RealGM

As the Conference finals continue and the possibility of a Lakers vs. Celtics Finals increases. The trades made by the Lakers and the Celtics appear to be the mold for future NBA success. Do teams gather assets and then trade for the best players they can get to make a Playoff run? Looking at the primary star players of the Lakers and the Celtics only Paul Pierce was drafted by his team. Kobe, Pau, Odom, KG and Ray Allen were all traded. Does this make the draft seem a little irrelevant? Or is this just the year of the "Trade"?

KB

Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili-------> All drafted by SA

Four rings.

Free Agent signings and Trades are allways more important to form a championship kaliber team . You build a foundation through the draft thats it .

good drafting = best

The Lakers wouldn't be here without Kobe, and the Celtics wouldn't be here without Pierce. Its a combination of things, drafting, trades, free agency. You have to get them all right to form a championship caliber team.

Kobe is more a Trade/ Free Agent aquisation then a drafted one . He wanted to play in LA and got drafted by Charlotte dispite the fact he never would've played there ( and canned several other teams ).

Wouldn't count Kobe as a great draft accomplishment .

Considering Kobe's played for LA since he was a 17-year old straight out of hs and he's never suited up for anothet team I think it's a little misleading to group him into the "trade" category with guys like Pau and KG...

Yeah thats true but it's still not the same as for example Pierce who could've gone elsewhere , Kobe chose the Lakers organisation is where he wanted to go.

Yeah but the only reason the Hornets drafted him was to get something from the Lakers. No one wanted to touch the kid because they were scared he would follow up on his promise to bail. The Hornets drafted him with the full intention of making him a Laker, and he left draft night a Laker. I mean would you say Aldridge isn't a draft product of the Blazers? Or Jeff Green a draft product of the Sonics?

No what i mean is Bryant didn't end up on the Lakers roster by some great scouting or drafting skills or the Lakers management . I don't give them too much credit for that aquisation . Other teams had at least a realistic shot on the other guys you mentioned while Bryant pretty much chose his destination.

No what i mean is Bryant didn't end up on the Lakers roster by some great scouting or drafting skills or the Lakers management . I don't give them too much credit for that aquisation . Other teams had at least a realistic shot on the other guys you mentioned while Bryant pretty much chose his destination.

That is the most ridiculous thing I might have ever read posted on RealGM. Jerry West's acquisition dumping of Vlade Divac's salary on Charlotte for Kobe Bryant AND making cap room for Shaquille O'Neal was maybe the single most brilliant move an NBA front office has made. And you don't give them "too much credit for that acquisition"??? The Lakers won 3 titles with that move and might be poised to win more as 12 years later Kobe Bryant still is at his peak as the best player in the world.

And it wasn't like everyone recognized Kobe for an all-time great right away. I mean look at this article from 1996:

The Charlotte Hornets have already agreed to trade Kobe Bryant, the 6-foot-6-inch, 17-year-old high school star from Lower Marion, Pa., whom they drafted No. 13. According to several league executives, Bryant will be traded to the Los Angeles Lakers for center Vlade Divac. The Lakers want to dump Divac's $4.1 million salary to bid for Shaquille O'Neal, who is set to become a free agent.

And worse, it says Charlotte is the winner.........

So count Charlotte and Milwaukee among the winners in this year's draft, joining teams like Minnesota, the Knicks, Philadelphia, and Vancouver. All of them felt better after the draft, particularly the Timberwolves, who made the bold move of trading the rights to Ray Allen and a future No. 1 pick to Milwaukee, for Stephon Marbury

Well at that time Vlade was one of the best centers in a center starved league.......

Kobe is such a spoiled fake brat...always was, always will be

Free agency is not a viable method of team building. Sure you can add role players and final pieces to a championship puzzle via free agency, but teams do not build around free agents. Even to acquire a borderline all star impact player (Rashard Lewis) you have to overpay by millions.

Trades are the only way to become "instant contenders". Obviously we have seen this with the Celtics and Lakers, as previously mentioned.

Still, the foundation of it all? Good drafting. A team that drafts well and then retains that talent puts itself in a good position for the long haul. Sure a little luck comes into play (draft lottery) but teams like the Spurs that are able to consistently find great talent in the latter parts of the first round are a step above the rest of the league.

I could be wrong on this, but i thought kobe's dad came out and said kobe only wanted to play for the lakers, knicks or sixers otherwise he would play in europe?

CITYOFANGELSX3 wrote:I could be wrong on this, but i thought kobe's dad came out and said kobe only wanted to play for the lakers, knicks or sixers otherwise he would play in europe?

Yes something like that . He first also considered the Nets but then changed his mind . There have been links flying around in the forum where a Nets official was quoted from that time.

FARMERMAN10 wrote:
Still, the foundation of it all? Good drafting. A team that drafts well and then retains that talent puts itself in a good position for the long haul. Sure a little luck comes into play (draft lottery) but teams like the Spurs that are able to consistently find great talent in the latter parts of the first round are a step above the rest of the league.

I would venture that the Spurs were more than "a little" lucky when they won the Duncan lottery while the Admiral mended from injury

KB

whoever said a little tanking wasn't a crucial component of a championship ballclub?

On a more serious note, finds like Tony Parker with such late picks are a testament to San Antonio's excellent foreign scouts.

I always thought the reason LA got Kobe was because other teams passed, as they were skeptical about taking a guard straight out of high school. Up to that point, were the only players that jumped that got drafted high bigs?

And we all know the #1 way to build a team is to tank when a franchise player is on the board. Aside from the Pistons, what team has won a title in the last 30 years without one of those franchise players?