Some quick hitting links today…
- At practice on Monday, Kobe essentially said it’s time for the Lakers to pick up the pace: “It’s a marathon. You see the finish line, you tend to pick up the speed a little bit.” Here’s hoping they make their push with a tough schedule to end the year.
- Something that will help the Lakers play better ball in the closing months is the return of Matt Barnes. The Lakers’ swing man practiced on Monday.
- As Barnes starts to make his comeback, though, Andrew Bynum says that he’s still not quite all the way back after his surgery.
- Injuries or not, the games do start tonight with Atlanta coming to town. Over at Land O’ Lakers, Andy Kamentzky has tonight’s contest as his game of the week: “But ultimately, Atlanta gets top honors because it’s the first game immediately following the All-Star Break and a three-game skid low-lighted by an unthinkable loss to the Cavaliers. Lakers fans, not to mention the Lakers themselves, will be looking for quick signs the ship has been righted. No better time than the first opportunity to begin easing minds. The longer the wait, the worse it gets for all involved. The time for identity rediscovery is long past “nigh.””
- Before we move forward, one last look back at Kobe’s Sunday performance as Sekou Smith tells us that Kobe’s not passing the torch just yet. And while we’re here, as a bonus you get a breakdown of all 4 ASG MVP performances by #24.
- Around the rest of the league, the long saga of the Carmelo Anthony trade is now over with the Nuggets and Knicks finally making a deal. The details of the deal are here.
- While this deal gives the Knicks more of the star power they seek and offers a player better than any of the ones the jettisoned, questions are still abundant. How good are the Knicks now? Are they contenders? Will they play any defense? Did this deal limit the Knicks upside? Who’s next to be traded and can the Knicks possibly land another big time player down the line?
Archon says
As a fan it annoys me when Bynum says “he’s not all the way back”. You can’t say that when you delayed getting surgery in the offseason to party. I didn’t like it when Shaq was playing those games, and compared to Shaq, who’s Bynum?
Now I like Bynum, I think he’s a competitor and probably a good teammate but sometimes I wonder if he truly loves basketball and if he’s willing to put the time in to be a great (and healthy) player.
These are questions the Lakers brass needs to start asking themselves as they continually turn down progressively better and better offers for Bynum.
Busboys4me says
Darius
Last paragraph, first sentence. Should it be “start power” or “star power”?
DrewPauKobe says
It’s like Mike D’Antoni just HATES guys who play defense. Here’s guessing he really hated playing defense himself.
Well, Carmelo and Amar’e are the absolute perfect players for his team. Have fun being a “terrible good” team Knicks.
MannyP says
The Knicks are a joke. Sure, with a Melo-Amare tandem they will score 110 points every game, but with their “defense” their opponents will always out-score them by 20 points per game.
Darius Soriano says
#2. Fixed. And, thank you. It’s the simple mistakes that kill me most. Ha.
kwame a. says
I like the fact our schedule will be tough down the stretch. Playoff mode starts now, what this team is trying to do is unprecedented, 4 straight titles and the media whines about 3 game losing streaks…
R says
Archon @ 1 – ” … Lakers brass … as they continually turn down progressively better and better offers for Bynum.”
Oh?
Do tell.
Tell of the offer(s) the Lakers have received for ‘drew.
Seriously.
I’m curious.
kwame a. says
* trips to the title….hopefully 3 straight titles
Darius Soriano says
Bynum is one of the Lakers that consistently tells the media *exactly* what’s on his mind. So, when he says that he’s not all the way back I think he’s speaking honestly with no agenda. I don’t think you could say that about Shaq (or many other players, for that matter).
As for him not loving the game, I don’t see how this situation speaks to that at all. The guy works in the off-season and tries to continuously improve his game. He’s successfully come back from multiple leg injuries – I’m not sure how you do that unless you’re willing to work hard or don’t have a love of basketball.
As for the offers, is it even clear that there was an offer of Melo for Bynum? At this point, it’s not. As I said at the time, that seemed much more like a ploy from the Nuggs and/or Melo’s camp to try and get the Knicks to up their offer. As you can see from the deal that went down last night, a second team (in this case the Nets) was needed in order to give the Nuggs the leverage they needed to get an offer they could live with. Subsequent reports and even the report at the time stated that there was never an offer on the table between the Nuggets and Lakers so why do we continue to cite the initial report that some sort of offer or negotiations were in place when that wasn’t the case?
Archon says
I concede that I might be misinformed but I read that the Lakers could have had Chris Bosh for Bynum in 2010 and Carmelo Anthony for Bynum in 2011. I agree that Denver used that partially for leverage to extract a better deal out of New York and maybe it never got past “preliminary” but reports were the Lakers brass turned down that deal out of hand (and the deal for Bosh two years ago).
To your second point, I agree that he has come back from multiple knee injuries but to me that doesn’t suggests he loves basketball but rather it suggests he wants to play basketball for a living. I just feel that someone who LOVED basketball would have got surgery as soon as possible to be ready for the regular season and prove from the get-go he was 100 percent.
When you already have a rep for not being healthy you don’t put off surgery, miss 30 games then tell people your still not ready. I respect the honesty but that still doesn’t mean I can’t be critical of his choice. Reasonable people can disagree but the fact Bynum didn’t do that is a red flag to me in regards to his “love of basketball”.
exhelodrvr says
Bynum not being all the way back could be good or bad. Hard to say at this point.
Zephid says
4, Here’s the thing though; it’s not as if they’re stuck with D’Antoni. His contract very conveniently ends year after next season, the same year that Chris Paul, Deron Williams, and Dwight Howard all become free agents. Imagine if the Knicks let D’Antoni go and hire a defensive-minded coach, like Jeff Van Gundy (again).
Defense is about effort and a willingness to compete. Guys like Lebron and Wade were terrible defenders before they teamed with Kobe on the Redeem Team and saw greatness up close and personal. Paul Pierce and Ray Allen were horrendous defenders until KG and Tom Thibodeau lit the fire under their asses (probably via KG deaththreats). So it’s not a stretch to say that Amar’e and Carmelo can learn defense, under a defensive minded coach.
This is the rebuilding process. They still have to put some pieces around Melo and Amar’e, but those two can form the central core of a championship team. Throw in Billups, who is one of the top 10 PG’s in the league, and you have a team which is really only missing a decent starting center from competing, which is more than the Heat can say, since they need both a decent starting center and a decent starting PG.
I don’t think they’ll be able to contend for a championship as long as D’Antoni is coach, but the Knicks can easily make a change year after next.
DY says
For better or worse, Carmelo has cast his lot with a 6’9″ big man who has had multiple surgeries on his knees, and had his retina detached. Oh, and that Amare guy has a contract for five years should any of the aforementioned body parts give out on him again.
I live in the NJ/NY market so it should be nice to see them play, but as a whole, and because they are in such a top-heavy conference, I just don’t see how this propels them above the Celts, Heat, Bulls, Magic. Also, they literally have no center. God bless Turiaf, but he’s not a starting caliber center. Plus, Turiaf is constantly injured. That means Amare, who does not like playing center, is essentially their center. Then that means they are left with Shawne or Shelden Williams at the PF, or even Carmelo at the PF spot.
I’m glad that Melo leaves the West and the Nuggets. That leaves one less team to deal with from the Lakers standpoint. Thank goodness the Melodrama is finally over. And Bynum can finally sigh…at least until the Dwight Howard and Deron Williams rumors begin in earnest next year… 🙂
Darius Soriano says
#10. Kobe delayed his surgery so he could go to the World Cup as well. I’m pretty sure none of us have questioned his love of the game.
This isn’t to say that Bynum should be immune from criticism for certain things. But, I’ve always felt that he gets a bad rap for being a slow-ish healer while not getting enough credit for coming back in instances when he’s clearly not been 100%. It’s tough to have it both ways, you know?
Also, I think we should also point out that no one knew that Bynum was going to have the more complex surgery until at the time he was under the knife. From what I’ve read, the doctor – while performing the operation – realized he could reattach the frayed part of his meniscus rather than just shaving it off and decided with the procedure that would be better for Drew long term. I think we were all frustrated that this procedure then forced a longer recovery period but if this helps him long term I’d say it was worth it.
Darius Soriano says
The game preview is up:
http://www.forumblueandgold.com/2011/02/22/preview-and-chat-the-atlanta-hawks-6/
R says
The whole Bynum surgery thing was dissected in agonizing detail a while ago, on this very FB&G.
Part of the back story was the surgeon had a hand in delaying the operation due to his/her own scheduling issues and then the procedure itself ended up being more complex (per Darius, above). In any event, I’d call it “water under the bridge” now.