Andrew Bynum and the new reign of incompetent management.

Who else is going crazy over the lockout/preseason? For a while we had a steady news cycle of NBA players killin' it overseas or in semi-pro summer leagues. Kinda like a nicotine patch for people addicted to cigarettes. But once those kinds of stories ran out, I realized just how badly I missed basketball in my life. And how I will continue to scour blogs all over the internet even if the quality of blogs have become reallll shitty, especially this past year or so... I was gonna write a fanpost about it (The state of the NBA blogosphere) but what's the point? By now, most fans should know which sources are credible and which sources are simply a podium for propaganda spreading bullshit. 

Anywayyy, I was recently thinking about the change in Laker management (how Jim Buss basically told the Kobester, "Yea, you ain't ALL THAT no mo'. I don't gotta answer to you BOiii") and how the team in general could use a boost in youth and athleticism, preferably in the form of a competent SG/SF (Am I the only one who really really missed Trevor Ariza in the Dallas series?). I didn't mention our biggest weak link (PG) since I hope a big-bodied PG like Darius Morris will be an upgrade from "Lakers will ALWAYS have a GINORMOUS disadvantage against teams with quick PGs" to "Only a slight disadvantage at PG."

From what I know about Jim Buss, he considers Andrew Bynum his pet project, and apparently has made it clear that Bynum is "untouchable." Laker fans are well aware of Bynum's maturity issues. IMO he is one of the biggest douchebags in the league (a harsh assessment for someone playing for my team, I know, but as a kid, I was always lenient towards Shaq. And Bynum has too many Shaq-like tendencies for me to simply say, "He just needs to mature a little bit") But at least Shaq actually proved he was worth all the trouble, unlike Bynum, who for some reason is severely overrated by the media based on his "potential." That and also it's the media's goal to overrate all the players who play for Kobe I guess, but now I'm beginning to sound like a bitter Kobe fan. 

That's why I started doing some research on talented centers, past and present, and tried to come up with some correlations to the question of, "At what point can we say a talented but injury prone center will remain injury prone for the duration of his career?" That is when I stumbled upon a column written by Bill Simmons (I kno I kno, an unabashed Boston homer and the man Josh Tucker once called ESPN's village idiot. But to be fair, I think 90% of the writers on ESPN qualify for that title. Meaning ESPN is a village full of village idiots. Henry Abbott being the clan leader of course). It's a much more compact and detailed list than what I was able to compile before I ran into his column. Here is BS's thoughts on our boy Drew's trade value : 

"A list of the most memorable centers and power forwards of the past 35 years organized by their first six regular seasons for "games played," "games missed" and "number of seasons in which they played 90 percent of the games."

 

Dwight Howard: 489 --- 3 --- 6
Karl Malone: 489 --- 3 --- 6
Tim Duncan: 451 --- 9 --- 5
David Robinson: 475 --- 17 --- 5
Kevin McHale: 475 --- 17 --- 5
Charles Barkley: 472 --- 20 --- 6
Dikembe Mutombo: 471 --21 -- 5
Robert Parish: 469 --- 23 --- 5
Hakeem Olajuwon: 468 --- 24 --- 5
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: 467 --- 25 --- 5
Dirk Nowitzki: 444 --- 48 --- 5
Kevin Garnett: 442 --- 50 --- 5
Patrick Ewing: 438 --- 54 --- 4
Moses Malone: 428 --- 66 --- 4
Alonzo Mourning: 409 --- 83 --- 2
Shaquille O'Neal: 408 --- 84 --- 2
Yao Ming: 404 -- 88 --- 3
Ralph Sampson: 395 --- 97 --- 3
Chris Webber: 329 --- 131 --- 1
Andrew Bynum: 309 --- 169 --- 1
Bill Walton: 223 --- 269 --- 0
Sam Bowie: 207 --- 285 --- 1
Greg Oden: 82 --- 266 --- 0

 

What jumps out? First, the durable guys remained durable throughout their careers, with just one exception: McHale, who ruined the second half of his career by bravely (and some would say foolishly) playing on a broken foot in the 1987 playoffs. Second, anyone who missed more than 80 games and couldn't play in 90 percent of the games in at least four of their first six seasons went on to have injury-plagued careers. (That includes Shaq, who played more than 68 games in a season just six times and missed an average of 18 games per season.) And third, if you can't stay on the court at your youngest/healthiest/freshest/most energetic, it's a pretty safe bet that things won't change as you get older. It's straight DNA: Some dudes are structurally built for 82-game NBA seasons, others aren't. So if you make the argument "If Bynum can stay healthy, he's a franchise center," just make sure you also mention that we have 35 years of evidence that there's a tipping point when "If he can stay healthy …" becomes "… he's not going to stay healthy." We're there with Andrew Bynum. He's not going to stay healthy. If I were the Lakers, I would trade him right now.

 

 

(Actually, what am I saying? They should definitely keep him! The guy is built like solid oak!)"

Can't say I disagree with the guy. In fact, that's probably how I felt about Bynum going into last season. Probably the season before that as well. At what point do we say he just ain't the next great center? Are there ANY Laker fans out there who believes that Bynum will find redemption or a second life in this league, a league where consistency and durability are arguable the most important factors in determining who's real and who's just a pretender of a franchise player? I certainly don't. Even in the 2010 Finals, Bynum did an admirable job but he was a non-factor by the 4th or 5th game, when the stakes were at the highest. Kobe and Pau combined for 32 rebounds in game 7. That was the key to winning back to back titles. Those guys are what you might call "untradeable," even if Pau did reopen the whole soft discussion. Trading Pau after that horrendous postseason would qualify as a panic move.

My point being, Bynum hasn't done anything on the court for me to say, "That guy is untouchable. If the LakeShow trades him, it will be a big mistake and I will never completely forgive them." I totally understand where Lil' Jim is coming from. He wants to prove he can build a dynasty from scratch. He wants to prove his talent assessment chops. It's an ambitious goal and I respect that, I really do. But the way he's gone about this whole thing makes him look like...well, he looks like a young kid who doesn't really understand the long-term ramifications of what he is doing. Not to mention the arrogance of him basically telling the world, "The Triangle offense is dead. P-Jax is washed up. So long you arrogant hippie bastard! And now....the man who will replace the guy who won 5 titles for our team... MIKE BROWN ladies and gentlemen!" makes me want to throw a cup of beer at the guy the next time I go to a Lakers game. Assuming I can even identify the guy. Last time I saw him on TV he was just another fat kid who stutters in front of big crowds. It's entirely possible that I might mistakenly throw beer at some poor innocent rich kid in this scenario. In a league where talented big men are the rarest commodity, at the very least the Lakers need to assess Bynum's trade value by shopping him around. Unless they want to waste the twilight years of Kobe and Pau's primes. Now THAT would truly be unforgivable from my point of view.