[LonghornDub]

Originally Posted by chumdawg

I guess we would have to be sure we knew that those packages were indeed available. Can't believe everything you read, and all that. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if some GM's/owners didn't have the balls to pull off some of those deals, after all. I mean, we always hear that these trades are very complicated things that take a long time to pull off, and that most of them that are discussed never come to fruition.

Again, who knows. But something like the above is a lot more reasonable to me than the notion that teams would make some sacrifice of their own best interests in order to help the Lakers--or any other team, for that matter.

I definitely agree that teams aren't knowingly sacrificing their own interests to help out the Lakers. That's why it's so fascinating to me.

There are probably several things at work here, but one possibility is just that the Lakers have had some particularly adept negotiators in their FO positions, specifically at GM. We certainly can't assume that all NBA GM's are created equal in terms of their ability to persuade others. Some people are just naturally better at getting what they want in an arms-length transaction.