left Charlotte to come to LA- Jerry West sold them on the Lakers franchise and Life in LA. That is my problem with M Cupcake business transactions thus far. LA has been coming up on the shorter end and that must stop. We are not some small time franchise in the fridged wilderness. LA has the best weather, best known franchise and brightest stars. Older veterans are cheaper than the younger guys and we don't have one big name veteran (35 to 43) on the team. We have Kobe but he needs some experienced players around him and the team. The nucleus of the Lakers should always be younger very talented players but they should be surrounded by a few veterans each and every year. Look at what Kareem has done for Bynum. Bynum has greatly improved and is confidence as a dominant center is growing each game. I will answer the couple of synics we have now, No Kareem should not suit up. Just having him around to help the younger big men is great. Kareem should also be working with K. Brown as well as Bynum unless the Lakers know K. Brown will be history soon. It's great to have one player trained by Kareem but imagine if we had two or three.
As far as the Shaq trade being fair. Come on! Shaq brings both size, talent, and many intangible leadership skills. The players in the League both fear and respect Shaq. Look how C. Barkley kisses Shaq's butt on TNT's inside the NBA. That's one player Barkley will not attack like he does so many others. If Barkley fears Shaq you know the other players in the league do. The players around Shaq feed off him and adopt his personality. I mean honestly, would you feel good going to battle each night with that big mother on your team in the paint? So Heck no, the Shaq trade was not for equal value no matter how you slice it. If we could'nt have sent he him to Indy, that's Ok, we just would have had to keep shopping until we found a deal that favors LA.
That's why I say Pat riley punked M Cupcake in the Shaq trade. Riley was salavating for a player like Shaq. We could have gotten much more for Him. I say size for size, talent for talent, and so on. If we gave Miami the most dominant player in the NBA we should have gotten Morning, Wade, Odom, and a first round draft pick. Wade could have been traded for Bibby or Kidd later.
Hind sight is 20/20 but we must not let this habit of giving away good talent cheap continue. This must stop if we are going be back in the hunt for a title.