Remember Andrew Bynum!!!!

[Dexmor]

Because some people here have said Bynum should come off the bench, in my do we have the best bench post people listed Bynum as a bench member and that is absolutely insane. Bynum is the starting Center and Gasol is the starting PF and Odom will be the starting sf and together they will make the best frontcourt in basketball and possibly the best frontcourt since the 86 Celtics and on top of that they have that Kobe guy who is pretty good.

[Chubby Chaser]

Yeah definitely have Pau and Bynum start. I could see Bynum coming off the bench for a few games when he comes back from injury. But come playoff time, Pau and Bynum should be our frontcourt for sure. I can't see why anyone would think otherwise. Matter of fact, I don't care what anyone else would think as long as Phil doesn't share their same views. (Which I highly doubt) I can't wait until Bynum comes back and we can finally see our roster at full force. I'm having visions of a plethora of blocked shots, double digit rebounds for three starers while keeping our opponents to under 80 points per game. It's going to be sweet.

[Real_Laker_One]

Thanks I needed that hey it's not going to be fair when Bynum comes back hey i say have lamar come off the bench. with bynum and gasol starting see what happens

[dockingsched]

Unless Phil Jackson is as stubborn and bad at player rotations as I fear he is sometimes there is no reason to chop Gasol's legs off to make Bynum look taller.
Gasol is a natural PF who can even give you minutes at the 3 and will play perfectly next to Bynum and they will probably make each other better so you don't need to make them compete against each other.
They will both start together and if they don't right away they will be come playoff time.
I am not sure if you guys know this but Gasol was brought in to be the pf not make Bynum expendable.

no no no no no

[Intensity]

BUMP! Hurry up and come back already Drew!!!!!! We need your scrappy defense.

[Chubby Chaser]

BUMP... I think people are forgetting how much of a beast Andrew was before he got injured. With all these "trade bynum" articles, or "Lamar>Bynum articles, people seem to forget how dominating Bynum was. Sure it seems that he's expendable because we're winning without him and people haven't seen him play in almost 4 months, but the game was a lot easier when he was in. We used to throw the ball up anywhere near the rim and he'd go up and throw it down for the alley oop. The biggest area of improvement where he would make a difference in is DEFENSE. He's our anchor and is head and shoulders above Pau as a weak side defender. So please let's not be so rash to shrug him off due to our recent success. Sure we're a good team and could probably beat the nuggets, jazz and spurs without him. But we would have a hard time against the suns, and the celtics if that matchup ever materializes. So I urge you to look back at the replays of him before he got injured and remember the toughness he brought our team before he got hurt. People might say that we have good chemistry and we don't want to ruin that. But wait until we move Pau back to his natural position at 4, and lamar at 3. The chemistry will be even better when everyone gets back to their regular positions. Imagine all the lob passes to Drew!!?! Just relax. This kid is our future.

[Verbal]

Gasol can play the 3 if we run the 2-3 zone.

[Danny Darko]

Gasol can play the 3 if we run the 2-3 zone.

you mean nose tackle in the 3-4?

[Verbal]

-= original quote snipped =-



you mean nose tackle in the 3-4?

Who am I?

Robery Horry?

[Verbal]

Unless you're talking about football, in which case, that's very clever w/ the one-guard & center analogy.

I have someone like that in mind for the triangle.

[Verbal]

or just talking about the SF/PF positions.

Your choice, man.

[f0gman]

Right now there are only two players from the '05 draft guaranteed to get max deals: Deron Williams and Chris Paul. Bynum could be if he recovers well from his knee injury and continues to show improvement.

Andrew Bogut is not a max deal guy even though he was a #1 pick. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, he's about to get a 5 year, $60-75 million extension. That makes him a roughly $10-12 million salary in 2009 plus the usual raises.

Should everything go well Bynum should be worth more than Bogut, but how much? For those of you saying money's no object, the Lakers could easily hit $100 million in salary in a couple of years if they just sign a bunch of guys to long term deals. That will mean $25 million or more in luxury tax. Every million they can save per year means a little more flexibility with payroll and less tax.

Take this example. I'm projecting the max salary in the 2009-10 season for guys coming off rookie scale deals to start at $14 million, making a 5-year deal worth $85 million. Say Bynum signs a 5-year, $75 million deal. His first year's salary would be $12.5 million. That's $1.5 million less than first year max. Now let's say we were able to dump Radman's contract prior to this. That's $6.5 million. So there's $8 million in savings, which would come in handy if they wanted to re-sign Odom, who could be signed to a David West-style declining salary deal - say 4 years, $50 million. Mitch could even gain more flexibility if Kobe took a Shaq or Duncan-like cap relief contract or if (*gulp*) D-Fish, an ending contract that season, were traded.

There are ways to manage the cap situation effectively to make it less painful and even allow for room to get a free agent with the MLE. It'll take everyone including agents to be more-or-less on the same page, but it's feasible.