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Trade Bynum? Are you Kidd-ing?

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LakersFranchise

Post subject: Trade Bynum? Are you Kidd-ing?

Posted: Dec 13, 2007 - 04:26 PM PST

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Trade Bynum? Are you Kidd-ing?
Randy Hill
Special to FOXSports.com, Updated 2 hours ago STORY TOOLS:

They were supposed to dissolve into the NBA's interpretation of the Donner Party.

All of the broken pieces were in place.
The superstar player had gone public in expressing his disgust with the personnel-acquisition skills of team management and was almost demanding a trade. The superstar coach, after supporting the superstar player, began wondering if the superstar player was fully committed to the team.

The successful owner, who had allowed his unqualified son to become part of the personnel regime, said the superstar player was not immune from trade.

The young big man with debate-worthy potential was a bit miffed that the superstar player had wanted him shipped off in exchange for a great-but-aging point guard. The most important off-season acquisition was a 34-year-old shooting guard who stands about 6-foot-1.

The power forward, whose name had popped up in every other imaginable trade scheme, missed the first few games with more than hurt feelings.

It looks like Kobe Bryant will be sticking around. Should the Lakers tinker with his supporting cast? (David Sherman/NBAE / Getty Images)

But karma and controversy be damned, the Los Angeles Lakers — riding a three-game winning streak — are looking fairly chipper right now. Their superstar, Kobe Bryant, is leading by positive example. Their superstar coach, Phil Jackson, has committed to sticking around a while longer.

The young big man with debate-worthy potential is averaging 10.4 points and 9.6 rebounds in just 26 minutes per game, including a 20-and-11 effort in the Lakers' most recent victory.

With so much gusto attached to Kobe, Phil and their cronies, it certainly seems like the Lakers should forget about personnel swapping and keep chugging toward the playoffs, right?

Well, things aren't entirely splendid. True, the Lakers haven't engaged in fistfights and did just win three games in a row. But those three triumphs have boosted their season mark to 12-8, which stamps them a pedestrian seventh in the current Western Conference seeding hierarchy.

How can this be? Since Phil bestowed his blessing on pushing the ball more frequently and opening up the half-court sets, the Lakers check in at third on the NBA's scoring list. In addition to playing faster, the Lakers' shooting accuracy is fifth-best in the league.

And we can't blame the defense. Well, although they're 24th in points allowed, that's more a burden of pace. With Kobe zeroing in on the opposition's top perimeter scorer, the Lakers are an impressive fifth in field-goal percentage defense.

While we remain flummoxed in regard to how a team with such nice scoring and defending stats can lose eight of 20 games, Lakers fans are wondering what upgrades can be made to make their team a contender.

With this concern on the table, Jason Kidd's name slides into the crosshairs of prevailing Laker chatter. The noise really began to increase last week when the 34-year-old New Jersey Nets point guard missed a game with migraine concerns. His absence inspired East Coast conspiracy peddlers to opine that Kidd staged a one-game boycott to protest the club's reluctance to hammer out a contract extension.

As this theory was being booed by those who know Kidd, it didn't stop the sharpies from wondering if the Lakers could swoop in and land the player who helped Kobe lead a young and gifted American squad to the Tournament of the Americas title last summer.

Although we're fairly certain Kobe and Kidd can do the same next summer in Beijing, I doubt they could do the same for the Lakers vis-a-vis the Western Conference playoffs.

A lot depends on New Jersey's asking price. During the preamble to last year's trading deadline, the alleged cost was Andrew Bynum, the now-20-year-old 7-footer with just enough potential to drive a coach insane. Bynum, who's supplied the Lakers with 10 double-doubles, responded to Jackson's recent critique about his shaky conditioning by putting 20 points, 11 rebounds and 5 blocks on Golden State.

Such outbursts encourage the pro-Bynum crowd while serving as little more than an irritant to the anti-Bynum crowd. Does Kobe still belong to the latter concern? With Kidd, Bryant and Lamar Odom on the floor, would the absence of Bynum — who seems to hold any interest the Nets might have in moving Kidd to L.A. — matter in a Lakers playoff run?

Or should the Lakers make another run at Indiana Pacer big guy Jermaine O'Neal, whose recent stint in street clothes (despite his team's three-game success) did little to inspire the team to get rid of him?

Before examining these questions, let's take a look at why the Lakers lose. For the record, it's probably not rebounding. Phil's team has managed to lose while doing well on the boards and have won when the opposition has owned the glass.

The Lakers also have managed to lose while taking care of the ball and outscoring the opposition in the fourth quarter (it should be noted that a fourth-quarter deficit has occurred just twice in eight losses).

Anyway, after checking the variables — including missing shots at the wrong time — it should be noted that the Lakers are 0-8 when shooting 33 percent or less from 3-point range. When their marksmanship from behind the arc reaches 34 percent or higher, the Lakers are a salty 10-2.

So, at the risk of using one stat as an overly simplistic explanation for eight failures, the Lakers could begin their rise by making threes more often. The addition of Kidd, who makes just 33 percent of his threes (and only 38 percent of his shots overall), wouldn't seem to provoke a hike in that category.

Of course, his penetrate-and-kick skills could create more open looks (in addition to a fast-break-related jump in general field-goal percentage) for Bryant, who does a fine job of inventing shots for his buddies right now.

While all of this statistical conjecture can't guarantee any Lakers' rise or fall, I doubt that moving Bynum would yield enough for L.A. to become the top team in the West this year.

The best the Lakers can do is upgrade their surrounding personnel wisely as Kobe continues to lead and Bynum develops. Unfortunately, this requires an eye for locating late-round talent that's been closed for years.

With Bryant on board and supplying enough wins to escape the lottery, securing appreciable help through the draft requires more personnel wisdom than the Lakers have been demonstrating.

Perhaps they can still trade Kobe — the real payoff might be an annual trip to Secaucus over the next few years.