What If...Garnett had gone to the Lakers

[Vermont Green]

Old friend Kevin McHale took a lot of heat over "giving away" Garnett to the Celtics (at least until there was a trade that was perceived as an even bigger give away; Gasol to Lakers).  I read the article in the Herald where they asked Bird about it.  They reflected that the Lakers had offered a trade built around Odom but that Kevin liked Jefferson et al better and went with the Celtics offer.  I recall that the rumors were that the Lakers could have had Garnett if they were willing to include Bynum but that they balked at that.  In hindsight (which is always a fun way to look at things) I am wondering if the Lakers would have been better off to trade Bynum and get Garnett or if they are better off where they are now with Gasol and basically the rest of their team.  This all depends of course on how good Bynum turns out to be but this probably turned out to be win-win-win.  The Celtics win by getting Garnett, the Lakers of course are just fine now that they have Gasol, and I think Minni is probably better off with Jefferson then most other options (certainly better off than if they had taken Odom and whoever).  OK, maybe its not a "win" for Minni but in the end, I think they will end up with a winning team built around big Al, Foye, this years Pick and a few other good young players.

[ma11l]

I believe they would've been a lock for the NBA Finals for the next three years winning at least two of them.  With Bynum and perhaps then Gasol they would be looking at what they are now, being consistently good for as long as Kobe can keep up his level of play.


Another interesting what if is if KG went to Phoenix.  Then both Kobe and Pierce would probably on different teams and neither us or the Lakers would be in the Finals.

[Vermont Green]

Playing "waht if" can spiral out of control very quickly if you get carried away but my thinking is that if we hadn't gotten KG then we would still have big Al and it is not too much of a stretch that we could have used Ratliff and some of the kids (but not Al) to get Gasol.  It could be the same finals match up but completely different.

[the_Bird]

The simple fact that the Bynum-less Lakers are in the finals - and favored by virtially all to win handily - to me proves that the Lakers "won" by not trading Bynum for KG.  Of course, if they HAD made that deal, they still might well have had the same pu-pu platter they later offered up for Gasol, so theoretically they COULD have had Kobe, KG, and Pau (although they likely wouldn't have made that first, "lucky" call to Memphis).

The C's, of course, won, and anyone who thinks Minny "gave away" KG hasn't spent too much time watching Big Al.  

The way things worked out,
Win for Boston,
Win (not trading for KG) for LA, at least next year
Win for Minny, two years hence.  Even today, I'd take Big Al over Gasol, and he'll still be getting better as KG gets older.

[cordobes]

I believe they would've been a lock for the NBA Finals for the next three years winning at least two of them.  With Bynum and perhaps then Gasol they would be looking at what they are now, being consistently good for as long as Kobe can keep up his level of play.


Another interesting what if is if KG went to Phoenix.  Then both Kobe and Pierce would probably on different teams and neither us or the Lakers would be in the Finals.

If KG had gone to LA, they wouldn't have Gasol there. They'd had sent their expiring and picks to Minny.

Probably the C's would have a starting line-up of Rondo-Ray-Pierce-Gasol-Al and we would be talking about a renewed rivalry.

[Vermont Green]

Even today, I'd take Big Al over Gasol, and he'll still be getting better as KG gets older.

Would you trade Big Al for Bynum straight up right now (I know the salaries probably don't work but since we are playing what if)?

[Vermont Green]

Probably the C's would have a starting line-up of Rondo-Ray-Pierce-Gasol-Al and we would be talking about a renewed rivalry.

That is a pretty powerful offense (much like the Lakers have right now).  You have Perk, and maybe Gomes on the bench and what the heck, assume we still were able to get Posey, Is that a better team then the KG version of the team?

[Roy Hobbs]

If KG had gone to LA, I think we would have cashed in Theo's expiring deal for either Odom (from Minnesota) or Gasol (from Memphis).  Our team would still be in pretty good shape, but wouldn't be the contender it is now.

I'm assuming both teams would have settled for Theo, Telfair, Gerald, and a #1.

Respective lineups:

Big Al
Odom
Pierce
Ray
Rondo

or

Gasol
Big Al
Pierce
Ray
Rondo

With Perk, Gomes, Powe, BBD, Tony, Scal, Pruitt and whoever else (probably not Eddie or Posey) off the bench.

[the_Bird]

Even today, I'd take Big Al over Gasol, and he'll still be getting better as KG gets older.

Would you trade Big Al for Bynum straight up right now (I know the salaries probably don't work but since we are playing what if)?

No idea.  Haven't seen enough of Bynum.  Doesn't seem like LA would even consider making that deal, FWIW.

The other issue with this whole exercise is that if we ended up with Pau instead of KG, all the other pieces (Posey, House, PJ, etc) probably don't fall into place - both because of the timing of when they happened and because a Pierce/Pau combo wouldn't be viewed as Championship-caliber.

[cordobes]

Probably the C's would have a starting line-up of Rondo-Ray-Pierce-Gasol-Al and we would be talking about a renewed rivalry.

That is a pretty powerful offense (much like the Lakers have right now).  You have Perk, and maybe Gomes on the bench and what the heck, assume we still were able to get Posey, Is that a better team then the KG version of the team?

If, and only if, with Thibodeau and Posey sitting in the bench, I think it'd be close. A second unit of Delonte-FA-Posey-Gomes-Powe-BBD-Perk would be very strong. And we'd have a larger winning window. But as I'm more confident in defense than offense, I still prefer the current version. And who knows what Wallace would ask Ainge?

[pslakerfan]

Even today, I'd take Big Al over Gasol, and he'll still be getting better as KG gets older.

Would you trade Big Al for Bynum straight up right now (I know the salaries probably don't work but since we are playing what if)?

No idea.  Haven't seen enough of Bynum.  Doesn't seem like LA would even consider making that deal, FWIW.

The other issue with this whole exercise is that if we ended up with Pau instead of KG, all the other pieces (Posey, House, PJ, etc) probably don't fall into place - both because of the timing of when they happened and because a Pierce/Pau combo wouldn't be viewed as Championship-caliber.

I know you guys haven't seen enough of Bynum so I will answer this one for you.  Hell no.  Trust me no way would we make that trade.  First of all Bynum's upside is much, much higher, and he is younger.  The Lakers could have traded him for Jason Kidd and didn't.  If they don't do that they wouldn't do the trade for Al.  I am not trying to disrespect Jefferson's game, but Bynum led him this year in FG% Reb./48 mins., Blocks/48 mins., and TO/48 mins.  Al leads in Points/48 minutes, but the last thing the Lakers need is more offense.

Anyway that is my 2 cents.  I don't mean to sound as if I am disrespecting Jefferson's game, I just know the Lakers opinion of Bynum and it won't happen.

[tanner]

Garnett and Kobe--then Phil gets a mix closer to his Bulls.  And we'd be labeled the softie team.

[tanner]

Even today, I'd take Big Al over Gasol, and he'll still be getting better as KG gets older.

Would you trade Big Al for Bynum straight up right now (I know the salaries probably don't work but since we are playing what if)?

No idea.  Haven't seen enough of Bynum.  Doesn't seem like LA would even consider making that deal, FWIW.

The other issue with this whole exercise is that if we ended up with Pau instead of KG, all the other pieces (Posey, House, PJ, etc) probably don't fall into place - both because of the timing of when they happened and because a Pierce/Pau combo wouldn't be viewed as Championship-caliber.

I know you guys haven't seen enough of Bynum so I will answer this one for you.  Hell no.  Trust me no way would we make that trade.  First of all Bynum's upside is much, much higher, and he is younger.  The Lakers could have traded him for Jason Kidd and didn't.  If they don't do that they wouldn't do the trade for Al.  I am not trying to disrespect Jefferson's game, but Bynum led him this year in FG% Reb./48 mins., Blocks/48 mins., and TO/48 mins.  Al leads in Points/48 minutes, but the last thing the Lakers need is more offense.

Anyway that is my 2 cents.  I don't mean to sound as if I am disrespecting Jefferson's game, I just know the Lakers opinion of Bynum and it won't happen.

It's ok.  I don't think many on this side are for that hypothetical either.  I see you guys are big on Bynum.  You concerned with his injury?  He seems to be recovering much later than expected.       

[Brendan]

So maybe we'd have gotten Gasol and Lowry (or JCN) for Ratliff, BBD, Telfair, and the same two draft picks we sent to Minny:

Gasol, Al Jefe, Pierce, Ray, Rondo - that's still a very good starting 5, I actually consider it a much more talented starting 5 because Perk's talent level. The bench would see most of the minutes going to Perkins, Gomes, Lowry.

The rest of the roster would be Powe, Tony Allen, Scal, Pruitt, and Green.

That's a very solid team anyways, hard to say how it all gels, KG slid right in, maybe Gasol doesn't.

[Frontierboy]

If Garnett didn't go to the Celtics... I can honestly say that the Lakers would have traded Kobe for Pierce since that would be the closest to equal value as you can get in thie league for similar players....... Ray would have been in Boston and we probably would have gotten Gasol too and the Lakers get Garnett.... so the lineups would have been:

Celtics: Gasol, Jefferson, Kobe, Ray, Rondo
Lakers: Bynum, Garnett, Pierce, Sasha, Fisher

Wow, that'd be weird.....