One of the two off-season priorities for the Lakers was to get some more scoring punch out of the three spot, and it took all of one day to do that. The Lakers apparently have agreed in principle to sign Vladimir Radmanovic to a deal for the full MLE for five years (that starts at […]
News
Free Agency Opens
Right after midnight, Mitch Kupchak made a phone call or two. Not the kind of midnight phone call I used to make back in my single days after stumbling home from a bar, although I guess we were both looking for a little help. The Lakers are looking for help in two key areas from […]
Our condolences
As a parent, I can’t begin to imagine what Lamar Odom is going through right now. My heart goes out to him, his wife and his family. Odom has a foundation for children, if you want to make a donation I would think this is the appropriate place.
Draft results — initial thoughts
By the time the NBA draft ended — when Portland couldn’t find any more dance partners and Steven A. Smith was forced to shut up because the cameras were turned off — the Lakers ended up doing well in my mind with Jordan Farmar, a trade for veteran Maurice Evans and J.R., err, Danilo Pinnock. […]
Draft Open Thread
NBA draft day is about hope, about the promise of the future. Hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things. And a good thing never dies. For the Lakers, the hope is that a raw prospect at 26 this year could become a key cog in just a few seasons. That a gamble […]
Movin’ On Up?
Update: Well, really there is nothing to update. Mitch Kupchak talked with the media yesterday (you can read about it here or here) and said nothing new or exciting. He’d like to move up but doesn’t expect to. He said they would take the best player available at 26, but don’t expect said player to […]
A few weekend notes
Just clearing out the inbox a little. • I’ll make it more formal next week, but we’ll be doing a draft open thread here next Wednesday, paving the way for comments (and a little live blogging). The draft starts at 4:30 but it will be more like 6:45 or so by the time the Lakers […]
Sliders
No, this post is not about the Jerry O’Connell TV show (which I loved the first season or so of, but it went downhill after that). With less than a week before the draft it’s time to focus there. I’m talking about guys sliding down the draft board. Celtics Blog and Lowpost.net teamed up for […]
Congratulations Shaq
In some corners of Lakerdom today there is bitterness that Shaquille O’Neal went on to win a title in Miami, and to do it before Kobe got his. Not in my heart, however. I’m happy he cemented a well-deserved legacy as one of the games all-time great centers. What he did in Miami does not […]
Notes at 3 am
• One follow up note on Marcus Banks: in the comments on the post below Kevin Pelton reminded us that Dan Rosenbaum (now employed by an NBA team) came up with as good a defensive statistical metric as anyone ever has, and it ranked Banks as the second best defensive point guard in the league. […]