Retooling a Champion

I know it's kind of crazy to talk about the needed reconstruction of a back-to-back world champion, but I feel the need to. The Lakers are going to need to cement two glaring spots in their roster if they hope to end the 2010-2011 season with the insanely unprecedented accomplishment of Phil Jackson's fourth three-peat. And here are my hopes for those spots ...

We're losing quite a few locker room soldiers this offseason. Shannon Brown, Jordan Farmar, DJ Mbenga, Adam Morrison, and maybe Josh Powell are all likely to aim for a few more bucks than the Lakers are willing to pay for guaranteed back-up guys. I'm going to pencil in Derek Fisher for a return, but it's probably going to be at a reduced role for the first time if Mr. Buss' wallet has anything to say for it. The two needs that that leaves the champs with is a starting-caliber point guard as well as a wing who preferably is a knockdown shooter.

This two part checklist will have to be accomplished in tiers. We'll either have to snatch a top tier wing with the full midlevel exception and a lesser-noted PG with whatever pennies are left, or the other way around. For the wing position, the prime candidate is easily Mike Miller. And the Lakers for sure know that. The early word is they've already thrown $30 million at him and are trying to force him into an immediate agreement on it. It's easy to understand why, as Miller is probably one of the ten best long-range bombers in the league today, hitting 48% of his 3s last season with the Wizards. If he can stay healthy for the length of the season, an Artest/Miller wing combo next to Kobe Bryant is perfect for literally any individual situation. Next to Miller, I like T-Mac as a darkhorse candidate. If he's serious about wanting to win a fricking playoff series in his career, he just needs to sign with L.A. regardless of the money. If those guys happen to fall through, the 2A, 2B, and 2C options are guys like Raja Bell, Matt Barnes, and Anthony Morrow. If you can add a feared defensive specialist like Bell or Barnes in addition to Ron Ron, the Lakers can shut down any backcourt in the league. Any of these guys instantly add a far favorable stretch shooter who can get on the floor, unlike an Adam Morrison-type guy who is strictly a mop-up player. Who cares if Kobe innately hated these competitors when he matched up opposite against them?

Tier 1: Mike Miller, Tracy McGrady
Tier 2: Raja Bell, Matt Barnes, Anthony Morrow

Or L.A. could go a different direction with the MLE and offer it all to try and steal Steve Blake. Although the guy seems to be a guaranteed candidate to change teams darn near every single year, he's the kind of younger, heady veteran who could pick up the Triangle Offense pretty quickly and flourish specifically in that lead guard role. He's a tad taller at 6-3, which is what Phil prefers, and he just makes solid decisions with his 3-point shot and passing ability. He's a guy who's only averaged double figure points once in his career, but he's still a highly coveted player due to him having a seemingly perfect game to be the heir to Derek Fisher's place with the future Kobe Bryant era Lakers. The next group of potential point guards include Earl Watson and Luke Ridnour. Earl is completely deferential and as strong a defensive presence at the 1 as you will find, while Luke is the creative plug-in point who would hopefully nestle into a comfort zone since he wouldn't need to force the action as much as he previously did with Seattle and Milwaukee. After that, we might have to try to squeeze whatever is left from Gilbert Arenas' shooting partner for minimum money.

Tier 1: Steve Blake
Tier 2: Earl Watson, Luke Ridnour
Tier 3: Javaris Crittenton, anyone else

If only to fill out the league's required roster minimum, the Lakers might have to pick up their 2010 second round draft picks, Devin "Guy Who Ruined UK's Season" Ebanks and Derrick "UL Flunky" Caracter. And regardless of if we may have to look into flipping Lamar Odom for either cap relief or completely unforeseen available talent, I'm inclined to believe that the 2011 season will be another banner year for the Los Angeles Lakers. Phil Jackson wouldn't let it happen any other way.

... and do the John Wall.

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2010 Los Angeles Lakers

I'm so ready for basketball season.

... but do take my word for it.

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Part Eight: Stagnant Additions

And I can’t lie; we actually flipped some nice pieces. After jumping ship on the expired Clippers, we signed our first kinda high profile free agent in Vladimir Radmanovic. The last couple of seasons he’d been lighting it up, albeit purposelessly, in Seattle before being traded as an expiring contract. But we booked him on a full midlevel exception contract (over $5 million a season), even though we had an all-too-similar player at the same position in Brian Cook. Oh well. Then we got the uber-athletic wingman Maurice Evans for a second round pick which was used on one of those 7-foot, 180 pound prospects from like Malaysia or Zimbabwe who is never heard from or mispronounced ever again. While those were at least psyche updates for the fans as we were desperate for any kind of visible on-court difference makers, the city of Los Angeles got a hometown boost in the form of drafting the diminutive and ethnically confusing (plus super-eared) UCLA legend Jordan Farmar. While tons of teams passed him off with little regard, the Lakers saw in him an underrated athlete who could play at the right pace for a triangle offense team with an improving jump shot. Moreover, he was a born winner who nearly led the Bruins back to another championship even though the shadow of John Wooden has left them irrelevant to the rest of the basketball world since the ‘70s. Sorry L.A., I’m a diehard Laker fan but the lures of the city aren’t even a fraction of what it would it would take for me to avert my gaze away from the innately better Kentucky Wildcats. That’s just not happening. No dice.

A sucky, yet somewhat convincing, plea had erupted out of the Laker faithful after the unfortunate loss to the Suns this past offseason. People retroactively were disgruntled that Caron Butler was well on his way to becoming a perennial All-Star contender while we were stuck with “Butterfingers” Brown (the least profane nickname I could think of) and the seemingly inconsistent and underachieving Lamar Odom. Everyone appreciated LO’s insane skill set, but it was almost unbelievable that he’d never accomplished a single All-Star bid. It downright pissed some people off. Lamar could literally do anything on the basketball court (besides hit his free throws). His handles were something of legend, probably better than any player ever given a 6’ 10” body frame to work with. He was the most willing and deftest passer of any forward the league had seen since Chris Webber in his prime. His three-pointing shooting (even if only to me) had become a statistical victory cigar as a hit from long range was darn near a guarantee on a “W”. He had even become the most underrated dominant rebounder in the game. Even if it were simply out of necessity because of the lack of any other frontcourt presence, Lamar would regularly record rebounding stretches of 16 to 19 boards a game. He could lead a fast break, he could take nearly any defender off the dribble, he was deceptively strong, he was beyond agile, he was no longer a troublesome locker room presence, and people genuinely liked him. Yet somehow he managed to attain such a level of inconsistency and passiveness that he had no individual accolades to show for it and people were willing to trade him.

The common names that came up in trade discussions were the then hot-commodities Peja Stojakovic and Ron Artest. Dreams of Kobe drawing countless defenders and kicking it out to Peja every other possession for an always-swishing three ball ruled fan’s fantasies. Just as soon as the doomed 2004 season, Peja was in the MVP discussion due to his visually dominating floor game, something Lamar was never envisioned to fill out and attain. And then there was the case of Ron Ron. The regularly crowned Defensive Player of the year was cementing his reputation as an uncontrollable head case just coming off of his season-long suspension for inciting and street fighting in the brawl at the Palace. But basketball fans have short memories and are very forgiving when it comes to adding potential assets to their team. Dreams were equally filled with visions of Kobe & Ron creating the strongest defensive presence on the wing since Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen or even the tandem of Dennis Rodman and Joe Dumars when they were called on to frustrate the opposition beyond recognition. Even an alternate trading candidate was mentioned in Andrei Kirilenko, but the equally versatile Utah swingman was held in such high regard at the time that it was seen as impossible to ever pry him from the Jazz’s fingers. In the end, even though rumors were never quelled and new scenarios were concocted on the regular, the Lakers wound up sticking with Kobe’s current sidekick. No one knows if it was because of the front office’s never-ending faith in the curious forward or if trade partners never accepted a deal or even if there was a super secret snag in ongoing negotiations, but regardless, Lamar was retained. Stojakovich and Artest were indeed later traded (for each other, in fact) and subsequently left both of their respective new teams after free agency once dealt anyways, so the respective pairings are forever to be relegated to “what ifs” and dream scenarios. [Insert from the future: *wink wink*]

[to be continued]

... but do take my word for it.

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