[BCWWF]

Originally Posted by PureHatred That statement makes no sense whatsoever. They "didn't get screwed out of a great player, it was an even trade, they just didn't get the players to help them." How is it an even trade if they didn't get the players to help them???? "The problem with the Lakers all year is that they don't have the big men." Damn..too bad they traded away the single most dominant center in the NBA. He might've been useful.

It is an even trade because they got good players for him. Its not like trading TO for a second round draft pick. It just turns out that the players weren't ones that could help them. Its not an unfair trade because Butler and Odom still have trade value to bring in talent that can help them next year.

You're basically trying to justify the Lakers' stupidity by downgrading Shaq and what he means to a team. Get your head out of your ass. you can't ignore his numbers. You can't ignore the fact that he's won everywhere he's gone or the three NBA Finals MVP's or the MVP he's probably going to win this year. You can't ignore the guys who know more than you could ever hope to know about basketball --the writers, the players like Barkley & Magic, the analysts, the GMs like Jerry West and Pat Riley, the coaches like Larry Brown--all these people who say the same thing: Shaquille O'Neal is the most dominant player in the NBA and trading him away was an epic mistake.

I'm not justifying anything, I am saying that the Lakers and Heat are completely different teams. Shaq is a great player playing on a great team, Kobe is a great player playing on a bad team.

I NEVER SAID THAT TRADING SHAQ WAS A SMART DECISION. Can you quote where I said that please? CAN YOU QUOTE WHERE I SAID THAT SHAQ WAS NOT VALUBLE AND NOT A GOOD PLAYER? Didn't think so. I said that you can't compare his success to Kobe's success because they play on completely different teams in different conferences. I don't think that the Lakers should have resorted to letting Shaq demand a trade, but when it came down to one of the other, I CAN SEE HOW THEY CHOOSE KOBE, BUT I DON'T NECCESSARILY AGREE WITH IT. Thats not the point though, the point is that their seasons are not comparable in any way this year.

Shaq wanted a three year extension. Give it to him. They could've re-signed him, got rid of Kobe (which would've made Shaq's attitude improve 110% I'm sure), and if this had happened early enough in free agency, made real runs at guys like Carlos Arroyo, Steve Nash, Brent Barry, Kenyon Martin, Darius Songaila, Hedo Turkoglu, Keon Clark or many others. Hell, you could've signed Clark, Arroyo, Songaila, AND Barry for what Kobe ended up getting.

Arroyo wasn't a free agent, and the only guy there who would have kept the Lakers in contention for the title would have been Nash, and if they signed him they wouldn't have enough money to sign much else. You can say that those four SHITTY players could have been signed for the price of Kobe, but besides not making their team much better, it would have put their roster up to like 15 guys AND put them miles over the cap. There was money involved you know, it wasn't purely because Kobe and Shaq no longer wanted to play together. And FINALLY, by the time all of this went though, most of the FA's were already signed.

And that doesn't even begin to take into account how much better their cap situation would've been if Shaq had stayed. especially with guys like Ray Allen and Michael Redd coming free this season.

Thats the whole point, they didn't have the cap room for two superstars after Shaq was going to demand top dollar. Nothing against Shaq, he deserves it as much as anybody, but if Shaq is getting almost 30 mil you aren't going to have the funds to sign Ray Allen.

Long term or short term, the Lakers should've kept Shaquille O'Neal.

I agree with you, but just hear me out. If they had kept Shaquile, do you honestly think they would have contended for a title this season? MAYBE next season or the season after, but this season the Lakers just didn't have great players, its that simple. Maybe next year they have the room to fill their roster, but the options just weren't available last year.

FINALLY, the talk is...The Lakers are going to make a push for Yao now, and adding Yao to Kobe and Chucky would immediately put them back in the playoffs. We'll see what T-Mac has to say about that, but in the next 10-12 years that Kobe plays in the league, you can assume that the Lakers will sign a big man good enough to compliment Kobe.