Bynum out and Howard in. It sucks but didn't we already know this would happen?

[Kuberski1]

No, we didn't know this would happen....Dwight wanted to go to the Nets, not the Lakers.  Now that he joins Kobe and the gang, he'll probably like it, and extend with LA.   But the Magic could have gotten a better deal out of the Nets, perhaps somewhat like the Melo deal to the Knicks.  I just don't get why Orlando did this deal now...there were better offers out there, and would have been at the deadline....just do not get it.

[celtsfan84]

Well I know the Genius of LA Management has kicked out our butts for decades. Aside from the short lived Big 3 Era. LA builds long term. Celts have no game plan for building a team. It's all patch work.

All the Banners and retired numbers hanging are History. In business it's what have you done for me lately. Celtics aren't running a business. More like AA meetings.

  The Celts had some bad luck along the way but the reason "LA management kicked our butts for decades" is that Shaq wanted to play for them and didn't screw it up the way Howard did with the Nets.

Our roster management in the mid-late 90s and early 00s was a lot worse than you seem to remember it.  Bad luck didn't draft Jerome Moiso and Kedrick Brown and acquire Vin Baker.

ML Carr, Chris Wallace, and Rick Pitino stunk.

[slamdunk]

Wouldn't orlando have been better off letting howard play out the season?

[alley oop]

It's easy to sound like I'm overreacting to the addition of Dwight Howard, but really this is just a delayed response to the signing of Nash... and even slightly a reaction to Antawn Jamison.  Collectively, that team is absolutely dominant on paper.  The best shooter in the world (Nash) who absolutely solves their playmaking problems... the best big man in the world and three time defensive player of the year (Dwight) stepping in to clean up any defensive mistakes a guy like Nash makes...  Ugh.  Just a bummer as a Celtic fan to see the Lakers in such beautiful shape.  And although Bynum was an excellent player... he's no Dwight Howard.  Dwight Howard is a top 4 player entering his prime.  Hate to see the Lakers land another franchise dominant top 5 player. History has proven that you need an elite big man to win a title.  History also shows that you need a top 5 player to win a title.  The Lakers just assured themselves that they'll be a legitimate contender for the foreseeable future.

Are you kidding me?! Did you forget who just won the NBA title? Not to mention dwight is the best big man in the league and he never won a title so please stop with the nonsense.

Also, the Chicago Bulls won 6 titles without an elite big man.

[Mencius]

Well I know the Genius of LA Management has kicked out our butts for decades. Aside from the short lived Big 3 Era. LA builds long term. Celts have no game plan for building a team. It's all patch work.

All the Banners and retired numbers hanging are History. In business it's what have you done for me lately. Celtics aren't running a business. More like AA meetings.

The Lakers have an inherent advantage.  Of all the big cities in America, and definitely of all NBA cities, they have the best year round weather.  That's an enormous advantage over cold weather cities.  They are also well managed, and have a storied history of success.  Just because great players want to go there doesn't mean that they are *better* managed than the Celts are though.  If all things were equal you could make that statement.  They're not, though.  Given your druthers between two equally well managed places, and the money was basically the same in either place, and one place had fantastic weather year round, while the other had really long, nasty winters (the exact time you'd be spending most of your time there), practically everyone would opt for the superior weather.

So, to say that LA gets players because they're better managed is simply wrong, in my view.

[hpantazo]

This is no guaranteed slam dunk for the lakers. Dwight is comming off major back surgery and has a personality that is likely to not blend well with Kobe , Nash, and Gasol. In addition he has often stated he would not sign a long term deal with the lakers. Although I think things will work out for them, and it's definitely a risk worth taking, it can still very well turn out that the lakers gave up a young top 5 center for a one year rental of Howard during which he will be slowly recovering from back surgery and possibly clashing with his coach and teammates.

[GreenFaith1819]

This is no guaranteed slam dunk for the lakers. Dwight is comming off major back surgery and has a personality that is likely to not blend well with Kobe , Nash, and Gasol. In addition he has often stated he would not sign a long term deal with the lakers. Although I think things will work out for them, and it's definitely a risk worth taking, it can still very well turn out that the lakers gave up a young top 5 center for a one year rental of Howard during which he will be slowly recovering from back surgery and possibly clashing with his coach and teammates.

All of this.

Additionally - can anyone here post a link or anything where Dwight is committing long-term to the Lakers? Everything I've read doesn't point definitively to him staying there.

I get the gist that he's happy to be there RIGHT NOW, but is still leaving the door ever so slightly ajar to bolt town once they implode.

[BballTim]

Well I know the Genius of LA Management has kicked out our butts for decades. Aside from the short lived Big 3 Era. LA builds long term. Celts have no game plan for building a team. It's all patch work.

All the Banners and retired numbers hanging are History. In business it's what have you done for me lately. Celtics aren't running a business. More like AA meetings.

  The Celts had some bad luck along the way but the reason "LA management kicked our butts for decades" is that Shaq wanted to play for them and didn't screw it up the way Howard did with the Nets.

Our roster management in the mid-late 90s and early 00s was a lot worse than you seem to remember it.  Bad luck didn't draft Jerome Moiso and Kedrick Brown and acquire Vin Baker.

ML Carr, Chris Wallace, and Rick Pitino stunk.

  Sorry, I wasn't aware that the period of time from mid-late 90s and early 00s was decades long. Thanks for clearing that up.

[laker-bob]

This is no guaranteed slam dunk for the lakers. Dwight is comming off major back surgery and has a personality that is likely to not blend well with Kobe , Nash, and Gasol. In addition he has often stated he would not sign a long term deal with the lakers. Although I think things will work out for them, and it's definitely a risk worth taking, it can still very well turn out that the lakers gave up a young top 5 center for a one year rental of Howard during which he will be slowly recovering from back surgery and possibly clashing with his coach and teammates.

Of course there are no guarantees in life.  But tell everyone with a straight face that if this were the Celtics roster, that you wouldn't be jumping up & down with joy and excitement.  I think you'd be thrilled enough with a guy like Nash alone.

[BballTim]

This is no guaranteed slam dunk for the lakers. Dwight is comming off major back surgery and has a personality that is likely to not blend well with Kobe , Nash, and Gasol. In addition he has often stated he would not sign a long term deal with the lakers. Although I think things will work out for them, and it's definitely a risk worth taking, it can still very well turn out that the lakers gave up a young top 5 center for a one year rental of Howard during which he will be slowly recovering from back surgery and possibly clashing with his coach and teammates.

Of course there are no guarantees in life.  But tell everyone with a straight face that if this were the Celtics roster, that you wouldn't be jumping up & down with joy and excitement.  I think you'd be thrilled enough with a guy like Nash alone.

  You're right, Nash would make a much better backup than Dooling.

[LarBrd33]

It's easy to sound like I'm overreacting to the addition of Dwight Howard, but really this is just a delayed response to the signing of Nash... and even slightly a reaction to Antawn Jamison.  Collectively, that team is absolutely dominant on paper.  The best shooter in the world (Nash) who absolutely solves their playmaking problems... the best big man in the world and three time defensive player of the year (Dwight) stepping in to clean up any defensive mistakes a guy like Nash makes...  Ugh.  Just a bummer as a Celtic fan to see the Lakers in such beautiful shape.  And although Bynum was an excellent player... he's no Dwight Howard.  Dwight Howard is a top 4 player entering his prime.  Hate to see the Lakers land another franchise dominant top 5 player. History has proven that you need an elite big man to win a title.  History also shows that you need a top 5 player to win a title.  The Lakers just assured themselves that they'll be a legitimate contender for the foreseeable future.

Are you kidding me?! Did you forget who just won the NBA title? Not to mention dwight is the best big man in the league and he never won a title so please stop with the nonsense.

Also, the Chicago Bulls won 6 titles without an elite big man.

First of all... Chris Bosh IS an elite big man.  And LeBron James is 6-9 250 pounds. 

And Michael Jordan is an aberration.  Still, they happened to have arguably the greatest rebounder of all time "Dennis Rodman" on 3 of those title teams... an elite defender.  That almost qualifies as having an elite big man.  Some also consider Horace Grant to be underrated... notable that during the 1993-94 season that Jordan was "retired", Grant was the 2nd best player (behind Pippen) on a 55 win Bulls team... and made the allstar team. 

There's exceptions to every rule.  The 2004 Pistons champion is about the only to win a title without a top 5 talent.   In general, you need an elite big and you need a top 5 talent... the Lakers just landed the best big in the game. 

[hpantazo]

This is no guaranteed slam dunk for the lakers. Dwight is comming off major back surgery and has a personality that is likely to not blend well with Kobe , Nash, and Gasol. In addition he has often stated he would not sign a long term deal with the lakers. Although I think things will work out for them, and it's definitely a risk worth taking, it can still very well turn out that the lakers gave up a young top 5 center for a one year rental of Howard during which he will be slowly recovering from back surgery and possibly clashing with his coach and teammates.

Of course there are no guarantees in life.  But tell everyone with a straight face that if this were the Celtics roster, that you wouldn't be jumping up & down with joy and excitement.  I think you'd be thrilled enough with a guy like Nash alone.

Well in all honesty, I said this last summer and earlier this summer, I would not trade Rondo for Howard straight up, never mind Rondo and a pick for him, which is the equivalent of what the lakers gave up for Howard. I just don't see Howard as having the character and basketball intelligence to be the guy to build a championship team around, assuming he's fully healthy long term, which is still unsure.

To build a championship team I would prefer a player with the IQ and attitude of Rondo or KG, Duncan, or Kobe (yes I threw up typing that but what can you do), Lebron (he matured and improved his game a lot this past year) and Nash, although they are all too old now except for Rondo and Lebron. I would also include Wade into that list although he suffered a lot from injuries and may not hold up much longer.

[celtsfan84]

Well I know the Genius of LA Management has kicked out our butts for decades. Aside from the short lived Big 3 Era. LA builds long term. Celts have no game plan for building a team. It's all patch work.

All the Banners and retired numbers hanging are History. In business it's what have you done for me lately. Celtics aren't running a business. More like AA meetings.

  The Celts had some bad luck along the way but the reason "LA management kicked our butts for decades" is that Shaq wanted to play for them and didn't screw it up the way Howard did with the Nets.

Our roster management in the mid-late 90s and early 00s was a lot worse than you seem to remember it.  Bad luck didn't draft Jerome Moiso and Kedrick Brown and acquire Vin Baker.

ML Carr, Chris Wallace, and Rick Pitino stunk.

  Sorry, I wasn't aware that the period of time from mid-late 90s and early 00s was decades long. Thanks for clearing that up.

And I wasn't aware that Shaq was a Laker for decades long.  Thanks for clearing that up. My reply was to your post, which solely referenced the Shaq era in LA.

Please make an effort to read your own posts before your condescending replies.  Or perhaps that would get in the way of your typical uproarious one-liners.

[celtsfan84]

As far as im concerned the day the lakers become a problem is a good day for celtics fans because that means it will be celtics lakers finals. That's all you can ask for, a chance to win the ship. It won't be easy rather its LA or OKC. Until THAT happens tho the lakers are irrelevant as far as im concerned. They don't matter at all until the celtics beat the heat.

That's a great and overlooked point here.  If we have to play the Lakers, that means we already beat Miami and all of the other Eastern contenders.

With all of the complaints and crying about the Lakers, they still have to beat OKC and San Antonio and we still have to beat Miami, the defending champions.

[j804]

Blah blah b,ah bla sick of hearing about Dwight on here

I'll be back once preseason rolls around and we can talk Celtics basketball