Jim confirms, Howard wanted both MDA and Kobe out

[EArl]

To be honest what is the point of having threads like this?
These threads just reassured us of what we already knew about Dwight. i feel that Jim is just being sour which i'm not to fond of because I feel that it could deter potential players in the future. Also with Jeanie saying almost the opposite of Jim, i feel like there is cold war style battle going on between them both.
I wonder if they would ever sell the Lakers.

[Slava]

Leave the moderation to the mods. If you have an issue with a topic or post, hit the report button.

[Kilroy]

I think we worry too much about what Jeanie and Jim say, honestly... Dr Buss never said a whole lot, and to be honest, a lot of what he said to the media wasn't that interesting or enlightening... He trolled us a lot...

I think we're hearing more from his kids, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's any more important than what we heard from their father.

Kobe coming to the end of his career was always going to mark a slow period for the Lakers... Getting a Dwight with his head on straight might have helped a little, but we'd still need a lot more firepower to get to the finals...

The relative health of the franchise is measured on the court... I just haven't seen enough yet to justify all the doom and gloom about Jim and/or Jeanie...
I think Jim's more like his dad and doesn't really share anything pertinent to what's going on now, and I think Jeanie shares what she's thinking at any given time because she knows that's not really that informative either. I think they're each trolling in their own way...

[chefy]

I guess its safe to say last season was already a failure even from the get go. The fact that the management didnt even entertain any trades for dwight is a little fraustrating...they said first "dwight was never a laker", and now "he wanted kobe out" i would **** trade him to the bobcats the next day after saying this to me. And how the heck did they come up with "were very confident dwight will resign"??? Last season was a **** mess, a lot of finger pointing.

[Kilroy]

You'd trade him unless you thought the cap space would be more valuable to you that whatever you could get in return for Dwight... Keep in mind, I'm not sure Dwight's value had ever been lower.

[dockingsched]

i still wouldn't have traded him, the lakers were a healthy kobe away from being in the nba finals. most of us were very confident that the lakers could take on the spurs and were hoping for a spurs matchup. only team most of us didn't think the lakers could beat were the thunder and we saw what happened to westbrook. no way the lakers throw in the towel in february.

[Run-MKE 311]

Smdh....bye Dwight.

[dAdo dA dEvil]

i still wouldn't have traded him, the lakers were a healthy kobe away from being in the nba finals. most of us were very confident that the lakers could take on the spurs and were hoping for a spurs matchup. only team most of us didn't think the lakers could beat were the thunder and we saw what happened to westbrook. no way the lakers throw in the towel in february.

this is exactly what i felt ... call me delusional but i think if we had Kobe on the playoffs we have a chance to win it all ... worst case scenario, at least we wouldn't be swept by the Spurs ...

[crazyeights]

I think the greater "what if" is what else we could have gotten for Bynum? Dwight trade mid-season was never going to happen.

That was the gamble our FO took. That 2014/15 capspace was better than whatever we could have gotten for Bynum. If it could have ended in a contender though, hindsight makes me question that judgement. But hindsight also makes me thrilled that we did trade Drew.

[TonyMontana]

Im just going to bump this for Howard being a b1tcch that he is!!

BUMP!!

[iamworthy]

While I agree with what my dawg iamworthy said..."let it go", fact is us fans have but the media and outside lurkers yeah I said it lurkers ....seem to think we haven't moved on. I'm getting tire of seeing stuff about this limited ass player. You can't win big time with this dude. And even if the Lakers had kept him we still would've needed more pieces around his limited ass to win games seeing as you can't put the ball in his hands at the end of quarters or in situations when an absolute bucket is a must.

Who wouldnt need more pieces? As I said before, Shaq needed help as well.

Now tell me what dumbass is going to come in here and tell me this team could have won a championship with a player like that supposedly wanting control?

Reporting for duty sir!!!!

Heed my words that dude or the Rockets ain't winning NOTHING no time soon. Book it

Thats not saying much but they will finish before the lakers. But I think we have the better 5yr plan assuming we can attract key free agents.

I want you to refute what I say Big Game, how is it " far from the truth" ?

So you're telling me in a game where your team is down 2 you're giving him the rock in the post or trusting him at the line to knock down 2 throws ? C'mon BG man you're too smart to be sucked into his limited impact on games from an offensive standpoint. The counter is always " well his defense".....how long are guys going to stay stuck on that crutch ? If one part of your game is mitigated by the other then how much of an impact are you really having on the game ?

I dont trust Shaq on the line let alone D12. You have to put faith in the other parts of they're game to capitalize on the lesser. When did we start grading players on what they do when they're down down by 2? Are we to forget what they did the first 3/12 quarters

.. will answer the rest later....my time is limited

[leeprettyp]

Come on now iamworthy... Shaq made the throws when they mattered most and was soooo dominate in the paint that he would finish the basket anyway regardless if they tried to foul him or not. Shaq is LIGHT YEARS better than DH12 not even in the same ballpark in regards to impact on a basketball game let alone when the chips were down.

[iamworthy]

Come on now iamworthy... Shaq made the throws when they mattered most and was soooo dominate in the paint that he would finish the basket anyway regardless if they tried to file him or not. Shaq is LIGHT YEARS better than DH12 not even in the same ballpark in regards to impact on a basketball game let alone when the chips were down.

If you think Shaquille made his freethrows every time we needed them then I don't know what to say. I'm not comparing Shaquille to D12. I don't agree that D12 can't be apart of a championship team. The D12 hate circle jerk is starting to get annoying. It's one thing to call him a jerk. But to question his impact on the floor... Really?

[Bruteque]

To be honest what is the point of having threads like this?
These threads just reassured us of what we already knew about Dwight. i feel that Jim is just being sour which i'm not to fond of because I feel that it could deter potential players in the future. Also with Jeanie saying almost the opposite of Jim, i feel like there is cold war style battle going on between them both.
I wonder if they would ever sell the Lakers.

I think that they will certainly have to consider it at least if the Lakers are mired in mediocrity for the next 5 years. Either that or Jim Buss will have to transfer himself to food and services. Jeanie certainly didn't sound too happy with the Lakers' handling of the situation and it would be hard to fault her from a logical stand point. I mean, what exactly was Jim Buss's planning to sell Dwight on re-signing? "We are the Lakers so you re-sign with us no matter what we do?"

I mean, just look at where the Lakers will be the next 3 years. First of all, 2/3 of their picks are gone, so improving through the draft is pretty much crippled. This upcoming 1st season they obviously have no cap space to sign significant FAs with. The upcoming 2nd season, if they re-sign Kobe "Max Plz Paycut My Ass" Bryant to the 2 extra years he says he shall play, the Lakers will have about $12 million in cap space with just Nash, Sacre, Nick Young, and empty roster spot cap holds. That's not even enough to offer a RFA star coming off his rookie contract the max. That's without Dwight Howard. Had Howard re-signed, the Lakers would once again have had no cap space whatsoever to improve with in the 3rd year, even after they renounce Nash's Bird rights.

The team simply isn't going anywhere with a declining Kobe taking up $30+ mil of cap space when even OKC and MIA struggle to fill out their teams with talent while paying Durant $18 mil and LeBron $19 mil, especially not with D'Antoni at the helm. I mean, it's plain as day it's the Kobe-D'Antoni Titanic over here. Let's not act like Howard was this wildly unreasonably dude for telling Jim Buss, "Hey, look, unless you abandon your beeline course to that big chunk of ice over there, I am jumping ship." He'd already wasted 1 year of his prime with the Lakers, did Jim Buss honestly expect him to waste 4 years of his prime just because "we are the Lakers"?

I think the truth is probably pretty close to what Jeanie may have surmised: This would have gone down very differently if Dr. Buss were still running the show. When the Lakers offered Phil the job and Kobe got wind of it the next day while Phil mulled it over, Dr. Buss would have waited and still hired Phil, to presumably "side with Dwight against an aging Kobe." The shrewd old man Buss would probably subtly further show Kobe privately the ownership was siding with Howard to make Kobe even more unhappy, and as soon as Kobe expressed any displeasure with the ownership, it would be amnesty time. This would have all gone down without fans hearing anything about what Dwight Howard said whatsoever.

Instead, to Jeanie's frustration, the Lakers have Jim Buss to stay the beeline course to that big chunk of ice everybody and their dogs can see coming from 3 miles away. Jim's go-to strategy? Just bury his head in the sand and expect things to fall into his lap because "we are the Lakers." Hey, Jim, news flash, you guys only "are the Lakers" because your daddy consistently made the hard sound decisions for the franchise. With you at the helm, "we are the Lakers" doesn't mean what it used to mean anymore. Furthermore, you are a disgrace to your daddy, Jim, for coming to the fans and crying "Wah wah wah, Dwight put me in a difficult position." Yeah, he did, and you seized the full opportunity to show us that you weren't half the man your daddy was.

[IamBBAnalysis]

Come on now iamworthy... Shaq made the throws when they mattered most and was soooo dominate in the paint that he would finish the basket anyway regardless if they tried to file him or not. Shaq is LIGHT YEARS better than DH12 not even in the same ballpark in regards to impact on a basketball game let alone when the chips were down.

If you think Shaquille made his freethrows every time we needed them then I don't know what to say. I'm not comparing Shaquille to D12. I don't agree that D12 can't be apart of a championship team. The D12 hate circle jerk is starting to get annoying. It's one thing to call him a jerk. But to question his impact on the floor... Really?

Come on...Howard deserves the hate. I don't know how you can't at least understand that? You may not like it but its very understandable. Put the pieces together. Look at what he did in Orlando (demands, looking like he didn't give it his all when pouting, demanding post touches, alienating teamates, trying to get the coach fired) and compare it to the Lakers (all the exact same things).

I think he still doesn't get enough hate. People still try to find other reasons why the Lakers were terrible last season and don't put much blame on Dwight. Dwight in my opinion was at the root of everything...chemistry, offensive issues (not playing pick and roll, turnovers, missed free throws), and even defense at times (he was still an asset here but not nearly as big as he should have been if he would have always played hard and helped his teamates without being a B* about it.

Now, that doesn't mean he can't be more of a positive in Houston. He wants to be there...which was one of the most important problems the Lakers had with him. But will it last?

[leeprettyp]

Come on now iamworthy... Shaq made the throws when they mattered most and was soooo dominate in the paint that he would finish the basket anyway regardless if they tried to file him or not. Shaq is LIGHT YEARS better than DH12 not even in the same ballpark in regards to impact on a basketball game let alone when the chips were down.

If you think Shaquille made his freethrows every time we needed them then I don't know what to say. I'm not comparing Shaquille to D12. I don't agree that D12 can't be apart of a championship team. The D12 hate circle jerk is starting to get annoying. It's one thing to call him a jerk. But to question his impact on the floor... Really?

No dont get me wrong I wanted the guy to stay based on what was available and his impact on the defensive end when he was committed. My issue is when he gets compared to Shaq in any way shape or form. Their in totally different leagues. Shaq and Kobe both are dramatic also like DH12 but the biggest difference is both of those guys brought their lunch pail every big game when they stepped on that court. If we lost I at least knew those 2 guys were gonna bring it (you could argue the Detroit NBA final series, they weren't on the same page) DH12 had issues beyond just basketball and brought that drama to the locker room and court. For heavens sake its teammates from that 2008 Redeem team who feel Dwight is a joke and isnt committed to winning as a team... He's more committed to winning on his terms if he's gonna play hard. We witnessed it this season the guy wasnt even running plays that the PG Steve Nash and Mike D called. (Who argues and throws a tantrum at Steve Nash????) Now how is that suppose to be receptive among your teammates when your not committed to winning? I understand the back issue and commend the guy for coming back well before projected (even though Dr. Klapper was on record on 710 ESPN saying he'll be ready by opening night period). But lets just call it what it is DH12 is one of the best bigs (a 37 year old Tim Duncan destroyed him in that Spurs series) in an era of few good Centers. If Dwight came around in the 90's he'll probably be a PF. But for a guy who demanded Kobe, Gasol, Nash, and Mike D out and bring in Josh Smith, Monta Ellis... I question if he's committed to winning or more committed to having fun, clubbing and making more baby mommas. The guy himself is on record saying that winning championships isnt the main thing that drives him. It's good he left because he'd be in the wrong market with that attitude

[IamBBAnalysis]

To be honest what is the point of having threads like this?
These threads just reassured us of what we already knew about Dwight. i feel that Jim is just being sour which i'm not to fond of because I feel that it could deter potential players in the future. Also with Jeanie saying almost the opposite of Jim, i feel like there is cold war style battle going on between them both.
I wonder if they would ever sell the Lakers.

I think that they will certainly have to consider it at least if the Lakers are mired in mediocrity for the next 5 years. Either that or Jim Buss will have to transfer himself to food and services. Jeanie certainly didn't sound too happy with the Lakers' handling of the situation and it would be hard to fault her from a logical stand point. I mean, what exactly was Jim Buss's planning to sell Dwight on re-signing? "We are the Lakers so you re-sign with us no matter what we do?"

I mean, just look at where the Lakers will be the next 3 years. First of all, 2/3 of their picks are gone, so improving through the draft is pretty much crippled. This upcoming 1st season they obviously have no cap space to sign significant FAs with. The upcoming 2nd season, if they re-sign Kobe "Max Plz Paycut My Ass" Bryant to the 2 extra years he says he shall play, the Lakers will have about $12 million in cap space with just Nash, Sacre, Nick Young, and empty roster spot cap holds. That's not even enough to offer a RFA star coming off his rookie contract the max. That's without Dwight Howard. Had Howard re-signed, the Lakers would once again have had no cap space whatsoever to improve with in the 3rd year, even after they renounce Nash's Bird rights.

The team simply isn't going anywhere with a declining Kobe taking up $30+ mil of cap space when even OKC and MIA struggle to fill out their teams with talent while paying Durant $18 mil and LeBron $19 mil, especially not with D'Antoni at the helm. I mean, it's plain as day it's the Kobe-D'Antoni Titanic over here. Let's not act like Howard was this wildly unreasonably dude for telling Jim Buss, "Hey, look, unless you abandon your beeline course to that big chunk of ice over there, I am jumping ship." He'd already wasted 1 year of his prime with the Lakers, did Jim Buss honestly expect him to waste 4 years of his prime just because "we are the Lakers"?

I think the truth is probably pretty close to what Jeanie may have surmised: This would have gone down very differently if Dr. Buss were still running the show. When the Lakers offered Phil the job and Kobe got wind of it the next day while Phil mulled it over, Dr. Buss would have waited and still hired Phil, to presumably "side with Dwight against an aging Kobe." The shrewd old man Buss would probably subtly further show Kobe privately the ownership was siding with Howard to make Kobe even more unhappy, and as soon as Kobe expressed any displeasure with the ownership, it would be amnesty time. This would have all gone down without fans hearing anything about what Dwight Howard said whatsoever.

Instead, to Jeanie's frustration, the Lakers have Jim Buss to stay the beeline course to that big chunk of ice everybody and their dogs can see coming from 3 miles away. Jim's go-to strategy? Just bury his head in the sand and expect things to fall into his lap because "we are the Lakers." Hey, Jim, news flash, you guys only "are the Lakers" because your daddy consistently made the hard sound decisions for the franchise. With you at the helm, "we are the Lakers" doesn't mean what it used to mean anymore. Furthermore, you are a disgrace to your daddy, Jim, for coming to the fans and crying "Wah wah wah, Dwight put me in a difficult position." Yeah, he did, and you seized the full opportunity to show us that you weren't half the man your daddy was.

All of this is accurate. However, Howard could have simply played harder, better, and more determined last year and upcoming years. If Howard is a great player what's the problem? It wasn't a D'Antonni or Kobe problem last season.

Anyway, you're right but Howard doesn't take ownership and puts blame on everyone else. Oh, and the disgrace thing is silly. He just started. But he might be. Solid move not keeping Howard though.

[dinojasonkidd]

Pistons fan here. You guys dodged a major bullet, here. Howard is NOT the kind of man or player that you want to have as the face of a franchise. He's more clown than serious player. And he's a team and coach killer. It's NEVER his responsibility when things don't turn out. The fact that he's never done the work necessary to develop his skills isn't something that just goes away in his 10th year in the league. He can work with The Dream and McHale all he wants, but if he doesn't put in the personal work over the summer, than what they teach him will be wasted - just like it has for years and years and years.

He's a "funny guy" - and people laugh at his jokes because he comes in a big super athletic package. But his joke is running thin now, and he's had a serious back surgery and simply is at the stage of his career where his developed skills were supposed to take over for his supreme athleticism.

Houston just maxed out a guy who is going to break their hearts and their spirits.

I'm no Laker fan, and I'm not hoping your team does what it always does: raid the league for its outstanding talent and rebuild into a power again. So, your losing Howard was not what I wished for you. You guys seriously lucked out here. Now you can and will move onto better things and players.

I couldn't agree more , Dwight Howard is the most overrated player in the NBA . Any team he is on will never win a championship .The NBA is a mans game and Howard is a not man . He is not tough even to take the pressure and and the physicality of the NBA playoffs .Even though he has the body to withstand it, he is mentally weak .

[Kilroy]

I don't think we need this one anymore... We're basically just rehashing all the things we talked about in the numerous other Howard threads.