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IF I AM? NO!! I would want to resign him but not a max contract! if he demands then he can walk!

Right now, I've seen that the team has improved, Kobe has been a monster, Jamison hitting 3s, Earl Clark been working hard, Nash @ 39 still playing better than other young PG's and although dwight has been getting rebounds (#1 rebounder in the nba) we can get 2 or 3 C's that will equal to that!

I've read here in realm b4 that Dwight has been playing like Kosta Koufus of the nuggets, and Koufus aint a garbage C, not certainly good or great but he can contribute but at that level of play is not equal to a max contract.

I don't know w/ u guys but I've seen great passes that Nash threw to Dwight during P&R and not all the time diwght finishes is because first he gets fouled and you know what happens if he is in the charity line, second the ball get taps and stolen coz unlike P&R of nash and amare in phoenix before, amare can roll and just drive and dunk the ball to the basket with finesse and can really create from the momentum he gathered during the roll or from running, Dwight was good at that before but now, I've seen him when he roll is that he does not explode right away rather he gathers strength and put the ball down or stop to gather momentum and just use his strength going up instead of 1 sequence roll and drive and because of that other players can catch up and just foul him, dwight now offer strength and no more or few finesse, and with no back to the basket and low post game then that ain't good. Don't misconstrue me, Dwight is strong and a C or a PF needs to be strong but they need a back to the basket game or a li'l range and dwight does not have it, I use Paul millsap, he is a strong forward, undersize but he makes up with low post game, strong moves and now a lil J. Bynum is a great low post scorer but he is frequently injured and I still say lakers did a great switch from bynum to dwight coz bynum is not playing .

Just to add up, Javalee Mcgee would have been perfect to roll with nash, coz he does not gather strength nor stretch, he explodes right away to the rim, and although he LOOKS DUMB, ACTS DUMB and might really be DUMB, he'll be a great compliment to nash but no way we can get him.

I'm just saying if Dwight will ask for max, let him walk and may be just take a risk of other C's, like Oden, if he comes cheap.. maybe get aRobin Lopez if he is affordable, ekpe udoh, byron mulleins then a PF like Ivan Johnson, those are big bodies inside already and although not 1 of them is as good as an injured dwight, collectively they are better and cheaper and might work hard than dwight then if it won't work there's the 2014 MARKET that we have.

I say Pau will be given another chance as a focal inside offense and to prove if he still got it

Front court of
G. Oden/UDoh or Mullens/Lopez
Pau/Ivan Johnson

We made the playoffs with
Chris Mhim and kwame and Smush @ PG ai'nt no worst than that!!!

I'm inclined to agree with u...But we really dont have much of a choice here. Its keep the faith Dwight cleans up his attitude and also works on his post game. We cant upset him with a lowball contract offer so he can use that as an excuse to leave. If he walks then we're pretty much telling Kobe that #6 aint happening under this new CBA

yes.

gotta realise he's not 100% and he won't be until at least next year

"if dwight asks for the max"? of course dwight is going to ask for the max and of course he's going to get it.

Aki wrote:yes.

gotta realise he's not 100% and he won't be until at least next year

this and fact we never really had a full team mini-camp with everyone healthy and this coach but for people like the thread starter here, "its what I see on the court is what I'm gona get permently"

If the answer is Javale McGee, don't even ask me the question.

SlavaMedvedenko wrote:If the answer is Javale McGee, don't even ask me the question.

The way the CBA is structured, Dwight's pretty much a lock to get the Max. It may not be with us but we can offer him one more year than anyone else.
If we plan on resigning him, he will get the max. If we don't, we could work on a sign and trade with a team that's under the cap, or we can let him walk and sign for the Max elsewhere.

I don't think we have any plans to let him walk and I don't think we'd trade him unless he asked to be traded.

We are going to give him the max.

This board is very sour.

Even with him coming off back surgery, he's leading the league in rebounds. and averages roughly 16 ppg.

16 and 12 are solid numbers.. it's just we expect so much more but can we really?? I'm sure if he was 100%, you'd see it in the totals every night.

The crazy **** is.. he's still arguably the best center with his bad back. And you WON'T sign him to a max? That's just throwing away championship chances.

"if he asks the max" really, i mean really? >.>

he needs to get his shoulder right more than his back. His back looks fine to me going by the fact that he's rebounding as good as the last couple years over the last month. The shoulder is the problem. He won't even attempt his hook shot with it.

Mitch said he in no uncertain terms they will try to bring him back, and the reasoning he provided was sound- guys with his talent and athletic ability (even if disparaged this year) simply are very rare. It's kind of like getting pocket kings in poker, you almost have to play the hand. Letting Dwight walk is like exchanging the 2 kings away for 2 brand new cards, hoping you'll get better.

Even if we expected more, I don't know of any other available players who will really give us more going forward.

If he was having a better season then maybe he has better trade value that you explore, OTOH if he was playing better than a trade would be out of the question anyway.

idk why people are hating on dwight so much he never gets touches on the ball and if he does its off a rebound and his not even healthy last year everybody was jumpin on his D when we got him not everybody wants him out he took magic to finals...we gotta face it that we cant win every year in this 2000s we won the most championships..just wait next year kobe and dwight will dominate the league

Dwight's impact/presence, even in his current state, is being severely underrated. It's a no brainer to give him the max.

Dwight isn't getting position and he isn't controlling the ball well when he does receive it in the post... It's not just about how many 'touches' he gets...

He's clearly not as fast or as physical right now... I still think it goes back to conditioning. That's what's limiting his touches.

When Oden and McGee are better choices in your mind over Dwight I really don't know what to say. Howard with a bad back has been more productive this year than nearly every center in the league. Of coarse he deserves a max and if the Lakers don't offer it someone else will.

One of the main reasons the Lakers have started winning lately is because Dwight has really started controlling the defensive end. Just because they lose a game doesn't always make it his fault.

Thinking Dwight is expendable is super shortsighted. The Lakers need to start looking past Kobe. Howard is a player that a team can build around as a major factor. If your plan is to just keep riling with Kobe and old Nash for the next 3 years God save this team.

Plus if the team lets him walk I dont see how you think they can still afford to sign other players. The team will be at the max already without his contract. So your idea of great players wanting to sign for nothing to play with old Kobe, old Pau and super old Nash is not based in reality.

Dwight is the future. Next year when he is fully healthy with this team has more time to win you will be praising him and dancing because we have him.

If a respected doctor, not the ones looked at Bynum's knees obviously, tells me that with a full offseason of conditioning and preparation Dwight will regain he speed and explosiveness I'd offer him the max in a heartbeat. Doing anything else would be akin to waving the white flag and telling the league we're not going to th to compete with Miami and OKC as long as they have LeBron and KD.

One more thing to think about. How many championships do you think a healthy Dwight and LeBron would win together if they teamed up? Just sayin' yo!

Dwight, if healthy, and interested, would be a great piece to build around... No question.

But he isn't the ONLY option out there that fits that need.

And if he isn't healthy or interested, then he's better off going somewhere else... Because trying to build around that would be much worse that letting go of Dwight...

Don't buy into the concept of "Dwight Howard"... Try to focus on the reality... Right now, he's a decent 2nd or 3rd fiddle on a championship team... That may change by next season and the FO is monitoring that.

But if the Lakers were bigger than Shaq, they sure as hell are bigger than Dwight.

Too late now. Don't really have a choice, but to offer him max.

Kilroy wrote:Dwight, if healthy, and interested, would be a great piece to build around... No question.

But he isn't the ONLY option out there that fits that need.

And if he isn't healthy or interested, then he's better off going somewhere else... Because trying to build around that would be much worse that letting go of Dwight...

Don't buy into the concept of "Dwight Howard"... Try to focus on the reality... Right now, he's a decent 2nd or 3rd fiddle on a championship team... That may change by next season and the FO is monitoring that.

But if the Lakers were bigger than Shaq, they sure as hell are bigger than Dwight.

The Lakers were bigger than Shaq because they had a prime Kobe to think about and keep happy. They clearly made the right decision then and I expect them to make the right decision now.

TyCobb wrote:Too late now. Don't really have a choice, but to offer him max.

Assuming of course they expect him to fully recover from his back surgery. If what we're seeing from Dwight now is all we can expect from the guy going forward We have to let him go if he's expecting max money.

I'm thinking we sign him and get him back to close to 100% them use Him to lure LeBron here in 2014. Sign Kobe to a vet min contract and surround them with Hill, EC and whatever other scrubs we can lure to the Purp n Gold then win three or four rings in a row. Holla!!