Howard trade GREAT for Celtics.

[Fafnir]

How is this a bad thing?

It made the Lakers the #1 team (frontrunner) heading into next season.

Someone Boston is very likely to have to go through to win the NBA Title.

Agreed its a two pony show in the West, both would have the C's as being underdogs.

Sadly this is the risk of bringing back the band for another 3 years, but I can understand it still. Rondo isn't going to stick around if we pull the same crap Miami did to Wade. Plus we don't have a confluence of FAs coming up his same year with Miami to sell....

[hansenp40]

Also, add in the fact that Gasol is the best "star" now available for a trade.  Houston will be all over him again.

I liked the deal for Denver and Philly, but it continues to amaze me how teams line up to help the Lakers get better.  The Magic had at least 2 better offers (Brooklyn/Houston), yet they decide to deal with the Lakers for a worse package.

[BballTim]

  Hate the trade all you want, it's clearly preferable to Howard going to the Nets.

[relja]

At first look, they new Lakers team looks perfect, but look a little closer..

1. Nash is 38 years old, and he still plays good.. He played his entire career healthy, and he's bound to have a devastating injury this year.. That's how it works.. And when Nash goes down, the Lakers go down..

2. Kobe is 35 and never had a bigger injury and each year he's getting older and older.. I think we're about to see a change is his game this season, but for the worse..

3. Gasol will be 33, and his game is wearing down..

4. Dwight has a bad back and I think he won't get used to the superstar enviroment in LA.. In Orland he was the main deal, but now they have Kobe, Nash, Gasol, etc..

5. Then again, we're looking at the Miami syndrome.. A team with awesome starters but a really bad bench.. Think not? Look at this:

Steve Blake
David Ebanks
Andrew Goudelock
Jordan Hill
Josh McRoberts
Darius Morris... The only decent guy is Jamison..

When you see it this way, the whole thing is just bound to fail at some point..Nash may get hurt, Kobe might get hurt and might begin to suck, Dwight might turn drama queen mode or injure his back badly.. They will also lose games cause of the bad bench..

[soap07]

5. Then again, we're looking at the Miami syndrome.. A team with awesome starters but a really bad bench.. Think not? Look at this:

Steve Blake
David Ebanks
Andrew Goudelock
Jordan Hill
Josh McRoberts
Darius Morris... The only decent guy is Jamison..

First of all, Miami syndrome also resulted in a championship. Secondly, I love how you use Jamison as a throwaway. He's definitely a key cog off the bench.

[Rondo2287]

At first look, they new Lakers team looks perfect, but look a little closer..

1. Nash is 38 years old, and he still plays good.. He played his entire career healthy, and he's bound to have a devastating injury this year.. That's how it works.. And when Nash goes down, the Lakers go down..

2. Kobe is 35 and never had a bigger injury and each year he's getting older and older.. I think we're about to see a change is his game this season, but for the worse..

3. Gasol will be 33, and his game is wearing down..

4. Dwight has a bad back and I think he won't get used to the superstar enviroment in LA.. In Orland he was the main deal, but now they have Kobe, Nash, Gasol, etc..

5. Then again, we're looking at the Miami syndrome.. A team with awesome starters but a really bad bench.. Think not? Look at this:

Steve Blake
David Ebanks
Andrew Goudelock
Jordan Hill
Josh McRoberts
Darius Morris... The only decent guy is Jamison..

When you see it this way, the whole thing is just bound to fail at some point..Nash may get hurt, Kobe might get hurt and might begin to suck, Dwight might turn drama queen mode or injure his back badly.. They will also lose games cause of the bad bench..

Kobe is 33

[Who]

5. Then again, we're looking at the Miami syndrome.. A team with awesome starters but a really bad bench.. Think not? Look at this:

Steve Blake
David Ebanks
Andrew Goudelock
Jordan Hill
Josh McRoberts
Darius Morris... The only decent guy is Jamison..

Yeah, I think the difference on the two team's benches is the Celtics best chance at making up the difference in top level talent.

Not sure it'll be enough though.

[jay]

The Green/Perkins trade makes more sense now.   The Celtics need athletes to compete with Miami, the Thunder need Perkins to compete with Howard. 

[RLewis35]

This PROBABLY prevents Perkins from ever being amnestied by OKC....

[Chris]

One interesting twist is that if Howard is off the market, then I think Josh Smith goes back on it...

[BballTim]

One interesting twist is that if Howard is off the market, then I think Josh Smith goes back on it...

  I haven't seen much of Lee recently, but if he's as good as some people think I'd at least consider Bass and Bradley for Smith.

[Chris]

One interesting twist is that if Howard is off the market, then I think Josh Smith goes back on it...

  I haven't seen much of Lee recently, but if he's as good as some people think I'd at least consider Bass and Bradley for Smith.

Yup, or Bass and Lee.

The thing is, I am not sure what Atlanta would be looking for.  They have a ton of cap space next summer.  Would they give some of it up for guys like that?

[saltlover]

The Lakers are not remotely deep.  It might not matter, but it could.  It's certainly hurt us the last couple seasons.  The older your players are, the more likely it is to matter.

It mattered less in Miami, because LeBron and Wade can each go 40 minutes a night (and they never get fouls called on them, so yeah...) But their bench was better last year than the Lakers will be this year.  Jamison is good, but otherwise, they've got nothing (and I'm a Darius Morris fan.)  If they stay healthy, and their core can rack up big +/- numbers, they'll be fine, but their margin for error is practically non-existent.  And with few draft picks forever, they're going to feel it in the long run.

[RockinRyA]

what i dont like about this is Bynum in our division. even when we had perk we couldnt find an answer to a healthy bynum.

[Chris]

what i dont like about this is Bynum in our division. even when we had perk we couldnt find an answer to a healthy bynum.

Collins might actually be a better matchup against Bynum than Perk was.  Collins has more length, which is more likely to slow Bynum down than Perk's strength.