Kobe Bryant considering retirement after contract ends: ’3 more years seems like a really long time’

09 Oct
2012

Heading into a season with his Los Angeles Lakers once again entrenched among the unquestioned heavyweights of the NBA, thanks to offseason deals that imported All-Stars Dwight Howard and Steve Nash to join Pau Gasol in a starting lineup that's likely to give opponents fits, you kind of expect Kobe Bryant to spend his preseason talking about how excited he is to play alongside a point guard of Nash's talents, and to groom Howard as the next signature star in the Lakers' illustrious history, and to take deadeye aim at a sixth NBA title (which would, of course, tie him on the all-time list with prototype killer shooting guard/greatest of all time Michael Jordan). And, to be fair, he is doing that. But he's also touching on a topic that's likely to be a bit less thrilling to Lakers fans: the approaching end of his first-ballot Hall of Fame career.

Bryant has two years and $58.3 million remaining on the contract he signed in 2010, a three-year extension that runs through the end of the 2013-14 season. At that point, he'll be just shy of his 36th birthday, and at that point, as he told Ken Berger of CBSSports.com, he thinks he's probably going to be done.

Speaking with CBSSports.com in a quiet moment after practice, Bryant conceded that, in all likelihood, the finish line and the conclusion of his current contract will be one in the same. Bryant has two years left, and though he was careful to point out, "One can never be too sure," he made it clear in the next breath it's almost unfathomable he would play beyond 2013-14, which would be his 18th season.

"It's just that three more years seems like a really long time to continue to stay at a high, high level of training and preparation and health," Bryant said. "That's a lot of years. For a guard? That's a lot of years." [...]

"It's not about health necessarily," he said. "It's about 'Do I want to do it? Do I have that hunger to continue to prepare at a high level?'"

Bryant's comments track with the attitude he expressed several months ago during a lengthy interview with Yahoo! Sports' Graham Bensinger, during which he identified the final year of his current contract as a likely stopping point: "I don't know if I'll play any longer than that."

The 18-season mark represents rarefied air among elite NBA players, especially, as Kobe notes, among guards — while a handful of Hall of Fame big men (Moses Malone, Robert Parish, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone and Hakeem Olajuwon) played 18 or more seasons, only two backcourt players enshrined in Springfield have done so: John Stockton, inducted in 2009 following a 19-year career with the Utah Jazz, and Reggie Miller, inducted last month after an 18-year run (mostly off screens) with the Indiana Pacers.

With 18 years in the books and three more coming, thanks to the New York Knicks, Jason Kidd will join Stockton and Reggie when he hangs 'em up; if new running buddy Nash and Ray Allen (16 years down each) finish out their new contracts, they'll likely do the same. But among guards, that's it; that's the list. And considering all Bryant's accomplished in his career, and the fact that none of the other four guards were relied upon to be their team's primary scoring threat until the bitter end, it seems pretty reasonable to slot Kobe in at the top of that list, number one with a bullet, a jaw-jut and a contested jumper that somehow goes in.

[Related: David Stern claims owners are divided on jersey advertisements]

While it might seem borderline unfathomable for fans (especially those who tend to rock purple-and-gold 24 and 8 jerseys on the reg) to consider the impending exit of a player who averaged a 28-5-5 last year and who, even in one of the least efficient seasons of his career, still ranked among the league's top 20 players in per-minute effectiveness, there's only so much you can avoid reality. As TNT commentator Charles Barkley is fond of saying, "Father Time is undefeated," and no matter how many trips Kobe takes to Germany, how much weight he loses in the offseason or how many pepperoni pizzas he eats before games, there's no way around the 51,018 NBA minutes (regular season and postseason combined) that Kobe has put on his body. And with Bryant's Lakers reloaded and looking like serious contenders for NBA championships in each of the two years remaning on his existing deal, fairly reasonable expectations for his minute allotment (baring injury, natch) would push him well past Stockton's 54,162 among HoF-type guards into territory previously trod only by the tall trees.

More than that, the prospect of playing beyond age 36 on legs that have seen nearly 60,000 minutes of NBA action carries with it the likelihood of being a reduced, diminished version of the fire of old. And that can be a pretty good life, if you're in the right situation; after Bryant's July interview with Bensinger, our own Kelly Dwyer considered the possibility that he might stick around after '13-14, perhaps on a lucrative one-year deal that would coincide with the end of the new three-year deal the team just gave Nash, and take another run at a title on a reconfigured team with Howard at the helm and a possibly re-upped Gasol working, as ever, as a super-effective secondary option toward another title that could push Bryant past Michael Jordan in the record books and, if he were to walk away at the peak of accomplishment, perhaps in the memories of some.

[Related: Tracy McGrady finalizing deal to play in China]

But for a perennial killer like Kobe, that's not a prospect he regards warmly, and he quickly told Berger as much:

To hear Bryant, the most cutthroat basketball combatant of his generation, speak about the day -- the moment -- when his smoldering desire to win finally will be extinguished, was something to behold.

So much so that the next question -- about whether Bryant would ever change his mind and hang on for an extra year or two as a role player averaging 15 points just to pad his championship resume -- needn't have been asked.

"That's not gonna happen," Bryant said. "That's just not me."

Then again, retiring at a time when he could still average 20-plus and play deep into the summer doesn't sound a whole lot like Kobe, either. It's difficult to imagine a still-healthy, still-productive, still-bloodthirsty version of Kobe actually walking away after winning one last ring while playing at a high level; it's damn near impossible to envision him doing so after failing to do so.

Mounting anecdotal evidence to the contrary, we should probably still regard the retirement talk as, at best, incredibly premature. A lot can happen in two years, and as a number of players have shown over the years — including Kevin Garnett for the Boston Celtics last postseason — a lion in winter can continue to roar pretty damn loud. Still, the more he talks, the less we can avoid it: At some point soon, Kobe Bryant won't be in the NBA anymore. It's a good thing we've got a couple of years to wrap our heads around that, because it's probably going to take a while.

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Now that he's firmly ensconced in the Hollywood scene, new Los Angeles Lakers point guard Steve Nash made his first visit to "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" on Tuesday night, chatting with the relentless clock-punching joke machine about why he wears No. 10 instead of his customary No. 13 (Jay's not so up on the Staples Center's rafters) among other topics, including whether it was difficult to make the move from the Phoenix Suns, his longtime employer, to join Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard in L.A.

This, of course, allowed Leno to open the door to how difficult it was for Suns fans, for immediate goof-payoff purposes. After showing the now famous clip of a 4-year-old Suns fan upset after learning that Nash had gone to L.A. — a video that led Nash to send a pair of signed game sneakers to the young girl, because he's a good egg, and fellow "Tonight Show" guest Justin Timberlake to wonder why the girl's parents would post a video of their daughter crying on YouTube, because he's a sharp cookie — Leno asked Nash if he's ever before felt the scorn of his own supporters.

"Have you ever been booed by home fans?" Leno asked.

"I have, actually, once," Nash said. "When I was in Dallas, my third year in the league. I got traded from Phoenix to Dallas, I was playing with a little bit of a back injury and I'd just signed this big contract, and I think the people in Dallas were wondering why I'd just signed this big contract — you know, I hadn't come into my own yet.

"There was this one game where we were playing the Rockets, and they had Charles Barkley, and it was sold out," Nash continued. "And at one point, I started to get booed every time I touched the ball. At home. And I'm the point guard, so I have the ball ... on a number of occasions, if you haven't watched basketball. It was one of those moments where you're like, 'I can't believe this is happening to me.'"

Given how consistently successful, brilliant and just about universally beloved Nash has been for the past dozen years, it's weird to think of him getting jeered in his own building. But Nash did indeed experience some rough sledding after coming to the Mavs in a deal that netted Phoenix the likes of Pat Garrity, Martin Muursepp, Bubba Wells and a first-round draft pick (that, thankfully for the Suns, would turn into longtime star Shawn Marion) and immediately receiving a new six-year, $33 million contract.

He shot a career-low 36.3 percent from the field that season, averaging just under nine points and just over six assists per 36 minutes of floor time and frequently giving way to the immortal Robert Pack in big moments. I'm not sure which of the Mavs' two home meetings against the Rockets during that lockout-shortened 1998-99 campaign was the one in which Nash heard the boos, but given his performances — two points on 1-of-6 shooting in just 11 minutes in a 10-point loss on Feb. 11, 1999, followed by three points on 1-of-10 shooting in 29 minutes in another 10-point loss on March 24 — either one would work. (The latter one probably makes more sense, though.)

Luckily, Nash had a family member to help him get through that difficult night ... although perhaps not in quite as supportive a way as he might have hoped.

"My younger brother played professional soccer in England — he'd never seen me play basketball in the NBA," Nash said. "He actually was on a break, flew to Dallas and came to [this] game. I'm sitting there thinking, 'This is awful, oh my God, the whole place is booing me.' I look up at my brother, first time ever seeing me play, and he's dying laughing. He's bent over, like, basically pointing at me.

"It kind of, fortuitously, put everything into perspective."

Nash, of course, would eventually get things figured out in Big D, teaming with Dirk Nowitzki and Michael Finley to turn the Mavericks into perennial contenders, fashioning himself into one of the league's best point guards and developing the versatile offensive skill-set that would make him a two-time NBA Most Valuable Player with the Suns. (Fat lot of good those MVPs did Dallas fans, though.)

Now, the scientists among you might think that presents a pretty compelling case for mercilessly booing your struggling players so that they eventually become great. As a New York Knicks fan, though, let me tell you that this is not a foolproof strategy. (Though we would definitely like to see Leno's studio audience try it out on him one of these days.) Maybe it only works on Canadian players? We'll need to have fans of the Miami Heat, San Antonio Spurs, Toronto Raptors and Cleveland Cavaliers start hating hardcore on Joel Anthony, Cory Joseph, Jamaal Magloire and Tristan Thompson this season, then track the number of MVPs they win in future seasons to get a truly scientific measurement.

Just do me a favor, though, Oklahoma City Thunder fans: If Andy Rautins somehow actually makes the squad, don't boo him. Just be nice. He's just so li'l and adorable and intermittently good at Twitter. Thanks in advance.

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Good news: That 10-foot-tall guitar painted like Steve Nash you wanted is only $10,000

12 Sep
2012

My wife and I have lived in our apartment for just under a year now, and I think we've finally just about got it decorated the way we want it — the family photos are properly positioned, the FreeDarko and Brandon Bird prints are up, the records and tchotchkes are at long last put away in a little hutch we got from my sister ... the place feels like it's almost fully together. I can't help thinking, though, that there's something missing — that last little touch that will make this place into a home.

I mean, sure, we're missing a 10-foot fiberglass guitar that has a picture of Steve Nash in a Phoenix Suns jersey on it. But there's no way I'll be able to find one of those for sale — not in this economy.

[Lebron James switches agents to team up with longtime friend]

What's that? The devil you say!

Call it the luck of the Irish, I guess. And thanks to the magic of eBay, this baby can be mine for the crisp, cool price of $9,999. Let's get some details from the seller:

I purchased this guitar from purchased from the auction
GuitarMania 2005
It is on a metal rolling stand which i painted orange and purple.
the guitar weighs about 150 pounds and
the metal base is at least 150 pounds
it does swivil [sic] from side to side

this is a very cool piece of memorabilia
it has been in my collection since then
it is in great shape.

GuitarMania 2005 was apparently a charity event in Phoenix at which giant fiberglass Fenders designed and decorated by 80 celebrities, including golf lover/metal god Alice Cooper, were auctioned off to raise money for organizations like the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Central Arizona. Seems like a very cool event matching the very cool piece of memorabilia being auctioned off here.

Luckily for you, 10 stacks is a bit steep for me, even on my exorbitant blogger's salary. If you're willing and able to pay that price for this totally sick throwback collectible, then I've got good news for you — it can be yours right flippin' now ... provided you live in the Phoenix area or can come pick it up in Paradise Valley, Ariz. Just make an appointment to go see it, inspect its quality, and bring a briefcase full of bills with you, and you'll be towing home a 10-foot fiberglass guitar with the general manager of Canada Basketball painted on it faster than your wife can say, "Oh, my God, what have you done?"

If you can't go the full 10 yards, you might still be in luck — the auction does feature a "Make Offer" option, so maybe you'll be able to haggle the seller down just a bit. If I were you, though, I wouldn't throw some bunko low-ball bid out there — I can tell by the animated American flag GIFs on the seller's website that he's not to be trifled with. And based on the kicker — "STEVE WE WILL MISS YOU AS A SUNS FAN..BOO LAKERS" — it sounds like Los Angeles Lakers fans need not apply, which is a bummer for this guy, who has the most "I Will Buy A $10,000 Fiberglass Guitar" face I've ever seen.

Hat-tip to Gerard Cosloy at Can't Stop the Bleeding.

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Mark Cuban stresses patience before we anoint the Lakers as new champs, all Cuban-like

12 Sep
2012

The setup is so straightforward and obvious that this is barely worth an eyebrow-raise. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, speaking directly to a crew up hopeful Mavs season ticket owners, dismissed the Los Angeles Lakers' offseason moves while attempting to remind his 41-game faithful that nothing out West gets decided in July and August. He's not wrong in theory, which gives him enough room to escape total scorn, but still comes off a little spurned in the face of an offseason that didn't go exactly as Cuban would have hoped.

(Even though he'll tell you everything's in place; mainly because as team owner that's what he has to tell you.)

First, his take on the Laker pickups of Dwight Howard and Steve Nash, as reported by The Sporting News:

"The Lakers have done this before," Cuban said. "Remember Gary Payton, Karl Malone and Kobe and Shaq were all together, and it didn't work.

"It takes great chemistry, like coach (Rick Carlisle) alluded to, it takes guys wanting to be there — I don't know if all their guys want to be there — it's going to be interesting.

"Look, (the Lakers are) going to be a great team, but I remember when we made our run," Cuban said. "We weren't supposed to win any series. The Lakers were defending champs when we swept them, and they had everybody back. A lot of teams do a great job winning the summer, but I never get so antsy about what happens over the summer."

[…]

"The CBA now isn't just about money," Cuban said. "Now it is about flexibility as well. And, for instance, going to the Lakers, this time next year, they wouldn't be able to do a deal for Steve Nash. ... The Nets and some other teams who have just said, 'we're going to spend whatever it takes,' that is their team for a long time. Somebody gets hurt, something happens or it doesn't work, they've got big problems."

This is the perfect quick hit, almost politician-like, that you give an audience hoping to hear the exact right thing:

Yeah, 2004. Forgot about that. Those Pistons really took it to them; and the Lakers failed even with Kobe in his prime and Phil Jackson around. And we were giant killers in 2011, with nobody giving us a chance.

Super smart move, as always, by Cuban.

We're not season ticket holders, though. And while the tenets of Cuban's argument ("chemistry," history) are on point, one has to go a little bit deeper in any comparison before sloughing off the Lakers and yelling "2004" to a room full of fans in blue.

That year's team was rolling along at 20-5 when Karl Malone sprained his knee two months into the season. Even with Shaq and Kobe feuding, O'Neal out of shape, and Gary Payton out of sorts with the offense (and, in something that does remind of Steve Nash, a sieve defensively), the Lakers were dominating the league and on pace to win 66 games. Malone re-injured the knee during the playoffs during a grueling Western Conference run (the Timberwolves, Kings and Mavericks were all legitimate title contenders that season), and a healthy Pistons squad took advantage in the Finals.

Had Karl been healthy in June? Had Stanislav Medvedenko not had to play 72 important minutes during the Finals? Things may have been different. The Pistons (and, probably, the similarly depleted Timberwolves working without All-Star Sam Cassell) were fantastic that year, a true champion without caveat, but that Laker team was closer than we remember.

The parallels, because Cuban is smart, are all there.

Kobe and Dwight Howard haven't had the breeziest of relationships thus far. Steve Nash can't guard anyone, and like Payton he'll be working in an offense that tends to take the ball out of the point guard's hands for long stretches. Pau Gasol is just about our favorite anything ever that's ever been, but he's also just beginning the downside of his career. And like that 2004 team, any tweaked knee or unfortunate accident could leave a thin bench having to contribute way too much.

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This is Cuban, though. He can talk up Chris Kaman's ability to spread the floor and look forward to having bundles of cash to throw at James Harden next summer, but he's also the guy that just lost Deron Williams to Brooklyn, and Dwight Howard to his own strange sense of what's right and wrong. The Mavs' offseason was shot to hell once Howard opted-in for the last year of his contract with Orlando, but even with Dirk Nowitzki in place and some confetti from 2011 still lodged in between the seat cushions the Mavs were probably going to be spurned by the pair. And Nash. And, though he's no All-Star anymore, even Jason Kidd.

And that kicker about Dwight Howard? "I don't know if all their guys want to be there"? That's classic spurnin' to its core. "Ah, let Susanne go out with Glen. Whatever. She doesn't know WHAT she wants."

On the flip side of that? "This is Cuban, though."

Just as it was in 2010-11, the Mavs have a loaded roster with plenty of versatile parts that will be guided under someone in Rick Carlisle who is usually the smartest guy in the room. I'm ready to pen the Lakers in for at least 60 wins sight unseen, even with Dwight Howard's back woes and the over-30 contributions of Kobe-Steve-Pau. But even with that expectation basketball still comes down to a series of matchups and execution in May and June. This is a long way of saying that I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if, just as it was in 2011 (when, as Cuban referenced, a lot of us had the Mavs going out in the first or second round), the Maverick chemistry that wasn't anywhere to be found in 2012 comes roaring back in 2013. Even taking down a Laker team along the way.

He's catty, but he's also calculating. Cuban may have been speaking to a room full of people that wanted to hear how great things are going to be, and he may have been a little duplicitous along the way. That's his job, though, because this is his product.

The real pressure will be on the Lakers to perform, and Carlisle to work wonders again.

"It's going to be interesting," Cuban told his patrons. We can't deny him that observation.

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Mario Chalmers thinks he is in the ‘front end’ of the top 10 point guards in the NBA

29 Aug
2012

It's been established that Miami Heat point guard Mario Chalmers is a pretty confident dude. Even though he plays alongside regular-season and NBA Finals MVP LeBron James and seven-time All-NBA selection Dwyane Wade, the former Kansas star seems to think of himself as the best player on the court, which is both why his Heat teammates always seem to be yelling at him and why he never seems unwilling to step into big shots at big moments in games featuring much bigger names than his own. Apparently, that self-assurance extends into the offseason.

During a recent appearance in Queens, N.Y., to visit the winner of Spalding's "Arena to Driveway" promotion — remember, Mario rocks Spaldings on the floor, which his well-heeled Heat teammates find pretty hilarious — Chalmers sat down with Bleacher Report's Peter Emerick for a catch-all summer recap interview that touched on topics like offseason training, Dwight Howard and Steve Nash joining the Los Angeles Lakers, and Miami importing shooters Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis.

[Video: Measuring the Dwight Howard and Steve Nash effect on the Lakers]

Chalmers' most interesting comments, though, came in response to a recent statement reportedly made by one of his most frequent Eastern Conference adversaries:

Peter Emerick: "Rajon Rondo recently said that he's the NBA's top point guard. What are your thoughts on that, and where do you think you rank among all the point guards in the NBA?"

Mario Chalmers: "He's not the best, but he's in the top five. There are a lot of great point guards in the league, Deron Williams, Chris Paul and Steve Nash. There are a lot of great guards in the NBA so for him to say he's the best is a pretty bold statement. I'd say that I [Mario Chalmers] am in the front end of the top 10."

Before we get to the argument side of this coin, let's all pause for a second and applaud Chalmers for handily and stylishly winning this particular Bold Statement Contest.

It's one thing to say that a competitor isn't as good as he thinks he is, even though said competitor is a three-time All-Star who has dished the second-most assists in the NBA over the past four years (Rondo's 2,833 dimes trail only Nash's 3,128), has four straight All-Defensive Team selections to his credit and a owns track record of amazing performances in big games. It is QUITE ANOTHER INDEED to then immediately assert your own claim to nearly-as-lofty status, based solely, it seems, on gall. That's some good gumption, Mario. Nicely done.

That said: The "Who's the best point guard in the NBA?" debate is always fun specifically because you can make arguments for a variety of guys in a variety of contexts — for my money, no point guard controls a game as completely and as brilliantly as CP3 — but reasonable people can differ on that score for a million reasons. If you agree with Rondo's self-assessment and think his defense, big-game performances and laundry list of double-digit assist games bumps him up the list, you can make a sound case for it without anyone trying to toss a straightjacket on you.

The same can't be said, though, for Chalmers' estimation. You're the kind of person who's reading an NBA blog while MLB pennant races are in full swing and college football is less than three days from kicking off — you're pretty well aware that Chalmers isn't a top-10 NBA point guard, let alone "in the front end of the top 10."

You might not know that, among the 67 point guards who played at least 6.1 minutes per game last season, Chalmers ranked 48th in Player Efficiency Rating and 43rd in Estimated Wins Added, according to ESPN.com's John Hollinger, but you know he's not a top-10 NBA point guard, irrespective of which guy tops your list, because you know that Paul, Williams, Rondo, Nash, Derrick Rose, Tony Parker, Russell Westbrook, Ty Lawson, Kyrie Irving and Stephen Curry all exist. Even the biggest Heat fans in the world would have a difficult time arguing with a straight face that they'd rather have Mario Chalmers than any of those 10 players.

You might have an argument if we're talking about 11 through 20, because then you'd have to consider how much Chalmers' often-solid on-ball defense (especially on ball-handlers in the pick and roll, which is how opponents most frequently attacked him last year, according to play-tracking data from Synergy Sports Technology) and 3-point shooting (a career-high 38.8 percent last year, good for 36th in the league and 11th among point guards) mitigate his weak 1.56-1 assist-to-turnover ratio and generally unremarkable play.

But are Chalmers' 3-and-D talents enough to slot him in ahead of/on par with skilled and steady vets like Mike Conley, Kyle Lowry, Andre Miller and Jose Calderon, developing playoff-caliber points like Jrue Holiday, Jeff Teague and Goran Dragic, or more purely talented but often erratic players like John Wall, Ricky Rubio and Brandon Jennings? You could argue that he works just fine for what Miami wants him to be, given that coach Erik Spoelstra obviously (and understandably) prefers running offense through James, Wade and Bosh, and just wants someone to D up and hit open jumpers. But from a pure "who'd you rather have?" point of view? It's hard to say he's "in the front of" that second set, either.

A charitable analysis would probably slot Chalmers in as a middle-of-the-pack NBA point guard, capable of being a supplemental scorer and facilitator who occasionally pops for a big night (to wit: 25 on 15 shots in Game 4) but mostly just lives on the margins; a more sober viewing could drop him down into the bottom third of NBA starters. Luckily for Heat fans, Chalmers doesn't believe a word of that; frankly, with the Heat coming off a title and looking poised to play big games late into the spring again this coming season, that unyielding (and largely unfounded) confidence is probably his greatest asset.

Hat-tip to r/NBA.

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Measuring the Dwight Howard and Steve Nash effect on the Los Angeles Lakers (VIDEO)

28 Aug
2012

Without question, the re-emergence of the Los Angeles Lakers as title favorites is the preeminent story of the 2012 offseason. Giving up shockingly little in terms of assets, the Lakers somehow turned Lamar Odom's lost 2011-12 season and a pair of lower-rung draft picks into two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash; and a month later the team dealt the NBA's second-best center and little else for far and away the NBA's best pivotman in Dwight Howard. With Pau Gasol and Kobe Bean Bryant retained, the Lakers are thinking championship or bust with a fantastic starting lineup.

With former Sacramento Kings, New Jersey Nets and Washington Wizards coach Eddie Jordan on hand to add some Princeton principals to the offense, questions abound. Is it smart to take the ball out of Nash's hands? Will Kobe chafe at working in yet another read-and-react offense? Can Dwight Howard handle the high-post work? Will Pau Gasol ever re-find the spark that made him so dangerous during Los Angeles' 2009 and 2010 title runs? BBallBreakDown, featuring the great Coach Nick, has it sussed:

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Phoenix Suns GM Lance Blanks likes Luis Scola because he is gross

15 Aug
2012

A lot's changed with the Phoenix Suns this summer. Longtime franchise linchpin Steve Nash was traded to Los Angeles to be closer to his kids (and, as luck would have it, Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard). Grant Hill also headed for L.A., albeit to join the Clippers, while veteran frontcourt players Robin Lopez and Hakim Warrick were shipped to the New Orleans Hornets in a (fairly protracted) three-team deal and former UNC point guard Kendall Marshall was tapped with the 13th overall selection in the 2012 NBA draft to be the team's point guard of the future. In sum, Phoenix has begun an organizational overhaul — one that's unlikely to get the Suns back into the playoff picture anytime soon, but one that needed to happen in order for the team to move on from the Nash era.

As Suns General Manager Lance Blanks — a man who's been known to take a grim, if purely truthful, view of the human condition — told Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic, the goal of the overhaul was to build a roster that could sustain through the cold winters to come (metaphorically speaking) in the valley of the sun:

"The first goal was to be able to put a team out there that would handle the next era of the organization — the rigors and challenges," Blanks said. "A transition like that is not always seamless. We wanted to make sure we had people to weather the ups and downs of entering the next era and also find guys whose career paths and trajectories fit the future of the organization. Just about every guy is a fresh-start guy."

The team's main offseason additions fit that profile. Goran Dragic gets a chance to run the show full time after splitting point-guard duties with the Houston Rockets and during his first stint in Phoenix. Michael Beasley gets his third shot at becoming an All-Star after falling out of favor with the Miami Heat and Minnesota Timberwolves. And Luis Scola, fresh off a strong scoring performance for Argentina at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, gets to remind everybody that, despite his Morey's-Grand-Gambit-inspired amnesty, he's still one of the most talented scoring forwards in the world.

To hear Blanks tell it, though, the primary attraction of Scola for the Suns was neither his expansive repertoire of low-post pivots and counters, nor his smooth midrange jumper, nor the fact that he enters the season with something to prove. "Freshness" didn't much enter into it; it was something ... um ... else:

"Scola gives us a griminess and a crustiness that we need," Blanks said. "He's what I call an example. He's a good guy and a good example for young guys to be around and observe."

Hmm. Gross!

On one hand, Blanks' comments make sense — there's a certain type of resilience that a player develops in his journey from youngster to veteran, and with Nash and Hill departing in the offseason, the players with the most NBA experience on Phoenix's roster were Sebastian Telfair (eight years) and Channing Frye (seven). Bringing in the 32-year-old Scola, who began playing professionally in his native Argentina when he was 16, adds some needed veteran leadership to a fairly young roster.

On the other: You couldn't have found a nicer way to say that, Lance Blanks? One that doesn't make it seem like you regard your prize power-forward acquisition as something of an itinerant creep with greasy hair and a too-casual attitude toward washing underneath his fingernails? Granted, Scola's often stubbly and stringy appearance on the court does little to help him here, but this couldn't have been the most enticing way to introduce the guy who's going to be using the lion's share of your half-court possessions to the fan base.

Then again, maybe Blanks is taking the opportunity to position the Suns for future free-agent classes. I mean, if the Oklahoma City Thunder choose to max out Serge Ibaka rather than James Harden, now the 22-year-old guard (and former Arizona State Sun Devils star) knows there's a comfortable, easy-going organization that welcomes dudes with stuff like giant beards that probably smell a little like Funyuns. It's a bold maneuver, Lance; let's see if it pays off.

Tags: era, , Lance Blanks, Luis Scola, , , phoenix suns, , , Suns, Suns General Manager Lance Blanks, ,
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Dwight Howard makes the Lakers much better, but there’s a long way to go

10 Aug
2012

Any credible analysis of the blockbuster Dwight Howard trade has termed it a clear win for the Los Angeles Lakers. After getting significantly better in July with the addition of point guard Steve Nash, the Lakers have now added the NBA's best center and look primed to challenge the Miami Heat for the NBA title next season. It was a great trade for the team, the kind that any front office needs to make when it's available.

Yet, while the Lakers pretty obviously improved themselves on Thursday night, they are far from a sure thing. Even before Howard's arrival, L.A. had a lot to figure out for next season at both ends of the court. While Nash is one of the best offensive point guards in NBA history and makes everyone around him better, he's also used to handling the ball a lot — when he passes, it's usually because a shot is clearly available, not because he's beginning to initiate the offense. There's a question as to exactly how Nash's role will change on a team that also includes Kobe Bryant, another player used to handling the ball who hasn't always been a willing sharer with stars such as Pau Gasol and the now-departed Andrew Bynum.

Would the Lakers shift to becoming more of a pick-and-roll team with Nash, or would they feature some uneasy hybrid of offenses controlled by Nash and Kobe? With Howard on board, these questions only become greater concerns.

On a very basic level, the Lakers have enough high-profile new players that they will take time to become comfortable with each other and maximize their production. This is just how basketball works — the Miami Heat were supposed to be an immediate juggernaut, remember, and they still took more than a season to round into true championship form. In Los Angeles, the challenge is in many ways tougher because these players didn't come together with the specific plan of playing with each other — trades and free-agent signings happened to present themselves and everyone agreed it was in their best interests to join up. Bryant might have supported teaming up with Howard, but they didn't engineer this trade in a direct way. There was less time to sort out the egos; for all we know, Howard is coming to Los Angeles with the expectation of being the Lakers' biggest star.

Despite these likely growing pains, there are some fairly obvious paths to success for the Lakers. Any team with Howard, Nash, and Gasol would figure to be a dominant pick-and-roll team — Nash runs the play better than any point guard in the league, and Gasol and Howard are among the best big man at it, as well. However, the pick-and-roll takes time and chemistry to perfect, and it's not certain that the Lakers will build their offense around the play, either. Bryant is not the best-in-the-league superstar he once was, but he's still good enough to require the ball a fair share of the time. Will he be happy running plays with Gasol and Howard, or will he need isolations to succeed? Would he be happy playing off the ball in a Nash/Howard (or Gasol) pick-and-roll in key spots? Does Mike Brown have a system in mind for all these players, or is he going to make it up as it goes along? These questions can all be answered, but we don't know when or how that will happen.

In less specific terms, Howard will also need to adjust his attitude to be at his best with the Lakers. As Adrian Wojnarowski detailed earlier Friday, Howard has to adjust his attitude in a manner fitting with the Lakers' championship aspirations. It might not be in Howard's best interests to be the joking, approachable star he was with Orlando, both because the vast majority of the public no longer buys that persona and because it's not the serious approach many think champions need. At the same time, playing in Los Angeles will surely afford Howard more opportunities to appear on talk shows and cameo on sitcoms. Can he strike the right balance?

I don't mean to suggest that the Lakers aren't aware of these questions or that they're a disaster waiting to happen. Trading for Howard was a very smart move by any rationale, and they're now the odds-on favorites to win the West in 2012-13. But they have a lot to get right, particularly with so much money committed to four players and the continued need to build up the bench. It's important to remember, beyond all else, that this trade was only part of the process of building a championship team, not the end goal. The hard part starts now.

Tags: , , , los angeles lakers, , , , , , , ,
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Kobe Bryant could top Michael Jordan in a significant way, were he to retire for good in a few years

17 Jul
2012

When Kobe Bryant tells Yahoo! Sports' Graham Bensinger that it's "probably accurate" that he'll follow through on Bryant's rookie year suggestion that he'll retire at age 35, you at once think that it's probably not accurate. Kobe would have been 18 or possibly even 17 (the age in which he was drafted) when he said this, working in an NBA with Michael Jordan alternating as both the best player in the game and a step away from retirement at the same time, at age 33. Bryant's contract ends in two years just a month before he turns 36, and though you get the feeling he hadn't considered the possibility of following through on the thoughts of his 18-year-old self, you can never dismiss anything with Kobe. He's that calculating, that smart.

What if he pulled it off, though? What if he decided that 18 seasons were enough, and that he was going to walk away? What if he signed on for one more season, in order to play through Steve Nash's final year, and retire just a few months before turning 37? What if he and his Los Angeles Lakers secured another ring, along the way?

You know what? He'd be topping MJ.

We usually don't like to go down this route. We weren't among the strange chorus that thought that Bryant's number change to 24 had anything to do with Jordan's number 23, and though we know that Kobe models himself after Michael in every way, he's really not thinking about that every time he puts the ball on the floor or pen to paper. But if he were to walk away and actually retire for good at age 35, he would be going out in a manner far more preferable to Jordan's. The player who, as you'll recall, ended his career in a meaningless regular-season game while playing on a lottery team.

Bryant, with Nash and Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum (or, possibly, Dwight Howard) in the fold, would not be playing for a lottery team unless a rash of injuries hit. He would be working for a juggernaut, if only one that appears as much on paper two or three years removed from juggerin' and nautin'. This is, of course, assuming his legs hold up.

Because we wouldn't blame those legs if they decided to put a stop to all this, any minute now.

Including his significant postseason turns, Bryant has played over 51,000 career minutes in the NBA. And though the eventual Hall of Famer is "only" 33 for the next few weeks after coming to the league straight out of high school, replacing a few years spent working 30 games a season at Duke with the pounding of heavy NBA action (Bryant was an All-Star in his second season and a second option on a hopeful championship team in his third) more or less mitigates any relative age comparison with most contemporaries in or out of his playing era.

Were he to sign a massive one-year extension in order to commit to a last waltz of sorts during the 2014-15 season (Nash's final year with Los Angeles), Kobe would be reaching some legendary heights with all these minutes. Put him at 72 games played per season, and 20 per postseason (assuming the Lakers are regular conference finalists), Bryant would be at nearly 10,000 more career minutes if we projected him at 36 minutes per game during the regular season (he played a whopping 38.5 last year) and 37 per contest in the playoffs (Bryant averaged nearly 40 per game last spring).

This leaves him at 61,000 combined minutes, just a few months before turning 36. Jordan topped off at around 49,000 for his career. Only Karl Malone (at around 63,000) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (65,000) come close to that. And Kobe's a guard — he doesn't need to blow by you in order to be successful, but it doesn't hurt when he does.

And for Kobe, it does hurt when he does. The rejuvenation therapy that aided in his recovery before the 2011-12 season helps, but it can only do so much. Which is why age 36 — after the end of 2014-15 and with Nash and possibly Pau Gasol joining him as they limp off into those Santa Ana winds again — might be the perfect topper.

Bryant would also have a chance, unlike Jordan, to stay away for good. He's every bit the competitor as MJ is, and as much as he hasn't learned from MJ's mistakes (like gunning his team out of games, even into his early 30s), one would hope he would learn from Jordan's post-Chicago misstep.

(And the Lakers, though they're deep into the luxury tax, would be starting anew with a cleared roster and payroll — save for either Bynum or Howard — after taking in a few years of that massive new TV deal. The Buss family, somehow, always wins.)

It's all up to Kobe, though, as it has always been. We're not exactly keen to see Kobe Bryant stop playing basketball, but as an alternative we're not exactly keen on watching Kobe Bryant play the sort of basketball that doesn't look like Kobe Bryant-styled basketball. Age 35, or even 36, seems like a good chance to go out with a grin.

Tags: , , , michael jordan, , , paper, , , ,
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Steve Nash is handed a beer on a Los Angeles freeway by some giddy Lakers fans (VIDEO)

14 Jul
2012

To most of us, Steve Nash's first appearance in a Los Angeles Lakers uniform was pretty jarring. But to the fine Angelinos that have gone a miserable 24.5 months without a Lakers championship, his presence brings a needed salve.

And as such, For Their Conquering Hero, Angelinos must bring Steve Nash the finest ale in the land. Or, failing that, the finest ale they have on hand. Even if it is a Keystone Light.

[Related: Could Lakers be in the mix to get veteran forward Luis Scola?]

What's up with all this? Watch a group of young Lakers fans give Nash a can of beer as his hired cab strolls down the highway, as filmed by Nash on his phone (something I didn't think I'd be writing when Nash was drafted back in 1996) and posted to his Twitter account soon after:

Save for, perhaps, a better brand of beer this couldn't have gone any better. An otherwise distracted young driver wielding a SUV with possibly intoxicated (there's beer in the truck!) friends hanging out of the windows, easing over to the driver of a cab to give a beer attached to the hand of a franchise savior making eight figures a year? Yeah, we're lucky it went down like this.

Deadspin has a clip taken from inside the SUV (it is, with all things Gawker-y, unable to be shared on other sites), all full of open containers and no seatbelts. Cool video, bro; but come on, guys.

No word on Steve's eventual bitter beer face, though you can follow his Twitter account for more updates.

Other popular content on the Yahoo! network:
• Phil Jackson reportedly rejected Portland's head coach offer
• MMA as an Olympic sport would be a tough sell
• Kevin Harvick creates Twitter handle for his newborn baby
• Y! Autos: L.A. once again has the worst traffic in North America

Tags: ale, Angelinos, appearance, , land, Los Angeles freeway, los angeles lakers, , , SUV, ,
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