Around The World (Wide Web): Barkley, Kobe-MDA, Pau, Adjustments

From Ryan Cole, Lakers Nation: Charles Barkley is widely known amongst Lakers fans for having a strong disdain for the the franchise and the team. He’s never been shy to mention how he feels about this team. In the summer he said that Dwight Howard did the right thing leaving Los Angeles because he felt that the Lakers are in no position to win now or in the immediate future. And on the eve before the start of the NBA regular season, he publicly blasted the Lakers on Monday Night Football by saying they wouldn’t come close to making the playoffs. Well Chuck was back at it again tonight when he joined Ric Bucher and Chris Townsend on 95.7 The GAME. He was asked about how he thinks the Lakers will fare with Kobe Bryant coming back. This is what he said: “The Lakers gonna stink with him, or without him,” Barkley said. “They’re not a good team, and they won’t be a good team.”

From David Murphy, Bleacher Report: For the first 19 games of the season, the Los Angeles Lakers’ Mike D’Antoni was having a field day with a team that might be described as a bunch of perfectly agreeable misfits—and then the Black Mamba returned. What will the relationship between D’Antoni and Kobe Bryant resemble for the rest of the season, partnership or power struggle? The eternal optimist would say the former—if these guys survived last year’s train wreck together, then this season should be a piece of cake. Bryant’s finally back on the court after a long layoff from a devastating injury, and now it’s time to rock! Or is it? A small difference of opinion recently materialized concerning the team’s record before Bryant’s return to action. It was enough to get people talking.

From Scott Howard-Cooper, NBA.com: There are the assumptions and the speculation, that the Kobe Bryant extension increases the possibility Bryant favorite Pau Gasol will get an offer to remain a Laker and that obviously he will jump at the chance because Gasol as a free agent, hat in hand, will be a sad sight. And then there is the reality: Gasol, he made clear to NBA.com, could be the one to decide to break up. While he is definitely interested in staying and his affection for the organization is obvious, the 33-year-old power forward about 6 1/2 months away from free agency said his hopes to win another championship will weigh heavily on what he does in July and possibly greater than the opportunity to stay in a familiar setting or even money. Especially since there may be another familiar setting out there.

From Dave McMenamin, ESPN LA: Nobody on the Los Angeles Lakers was kidding themselves by thinking Kobe Bryant’s return would suddenly vault them from a team flirting with .500 to a squad shooting straight for the top of the Western Conference standings. “Of course we want to win, but we definitely know it’s going to be different,” said Xavier Henryafter L.A.’s 114-108 loss to the Phoenix Suns Tuesday night at Staples Center, their second straight defeat since Bryant’s comeback. “Everybody in the world knows it’s going to be different.”