In the end, Yang Shuai didn't take a cab home after all, because after dinner, Kobe arranged for a driver to take him and Garnett back together.
Yang Shuai's eardrums took a beating the entire ride. Garnett was naturally outgoing and never seemed to run out of things to say.
Even so, Yang Shuai was in great spirits. He could feel Garnett's genuine respect and acceptance. With both Garnett and Kobe on board, this trade had firmly cemented his standing with the Lakers.
As they rode along, Yang Shuai turned to Garnett with a question. "What do you think of Marcus Camby as a player?"
"Marcus, huh?" Garnett sighed wistfully at the name. "The man's got talent, no doubt about it, but he's too obsessed with stats. Right now, he's just playing for the box score."
"Still, that won him Defensive Player of the Year." Camby had averaged 11.7 rebounds and 3.3 blocks the previous season to claim DPOY honors.
"What good is that?" Garnett retorted. "When you play just for stats, you pick up awful defensive habits—like letting opponents pass freely into the paint just so you can hunt for a block. That kind of stuff is lethal in real games."
It was clear that Garnett didn't hold a very high opinion of Camby.
A few days later, Kupchak called Yang Shuai into his office.
After signing Derek Fisher and Jamario Moon, trading for Delonte West, and re-signing Luke Walton, on top of already having Maurice Evans and Jordan Farmar on the roster, the Lakers' backcourt and wing rotation had become rather crowded. By comparison, their frontcourt looked decidedly thin.
Vladimir Radmanovic held strategic value for the Lakers. He was a rare stretch four for this era, making him their best option at power forward in specific matchups—such as when facing the Mavericks with Dirk Nowitzki at center, or against the Celtics when they played Gasol at the five.
On that front, Yang Shuai and Kupchak saw eye to eye: keep Radmanovic and let him replicate some of Odom's functions.
Then came the most critical issue: the starting center.
"Do you have any recommendations?" Kupchak asked naturally. Getting Delonte West by simply tossing in an extra second-round pick had naturally bolstered his trust in Yang Shuai.
"Marcus Camby," Yang Shuai replied.
Originally, Marc Gasol would have been an ideal choice, which was why Yang Shuai had initially told Kupchak to keep him. But without including younger Gasol's draft rights, the four-team trade never would have materialized, and Garnett wouldn't be a Laker today.
"Can we really trade for him?" Kupchak was caught off guard by the suggestion. After all, Camby was the reigning Defensive Player of the Year!
"The Nuggets are about to buckle under their salary cap, and their owner isn't Mark Cuban."
Yang Shuai's remark momentarily stunned Kupchak, who then couldn't help but chuckle.
Among NBA team owners, Cuban wasn't necessarily the richest, but he was notorious across the league for his willingness to splurge, treating the luxury tax as if it didn't even exist.
Back in the 2004–05 season, when the league salary cap was only $43 million, the Mavericks' total payroll had already exceeded $90 million, and Dallas's projected payroll for the coming season was set to break $100 million.
Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke, however, was clearly not that type of owner. Since purchasing the team in 2000, he had only paid the luxury tax once—after trading for Allen Iverson the previous season. In terms of frugality, he was practically on par with Leslie Alexander.
Yang Shuai proceeded to break down Denver's situation for Kupchak.
The Nuggets were currently carrying five contracts worth eight figures apiece: Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony, Kenyon Martin, Camby, and Nene Hilario.
Among those five, Martin, Camby, and Nene were all frontcourt players, meaning the front office would inevitably have to choose two out of the three down the road.
Martin's contract was enormous, and coming off a season-ending injury, his trade value was virtually nonexistent.
Nene, on the other hand, was a promising young asset. With Martin sidelined all last season, Nene had stepped into the starting lineup and averaged 12.2 points and 7.0 rebounds while shooting an impressive 57 percent from the field.
By comparison, the 33-year-old Camby was the most sensible piece to move.
"So Camby winning DPOY right now actually makes it the peak moment for the Nuggets to trade him, because that's when they can extract the highest return," Yang Shuai pointed out.
Of course, there was another crucial detail he couldn't mention: in original history, Denver would dump Camby to the Clippers in the summer of 2008 for just a future second-round pick, giving rise to the infamous meme that a reigning DPOY was only worth a second-rounder.
While the Lakers didn't have the cap space to absorb Camby outright, they held Kwame Brown's expiring contract, which would be equally enticing to Denver.
"His reputation isn't entirely spotless. Some in the media call him a stat-padder," Kupchak voiced his concern. After all, Camby still had three years and $26 million left on his deal; if things went south, they would be stuck with it.
Yang Shuai nodded. He had harbored similar concerns earlier, and his conversation with Garnett had confirmed them. However...
"I believe a player's performance depends heavily on his environment. Whether someone plays for a lottery team, a playoff contender, or a championship favorite completely changes their competitive drive," Yang Shuai shared his perspective. He had seen the differences firsthand with Deandre Ayton across his stints with Phoenix, Portland, and the Lakers—the contrast was night and day.
Kupchak stroked his chin, lost in thought.
"Besides, he spent years chasing the Defensive Player of the Year award, and now he's finally won it," Yang Shuai added.
Kupchak ultimately nodded in agreement.
Camby's motivation for chasing numbers wasn't quite the same as a conventional stat-padder. Others did it to secure a big payday, but Camby wasn't hurting for money; he had done it primarily to validate himself with a DPOY trophy.
In essence, he was a player who possessed the ability to be an elite defensive anchor, but after feeling that playing sound, disciplined defense went unappreciated, he had taken the shortcut of chasing box-score stats and achieved what he wanted.
Therefore, they had every reason to believe Camby would adapt his approach once placed on a legitimate championship contender like the Lakers.
"That said, we still need to find a dependable, bruising center to back him up. For one, he struggles against massive centers like Yao Ming and Shaquille O'Neal. For another, he has a history of injuries," Yang Shuai continued.
He didn't recommend a specific target for that role, because players of that archetype were plentiful across the league. Virtually every team stockpiled a few, and the Lakers themselves had two.
One was Chris Mihm, who had been shipped out as salary filler in the previous trade.
The other was still on the roster: Ronny Turiaf, nicknamed 'The Butcher.' Standing 6-foot-10 and weighing 250 pounds, the 2005 second-round pick had cracked the Lakers' regular rotation last season, averaging 5.3 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks in 15 minutes per game.
Two days after Yang Shuai's conversation with Kupchak, the Lakers finalized their last pair of moves. First, they sent Von Wafer to the Warriors in exchange for 7-foot interior enforcer D. J. Mbenga. Around the same time, they signed former Laker Eddie Jones to a veteran's minimum deal.
Years ago, after losing out to Kobe in the battle for minutes, Jones had been traded to the Charlotte Hornets.
Since then, he had bounced around Charlotte, Miami, and Memphis. The previous season, the 36-year-old had rejoined the Heat midway through the year and started at small forward, still contributing 9.5 points per game.
In bringing him back, Kupchak wasn't just banking on his veteran savvy; it was also a move to further appease Kobe.
Although Jones and Kobe had once competed for the same spot, the two had actually been close friends since before entering the NBA.
With that, the Lakers' offseason moves were virtually complete.
Point Guards: Derek Fisher, Delonte West, Jordan Farmar
Shooting Guards: Kobe Bryant, Maurice Evans, Sasha Vujacic
Small Forwards: Luke Walton, Eddie Jones, Jamario Moon
Power Forwards: Kevin Garnett, Vladimir Radmanovic, Brian Cook
Centers: Kwame Brown, Ronny Turiaf, D. J. Mbenga
All that remained was to see whether Kupchak could strike a deal with Denver before the season began to deliver that final upgrade to the roster.
Yang Shuai suspected it might take quite a while, perhaps stretching right up to the start of the regular season before yielding any results.
After all, just as he had pointed out, the Nuggets would be selling high on Camby and were bound to demand a steep price.
Moreover, now that the Lakers boasted both Kobe and Garnett, other front offices would certainly think twice about the ramifications of sending another quality piece to Los Angeles.
With Denver and the Lakers being direct rivals in the Western Conference, it was entirely possible that negotiations might ultimately fall through, forcing Los Angeles to look elsewhere.
Chapter 50