Lakers Front Office Made Critical Mistakes Over the Past Year (Long)

[venturalakersfan]

[venturalakersfan]

[JerryMagicKobe]

[dcarter4kobe]

I know its in the past but what would everyone had liked to get back in the Shaq trade??????????

[kups]

[Sage_10]

[laker4life]

[Aeneas Hunter]

[Mike@LG]

[WorthyTomahawk]

1. Lakers should have traded Caron+Chucky for Magloire but we didn't have the nerve to wait until he hit the market, so we pulled the trigger on Kwame.

2. Lakers should have kept Jumaine on the bench, he was shooting 39% from 3pt range last year. Would have been good backup for when Odom or Smush we having an off night. He may not being doing well on the Bobcats but he did well playing with Kobe.

3. Lakers should have traded Vlade+Slava+George for Jalen Rose+a pick, but Buss didn't want to hold onto to Vlade's contract value. Jalen may only be slightly better than George but his expiring contract has a lot of value next year to the knicks (watch them try to package Jalen+Frye+picks for KG). Not my first choice, but why let the expiring contracts go for nothing when we won't have cap space until 2008.

4. Lakers should have used the MLE to sign Steve Blake(2.3m for 2 years) and/or Eddie Griffen(2m for 2 years)

5. Worst case - lakers should have kept Brian Grant's expiring contract for value next year, especially since the 2007 plan is dead. Even an injured Grant is more value than Devin Green and Von Wafer.

Potential roster:
PG: Blake / Smush / Sasha
SG: Kobe / Jalen
SF: Odom / Jumaine
PF: Magloire / Cook / Eddie Griffen
C: Mihm / Bynum / Grant

But in saving money the Lakers have lost a lot of trading chips. Even 2 out of Blake, Jalen, Griffen, or Jumaine would be nice boost with all our injuries.

[The Dagger]

I agree with the original poster on Washington not matching a MLE offer. I said this immediately when we caught wind of this rumor. Why give up so much for a free agent. No way in hell does Washington match any offer. We sign Kwame for the MLE, probably for at least four years, and we keep Caron. Sucky could've just been released or traded for a future 3025 draft pick or whatever. But Caron would've been the second scorer we're now looking for. Plus we'd have better trade bait for a possible KG run. And Caron would've either been a restricted free agent this off season for a sign-n-trade or we could've signed him for about 7-8 million per season.

Oh, and guess who's averaging more rebounds per game this season? Kwame or Caron?
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The great Laker Center Tradition continues.....Mikan, Wilt, Kareem, Shaq, Gasol, AD....Gasol.

[Mike@LG]

^It's as if the Lakers finally nailed talent evaluation in regards to the draft and SPL, but when it comes to trades and making the right ones, only few times we've stolen and other times, extended the amount of time to become championship level.
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Resident Car Nut.

https://lakersdraft.substack.com/

I am not an economic advisor nor do I advise economic strategies or plans.

[NestT]

[NestT]

[wolfpaclaker]

[bill_bridges]

Of course the biggest recent mistake is trading up to draft Rush when Tayshaun Prince was available. Detroit probably doesnt' even make it to the finals w/o prince and his D on Miller. Even if they do, nobody to D up on Kobe. And Lidnsey Hunter is still better than any other guard on the Lakers today bar one.

[plunder456]

No Caron was better than Kwane & Odom. Brown should get 3 mill for his contributions. I do NOT believe any team would have given him 8 mill per year. E Campbell, Parks and other bigs could have been had for much less than 8 mill per year. Hell, combine Parks & Campbell(4 mill) & we would have MORE points & MORE rebounds than we do now.
Face it. we OVERPAY for Brown & we OVERPAY for Odom's rebounding. At 12 mill per year, Odom SHOULD average 16-9 & 7 ASSISTS.
Lakers SHOULD have trdaded snaq in 2003---to clips for Brand, olowokandi(tradable piece) & fillers------after snaqomeal's irresponsibility had cost us the 4PEAT. I was flamed by snaqlovers when I first porposed this but a year later snaq DEMANDED a trade & screwed us.

[Mailman04]

To me, the biggest thing that has hurt the Lakers is wasting the MLE two years in a row. That was a chance to get some players who could have added quality depth. Hindsight, maybe you don't trade for Kwame, but as has been noted above several times many teams were willing to take a shot at him. Potential is a magic word in sports. I didn't like trading Rush and Jones for second round picks then and still don't. Pargo is better off the bench too than many they have now. It's frustrating and if Mitch unloads Mihm and Cook and others for Boozer they may be heading down the same road next year.

[The Dagger]

[datniggbstyle]

[daytripper]

Actually Diop makes about 6 million less than Kwame. He would've made more sense financially and would not have cost Caron. To the poster who thinks Kwame looks like Mihm last year I totally disagree. Mihm has always had offensive skills going back to his days at Texas. Kwame only has the size and athleticism but no offensive skills to develop.

It seems crazy to pay a situational defensive player 8 mil per season. The Lakers (Kupchak, Buss, whoever) are out of their minds if they picked up that 3rd year option. Some other teams may have offered the MLE last summer but nobody else would've given up a talent like Butler or given him 8 million for this season.

[Mike@LG]

[Mailman04]

Mitch has made very few good trades and very few good choices with free agency.

[Warm Fuzzies]

[RYZ]

Von Wafer over Ryan Gomes.