By: Justin Jacobs
The Super Bowl has come and gone and now many sports fans are trying to catch up with what the hell is going on in the rest of the sports world. If you are one of those fans then you have missed, well… a lot. The Lakers caught the NBA by surprise when they sent Kwame Brown and a couple of first round picks to Memphis for Pau Gasol. A trade which may end up making the Lakers a powerhouse in the West (more on that later). Not to be outdone Steve Kerr, the new GM of the Phoenix Suns, traded Suns’ star Shawn Marion along with Marcus Banks for Shaquille O’Neal. North Carolina is playing Duke in college hoops and Dick Vitale is back after having surgery on his vocal chords a couple of months ago, if that doesn’t get you fired up then you’re just not a real sports fan. Last but not least Texas Tech coach Bobby Knight quit this week after coaching college basketball for 42 years. You see my friends, we don’t need any stinking football, basketball is in full swing and it’s not even March!
I’ll be covering Bob Knight’s impromptu retirement and the Shaq trade in the days to come, but tonight let’s talk a little bit about the Los Angeles Lakers. As a fan of the Lake Show I have to say that this year has been a roller coaster ride. The year began with Kobe wanting out of town because he felt the front office wasn’t doing enough to make the Lakers viable to win a championship right now. Things got so bad in fact that people were saying that a trade with Chicago was imminent. Of course a trade with the Bulls never happened (sorry Chad), mostly because the Bulls couldn’t put a package together that the Lakers would accept and would leave the Bulls with enough to make Kobe waive his no trade clause.
As I said, the reason Kobe wanted to be traded was his disapproval with the talent level of the Lakers, but when the season began something became incredibly evident. The Lakers 20 year old center Andrew Bynum had taken his game the next level and was getting double-doubles almost every night. The emergence of Bynum as a second offensive option allowed Kobe to exert more energy on the defensive side of the ball and allowed Lamar Odom to worry less about scoring and revert back to the jack-of-all-trades that he had been most of his career. The Lakers looked to be one of the best teams in the league, much due to the emergence of Andrew Bynum.
Things went south for the Lakers when Bynum dislocated his left kneecap in Janurary which would put him on the bench for eight weeks. Without Bynum the underachieving Kwame Brown had to play major minutes at center and the Lakers just weren’t the same. Kobe started forcing the action and the losses started to pile up. It was starting to look like the Lakers would slip into mediocrity after their hot start, something that happened to LA last year as well, then the Lakers front office did what they had failed to do for the last couple years, they got Kobe a star.
I’m sure there are those of you out there who don’t know who Pau Gasol is. Well, the 27 year old forward out of Spain had averaged 19 points and 9 rebounds during the six years he played for the Grizzlies. Some question how Gasol will handle the big stage, and it’s a valid question, but you can’t blame LA for pulling the trigger on this deal. Having Gasol in the Lakers triangle offense gives Phil Jackson the good passing big man that can make the offense sing. When Bynum does return in about a month LA will have two seven footers in their frontcourt to complement Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom and Derek Fisher in the backcourt. This will make the Lakers tough on the glass and will give them a great high-low offense to compliment Kobe Bryant’s perimeter game.
So does the acquisition of Pau Gasol make the Lakers the favorite in the West? As much as my heart would like to say yes, I still have my doubts. No one knows how Bynum will handle having another star big man on the team. Will Kobe be able to become more of a facilitator of the offense instead of being THE OFFENSE? I’m sure the Spurs will be ready to make another strong playoff run this season. The West has become such a beast of a conference with the emergence of teams like New Orleans, Utah and Golden State, who knows what will happen in the playoffs? No, I’m not going to say the Lakers are now the front-runners in the Western Conference… however.
What excites me the most about this trade is how it will affect the Lakers in the years to come. LA now has one of the best players of all-time in his prime, two of the best forntcourt players in the league, and one of the best all-purpose players in basketball. You give Phil Jackson enough talent and he’s going to win a championship with that talent, he has nine rings that can attest to that. Yes, I’m getting ahead of myself here but I’m excited about the possibilities of this team, not only for this year but for years to come. The Lake Show has returned, I can’t imagine how excited Jack Nicholson is right now.
Update: As a Tar Heels fan I was sad to watch UNC fall to Duke tonight 78-89 at Chapel Hill. You have to give the Blue Devils credit, they can really hit the three. Hansbrough had a huge night for North Carolina scoring 28 and pulling down 18 boards, but the Tar Heels just couldn’t hit enough shots and turned the ball over too many times. Ty Lawson, North Carolina’s star point guard missed this game with a sprained left ankle. Something tells me the outcome would have been different had Lawson played. If nothing else it was nice to hear Dick Vitale announcing a college basketball game, hearing him call an ACC game made everything seem right in the world, if only for a couple of hours. Glad to have you back Dicky V.
-JJ
