RealGM

There's a lot of point guards this offseason that could have been signed with the MLE. Mike Bibby signed for the MLE. Jarrett Jack got less than the MLE. Andre Miller, Ramon Sessions, Raymond Felton, Allen Iverson will get around the MLE. It's too bad we didn't sign and trade Ariza for Artest to keep that MLE to get a point guard.

im a little disappointed but because the free agency was so unpredictable... kupchak had to act quick or else we would have lost both. Plus Ariza wanted more then the MLE so we would end up paying more.

But us not getting a solid PG, i'm a little disappointed but there are always more trades we can conjure up in the future.. We still have good expiring contracts and trading blocks to chose from.

there is no way that the lakers would have spent money on ariza/artest, odom, and a full mle player. if the lakers get lamar back, getting odom/artest/brown is probably the best one could have hoped for.

dcash4 wrote:there is no way that the lakers would have spent money on ariza/artest, odom, and a full mle player. if the lakers get lamar back, getting odom/artest/brown is probably the best one could have hoped for.

+1

wfiles wrote:There's a lot of point guards this offseason that could have been signed with the MLE. Mike Bibby signed for the MLE. Jarrett Jack got less than the MLE. Andre Miller, Ramon Sessions, Raymond Felton, Allen Iverson will get around the MLE. It's too bad we didn't sign and trade Ariza for Artest to keep that MLE to get a point guard.

We can get away with it for another year or so, especially if Farmar improves. And Fish can get his shooting back on track.

wfiles wrote:There's a lot of point guards this offseason that could have been signed with the MLE. Mike Bibby signed for the MLE. Jarrett Jack got less than the MLE. Andre Miller, Ramon Sessions, Raymond Felton, Allen Iverson will get around the MLE. It's too bad we didn't sign and trade Ariza for Artest to keep that MLE to get a point guard.

1. None of those PG's are better 3-point shooters than Derek Fisher. Bibby comes close, but that's about it.

2. We need a PG that can not only hit the outside shots but can play defense.

3. I would rather see what Shannon Brown can do for us. Farmar is more than adequate as a backup, but the real problem is that no one is going to get the starting job over Fisher so it doesn't matter who we get.

I personally think the MLE would have been completely wasted had we gotten any of those guys.

Shannon Brown will get minutes at the point guard position... The triangle doesn't require a pure point guard... We need a guy who can play defense, move the rock and hit open threes (corner often) and he fits that mold ala B Shaw & Harp... Artest, Kobe & LO (assuming we sign him) can bring the ball up and set up the offense...

In my opinion, Shannon will BLOSSOM next year with an offseason under his belt... He will exceeds EVERYBODY'S expectations... I will be surprised if he isn't the first guard off of the bench by the middle of next year...

dear friends , don't we have bigger fish to fry now. odom is my concern at the moment

SALMIEN wrote:dear friends , don't we have bigger fish to fry now. odom is my concern at the moment

Same here, but there isn't much we can do about that for now.....

IMO nobody should complain about using the MLE with Artest. That was a great move, a bargain when you think that Ariza was asking for more than that. We got the greater player for the lesser money.

Now the biggest priority is Lamar.

But I do agree that we could use an upgrade at PG. But that can be adressed until the trade deadline with Ammo and Farmar.

We don't need an All Star caliber player at every position. We're already top of the league in payroll, even before re-signing Odom, it's unrealistic to think that we're going to also bring in a top point guard. We can get by with the three headed combination that we have right now. Would you rather have us signed a point guard and have our weakness at small forward with Walton starting, or would you rather have Artest and get by with Fisher/Farmar/Brown? Because that is the situation we were in, not one where we could bring in both a SF and PG, or re-sign Ariza and Odom, plus use the MLE on a point guard. Buss is struggling to sign Odom, and now you think he'd also sign a point guard as well?

One Love wrote: I will be surprised if he isn't the first guard off of the bench by the middle of next year...

Wasn't he usually the first guard off the bench towards the end of last year?

Well we re-signed Shannon Brown, and he was very dependable with us, I wonder if lakers going after nate robinson is a possibility once we resign odom. (which im confident we will).

we can still do a sign n trade for sessions. id rather have him than farmar

hmm well fish is another year older, I don think hes a starting PG anymore, if hes not hitting his 3s hes useless. if him and farmar played like the way they played in the playoffs (farmar was hmm..ok in the playoffs though, but he sucks late in the season) were going to have a problem. especially in the playoffs where there are alot of good/quick pointguards that like to penetrate.

but since we got artest there will be less preasure on the 1 spot I think? all they got to do is stay with their man and hit open threes.

but I think farmar can pick it up again this upcoming season,(,especially he has a compitition now in shannon brown.) he was playing good at the start of the season.

and I agree with you guys about shannon, I think he'll breakout this season. I think hes gonna be our new ariza.

With the Lakers depth, they have plenty of time before that becomes a necessity.

*Fish (who I would love to come back), contract expires next summer.
*Farmar, Yue, and Brown, all expire the year after.

There will be countless opportunities to either move Farmar/Yue for a better point guard, or sign a good FA in the next two years that the urgency of doing it now is senseless. Not only do we have 4 point guards on payroll already --- we just don't have the money to pull in anyone right now that will see anything other than garbage time. And trading is almost impossible. Our depth from 7-13 is widely considered trash.

lakb8 wrote:we can still do a sign n trade for sessions. id rather have him than farmar

ignoring all the sign n trade and contract stuff, sessions is a career 22% 3pt shooter. he'd be a horrible fit.

We have a pretty solid core so when the trade deadline approaches, we should be sitting pretty as far as the standings are concerned...

But teams who have made some gambles that haven't worked out or teams clearly not in the hunt who are hemoraging money, will be looking to make some moves.

I think that's when we can have some real impact in player movement.

We have some decent peices that should be able to bring us a young athletic PG prospect that's currently riding the pine...

I'm not saying it's a given that we'll make a deal, especially given Mitch's reluctance to make mid-season trades... But I think something might happen then.

So, No... I'm not dissappointed. I'm still hopefull...

And I want to see what Brown does this season.

we need resign odom and try to trade farmar's and ammo expiring contracts for a good pg

i would just resign odom, hopefully get a good vet with the min, and call it done. I'm good with Fisher/Brown/Farmar