KB24 & Lakers taking the same path as Jordan & Bulls

trying to analyze the success of this season, I realized that Kobe (and the lakers) are taking a strikingly similar path as that of the late 80's-early 90's Bulls team. How did I come up with that? Try reading "Sacred Hoops" by Phil and you'll see the similarities with the present lakers. -When Phil was serving as an assistant to Doug Collins, Jordan was winning the scoring title, yet no post season success for the bulls. Jordan averaged, 35, and 37pts per game in 2-3 seasons, but they'd get clobbered by Detroit for about 3 straight yrs (Kobe wins two scoring titles, but has no post season success) -Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant were rookies in 1987 and were still developing their games (Bynum and farmar) -According to Phil, Jordan had trouble trusting his teammates and would always try to take over the game. His young teammates also were most often guilty of handing him the ball and would get out of the way (Lakers pattern of play for the last 2-3 seasons). Phil even mentioned that Jordan was even more of a ballhog in the late 80's as compared to kobe. -A trade that brought Bill Cartwright, then a 10yr vet, brought a steadying presence both on the court and in the locker room. Phil said that he liked Bill because he wasn't in awe of MJ and that taught the other "young bulls" to have their own identity and trust themselves more. (Derek Fisher is brought to the team as a steadying presence on and off the court) -1990, the team starts coming together, starts having success in the regular season, Pippen and Grant starts to emerge but the team loses in 7 tough games to the Pistons (Lakers are coming together this season, Bynum and farmar are starting to emerge) -1991, we....

Yes! I don't really think we can win it this year. But, if we continue to grow/develop our team, we can definitely win it all next year. All we need is, maybe, one more trade, while keeping our core....

I disagree with your statement that the Lakers can't win this year. I absolutly think we can win as long as we can stay consistent with the current play.

Also, you said that the Lakers can't dominate the next 10 years with this current team, not really. Does Kobe and Fish have another 10 years of bball left? Fish is going to retire when his contract expires and Kobe is alraedy 11 years deep in the league, probably has another 5-6 years max.

What the Lakers should do is construct the contracts of veteran players to expire right when Kobe's does, so then we have have a chance at gaining big time cap space to bring in other big time players to our already strong core.

The good thing is that Kwame's contract expires this summer and Odom's expires next summer. I think Odom can be resigned for about 8 million for 4 years and Kwame either let go, or re-signed for about 5 million for 3 years.

c'mon optimistic, think positive! I think Fisher will sign for 1-2 more years after his contract expires. When Kobe retires, the Lakers need to bring in someone that can score so they can't double team Bynum or double team the scorer as easily.

The lakers will be dominating the league in three years, and fisher will probably sign for one more year or become a lakers assistant. If the combo critt and farmar becomes solid by then, fisher will step aside and retire. Kobe will still average 25-27pts in 3-4yrs time, but then Bynum will be the 28/14franchise player we envisioned him to be. Farmar will be a solid 14ppg and 9 assists guy and critt, if they are able to keep him will be play the bulk of SG, KB playing more of the 3 as he will be more of a jump shooter by then. The core of the next 5-7 years is here (Bynum, Kobe, Farmar, Critt). Other spots can be filled with solid role players. I'd still love to see rony, luke and trevor with the lakers in the next 5 yrs

i really don't see fisher retiring that soon...are you kidding me? xP

fisher's a great complementary player in the backcourt for kobe. he ain't intimidated by kobe. that's already a huge plus.

i like this team a lot. we've got so many youngsters, and we're all ready to contribute. AND we've got kobe/fish to bring the experience. it reminds me of brett favre and the youngsters he has on the packers.