The hard fought battle between “Underused and Underappreciated Yet Not Quite Star-Level Restricted Free Agents” and “Foolish NBA GM’s” is starting to heat up. Josh Childress, representing the former, made like France and ran to Greece. But lest we confuse this tactic of playing overseas with retreating, remember that the players are screwing over their clubs, too.

And the latest guy thinking about rolling out … the one … the only … the VUCHINE. (/single tear) That’s right. The LA TIMES reports that Sasha Vujacic, a.k.a. The Machine, could be leaving the country for Europe as well, if the Lakers don’t pony up more money than their minimal offer sheet.
Read more…

Lakers TV announcer John Ireland sent over a note today that gave us a smile:

“I just checked www.linesmaker.com and for what it’s worth, the Lakers are now the favorites to win the NBA Championship at 2-1. The Celtics are 5-2; the Spurs 6-1 and Pistons 15-2. Suns are 7-1 for now. How crazy is that?”

Yes, for Lakers fans, like us, that’s good news. But not necessarily for the reasons you may think.

Read more…

Thanks in part to Kobe Bryant, Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak has been the most maligned man in the 213 for some time now. Most of the criticism has been deserved. The drafts, trades and acquisitons by Kupchak since taking over for Jerry West have been largely dreadful, and have set the Lakers into steady decline.

But Kupchak (and Jim Buss, to be fair) has stuck to his guns on Andrew Bynum. Considering the way Kobe called the kid out over the summer, Kupchak’s intractable, untradable stance on the former first rounder is astonishing. And as it turns out, correct.

UPDATE: Man, this really sucks. Poor kid.