The Lakers squad in 2003/2004

[kingjames23]

malone and mourning are too old to build a team around anymore, if they have title hopes, they need to go to a contender.... aka LA.... regardless of pride, niether of them wants to retire without a championship, and zo cant play the minutes he used to, which makes him unreliable as a starter, he's not going to be effective unless he is a backup. (anybody remember bill walton as a reserve on the celtics?) with him in the line up though, shaq could play with a fierceness.... because zo would be able to step up if shaq got in foul trouble.... zo could be 6thman of the year.
why would they stay where they are, or go to another losing team? that makes no sense... mia and utah will be nothing next year anyways
pippen would be a good fit, is a great team player even if as a backup, and he hates portland
if they dont get malone, they will likely get brown...

lakers wont get duncan or j. oneal... they'de want too much money
the only problem i see is the point gaurd situation and that is a matter of $.
any other point gaurds out there you think they could get for a better price?

i dont see a problem other than $, and if the lakers clear out the bench and move horry fox and fisher to the bench.... that would free up the cap for these new players

[Prototype]

It is doubtful that Lakers will acquire any big name free agents this summer. It is obvious their roster takes up a lot of salary, but Lakers will be getting rid of Shaw, Walker, and Murray, which cuts back some salary. Still, they only have the mid-level exception offer of $4.6 million. The only player I can see them actually getting is Juwan Howard in which Lakers would be willing to offer him that. Then again, he would be taking a $16 million pay cut. Scottie Pippen is rather doubtful. I can't see Pippen playing for that cheap and taking $1.4 million which the Lakers are trying to offer him. Blazers owner Paul Allen mentioned that he most likely will top that by offering Pippen $10 million for 2 years just to try and keep Pippen away from Lakers. Similarly, the Kings are wooing every free agent they think the Lakers want and will probably offer Clark an extension, to keep him away from the Lakers. Most likely the Lakers roster will remain the same with the exception of maybe one "good" player with the mid-level exception they can offer. Karl Malone probably will remain a Jazz being that the other week Jazz owner Larry Miller stated that he believes Malone will stay in Utah for 2 more seasons and get a scoring title. Keep in mind Malone, Sloan, and Larry Miller have a close relationship. I just can't see such players as Karl Malone, Gary Payton, or PJ Brown willingly accept a huge pay cut just for a championship...then again I could be wrong.

[Matthew]

Like I said before, why would Payton goto the Lakers when he can goto the Spurs? The Spurs have more cap room to offer him. He would be the second option and the primary playmaker. Plus he has a great friendship with Tim Duncan.

The Lakers can't offer him that. All they can do is offer hima chance of the title, but San Antonio can do that too

[Andrew]

i dont see a problem other than $, and if the lakers clear out the bench and move horry fox and fisher to the bench.... that would free up the cap for these new players

It wouldn't. The Lakers payroll is in excess of $62 million, around $22 million over the cap. If they kept only the players you mentioned, they'd still be $8.5 million over the cap, meaning all they have is their $4.5 million exception.

I don't see Alonzo Mourning, Gary Payton, Karl Malone, Juwan Howard and Scottie Pippen sharing $4.5 million. I don't see any two of them sharing it, let alone all five.

[Matthew]

Alonzo earned $20,629,800 last season
Howard earned $20,625,000
Pippen earned $19,727,524
Karl Malone earned $19,250,000
and Payton earned $12,636,117
That all combines to $92,868,441. Sure they would all combine to share 4.5 mil