Basketball may be on vacation, but the cyber press corp’s got you covered. Darius wrote about Dwight Howard’s offense and how it helps the Lakers, and Emile wrote about the Lakers way, and how we got here. The D-12 trade continues to be a lead story as well it should, given the length of time it took to gestate. There’s other news around the league of course, including Mark Cuban’s continued tomfoolery. But that’s not all!
Brian Kamenetzky at the Land O’Lakers looks at expectations for Coach Mike Brown. In a related post, he interviews the coach.
Derek Fishmore has the Silver Screen & Roll roundtable, on the biggest risks facing this season’s Lakers.
Kevin Ding at the OC Register has the story of how the Dwight Howard deal almost never was.
Kelly Dwyer at Ball Don’t Lie expounds on the same subject matter.
Mark Medina at the L.A. Times, writes that Devin Ebanks waited until after the Dwight Howard trade to sign so that he wouldn’t be one of the chips. Smart kid.
Broderick Turner at the L.A. Times takes a look at the upgraded Lakers bench.
A very nice Tumblr piece from Holly MacKenzie, about growing up and how she became an NBA writer.
Trey Kirby at The Basketball Jones says Eric Spoelstra just knew the Lakers would land Dwight eventually.
Also from the Basketball Jones, Jeff Weiss about his post-Dwight Lakers fandom.
And finally, an interesting article by Sean Highkin for Hardwood Paroxysm, about the rookie extension and the race against times.
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If I was a smarter and more efficient assembler of links, I’d… be more smarter and faster at it. But I’m not. I always have good and practical intentions, and then I read a few dozen articles and all of their links… and all of their links. And by the time I’m done it’s time for either lunch or a nap. Or both. As you might have guessed by now, I just don’t have a good exit plan today. *voice inside my head – stop typing now, Dave.
Jim C. says
Great article today here on the Bryant/Bynum relationship as compared to the Shaq/Kobe relationship.
http://20secondtimeout.blogspot.com/
inwit says
The funniest thing Cuban said recently was that it is actually a good thing Deron Williams didn’t sign with the Mavs because they are better positioned now to move forward that they would have been if he signed with them!
Tell it to Dirk!
harold says
Thanks to you, I don’t have to go through a ton of meaningless posts to find stuff that is interesting. 🙂
Now that I have about 10 tabs open… will be back in a while 🙂
Robert says
It was destiny
http://www.tvspots.tv/video/19662/
exhelodrvr says
3) Harold,
That’s why you should just go straight to my posts!
Warren Wee Lim says
Mark Cuban is just sourgraping. I like the OJ Mayo signing, the Darren Collison maneuver from Indy… even “German” Chris Kaman is a good fit. However, he’s fooling himself if that team is better than how he imagined it to be.
inwit says
If Dwight signs a new contract with the Lakers and CP3 does with the Clippers, then Cuban broke up a championship team for nothing. Of course you have to take chances (as the Lakers have with Dwight) to build a great team, but I felt like he had a moral obligation to keep the championship team together for another run. They have added some good pieces, but will it become a real team?
Same question applies to the Lakers though.
Aaron says
7)
Cuban didn’t break up a championship team. He broke up a team that won the championship the year before. They had zero chance of beating the Heat, Thunder, or even the Lakers last year.
lil pau says
Can you imagine what it must be like for Mavs season ticket holders? Cuban breaks up a championship team and slashes payroll in contemplation of a superteam that never happens, then tries to spin things in a ridiculous and patronizing way. Given how low the payroll is on that team, and how inferior the product is compared to a couple of years ago, I’d expect some kind of rebate– after all, I would expect to pay more if team salaries went up, so why wouldn’t it be true in reverse?
I feel so lucky that the team I love values winning so highly and has the interest and ability to remain competitive all the time. What Mitch has done with the contracts on the current roster is really brilliant– he’s found a way to optimize Kobe’s last couple of years, while giving the team two alternatives – both great ones – for the future: either to build around Howard or to slash all payroll and start anew like OKC did. If it’s the first option – which I suspect it will be unless Howard flames out or wants to take an unprecedented paycut to play in Brooklyn next year – Mitch will have done the unthinkable (at least to any team other than the Lakers) which is to segue from a championship level team built around an all-world player to a still quite good playoff team with the ideal nucleus in place to construct the next generation of champions by filling in around him.
What other team has managed to segue from one championship squad to another without being terrible in between? Not the 21-61 Boston Celtics of Pierce’s early years!
inwit says
The distinction doesn’t really matter, Aaron. Cuban complains about Jason Kidd showing no loyalty, but what example did he set?
Darius Soriano says
A new post is up.
http://www.forumblueandgold.com/2012/08/23/lakers-countdown-at-6/
exhelodrvr says
He did break up a championship team – it started a year ago, when they didn’t keep Barea and Chandler. This off-season was just a continuation of that.
Chris J says
By Aaron’s definition above, it’s literally not possible to ever “break up a championship team” since no team is officially crowned a champion until a season has ended.
If a “team that won the championship the year before” isn’t a champion, what is?
Aaron says
Cuban was not upset that Kidd left… He was upset he said he was staying in the AM and left in the PM.
A championship team is a team that is capable of winning a championship. The Mavs were not capable of winning a championship in my opinion and the Mavs front offices opinion. Actually I’m pretty sure there wasn’t a analyst who thought the Mavs could repeat.
Kevin_ says
Cuban definitely broke up a championship team. It backfired that he took that risk to get Dwight and D-Will this summer.
I’m almost sure if he kept Chandler a roster with Dirk/Chandler/Marion and his hometown would be more appealing to Deron than a Joe/Wallace/Brook team.
Cuban tried to create a super team and it blew up in his face. HA!
harold says
Well, that’s a bogus way to define a championship team, especially one like the Mavs who nobody thought would win it all that year.
Technically, then, the Mavs NEVER had a championship team!
And exactly what odds do you have to have to be a ‘championship team?’
Kevin_ says
harold: Dallas just won a ring with an all time great playoff run from one of the best players of his generation. You can’t break that team up. Cuban should have kept key pieces of that team together. Nobody wouldn’t have faulted him for letting Barea go but resigning Chandler was a must.
Look at who won the titles this year. The LA Kings weren’t favored as a 8 seed but they bonded, won it and are bringing their players back for another run at it. The STL Cardinals brought back the same group (Pujols decided to leave), NY Giants weren’t considered a championship team week 16 but they got hot and won it all.
I can’t think of a team that won a ring and the owner decided to break them up.
inwit says
Other than the 1998 Chicage Bulls.