RealGM

Imagine if history was rewritten and The Chris Paul deal was official and we had a team of Chris Paul,Kobe, Metta World Peace,(random PF maybe it still be jamsion), and Dwight Howard still came via trade of Bynum. Would that team be better then the current Lakers, and which team would u rather have. The Chris Paul deal would have cost Pau, but they would have one of best PG's and C's in the nba and two young superstars to build with.but with that said I personally would rather have the current lakers as having Pau Gasol and Dwight together is huge and is the best bigman combo in the league, and Nash is still an elite PG. I think the current lakers are better in the short-term, but they have a short window of time to dominate and have to win now!!, as everyone in the entire starting lineup are in the twillight years of there careers beside Howard, who is in his prime.

WOOOWW, So Zero comments? Not even a whats dis raptor fan doing here writing a post dis Lakers Board? I thought it be cool to talk about how something that damaged our team a year ago turned into a very huge positive?

how come you say you're a rap fan then use the term "our"? as to your Q, I'm one of the few who actually disliked that trade, we gave up 2 bigs for small, general rule is dont trade big for small. However I will admit Paul/Howard would give us a longer window then this current group but I find it more enjoyable to see this team help Nash get a ring then Paul. Cp360 is a perfect fit with the Floppers.

Raps in 4

Rather have Paul, Kobe, and Dwight, but I'm not complaining.

We'd have Chris Paul instead of Steve Nash.

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We would be w/o Pau Gasol and the 1st rounder that was used to get Jordan Hill. I do assume LA would have worked things out some way but this team right here fills alot more needs than a Howard/CP3 team. Of course D12/CP3 would be better going forward tho.

Stephano wrote:

snaquille oatmeal wrote:Raps in 4

Raps in 3

im one of the few who would rather have cp3 and howard. we wouldnt be as good as we are now but wed be more set for the post kobe years

I'd go with CP3/Kobe/Howard plus massive TPE. Who knows what Mitch can do with that.

Kobe System wrote:I'd go with CP3/Kobe/Howard plus massive TPE. Who knows what Mitch can do with that.

1. those picks we used for nash, wouldve been given to orlando
2. that TPE from odom would've been used to absorb more salary from orlando

Aki wrote:

Kobe System wrote:I'd go with CP3/Kobe/Howard plus massive TPE. Who knows what Mitch can do with that.

1. those picks we used for nash, wouldve been given to orlando
2. that TPE from odom would've been used to absorb more salary from orlando

I doubt Mitch will give up that much for Howard. And I am not talking about the Odom TPE. I am talking about the massive TPE we'll have on CP3 trade.

I'm acting under the assumption that if CP3 had ended up here we probably wouldn't have been gifted Howard. Call me whatever you want, but there would've been some force preventing Howard from getting here and he probably would've ended up in Brooklyn. All the owners that just signed off on a CBA that promised competitive balance would've been irate.

I think if we had gotten CP3, Howard would have pushed even harder to come here. He wouldn't have waived his opt out and it would have been a two horse race with Brooklyn having more assets and us being more desirable...

But I agree that in the end, I think the roles would have been reversed with Us being Howards clear favorite but Brooklyn having the right pieces to get the job done. I could definitely see Howard as a Net had we gotten CP3.

But who knows...

It certainly seems like the blocked CP3 trade had more to do with the possibility we'd end up with both Howard and Paul than it did with CP3 alone... Maybe there would have been a full-court press to get Howard to the Nets.

All in all, I'm happy with how it turned out. I like the idea of Nash and Kobe competing for their last Championships together... I think we're a much stronger team now and for the near future than we would have been with CP3, but CP3 and Howard would be a much better future core. I'm not crazy about how CP3 seems to have turned the Clippers into flop-city though and I think that would have annoyed the hell out of me... So I'm happy with this roster and I can't wait for this season to start.

Kilroy wrote:It certainly seems like the blocked CP3 trade had more to do with the possibility we'd end up with both Howard and Paul than it did with CP3 alone... Maybe there would have been a full-court press to get Howard to the Nets.

You can look at the letter Gilbert sent to Stern, he makes a reference about the eventual acquisition of Howard in that letter. Everyone knew what was next, it was just a matter of when. And within a millisecond of LA throwing their hat into the ring for Howard with CP3 already on the roster there would've been a bunch of pissed off billionaires.

And it doesn’t appear that they would give up any draft picks, which might allow to later make a trade for Dwight Howard. (They would also get a large trade exception that would help them improve their team and/or eventually trade for Howard.)

The initial salary shed of giving up Gasol & Odom and taking nothing back was just a smaller problem to the bigger issue which was Mitch turning those savings, along with the picks saved, along with Bynum into Howard.

I don't know. I originally thought having CP3 take over as the face of LA would be nice. But seeing him as a clipper, his career honestly is on the down side from here on out. He's declining already. By the time Kobe retires I doubt CP3 would be the top dog pg anymore. The same doesn't apply to Howard. He's not losing his dominance at center any time soon. So, our future is damn bright. Once Nash Gasol and Kobe expires we have all the money in the world to build around Howard.