How many championships would the Lakers win if Shaq stayed

[verticalhops]

I've wondered this questions ever since watching how unstoppable the lakers when shaq was in town when he was at his dominant best. The Lakers were virtually unbeatable. How many championships would the team have won if Shaq had of stayed? 8? Assuming Shaq and Kobe had of worked out their differences

[stunnar0b]

3

[Vincent 666]

0.

[verticalhops]

im stun...

[snaquille oatmeal]

I hope only sixthman and below post on this thread or it could get ugly.

[salmahayek]

If Shaq were able to defer to Kobe as the emerging, more dominant player, a la Kereem to Magic post 1986, then like the Showtime Lakers*, the Shaq - Kobe combo could have won two more titles if Buss continued to add payroll via the MLE to bring in good role players.

However, since it was obvious Shaq had no intention of deferring to Kobe a little bit, or working with management to address team salary issues, the trade route was taken.

* Showtime Lakers could have won three titles in a row if it were not for injuries to Magic and Byron Scott for the 1989 Finals - they had been undefeated in the post season prior to the injuries. *

[TommyTheCat]

the supporting cast was old and just getting older. luke and cookie were our up and coming young guys.........................barf.

shaq was already losing his dominant best at a quick rate...........and continued as we have all seen.

so there were no trade assets other than kobe or shaq on the lakers, the lakers would have been way over salary cap (shaq wanted his extension and was yelling pay me from the court) and they'd have kept picking at the tail end of the first round.

it was a good move because at most i see the lakers having one more ring with that tandem. they've already got their one ring and now have a deep talented team.

[magic1fan]

none with shaq and kobe as our two main players. shaq had one of the fastest declines i have ever seen. fox was hurt,horry was gone.

[DEEP3CL]

Who cares ? Look at the scenario, he pretty much fell way off his normal production after the 2006-07 season.

[TonyMontana]

Who cares ?

[Viol8tor Mode]

36

[H00PDREAMS]

2 more at least.

[TonyMontana]

Who cares ?

[Magicontinues]

the supporting cast was old and just getting older. luke and cookie were our up and coming young guys.........................barf.

shaq was already losing his dominant best at a quick rate...........and continued as we have all seen.

so there were no trade assets other than kobe or shaq on the lakers, the lakers would have been way over salary cap (shaq wanted his extension and was yelling pay me from the court) and they'd have kept picking at the tail end of the first round.

it was a good move because at most i see the lakers having one more ring with that tandem. they've already got their one ring and now have a deep talented team.

More importantly, Kobe would have left if Shaq would have signed. So we would have sucked royally. So stop with the "how many titles would we have won"

NONE!!

[Sedale Threatt]

Considering all the crap that went down, I'm just happy we got three.

[salmahayek]

True that!

[MambaAssasin24]

I don't quite understand why people talk about us winning more championships if Shaq had stayed. I mean don't you guys remember the horrible display that happened during the Pistons series. Shaq was dominated by Big Ben and Rasheed. He was declining pretty fast back then but still wanted to be the 1st option on the team and would have drained the resources for us to sign anybody of value to the team.

We absolutely made the right decision to get rid of him, and actually got a pretty good deal from Miami in return. Yes we did taste some bitter times but I don't see us winning anything had Shaq stayed and continued degenerating both himself and the team. Seriously we got his best years of production and should be happy for it.

Another point: I also can't stand how all the analysts always give the Lions share of the credit for Shaq during our three peat. It's true Shaq was amazing in the Finals those years and just great overall, but while Shaq was beating up the Swedish Cheese- Rick Smiths, an aging Mutumbo and the defensive mastermind McCollugh, Kobe was dominating Duncan and the rest of the Western Conference. Not to seem like a Kobe Homer, but the extent to which Shaq is credited with the 3 peat years is pretty insane.

[Sofa King]

Maybe one more if Kobe and Shaq still were together.

But it was clear that Kobe would have left for Chicago since he was a free agent that year and the reason Kobe stayed because the Lakers wanted to build around Kobe and not Shaq anymore. In an interview, Kobe admitted that he and his wife to look for houses and schools in the Chicago area before his meeting with Jerry Buss about resigning with the Lakers. If Buss told him Shaq was going to stay and things would still be the same, I'm sure Kobe would be in Chicago if not the Clippers right now.

[laduane1]

Shaq stays and Kobe might have left. He might have even signed on with the Clippers. Maybe 1 more ring. That is a big maybe.

[BlakeSavage]

You guys are some ungrateful mofos. Shaq didnt lose that 04 pistons series cause he was being dominated by Ben and Sheed. These are his stats:

Player G GS MPG FG% 3p% FT% OFF DEF TOT APG SPG BPG TO PF PPG
Shaquille 5 5 42.6 .631 .000 .491 3.00 7.80 10.80 1.6 .40 .60 2.80 4.40 26.6

I love Kobe today, but back then i hated his guts and this finals sealed the deal as to why, his stats:

Kobe 5 5 46.2 .381 .174 .920 .40 2.40 2.80 4.4 1.80 .60 3.60 3.00 22.6

Aint revisionist history great. Also shaq went on to have 2 very productive seasons with the heat, and could have had back to back titles if wade and himself didnt play injured against the pistons in 05. If i was shaq i would have acted the same way. Kobe wasnt playing basketball the right way in those days. He was goin one on 5 all the damn time. Kobe plays today the way lebron played since he entered the league, the right way.