Theory: Lakers will get Howard this summer

[pearljammer10]

Howard/Nelson for Gasol/Bynum

Lakers get a PG and get rid of injury prone Bynum while his value his high.  Magic get big men to replace Howard.  Could also throw in Odom and Turk.  Neither team will want Artest or Arenas

Top Destinations like NY & Chi don't have room or salary.  Sleepers will be NJ and Bos.

I don't know what this is based on, but it actually makes sense..

How? How does trading two all star caliber big men for one make sense? Kobe retires when Howards just getting to his prime and he'll be left alone to carry the team with Nelson and create Orlando 2.0

[BballTim]

Howard/Nelson for Gasol/Bynum

Lakers get a PG and get rid of injury prone Bynum while his value his high.  Magic get big men to replace Howard.  Could also throw in Odom and Turk.  Neither team will want Artest or Arenas

Top Destinations like NY & Chi don't have room or salary.  Sleepers will be NJ and Bos.

  I keep looking at this trade and I'm not sure it really makes the Lakers that much better.

I don't know what this is based on, but it actually makes sense..

How? How does trading two all star caliber big men for one make sense? Kobe retires when Howards just getting to his prime and he'll be left alone to carry the team with Nelson and create Orlando 2.0

[Edgar]

Howard/Nelson for Gasol/Bynum

Lakers get a PG and get rid of injury prone Bynum while his value his high.  Magic get big men to replace Howard.  Could also throw in Odom and Turk.  Neither team will want Artest or Arenas

Top Destinations like NY & Chi don't have room or salary.  Sleepers will be NJ and Bos.

  I keep looking at this trade and I'm not sure it really makes the Lakers that much better.

I don't know what this is based on, but it actually makes sense..

How? How does trading two all star caliber big men for one make sense? Kobe retires when Howards just getting to his prime and he'll be left alone to carry the team with Nelson and create Orlando 2.0

I dont know, Bynum injuries always keep him away of the "all stardoom" in everybodies book, talking about age and that trade evven makes more sense.

Even for orlando it makes sense losing his all star for a trade like that one.

Dont udnerestimate jameer , lakers main problems seems to be not having a pg not that his sg is not the same anymore and will start needing the ball pased to him over doing all the job

[Moranis]

Howard/Nelson for Gasol/Bynum

Lakers get a PG and get rid of injury prone Bynum while his value his high.  Magic get big men to replace Howard.  Could also throw in Odom and Turk.  Neither team will want Artest or Arenas

Top Destinations like NY & Chi don't have room or salary.  Sleepers will be NJ and Bos.

I don't know what this is based on, but it actually makes sense..

How? How does trading two all star caliber big men for one make sense? Kobe retires when Howards just getting to his prime and he'll be left alone to carry the team with Nelson and create Orlando 2.0

The Los Angeles Lakers are not the Cleveland Caviliers.  Players always want to play on the Lakers.  They will have no problem at all attracting free agents to town. 

The Magic would absolutely make the Lakers take Arenas.  They aren't going to keep him around.

Gasol, Bynum, Blake for Dwight, Nelson, Arenas works just fine for salaries.

[LilRip]

i don't think Dwight will get traded before the deadline just because i don't think he's going to pull a Melo-drama. but i do think he will opt to be a FA in the 2012 offseason and sign somewhere else (provided that the Magic haven't improved by much in a year). If the Big 3 make a recruitment pitch to DH12 ala Rasheed, i think it'd make for a very convincing case.

i think DH12 would need to sign first, and then KG and RA (and Jeff Green) can sign using their Bird Rights. do i have that right?

here's an interesting question: which would be the best "big 3"
LBJ-Wade-Bosh
Amare-Melo-Billups
Rose-Boozer-Noah ()
Rondo-Dwight-Green

[snively]

Howard/Nelson for Gasol/Bynum

Lakers get a PG and get rid of injury prone Bynum while his value his high.  Magic get big men to replace Howard.  Could also throw in Odom and Turk.  Neither team will want Artest or Arenas

Top Destinations like NY & Chi don't have room or salary.  Sleepers will be NJ and Bos.

I don't know what this is based on, but it actually makes sense..

How? How does trading two all star caliber big men for one make sense? Kobe retires when Howards just getting to his prime and he'll be left alone to carry the team with Nelson and create Orlando 2.0

The Los Angeles Lakers are not the Cleveland Caviliers.  Players always want to play on the Lakers.  They will have no problem at all attracting free agents to town. 

The Magic would absolutely make the Lakers take Arenas.  They aren't going to keep him around.

Gasol, Bynum, Blake for Dwight, Nelson, Arenas works just fine for salaries.

The Lakers will have problems attracting free agents until 2014 because of Kobe's ginormous salary and the deals they gave to Odom, Artest, Walton and Blake.  Not to mention adding Arenas in the above scenario.  Their only means of improving their team are the draft, salary cap exceptions like the MLE and trades.

That said, Nelson/Kobe/Artest/Odom/Howard is better than their current squad: equal offensively (upgrade from Fish to Nelson and Bynum to Howard makes up for the downgrade from Pau to Odom and the continuing decline of Artest; Kobe will still be a dangerous offensive player into his late 30s) and better defensively. 

Hard to really see the Magic going for it though.  Gasol will be approaching his mid-30s and he's going to be paid a ton with that trade kicker (15% on a $19 mil salary), Bynum's going to command a max extension and he hasn't even made an All-Star team and getting rid of Arenas does nothing for your cap flexibility if you're bringing in Gasol at the same years/money and extending Bynum AND adding Blake's 4 mil.  They only make that deal if they have a stud in the stable already and they view Gasol and Bynum as the missing pieces. 

If Dwight demands a trade next season, I think the team that lands him will have to offer an expiring salary for Arenas and a great prospect for Howard.

 

[zerophase]

There's no way lakers would be stupid enough to trade Gasol and Bynum. With that said, I hope they do it.

[slamtheking]

i don't think Dwight will get traded before the deadline just because i don't think he's going to pull a Melo-drama. but i do think he will opt to be a FA in the 2012 offseason and sign somewhere else (provided that the Magic haven't improved by much in a year). If the Big 3 make a recruitment pitch to DH12 ala Rasheed, i think it'd make for a very convincing case.

i think DH12 would need to sign first, and then KG and RA (and Jeff Green) can sign using their Bird Rights. do i have that right?

here's an interesting question: which would be the best "big 3"
LBJ-Wade-Bosh
Amare-Melo-Billups
Rose-Boozer-Noah ()
Rondo-Dwight-Green

either Miami or Boston.  Miami if they can fill out their supporting roster pretty quickly.  Boston if Ray/PP/KG hang around and still play well and Danny uses the MLE/LLE wisely to stockpile the bench.

Chi possibly if they keep Deng and fill out the bench.  NY has gutted the talent on the roster, makes bad draft picks and has too much of a talent deficit to catch up to the others.

[tyrone biggums]

I think Boston is a serious contender especially if

1)Ray Allen keeps playing close to the level he is now in 2012

2)Rajon Rondo is the best pure passing point guard in the league and could find Howard in the lane quite easy.

3)Jeff Green looks like an intriguing building block, if he can turn his defensive abilities around hes going to show why he was the #5 pick overall. Although the dude still can't hit threes well

4)The Celtics have the best coaching staff in the league, Rivers (assuming hes still with the team) is the one coach everyone wants to play for. Clifford Ray is the best big man coach in the league and would be able to tap Howards potential a bit more.

5)The opportunity to play with KG/History of the Celtics. Boston is now a preferred destination for players and will continue to be as long as we have Rondo. People want to play with a point guard like that.

[Tayo]

Didn't Gasol and Bynum help defeat Howard's Magic in the 2009 NBA Finals? This trade doesn't make much sense to me -- I mean, it might look good on paper, However the Lakers may want to instead look for a point guard as Derik Fisher is 36 years old and needs a solid back up at his position.

[snively]

There's no way lakers would be stupid enough to trade Gasol and Bynum. With that said, I hope they do it.

I don't think it would be stupid at all.  Dwight Howard is a legitimate top-3 player in the game and the clear best player in the trade.  He's also a solid rock in terms of health. And the Lakers would still have an excellent borderline all-star big in Odom to pair him with. 

Howard is an amazing, amazing player.  I'd rank him as the best defensive player in the league, the best rebounder (sorry Kevin Love!), a good (not great) post scorer, and one of the very best offensive weapons in the game in the hands of the right playmakers. In fact, I think he could score 30 pts a game with a good PG (his shot attempts are ridiculously low on that Magic team: always have been.

[snively]

Didn't Gasol and Bynum help defeat Howard's Magic in the 2009 NBA Finals? This trade doesn't make much sense to me -- I mean, it might look good on paper, However the Lakers may want to instead look for a point guard as Derik Fisher is 36 years old and needs a solid back up at his position.

Howard was the best player in that series.  But the Lakers had the next 3 or 4 best players.

[Celtics4ever]

With Stern all things Laker are possible.

BTW didn't we fire Clifford Ray?

[Jon]

After losing Shaq to LA, I can't see the Magic just trading their new franchise center to LA. 

I think that if Howard is traded, it will be elsewhere. 

But I don't think they will.  Under the current CBA, players can make more money staying put.  The new CBA could make it even harder to leave.  At the very latest, I think Orlando holds onto him until the deadline. 

But I think they hold on to him until the bitter end, hoping they can keep him even into the summer of 2012. 

[GreenFaith1819]

Tell you what – IMO Dwight would be NUTS to NOT come to Boston in 2012.

Go to LA, Dwight? Sure.

I was SHOCKED to see that Dr. Jerry Buss believes that THIS Laker team was better than the 80's version.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/17/sports/la-sp-0818-lakers-jerry-buss-20100818

Dr. Buss has built one of the most successful franchises in sports, and he’s a great owner, but -

Kareem...Worthy...Magic.....Scott…………Shaq??  <  Kobe, Gasol, Odom, Bynum?

Do you want to be forgotten, Dwight?

Won't happen here. Play hard, and as you see with Chief, Larry, McHale, Len, Reggie, DJ, Sheed, ‘Toine,  etc - you won't ever be forgotten.

Plus, we’ll still have Paul, one of the top 3 PGs in Rondo, Ray and KG….and by then Jeff Green will be even better.

Good young core in Rondo and Jeff, right there. And Danny (and Doc, of course) won’t stop making improvements.