Well, the Glove and the Mailman have signed up, we’re fucked.
Another couple of years of purple and gold reign. Let’s hope they all blow their knees at training camp.
FUCK!
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
Fuck, please say by “Mailman” you mean a literal mailman.
Please?
Please?!
sigh
I couldn’t be more devastated if you told me Elway was playing for the Raiders. (Pretend Elways is still playing football…)
Fuck.
Karl Malone will have no impact on that team at all. Karl Malone signed with the Lakers because Karl Malone wants to get Karl Malone a championship ring. Karl Malone has no gratitude to the good people of Salt Lake City, who supported Karl Malone in everything Karl Malone did. Karl Malone should have stayed put, and finished Karl Malone’s career in Utah. Just another example of a player trying to validate a fantastic career with a ring. Karl Malone may get Karl Malone’s ring, but Karl Malone is just another in a long line of selfish athletes.
Payton’s career is in his twilight, as well. He will have much more of an impact, but he in no way holds the engravers tool for the NBA trophy.
Can we pray that this backfires like the Blazers?
Damn, the season is over before it began.
Maybe Kobe will get thrown in jail and the lakers won’t go anywhere next season… I hope they lose in the first round. to Utah.
I really don’t see it. I mean, it seems like a good idea on paper and would work just fine in NBA Live 2003, but I don’t understand how the Lakers, who are already pretty chemistry-challenged, are going to survive with this lineup. Who exactly is going to be setting up shots for their teammates on this team?
At least Stockton has retired…
sob
I’m still waiting to wake up, this is too weird. I suppose Payton will be setting them up, and Kobe will be knocking them down. Shaq will hover down low, and Malone will be reduced to 10 ft jumpshots the whole season.
I don’t know…all they’ve really got is hall of famers at center point guard, shooting guard and power forward. What have they got at small forward?
The Kobe thing is weird, btw. They took DNA from him so they must have DNA on the alleged victim.
I wouldn’t shoe them it yet. How the hell are all of their heads going to fit in the same plane to go to the games? Phil is really going to play hell trying to get some kind of chemistry.
Look, Shaq is gonna want atleast 30 and 10, kobe is gonna want 30, payton will want 20 and 10 (assists), and what will be left for malone? I don’t think it’s gonna be as simple as some are suggesting. Then again I was a huge fan of the Chicago Bulls and their 72-10 and I don’t want anyone to beat it.
<snort> Who the hell is going to defend anybody? Payton and Malone are old, Shaq’s fat, and Kobe can’t guard more than one guy. Prepare for some of the highest-scoring games in recent history.
Plus, Kobe already gets pouty when Shaq demands 20 shots a game. How’s he going to feel with Payton and Malone wanting 20 apiece, too?
-lv
My father took me to my first Laker game in the late 1960’s so I have been a fan through three great eras. I have a Laker banner signed by Pat Riley…when he was a player for the Lakers. Personally, I think that this is overkill and can easily backfire. I don’t think that Staples is big enough for all of that ego.
Haj
Wooohoo! As a Lakers fan, I am both excited and dismayed. Sure, we’ve got two more Hall of Famers, but both about 3 years past their prime.
Let’s look at this objectively, we’ve got Gary Payton at point guard now. He can’t defend worth crap anymore. Parker took him to school his rookie year, and he’s not even that great. Marbury will abuse him. So will Stevie Franchise, Parker/Kidd, and several others. He can still score though, and I don’t think he’ll have a problem dumping it in to Shaq or passing to Kobe. Chemistry won’t be a problem with Gary. And he’s definitely an upgrade over Fish.
And then there’s Malone. chokechoke Decent power forward nowadays, but he still wilts under pressure worse than Webber. With two minutes in the fourth to go, I’d rather have Madsen out there. At least he won’t try to make an impossible shot when time is waning and screw it all up. Or just flat out disappear. But he’s better than Samaki Walker.
I’m happy with the additions, but I’m not as confident as all the sports writers seem to be.
You can’t be serious. The crazy whiteboy on the bench pumping his first and giving out pounds to the other pineriders Madsen??
Instead of Malone?!?!
:eek:
Are you saying the Lakers will be so good they won’t need him? Cuz, sure, he’s old. There is no doubt that he can still play however. If nothing else he can knock down 15 footers off of Shaq triple teams. Then, slash a few times and draw fouls. He can still fill lanes on the fast break for that matter. Not for 40 minutes, granted.
He’ll have no impact in the sense that he might get in the neighborhood of 5 points a game or so, maybe a couple rebounds, nothing special. Average 10 minutes a game, maybe. Nothing that any chump off the bench couldn’t do. He’s old, in the late twilight of his career. The Lakers won 3 without him, and Malone is certainly not the key to another championship. If Shaq is healthy and stays that way throughout the season, and if Kobe keeps his focus and puts his current dilemma behind him, they have a great nucleus for another run. Karl Malone is merely along for the ride. He’s riding coat-tails to get a ring. If the Lakers do win, Malone will have contributed very little to that end. By contrast, if he stayed in Utah, and the Jazz put together a cinderella run and got Karl a ring, it would have meant infinitely more, since he helped build the team and was there through thick and thin. Even if he was only a role player that season. It would be similar to David Robinson’s ring this year with the Spurs. It wasn’t his team anymore, the torch had passed, but he spent his career there, helped develop the team, played a role, and contributed to the Spurs sucess when it counted. I just don’t see that happening with Karl Malone.
I’m fully prepared to eat my words if it Malone plays more of a role than that of a minor role player.
In the last few minutes of the game? Absolutely. Especially with Shaq and Kobe out there. Madsen will do everything right. He almost never makes a mistake and almost never plays outside his ability. He’ll dive after every ball within 15 feet of him. He’ll set whatever screens he needs to get Kobe or Shaq open and the ball and a selfish thought won’t even enter his head. And he won’t throw up a bad shot.
Malone, on the other hand, will demand the ball, choke and throw up a brick.
Of course, for the first three quarters, I’ll take old man Malone.
Just for the record, Casey, Malone had a .462 FG% last year. That isn’t great, but it’s not shabby, either. Along with his 8 boards a game, that makes for a nice player who can take some post attention away from Shaq. Even if they cut his minutes down to 30 a game, there’s no reason he can’t contribute 15 points and 5-6 boards per game. Plus a legitimate post presence besides Shaq. That’s a definite upgrade and not exactly coattails.
I was pretty sure the NBA was fixed, now I’m positive. Stern and the networks are trying to make sure there’ll be no more poor TV ratings like this year’s finals.
Sure, it’d be nice, but those stats were for an offense that ran through Malone and Stockton. The Lakers offense runs through Kobe and Shaq. I just don’t think there’s enough to go around for him to post even mediocre stats.