This seems relevant to the Thunder.
In a blockbuster four-team trade, Dwight Howard has been traded to the Lakers, according to multiple reports.
The framework is this: Howard to the Lakers, Andre Iguodala to the Nuggets, Andrew Bynum and Jason Richardson to the 76ers, and the Magic get Arron Afflalo, Moe Harkless, Nikola Vucevic, Al Harrington and three first round picks.
The Thunder, the clear favorites in the West before the offseason started, have obvious competition now. Heck, they might even be underdogs now. The Lakers have added Steve Nash and Dwight Howard, while retaining Pau Gasol (and of course, Kobe Bryant). That’s a scary team right there. More thoughts coming on what impact this has on OKC coming later, but I’m going to need a minute to digest this one.
FYI. Howard is not signing an extension right now an most likely will leave the Lakers after 1 year. Bold move by Upchuck that will cost him his job. Not many teams can adjust their roster so much and win it all the first year.
http://www.dailythunder.com/2012/08/friday-bolts-8-11-12/
Lakers D is going to be tremendously better. i have no doubt this will spur kd russ and harden to improve tremendously in the offseason- if this isnt more motivation, i dont know what is.
This is lakers bench Jordan Hill Antawn Jamison Devin Ebanks Andrew Goudelock and Steve Blake
we will win our Bench because we will have Eric Maynor James Harden Nick Collison Cole Aldrich and Cook
@tydude that bench is actually pretty solid, and im sure pau will play with them as well
@tydude + chris duhon and earl clark
@cleandoe Earl Clark is really coming to the lakers
@cleandoe well Earl Clark isn't part of the trade at all
@tydude apparently so
@cleandoe @tydude Guess Blake isn't going to play then.
i am going to say this again Lakers will get one more championship with Kobe before Kobe Retires
Spurs, Thunder, Heat all still ahead of the Lakers imo.
That is all.
@C-Wil
I would love to take some action on that!
if we don't make it to the NBA finals this year and the lakers does everyone is going to be blaming Scott Brooks mark my words
@tydude i'll be blaming our old assistant gm
@tydude probably. Whether he deserves it or not depends whether he sucks as bad as he has the last 3 seasons or not.
@JimboSlice EXACTLY! The Lakers having a better roster and Brooks spraying diarrhea all over the WCF aren't mutually exclusive!
I laugh whenever anybody says that everyone is over reacting and going to extremes saying that the lakers are the best team in the league now, only just to go to the other extreme when they say that they haven't improved at all over the team from last year.
Kendrick Perkins now absolutely can not be amnestied. He becomes for too valuable so what do we do about our impending salary problems?
@FF_pickups I think Perk's effectiveness on Dwight is greatly exaggerated.
@Jax Raging Bile Duct I wish he was in the west before so we could see his true value but for a few games (2?) it's very good
http://www.nba.com/advancedstats/player-vs-player.html#Dwight-Howard-vs-Kendrick-Perkins|2730,2570;year=201011;season=r
@bmuelle21 @Jax Raging Bile Duct @cleandoe
I think it's more about can Perkins guard him 1 on 1. I don't expect him to win it but if we don't have to compromise our entire D just for Howard, that'll be a huge positive. That's why LeBron is such a nightmare for us, we don't have a guy who can defend him 1-on-1 without getting absolutely abused. And what are the Heat going to do with this Lakers team now?? To me, that is the one shining light out of this trade because I don't want LeBrick to win anymore titles!
@Jax Raging Bile Duct @cleandoe I think that perkins may be able to get the best of dwight in a few game (ex. christmas last year) but he will also get destroyed in other (ex. 2nd game last year). The real question is going to come...who gets the best of who in a 7 game series...it's tough seeing perkins being able to win that battle
@cleandoe And one of those games was the first game of the season on Christmas day. Not giving Dwight an excuse, but I can't ignore that either.
@Jax Raging Bile Duct Why do you say that?
@Jax Raging Bile Duct @FF_pickups i think it is much better than having anyone else. even bynum doesnt concentrate enough so id rather perk
@FF_pickups I think it's carried over from years ago, perpetrated by a large media market that took something and ran with it. Dwight hasn't been interested in a while, and Perk hasn't been healthy in a longer while, so it's hard to tell. But when you look at Dwight's statistical arc of performance, there are no huge dips when he plays Perk, just your typical down games for Dwight. Probably not just coincidence, but nothing impressive either.
@FF_pickups make some move that nets us a serviceable (not necessarily good or great or low post threat, etc) center and still amnesty Perk (or include him in the trade)
@FF_pickups Whoever we can't get to resign to affordable deals, ship out for assets.
@FF_pickups Kickstarter campaign?
Since nothing interesting is happening in the NBA right now, has anyone taken a GRE subject test? Which one and how did it go?
@duhsweetness U.S. History, long, long ago. It went well, but ultimately wasn't very important, as history PhD programs don't usually care much about the GRE subject score (I got into, and completed, my first choice program, but I doubt my GRE subject score had anything to do with it). The GRE subject test in history is arguably closer to a round of Jeopardy than it is to what one actually does as an historian.
@EVDebs Yeah I gotta take the Literature one in October because it's required by SOME but not all PhD programs in which I'm interested. Answering 230 multiple choice questions isn't what anyone does with a PhD in any discipline.
@duhsweetness
Definitely get your hands one of those prep/practice books or do some online prep . . .
Lakers do not have a fantastic coach at all they have Mike Brown who couldn't win a championship with Lebron in Cleveland he could not be able to win one in Los Angeles
@tydude Scott Brooks got outcoached mightily by Eric Freaking Spoelstra...
Mike Brown doesn't matter in this equation.
@tydude i don't think lebron was ever on a team in cleveland that had the talent that this laker team now has though
I'm not even going to try to bring sanity to the board right now because everybody's crapping their pants. But here is my regular season ranking prediction:
1) LAK
2) MIA
3) OKC
And here's why. If you don't think the Lakers will have a better record than us you've hit your head or they would have to have significant injury. It's not just about Howard, it's about the 9 other possible rotation players they have. When it comes to the regular season, where there's less time to gameplan, the flexibility in their lineup will be huge.
That said, I think we honestly do have the personnel to win a 7 game series, but I do worry about the "SB" word. We don't have time to wait 2 extra games of losing before we make adjustments against that team. They may be old, but they match up with us far better than the Spurs did, so coming back from down 0-2, especially with them likely having home court advantage at Staples center where the refs are consistently paid off handsomely, is much less likely.
I'm still confused. Do the Lakers just get Dwight?
or role players as well :O
If so, that's cheating
@cleandoe they also get chris duhon and earl clark
@areayewhy Damn. For BYNUM?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOS_7XvmnKQ#t=0m21s
What is really, really scary is that both Howard and CP3 could leave LA next year for Dallas. THAT has me terrified more than you know.
@C-Wil
That scares you but Nash/Howard/Bryant/Gasol doesn't??
@FF_pickups Nash and Bryant are very old and breaking down. Dallas can surround them with young, talented players all over. And Dirk is also getting up there, but he's not injury prone and most of his game is all about shooting, thus minimizing injury. Plus, Dallas has a great coach. Yes, they'd be far better than LA in that scenario.
@C-Wil
agree to disagree
This certainly strikes a blow to the Thunder's championship chances, but I do think there are some important issues to address. First, Miami didn't win the championship in their first year. They had all the same talent and were even healthier in their first year, but it's not easy jump right in with two new stars and make everything work (especially against teams with a lot of continuity and talent themselves). Second, the LA championship window did NOT get blown wide open again. Pau is a 32 year old 7 footer who has played heavy minutes all of is career (his last two playoffs have already been bad by his standards). Kobe will be 34 (again with tons of minutes) and is only getting worse already. Steve Nash has played one system for years, and it is not the system LA runs. He's going to be 39 by mid next year, and hasn't been able to defend ever.
Yes, Nash is an upgrade over Fisher/Blake/Sessions, if for no other reason than he is a better shooter. And yes, Dwight is a significant upgrade over Bynum. But time is still on the Thunder's side. If if takes LA a year to really mesh (they didn't win first year with Pau either), that's a year Nash-Kobe-Artest (will be 33 next year)-Gasol can't afford to lose. Dwight is the only one not getting worse, and even he is recovering from significant injury.
I think in the end we're better than LA next year because LA will still be working everything out and 4 of their starters will decline. By the year after, we'll have still gotten better, and I can't see us losing to a staring lineup where 4 of the 5 are over 34.
@Keith00 Agreed that the team is old. But then again, and old Mavs team and old Celtics teams and Spurs teams have done really well the past few years.
Also agreed that it sometimes (more often than not) takes more than 1 season for that many new pieces to gel and find out how they fit together. I'm even more on board with that because I don't think Brown is a great coach overall and have my doubts that he can provide the right kind of architecture right away. But, Nash will mitigate that as much as any player in the league. Kobe and Gasol are cerebral players, they'll adjust quickly. And finally, Wade and Bron are perimeter dominant players trying to find their way and also make up for all the deficiencies of their other teammates, of which there are many.
What Dwight has done in his career, basically by himself with dozens of scrubs and mediocre players, should be enough, to consider the Lakers the championship favorites. Offensive architecture and chemistry has little to do with the defensive impact Dwight has on the game, and that should be evident from tipoff of the first game (pending his back health).
@Jax Raging Bile Duct "What Dwight has done in his career, basically by himself with dozens of scrubs and mediocre players, should be enough, to consider the Lakers the championship favorites."
I am so glad you pointed out how weak his teammates have been in his career. I think that for some reason, the media has always given LeBron this caveat but not Dwight. Dwight is absolutely one of the top 3 players in the NBA and we are about to find out where in the top 3 is.
Bill Simmons on twitter sums it up: "This was not the way that I wanted to wake up."
what i'm shocked is that the lakers essentially were able to trade bynum for howard straight up (that protected first round pick is worthless to the lakers). what an effing good deal for the lakers.
another tangential bummer, because the thunder will almost certainly be over the cap, doesn't that mean the thunder won't get any piece of the laker-luxury-tax-bonanza?
@propsizzle Luxury tax money is spread between all teams under the tax, not teams under the cap. We'll still get a piece this year.