The Official Los Angeles Lakers thread

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

^sounds like you've been reading a lot of sport columns.


Management and Kobe simply need to re-unite over the course of the season (winning will do that), and achieve their mutual goal...PeACe

[GangstaBoogy]

After the latest wild spin on the Kobe Coaster, another 24-hour scramble of disorienting turns and steep drops with No. 24, things were actually pretty clear at the end of the ride.

So clear that the end of the Kobe Bryant Era in Lakerland has never seemed closer.

The events of a zany Tuesday allowed for no other conclusion. You inevitably wondered, once your stomach settled, if the Lakers are going to have to live like this for the rest of Bryant's days in purple and gold, however many are left, with the smothering expectation that he's headed to the airport any minute.

It's difficult to believe otherwise when Kobe asks to skip his third successive practice to give his legs some rest … and is promptly asked by reporters if he thinks he's played his last game as a Laker.

It's especially difficult to imagine a different ending when the famously quotable and revealing Phil Jackson responds to almost every Kobe question he gets by saying he either can't comment or doesn't know the answer.

The Zen Master? At a loss for words? Dark days, indeed.

The Lakers, according to NBA front-office sources, have no looming intentions to initiate any Bryant trade discussions and would still prefer to hang onto to their most popular player since Magic Johnson. There is nonetheless a growing belief around the league that the proposals will be flooding in now and that Bryant will indeed be moved -- possibly even before the season starts -- after last week's admission from Lakers owner Jerry Buss that "would certainly listen" to trade offers for Bryant in the wake of Kobe's loud declaration last May that he wants out … and Kobe's subsequent refusals to recant the request.

So edgy is Lakerland that Bryant, after dodging the media for a few days, was forced to address reports Tuesday that he has already cleaned out his locker at the team's practice facility. One team source insisted to ESPN.com that Bryant indeed removed his personal belongings, but Bryant and agent Rob Pelinka told ESPN The Magazine's Ric Bucher that Kobe had merely cleaned up his locker after Monday's practice, leaving plenty behind.

Yet such is the tension around the team now that Bryant can't sit out a practice without sparking an immediate panic that he's leaving for Chicago or Dallas, with multiple sources insisting that Bryant -- who possesses the league's only active no-trade clause -- lists the Mavericks as his No. 1 destination.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&page=KobeTradestein

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

http://www.dubcnn.com/connect/index.php?topic=156811.0

[GangstaBoogy]

Lol even Jerry Buss knows no one wants our roster filler players...

Buss acknowledged frustration at losing out to old rivals in Boston for Kevin Garnett's services -- "I personally feel that we made a better offer than the people who were successful," he said -- and also gave a vote of confidence to his often-criticized front office, specifically his son, Jim -- the team's vice president of player personnel -- and General Manager Mitch Kupchak. "I think Mitch does a terrific job because I'm right there and I know what's happening," Buss said. "Mitch has done everything humanly possible. Our team does not have a lot of tradable players. Hopefully we will have some in time, but currently we do not.

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

^^All that means is that no one is giving us equal value for what we have, media groupie..

[GangstaBoogy]

Yeah I guess its hard to find guys as gifted as Sasha Vujacic.

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

...cuz everyone knows Sasha is a top guy on our roster.

[Low Key]

...cuz everyone knows Sasha is a top guy on our roster.

Aside from Kobe, Kwame, and Odom, who is? I'm talking real building block type players another team might be able to do something with.

[GangstaBoogy]

...cuz everyone knows Sasha is a top guy on our roster.

Aside from Kobe, Kwame, and Odom, who is? I'm talking real building block type players another team might be able to do something with.

Luke Walton and Ronny Turiaf. Thats about it tho. Bynum, Farnar, and Crittenton are all potential players. Kwame is hopeless. If someone chopped his hands off I wouldn't notice a difference.

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

...cuz everyone knows Sasha is a top guy on our roster.

Aside from Kobe, Kwame, and Odom, who is? I'm talking real building block type players another team might be able to do something with.

LOL...Come on, now.

Crittenton
Bynum
Luke
VladRad (after he re-proves himself)
Turiaf
Farmar



They all have value...

[Low Key]

...cuz everyone knows Sasha is a top guy on our roster.

Aside from Kobe, Kwame, and Odom, who is? I'm talking real building block type players another team might be able to do something with.

LOL...Come on, now.

Crittenton
Bynum
Luke
VladRad (after he re-proves himself)
Turiaf
Farmar



They all have value...

And who, according to you, should the Lakers expect to get if they traded these players?

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

I dunno, but if I was a GM, I'd give up almost any of my players for a package of Bynum-Critt-Luke...

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

Anyone seen that nifty pass from Jordan to Cook the other day? LOL...


<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/uaBvPMdgDxw" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/uaBvPMdgDxw</a>



Jordan may very well lead our team in assists this year.

[7even]

^ Cook's lay-up "technique"... 

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

^ Cook's lay-up "technique"... 

That's not a lay-up "technique"...LOL...His momentum was carrying him at full speed.