Part of me wanted to invent this as a rumor that I heard from “sources close to the situation” and see how many people believed it, but instead I’ll present it truthfully as just an idea that made sense to me:
Lakers get: Brook Lopez, Troy Murphy
Nets get: Andrew Bynum
Financially, it works. But why would either team do it? For the Lakers, they get a young, (potential) franchise center in Lopez (19.4 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 1.5 bpg) who is not injury-prone. Because they have Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom, they don’t need Lopez to be a rebounding beast, but his scoring ability in the post makes them almost impossible for Boston, Miami, Orlando or San Antonio to deal with.
For Lopez, he gets to go home to California and play for a winning organization, for a coach who isn’t annoyed by him and knows what psychological buttons to push to unlock whatever beast he does have inside that large head.
For the Nets, they get a better rebounding/defensive center in Bynum (11.4 ppg, 7.4 rpg, 1.7 bpg) who can also score, and they get rid of the Murphy contract. As talented as Lopez is, do the Nets really see things working out between he and Avery Johnson? Lopez doesn’t seem happy at all in New Jersey.
For Bynum, he gets to go home to New Jersey and still play for a spotlight team — or at least in a spotlight location — where he’ll have a bigger margin for error as he learns to become a franchise center.
That is the trade in its most simple form. If we want to take it step further, here’s another version:
Lakers get: Brook Lopez, Travis Outlaw, Troy Murphy
Nets get: Andrew Bynum, Ron Artest
By adding Outlaw and Artest to the mix, L.A. gets rid of the player many believe is dragging them down this year, and Artest gets to go home to the NY area. The Nets are already trying to unload Outlaw’s contract, and he’d give L.A. a legit scorer who can fill some of Artest’s minutes at small forward.
What do you think?
