More On Phil & Kobe

Bahb brought up some great points.

I really liked Kobe's reason for not taking Phil's meeting.

He said that if Phil didn't take the job, he didn't want to be blamed for it, so he would stay out of it.

That would have been a great idea last year, kid.

I still think it was Kobe that drove Rudy T out. Why else would he leave so quickly? Some trumped up health story?

I say, because Kobe wouldn't let him coach, and Rudy wasn't getting any support from the front office, AKA the Buss Family.

Once Rudy walked, and The Clippers were officially the best team in LA, Kobe was out of the decision-making process.

As for the Kobe trade.

Next year the Lakers have zero salary cap room.

Nobody is going to take Brian Grant, or Vlade Divac, they're too old.

What would you get for LaMar Odom right now? Not much. Although I would keep him anyway, I think he has very good upside potential that Phil can bring out.

You could try to trade some of the others, Caron Butler, Chucky Atkins, Chris Mihm or Luke Walton, but again, what are you going to get for them?

It would pretty much come down to trading 1 for 1. So you gain nothing.

The only way to free up enough cap room is to trade Kobe.

That would free up a lot of money to pick up at least 2 very good players. It's not going to get you a Duncan, Garnett or LeBron, but there are plenty of others that would love to play for Phil that are more affordable.

Wait until next year when Grant's contract is up, and that frees you up to get a marquis player.

Yao Ming will be available that year, plus you have a year to assess if you even want Ming.

I could be wrong here, but I think Divac's contract is also up that year, so more money freed up.

By the way, did you here Kupchak's comment about Vlade? He said when they signed him, he was one of the top 4 centers in the NBA.

What planet is Kupchak from?

So we're talking Tim Duncan, Shaq, Yao Ming, and then Vlade freakin' Divac?

I don't think so!

You could have a Chris Mihm as your Center if you have a Nowitzki, or Amare Stoudemire or either Wallace as a Forward/Center.

I'd even take Marcus Camby, Zyndrunas Ilgauskas or even Mehmet Okor over Divac. Seriously, if you called him a top 10, maybe you could get away with it, but top 4, please!

Sorry about the side-track.

The only way the Lakers are going to be able to afford any talent to improve the team is to trade Kobe.

What will be interesting is this, how will Phil Jackson will do as a personel guy?

There are 3 types of people in sports...

1) Players
2) Coaches
3) Personel People (GM's)

Great players usually don't make good coaches, great coaches usually don't make good personel guys.

Of course there are exceptions, but how about Magic Johnson as a coach? The last time the Lakers didn't make the playoffs was Coach Magic's Lakers.

Soon Phil will get to show if he really is The Zen Master.

Well, exept for the fact that he was never a great player.