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10: LA Lakers: Incomplete

Andrew Bynum, C, St. Joseph High School (#10)

In possibly the most interesting story from the NBA draft, the Lakers shocked almost everyone (except us) by taking the 17 year old high school beast Andrew Bynum. Bynum worked out for both the Blazers and Lakers twice, with one secret workout which was never reported to go around for each team, and received a promise that he would “not slip past the tenth pick”. According to sources, Bynum was in the mix for the Portland pick at #6, but John Nash was reportedly afraid of being criticized for taking the high school kid that early. Regardless, Bynum was the coolest and most confident 17 year old in the world while sitting amongst the crowd at Madison Square Garden waiting to show the NBA why he should have been invited to the Green Room. The most ridiculous part about this is that he was allegedly told by the NBA that he could not be among the 29 players invited to Chicago for physicals and measurements unless he came to play at the actual pre-draft camp. The fact that he did not do physicals lead to a rash of filthy rumors, some of which were published on ESPN, regarding knee problems that Bynum is suffering from. The “official word” that was being spread, possibly by an NBA team hoping to see Bynum slip to the their pick, was that he has cartilage that needs to be removed in his knee and that he will already require knee surgery at his young age immediately after being drafted. Another rumor was that Bynum refused to do any physicals for NBA teams, hoping that he could hide his condition from them.

iki4life wrote:he wouldnt even have knees had he gone to the blazers

SlavaMedvedenko wrote:So the Blazers dodged the 9mm and took a shot gun to the face.

dcash4 wrote:damn, to think the lakers could have drafted gerald green instead of this bust of a pick!

joe.linnen wrote:

SlavaMedvedenko wrote:So the Blazers dodged the 9mm and took a shot gun to the face.

I'm incline to agree, but the the shotgun to the face got me thinking about when this kid failed to kill himself when he shot himself with a shotgun to the face....very sad he lived and his face was gone

The Skyhook wrote:What if we drafted Danny Granger? This team probably would have beat the Suns in the 06 playoffs and maybe even gone on to the Finals but I'm not surer where they would be today. Being patient seems to have payed off.

captaincrunk wrote:

The Skyhook wrote:What if we drafted Danny Granger? This team probably would have beat the Suns in the 06 playoffs and maybe even gone on to the Finals but I'm not surer where they would be today. Being patient seems to have payed off.

I doubt Granger would have developed the same way. Bynum is not Oden at all. His knee problems aren't genetic or anything like that. He'll be great.

TyCobb wrote:

captaincrunk wrote:

The Skyhook wrote:What if we drafted Danny Granger? This team probably would have beat the Suns in the 06 playoffs and maybe even gone on to the Finals but I'm not surer where they would be today. Being patient seems to have payed off.

I doubt Granger would have developed the same way. Bynum is not Oden at all. His knee problems aren't genetic or anything like that. He'll be great.

I don't know about that. The Lakers have some of the best coaching in the game.

captaincrunk wrote:Yeah but he wouldn't get the kind of touches he got in Pacerland, or the playing time. I don't know though, he's definitely better than Ariza would have been. You can't really argue with a championship or two though.

TyCobb wrote:

captaincrunk wrote:Yeah but he wouldn't get the kind of touches he got in Pacerland, or the playing time. I don't know though, he's definitely better than Ariza would have been. You can't really argue with a championship or two though.

Yeah, good post. Although, I can't remember exactly but I thought Phil said he would've selected Danny Granger if it was up to him or something like that. We all know how Phil neglects his rookies, but it seems like he would've gave Danny some decent run.

Tried finding the exact quote, but had no luck. Maybe someone here can find it. Or maybe I read it wrong.

LApwnd wrote:

TyCobb wrote:

captaincrunk wrote:Yeah but he wouldn't get the kind of touches he got in Pacerland, or the playing time. I don't know though, he's definitely better than Ariza would have been. You can't really argue with a championship or two though.

Yeah, good post. Although, I can't remember exactly but I thought Phil said he would've selected Danny Granger if it was up to him or something like that. We all know how Phil neglects his rookies, but it seems like he would've gave Danny some decent run.

Tried finding the exact quote, but had no luck. Maybe someone here can find it. Or maybe I read it wrong.

we weren't a good team then, had we gotten Granger he would've gotten plenty of burn, I believe we already traded Caron at the time and our SF rotation was horrendous

TyCobb wrote:Yeah, good post. Although, I can't remember exactly but I thought Phil said he would've selected Danny Granger if it was up to him or something like that. We all know how Phil neglects his rookies, but it seems like he would've gave Danny some decent run.

Tried finding the exact quote, but had no luck. Maybe someone here can find it. Or maybe I read it wrong.