Dwight Howard's fantasy about a bigger market is drool-worthy

championships

from Bynum. There are moments when he appears to be absolutely unstoppable. However, he seems pretty disengaged most of the time. If he gets his head on right he could be pretty awesome. He probably won’t.

and i would love to see our draft pick come up under dwight

Eww

If it’s just a stronger luxury tax, then Buss is probably fine with paying it so long as it isn’t completely ridiculous seeing that he’ll have an absurd revenue stream in the near future from the Lakers’ media deal, even after revenue sharing. Sure, he’s been more frugal in recent years, but that’s been on ancillary moves not involving the primary core, for which he’s been happy to shell out money for unless he doesn’t have to (when he hardballed Odom for instance, in which the only other option was a MLE offer from Miami he was never going to take). I really doubt he’ll skimp on paying Howard what he’s due (although with the way the CBA negotiations are going, the length and size of the deal probably won’t be terribly restrictive) along with paying Kobe and Pau. In any case, the more restrictive the system, the longer the grace period and ways to work around the new rules (restructuring contracts, getting rid of newly non-guaranteed deals, amnesty provisions, what have you), so the only things that would affect a Howard deal are things like yeah, the elimination of sign-and-trades, but that applies to every team wanting him that doesn’t have cap space.

As for the Lakers’ offer, they would almost certainly be taking back Turk in the deal (and using the amnesty provision on him immediately, but anyways), which I’d imagine any team would have to do so regardless. Combine that with the amnesty Arenas would almost certainly receive along with Odom’s non-guaranteed deal (and they can keep him should they see fit, which they might given that he’s a fit with SVG’s system and he’s probably the type of player who is forced to take a lower salary under the new CBA) and I don’t think cash savings are a problem here. As for Bynum, he might be getting paid for potential a bit, but as I noted above, he’s been a legit producer and borderline 20/10 player whenever he’s gotten enough playing time and touches and was probably only Howard’s and Chandler’s inferior among defensive bigs during the second half of last season given Bogut’s elbow problems. He also has a new extension coming up next year that will be under the new CBA, so his deal will almost certainly look more reasonable during the ‘12-’13 season.

I also think that you’re overrating what Chicago can offer. Noah is an excellent complementary piece for Chicago’s defensive-minded system and totally worth it to the Bulls at his current price, but not necessarily in the context of a rebuilding team given his offensive limitations, as I doubt he would ever turn into a consistent number two option. Same with Deng, who would be overpaid on a rebuilding team unless more touches reverted him back to his ‘06-’07 form. Asik, Gibson, and the Charlotte picks are nice assets to bandy about, but I don’t see that overall package being attractive to Orlando unless they can flip Deng for more assets elsewhere. Sure, Noah and Deng are nice pieces, but paying them a combined $24 million/year and climbing through ‘13-’14 isn’t an efficient allocation of resources for a rebuilding team given that neither of them project to be a number two option or better.

Finally, for the Clippers’ offer, sure that’s possible, but then we come back to Howard simply refusing to sign an extension there. You’re right that we simply don’t know where Howard is willing to play, but I think we can safely say that he’d prefer the Lakers over the Clippers. So yeah, I don’t think including Gasol is necessary since I’m not seeing better offers on the market. True, the Knicks and the Nets offered the house to get their stars, but I would point out the caveats in both cases. One was that Denver talked to the Lakers about a Bynum/Melo deal that would have also swapped around some minor pieces (probably Al Harrington for instance), and while Melo is obviously a far cry from Howard, it gives you a sense of Bynum’s value. Moreover, my recollection is that it was fairly well-established that Dolan, all of Walsh’s diplomatic denials afterwards notwithstanding, pushed Walsh to throw in more assets than he had to into the deal to get it done when Walsh could have hardballed until the deadline and got Melo anyways. As for the Williams trade, Utah got Harris, Favors and two firsts, which in retrospect, isn’t all that different what the Lakers’ offer is now for Howard. Harris has declined precipitously from his All-Star form and Favors has lots of potential but is very, very raw, so Bynum and Odom is a much better package with the difference in picks (one lottery and likely late lottery to mid-first round pick versus two late first rounders) somewhat making up for it.

At any rate, this all naturally comes back to where Howard wants to go, as even under the new CBA, he’ll have considerable leverage in the matter unless they institute that “Carmelo Rule” they were discussing, but that would screw over all parties in the discussion. Should be interesting to watch regardless, but wasn’t the BaB fixation on getting Iggy if I remember correctly? Some pre-draft rumors (that weren’t refuted by the LA Times, which makes it their life’s mission to kill most Laker rumors) claimed that the Lakers were discussing an Odom/Walton for Iggy swap and Philly was interested, so you guys should be able to get him for a sack of peanuts if that’s the case.

but arenas? no.