Thoughts on rumor that Lakers could have had JO for Bynum

Posted on LakersGround.net on 8/03/07.

From a Hoopsworld article:

If the Indiana Pacers launch the 2006-07 season with Jermaine O'Neal it will be a surprise. They've been shopping him for much of the summer, with the Los Angeles Lakers being a primary target. In fact, if the Lakers had been willing to part with Andrew Bynum at last year's trade deadline O'Neal would probably already have 20 or so games as a Laker under his belt.

I don't believe this one. The About The Author box for Bill Ingram says:

Bill Ingram is Executive Editor for Basketball News, powering HOOPSWORLD.COM, SWISH Magazine, and The Basketball News Report. He is a member of the Professional Basketball Writers Association and primarily covers the Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, and San Antonio Spurs. He can be heard on tonight on KRLD 1080AM in Dallas.

So some sportswriter who covers the Mavs, Rockets and Spurs knows what happened between the Pacers and the Lakers? I would trust Indy Dave more.

20 or so games mean that JO would have joined the Lakers by roughly 3/9. The trade deadline was 2/22. I guess he is assuming that JO would miss ~ 9 games after being traded to the Lakers.

On 1/17, Indy made a multi-player trade with the Warriors that made them younger. They went 9-6 between the trade and the trade deadline. The first two games were losses, so they Pacers were really looking at a 9-4 record with the new line up. Why would they break that up? Particularly as trading for Bynum is effectively blowing up the team.


After the trade deadline, the Pacers went 6-23. Trading JO now makes a lot more sense.

Note: indy_dave00 had lots of good Pacers posts in that thread