Magic Acquire Brian Cook and Maurice Evans From L.A. Lakers

[ball junkie 277]

quote:

Originally posted by D-BoFats:

I actually like this trade, and I'm kind of surprised, because Ariza was one of my favorites. But looking at it, we lost a little used bench player, and in return, filled one of our biggest needs.

 

I've personally had my eye on Brian Cook for the longest time... I always thought he'd be the PERFECT fit for our team. He may not seem like that great of a player, but just think of what he'll do to the opposing team's defense... it's scary.

 

Maurice Evans is basically an older Trevor Ariza with a better shot... he'll be a strong contributor off the bench (if we keep him).

 

I'm just glad we have a General Manager that is capable of looking outside of the statsheet and making a move that will not only benefit our franchise superstar, but also the team as a whole. What may look like a bad move to your ordinary stat geek is actually an EXCELLENT move!

 

Hats off to Otis, and I guess I should tell you to ignore my SIG for a little while.

 

 

Wow, I'm impressed with your attitude Debo for a guy that has Trevor on his sig. Good, honest post!!

[Sain 0]

The DarkSide you are blind man. You are making Ariza out to be to much. You can't say that Ariza is a all star in the future (unless you can see into the future). He has potential but so do so many other guys that don't flourish and become what they are supposed 2 be.

 

What has JJ done so far?

 

Exactly.

 

Please stop disrespecting O'neal, he is an amazing player and can't be compared to Ariza or JJ.

[Socks 0]

quote:

Reply

Hi Folks,

 

Laker fan here, just swinging through to check out the Magic fans' reaction to this trade.

 

Let me give you my take - and I'm honestly not trying to be a troll, so please take it easy on me (I actually like the Magic). To be brutally honest, IMO you guys got punished on this deal.

 

Cook - He works and has slowly improved his game since being drafted, adding tiny new wrinkles here and there. Generally a good guy personality-wise. Basically, he's a tall guy who can shoot the 3, but you already have 2 similar guys who do it better in Lewis and Turk. He has zero athleticism, doesn't rebound well, and doesn't play a lick of defense. He can score, which outside of Kobe was a precious commodity in LA, so he had some value to the Lakers. The thing is he does absolutely nothing else and is just a huge liability on the defensive side of the ball. Ideally, he's a 5 - 8 minute a game player you throw in there when you are behind and are hoping someone has a hot hand and can get you back in the game quickly. It's gotten to the point where most Laker fans can't stand him and everyone says a hail mary when they see him start to enter a game. I would say if you asked most hard core Laker fans, they see this move as addition by subtraction at the very least. We get rid of Cook and that's good news. Ariza on top of that? Nothing but gravy.

 

Evans - Solid role player, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Comparisons as an older version of Ariza are close enough. He's not nearly as physically imposing (about 6'5"). He can also shoot the three but is one of the streakiest shooters I've seen. He's athletic, but makes lots of bone headed mistakes. He tends to play a bit out of control on the offensive side and is prone to trying to drive with the ball (bad news) and blows a lot of layups at the rim. All in all, another solid guy, on a very good team should get 10 - 12 minutes a game.

 

If you think those two descriptions help your team, then great. To me, Cook seems redundant to what you have, and Evans takes the seat on the bench that Ariza was already occupying. You tell me though, it's your team, you know if far better.

 

From a Laker fan perspective - this is a win for us. We all can't stand Cook anyway and many would happily have gotten rid of him without getting anything back. Ariza fills a need for us by giving us an athletic defender to give Kobe a break from guarding the other team's best perimeter defender. He's bigger than Evans so gives us more flexibility to apply a good defender at the 2 or 3 slots. We really need a guy like that to give Kobe a break and we get punished whenever Luke Walton was stuck guarding basically anyone. Now we have Luke when we need a fascilitator/passer and Ariza when we need a lock-down kind of defender to help take the pressure off of Kobe. And personally, I think Ariza has a ton of up-side and am excited to see what he can do.

 

That's it - please don't take this as me gloating. My goal was to try to give you a Laker fan perspective and a bit of a scouting report on your two new players as well as gain some insight into your thoughts on Ariza (mixed bag, but generally positive when I look at the posts). Happy to answer any questions anyone may have about Cook or Evans.

[MagicMax 0]

quote:

Originally posted by Sain:

We have 2 allstars on our current team and 2 potential ALlstars. We need players that can support our starting 5 who have been playing exceptionally well for us.

 

Ariza is not in the Magic's plans. He has not been getting playing time and is not a factor in our record. Please get this in your head.

God bless u...

[MilitaryMagic 0]

quote:

Originally posted by JSamsonite:

Hey everyone, First of all, I am a Laker fan, I respect Orlando and I love watching dwight play. I jumped on the forums to do a little research on ariza, I have never seen him play. I started reading some of the posts and figured I would try to help you guys figure out who you got.

 

Cook - To be honest, us Laker fans are glad to see him go. He is a solid outside shooter, but I get upset everytime I see him on the floor. He is quite lazy and doesnt use his size like he should.

 

Evans - I am in shock we let Evans go. He is a very good player. He is not as consistant as we hoped he was, but every once in awhile he can drop some buckets on some great defenders and really change the pace of the game. He is a solid defensive player. He loves having the ball, if he gets the ball and starts a dribble, its a good bet hes going to put up a shot.

 

I hope this helps, I have been watching both of them sense they came to LA, I wish both of them the best of luck and I hope they can help Orlando continue on the path they have been going. (I would love to see orlando beat boston and detroit this year). Im going to kick it on the forums a bit longer and learn a little bit more about trevor, if anyone has any questions about evans/cook, ill be happy to answer to the best of my ability.

 

Trevor is an active player that is everywhere on the court. He's always around the ball, even if that means he's not with his man. He plays good man defense when his guy has the ball. He's very skinny however and cannot bang in the paint. He gets rebounds by skying in from the weakside - not by boxing his man out.

 

He has a strong transition game and is an excellent finisher, when he has confidence. His confidence is totally shot right now and he is unable to find a niche on our team - SVG hates guys that cannot shoot the ball...

 

Ariza has no outside shot, he keeps saying he's been working on it, but its still a crap shoot when he raises his long arms to navigate a shot to the hoop. He is a bad free throw shooter as well, which should tell you something.

 

If you guys can find minutes for a young, active player that has no shot and can't play the 4 or the 5, then Ariza is your guy because if he gets ample minutes for a year or two, he honestly will probably be a stud. He can be pretty studly sometimes and be a game changer.

 

I like Evans, he can be a killer.

 

That sucks that Cook is one of "those" guys, the guys you hate seeing on the court. Hopefully he can be productive and nail jumpers for us. Obviously he is not a rebounder.

[TheDarkSide 0]

I am still waiting for some one to take me up on this bet, and none of you are doing it. The Lakers will have an awesome team again one day with Ariza and Bynum. Can you imagine Ariza and Kobe in practice, and Kobe getting him to work on his shot. The Lakers got another Bryant on their hand if that happends.

[EnFuego 1]

quote:

Originally posted by Socks:

quote:

Reply

Hi Folks,

 

Laker fan here, just swinging through to check out the Magic fans' reaction to this trade.

 

Let me give you my take - and I'm honestly not trying to be a troll, so please take it easy on me (I actually like the Magic). To be brutally honest, IMO you guys got punished on this deal.

 

Cook - He works and has slowly improved his game since being drafted, adding tiny new wrinkles here and there. Generally a good guy personality-wise. Basically, he's a tall guy who can shoot the 3, but you already have 2 similar guys who do it better in Lewis and Turk. He has zero athleticism, doesn't rebound well, and doesn't play a lick of defense. He can score, which outside of Kobe was a precious commodity in LA, so he had some value to the Lakers. The thing is he does absolutely nothing else and is just a huge liability on the defensive side of the ball. Ideally, he's a 5 - 8 minute a game player you throw in there when you are behind and are hoping someone has a hot hand and can get you back in the game quickly. It's gotten to the point where most Laker fans can't stand him and everyone says a hail mary when they see him start to enter a game. I would say if you asked most hard core Laker fans, they see this move as addition by subtraction at the very least. We get rid of Cook and that's good news. Ariza on top of that? Nothing but gravy.

 

Evans - Solid role player, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Comparisons as an older version of Ariza are close enough. He's not nearly as physically imposing (about 6'5"). He can also shoot the three but is one of the streakiest shooters I've seen. He's athletic, but makes lots of bone headed mistakes. He tends to play a bit out of control on the offensive side and is prone to trying to drive with the ball (bad news) and blows a lot of layups at the rim. All in all, another solid guy, on a very good team should get 10 - 12 minutes a game.

 

If you think those two descriptions help your team, then great. To me, Cook seems redundant to what you have, and Evans takes the seat on the bench that Ariza was already occupying. You tell me though, it's your team, you know if far better.

 

From a Laker fan perspective - this is a win for us. We all can't stand Cook anyway and many would happily have gotten rid of him without getting anything back. Ariza fills a need for us by giving us an athletic defender to give Kobe a break from guarding the other team's best perimeter defender. He's bigger than Evans so gives us more flexibility to apply a good defender at the 2 or 3 slots. We really need a guy like that to give Kobe a break and we get punished whenever Luke Walton was stuck guarding basically anyone. Now we have Luke when we need a fascilitator/passer and Ariza when we need a lock-down kind of defender to help take the pressure off of Kobe. And personally, I think Ariza has a ton of up-side and am excited to see what he can do.

 

That's it - please don't take this as me gloating. My goal was to try to give you a Laker fan perspective and a bit of a scouting report on your two new players as well as gain some insight into your thoughts on Ariza (mixed bag, but generally positive when I look at the posts). Happy to answer any questions anyone may have about Cook or Evans.

 

thank you. I'm not a big fan of cross-over posters who go to the other team's site to trash talk. this is the one time I see the value. We don't know much about Cook and Evans and we do appreciate a poster's opinion because we have learned to tell the difference between a beat writer attached to a team and an unbiased poster. Thanks and good luck.

[Old No.7 0]

quote:

he's a tall guy who can shoot the 3, but you already have 2 similar guys who do it better in Lewis and Turk. He has zero athleticism, doesn't rebound well, and doesn't play a lick of defense.

 

Sometimes i hate being right all the time. At least Evans sounds like a decent player, i have to say picking up Brian Cook is the first move Otis has pulled off that i absolutely hate(other than possibly outbidding himself for Lewis, but thats in the past) All those things you mentioned that he doesn't do is exactly what we need, the thing you said he does well is the one thing we have plenty of. What an effin joke!

[threedee 0]

You've now said Ariza = O'Neal, Kidd, Bynum, & Bryant. Care to throw MJ in to the mix?

[chosen12 75]

quote:

Originally posted by threedee:

You've now said Ariza = O'Neal, Kidd, Bynum, & Bryant. Care to thow MJ in to the mix?

 

 

That is pretty bad, but when I first read about the trade, I knew that the boards would be going wild.....with imagintation! I will miss Trevor, but my God people come on back to earth.....please!

[Sain 0]

The darkside how is working with kobe on his shot going to be any different?

 

We have loads of shooters on our team who have probably helped or tried to help Ariza with his shot.

[TheDarkSide 0]

The fact is Ariza is in his young 20's and is a freak of nature. He is worth more then Cook and Evans, and we got jacked. If Ariza does get a shot he will be better then T Mac Or Kobe, because he plays defense, gets rabounds, and follows up garbage shots. He is a better athlete then those two.

 

Here are some videos of him last year:

 

Here is his rookie mix tape on the Knicks, andits really awesome:

 

Ariza will be an All Star one day, and Cook and Evans never will.