Lakers-Ticketless

The big news of the day is heated conversations between the Minnesota Timberwolves, Boston Celtics and Andy Miller (agent for Kevin Garnett). Obviously Laker fans would be disappointed if Garnett is traded to Boston, but it appears that may be a strong possibility.
The Los Angeles Lakers have always held a small candle but had already accepted they were an unlikely destination for Garnett.
Perhaps they look at Plan B again (Jermaine O'Neal), though they still appear unwilling to move Andrew Bynum with Lamar Odom to the Indiana Pacers for the expensive and injury prone O'Neal.
While the Lakers can afford to shop players like Kwame Brown and Jordan Farmar, that may not be enough to land an impact player.
A wild rumor that the Orlando Magic would be interested in Brown, willing to send Hedo Turkoglu (and Farmar from the Lakers) to the Sacramento Kings with Artest and Keith Bogans coming to the Lakers has been declared "unfounded" by a source close to one of the teams.
It's certainly an interesting idea but at this point remains unrealistic.
Another rumor making the paces is that the Lakers are one of the teams chasing Juan Carlos Navarro whose draft rights are still owned by the Washington Wizards. While it's possible to come up with a trade scenario that might appeal to the Wizards, there's the matter of how much money the Lakers can pay Navarro.
LA only has $1 million of their Mid-Level Exception (MLE) remaining. The Wizards cannot use their MLE in any trade, per league rules.
Considering Navarro has at least a $2 million buy-out, of which the Lakers can only contribute $500,000 towards . . . the Spanish guard would have to come out of his pocket to play in LA.
Barring some unforeseen endorsement contract that makes it worth his while, there doesn't seem to be any practical way the Lakers can land Navarro.
After this week his buy-out is expected to be raised to $11-14 million, which could keep Navarro out of the NBA for years.
Perhaps Navarro was more of a serious consideration for the Lakers when they were searching for a point guard but with Derek Fisher getting nearly all the MLE it appears the Navarro rumor is nothing but old news.
Before the injuries last season the Lakers were on a 50+ win pace. It remains to be seen if they can pick off where they left off this coming season or if that's just fool's gold.
Is Fisher that much of an upgrade over Smush Parker?
Can the injury-prone lot remain healthy for an 82-game period and an extended playoff run?
Will the Kobe Bryant trade demand be forgotten or reemerge as a serious issue if and when Garnett is traded elsewhere?
Is there any way for the Lakers to upgrade the team? The Celtics were close to the worst team in basketball last year and may add Garnett to the recent acquisition of Ray Allen.
The Lakers brought back Fisher, Luke Walton, Chris Mihm and drafted Javaris Crittenton.
It just doesn't seem enough to make a real difference.

by: Eric Pincus

HOOPSWORLD.com