Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Latest Lakers-Nuggets rumors make no sense.

Rumors are flying abound today about a possible Carmelo Anthony for Andrew Bynum trade that would give the Lakers the best 1-2 scoring punch in the entire NBA (yes Miami, even better than LeBron and DWade). With the Lakers struggling against the league's top teams this season (0-4 vs Boston, Miami & San Antonio), GM Mitch Kupchak mentioned he would entertain a trade to shake things up. However, today's rumors don't seem to make any sense. Also, while taking a closer look at the Lakers numbers for this season, do they even need to make a trade?

Carmelo Anthony is one of the best scorers in the NBA and a fantastic rebounder for a SF. However, the Lakers don't need any help on the offensive end. Despite getting close to nothing from Ron Artest, Derek Fisher and Steve Blake, the Lakers are still the 2nd most efficient offensive team in the league (http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/teamstats). Also, only Orlando and Chicago rebound the ball at a higher rate than the Lakers (http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/teamstats/_/sort/reboundRate/order/true). In other worlds, Melo's top two talents (scoring and rebounding) are not needed right now in LA.

So a Melo for Bynum deal might actually have a more negative effect on the Lakers then positive. When taking a look at the Lakers defensive numbers, despite a slip in their performance from last season, they are still in the top ten in the league (http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/teamstats/_/sort/defensiveEff). There is no doubt that losing Bynum would have a negative domino effect on the Lakers D, forcing Pau Gasol to center and Lamar Odom to PF, leaving Joe Smith, Derrick Caracter and Theo Ratliff as the bigs off the bench (gulp). ESPN's trade machine doesn't even give the Lakers any extra victories based on that rumor (http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=6ycgsfq).

If the Lakers are intent on a trade, they should look into improving the PG and SF positions. SF might be tough, with reports coming out today that the Lakers had talks with the Charlotte Bobcats regarding Stephen Jackson and/or Gerald Wallace but the Bobcats losing interest when they learned Ron Ron wanted no part in being a Bobcat. With back up Matt Barnes (who was playing very well before his injury) due back sometime in March, maybe the need for a SF isn't so dire and they can concentrate on PG. How does this trade look for the Lakers

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=45cv839

In that proposed trade, the Lakers would trade Bynum, Steve Blake and Shannon Brown to the Nuggets for Chauncey Billups and Nene. Lakers would get a major upgrade at PG in Big Shot Billups and a big man inside to replace Bynum. Nuggets get the young big they want in Bynum and can start rebuilding from scratch, with Melo still as a trade chip. Thoughts?

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