L.O., You Got to Go: The Lakers Must Trade Lamar Odom

You love his length, his versatility, his perfect basketball body.
You admire his humility and humanity.
You see his old-school selflessness on the court, how he passes first and prioritizes his teammates, how he deflects credit and accepts blame, and you think that he must be a very chill dude.
You empathize with his private struggles, particularly the tragic loss of his baby son.
You like almost everything about Lamar Odom, who he is, how he comports himself, how he plays hurt, his grace in the face of personal pain, and so you take absolutely no pleasure in what must be said if the Lakers are going to be anything more than what they’ve been since Odom arrived in Los Angeles, and that is average:
L.O., you got to go.
I could muddy up this story with stats: How he doesn’t make shots when they count in the fourth quarter, how he underperforms on the road; heck, I could stat you straight into a column coma. But there is only one stat and one only that matters:
Into the fourth year of their partnership, the Lakers are a .500 team fronted by Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom.
The chemistry, it’s not consistently there. The talented tandem, they play well on the same nights too infrequently. The results after three full seasons: one disaster (32 wins in ‘05) followed by two first-round playoff exits.
L.A.’s 9-8 start now in the face of a tough schedule holds some promise. And with the development of both Andrew Bynum and Jordan Farmar, plus the reacquisition of smart locker-room leader Derek Fisher, the Lakers win total SHOULD improve from the low 40’s of the past two years.
But significant progress, like 50-plus wins and a conference finals… I just don’t sense that’s going to happen while Kobe and Lamar are together.
Before you start with the emails, I’m not blaming Odom entirely. Kobe obviously isn’t easy to play with. Superman doesn’t do sidekicks. Plus for $10 million (growing to $12 million) a year to date the owner’s daughter, Phil Jackson hasn’t used those Hall of Fame credentials to instill any kind of real defensive mindset into his recent Laker teams, and that’s a big issue too.
Injuries have factored in as well. And I could argue that except for Odom, who would start on most but not every NBA team, the Lakers currently do not have one other forward who is a bona fide NBA starter, so it’s a weak position for the team.
Then there is fit. As in square peg, round hole. The Lakers need a real number two scorer to take pressure off Kobe. A guy who can pour in 18-20 a night, and go off for 35 when it’s needed. That’s not the role Odom naturally fills, nor one where his game best flourishes. (It’s more a job for Caron Butler, but that’s another column entirely…)
But except maybe for that one pre-Shaq in South Beach year when they did OK in Miami, I’m just not convinced Lamar is a winning player.
No one expected Odom to have Shaq-like impact after The Trade That Changed the Lakers, but in watching every Laker game since L.O. came to L.A., there have been too many missed jumpers, too often coming in the clutch. And those disappearing acts on the road? Lots of them, too. They do not happen with All-Star level players. All lead you to the inescapable conclusion that, after nine years in the league, despite the tantalizing talent, Lamar isn’t an All-Star caliber performer and never will be.
At least not alongside Kobe.
So much talent, so many skills, so much potential…but so much of it consistently unfulfilled with the Lakers.
Thing is, NBA teams are like scientific templates for 11th grade high school science teachers. They are one big, ongoing chemistry experiment. PJ and the Lakers have been in the lab with Kobe and L.O. for quite a while now, like 3 1/2 years, and all they really have to show for it is the smell of sulfur.
To be perfectly clear, I’m not suggesting the Lakers should have traded Odom and Bynum for J Kidd. Kidd’s a little long in the tooth for that. I’m glad they didn’t trade that pair for Jermaine O’Neal. The poor man’s O’Neal is only marginally better than Lamar straight up when healthy, and there’ve been some recent knee issues that indicate he isn’t physically sound at all.
What I am suggesting is that it’s time for the Lakers to commit to changing the chemistry, to acknowledge that Kobe and L.O. are a perfectly ordinary .500 partnership, to admit that it’s time to find a different, better, more productive way to go.
Artest? A gamble but intriguing.
Kirilenko, that’d be a no-brainer, but if the Jazz were dumb enough to do that, owner Larry Miller also has a nice used car to sell you.
Mitch Kupchak knows far better than I do what’s out there now in the way of a trade. It may be something. It may be nothing. But it’s reaching the point where every option should be explored fully. I know, it’s quite possible Mitch will tell you, don’t worry, it’ll be OK, we’ll be fine when Kwame comes back to anchor our defense and give us the toughness we’re missing right now in the paint.
Of course there are two small problems with that thinking: One, you’re relying on Kwame Brown, who can get hurt just walking in from the car. And two, we’ve already seen the Lakers at full strength with Kwame, and they don’t really cut it then, either.
So without having some kind of “in” with Mitch, and even knowing he’s the Bill Stoneman of L.A. basketball, here’s guessing the Lakers are going to revisit the Odom trade dialogue between now and the deadline.
If they don’t, they should.
And if no trade happens, brace yourself, Laker fans, for deva vu, year three.
Because like I said, L.O., love ya, bro, but you got to go.

by Ted Green

SportsHubLA

Kobe or not, Lakers at least have Jackson

How much would it mean to Jerry Buss and the Lakers to win a championship without Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal?
In the wake of Phil Jackson's decision to sign a contract extension to coach the Lakers until at least 2010, that is suddenly a viable scenario. Instead of Kobe and Shaq, how about Jerry and Phil — with Jeanie Buss snuggled gleefully in between — hugging the Larry O'Brien Trophy together?
That's not to say the Lakers can't reconcile with Bryant now that Jackson, his best friend in the organization, is staying. But Bryant also has not withdrawn his trade request, and said last week his future is not tied to Jackson's future.
The Lakers are aware that a trade of Bryant might have to happen at some point — he can opt out of his contract in 2009, albeit at a considerable price — but Buss has enough faith in Jackson to believe the Lakers can stay on track for a title even if a Bryant trade has to go down.
Both Bryant and O'Neal have publicly lambasted the Lakers and Buss after they won three titles together in 2000-02. To his credit, Buss is a businessman who doesn't get nearly as emotional as his players about situations, but he is to some extent hurt that he hasn't been able to duplicate his relationship with another star player, Magic Johnson.
Buss and Jackson, meanwhile, have only gotten chummier despite the awkward situation of Buss' daughter Jeanie, the Lakers' executive vice president of business operations, dating Jackson since 1999. The owner and coach can have entire dinners together and never discuss basketball.

Buss also deserves credit for changing his mind on what a great coach is worth after not wanting to pay big bucks in the past for anyone who didn't actually wear purple and gold.
How much would it mean to Jackson to win a championship without Bryant and O'Neal? No doubt it would prove something to the masses about Jackson's coaching gifts if he won without big-name superstars. But Jackson, as cocky as he sounds sometimes in public, is in no way consumed with that notion.
Jackson would rather win with Bryant to bring their personal struggles full circle. Remember, Jackson totally lost touch with Bryant — writing about the "uncoachable" Bryant in great detail in Jackson's best-selling book about the 2003-04 season — but came back in 2006 in large part to prove he could coach Bryant and coach him well.
Jackson genuinely wishes Bryant well and wants to help him get that sans-Shaq championship.
With the promise shown by 20-year-olds Andrew Bynum and Jordan Farmar this season and considering how Bryant has been able to blend in again with his teammates after a tumultuous summer, it's still possible that these Lakers have what it takes to win.
It took only a few games into the season for Jackson to be sold that Bryant wouldn't be playing with a for-sale sign in one hand.
"We've overcome that in a very interesting way, a very unusual way that I've never seen before," Jackson said earlier this month. "The team has come back, and Kobe has gotten his game back and his voice back on this team. And he seems to be going straight ahead."
On Thursday night, Jackson said of Bryant and the Lakers' potential: "He sees it too, and I think he sees the challenge ahead."
Jackson also reiterated that the Lakers' "predominant" statement is that they don't want to trade Bryant and haven't tried to trade him at all in the last month.
Bryant used to have a pretty good relationship with Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak, too. In the past, Kupchak would be the one to huddle Bryant and Jackson with O'Neal when the two Lakers superstars went to separate corners in the wake of their spats.

Bryant might never again be high on Jerry Buss and son Jim, who has been taking more and more control, yet it is entirely possible that Bryant could settle in with Jackson and Kupchak for the future. Or it's possible that Jackson recommitting to these people at least gives Bryant reason to think that they can't be that bad.
So here the Lakers stand, actually doing quite well in their unofficial grand plan to recover from Bryant's loud summer. They needed Jackson to talk Bryant off the ledge, for the team to start off strong and show Bryant he could still win with the Lakers, and they needed to lock up Jackson to have a reasonable shot at holding on to Bryant.
Whichever way it goes with Bryant down the road, though, keeping Jackson means the Lakers at least stay on the map.

by Kevin Ding
Foxsports.Com

'We're soft as ice cream'

SALT LAKE CITY - Apparently the Lakers didn't learn their lesson.
They didn't learn the danger that awaits them when they dig a big hole for themselves, when they don't play enough defense, when they don't match their opponent's energy.
For the second straight night the Lakers fell into a gigantic hole, and this time they couldn't recover. They wound up on the wrong side of a blowout Friday night, 120-96 losers against a Utah Jazz team playing without its two All-Stars.

"We were really slow, ineffective," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. "One of my coaches said 'We're soft as Dairy Queen ice cream tonight.' "
It was a season high in points allowed by the Lakers, and the 70 that their porous defense surrendered in the first half was a season high for a half. They trailed by 19 at the break, after Utah's Paul Millsap threw down a one-handed dunk over Lamar Odom just before the buzzer sounded.
As for Odom, he had another inconsistent game and once again showed a lack of composure when things didn't go his way.
He had seven points, took just five shots and turned the ball over four times in 28 minutes. He even had an exchange with Lakers coach Phil Jackson.
"He didn't approach the game mentally the way I wanted him to play," Jackson said. "I felt that was unfortunate because there were a number of situations that Lamar was in position to help us out. He just seemed not to be focused with what we were trying to do."
Kobe Bryant had 28 points and did his best to keep the Lakers in the game, at one point making back-to-back three-pointers and a 360-degree, hanging layup while being fouled.
Jordan Farmar added a career-high 21 of the Bench Mob's 45 points, but Bryant was very unhappy with his team's play, a snarl frequently on his face.
"It's frustrating because they outworked us," Bryant said.
The Lakers committed 20 turnovers. They were outrebounded 48-34. They made just 8 of 24 threes.
A night after sparking the Lakers by combining for 42 points off the bench, Luke Walton and Sasha Vujacic totaled 10 on 4-for-13 shooting
Deron Williams, meanwhile, had his way with the Lakers, scoring a career-high 35 points on 14-for-24 shooting. Andrei Kirilenko had a triple-double with 20 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists and had six steals and four blocks. Millsap had 20 points and nine rebounds.
The Jazz had its way inside, scoring 70 points in the paint.
"They were just having a frolic in the lane," Jackson said, and added, "There were a lot of things wrong. Everybody played poorly."
And the Jazz did this without starting big men Carlos Boozer (sprained ankle) and Mehmet Okur (back spasms), who average a combined 37.3 points and 16.3 rebounds.

by Broderick Turner

PE.Com

Nuggets & Jazz Vs Lakers

Wounded Animals
In the third back to back set of the year, you got to see a microcosm of the best and worst this Laker team can offer. What makes it frustrating for the fans is that from game to game you rarely know which team is going to show up.
For instance, in that Denver game, one of the best of the year after the 1st quarter, you saw a Laker team lethargic, sleepy, passing incredibly soft, running no plays, watching the ball handler, rarely moving off the ball completely switch to a motivated awake and active group that ran away with the game in the later stages.
Among the highlights of the Nuggets win, the 45 point turnaround. It wasn’t just a turnaround b y the starters or by a star driven core of players. That flip-flop in the game was predominantly run by the bench unit and secondary players. It’s a rare thing when Phil plays complete bench units in the meat of a game. That entire 4th quarter wasn’t just run with bench guys, it was run without a scorer or a prime time type of player on the court at all. Most encouraging was that the Lakers not only preserved the lead in the 4th but they built on it and most admirably played with hustle until the final buzzer.
Flash forward to Utah where an again sleepy, listless, and above all sloppy Laker team came trudging onto the court. The big difference was obviously that the Lakers never dug themselves out of this hole.
Which brings me to the main point of both of these games.
It’s vitally important that the Laker team doesn’t get into the habit of coming into games soft. At the outset of this year the Lakers were coming into every game with strong, assertive play. That type of play both won them games and kept them in games when they were behind until the last couple of minutes. Now for some reason that theory of play has been abandoned. Chalk it up top another Laker mystery. It’s been a long time since a Laker team has thrown this many schizophrenic games together at such an early point in a season.
What the guys have to realize is that they are nowhere near good, experienced or complete enough to expect the type of Denver comeback every game. Even the best teams can’t turn it on and off at will. There’s no reason this team should EVER come into a game thinking it’s a n easy one. Whether the team is crippled by injury or running at full strength, the best lesson this young squad can take to bed at night is that every game, no matter who the opponent, deserves your full attention and energy – every, single game.
Against the Jazz the Lakers did a terrible job o f pulling Kirilenko off of the weak side of the ball. Most of that is due to Lamar’s soft defense. Lamar has got to learn how to put a player on their heels by making them play more active defense against him. If he plays assertive and aggressive on the offensive end his assignment won’t have the type of rhythm or energy they have now in their offense. Likewise, by pushing that ball right into them at every given chance, Lamar wears out defenses, opens up shots for others, takes pressure off of Kobe and best yet, contributes the stats to the game he need to contribute in order for the Lakers to be successful on any level.
In other words, yeah, a lot of the Laker game plan hinges on Lamar and right now, he’s not delivering in the slightest. This can’t continue, it simply can’t go on if Lamar is expecting to stay a Laker or the Lakers are expecting to jump up to the next level of NBA teams.
In the Denver contest the Lakers were making one cardinal mistake that haunted them straight into the Jazz game – sloppy passing. It’s not just a sloppy pass here and there, the Lakers are promoting the mistake by keeping planted when dribbles are picked up. Nobody is coming to help with the ball, so passing angles are flattening out instantly, and the Nuggets were jumping into every passing lane.
This kind of unforced error is absolutely deadly. Its one thing to get an occasional pass jumped on due to hustle, but it’s another to literally be throwing the ball to the other team. There’s yet another thing that cannot become a habit any more than it has.
The thing about the early deficit in the Nuggets game and the ongoing drubbing in the Jazz game was that the problems were self-inflicted. In an odd way, it’s a positive, a very odd way, that they can be corrected with smarter play by the Lakers.
In the Nuggets game, it was slow off ball movement and lazy passing (along with a penchant to watch transition offense from the wrong end). In the Jazz game it was unadjusted soft defense (and moreover help defense) in the middle. Sure the Jazz are a pound it inside kind of team, but there’s no reason to make the job even easier for them by 1) not helping on a beaten player and 2) straight up sidestepping drives with matador defense.
That smacks of communication problems. The blind steals in the first half of the Denver game and the entire game in Utah were victims of a Laker team that was not talking to each other whatsoever. This team doesn’t know the offense or defense well enough to let the court go silent at any point. In fact, when they get better, there should never be a point where the Lakers become mute.
This game is motion, determination, teamwork and communication at its heart. If any of those elements are missing things get awfully tough – and in a hurry.
Alright, enough preaching, now for some positives…
Kobe – He struck an incredibly perfect balance of offense, aggression, scoring and passing against the Nuggets. The leadership skills of Kobe really came to fore in that game and it served as a huge lynchpin to the Lakers running the game more as a team in last ¾ of the game.
Sasha – Well that was a game of a lifetime for Sasha and even for a long time detractor like myself, it was good to see. Sasha played an all around good game as well. What was most impressive was Sasha’s best Rip Hamilton impression. Motion off the ball was fantastic. It was so fantastic that it frustrated the Nuggets to the point of knocking Carmelo out and essentially sealing the game. I also liked seeing Sasha keep shooting. There was no break in confidence or persistence from Sasha on and off the ball and paid off huge for him.
Jordanr – He did a great job of pushing the ball up the court even into half court sets. Getting the ball up on the offensive end with that kind of aggression does a lot of good. Versus Utah Jordan was the sole bright spot. His confidence in his jumper continued and he played undaunted throughout the whole game. Again, defending the Utah point guard core after the Lakers let them get into such a rhythm is nearly impossible, but Jordan played with good energy and hustle as he has all year so far.
Andrew – What is most impressive about Andrew in both the Jazz and Nuggets game was Andrew’s positioning. He was getting early deep post position in the spots he needed to be in on set plays and didn’t give up ground. Once he got rooted into the paint it was pretty damn hard to nudge him out. The Jazz and Nuggets had trouble with it; the difference in the game s was the soft high post and middle defense in Utah that took Andrew out of position early and often. He keeps the ball high on traffic rebounds and puts the elbows out in light traffic, securing the ball and never turning it over after it was in his hands.
Derek – (In the Nuggets game) had yet another solid offensive performance. He’s been really sharp on shot selection and thus has shot an impressive percentage. Defensively, he was over-matched with Williams and his side to side dribbling speed. Allowing himself that extra step of space would have served him better, though keeping up with Williams was a long shot to begin with.
Luke – He did a real good job cleaning up his sloppy play in a hurry. What he had trouble with these last 2 games was the physical play of his assignment. It’s nothing Luke can instantly improve upon, it’s something he has to account for and ask for early help with.
Team wise, there weren’t a lot of positives in Utah. This was a horrible game by the Lakers. Again, in the last two games you got to see what makes the Lakers who they are – unpredictable, sometimes amazing and sometimes baffling – all leading to sometimes winning.
What can kill that frustration is a Laker team playing at 100% awareness, not matter who the team is. When you see a wounded animal of a team con your schedule, you can’t relax. When your opponent is weakened you go in for the kill even stronger. And when a team is at full strength, you go in for the kill again. There can never be a game or a quarter in a game where you take it easy – NEVER.
Alright, so the Lakers and the Magic come into Sunday’s game on a loss. The game will come down to which team decides to use that loss as inspiration – and which team plays with their head and heart the entire 48.

by Crucifido's Corner
ClubLakers.Com

Endurance Test

How many years can Kobe Bryant remain a dominant star? As a 29-year-old in his 12th NBA season, the assumption has been that he senses his biological clock ticking away and that he may have only three years of supremacy left in him -- which would explain why he's in such a hurry to win now.
But Bryant doesn't see it that way. He takes offense at predictions that he'll begin to decline at 32.
"You're telling me I only have two or three years left,'' he said when I approached him with the theory last week. "Tell me that. I want you to.''
In other words, he's happy to use the shrinking-window theory as inspiration to prove everyone wrong.
The issue of his longevity is hard to assess because the league is still trying to define players like Bryant, who jumped to the Lakers from high school as an 18-year-old in 1996. Does the league take his birth certificate at face value? Or is he viewed as being 32 or 33 in NBA years because he started his career so much earlier than the college-raised players of previous generations?
"Kobe's won three championships in a row from October to June, and that's a lot of basketball at a high level. So there is a lot of mileage,'' said Nets point guard Jason Kidd, who teamed with Bryant for USA Basketball in August. "But seeing him this summer and the way he takes care of himself, he's always preparing himself to play and be the focal point.
"It would be interesting if you compared his minutes. Don't look at the field goal attempts -- just the minutes, and that will be what it's all about.''
Taking Kidd's advice, I chose seven shooting guards and small forwards who rate above Bryant on the NBA's all-time scoring list and looked at how old they were when they had played roughly as many regular-season and postseason minutes as Bryant should amass by the end of this season (see chart, above right).
"It's silly,'' Bryant said of such comparisons. "It depends on the person.''
Of course, he's right. Bird had a far more brittle career than Bryant. Dantley was primarily a low-post player, while Miller was a catch-and-shoot scorer who played without the ball. The best comparison is with Jordan, but even that one was skewed by Jordan's "retirement'' from the Bulls for almost two years in the prime of his career.
I spoke with four executives from NBA teams, and three of them said they viewed Bryant as if he were actually a 31- or 32-year-old player because of his NBA mileage. But even if Bryant is more worn than the typical 29-year-old, one of the execs warned that he shouldn't be written off prematurely.
"Kobe is such a workout fiend, and there's nobody in our league as single-minded as he is,'' this team president said. "With his toughness and his mind-set, I would not put it past him to find a way to keep dominating for a long time.''
Then there was the one dissenting executive who cautioned against the entire theory, noting that there isn't enough data on players in Bryant's position to be able to draw a conclusion. This assistant GM believes -- as does Kobe -- that Bryant's NBA minutes may be far less relevant than his physical age.
Bryant has already adapted by becoming more of a perimeter threat, much as Jordan became over the latter half of his career. Jordan clinched his sixth championship with a jumper at age 35.
"Kobe could play at this level for a long time,'' Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "Not only has he become a great jump shooter, but he's also developed that fadeaway [from the] post that Jordan developed. But it obviously depends on what's around him. If he has to carry the load, then that shortens his longevity.''

While Jordan was surrounded by positive energy, a negative -- and surely draining -- aura has enveloped Bryant in recent years.
"I just wish more people would celebrate Kobe, I really do,'' Rivers said. "Of all the guys in our league, that bugs me more than anything, that it just seems like we spend so much time trying to tear him apart and I think we're missing how great he is. And I think it's a shame.''
Bryant said he has relied more on his jumper because of the NBA's defensive rules -- and not because of his advancing age.
"The rules are completely different now,'' said Bryant, comparing his era to Jordan's. "I've always been able to shoot the ball, but the rules have changed since he played in terms of playing a zone defense. You have to be a jump shooter now because there's no way you can get to the basket -- particularly myself because they just stack guys up. I wish we had the rules they had back in the day where you could isolate guys and you could go to the basket anytime. But now you have to be able to shoot.''
The evolving science of athletic training should also enable Bryant to extend his career. Jordan took personal training to a new level by working year-round with Tim Grover. Now Bryant is raising the bar again.
"The techniques that we have available to ourselves now, the level of treatment that we have available is basically around the clock,'' Bryant said. "I have a solid team of five or six guys and women that are very capable in different areas: chiropractor, neuromuscular therapist, dietician, chef, yada, yada, yada.
"It's a lifestyle. If you want to continue to play at a high level, you have to make certain sacrifices. I mean, you can't have a burger every damn day.''
Bryant has learned to adjust his workouts over the years. "As you get older you get smarter, watch your diet, change your program a little bit. If you're willing to adapt, you can play for a long time.
"I work a lot smarter, more efficient, and it's not as taxing on your body. In the past it was just balls to the wall -- running and running and running and running, and jumping and plyometrics and all that stuff. If you're older, you don't need to do all that stuff. It's just about maintenance and injury prevention and staying in shape.''
Regarding Bryant's approach to the backstretch of his career, I don't think he's interested in winning just one more championship. I'm sure that he wants to win several of them. He wants to win more rings than Jordan's six and go down as one of the great players in the league. He was talking in those terms when I first met him a decade ago, and I would think his resolve has only strengthened since then.
So in that sense, the window is indeed shrinking. Say he is playing at as high a level as Jordan was at 35; that gives Bryant only seven seasons in which to win those four rings. If that's the way he's looking at it, then of course he's going to want the Lakers -- or another team -- to seize on his skills and exploit them to go for championships now, for their benefit as well as his. And the more talent he has around him, the longer he'll be able to extend his career at this level.
"I roll with it a little bit when they say there's a [two-to-three-year] window,'' Bryant said. "No way, no way. Barring injury or something like that, if you're willing to adapt, you can play for a long time.''
So how long can he play at his current level?
"I don't know,'' Bryant said. "We'll figure it out. I have a great staff of physical therapists and trainers, and we'll figure it out and work through it.''

by Ian Thomsen

SI.Com

The Lakers Nation: “We Want Revenge!”

We all originally came to this site for one reason: to “GetGarnett.” Now the time has come to get back at Garnett. Though we have two more games before the big finale this week, we can certainly discuss how we might stack up against the most hyped team in the NBA.
It has been roughly 15 years since a game against the Celtics actually mattered as much as it does this coming Friday. Some of us had grown apathetic towards the Celtics until this past summer when former Celtics Kevin McHale, Danny Ainge, and even Larry Bird himself gave the Lakers Nation a collective “screw you.”
Just in case we need some reminders of why this upcoming game is important, consider the fact that the Lakers and Celtics have competed against each other ten times in the NBA finals. Of those ten meetings for the title, the Lakers have only defeated the Celtics twice, and those were the last two meetings in the 80’s. Of the eight times that the Celtics crushed our hopes, half of those times were devastating game 7 defeats.
If you thought losing to Phoenix two seasons ago in game seven was horrible, just imagine what it was like when we lost eight times to the Celtics in a row and four of those were heart crushing game 7 losses.
Larry Bird, at one point in the off season, had to finally tell Mitch Kupchak to quit calling unless he was willing to send over Lamar and Bynum plus filler for Jermaine. Larry Bird didn’t think getting a package such as Jordan Farmar and Lamar Odom plus salaries to match were even worth discussing.
Just think about how some of the Lakers must think about Larry Bird’s opinions. In a way, Bynum, Farmar, and Lamar were all deemed unworthy of Larry Bird’s attention. Of course, we know he didn’t have the option of getting all of these players, but he could have had at least two of them.
Our Lakers must feel somewhat insulted, especially with the paltry numbers Jermaine has been putting up lately. Now picture in your mind what it will be like for Larry Bird as he watches the game. Sure, he was laughing over the summer thinking that he humiliated us, but now he will be forced to wonder what could have been, because the Lakers will get even with Larry for once and for all beginning with the tip off.
And once our Lakers face Indiana and Milwaukee, they must face the ultimate mental challenge. Think of the arrogant fans in Boston. After breezing through the MLB World Series, their football team is on the cusp of being the first team in 30 years to go undefeated. Meanwhile in the NBA, the hype is at an all-time high for the “Big Three.”
We wanted Garnett, and Boston beat us just as they have numerous times in the past. You can visualize the three Celtic GM’s sitting around and lighting cigars while they laugh at our despair. Likewise, when we show up on Friday, the Celtics fans will hold insulting signs, will taunt our beloved players, and will expect to send us home crying.
I promise you, the Lakers Nation will cry.
The question is, will we shed tears of pain or tears of joy?
The Boston Celtics are currently the top defensive team in the NBA. They only allow 0.93 points per possession. To contrast, the Lakers currently give up 1.04 points per possession. As tough as our defense has been, the Celtics appear to be better according to this metric. The Lakers are the top rebounding team in the NBA with an average of 46 rebounds per game. However, the Celtics are the number one team in the NBA for rebounds allowed (36 RPG allowed). Finally, the Boston offense has put up more than 102 points per game while we have scored 104. When you look at the point differential, or the average margin of victory, the Celtics are the number 1 team in the NBA at just more than 13 points per game and the Lakers are ranked 8th with a differential of less than half that, even after the Bulls blow out!
While the Celtics haven’t faced the type of schedule that the Lakers have, those metrics tell us there’s still plenty of reasons to see this upcoming game as an accurate measure of where our team stands.
In the mind’s of the players, this game is as important as they used to be prior to 1992.
Don’t let the rhetoric fool you, the players will tell you that it’s just another game, but you can bet your bottom dollar that our Lakers desperately want to face the NBA’s “#1″ team. In addition, the Boston Celtics, fresh off their loss to the hot Orlando Magic, want to prove to themselves and the entire Lakers nation that they are the top team.
The Boston fans want to feel superior to us once again. The Boston players want to make a statement.
The Lakers players want to show up, in Boston, and dethrone the top team. The Lakers franchise wants to make a statement to Kevin Garnett that he made a huge mistake in choosing Boston over Los Angeles. Kobe Bryant wants to prove that he is the MVP, even in Boston.
As for The Lakers Nation, we want revenge.

by Tim-4-Show
LakerNation.Com

Bulls Need to Live With Distraction

If the Staples Center crowd had any urge to shout, "Thabo, Thabo, Thabo," it restrained itself.
This might have been easy because rarely does a crowd at the Staples Center have an urge to do anything as ordinary as shout, and the Lakers were so thoroughly blowing out the Bulls that Lakers fans might not have seen much benefit in lobbying for Thabo Sefolosha and a package of other, more heralded Bulls players in exchange for Kobe Bryant.
If nothing else, the Lakers' first meeting with the Bulls this season might have scratched one more destination off Bryant's wish list, if Chicago – despite some of the silly rumors that have been bandied about lately – was still on it.
But beyond that, by trouncing the Bulls the Lakers might have demonstrated something to Chicago the Bulls should have known long before the United Center crowd serenaded them with a chant of "Kobe, Kobe, Kobe," a chant more stylish than boos but hit with similar impact.
The Lakers, it would seem, have had a few distractions this season, too. Whether the Bulls had been sidetracked by the Kobe trade rumors, or the less likely influence of the stalled contract negotiations, they clearly have become sidetracked.
There is not the edge, the toughness and competitiveness of last season's Bulls; though the roster is filled with the same players who brought those qualities last season.
It has not helped that the Bulls have not shot straight this season. But they are better than the team they put on the floor in Los Angeles, better than 2-7, or at least they should be.
They could get it all back. They have started badly before and regrouped. But if they were knocked off track by something as ordinary as a trade rumor, the question later will be: What will be more than they can handle?
Things happen in the NBA. Bad calls one night; an injury the next. A schedule loaded with tough travel and back-to-backs. In the case of a good team struggling, there could more trade rumors - or for that matter, actual trades.
The Lakers will live with distraction as long as Bryant is among them. And they had an injury on Sunday, losing Kwame Brown to a sprained left ankle and knee in the first quarter.
At least for the moment, the Lakers are happily chest-bumping their way around the league, winning their share of games – but will it stay that way?
They don't look like contenders, particularly given that they would have to escape the West. Bryant will not accept that fate indefinitely, or perhaps even for another week or two. His contract, with a chance to opt out after next season, means he does not have to. That reality will always hang over the Lakers until Bryant moves on, or something changes to make them seem to be championship material.
Yet, for all the nonsense of life with the Lakers, their young players not considered good enough, seem to make it work.
The Pistons, too, were hit with a few days of Kobe trade rumors, out of date and largely inaccurate as they were. But that veteran team brushed them aside easily and quickly.
It might not be the Bryant trade rumors pushing the Bulls off course, but they have been unable to find their way so far.
At least now they might not have to worry about trade possibilities with the Lakers. If there was ever much of a chance that there could be a deal, the Lakers would seem as averse to it as the Staples Center fans who sounded far more content with their team than United Center fans have with theirs.

by Jonathan Feigen

HOOPSWORLD