Damn Malone!

Posted on LG.net on 1/14.

On 12/3, Mitch had dinner with Malone's agent, Dwight Manley. Malone hadn't shared with Manley that his relationship with Kobe had gone South 10 days before and that he wouldn't consider playing for the Lakers. Instead, Manley told Mitch that Karl is on almost completely recovered and will be ready to rejoin the Lakers in January. His agent added that after Malone's final season, he wanted to join the Lakers coaching staff.

Mitch went back to his office after the dinner with Manley and ponder his problem - how was he going to make space on the Laker's roster for Malone? The Lakers already had 15 players maximum and the only one with a non-guarenteed contract was Tierre Brown. Tierre Brown may be a poor back up PG, but he was the Lakers' only back up PG. If Brown was cut, the Lakers had no one to spell Atkins. If Atkins was injured, the Lakers had a huge hole in their starting line up.

Mitch started looking at other options and came up with Kareem Rush. If Brown was a poor back up PG, Rush was even a worse back up SG. He was shooting only 20% for the Lakers and he was getting virtually no minutes behind Kobe, the league leader in minutes per game. The Lakers had other options for back up SG - sliding Caron Butler down from SF, playing SF Luke Walton out of position, playing rookie Sasha Vujacic, even playing a Tierre Brown and Chucky Atkins backcourt. Far more options than if Mitch cut Brown. The only real value Rush had to the Lakers was as an insurance policy in case Kobe was injured.

Mitch decided Rush would go instead of Brown, but Mitch had a challenge - he could only get back draft picks for Rush. That meant he had to deal with a team that was far enough under the salary cap that they could absorb Rush's salary and still be under. Charlotte was one of the few teams (if not the only) that he could trade with and Charlotte knew it. Charlotte probably said that if they were going to acquire Rush for draft picks, the Lakers had to trade him to them now or else no deal. A few days after his dinner with Manley, Mitch traded Rush to Charlotte for next to nothing. But what Mitch thought he was getting in return was the roster spot for Malone.

The same day that Mitch traded Rush, Kobe went on the Loose Cannons show and made a comment about Malone. Malone reacted strongly to it and the Malone-Bryant soap opera dominated the air waves for the next two weeks. It was clear that Malone would never come back to the Lakers. In today's LA Times is a story about how Malone still can't decide if he wants to play, but if he plays it will be for San Antonio or Miami.

Of course in the same paper is the story of Kobe's injury and how he will probably be out weeks. Now is the time that the Lakers wanted to pull out their insurance policy, Kareem Rush. But Rush is sitting in Charlotte because Malone wasn't honest with his agent and the Lakers.