From Mark Medina, LA Times: Throughout his rehabilitation process, Lakers forward Matt Barnes has understood the fine line between pushing up the intensity toward healing his surgically repaired right knee and putting himself at further risk. But his might be one of those times when his desire to come back quickly has gotten the best of him. “No,” Coach Phil Jackson said Thursday when asked if the team’s medical staff supports Barnes’ timetable. “I appreciate his intensity and his wanting to come back, but I’ll talk to Matt tomorrow about it. I haven’t really talked to him about it yet. I’d hate to say anything, but we’re still saying, ‘Let’s be patient.’ We’re not in dire need now.”
From Andy Kamenetzky, Land O’ Lakers: Man alive! Has this been a crazy 24-48 hours or what? Kobe Bryant said during Thursday’s practice it’s the most active trade deadline day he can recall, and it’s hard to argue. Some pretty big names have swapped unis, and the NBA looks awfully different now. Well, except for the Lakers, who stood pat. Whether because of confidence, a lack of options or both, save perhaps a free-agent big man to play the “Theo Ratliff” role, the team that beat Portland Wednesday is the team that will defend its title. How does today’s zaniness affect that quest, or simply reshape the Western Conference? Let’s take a look at some of the major deals.
From Mark Medina, LA Times: Even through all the injury uncertainty, the Lakers have maintained a long and steadfast view that they shouldn’t trade center Andrew Bynum for one reason. Size. It’s an advantage few teams have in the NBA and it’s a huge reason why the Lakers have been through three consecutive Finals appearances. Heck, even when Bynum played a limited role during the Finals against Boston last season because of torn cartilage in his right knee, he altered and blocked shots, intimidated players from driving into the lane, provided close shots and rebounds, and gave an occasional breather to Pau Gasol.
From Royce Young, The Daily Thunder: Oklahoma City, who by all appearances was set to have another quiet deadline, just jumped up and made some noise. Not a little noise. Some serious noise. As in the Thunder just went from mild contender and likely second-round exit to a team people are legitimately afraid of. It took making a tough decision in sending out well-loved Jeff Green and center Nenad Krstic to Boston for Kendrick Perkins and Nate Robinson. Upon first hearing about it, I had no idea what to think. Picturing this Thunder team without Uncle Jeff just didn’t seem possible. But once my attachment to him subsided, I was excited. OKC is now a contender. Like a for real contender. Like a team that could potentially win now. No more of this wait until next year stuff. Wait until now. Because the Thunder is scary good.
From Breen Murphy, Clippers Blog: When Baron Davis arrived in Los Angeles almost three years ago, he was supposed to be the harbinger of a new era for the Clippers. He had just taken the almost equally pathetic Golden State Warriors to consecutive winning seasons and with a real big man in Elton Brand, he would be the bearded and smiling face of that change. People would be able to look back in the annals of Clipper history and pinpoint exactly when it was that the Clippers turned it around. Baron still may be able to be that marker, that Black Swan event that everyone rationalizes post-facto, but it won’t be in the way that he initially hoped.
From Rahat Huq, Red94: A lot of thoughts right now. First off, today has been one of the worst days in the history of Red94. The trade deadline–the biggest day of the NBA season–and the server decides to go out. I’m working to get this situation fixed so I apologize for all of the problems this week. This was downright embarrassing. Onto the trades: I wrote earlier this morning of my thoughts on what was then just a rumor in the Battier-Thabeet swap. I like it. Shane was a guy who was out the door this summer, most likely, so it’s a plus to get anything out of him. Yes, we’re out of the playoff race, and yes, this wasn’t the mega-blockbuster that had Shane and 3/4 of our roster going to NOLA for CP3, but scenarios like that were wholly unrealistic to begin with
Chownoir says
Phillip, the Land O Lakers link is broken.
Darius Soriano says
#1. I’ve fixed the link. Thanks for the heads up.
chibi says
I think the Perkins addition helps the Thunder win more games. The Ibaka/Perkins frontline will permit their perimeter defenders to gamble a bit more and create transition opportunities, while their big men anchor the defense and provide shotblocking.
Contrary to what many pundits have said, I believe the Lakers have an even more favorable match-up with OKC this year, because the the Thunder sacrificed their troublesome speed, flexibility, and spacing.
OKC’s true weakness is their poor halfcourt offense. This trade did nothing to address that. Even if Perkins does have something of a back-to-the-basket game(and I’m sure he’s more talented in this area than others give him credit for), they don’t have the spacing to take advantage of it.
If they run into the Lakers again, they’ll struggle to get out into transition. The tempo will slow down and they will be ground into hamburger meat.
Zephid says
3, agreed, I’m not that worried about OKC in the playoffs. Russell Westbrook is terrible in half court offense, and he’ll be even worse since Kobe will be giving him the Rondo treatment.
Not saying it’ll be easy, but Durant is going to have to go nuclear to beat us in the playoffs. And if Ron Artest can regain his form that he had in last year’s playoffs against OKC, they’ve got no shot.
Chownoir says
I brought up the Troy Murphy possibility in previous threads but it got overwhelmed by all the trades.
Hopefully this doesn’t fall under trade speculation as he’s supposed to be bought out and all the contenders are going after him for min salary.
What are people’s thoughts on whether or not Lakers will make a run at him or how he would fit this late into the season and what factors would affect his decision on what team he chooses.
John Morris says
Not a big fan of Troy Murphy.
James says
dunno about you guys, but i think these might be the most competative playoffs ever this year, in the west every team i think will be super good apart from Denver. i see Portland and the Hornets improving with Landry and Wallace joining, Memphis is on a roll and now has battier. OKC has Perk. We seriously need second seed for home court
JB says
Murphy is part banger and part stiff in my book, but he does have a decent outside jumper that could be nice for floor spacing in the half-court. I’m getting really tired of watching teams pack the paint against the Lakers.
Then again, if the wing players could start hitting threes again, it’ll open up the middle.
Also, watching Ron resurrect his season to an extent last game, I’m wondering if Phil told him not to look for offense like he used to do with Rodman. Anyone else remember this? Rodman would average 3 points and 17 boards a night during the regular season, then suddenly in the playoffs, as teams doubled off him to cover Jordan/Pippen, he’d be sinking Js left and right. I think one season he averaged 11 or 12 ppg in the playoffs.
Or maybe he just got healthy after resting up for the All-Star break. Or, more depressingly, maybe it was just a fluke.
I’m still going with the “playing possum/dinged up” theory though.
Aaron says
Bostons front office is just so smart. If they waited any longer people woould realize Perkins is a shadow of his former self. Here is another bit of info for you. Aside from the eye test… Which shows Perkins doesn’t have legs anymore, the other stats show how much he has fallen as a player. The celtics were 33 and 10 this season without Perk… And only 4-3 with him as a starter. The guy tore every ligament in his knee last year. Its amazing he made it back to the NBA. Not many have after his type of injury. The celtics managment is spectacular. They couldn’t even play Perkins in the 4th this year. They picked big baby over him. Even Shaq has been better than Perkins. The one weakness the Celtics had was athleticism. Green goes from a team that had a ton of athletes to a team where he is the only one. The guy was averaging 15 ppg on a team with Durante and Westbrook, and scoring isn’t even what he does best. Perkins now wil, be the back up Center in OKC behind Nazr.
MannyP says
Pete Rose is available. I say we pick him up. 🙂
Darius Soriano says
The game preview is up.
http://www.forumblueandgold.com/2011/02/25/preview-and-chat-the-los-angeles-clippers-8/
AusPhil says
Just read the most recent Simmons. And the last few paragraphs (about the Perkins deal) reminded me how much I can enjoy reading his stuff, despite the Laker-hate, despite the Kobe-baiting, despite all of that.
Because in the end he’s a fan. Not a journalist. He wears his heart on his sleeve, and it’s just a shame for us Laker fans that his heart is green.
As for the Lakers post-deadline – surely there are better options than Murphy who’ll get bought out. IF we need to add a piece (and I think that’s a pretty big “if”), I’m not sure Murphy is that piece.
kwame a. says
Aaron- I think OKC picked up Perk to start him, no need for the hyperbole. And I think he will help them. Savior-no, but he will help them. Green was losing tons of time to Ibaka anyway, and his skill set on that team I think can be “replacement level” sufficient.
We need to whoop the Clips, if only because after they beat they (as they usually do) acted like it was game 7 of the finals. Put them in their place tonight. Where is my favorite Clipper fan John R. Do any of you guys remember him?
Darius Soriano says
#13. Oh my. John R. I bet I can pull some of the archived comments if you want to remember all the glorious rants.
The Dude Abides says
12. Totally agree on the Simmons column. Really good stuff. And to make an NBA-MLB analogy, one of my favorite Dodger teams was the 2004 team that was running away with the division on GREAT relief pitching, decent starting pitching, very good defense, good hitting, and a close-knit, family-type clubhouse atmosphere (sure, we know now that the team was fueled by steroids, but so was everybody else).
Then the GM traded away the all-star catcher and clubhouse leader, the best 8th inning setup relief pitcher in baseball, and the average hitting but very good defensive right fielder. In return they got a starting pitcher with a red-flag injury history (who blew out his arm in his 2nd start for LA and missed the rest of the season), plus a catcher who didn’t want to be here. The day after that, the GM traded away the team’s best lefty reliever and its speedy, base-stealing left fielder for minor league non-prospects. Their fragile 7th inning reliever, who had been handled gingerly by the manager, suddenly had to pitch more than one inning per game and pitch in back to back games as the 8th inning guy. He blew out both his arm and knee and was done for his career. Because of the lack of viable setup men, their ace closer eventually had to be used in the 8th inning of almost every appearance and his fastball dropped about 8 MPH by the end of the season, and he then blew out his arm early in the next season and was never the same again. They did hold onto the division, but because of the trade, the East Division winner passed them in the standings, and they had to play #1 St. Louis in the division series without home field advantage and got drummed out 3-1.
IMO, Boston was the favorite to win the NBA championship before the Perkins trade. Now? They’ll be lucky to even get out of the East, and they’ll be doomed in the Finals if they play the Lakers.
kwame a. says
Dude Abides- I am introducing my brother in law to your namesake tonight (hopefully after a big laker win and several white russians)
The Dude Abides says
Kwame, that could mean a lot of things. Did you introduce him to Jeff Bridges, Jeff Dowd, or the movie?