Let's have an HONEST discussion about Dwight departing, Lakers fans.

[NYC Rebel]

Dwight made it pretty clear that he wasn't re-signing with us and the Lakers still did nothing at the deadline. Should have traded him to the Nets for the deal that Celtics got for KG and Pierce. What really hurts is we got nothing for him.

I still don't mind losing Dwight. I don't believe he can be your best player on a title team, but this is where the Lakers fukked up again. I was looking forward to having enough cap space to sign 3 max players and they screwed all that up by re-signing Kobe to a 50 mil deal.

I honestly don't know what the FO is thinking. Our best move now is to tank, but they are keeping the players that will help us win games.

The FO is a mess. They have no sense of direction. Jim Buss is a moron.

I hate this FO. They have no sense of direction and in giving that money to Kobe, they're trying to pimp him for all he's worth in the short term. shyt is coming at the expense of the long term.

 

[Buggsy Mogues]

If the Lakers can handle their fanbase, how would handing Dwight have been any different?

Handle their fanbase? I dont understand the question

 

[Goatpoacher]

If the Lakers can handle their fanbase, how would handing Dwight have been any different?

It's easy to ignore a fanbase that's located largely outside of the country.

 

[Long Live The Kane]

I mean...they literally begged the nikka to stay, it's not like they didn't try to keep him...what else were they supposed to do, offer him a staike in ownership of the team under the table ?

I get that he's FINALLY having a stretch of games where he looks like the player he hasn't been going on 3 seasons, but it doesn't change the fact that the lakers didn't have many options...besides trading one of the icons of your franchise who gave you every ounce of himself out on the court for the better part of 2 decades, and helping you land a billion dollar TV deal, for "draft picks" being uncouth...it was literally impossible...A.) Kobe has a no-trade clause B.) he makes $30million..there is no trade to be made (what contender has $30mil of salary to move, draft picks, and still be a contender?)..so then, basically what you're suggesting is that the lakers amensty one of the greatest players of all time and get absolutely jack squat in return, to placate a guy just turned in a gutless playoff series for you and hadn't been the player you thought he was the whole season...basically, Dwight's not that good...you don't rip out the soul out of a fanbase and city for a Dwight Howard level player...this isn't Lebron we're talking about...him having a week's worth of good games in Houston isn't enough for me to 2nd guess whether they should amnestied one of the GOATs of the franchise...Having Dwight this year wasn't winning us a title or anytime in the foreseeable future...the only path to a realistic chance at being contenders was signing D12 and hoping he'd return to the form he's starting to show now and pray Kobe returned at a close enough to elite level after the achilles injury to make...the other option just sells out a Laker legend, throws this season away and pray for Melo to sign in the summer and hope that Melo/D12 brings rings...

 

[Houston911]

I mean...they literally begged the nikka to stay, it's not like they didn't try to keep him...what else were they supposed to do, offer him a staike in ownership of the team under the table ?

I get that he's FINALLY having a stretch of games where he looks like the player he hasn't been going on 3 seasons, but it doesn't change the fact that the lakers didn't have many options...besides trading one of the icons of your franchise who gave your every ounce of himself out on the court for the better part of 2 decades, and helping you land a billion dollar TV deal, for "draft picks" being uncouth...it was literally impossible...A.) Kobe has a no-trade clause B.) he makes $30million..there is no trade to be made...so then, basically what you're suggesting is that the lakers amensty one of the greatest players of all time and get absolutely jack squat in return, to placate a guy just turned in a gutless playoff series for you...basically, Dwight's not that good...you don't rip out the soul out of a fanbase and city for a Dwight Howard level player...this isn't Lebron we're talking about...him having a week's worth of good games in Houston isn't enough for me to 2nd guess whether they should amnestied one of the GOATs of the franchise...Having Dwight this year wasn't winning us a title or anytime in the foreseeable future...the only path to a realistic chance at being contenders was signing and hoping he'd return to the form he's starting to show now and pray Kobe returned at a close enough to elite level after the achilles injury...the other option just sells out a Laker legend, throws this season away and pray for Melo to sign in the summer and hope that Melo/D12 brings rings...

This is the long version of what I said

 

[NYC Rebel]

I mean...they literally begged the nikka to stay, it's not like they didn't try to keep him...what else were they supposed to do, offer him a staike in ownership of the team under the table ?

I get that he's FINALLY having a stretch of games where he looks like the player he hasn't been going on 3 seasons, but it doesn't change the fact that the lakers didn't have many options...besides trading one of the icons of your franchise who gave you every ounce of himself out on the court for the better part of 2 decades, and helping you land a billion dollar TV deal, for "draft picks" being uncouth...it was literally impossible...A.) Kobe has a no-trade clause B.) he makes $30million..there is no trade to be made (what contender has $30mil of salary to move, draft picks, and still be a contender?)..so then, basically what you're suggesting is that the lakers amensty one of the greatest players of all time and get absolutely jack squat in return, to placate a guy just turned in a gutless playoff series for you and hadn't been the player you thought he was the whole season...basically, Dwight's not that good...you don't rip out the soul out of a fanbase and city for a Dwight Howard level player...this isn't Lebron we're talking about...him having a week's worth of good games in Houston isn't enough for me to 2nd guess whether they should amnestied one of the GOATs of the franchise...Having Dwight this year wasn't winning us a title or anytime in the foreseeable future...the only path to a realistic chance at being contenders was signing D12 and hoping he'd return to the form he's starting to show now and pray Kobe returned at a close enough to elite level after the achilles injury to make...the other option just sells out a Laker legend, throws this season away and pray for Melo to sign in the summer and hope that Melo/D12 brings rings...

We could have signed Dwight at what he has now with the Rockets and give Kobe a cheaper deal. It would have opened the door to another FA and a possible ship.

Either way, you don't sign a dude with those clown antics and not expect that he'd want to be something less than the face of the team.

 

[threattonature]

Looking at Dwight's recent play and Kobe's current injury history, I felt from jump that we should have made the Lakers DWIGHT'S TEAM.


http://www.thecoli.com/threads/this...-the-_antonio-hire.128352/page-4#post-4764991
http://www.thecoli.com/threads/this...-the-_antonio-hire.128352/page-4#post-4764991






Yeah...I'm mad now that our main star is aging and hurt and Dwight is now finding his game again.

We should have thrown the bank at that dude regardless of how corny he is. He's going to give the Rockets years we don't have with Kobe.

This sounds good but my fear is that they would've tried to cater to Dwight and he still would've left completely fukking over the franchise. Look at all the bad contracts the Magic took on trying to make Dwight happy. Then he wanted them tossing the coach too but wouldn't commit to them. Plus with the Lakers roster at the time they still would've been over the cap and wasting two or three years trying to build around Dwight. I'm afraid to see what type of player Dwight will be once he hits the other side of the 30. Cause even using the amnesty on Kobe this year they still had Pau and Nash and would've had no wiggle room to make moves at all. They would've had some cap this year but who other than Carmelo is worth really spending on like that.

He obviously hated D'antoni so if they could've found some way to fire him and get Kobe and him to make it work they had to do it though. Seemed like the franchise was scared of asking Kobe to take a step back.

 

[Long Live The Kane]

We could have signed Dwight at what he has now with the Rockets and give Kobe a cheaper deal. It would have opened the door to another FA and a possible ship.

Either way, you don't sign a dude with those clown antics and not expect that he'd want to be something less than the face of the team.

I guess i just have no idea what you're saying exactly in the thread...they offered D12 MORE than what he has now with the Rockets, making him the face of the team meant "amnestying Laker Legend Kobe Byrant who just ripped his achilles trying to will us into the playoffs" in his terms...at which point, we're still capped out, stuck with a D12/untradable Pau tandem that does not work, every point guard on the roster injured, and dealing with the aftermath of one of the most shameless acts by an organization in pro sports history (amnestying an iconic player after injuring himself trying to make the playoffs after giving you 20 years of his life and making you billions of dollars)...short of getting DiCaprio and the gang to pull an Inception and implant the idea of re-signing with the Lakers into his subconscious, what would you have had them do? Houston was the right choice for what D12 wanted (talented young team he felt he could be the "man" of and contend now), and there's nothing the lakers could do to change it realistically

 

[NYC Rebel]

This sounds good but my fear is that they would've tried to cater to Dwight and he still would've left completely fukking over the franchise. Look at all the bad contracts the Magic took on trying to make Dwight happy. Then he wanted them tossing the coach too but wouldn't commit to them. Plus with the Lakers roster at the time they still would've been over the cap and wasting two or three years trying to build around Dwight. I'm afraid to see what type of player Dwight will be once he hits the other side of the 30. Cause even using the amnesty on Kobe this year they still had Pau and Nash and would've had no wiggle room to make moves at all. They would've had some cap this year but who other than Carmelo is worth really spending on like that.

He obviously hated D'antoni so if they could've found some way to fire him and get Kobe and him to make it work they had to do it though. Seemed like the franchise was scared of asking Kobe to take a step back.

That's my thing.

 

[NYC Rebel]

At this point, I'm just mad seeing Dwight beasting all of these centers and not doing it for the Lakers. That shyt has me annoyed.

 

[gho3st]

We could have signed Dwight at what he has now with the Rockets and give Kobe a cheaper deal. It would have opened the door to another FA and a possible ship.

Either way, you don't sign a dude with those clown antics and not expect that he'd want to be something less than the face of the team.

shyt was fukked the moment they signed Mike D'antoni and tried to build the offense around 39yr old Steve Nash. The FO basically handcuffed themselves. Everything else was a domino effect

 

[NYC Rebel]

shyt was fukked the moment they signed Mike D'antoni and tried to build the offense around 39yr old Steve Nash. The FO basically handcuffed themselves.

I miss Jerry....

 

[threattonature]

Dwight made it pretty clear that he wasn't re-signing with us and the Lakers still did nothing at the deadline. Should have traded him to the Nets for the deal that Celtics got for KG and Pierce. What really hurts is we got nothing for him.

I still don't mind losing Dwight. I don't believe he can be your best player on a title team, but this is where the Lakers fukked up again. I was looking forward to having enough cap space to sign 3 max players and they screwed all that up by re-signing Kobe to a 50 mil deal.

I honestly don't know what the FO is thinking. Our best move now is to tank, but they are keeping the players that will help us win games.

The FO is a mess. They have no sense of direction. Jim Buss is a moron.

I seriously banking on the team making a deep playoff run and that convincing Dwight to stay. And to be real the team was killing shyt at the end of the year before Kobe got hurt. The fact that they climbed out of that huge hole they dug for themselves to make the playoffs was crazy in itself. I would've really loved to see the team in the playoffs healthy.

 

[GreatestLaker]

I seriously banking on the team making a deep playoff run and that convincing Dwight to stay. And to be real the team was killing shyt at the end of the year before Kobe got hurt. The fact that they climbed out of that huge hole they dug for themselves to make the playoffs was crazy in itself. I would've really loved to see the team in the playoffs healthy.

They probably still lose in the first round since they played the Spurs. Defensively they were awful so they weren't going to be serious contenders.

 

[Walt]

Meanwhile, Fright is copping his teammates balleriffic watches and Back to The Future kicks.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-b...-fancy-christmas-gifts--photos-161651187.html



A Tale of Two Christmases