The Los Angeles Lakers are 26-11 and sit atop the Western Conference for at least the next nine hours and eight minutes. By then the Suns will have beaten the Clippers and reclaimed sole possession of first place.
With the loss of Andrew Bynum for the next eight weeks the Lakers may look back on these 24 hours as their last taste of first place for this season. Thursday night's game against the Suns at Staples has lost a lot of it's luster. Three days ago the game had the potential of being a milestone game for the emerging Lakers.
With Bynum now on the shelf the Lakers will be reminded of just how far they are from becoming the best in the West. Don't be surprised if this year's Laker team starts to resemble last year's team.
All hope isn't lost in Lakerdom. Bynum's injury could have been much worse. The fact that he won't have to go under the knife is reason enough to exhale. But with the 10th best team in the West only 6.5 games out of the top spot the Lakers can't just coast along and count the days until Bynum's return. It isn't unrealistic to see the Lakers drop out of the top eight after they return from their nine-game road trip that starts Jan. 31.
The two-for-one trade of Maurice Evans and Brian Cook for Trevor Ariza gave the Lakers a luxury the team has sorely lacked for years—an open roster slot. Teams hate waiving players to make room for new ones. It's not because they have emotional ties to the player they are waiving. It's because they have financial ties.
No owner—excluding Paul Allen, James Dolan, and Mark Cuban—enjoys writing a check to a player that either isn't on the team, or worse, is playing for another team.
For a team like the Lakers that's already over the luxury tax, an additional salary costs them twice the amount of what the player is making. That's of no significance when the player you sign is good and can contribute. But when that player is used as a practice dummy and spends more time in street clothes than in a uniform, it's not worth the money to bring them in.
With that in mind, the Lakers have to use their open roster slot to bring in a serviceable big man to help the team while Bynum is recovering. Bynum's recovery might take eight weeks but it will take him at least 7-10 games to get his timing back and to get over the fear of re-injuring himself. Nobody would be surprised if Jackson tried to ease Bynum back into the lineup by bringing him off the bench and waiting until the week before the playoffs start before putting him back in the starting lineup.
Which big men are available either by trade or free agency? Here's the list in the order of probability:
1) DJ Mbenga
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11 months ago
Very good analysis of the current Lakers situation.
My Fav 5 are real similar. I really thought C Web was the man, but Mitch doesn't see it my way.
So that brings us to MBenga, not as 'sexy' as Weber. but is probally what the Lakers really need between the Kwame - Mihm - Bynum transition. A guy who can play 10 minutes, rebound, block some shots, even if he doesn't know what a triangle is.
Thomas in a trade from Seattle for Kwame, made some sense actually before Drewski went down, but now we are stuck with Kwame for the rest of the year, me thinks. I'm afraid its our destiny to always have Kwame. I call it the Kurse of the Kwam. He will always, Kontinually. be a Laker.
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