RealGM

shortly after we traded for Kwame there was a huge outcry over letting Butler go because Caron elevated his game to All Star level and Odom struggled in the triangle and was consistantly inconsistant. the argument can be made that with Caron on the Lakers we could have beaten the Celtics.

fast forward to the present: knowing what we know now (mainly that Kwame brought us Pau) and looking back would you let go Odom or Caron for Kwame.

discuss!!!

Yes I would because as you stated we got a championship out of it but it did hurt to see Butler go though

KB24_ILLMATIC wrote:Yes I would because as you stated we got a championship out of it but it did hurt to see Butler go though

you would what? where did I state we got a championship?

what I was getting at was that with Caron we could have won 2 rings with Odom 1, but Odom is playing out his mind now and Caron is not a difference maker on his team.

Yeah, but no Gasol = no championship, in my opinion. So as much luck went into the whole sequence, that was clearly the right move.

I don't remember being overly impressed with Caron when he was here. I liked him, for sure, but I didn't think he was spectacular outside of his foul shooting. You have to keep in mind that he's been playing for Washington, a team that emphasizes offense at the complete expense of defense.

I suspect he's one of those classic good stats/bad team players, a la Richard Jefferson or Kevin Martin. I highly doubt he'd have ever surpassed 20 a night with us.

If Butler can still develop like he did with the Wizards then I'd still choose him over Odom. Both Butler and Odom have compatibility issues with Kobe in that they're both wing players who need the ball to be effective and prefer to attack on the inside. The reason why Odom is playing great now is because of Gasol. Had it been someone else playing the 5 I don't see Odom doing as well because teams can easily force him out of his comfort zone.

Butler gave 100% effort every time he was on the floor, which was what I liked most about him and I truly believe that with good health and a few trades here and there a line up of

Sasha/Sucky?
Kobe/Jumaine Jones
Butler/Walton
Odom/Grant
Mihm/Bynum could have gotten somewhere in the playoffs.

I dont see how anyone can complain about how things worked out considering where we were at the time (2005)

That assumes Caron would be healthy that year. Caron has been injury prone ever since he went to the Wizards, but then again they somehow make everyone injury prone over there. I don't think we'd have Pau if we didn't get Kwame though, so I think we're better off because of that trade.

Edrees wrote:That assumes Caron would be healthy that year. Caron has been injury prone ever since he went to the Wizards, but then again they somehow make everyone injury prone over there. I don't think we'd have Pau if we didn't get Kwame though, so I think we're better off because of that trade.

Interestingly enough he was the only Laker who was healthy for that entire season.

knowing the injury trouble that caron has had over the last few yrs, and knowing that bynum was pretty much m.i.a. during the last two finals runs (leaving a huge hole in the frontcourt), i don't think i'd give up lamar for caron.

dcash4 wrote:knowing the injury trouble that caron has had over the last few yrs, and knowing that bynum was pretty much m.i.a. during the last two finals runs (leaving a huge hole in the frontcourt), i don't think i'd give up lamar for caron.

+ 1

dcash4 wrote:knowing the injury trouble that caron has had over the last few yrs, and knowing that bynum was pretty much m.i.a. during the last two finals runs (leaving a huge hole in the frontcourt), i don't think i'd give up lamar for caron.

this

Lamar is ten times the rebounder Caron is. Lamar also has better ball-handling and playmaking abilities, and can play PF or SF. Artest or Ariza is better than Butler IMO, also. It seems like Mitch made the right choice.

lol Ariza is not better than Butler. Artest is arguable.

Caron wouldn't be the same player if he were to stay with the Lakers, this is the same with other guys such as Billups, etc.

I love LO

Anyone that reminds me of Magic w/o my glasses on needs to be in LA.

Those 80s moments are priceless. We won it all. Artest and Butler = log jam.

1-2 punch

For pure discussion purposes...are we sure that the Pau Gasol trade happens if Bynum doesn't get hurt? Perhaps Mitch would not have been able to talk Dr. Buss into taking on another huge contract to try to contend if it weren't for Bynum's injury. The Lakers were on a serious roll when Bynum went down.

The Lakers gave up Marc Gasol who is proving to be quite a find, Javaris Crittenton, a promising PG and the Lakers still have not resolved that position now or in the future, and two first - round picks, who we do not know who we would have taken, as without Pau's salary on the books, the Lakers would have brought more talent into the fold.

So you never know for sure how things might work out...but, I digress...

The thing that was really interesting to me at the time of the Caron trade was that, it seemed with Shaq gone, that Phil really wanted to go back to his Bulls triangle days and have a team like he had with Jordan and Pippen, with Kobe and another outstanding wing player.

I certainly thought at the time that Caron's game was much more similar to Pippen's than Lamar's and that bore itself out as Lamar struggled as the # 2 option and trying to fit into the triangle offense. However, it may have been fear of a potential severe rebounding deficiency that led the Lakers to keeping Lamar over Caron.