Things that are making me angry this morning (aside the lack of coffee): Remember how the original trade with Boston in 2004 that brought us Chris Mihm and Chucky Atkins was supposed to include point guard Marcus Banks (for Payton and Rick Fox)? But then Payton flipped out and threatened not to report, so the deal was reworked and Banks was left out?
Banks just was traded to Minnesota — a Laker-like team in the sense that there is one established star and a chance for other people to step up and prove themselves. Banks, in his six games for the T-Wolves: scoring 18.8 per 40 minutes and dishing out 5.4 assists in that time, with a true shooting percentage of 59% in just under 30 minutes a game. (For some comparison, Smush is averaging 13.4 points and 3.7 assists per 40, with a TS% of 55.1%.)
Think we couldn’t have used that? Thanks Gary.
Updated: Another thing pissing me off: Remember how Kwame Brown had a two year deal with the Laker option for the third. Eric Pincus is reporting at Hoops World that the Lakers have already guaranteed the third year of that deal. If true, I may need a drink or eight tonight. There’s some other speculation in there that may be of interest.
Some other links worth checking out:
Lakers I remember fondly: One of these days I was going to get around doing a post on Bob McAdoo, one of the guys who is most underappreciated in NBA history. Then David Friedman went and put up a great piece at Hoopshype.com. Check it out, it is well worth the read.
NBA “fictionâ€: Two Sports Illustrated regulars now have a “fiction†book out based on the NBA, with the goal of showing people what life is like behind the scenes without actually naming names. My reading list is too long to get to it in the near future (Gatinho turned me on to my current read) but if you want to find out more about it check out this interview at Gelf Magazine or read a couple chapters online.
Kobe Meter: Laker fan (and a good blogger) Hank at Broken Cowboy has set up a Kobe Meter to track his season scoring average in comparison to the legendary Jordan 86-87 season. Check it out (in the upper right corner).
kwame a. says
I completley agree with you Kurt about that ass clown Gary Payton. The real blame though has to go on Mitchy Kupcake for accepting the deal at all, he should of rescinded the trade, talked with Gary and let him know what Gary eventually figured out…he had no choice but to go to Boston. I saw a ton of Banks games his last year at UNLV and he has the speed of t.j. ford with less court vision, but a better jump-shot, and more importantly the ability to guard the point from 94 ft. out. Imagine a backcourt of Kobe and Banks, we’d be challenging for the 2 seed. Why is that man still employed as GM?
james says
I’m not sure Banks would make that much of a difference–it’s only been 6 games after all–but I sure wish the Lakers had him, and I’ve never understood why Kupchak agreed to amend the deal simply because Payton threatened to not report. Why not wait until that decision was final before making the change? Or make the change conditional–if Gary doesn’t report, the Lakers get Jumaine, but if he does, the Lakers get Banks. For all the criticism Mitch gets, this strikes me as his silliest move, which is remarkable, given that getting Mihm for Payton alone is a pretty good deal in my view.
Goo says
I too heard about the 3rd year of the Kwame deal being guaranteed already, I assume it was some sort of motivational technique of some sort..albeit a retardedly stupid one
P Henry says
WTF? Why would the Lakers garauntee his third year? Is it possible Pincus is wrong because I just don’t understand what the Lakers gain from that move. It makes zero sense and thus I’m leaning toward Pincus being incorrect.
Anonymous says
Heh, all the Lakers need is for a draft pick to die and they will be the 90’s Celtics with this front office. Good thing they caught Turiaf’s condition. I still see years of mediocrity for the future. At least maybe people will stop paying attention to the Lakers again so Raider Nation goes away.
Viva la 2008 plan!
john says
odd. kwame brown’s quote in the l.a. times is what pissed me off this morning. i’m pretty sure he’s too much of a moronic ass to be even serviceable now.
he couldn’t understand why phil took him out in the dallas game after he gave a whole lot of nuthin???
he truly believes that phil decides whether to yank him or not based on whether he makes or misses shots??? how many massive bricks has he put up this year and not been yanked????
my head exploded. if the boy is this freakin dumb, he’s hopeless.
there’s NO WAY the lakers guaranteed that third year already. probably some talk of it when he looked decent, but no way it was guaranteed. c’mon.
christian says
I’ve got to say this and I know that I haven’t posted anything in a while but trust me my eyes have been peeled to these pages. I read Eric’s articles all the time over on hoopsworld and for some reason I really don’t think that what he is saying will come to pass. I think that the man is very knowledgable but lol.. and I do mean but…. I really don’t think that I have read anything that he has wrote that has come to pass. At least I am almost sure that this has been evident about his trade rumors. I think that Kwame would be, eventually a very good back up to either bynum or… you know what I wouldn’t even put him at back up center I would put him at back up PF. I hope that the Lakers can have a better home stand then they did when they were on the road because if they don’t start winning then we will be looking at the number 10 pick in the lottery again next year. P.S. thanks Ghatino for maintaining the page when Kurt was on vacation and I am glad that you are back safe Kurt.
Kurt says
John, I agree that Kwame quote was just further evidence of how low a basketball IQ he has.
Christian, I just went to Hawaii, but thanks. I’m glad your safe and doing well, your situation means more to all of us.
tom says
I can’t say that Banks would’ve made a difference either. The triangle is a difficult system to florish under unless you’ve inside it for a while; Smush happened to get up to speed quicker than most others (probably because the NBDL team he was with instituted it); just look at McKie, who was supposed to be playing major minutes; he hasn’t played because of injury, but he also hasn’t played because of the fact that he can’t operate well within the triangle; Banks, who isn’t known to be the most intuitive of players, probably wouldn’t have adjusted very well to the triangle either.