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The Lakers have no plans to make a trade to reduce their payroll, according to owner Jerry Buss.

Los Angeles has continued to spend this offseason despite the perception that they would cut back a bit.

AS PER WIRETAP:::

"If something came up where we could get something for the future, then we might entertain a trade," Buss said. "But outside of that, I think we're pretty well fixed."

The Lakers have given new deals to keep Phil Jackson, Derek Fisher and Shannon Brown while adding Steve Blake, Matt Barnes and Theo Ratliff as free agents.

"I don't know where that came from really. We didn't ever have a meeting and say, 'OK, let's slash payroll.' We sat down and said, 'How can we improve this team?' And basically we came up with Blake and Barnes," Buss said of the belief that the Lakers would cut costs.

"We were really exceptionally happy and thrilled to get both of them at a decent price."










looks like if the right deal comes along (i'd presume bynum+filler for cp3+okafor) he wouldnt hesitate to tell kupchak to pull the trigger

You can't take it with you Jerry...!

I bet some of the younger Buss kids are saying. There goes my inherence... Thanks dad.....

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDsAelTnXQE[/youtube]

Money aint a thang

Best sports owner of all time.

ock wrote:Best sports owner of all time.

+1

He loves to win and he knows he could have more money but he wants to have litle less and win some rings and that i respect him the most for.

I just got myself a copy of Phil Jacksons ''THE LAST SEASON" and there is a quote in there from Dr.Buss saying ''i'd like to win two more championships....that would tie us with Boston"

He clearly has a desire to win over his desire to completely maximise profits..... Whenever you've got Kobe Bryant in your team your making a profit just by opening the doors of the Staples Centre

"What am I going to do, spend it all, I'm old and I want things you can't just buy like NBA championships. I want the Lakers to have more than the Celtics before I die. 16-17. Its OT in my life but I smell a comeback!!!"

well it's either walton or sasha or both...I don't see any team that would be willing to give $ relief for that

Do owners ever actually admit to wanting to cut cost? That's bad PR, isn't it?

laduane1 wrote:I bet some of the younger Buss kids are saying. There goes my inherence... Thanks dad.....

Yea, poor kids, they'll be left with a franchise worth almost a Billiion dollars. Poor kids.

LAKERS_1981 wrote:

ock wrote:Best sports owner of all time.

+1

He loves to win and he knows he could have more money but he wants to have litle less and win some rings and that i respect him the most for.

See Sig

Thank you, Dr. Buss.

You know it might be too early to be thinking about it but next offseason could be the Lakers best chance to help reduce Kobe's minutes. With a guy like J.R. Smith being an unrestricted FA perhaps the Lakers could lock him up using the MLE. I know J.R. Smith might be a little bit of a head case but the Lakers have proven that they are willing to take the risk in order to win. With the way the front officer has been signing Kobe's foes from the past the addition of J.R. Smith would be humorous. Plus the guy would be a huge spark off the bench.

You also have a lot of serviceable vets like Erick Dampier and Nazr Mohammed who would be great backup center options. Signing one of them could give the Lakers a rotation of 4 bigs opposed to the 3 bigs rotation we normally see. Going forward I think its a good move because it reduces Pau's minutes.