I KNEW THE LAKERS WERE DONE FOR...

...when Kurt Thomas hit those fucking shots in the first quarter. It's like, shit, don't we have enough to worry about with Nash-Amare-Marion-Barbosa, now we have the biggest scrub on the team knocking down 12 footers like he's the fucking Mailman?

That was the end of Thomas's contribution to the game, but the final boxscore tells the tale--LA shut down Nash completely, Amare had a so-so game (and would've sucked if the refs didn't keep bailing out his wild shit), Barbosa was somewhat limited (but deadly when it counted, as always against the Lakers), Marion had a nice game, but you figure you hold 'em down if only 1 out of those 4 guys has a great game--and yet Phoenix still goes for 120.

Diaw, Thomas, Bell, and James Jones all play great, Kobe has a mediocre game to offset Odom's heroics, the Lakers' scrubs redefine uselessness, and it's a comfortable win for the Suns.

Farmar and Odom led the Lakers with 2 assists. 3 other guys had 1. Still, they shot .478 from the floor and scored 110, offense wasn't really the problem. It's that nobody on the team can D up Nash, nobody can D up Barbosa (which makes them like every other team in the league), nobody can D up Amare. So they basically need to add 3 defensive superstars, and *maybe* they can play with the Suns.

Until then...

I gotta tell you, if they deal Andrew Bynum for Garnett this offseason, I won't be disappointed. I'm starting to shift over to the "Kobe has only so many good years left..." camp.

I think Bynum is oozing with potential, but he still has a long, long, long ways to go, and it'll all come down to whether he has the superstar mentality. A dominating physical specimen like Shaq can have way less of a competitive drive than freaks like MJ/Bird/Kobe and still be one of the 10 greatest players of all time--that's not Bynum. He's got some serious physical gifts, but nowhere near Shaq's level. If he's not a very hard worker, if he doesn't strongly develop his skills, he won't be a superstar, period. And it's hard to gamble on a 19-year-old multi-multi-millionaire living in Los Angeles being a "very hard worker". I know *I* wouldn't be in his situation.

Give me Garnett and I still don't think we're talking about a slam dunk championship caliber team, but it's a hell of a lot closer than what they'd be for the next 2-3 years while waiting for Big Andrew to grow up. I don't know, maybe that is a championship type team after all--especially with Nash about to hit the downside of his career. I mean, who knows what happens when you put together two hypercompetitive guys like Kobe and KG, with Odom playing a more comfortable role as third fiddle rather than Pippen to Kobe's MJ.

But I'm not sure how the money works out without Odom being involved. Kwame is attractive, being in the last year of his contract (and for NO OTHER REASON), but he makes half of what KG makes. Plus the Lakers would probably rather wait a year and see if KG will opt out of the last year of his deal and be a true free agent--right when the Lakers may have cap space. KG would have to take a pay cut, but he's made a boatload of cash already in his career (especially since he's trying to out-whore Snoop and Peyton in the TV commercial game), he may well be ready to leave some money on the table to join a contender.

I don't know. I just hope the Lakers' braintrust doesn't panic and do something stupid. Giving up one of the most promising young big men in the league for a true star with several years of prime left like KG is one thing; dealing him for a dinged up 34-year-old on the decline like Jason Kidd is another altogether. That's a panic move, and yet I hear tons of Laker fans pushing for this to happen. I understand their impatience--I too feel like Kobe's prime is being wasted--but impatience isn't reason enough to throw away the future on something that still won't get the Lakers to the next level.