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With us claiming what is rightfully ours, little Larry O'Brien, we're not going to have a very busy off-season. In past summers, trade scenarios and free agents signings were probably the highlight of our years. However, with success comes boredom and minor tweaks to the roster. Why fix what's not broken? We won the Championship with Andrew Bynum probably around 60% of what he can do when his rhythm and timing is there. Like last off season, I'm sure the Lakers brass will be counting on internal improvement with Bynum becoming a major factor of it.

With that said, our current roster as it stands.

PG: Derek Fisher/ Jordan Farmar/ Shannon Brown (FA)
SG: Kobe Bryant/ Sasha Vujacic/ Sun Yue
SF: Trevor Ariza (FA)/ Luke Walton/ Adam Morrison
PF: Pau Gasol/ Lamar Odom (FA)/ Josh Powell
C: Andrew Bynum/ DJ Mbenga (FA) /

Now, without Brown, Odom, Ariza, and Mbenga, our team salary is just over 75 million.

Trades

Jordan Farmar, Adam Morrison, #59 to Memphis for 2009 second round draft pick (#36)

So if we assume 75 million (Josh Powell included) - Adam Morrison (5,257,228) - Jordan Farmar (1,947,240) = 67,795,532 team salary (estimated, it will probably be a little different depending on the specifics of how much Josh Powell makes).

Obviously, this is a huge trade. With Shannon Brown's emergence, I think we're fine to get rid of Farmar. Seriously, I'm sick of watching him play defense anyways.

WHY MEMPHIS DOES IT: With Farmar on board, they solidify their PG rotation with Mike Conley and Farmar. They draft Thabeet, and go with a starting lineup of Conley/Mayo/Gay/Gasol/Thabeet. Not bad.

Free Agents

- Re-sign Trevor Ariza.

1st year- 5 million
2nd year- 6 million
3rd year- 6.5 million
4th year- 8 million (Player option)

= 4 years, 25.5 million

----------------------------------------------

67,795,532 + 5,000,000 = 72,795,532

----------------------------------------------

- Re-sign Lamar Odom

1st year- 7 million
2nd year- 7 million
3rd year- 8 million
4th year- 7 million

-----------------------------------------------

72,795,532 + 7,000,000 = 79,795,532

-----------------------------------------------

- Re-sign Shannon Brown

1st year: 2.5 million
2nd year: 3.5 million
3rd year: 4 million

-----------------------------------------------

79,795,532 + 2,500,000 = 82,295,532

DRAFT:

29th pick: Darren Collison, G, UCLA

WHY: We need speed, especially at the guard position. Obviously, this would make most of California happy, with Collison being a UCLA boy. With Farmar gone, his speed becomes a necessity on the team.

36th pick: Nick Calathes, G, Florida

WHY: I've seen a lot of Nick Calathes. At 6'5", he's definitely Phil Jackson height. His shooting has improved, although he is very streaky. Plays with emotion on the court and a good leader. However, he's going to play in Greece for a year or two, so stashing him away for the future would be a good idea as he develops his game. He needs to improve his lateral quickness - I doubt his ability to stay in front of PG's in this league.

42nd pick: Trade or draft international player to stash overseas.

------------------------------------------------------------

ROSTER:

PG: Derek Fisher/ Shannon Brown/ Darren Collison
SG: Kobe Bryant/ Sasha Vujacic/ Sun Yue
SF: Trevor Ariza/ Luke Walton/
PF: Pau Gasol/ Lamar Odom/ Josh Powell
C: Andrew Bynum/ DJ Mbenga

Team Salary: Around 83 million.
13 players on the roster, exactly what Mitch wants.

Nice post Tyler. Two things though, you said you are sick of watching Farmar play defense.....Thats just flat out wrong...you know Farmar has never played defense while playing for the lakers... . Second, I think 2.5 for Shannon is high. This guy was a summer away from being out of the league. He made about 800,000 last year, Im sure we can re-sign him for 1 mill a year or something close to that. He gets a little raise and gets to stay on a Championship caliber team.

TylersLakers wrote:With us claiming what is rightfully ours, little Larry O'Brien, we're not going to have a very busy off-season. In past summers, trade scenarios and free agents signings were probably the highlight of our years. However, with success comes boredom and minor tweaks to the roster. Why fix what's not broken? We won the Championship with Andrew Bynum probably around 60% of what he can do when his rhythm and timing is there. Like last off season, I'm sure the Lakers brass will be counting on internal improvement with Bynum becoming a major factor of it.

With that said, our current roster as it stands.

PG: Derek Fisher/ Jordan Farmar/ Shannon Brown (FA)
SG: Kobe Bryant/ Sasha Vujacic/ Sun Yue
SF: Trevor Ariza (FA)/ Luke Walton/ Adam Morrison
PF: Pau Gasol/ Lamar Odom (FA)/ Josh Powell
C: Andrew Bynum/ DJ Mbenga (FA) /

Now, without Brown, Odom, Ariza, and Mbenga, our team salary is just over 75 million.

Trades

Jordan Farmar, Adam Morrison, #59 to Memphis for 2009 second round draft pick (#36)

So if we assume 75 million (Josh Powell included) - Adam Morrison (5,257,228) - Jordan Farmar (1,947,240) = 67,795,532 team salary (estimated, it will probably be a little different depending on the specifics of how much Josh Powell makes).

Obviously, this is a huge trade. With Shannon Brown's emergence, I think we're fine to get rid of Farmar. Seriously, I'm sick of watching him play defense anyways.

WHY MEMPHIS DOES IT: With Farmar on board, they solidify their PG rotation with Mike Conley and Farmar. They draft Thabeet, and go with a starting lineup of Conley/Mayo/Gay/Gasol/Thabeet. Not bad.

Free Agents

- Re-sign Trevor Ariza.

1st year- 5 million
2nd year- 6 million
3rd year- 6.5 million
4th year- 8 million (Player option)

= 4 years, 25.5 million

----------------------------------------------

67,795,532 + 5,000,000 = 72,795,532

----------------------------------------------

- Re-sign Lamar Odom

1st year- 7 million
2nd year- 7 million
3rd year- 8 million
4th year- 7 million

-----------------------------------------------

72,795,532 + 7,000,000 = 79,795,532

-----------------------------------------------

- Re-sign Shannon Brown

1st year: 2.5 million
2nd year: 3.5 million
3rd year: 4 million

-----------------------------------------------

79,795,532 + 2,500,000 = 82,295,532

DRAFT:

29th pick: Darren Collison, G, UCLA

WHY: We need speed, especially at the guard position. Obviously, this would make most of California happy, with Collison being a UCLA boy. With Farmar gone, his speed becomes a necessity on the team.

36th pick: Nick Calathes, G, Florida

WHY: I've seen a lot of Nick Calathes. At 6'5", he's definitely Phil Jackson height. His shooting has improved, although he is very streaky. Plays with emotion on the court and a good leader. However, he's going to play in Greece for a year or two, so stashing him away for the future would be a good idea as he develops his game. He needs to improve his lateral quickness - I doubt his ability to stay in front of PG's in this league.

42nd pick: Trade or draft international player to stash overseas.

------------------------------------------------------------

ROSTER:

PG: Derek Fisher/ Shannon Brown/ Darren Collison
SG: Kobe Bryant/ Sasha Vujacic/ Sun Yue
SF: Trevor Ariza/ Luke Walton/
PF: Pau Gasol/ Lamar Odom/ Josh Powell
C: Andrew Bynum/ DJ Mbenga

Team Salary: Around 83 million.
13 players on the roster, exactly what Mitch wants.

i agree with this, but the only way that we can keep Ariza and Lamar are if they actually would stay here because we are a championship team, but them two will be getting some big offers

Rain_Maker wrote:

TylersLakers wrote:With us claiming what is rightfully ours, little Larry O'Brien, we're not going to have a very busy off-season. In past summers, trade scenarios and free agents signings were probably the highlight of our years. However, with success comes boredom and minor tweaks to the roster. Why fix what's not broken? We won the Championship with Andrew Bynum probably around 60% of what he can do when his rhythm and timing is there. Like last off season, I'm sure the Lakers brass will be counting on internal improvement with Bynum becoming a major factor of it.

With that said, our current roster as it stands.

PG: Derek Fisher/ Jordan Farmar/ Shannon Brown (FA)
SG: Kobe Bryant/ Sasha Vujacic/ Sun Yue
SF: Trevor Ariza (FA)/ Luke Walton/ Adam Morrison
PF: Pau Gasol/ Lamar Odom (FA)/ Josh Powell
C: Andrew Bynum/ DJ Mbenga (FA) /

Now, without Brown, Odom, Ariza, and Mbenga, our team salary is just over 75 million.

Trades

Jordan Farmar, Adam Morrison, #59 to Memphis for 2009 second round draft pick (#36)

So if we assume 75 million (Josh Powell included) - Adam Morrison (5,257,228) - Jordan Farmar (1,947,240) = 67,795,532 team salary (estimated, it will probably be a little different depending on the specifics of how much Josh Powell makes).

Obviously, this is a huge trade. With Shannon Brown's emergence, I think we're fine to get rid of Farmar. Seriously, I'm sick of watching him play defense anyways.

WHY MEMPHIS DOES IT: With Farmar on board, they solidify their PG rotation with Mike Conley and Farmar. They draft Thabeet, and go with a starting lineup of Conley/Mayo/Gay/Gasol/Thabeet. Not bad.

Free Agents

- Re-sign Trevor Ariza.

1st year- 5 million
2nd year- 6 million
3rd year- 6.5 million
4th year- 8 million (Player option)

= 4 years, 25.5 million

----------------------------------------------

67,795,532 + 5,000,000 = 72,795,532

----------------------------------------------

- Re-sign Lamar Odom

1st year- 7 million
2nd year- 7 million
3rd year- 8 million
4th year- 7 million

-----------------------------------------------

72,795,532 + 7,000,000 = 79,795,532

-----------------------------------------------

- Re-sign Shannon Brown

1st year: 2.5 million
2nd year: 3.5 million
3rd year: 4 million

-----------------------------------------------

79,795,532 + 2,500,000 = 82,295,532

DRAFT:

29th pick: Darren Collison, G, UCLA

WHY: We need speed, especially at the guard position. Obviously, this would make most of California happy, with Collison being a UCLA boy. With Farmar gone, his speed becomes a necessity on the team.

36th pick: Nick Calathes, G, Florida

WHY: I've seen a lot of Nick Calathes. At 6'5", he's definitely Phil Jackson height. His shooting has improved, although he is very streaky. Plays with emotion on the court and a good leader. However, he's going to play in Greece for a year or two, so stashing him away for the future would be a good idea as he develops his game. He needs to improve his lateral quickness - I doubt his ability to stay in front of PG's in this league.

42nd pick: Trade or draft international player to stash overseas.

------------------------------------------------------------

ROSTER:

PG: Derek Fisher/ Shannon Brown/ Darren Collison
SG: Kobe Bryant/ Sasha Vujacic/ Sun Yue
SF: Trevor Ariza/ Luke Walton/
PF: Pau Gasol/ Lamar Odom/ Josh Powell
C: Andrew Bynum/ DJ Mbenga

Team Salary: Around 83 million.
13 players on the roster, exactly what Mitch wants.

i agree with this, but the only way that we can keep Ariza and Lamar are if they actually would stay here because we are a championship team, but them two will be getting some big offers

See, this is the part where I disagree.

There is realistically, about 4 teams with extensive cap space (9+ million)... and most of them are teams that are not ready to contend (Memphis, Oklahoma City, etc). With difference makers like Paul Millsap, David Lee, Carlos Boozer, etc.. do you really think that teams are going to unload their whole cap space on Lamar Odom? I don't think so. The best chance a team has to get LO is through a sign-and-trade.. but the Lakers have to agree to that as well.

And so many of these teams, if they can't make a huge difference, they're going to wait until 2010. Now, if Odom or Ariza were in next years free agency pool, they'd each make tons of cash, for the teams that are looking to pick up the scraps after LeBron, Wade, Bosh, etc. make their decisions. That's where those teams that created so much cap room, and got nothing, are going to panic and offer huge contracts to players who don't necessarily deserve that number.

Now, with this trade I made up to Memphis, it still leaves Memphis with about.. 8-10 million in cap space. Just enough if they want to go for Paul Millsap, Lee or Boozer.

So really, I think Lamar, Ariza, Wallace, Kidd, Iverson, etc. are all going to be faced with "take it or leave it," offers around 6-9 million a season. If they don't accept that, good luck in free agency.. where the most you're going to get is 5.2 million a season, the Mid-Level Exception.

Generally I like but maybe some tweaks:
- #1 will be moved for 500k, as the Lakers don't want to pay 1.7 mil for a guy who won't play and hurts the cap - edit: or draft a Euro and not get hit with the salary and tax, but get a cap hold for 830k, like DX is suggesting with Calathes

- why does Memp give up cap space for Ammo? I think a simple Farmar+59 for #36 would work and improve them like you said so they can draft Thabeet and still have #27 for a backup Forward

- I think if LA offers a third year to Brown it should be a team opt, and they should give LO a choice of 4th year with a lower amt like you did or 3 year and start at 8m instead of 7.

- still need to move 1 of Ammo or Sasha but will have to take back a contract.

- Yue scheduled to make 737k but a 2nd round pick should only cost under 500k. I like #36 Calathes (euro stash til Fish retires) and #42 b/u guard to replace Yue for less (the mini Pietrus they worked out from Cent FLa) - edit: his name is Jermaine Taylor

Also, DJ and Powell both will make 959k

The Farmar, Morrison, #59 pick for a Mempis second rounder is brilliant.

I'm all for it!

Question though, if you were Memphis, would you do it?

Would you take on Morrison for a year just to get Farmar?

Memphis has a draft pick at the bottom of the draft. They could JUST draft a backup PG (Collison, Douglass, Mills, Calathes, etc).

Your trade is super, fantastic, wonderful, and stupendous ... for us.

For Memphis, I 'm not sure it makes much sense. I don't think they (or anyone in the league for that matter) are so enamored with Farmar, especially when they [Memphis] can JUST SIMPLY draft a really good backup PG at the bottom of the draft.

I hope I'm wrong and your right though.

The way I look at it from Memphis' perspective is this.

After that trade.. they'll have about 7-9 million left in cap space. Do you really think they're going to spend that this off-season? I don't think so. There's no one worth breaking the bank when next off-season is going to be so huge as far as player movement. So, Morrison expires, they have a good back up PG in Farmar (who fits their style much more than ours), and they have about 13-16 million to offer in cap space.

I could be totally wrong though. I seriously think if Farmar was allowed to be "free," he'd be a pretty good offensive player. However, we have enough offense and we're not going to abandon the triangle right now. Farmar would definitely have more of an impact in the next 2 years than a Collison or any of the guards that you suggested.

One thing about Ammo that could help such a MEM scenario is that his 5.26 expiring could be moved with Darko's 7m for a big time PF trade (I think it is 30 days before Ammo could be dealt again in conjunction with other players).

Scenario, Paul Milsap S&T or David Lee S&T for Darko + Ammo... see my point.

You are right Tyler, there might be good reason for them to acquire him in such a deal.

That would give MEM
Conley/Farmar
Mayo/Jaric/#27
Gay/Warrick/(#27)
FA/Arthur/(Gasol)
Gasol/#2 Thabeet/Haddadi

speaking of ridding us of Farmar... think the Wiz would swap up Farmar for Critt? Would we want him?

Good points about putting Morrison with Darko for a larger package but again if I'm Memphis, Farmar is not worth the seven million dollars it will cost to acquire him (with Morrison).

Although Farmar might be better than Mills, Douglass, or Collison, he is just not that important to me with Conley already on the roster and for seven million dollars.

Again, I hope I'm wrong and Memphis really values Farmar that high. I think they'd be more interested in developing Conley with a rookie backup or seasoned vet ala Jason Hart or Kevin Ollie.

Well, with them drafting Thabeet, they now need a backup guard. Unless you want to go with Marko Jaric.