Meet
The Lakers’ Sitch
Posted by: KCJones on December 10th, 2012
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.Is a thing of beauty to Jazz fans. Let me expound as we revel in this.
First of all, they’re sucking right now. They’re 7-6 at Staples center and 2-6 on the road for 9-12 overall. That’s 13 games AT HOME in LA and only 8 on the road, yet they still have a losing record. Are you grinning yet?
They have a payroll almost $30M over what the Jazz have, with most of that lumped into just four players: Kobe ($28M), Howard ($19.5M), Gasol ($19M) and Nash ($9M). That right there is $75.5M for not even a full team, 3 of them in the ‘old’ category and one in the ‘just getting back from back surgery’ category. Add in Artest’s $7M to have that full team and you are spending $81M on your starting five. And they just fired a coach and hired D’Antoni and rumors are floating about trading Gasol for Bargnani because it fits D’Antoni’s system better. Wait, what? What does it say about itself if the system values Bargnani above Gasol? Just a thought. You’ve gotta be grinning now.
Kobe is having a huge year in points scored, is the NBA’s leading scorer and has had 10 games with over 30 points already. YET, the Lakers are just 1-9 in those games. Also, he’s making $28M for the Lakers and has a no-trade clause and no team in their right mind would think that he brings enough value to give him half of their team’s allotted salary cap space. Why is this important? Well because, to secure your future without having major rebuilding years, you at some point have to trade at least some of your aging veteran assets before they have nothing left in the tank for younger, promising player and picks. The Lakers are creeping towards a tipping point where they have invested too much in aging veterans and have held on to them too long that they lose trade value. They have only four players worth anything trade-wise, and its iffy at that. They gave Nash 3 years at $9M a year and he’s 39 years old. Is any team really going to give up young picks and players to get Nash, and would LA even consider trading Nash as they just signed him and he’s perfect for D’Antoni’s system? I already explained Kobe. I can’t see him going anywhere else. Dwight they see as the franchise star for the future (which is probably a worse idea than Bynum being the franchise star for the future). They have no expiring contracts this year except for Dwight Howard, who they want to keep, and just traded for. Trading away Dwight would make them look ridiculous. So that leaves Gasol. The Lakers’ scapegoat player. He shoulders all the blame usually. What can they really get out of a Gasol trade? And does whatever they get really improve them for the next 2 years above what Gasol can bring? I’m loving the Lakers sitch.
Now I’m not going to put it past them, because the Lakers seem to get players just by wanting them and then they magically appear or are traded to them, but the future isn’t looking so hot. The one thing LA has going for them is that free agents want to come play there. LeBron has an opt-out clause for 2014-15, the same year that Kobe and Gasol’s contracts end. Nash would still have another year. So there’s that. But that’s still a few years away. Until then, let’s hope for 3 years of what we’ve seen a glimpse of the first quarter of this season out of the LA Lakers!
The next best thing to the Jazz doing well is watching the Lakers have major issues, especially when they were billed at the season’s beginning as being better than OKC and winning more championships. Go Jazz!
Replies: 4
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4 Responses
I have to admit that the Lakers getting both Nash and Howard over the summer was a total shock to me, especially for how little they had to give up in the process. I still think thought it should turn out just fine for them. There are too many good pieces there for it too fail.
I don’t care to watch the Lakers other than when the Jazz are playing against them, but Kobe is huge, Howard is probably taking his time to fit into a new team where he isn’t the star, and possibly still has injury issues left over from his back. Nash maybe only has a couple of years left but will be able to make this team tick when he gets back on the floor, how could he not when Howard and Gasol are players he could only wish for at Phoenix the past few years. I still think as old as Kobe is he will still play on in LA for at least 3 if not 4 more years, his impact will diminish but he will still have an impact. The Lakers are a mess just now but it won’t last all season. Shame though.
I love to watch the HATED Lakers…when they lose.
Watching the near hurricane velocity wind levels from the release of air, from their inflated egos, is always fun to witness.
Only watching the Jazz win can be sweeter.
Jazzaholic
Fakers got a sweet deal on Howard. I thought they would have to give up Pau for sure but hes still there. I think D Anton is a pretty good teacher. I think hes a big step up from Brown. Chasing a title this year is a bust. But if they traded Gasol and Howard for some young guns and draft picks they would have 2 hall of famers Nash and Kobe and a good teaching coach to set the tone for some prospects. That team desperately needs some young legs.
The Lakers are 1-9 when Kobe scores 30 … and 8-3 when he scores less than 30 …awesome, I hope Kobe does win the scoring title in that case.
Either way, I really love to watch the Lakers struggle, I especially love Kobe’s pouty little faces and obviously frustrating interviews. I just watched his bleeped out postgame interview after losing to the Cavs, the lakers suck, its great.