The chum has been in the waters for days and as of the stroke of Wednesday (or, 9 p.m. out here on the West Coast) the free agent feeding frenzy begins. Like an actual feeding frenzy, the water is murky, there are sharks everywhere trying to get their piece, it’s really hard to tell who […]
Archives for June 2009
Thoughts on Ricky Rubio
A couple years ago I got to meet and hang out with Xavier, FB&G’s defacto European corrispondent, and at the time he said I needed to see more of this 16 year old named Ricky Rubio. Now, Rubio and his future plans are the talk of the NBA, and Xavier (a professional youth team coach) […]
Waiting For Godot. Or Free Agency.
Right about now basketball fans will listen to just about anything “to hold the terrible silence at bay.” So, here are a few thoughts to fill the void. • First, as is a bit of an annual caution, here is my primer on the trade and free agent rumors you will hear swirling over the […]
The End of the Bench
In the wake of our Lakers’ brilliant 2009 NBA Championship campaign and subsequent selling of draft picks, the league has sprung full-force into the off-season: Jefferson to the Spurs, Foye and Miller to the Wizards, Crawford to the Hawks, and most recently, Shaq to the Cavs, are just some of the big trades that have […]
Lakers Draft Day Trades Abound
In the first round, exactly what was supposed to happen, happened. The Lakers selected Toney Douglas, who very soon was traded to the Knicks for much needed cash (rumored to be $3 million) and a future second rounder (2011?). The second round, the Lakers took an American in the Ukraine — Patrick Beverley. Then, just […]
TrueHoop Network Live Draft Chat
TrueHoop Network NBA Draft Liveblog-O-Rama-Rama
Lakers Moves And Draft Day Fun
We all knew two things: 1) The player selected at 29 by the Lakers was not going to see any meaningful court time on a stacked Lakers roster; 2) The Lakers needed money to resign Trevor Ariza and Lamar Odom. So the deal that the Lakers apparently struck with the Knicks makes sense. ED Note: […]
Phil Jackson, Draft and Other Thoughts
It’s a cornucopia of stuff today. Let’s start with Phil Jackson’s announcement that he may want to take some road games off next season and let Kurt Rambis coach them. I will say that once I started working for NBCLA.com this season and being credentialed, one of the first things I really noticed is that […]
Can’t Lose Situation – Part II
We’ve talked finances. We’ve talked Lamar Odom. And despite these being very specific topics, Trevor Ariza is the guy whose name has come up in both of these conversations. This is a testament to his incredible importance to our team’s success and his tremendous contributions to our championship season. Yes, we are Kobe’s team. Yes, […]
Lakers Draft Thoughts
“We have three picks, and if we bring back the players we want to we’ll have at least 13 players on our roster. It stands to reason that we’d look to either move a pick, trade a pick, exchange picks for future picks or pick a player and look for them to play overseas for […]