Last fall The National Basketball Association was brought to a halt due
to a nasty lockout by team owners. After cutting into a portion of the
regular season, a deal was reached between the players and the owners.
Once the lockout was lifted it was game on for teams trying to improve
their rosters in order to win The NBA Championship. Immediately The Los
Angeles Lakers jumped at the chance to acquire All-Star point guard
Chris Paul from The New Orleans Hornets. The Lakers were going to send
forward Pau Gasol to The Houston Rockets and forward Lamar Odom to The
Hornets as apart of the three-team deal. The trade was nullified by NBA
commissioner David Stern after feeling pressure from small-market owners
such as Dan Gilbert of The Cleveland Cavaliers. This group of owners
wanted more parody in the game and they did not want to hand The Lakers
more titles. The owners are tired what the perceive as The Lakers
consistently getting stars over the years such as Magic Johnson, Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar, and Shaquille O’Neal. People should not knock The Lakers
for this practice, but instead they should take notes and do a better
job themselves of evaluating and acquiring talent.
Subsequently Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak was able to facilitate
a deal to acquire point guard Ramon Sessions from Cleveland. Sessions
is not close to being the kind of player that Paul is, but The Lakers
still had championship aspirations. The Lakers still have a nucleus of
players which is led by All-Star guard Kobe Bryant, but those
championship dreams quickly faded once the playoffs began.
The Lakers struggled in the first round with The Denver Nuggets before
advancing in seven games. The Lakers then fell to The Oklahoma City
Thunder in five games in the second round of The Western Conference
Playoffs. In both series, The Lakers were hurt by point guard play.
Against The Nuggets, Sessions averaged 11.7 points per game and 4
assists while Nuggets guard Ty Lawson averaged 20 points and 6.6.
assists. Against The Thunder, Sessions only dropped in 6.8 points and 3
assists while Thunder guard Russell Westbrook destroyed The Lakers with
25.6 points per game.
The Lakers even tried to improve the point guard play by shipping Derek
Fisher to The Rockets prior to the trade deadline. The Rockets then
bought out Fisher allowing him to sign a free-agent deal with The
Thunder.
Bryant is a fierce competitor who wants to win more NBA Championships
and he will not win another title with his current cast of characters.
Sessions has a player option for next season at $4.6 million. The other
alternative for The Lakers could be signing either Chauncey Billups or
Steve Nash who are both in their late 30s.
While The Lakers search for answers, Paul appears to have found a home
in Los Angeles, but with The Clippers. After the trade to The Lakers was
nixed by Stern, he approved the deal that sent Paul to The Clippers.
Paul helped The Clippers win a playoff series for only the third time in
franchise history. Along with fellow All-Star Blake Griffin, The
Clippers now appear to have the cornerstone pieces of their franchise
finally set while The Lakers appear to be a fading dynasty. If Paul went
to The Lakers along with Bryant and All-Star center Andrew Bynum, The
Lakers would be preparing to have another championship parade in Los
Angeles.
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