Derp. Next up: the Rockets at Staples on Tuesday night.

Chris Paul's a Clipper! Whatever... we got Kapono. Plunge right in with your Inter Net comments here.

Much as I love the NBA, there's no denying that the NFL is the rampaging T-Rex among American sports leagues. Even if hoops weren't in the midst of a soul-draining lockout, our attention this week would be focused on the return of pro football and its hostile takeover of our available leisure time. With that in mind, let's kick off the week (deep into the end zone, given the new rules) with some real talk about the gridiron.

Here are a dozen questions that come to mind, some or all of which you may choose to address in the comments....

1. Who's your favorite NFL team and player?
2. Who's your least favorite NFL team and player? (For moi, it's the Vikings and Jay Cutler.)
3. Name one team who made the playoffs last year that won't this year.
4. Name one team who missed the playoffs last year that'll make it this year.
5. Who's the NFL equivalent of Kobe Bryant?
6. Who's the NFL equivalent of Derek Fisher?
7. Who's gonna win the Super Bowl?
8. Who's gonna lose the Super Bowl?
9. The Eagles' regular-season wins... over or under 11½?
10. Who will start more regular-season games, Michael Vick or Peyton Manning?
11. Which will start first: the NBA regular season or the NFL playoffs?
12. Which Laker would stand the best chance of having a career in pro football?        

Feel free to throw out any others you'd like to bat around. Now tighten up your chin straps and run outta that tunnel!

Hiya, gang. It's another sleepy day in Lakerdom, so I'm gonna use the down time to solicit your views on something. It's a topic that's slowly burbling to the surface of the L.A. sports scene, and since many of you live or grew up here in SoCal, I'm interested to get your thoughts on it.

How do you feel about the NFL returning to Los Angeles?

As you might be aware, the L.A. City Council is on the verge of approving a preliminary agreement with Anschutz Entertainment Group to build a new football stadium in downtown Los Angeles. The stadium would go right next to Staples Center, which is also owned by AEG. The project wouldn't go forward until there's a binding agreement with an NFL team to move to L.A., but if everything goes according to plan the Lakers could have new NFL neighbors by 2016.

As SoCal sports fans, are you super excited about this idea? Indifferent to it? Opposed? And does your opinion depend on which franchise would be moving to L.A.? The most likely candidates seem to be the Rams, Raiders, Vikings and Chargers.

Please chime in with your thoughts, and when you do let us know whether or not you're located here in SoCal. Everyone's views are welcome, of course, but I'm especially interested in how SoCal sports fans as a geographically specific group are thinking about this.

Let's talk about you for a minute.

There's zilcho happening in Lakerdom today, so I figure why not get to know the paying customers readers a little more? The SS&R marketing department tells me this sort of thing makes the site more relatable to today's youth. It's either this or post some parkour videos.

All right, so here's what I want to know today: who's your "second" team? Which NBA team do you root for when they're not playing the Lakers? And why them? Or are you one of these people who doesn't believe in having a second rooting interest and instead dislikes every team in the NBA aside from the Lakers? If so, I respect the purity of your worldview even if I don't share it myself.

Don't just sit there. Be somebody! Tell us what you think.

We're just about one earth rotation away from the start of the 2011 draft, and the rumors are kicking about furiously. Like the one where the Lakers are lusting for Anderson Varejao. Or the one where David Kahn has a fiendish plan to steal Andrew Bynum. Most of these are so thumpingly stupid that even I, the whoriest of page-view whores, can't bring myself to give them their own front-page posts, but that doesn't mean they're not fun to talk about. And really, what else do we have to do today. So this is your comprehensive, all-purpose thread to hash over, ridicule and argue for whatever trade and draft rumors you come across.

If you haven't done so already, make sure to study Ben's extremely thorough Laker draft preview here. You can also read my (much less informed) thoughts about the draft at SBN Los Angeles.

Go on, knock yourselves out!

Update with actual, non-rumory news (4:10 p.m.): The Lakers offered Lamar Odom to Minnesota for the number-two pick but were turned down. The hope was to draft Derrick Williams. (Via the LA Times.)

HIGHLY rumory update (4:40 p.m.): The Lakers and 76ers may be talking Lamar Odom for Andre Iguodala. Ron Artest could be included in the deal as well. I think I just pooped a little. (Via Sports Illustrated.)

From Eric Pincus of HOOPWORLD (5:05 p.m.): "FYI - Kobe loves, loves Iguodala. Share an agent. Very tight." (Via Twitter.)

Self-serving update (6:20 p.m.): I've posted some brief thoughts on Odom-for-Iguodala over at SBN Los Angeles.

That's Jim Calhoun on the left and Kemba Walker on the right. They've advanced to the Big East championship game. Want to chat about the Huskies or anything else going on, conference tournament-wise? This is your spot.

Or, you could chat more about the Miami game yesterday. I recommend, if you haven't read it already, Sebastian Pruiti's piece on the Lakers' pick-and-roll defense. If you prefer, you can start chatting about tomorrow's game against the Dallas Mavericks.

A lot of high schools are having their state tournaments now, too. How's your alma mater doing? Let us know!

Welcome to the weekend.

Well, that escalated quickly.

Trade Deadline day is Deadline.