Ian Joseph
Posts: 15344
Joined: 7/15/2007
From: Los Angeles, CA
Status: offline
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ORIGINAL: shakeywalton I find it amusing that the the Lakers think every FA wants to play for them and that's their method to rebuilding or re-tooling. It used to be that way. A long, long time ago. Have they attracted a top flight FA other than Dwight Howard since Shaq (over 20 years ago)? Maybe I've been too hard on Kupchak. 2 titles since end of Shaq era without any marquee FAs. Not bad. It was the Gasol trade that did it. Marc ended up being real good, but at the time of the trade Pau was far superior. That's the thing with the Lakers in the past 20 years, as David was sort of alluding to. The Lakers' championships were orchestrated through trades, not free agency. Becuz the salary cap was lower and managed different, the Lakers couldn't just sign marquee free agents; they had money tied up in existing players. The only time they had money to spend was when they re-upped Kobe Bryant, after he flirted with joining the Clippers. The Lakers won their three Shaq and Kobe rings, in large part to the Glen Rice trades. The 2nd two with Kobe were the result of the Shaq trade, though I thought the Ariza trade was huge in 2009. Kupchak was masterful at trades. And it seemed easy and inevitable he'd always land another star. It just never happened after Howard. Thus began the spiral that we are now at the end of. I guess that might all hold water if the biggest piece to the puzzle (Shaq) weren't acquired through free agency... However, that was one instance 20 years ago. Kobe is the most recent. There was a real nervousness he was leaving the Lakers. Yes. You kept your own FA (that you could offer WAY more money to than anyone else). Welcome to the NBA.... You DO know he almost left, right. The thought was he would be immortal if he won a championship with the Clippers.
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