In this wacky NBA season when as many as 10 teams are legitimate contenders to take the title away from the defending champion Spurs, three major stars have changed teams in the past two weeks. That unprecedented movement has changed the landscape of the already fierce competition in the Western Conference.
When the Mavericks finally acquired point guard Jason Kidd from the Nets along with Malik Allen and Antoine Wright in exchange for Devin Harris, Trenton Hassell, DeSagana Diop, Maurice Ager, retired forward Keith Van Horn, two first-round picks and $3 million, it gave the Mavs the tough leadership they’ve been lacking while on the brink of a title the past three seasons.
But is it bigger than the Suns’ acquisition of Shaquille O’Neal from the Heat for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks on Feb. 6?
And how do either one of them compare to the Lakers receiving Pau Gasol for Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton, Aaron McKie, two first-round draft choices and the rights to Marc Gasol on Feb. 4?
They obviously were all major moves with the intent being winning now. Consider for a moment the Suns (37-16) entered the All-Star break with the second-best record in the West – just percentage points behind the 36-15 Hornets, while the Lakers (35-17) have the third-best record, the Spurs (34-17) fourth and the Mavs (35-18) fifth. You want a great stretch run? This promises to be one of the most exciting races of the past 20 years considering nine teams are within 4½ games of the top spot in the West.
But to have players of this magnitude traded in such a short period of time – and some potentially busy days remain before the Feb. 21 trade deadline – it has to make you wonder if anything else is about to happen. Will the Nuggets make a move for Ron Artest or Sam Cassell? Will the Jazz look for help up front with the likes of Artest or Ben Wallace?
Considering the movement of Gasol, O’Neal and Kidd, who can doubt anything at this point?
And yet, there is a difference between the three big deals … and the Lakers win, big time.
Both the Mavs acquiring Kidd and the Suns getting O’Neal are gambles that may pay dividends in the short term, but they will suffer ramifications in the long run.
For the Mavs, giving up Harris and Diop is a questionable decision, if only because Kidd has maybe two more years of effectiveness after this season on legs that will turn 35 next month. At the same time, they will have lost the interior defense of Diop while sticking with Erick Dampier, who is at best good for a couple games in a row before he’s hurt, ineffective or just indifferent. And by the time Kidd is done, Harris has the potential to grow into an effective, lightning-quick point guard comparable to Tony Parker.
Kidd does give them the toughness and leadership that has prevented them from winning it all in recent years. Yes, they’re still near the top of the Western Conference with their record. But that’s because they have more overall talent that nearly every team in the league. They’re 12-14 on the road this season compared to 31-10 a year ago, and just how they would compete with the best of the West in the postseason is highly debatable. This move reeks of desperation, and yet with Kidd hitting the boards, distributing the ball and his relentless defense, they’re better suited for a playoff run this season. Beyond the 2008 playoffs, though, all bets are off.
The same goes for the Suns getting O’Neal. He’ll be 36 in three weeks. He’s played in only 32 games this season, as his 330-pound frame continues to slide down that slippery slope toward retirement. He has been more ineffective than his 14.2 points and 7.8 rebounds would indicate. His knees, hips, feet and quads – essentially his lower extremities, period – have virtually no tread left. Of course, he will be a factor on defense because he has been one of the greatest centers ever, knows the game, and at 7-1, 330, still takes up an enormous amount of space. He can pass the ball on offense and dunk.
But this still flies right in the face of coach Mike D’Antoni’s offense, while ignoring how ineffectual O’Neal is in the pick-and-roll or pick-and-pop, which is the bread and butter of what All-Star point guard Steve Nash does in the half-court offense.
That’s not to say Marion has more value than O’Neal. He had become a constant pain to the organization, whining in the locker room about shots, and wanting a huge extension that was far greater than his value. Nonetheless, he’s the guy who matched up defensively with the other team’s best scorer. He’s the one who made the steal or the block, grabbed the loose ball or the big rebound. Boris Diaw will run the floor, move the ball better and hit some open jumpers. But he doesn’t play at the same speed. Grant Hill has a little left in the tank, but not what Marion brought to the table either. And let’s not forget that Nash has back and shoulder issues at the age of 34.
This move maybe doesn’t have the same long-term ramifications as the Mavs giving up Harris and Diop, plus there’s always the outside shot that O’Neal really can get it together and have some juice left for a playoff run. But this is probably the last gasp for that to happen for the Big Question Mark. It’s not a bad bet, just another short-term gamble.
As for the Lakers, there was no gamble at all. The Grizzlies were tired of losing and paying Gasol so much money, and he was tired of being there. What the Lakers gave up to get an All-Star 7-footer amounted to a few shirts, two pairs of pants and some free airline tickets. The Lakers had already helped their depth in the off-season and the bench was remarkably effective around Kobe Bryant. Their problem isn’t the roster. It’s injuries. Not only did they lose young, blossoming 7-foot center Andrew Bynum to a knee injury that will keep him out another month, it’s impossible to know how the 20-year-old will respond to his first injury and the heat of a playoff run. And now what was considered a minor dislocation to the pinky finger on Bryant’s right hand has manifested into a torn ligament and surgery that would keep him out six weeks has been recommended.
This trade was a steal. But the injuries will make it difficult for the Lakers to win it all this season. Bryant has to make a decision quickly about what to do with his hand, and neither option is good. But even if they hang in there somehow and make a run at it this season, that’s not the point. They will be better next year with Bynum having another season of growth and playing next to Gasol and Lamar Odom, with Bryant and either Derek Fisher or Jordan Farmar at point – plus that swollen bench. So if the Lakers can’t quite get it together this spring, it’s easy to go on the record right now as saying the Lakers are the favorites to win the NBA title in 2009.
So which of the three teams made the best deal?
No contest … now if all those fair weather Lakers fans calling for general manager Mitch Kupchak’s head will please step forward, grab your ankles and take your medicine, we can get this over with. Mitch, will you please take the big paddle with the holes in it? And when we’re finished, the knuckleheads in L.A. will have no alternative but to look at you and respond, “Thank you sir, may I have another.”
Bynum went down hard after stepping on teammate Lamar Odom’s foot and was helped off the floor during the third quarter of the Lakers' one-point win over the Memphis Grizzlies Sunday night. It was their sixth win in a row – their longest win streak since the 2003-04 season – and raised their record to 25-11, a half-game out in the race for the best record in the Western Conference.
So what does this mean to the Lakers? Well, they lose their 20-year-old center, who has been improving seemingly every week to the adult stats of 13.1 points, 10.2 rebounds and 2.1 blocks. Now they turn to the notorious bust that was the first pick overall in the 2001 draft, Kwame Brown.
Physically, there’s not that much difference on paper – Bynum at 7-foot, 280, Brown at 6-11, 270. The difference is the way they play, as Bynum is seemingly growing every game, while Brown has consistently underachieved akin to a shrinking violet.
It would be easy to compare this to last season when the Lakers got off to a great start, only to have injury after injury pile up – leaving the bulk of mid-season almost solely to Bryant as the aircraft carrier from the opening tipoff to the final buzzer. By the time everyone returned, they were already done.
This year has been different. They are deeper and more experienced with the additions of Derek Fisher and Trevor Ariza. That’s shooting from Fisher and defense from both, with Bynum growing into more of a force daily.
Consequently, they’ve progressed (both individually and as a team) during this process – Bryant included – so the short-run isn’t really the issue. They’ll be OK, and weren’t likely to win the West anyway. This is about the big picture. They have an overgrown kid in Bynum who is full of life and love for the game – and has become a protégé for no less than legendary center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
The concern is how this will affect the growth and confidence he has developed this season as he has begun to dominate the interior at both ends of the floor. Hopefully, this is just a minor derailment. And maybe, just maybe, Bryant, who was so willing to part with Bynum for anybody this summer, will appreciate his young center for what he is instead of bemoaning what he isn’t.
Christmas Day in the NBA … seeing the Los Angeles Lakers every year doesn’t quite have the same allure as the NFL tradition on Thanksgiving Day, but at least it allowed for one game out of three to live up to it’s billing. And with the way the Lakers beat the Phoenix Suns 122-115, it certainly makes the race in the West a lot more interesting.
But that was the middle game -- and unless you already knew better, that meant you had to survive the first game, leaving almost no possibility of staying awake through boredom and a second day of turkey to see the nightcap.
Oh, we did manage not to nod out before seeing the upstart Portland Trail Blazers extend their NBA-best winning streak to 11 games in an ugly 89-79 win against the Seattle Sonics Tuesday night. It wasn’t supposed to be about the rivalry in the Pacific Northwest, though. It was scheduled in July to have provided enough time for the highly publicized top two picks of the 2007 draft -- Greg Oden and Kevin Durant -- to get their feet on the ground and excite everyone with a glimpse of the NBA’s future superstars.
As we’ve learned ad nauseum, Oden is out for the year never to play a game this season after microfracture knee surgery. And Durant continues to show flashes of his superlative scoring skills amid the other immature aspects of his game on a bad team. The best part of the Blazers is still seeing how 2006 rookie of the year Brandon Roy has blossomed into the floor leader that coach Nate McMillan had dreamed about (even if Sergio Rodriguez did show sparks of spectacular ballhandling and passing skills). Maybe that lock of another lottery pick in the wake of Oden’s absence won’t happen after all, and the Blazers slip into the playoffs. That would be one of the great stories of the season if they can sustain … but they are so young.
The first game was in Cleveland, with the underachieving Cavs hosting the pathetic Miami Heat. Of course all eyes were on LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. But all the Heat had in them was one good quarter, and it’s hard to imagine Wade making it through this season healthy after offseason surgery on his shoulder and knee from which he certainly returned too soon. It’s one thing to carry his teammates withShaquille O’Neal. It’s quite another for Shaq to be jumping on his back. At least coach Pat Riley showed Shaq enough respect to yank him after he had just picked up his fifth foul with just less than seven minutes left. It saved him from tying the all-time record of six consecutive games of fouling out, but didn’t prevent everyone from witnessing just how unproductive he has become. At 8-20, they are astonishingly bad and Wade didn’t even score in the second half until there were eight minutes left in the game.
The Cavs, carrying the moniker of Defending Eastern Conference champs, were made to look like chumps on Saturday night by the wacko New York Knicks. For the first time, James stormed out of the arena without a word. And things looked pretty bleak Tuesday when they went dead in the second half. But they did bounce back and manhandled the Heat in the second half, led by James’ 25 points, 12 assists and 6 rebounds for an easy 96-82 win. The key for the Cavs though, was what happened around James, with Andy Varejao coming around quickly from his late contract signing – averaging 11 points, 11 rebounds and 2.8 steals in the past three games. And Drew Gooden is still very capable of a double-double on any given night. The key is in the backcourt, where Larry Hughes didn’t put up numbers, but ran the offense and had four steals, while Daniel Gibson was deadly from the perimeter. All of this was predicated by getting back to their defensive roots that had seemingly vanished. The good news for them is after the Celtics and Pistons, and the rapidly tumbling Magic, everybody else is lingering around .500 for the fourth seed. And the Magic have played their way back to the field losing 8-of-12 after their great start.
Nonetheless, the Lakers' win over the Suns lived up to its billing and more. Even though Kobe Bryant scored 26 of his 38 points in the second half, it wasn’t about him for the most part.. It was about Andrew Bynum, the precocious young center with his tutor Kareem Abdul-Jabbar looking on. The seven-point win wasn’t the story as much as Bynum was just too much for the Suns All-Star center Amare Stoudemire to handle, making 11-of-13 shots to finish with 28 points, 12 rebounds and 4 assists. We have yet to see a skyhook out of the 20-year-old Bynum, but you have to figure at some point in time, with the touch he is already showing, that it’s coming.
The other eye-catcher for the Lakers was Trevor Ariza, earning a start in the wake of Luke Walton’s ankle sprain. Ariza, acquired from Orlando for mechanical Brian Cook and erratic Maurice Evans, gives them much needed athleticism and defense on the perimeter. And Tuesday, he added eye-popping dunks like he had at UCLA. It’s no wonder coach Phil Jackson signed a two-year extension, you can tell he’s having fun – bow-ties and all.
Despite continued great play from Steve Nash, the Suns just couldn’t keep up and they’re looking more vulnerable every day. Not only do the Lakers now have more speed and depth, but with Bynum and Lamar Odom, they now have two players the Suns can’t control inside – thus the Lakers 2-0 record with them this season. Even more to the point, although the Suns (19-10) still hold a one-game lead over the Lakers (18-11) for the top spot in the Pacific Division, the Suns built that record playing teams in the East. They are a surprising 7-7 against the West this season, and that’s got to be a huge red flag for coach Mike D’Antoni and new general manager Steve Kerr. They are asking more of Nash, who turns 34 the first week of February, than ever before. And teams like the Lakers, Blazers and Golden State Warriors now are showing the ability to run with them … or even outrun them.
And that’s why the middle game was interesting Tuesday. No longer are we hearing a peep out of Bryant about wanting to be traded. The Lakers look eminently capable of at least a top five finish in the West and maybe leapfrogging the Suns to get a second seed. All of a sudden, it’s the Suns that are beginning to look like a team that needs to make a move … which means those Shawn Marion rumors are bound to start bubbling up again.
