• Pau Gasol, Shannon Brown and 2 future first round picks (2012 and 2013) for Kevin Love and Michael Beasley. It is no secret that David Kahn, the GM for the Minnesota Timerbwolves is horny for Gasol.  As a top 5 forward/center, Gasol would provide the Wolves with immediate credibility in the paint.  Shannon Brown is an athletic freak who is longing for a bigger contract and a bigger role, Minnesota could offer him both.  The two future first round picks are the carrot that could push Kahn over the edge in his decision to move a young and talented Kevin Love, for a more talented but much older Gasol.  Beasley is a solid talent, but with a reputation as a troublemaker, he is not someone a young/influential Minnesota team is going to value as highly as a veteran team like the Lakers would.  While Minny is in rebuilding mode (making the Gasol trade seem less sensical), the two future first rounders allow Kahn to stockpile future youth to make up for getting older in this trade.  Gasol + Rubio would surely bring some fans to the arena next year as well.
• Pau Gasol for Monta Ellis, Ekpe Udoh and Al Thornton.  Yes, the Lakers don’t want to move Gasol, but the chance to get a significant scoring upgrade in the back court in Ellis (24 ppg) all while getting younger and more athletic might be too good an opportunity to pass up.  Moving Gasol will hurt, as the Lakers do not have the front court depth to be able to recover from his loss without making another trade, but Ellis is a prize.  Udoh adds some young depth at the 4 spot and Al Thornton (who would need to be signed and traded) would provide some useful scoring off the bench and is still young enough to offer some upside.
• Andrew Bynum, Steve Blake and a future first round pick for Chris Paul and Carl Landry.  Adding Chris Paul, who tore the Lakers apart in the playoffs last season, would be the prize the Lakers would need in order to part with the young and talented Bynum.  The injury histories of Chris Paul and Andrew Bynum would be a wash in terms of risk, so the merits of this deal come down to whether or not you think the Lakers need a start point guard over the emerging Bynum at center.  Landry, who would need to come in a sign and trade, is a nice player to tack on to this, and could slide into the 4 spot with Gasol moving to center for the Lakers.
• Derrick Caracter, Luke Walton and Steve Blake for DJ Augustin and Boris Diaw.  This gives the Lakers another young point guard to throw into the mix while ridding them of Luke Walton’s salary.  The only sense this could make for Charlotte is that it rids them of Diaw’s $9M salary for 2011-2012 and gives them a more veteran point guard to help groom their #1 pick Kemba Walker.  Caracter adds some young size to the Bobcats front court.

So, those are four trade possibilities to be considered.  None of them seem overly likely but it sure is fun to think about.

Before talking about how valuable of a player Mike Richards is, how his 80 point per year capacity is sure to boost the King’s offense (one of the lowest scoring in the league last year), we should talk about what the team gave up to get him.  Braydon Schenn will in all likelihood be an all-star one day, and has an outside chance of being a great NHL player.  While he has little NHL ice experience, he is rightfully touted as one of the game’s great prospects.  Wayne Simmonds is a young, gritty player who pairs his physical game play with a hard-charging work ethic that keeps his team playing hard, he will be sorely missed.

Now, while the Kings has to given up a top young prospect and a talented young forward (plus a second round pick), the acquisition of Richards will prove to be a shrewd move by Kings GM Dean Lombardi.  Not only is Richards a former NHL captain and perennial all star talent, but he is young and inked to a long term deal that most commentators will agree is quite favorable to the club that holds his rights.  Lombardi recognized that Richards is a significant upgrade at center on the second line, and as a hard-nosed player who is known for his great two-way play, the GM could not miss on the chance to add him to the club.  The Kings now have a very talented core of young players locked up for multiple seasons, and if they are able to resign Drew Doughty to an extension this off-season will likely solidify themselves as a cup contender for many years to come.

Trading for a star always requires you to give up value in return and this case is no different.  While the kings gave up the crown jewel of their prospect group in Schenn, the addition of Richards was too good an opportunity for the Kings to pass on.

While it is obvious that Kobe could play at a high level into his 40s (he has a great mid range jump shooting game, which can thrive even after a player’s athleticism has subsided (see Ray Allen, Reggie Miller, Michael Jordan (at 45+), etc), one has to question whether he might do his legacy a favor by winning two more rings and retiring at the age of 35, still playing at peak levels and with 7 rings to look back on.

How many more seasons do you think Kobe will play?

So, while a grueling trip it is intended to be, the Lakers tend to find themselves on these long mid season road trips.  With a 4-0 start to this current trip (including back to back wins over the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks), it seems the Lakers are primed to continue their winner trend.

Fact: Carmelo Anthony is a top 5 young star in the league.
Fact: Carmelo Anthony would be the best possible situation for Laker fans as he could team up with Kobe for the next two years while Kobe gracefully caps off his career (I think Kobe should retire in 2-3 seasons and go out on top), and then could be the leader of a new squad that would still be competitive and not suffer a decade of futility (a la post-Magic when the most exciting thing the Lakers had was Sedale Threat, Cedric Ceballos and Terry Teagle.
Fact: Carmelo Anthony to the Lakers would male them once again clear title favorites (forget all this talk about losing Bynum would make the Lakers too small to battle the likes of the Celtics in the post-season, Bynum is a difference maker due to size, but Carmelo is a difference maker period!)
Fact:  The Lakers are likely not going to get Carmelo without giving up something more than Bynum.  It will likely take a package that includes Shannon Brown (the only other young player with any trade value), Devin Ebanks (a guy who will be a solid pro) and Derrick Caracter (a young big who will have a serviceable career).

Fiction:The rumors about the Lakers getting Carmelo Anthony are real. While it was fun to go through the “Facts” and pontificate a Carmelo to LA love story, Carmelo wants to play for the Knicks and a package that nets Denver Wilson Chandler and Landry Fields (plus an unload by Denver of bad contracts) is a better deal than the Lakers can offer. While its fun to talk about, we should quickly put this distraction to rest and focus on regaining the championship form that they will need to get through a tough upcoming postseason.

While I’m not suggesting that Bynum is the savior for the Lakers, I am saying that he makes the team more complete and creates a wider margin for error on a team that should contend for the 2011 NBA championship…..which if won would be their third in a row and sixth in the last decade.

While it is understandable that the landscape of online content is clearly skewed towards the promotion of shock-content or wild assertions in an effort to capture audience, John Hollinger goes just a bit further than the rest of us.  Hollinger, who first made a name for himself by inventing the largely unreliable PER rating system (a system that laughably lays claim to the “fact” that a guy like Kevin Martin is a more efficient ball player than Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash) is now making a name for himself with his “scientific” power rankings, rankings that as of yesterday had the Los Angeles Lakers as the 11th best team in the league, behind not one, two or three, but FIVE teams the Lakers have defeated already this season.

Being a sabermetrician at heart myself, I have tried to understand Hollinger’s futile attempts at doing to Basketball what Bill James and Paul Depodesta/Billy Bean successfully did to baseball. No matter how hard I try, however, each time I try to dig into Hollinger’s “science” I get about 20% of the way through the equation before getting lost in my own personal list of arguments against his formula.  Rather than waste my time trying to lay the arguments out here, let me just save you all some time, he is flat out wrong……and an ass who will forever be labeled on this website as a douche-tool.

The Dodgers are expected to be a contender again this season, and with the starting pitching expected to be a question mark once you get through the top three of Kershaw, Billingsley and Kuroda, the bullpen was expected to be a strength that would help alleviate the question marks at the back end of the Dodgers’ rotation.  That expected strength has turned into question marks early this season, however, with Sherrill struggling, Kuo hurt, Bellasario having off-field issues and a group of unprovens trying to get on track.  Heck, even Jonathan Broxton is said to be seeing a dip in his velocity, which for a power pitcher is never a good thing.  Its only the first week of the season, but so far the Dodgers’ bullpen has not inspired confidence.

NOTES:  Andre Ethier celebrated his 28th birthday with a key hit to plate 2 runs in a key eighth inning pinch-hit appearance to put the Dodgers ahead by a run (a lead they would later surrender due to Sherrill’s ineffectiveness).  Manny Ramirez got his 2500th career hit on a little check swing dribbler down the third base line that intially went foul but then crept back into fair play as pitcher Josh Johnson picked it up off the chalk.  Ironic how one of the most prolific power hitters the game has ever seen in Manny Ramirez ends up getting his 2500th hit on an 8 foot roller down the line.