Needless to say, I'd love to see this happen. The Bynum experiment in L.A. is now dead, thanks to the leaked Kobe video, so he might as well get shipped off. Odom flourished in the East, so I wouldn't mind him going to Indiana.
Although there are a few flies in the ointment.
Trade discussions have involved the Lakers, Wolves, Pacers and possibly a fourth team. The report says that the Lakers would get Garnett, while the Pacers would land Los Angeles forward Lamar Odom and center Andrew Bynum. The Wolves would likely acquire a lottery pick and young players. Another team would also have to be involved to make the deal work financially.
Sources told ESPN and ESPN.com that the fourth team at this point is the Celtics, who would get Jermaine O'Neal from the Pacers.
According to the Times, Lakers owner Jerry Buss and Wolves owner Glen Taylor spoke on the phone for about 20 minutes on Friday. Buss then suggested that Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak and Timberwolves GM Kevin McHale carry on the discussions on Monday.
Kupchak and McHale should be quite a meeting of the minds. The fact that this meeting is still pending has me really concerned, considering that Kupchak couldn't close out a Jason Kidd deal. And with Boston set to be the fourth team in this deal, that means three of the four worst GM's in the NBA are going to try and get a blockbuster deal done. I'm not exactly getting my hopes up here.
Still, a Kobe/KG combination should be more than enough to get the Lakers past the first round. I'm personally hoping this happens.
The Wisdom of Homsar: DaAaAa, these Easter pants are gettin' way too tight!
I would hate to lose Jermaine O'Neal, of course (and I'd really hate trading him to the Eastern Conference where he has the opportunity to screw us in the playoffs in the future), but if it's inevitable, if it has to happen, I'd be very pleased having Odom and Bynum.
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I'd be in favor of the #5 pick plus Jefferson plus contracts to make the numbers work for Garnett. But, for Jermaine O'Neal, I'd pass. Plus, it was bad enough Ainge facilitated Rasheed Wallace going to Detroit to help them win a title, having Bird/McHale/Ainge uniting to help the Lakers win a title would be vomit inducing.
'Ric Flair wishes he was Paul Roma.' Congratulations Paul on winning the Idiotic Comment of the Decade Award.
Marc Stein just reported that the deal is dead, because the Celtics refused to part ways with Al Jefferson.
The Lakers don't want to give up on getting Garnett, though. And who can blame them? If they tease a blockbuster deal and fail to deliver YET AGAIN, they may as well start shopping Kobe now.
EDIT: Here's the link, which also indicates that KG may now be going to Phoenix. And thus marks yet another failure of the Mitch Kupchak era. Damn it all to hell.
(edited by It's False on 26.6.07 2055)
The Wisdom of Homsar: DaAaAa, these Easter pants are gettin' way too tight!
I've probably been the biggest Suns hater on this board because I think they're soft and don't see why anybody likes them, but if they get Garnett, damn. They're winning the championship. Even if they can't get Garnett there are still pretty strong rumors for them to trade up to somewhere in the top 10 where they could get a big player too. Either way I think they'll be better next year.