But the Laker with a trade
chip on his shoulder is superstar Kobe Bryant, who lashed out at
management, saying, ''If they're going to do something, I wish they
would just (expletive) do it.''
''He's been the consummate
professional,'' Bryant said after the Lakers’ three-game win streak
ended. ''He's going out and he's trying to do what he can. But let's be
real. If you didn't know you were going to be here tomorrow, if your
head's on the chopping block and you feel like you're just waiting, it's
tough to put all of yourself in the game.''
Gasol trade rumors
began before the season when the Lakers thought they had shipped him to
New Orleans in deal that would have brought them Chris Paul.
Commissioner David Stern blocked the trade.
“It's hard for Pau
because of all this trade talk and stuff,'' Bryant said, bringing up the
subject without any prompting. ''It's hard for him to kind of invest
himself completely or immerse himself completely into games when he's
hearing trade talk every other day. I wish management would either come
out and either trade him or not trade him.''
Bryant said the
Lakers have the foundation for another run at the NBA title with Gasol,
who had 17 points and 12 rebounds in the loss to Phoenix — slightly
better than his season averages.
''It obviously starts with myself
and Pau and the emergency of Andrew (Bynum),'' Bryant said, ''but you
can't have one of our pillars not knowing if he's going to be here or
not. Do something. One way or another, do something. If they trade him,
at least you have some type of closure.''
Bryant, as usual, was
the last player to speak to reporters Sunday night. Gasol already had
left after talking about the game but mentioning nothing about a
potential trade.
''I talked to him a little bit about it,'' Bryant
said. ''It's just tough for a player to give his all when you don't
know if you're going to be here tomorrow. So I'd rather them not trade
him at all. If they were going to do something, I wish they would just
(expletive) do it. If they're not going to do it, come out and say
you're not going to do it. This way he can be comfortable, he can go out
and perform and he can play and he can invest all of himself in the
game.''
In addition to personnel roulette, another of this
season's popular NBA activities has been listing reasons the Lakers have
reached the predicament stage.
For starters, they're not quite as
defensive as first-year coach Mike Brown becomes when his preferred
style of play is accused of lacking in entertainment value. For the
record, that mighty triangle offense presided over by Phil Jackson
didn't exactly function through excessive speed or fancy maneuvers. But
when LA Times columnist T.J. Simers put Brown in the crosshairs
regarding the Lakers' reduced watchability, Brown's published responses
indicated this team would be built on defense.
Well, that perception's a bit exaggerated. Just ask Suns coach Alvin Gentry.
"Less
possessions," Gentry said when asked before tip-off to gauge the
Lakers' improved defensive prowess. "If there's less possessions, you
give up fewer points and you're thought of as being better defensively."
The
Lakers entered the game ranked fourth in points allowed per game
(90.7). They coughed up 95.4 in Jackson's last campaign (eighth in the
league), but what we really need to look at is points per 100
possessions, which gives us a team's defensive efficiency.
The
Lakers were sitting at 100.4 this season, compared with 104.3 last
season. Wow, an uprising of defense. But NBA offenses pretty much stink
across the board in this post-lockout hay ride, with the Lakers ranked
only 10th in defensive efficiency, compared with sixth in the final year
of the allegedly lax Phil era. And the only thing that matters in this
numbers crunch is how they stack up relative to the competition in a
particular season.
True, the Lakers still are pretty salty
defensively, but the offensive efficiency has slipped from sixth to
15th. That adds up to trouble. But the important question is why?
It's
not really moving from the triangle to a more conventional offense. The
pace is about the same. The fast-break-points ranking went from really
relatively bad (26th) to the league's worst (30th), and even with
All-Star center Andrew Bynum rising from seven to 12 shots per game,
points in the paint have fallen from fifth to 18th.
With the
ascending Bynum working the lane next to Gasol, you'd think the Lakers
would play more paint ball. But, well, that's Kobe, who’s taking three
shots a game more than last year.
After slapping 18 points on the
Suns in the third quarter of Friday's 111-99 win in LA, Bryant went 11
of 24 (including 1 of 8 from 3-point range) for Sunday's 32 points. He
also was bothered enough to commit 10 turnovers.
Moving Gasol for a
player or players who might supply certain qualities the Lakers are
perceived to be lacking could be much like robbing Peter to pay Paul.
(No, not Chris Paul.)
It also should be noted that while coaching
Cleveland to some regular-season glory in his final two seasons there,
Brown presided over a really efficient offense (ranking sixth two years
ago and fourth the year before that). Perhaps that efficiency had
something to do with LeBron James moving the ball around. Putting Mo
Williams alongside LeBron to knock in jumpers from the point guard
position didn't hurt, and it also served as proof that Brown doesn't
need an overtly drive-and-kick point guard, either.
He had a
primary ballhandler in Cleveland (LBJ), just like he has one in LA
(Kobe). In his offense, that should be enough. But in LA, he also has
the best two-headed low-post monster in the NBA.
"Gasol, arguably, is the best low-post player in the league," Suns forward Channing Frye said. "Well, next to Tim Duncan."
And, according to Brown, consistent focus from Bynum, who had 16 points and 10 boards, could make him "a dominant force."
Unfortunately,
Bynum occupied a seat on the Lakers' bench for the final 10 minutes
Sunday. Thanks to the Suns’ 35-19 first-quarter blitz, Bryant's
high-noon approach wasn't enough to pull LA to within striking distance.
So
Brown was forced to play Troy Murphy and Jason Kapono because they have
reasonable chances of making perimeter shots. As any Lakers fan worth
his Kobe jersey knows, Metta World Peace and Derek Fisher have been
stone cold all season.
The grinding, no-penetrating-point-guard
style Brown has used probably would be working a lot more smoothly if
Gasol and Bynum combined to average more than 25 attempts and the other
guys simply made more perimeter shots. Although Gasol has been operating
a bit farther away from the rim than in the past — his field-goal
percentage is down (.495), his attempts are about the same — he and
Bynum looked pretty efficient at times against the Suns.
"We just
didn't come out the right way," Gasol said. "They were more ready than
we were to come out and compete. The energy wasn't there, our minds
weren't there. We thought we could maybe get away with playing through
the motions and win at the end, but you can't."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
