As of right now, Ariza and Odom aren’t even really Lakers. Odom says he wants both to stay but I think Ariza could see offers to pull him away. If Ariza leaves first, Odom could just say “oh well, might as well just take the best offer even if it isn’t the Lakers”

Would you rather pay Walton, Morrison, and Vujacic or RJ $15 next season? But he at least the Lakers have Walton locked in until the ‘12-’13 season.

http://www.shamsports.com/content/pages/data/salaries/lakers.jsp

My point is, is a team full of decent young players and an up & coming stud (Roy) better than a team with 3 studs (TD, Manu, TP) surrounded by RJ and serviceable role players?
Are the Rockets with their beast Ming, plus a superb defensive guy Artest, surrounded by serviceable role players better than 3 studs surrounded by RJ and serviceable role players?
I don’t think they are.

Unless you field a team of all-stars (but no superstars) like Detroit in 04, than its the team with the studs that are going to win it. Who the heck did Boston have last year? PP, RA, KG, Rondo and? This year Kobe rocked, Gasol, Ariza, Odom did their parts and who else did what?

I could be wrong, I could be right, but regardless I am optimistic about this upcoming season!

Duncan had an amazing season:
75 games at 33.6 MPG
50.4% shooting (second highest % in last 6 years) on 14.8 FGA per game all for 19.3pts per game which is only .7 pts less than his average over the last 6 years (years without Robinson)
6.4 FTA per game on that 14.8 FGA’s
69.2% FT’s which is his second best % over the last 6 years
.5 STL and 1.7 BLK per game (worst of career but not by much compared to last season)
2.2 TO’s (second lowest of career) to 3.5 AST’s (3rd highest of career)
and 10.7 rebounds…but really if you look at his stats, Duncan is the model of consistency and the drop off you speak of is super minuscule and he is offsetting it with more assists and less turnovers

and that’s total season Duncan…in the last 25 regular season games he played in he only broke 20 pts 6 times….in the playoffs 3 of 5 games and the two games he didn’t were our game 2 domination and dallas’s game 3 domination so his minutes were less in those games…trust me, your team doesn’t want to play Duncan in the playoffs

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/stats?playerId=215

“Pop can’t play these 4 the entire game for 82 games” Tell me one team that can play their best 4 players for the entire game for 82 games. I’ll take our top 4 over anyone else’s. Our bench will be very different once this offseason is over so I’m not sure I can even compare that to anyone else’s lineup.

Compared to the closest top 4:
80% Duncan> Healthy Garnett
Parker>Rondo
Healthy Manu>Pierce
Jefferson slightly less overall than Allen but much better team mate and better on D

With all of our injuries last season and without Jefferson, we were tied with Denver for the second best record in the West. We traded 3 players that averaged less than 19 mpg each for a star who can play 35 on any given night. We could get 54 wins next season playing any 3 of the 4 stars every game for 82 games at a 32 mpg average per star. What has Denver done to improve on their 54 win season?

At the very least it’s interesting to think about. I love Tony Parker, after Duncan he’s my favorite player… but I’m also loyal to the team first.

they were some of our best role players. They joined the names of Brent barry and Malik rose in my heart.

Even playing field? Who do you have as the top seed with home-court? Just curious.

I think that pointing out that Kobe is 4-2 vs. the spurs is just a little misleading. For instance, three of those wins came with shaq in the middle and when both teams were very different. Also, 03-04 win included Karl Malone and Gary Payton and required a mircle by Fischer to keep LA in the series. The only matchup in the last five years was ‘07-’08 and not only was RJ not around yet but Manu was not nearly healthy. (Also, it is important to note that when the lakers were down in 04-05, 05-06 and 06-07 the spurs did not have a chance to beat a Kobe lead team because they didn’t make the playoffs or lost in the first round).

Kobe is a great player, but Manu at 100% has been able to do some scary things himself. Not to mention that Timmy and Tony have been pretty good too. I am not saying I would bet my life either way, just that I hope we meet up in the WCFs this year and sort this out on an even playing field.

I think that is the first place I’ve seen “with finals experience”. I was thinking about him as our opponent that year but never even thought about his playoff experience as another benefit.

Even more than that, I love the chatter from other teams fans who now have to deal with the Spurs again!

Cheers to Peter Holt!!