Tag: Lamar Odom (Page 6 of 10)

      2009 NBA Free Agency Preview: The top unrestricted free agents

      June 28, 2009 /

      Once the draft is over, the next step of the NBA offseason is the free agency period. Negotiations start July 1, but players have to wait until July 8 to actually sign on the dotted line. Due to the economy, this promises to be an interesting summer, as more franchises seem to be trying to cut payroll than add talent. There are eight teams with significant cap space this summer, and there’s no guarantee that they’ll be willing to use it. Teams that are over the cap can add good players in two ways: 1) they can sign a player to the Mid-Level Exception (MLE), which will be around $5.8 million per season (and can be split up between two or more players), or 2) they can work out a sign-and-trade with the player’s old team.

      Below is a list of the top unrestricted free agents this summer. These are players who can sign with whomever they like. They’re ranked in order of total value, which is based on overall talent, age, injury history and cost.

      For each player, I’ll provide his position, age, Player Efficiency Rating (PER) and an estimate of what kind of contract he’s likely to sign.

      1. Carlos Boozer, PF (27 years-old)
      PER: 17.28
      At press time, Boozer hasn’t officially opted out, but he is expected to. He can play another year for $12.3 million, but he thinks he’s due for a raise, and I don’t think he’s going to get the kind of raise he’s expecting. Boozer is one of the top 20 players in the league when healthy, but it’s that whole “when healthy” part that’s the problem. Over the past five seasons, he has missed a third of his team’s games. At 27, he’s in his prime, and assuming he has the right supporting cast, I think he can be one of a twosome or threesome on a championship-caliber team. Boozer may not get a raise this summer, but he could get long-term security. The Pistons, Raptors, Kings and Thunder all have the space to make a run at him, but Sacramento and OKC might consider themselves too far away from contending to add a big piece like Boozer. The Pistons seem like the best fit, but they are rumored to have more interest in Ben Gordon. There’s always the possibility that another team works out a sign-and-trade with Utah, but I don’t think anyone is going to give him a max deal, not in this economy.
      Value: $12.0 – $13.0 million per year

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      NBA, NBA Draft, News, Rumors & Gossip

      Lakers take Game 1 with conviction

      June 5, 2009 /

      The Lakers routed the Magic, 100-75, in Game 1 of the Finals. Kobe Bryant had a brilliant game, posting 40 points, eight rebounds, eight assists, two steals and two blocks. Pau Gasol chipped in with 16 points and eight rebounds, and Lamar Odom was the only other Laker to score in double digits with 11 points to go along with 14 boards.

      The game was still close (10 points) at halftime until a 29-15 third quarter put the Lakers firmly in control. The Magic shot just 30% from the field and the Orlando starters shot just 10 of 46 (22%) from the floor. The trio of Dwight Howard (12 points, 15 rebounds), Rashard Lewis (eight points) and Hedo Turkoglu (13 points) all had subpar games, and despite reports that he was not going to get any action, Jameer Nelson played 23 minutes, and went 3 of 9 from the field for six points.

      Marcia Smith of the Orange County Register writes that the Lakers can start thinking sweep.

      Given that nonchalance, is there any legitimate reason to expect that the Magic can conjure from thin air something as elaborate as an offensive game plan or an effective defense by Sunday’s Game 2 to make this series last longer than four games?

      Probably not. Lakers fans should buy more brooms.

      Mark Bresnahan of the LA Times writes that Kobe was the one who looked like Superman.

      Perhaps his best play started with a crossover dribble, then a few more dribbles as he measured up Mickael Pietrus, drove on him and delivered a double-pump nine-foot bank shot after being fouled. The made free throw gave the Lakers a 75-52 lead with 3:17 left in the third quarter.

      Bryant, who had 18 points in the third quarter, refused to claim any sort of victory.

      “We haven’t found anything,” he said. “It’s one game. No big deal.”

      Chris Sheridan of ESPN.com says that Orlando fans won’t be encouraged by Mickael Pietrus’s words after the game.

      As for the Magic’s defense, we advise anyone back in central Florida dressed in blue and white to skip ahead two paragraphs because the following quote from Pietrus — Orlando’s designated Kobe stopper — isn’t exactly going to inspire confidence (nor will it be pleasant to know that Pietrus was smiling as he said it).

      “I was trying to do my best, but everyone knows this guy is a legend. What can you do?”

      Are the Magic likely to bounce back from a 25-point defeat to win the series? No. They were outhustled, outplayed and looked outclassed. But it’s way too early to start talking sweep, and Smith’s article is just the kind of talk that Stan Van Gundy wants his team to hear over the next couple of days.

      As I was watching the game with a friend, I mentioned to him that the bigger the win in Game 1, the better the Magic’s chances of stealing Game 2. The Lakers have a tendency to lose focus, and this Orlando team isn’t going to roll over. They’ve been resilient all year and all playoffs, and they’re likely to play a lot better on Sunday.

      NBA, NBA Finals

      The NBA Finals: Position-by-Position

      June 2, 2009 /

      It’s not the matchup that everyone (outside of central Florida) wanted to see, but it’s a good matchup nonetheless. The Magic proved in their series against the Cavs that they are currently the best team in the East, and they’ll face the battle-tested Lakers who are coming off a pair of rough and rugged series against the Rockets and the Nuggets.

      Orlando has been the more consistent team and they don’t get rattled. They get down big with regularity and have been able to get back into games by playing one possession at a time and not worrying too much about the scoreboard early on. Conversely, the Lakers have been “bipolar” (to quote their star) and no one really knows which team is going to show up. It seems to be a matter of focus and effort, and the Lakers have struggled with their consistency in both areas of the game. There are times that they look like the best team in the league and there are times when they look like they should have been knocked out in the first round.

      Let’s look at each position and break down the different matchups…

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      NBA, NBA Finals

      23-5 run keys Laker win in Game 5

      May 27, 2009 /

      The Denver Nuggets were in position to win Game 5. They were up 71-64 with 6:31 to play in the third quarter and they had the Lakers on their heels. If they had shown patience and executed, they could have pushed the lead to double digits or at least have a modest lead going into the fourth quarter. But the Lakers tightened up their defense, and the Nuggets committed four straight turnovers late in the third to let L.A. back into the game.

      The Nuggets were stuck on 76 from the 2:25 mark in the third quarter until the 7:52 mark in the fourth. That’s almost six and a half minutes without scoring a single point. The Lakers deserve some credit for playing pretty good defense, but the Nuggets were sloppy with the ball and took a ton of bad shots.

      Lamar Odom finally showed up. He posted 19 points, 14 rebounds, four blocks and three assists, and was the single biggest reason that the Lakers won this game. I grow tired of hearing how talented of a player he is and then watch as he misses bunny after bunny at close range. Shannon Brown also played well of the Laker bench. He and Odom were on the floor when L.A. made its run.

      The series moves back to Denver for Game 6, and the pressure is squarely on the Nuggets, as they face elimination.

      NBA, NBA Finals

      What’s wrong with the Lakers?

      May 15, 2009 /

      Like most NBA fans (outside the greater Houston area), once the news broke that Yao Ming was going to miss the rest of the playoffs with a foot injury, I wrote off the Rockets. How could they possibly keep pace with one of the top two teams in the league without their best player?

      Since the injury, the Rockets have taken two of three from the Lakers, and if Kobe and Co. were truly championship worthy, they would have gone on the road and won Game 4 or Game 6. Laker apologists will probably just say that their team will still win in Game 7 and they’ll go on to win the championship, but really, they shouldn’t be in this position in the first place. Anything can happen in a single game, and sometimes, no matter what you do, it’s just not your night. What if the Rockets collectively catch fire like they did in Game 4? What if Kobe has one of his 5-for-20 days? Or what if Pau Gasol goes down with an injury that knocks him out of the game?

      By letting the Rockets get back into the series, the Lakers have no margin for error. That’s the whole point of a seven-game series — it’s designed so that poor luck and bad nights don’t send a true champion home early.

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      NBA, NBA Finals, Rumors & Gossip

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