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Author Archive for cyrus

September GM Challenge Final Result

Published by cyrus on September 11, 2007 in Challenges. 59 Comments

On behalf of TheLakersNation.com, I would like to thank all members participating in our September and final GM challenge for this summer. These challenges were designed to encourage the users to lookup and research references and educate themselves about individual players.

We invited several judges and four of them accepted our invitations but unfortunately two of the judges, D-Briks and Rpoc, were not able to fulfill their mission due to other personal engagements. Cancellation came to late to appoint replacements. Outcome may have been different if we had grades form all four judges. However the remaining two judges worked really hard to comb through all trade proposals and scrutinized each and every suggestion to achieve a fair assessment.

Some members made several proposals but we evaluated only the final offer. We based our evaluation on four criteria:

  1. Securing the future of the team: 3 Points
  2. Having a contender team on the floor now: 3 Points
  3. Suitability to other teams: 2 Points
  4. Simplicity, number of teams and players involved: 2 Points
  5. Total points available for each offer by each judge: 10 Points

Taking the above four criteria in consideration and points allowed for each criterion, we are announcing the following…

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Is Andrew Bynum “The Right Stuff”?

Published by cyrus on September 5, 2007 in Cyrus' Take. 59 Comments

There is no easy answer to that query considering Andrew’s age and his brief career. Recent events make it almost impossible to have an unbiased and nondiscriminatory view of the young center. In February 07, the Nets were asking for Bynum to trade Jason Kidd to the Lakers, which created a hot debate among the fans and experts. Many were impressed by his performances before the All-Star games and didn’t approve such a trade, but the consensus changed after he hit the notorious “wall” following the All-Star show.

It’s truly difficult to build a dispassionate opinion about Andrew Bynum without being preoccupied by Kobe’s demand for immediate roster improvement. However, we could attempt to get a fair-minded view in evaluating his brief career without prejudice.

Bynum averaged an impressive 22 points, 16 rebounds, and 5 blocked shots per game as a senior in St. Joseph High School in New Jersey, before he was hand picked by Jimmy Buss as the10th pick in 2005 NBA Draft. He became the youngest NBA player to play the game on Nov.2 against the Nuggets in Denver. Lakers connected the teenager at the hip of all-time scoring champion and Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to learn post moves.

2005-2006 season was a typical slow rookie year for the chiseled 7 footer; he played 46 games, 7.24 minutes per game and averaged 1.6 PPG, 1.7 RPG, 0.2APG and a low 29.6 FT Pct.

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Build a Future and Appease Kobe

Published by cyrus on August 26, 2007 in Challenges. 133 Comments

In our last challenge, most members were very eager to get rid of our young players without being concerned about the future of our team. Swapping our young and promising talents for older and more experienced players does not guaranty instant success.

It’s easy to showoff your knowledge with household names like Jermaine O’Neal, Ron Artest, Jason Kidd and C.Webb. It’s easy to build an All-Star team around Kobe on the paper. But how much do you know about young talents? In 1996, Jerry West brought Shaq to LA and everybody applauded him, but West also traded his starting center, Vlade Divac to the Hornets for the young Kobe Bryant (1996 13th pick.). It takes the ingenuity of “The Logo” to build a contender team.

Today, Lakers are lost somewhere between their glorious past, disorientated present and uncertain future. They have the best player on the planet and don’t know what to do with him. They have surrounded him with some experienced players like Derek Fisher and Lamar Odom, as well as young talents like Andrew Bynum and Javaris Crittenton. But is that enough to build a future and appease Kobe at the same time?

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GM Challenge Final Results

Published by cyrus on August 24, 2007 in Challenges. 47 Comments

We didn’t expect the kind of overwhelming response to our GM Challenge and we thank you all for your participation and suggestions you submitted to improve the roster of our beloved Los Angles Lakers.

Our Judges worked really hard to comb through all trade proposals and scrutinized each and every suggestion to achieve a fair assessment.

We based our evaluation on 3 criterions:

  1. Practicality: Was the suggested trade attractive enough to both teams to initiate trade talks
  2. Simplicity: More teams and more players involved in a trade make it so much more difficult
  3. Helping Lakers: Would the suggested trade improve Lakers’ roster?

Judges’ assessments are final and not negotiable. Judges graded all trades independently without consulting each other. So, it’s all fair and square; four different and independent opinions.

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