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I'm saying Celtics, just because LA's cap is cleared in 2014. I think they'll still have one active contract, though I don't recall who.

People really haven't paid attention to the NBA in the last 50 years if they don't know the answer to this question

tiderulz wrote:Im not sure "trade pieces" means what you think it means. No one is breaking down the door for Duhon, Hill, Blake, Jamison, Artest or Gasol. Howard is a FA and no one is going to pay Kobe's $30mil next year.

future is more than just next season.

Depends if the 29 other front offices/GM's want to blow the Lakers, get butt f***ed by the Lakers, and then pay the Lakers for the privilege of getting abused or not.

Celtics no question. Ainge signed many of these guys (Terry, Green, Bass and Lee) for at least the next three years and truth be told they are not working out all that well. It is also very tough to get guys to play in Boston.

On the other hand people love playing in LA. Plus the Lakers have the luxary to call up any GM in the NBA, hand pick any player they want and have the the opposing GM bend over backwards to ensure the Lakers give up as little as possible to get the player the want.

If we assume Dwight resigns with the Laker's this offseason, Dwight's new contract will be $109 mil/5 years.

Thus, in the summer of 2014, the Lakers will have approximately $30.7 million tied up between Dwight Howard and Steve Nash.

Leaving $29.3 million left for 10 players. If you assume 8 of those players will be minimum salaried players, Lakers would have $25.3 million to split between two players.

What players would be out there? (Not including RFA's, simply because their respective team will just match them, aka the Kyrie Irving's of the world).

PG: Kyle Lowry, Jameer Nelson (TO), Mario Chalmers, Kirk Hinrich, CHRIS DUHON, STEVEN BLAKE
SG: Dwyane Wade (PO), Andre Igudala, Monta Ellis
SF: Lebron James (PO), Carmelo Anthony (PO), Paul Pierce, Danny Granger, Luol Deng, Caron Butler
PF: Dirk Nowitzki, PAU GASOL, Chris Bosh (PO), Zach Randolph (PO), Kris Humphries, Andrea Bargnani (PO)
C: Kevin Garnett, Marcin Gortat, Andrew Bogut, Emeka Okafor

If you take out the guys who are optioned and only look at UFA...

PG: Kyle Lowry, Mario Chalmers, Kirk Hinrich, CHRIS DUHON, STEVEN BLAKE
SG: Andre Igudala, Monta Ellis
SF: Paul Pierce, Danny Granger, Luol Deng, Caron Butler
PF: Dirk Nowitzki, PAU GASOL, Kris Humphries
C: Kevin Garnett, Marcin Gortat, Andrew Bogut, Emeka Okafor

Pick 2, Add Dwight, Add 40 year old Nash, Add 1 MLE, Add 1 LLE, Add 6 minimum salaried players...how good is your team LA? Still not good enough to beat OKC.

If Lakers can keep Dwight, they will soon have cap space to surround him with athletic people. Celtics have Rondo who needs good teammates to be successful. Also Celtics have the Melo-Knicks the Deron-Nets and the Bynum-Sixers in their division (not to count out Raps, but Demar isn't really a stud yet) Lakers have Curry-Warriors and Blake-Clippers in the division

Celtics.

Everybody knows that Lakers will always find a way to reaload. Next move is MWP and Hill for Kevin Love...or maybe Chris Duhon and a 2nd round pick 2018 for Josh Smith.

Btw, I will never understand why people think that Rondo is a cancer in the locker room. Everybody loves him in the team and FO.

http://www.csnne.com/basketball-boston-celtics/celtics-talk/An-inside-look-at-Rondo-To-play-with-him?blockID=807953

Hopefully the Lakers, if Dwight bolts,they're screwed, no Stern in a couple years to pamper them anymore.

Free agents will want to go to the Clippers if they choose LA.

The_Ghost_of_JB wrote:Celtics no question. Ainge signed many of these guys (Terry, Green, Bass and Lee) for at least the next three years and truth be told they are not working out all that well. It is also very tough to get guys to play in Boston.

On the other hand people love playing in LA. Plus the Lakers have the luxary to call up any GM in the NBA, hand pick any player they want and have the the opposing GM bend over backwards to ensure the Lakers give up as little as possible to get the player the want.

You make it sound as if half the GM's in the league aren't mediocre. Don't hold it against the Buss fam or Mitch that other GM's and franchises suck at dealing.

Celtics, because this is the lakers league and getting superstars players is the norm for them.

The Lakers, if someone takes Fredo Buss out fishing. If not, that moron has the ability and the authority to single-handedly cripple the franchise going forward.

If Kupchak were running basketball operations in LA, the answer would be the Lakers, easily.

rickrolled wrote:Hopefully the Lakers, if Dwight bolts,they're screwed, no Stern in a couple years to pamper them anymore.

Free agents will want to go to the Clippers if they choose LA.

If Stern wanted to pamper the Lakers then they'd be rollin with a lineup of Kobe, Dwight and CP3 right now. Take off the tin foil hat.

nykballa2k4 wrote:If Lakers can keep Dwight, they will soon have cap space to surround him with athletic people. Celtics have Rondo who needs good teammates to be successful.

And Dwight Howard doesn't need good teammates to be successful? Hell, he can't even keep Raymond Felton away from the rim defesnively and he can't score with any consistency.

celticsare in a tougher situation the lakers get gifted everything

JellosJigglin wrote:

rickrolled wrote:Hopefully the Lakers, if Dwight bolts,they're screwed, no Stern in a couple years to pamper them anymore.

Free agents will want to go to the Clippers if they choose LA.

If Stern wanted to pamper the Lakers then they'd be rollin with a lineup of Kobe, Dwight and CP3 right now. Take off the tin foil hat.

Good point. I'm tired of everyone saying the Laker's are pampered. Let's make sure they never get that notion in their head again and just pamper the Clippers instead. Let the Laker's turn into this decade's Clippers.

I say it's close because people will want to play with Doc Rivers and Rondo. Players playing with Rondo know their scoring average will go up because Rondo will give them the ball.

I agree the Lakers will always be good because of their history and everyone wants to play in LA. The one thing that is going to hurt the Lakers going forward is that they won't be able to have a team payroll of $100-$110 million+ like they have in the past. The new CBA really hurts high spending teams.

I think the Celtics will have it tougher than the Lakers but it's closer than people think.

Celts17Pride wrote:I say it's close because people will want to play with Doc Rivers and Rondo. Players playing with Rondo know their scoring average will go up because Rondo will give them the ball.

I agree the Lakers will always be good because of their history and everyone wants to play in LA. The one thing that is going to hurt the Lakers going forward is that they won't be able to have a team payroll of $100-$110 million+ like they have in the past. The new CBA really hurts high spending teams.

I think the Celtics will have it tougher than the Lakers but it's closer than people think.

No one wants to play with Rondo. He's a diva.

Where are these tradeable assets on the Lakers?

I see Nash and I see Dwight.

No one's trading for the right to pay someone around 30 mil a season to score and do nothing else. And no one is trading the right to pay a sissy 20 million a season.

Lakers are in much worse trouble. Celtics still have Rondo, and he makes everyone around him better. Unlike Dwight, and unlike Kobe. The only thing that really screwed the Celtics up was that idiotic Jeff Green deal. They will never be players for big-time FA's, but they couldn't they have been in the Mayo sweepstakes this summer if they didn't re-sign Green?

A Rondo/Bradley/Mayo guard rotation is a pretty solid building block for the future. Plus Celtics also have young prospects like Sullinger and Melo. Lakers have....? Lakers also traded away future picks, Celtics have picks.

Future of the Lakers is built entirely on recruiting new stars, and no new stars are coming until 2015 at the earliest with Kobe's contract crippling the flexibility of the Lakers.

Yeah, I think the number of free agents rushing to Boston will plummet once Paul and Kevin are retired.

But it all depends on whether or not Dwight resigns. If he does LA is in better shape. If not Rhondo is still a great pointguard. Boston would be better off.