Dwight Howard to the Lakers in a four-team trade

I mostly agree with everything in this post except that Hennigan didn't exactly choose this deal over the Nets deal. I guess he somehow thought he was going get a better deal from someone else. Problem is, Howard basically hamstrung him. And once the Nets re-signed Lopez, that deal was toast, so it's not as if Hennigan could have gone back to Brooklyn after seeing this shit sandwich of a deal and said, "Uh yeah, I'd like that deal after all."

At this point, I guess Hennigan got the best he could. Doesn't change the fact that by waiting, he got a significantly worse deal than if he had accepted the Nets' offer.

 

Houston was willing to eat Turkoglu, plus Richardson and offer better picks. Hard to believe this was passed up. It was like Orlando refused to bargain with Houston because they pissed them off somehow.

Yep, even the Nets' 4 unrestricted picks looks better.

 

Has a GM ever been canned before the opening tipoff of his first season?

 

A question: Doug Collins, 76ers coach, has been NBC's lead Olympic basketball color man. Throughout the Games, he's been vigorously fluffing Igoudala. No problem, Igoudala's a fine player. But Collins HAD to know Igoudala was on the trading block in this deal. He's talking to the player every day. Forget journalistic ethics, since an NBA coach in that capacity can't have any. Did Collins talk to Igoudala about this deal beforehand? And if not, why not?

 

I would be pretty surprised in Iguodala didn't know.

Everyone seemed to be reporting Gasol was part of the trade until Gasol assured them he wasn't.

 

Hennigan is really a piece of work. Not only did he botch this deal on epic levels, but he overpaid Jameer Nelson earlier this summer and then let Ryan Anderson walk away to New Orleans. Huh? And then he ends up stuck with Turkoglu's horrible contract and then trades the reasonable, not-too-bad deals of Chris Duhon and Jason Richardson.

If I'm a Magic fan, I would be totally confused. Oh, yeah, he also managed to fire a pretty damn good coach in all this mess too.

 

Agreed. My interest in NBA is right down there with... well, it's down there (lol)... but if this gives the Lakers a title or two and takes it away from the Heat, bring it on.

 

I think just pushing the Lakers past the Thunder might be a little premature.

This Laker squad does not match up well with Durant and Westbrook.

 

And, as Bill Simmons pointed out, the Thunder have Kendrick Perkins, who has a history of defending Howard very well.

 

Did you guys actually watch that Lakers/Thunder series or just pretend to have watched it? The Lakers choked that series away. You swap Nash for the corpse of Ramon Sessions and I promise you, LA wins that series. Doesn't matter in Nash can't guard Westbrook. Sessions couldn't either and he was a human turnover. His plus-minus had to be like -40. At least Nash, you actually have to guard.

The Thunder have the second best player on the planet, and maybe the fastest player in basketball in Westbrook. They're good, but they're not an amazing, unbeatable team yet. As much as you hate the Lakers.

 

If I had to choose between the Thunder or the Lakers, it will be the Thunder every time... I just don't want another Miami title and I would even root for the Lakers over Miami. As someone who has hated the Lakers since pretty close to birth, that's saying a lot.

 

I think we know the answer to that.