[Semtex]

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Have faith brothers...I'm confident that an opportunity to pick up a quality player (with a big salary) for next-to-nothing (eg. Kwame Brown's expiring deal and a 1st rounder or two) will present itself in the next month or two.

Sacramento looks like an imminent fire sale - with Bibby, Artest and BMiller candidates for dumping. All would fit well with what the Lakers have/do...especially Artest imo. If they could ship Kwame+Crittendon+1st for Artest, the Lakers would cement their place as a legit contender imo.

The Lakers are looking great now, Bynum continues to improve/impress, Odom's due back soon...life is good. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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See I am not so sure about this. I think Walton is key to this teams success manning the 3. Me and my friends were discussing the Lakers with Caron Butler instead of Kwame and the conclusion was that all Butler would bring is scoring and maybe some more defense but thats not really necessary. With Artest its almost the same, except you're not getting as much scoring but some more defense. The key to that position is the ball movement, and I think Walton is the best fit for the Lakers out of those three guys, and there's no way Artest is going to take coming off the bench or getting limited minutes, and the same probably goes for Butler.

This team is pretty good as is, starting Fish, Kobe, Luke, Odom and Bynum, and bringing Farmar, Sasha, Radmanovic, Turiaf and Kwame off the bench. Cook, Mihm and Maurice Evans give added depth in the frontcourt, and looks like to me all that is needed is maybe some more depth at the 1 and the 2.