[QUOTE="lonestarg"]The Mars Volta is lyrical trash, most of the time. They try to use all these long drawn-out metaphors and stuff to get their point across, but no common listener could understand it really. It's far too complicated. Neutral Milk Hotel and Bloc Party have waaaaaay better lyrics than TMV and Tool. TMV is still one of my favorite bands though. Just for the music and Cedric's ownage voice. Cassandra Gemini = Five stars.
Well, if it's any help to Suns fans (and hey, I'm a casual fan too), besides the Spurs (simply because they'll be the favorites because they just won the title again) the Suns have to be the favorites to win it all next year with Amare and Kurt Thomas back, giving them the deepest bench in the league by a mile, and probably the five best starters.
Suns have a zero chance of winning it all, and should feel lucky if they even get to a Game 6 in this series vs the Clips. The Clippers are way better at pounding the ball than the Lakers, they were I believe the best rebounding team in the league, the best team in transition defense, and Quinton Ross is one of the best three or two perimeter defenders in the league, and will give Steve Nash fits.Â
[QUOTE="Lakersman2000"] im quite sure ive heard they are going to have money to spend at the summer of 2007-2008 when brian grants contract comes off the books.
Grant's comes off at the end of 2006-07, but it's only so much -- 15.57 million. They're already at 67 million, though -- just Odom, Kobe, and Kwame puts their cap already at 42.089 million. That's just three players! Kobe makes nearly 20 million, Odom 13 and a half million, and Kwame nine million. Unless the cap shoots up, once you toss in Turiaf and Bynum, that's just five players (and zero PGs unless they trigger Sasha's option), and you barely have enough to fill out your roster, nevertheless sign an impact player.
If they can get someone like Earl Watson -- who's admittedly overpaid a little, but if you're over the cap, forget about it -- in a trade, I would like the future more. Watson can provide great defense, ability to hit the three (over 40% this season), and good passing with limited turnovers, absolutely perfect things for the triangle. I will never understand why they didn't go hard after him last off-season. Getting an Earl Watson (or Chris Duhon would also be perfect, but that's never going to happen; should've went hard after him, too) and having Turiaf and especially Bynum both develop to big x-factors is the Lakers' best chance. That, and Lamar Odom HAS to continue to play as well as he did during the final six weeks of the season and the playoffs. As you can see, that's a lot of ifs. The improvement has to come mostly from within, not from signing some big star. Only way they could sign a big star is ditching Odom (which would mean starting all over) or Kwame (very hard to do).
I thought Frances the Mute smashed on De-Loused, which is hard to do -- I had to play De-Loused, at the time, at least twice more than I played any other album. But when I first heard Frances, I played it every single day for a month. I still love that CD, and it's one of the five best CDs of all-time to me, and the best rock CD. All three of TMV's CDs have been classics -- I just wish Tremulant was a little bit longer, or otherwise it could challenge Frances the Mute.
I'm going to go listen to De-Loused now, though. Thanks for reminding me.
easy man , this is kobes 2nd year without shaq. give him sometime , the lakers arent the orlando magic or the houston rockets . their track record pretty much speaks for itself. i have no doubt we will be an elite team within two years. kobes 27 or 28 years old and just entering his prime , we just need a few aquisitions and bam . wont happen next year , but next summer the lakers have money to spend. Lakersman2000
I'm not trying to act like I'm not a Laker fan or I'm hopping off because they're in mediocrity -- I'm still as big a Laker fan as I ever was -- but I see the reality. Nevermind that my hate for Kobe makes it hard for the root for the Lakers, since he's essentially transcended the franchise; they have no cap room for a while. The cap this year is 49.5 million. I don't know how much it goes up per year, so whatever; that's just a baseline.
Next year they're at 67.6 million -- all they have is the MLE. If they use the MLE, add more to that. The year after that it's at 42 million, and that's only including Kobe, Odom, and Kwame. Bynum's option will assuredly be triggered, which brings it to 44.2 million; Sasha has a team option for 1.75 million, and Cook's qualifying offer is 2.21 million. In other words, simply to fill out a roster they're already be at the cap, so they really don't have any cap room in that summer. In 08/09 the cap is at 35.8 million, which is just including the only two players guaranteed to be on the roster at present time, Kobe (21.26 million) and Odom (14.559). None of this counts Ronny Turiaf's contract, either, although it's not expensive, or any extensions they make to key players.
After Odom's contract they THEN can have some financial security, but Kobe's gonna be in his 30s by that time. This isn't even assuming using the full MLE or factoring in the rookie contracts for draft picks (they have no 1st rounder this year, though). Next year, the best the Lakers can do to improve is a trade for a better PG, or using the MLE. Trading will be hard, since the only tools they have are Mihm (4.2 million in his last year entering 06-07 and rather irrelevant with how Kwame came on and Bynum/Turiaf), Walton (1.25 million in his final year), Brian Cook (1.5 million entering a contract year), or Aaron McKie's expiring 2.7 million dollar deal.
The Lakers' future isn't nearly as bright as you think it is, considering they're cash strapped for at least two years and gave up their first rounder to the Bobcats this season. Their only hope, really, is Andrew Bynum at LEAST turning into a Chris Kaman, and at best becoming a Zydrunas Ilgauskas.
If the media is consistent, they'll bash Kobe for having his team flopped. T-Mac got bashed for going up 3-1 and then losing the series to the Pistons, so let's hear it.
Kobe's career post-Shaq is looking similar to T-Mac's. Cool thing about T-Mac, besides the injuries: He's always efficient, always keeps his TOs low. That's always been my favorite part of his game, besides the crying.
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