NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Pau Gasol brings scoring to the Lakers

The Lakers essentially traded less than nothing to the Lakers for Pau Gasol.

In an unbelievable pickup the Lakers are right back in the hunt for the NBA Championship.

Wait a minute, is Pau that good?

No, but that is the beauty of it all, Pau Gasol does not have to be that good.

Right now he is a fill in for Andrew Bynum. When Bynum gets back you have a Pau Gasol that can put up points in the triangle offense, get some rebounds, give the Lakers more length, and present a mismatch on the floor at all times.

Have you ever seen this guy play?

He has a funky release on his jump shot, but it consistently goes in. Pau can knock down mid-range after mid-range jump shot with that funky release.

Other GM’s in the league are shaking their heads.

Around the league, the reaction of executives and coaches was unanimous: What a nightmare for us. When reached with the news, one Western Conference executive said simply, “Are you kidding? (Expletive) me.” source

They just realized that you will not get Kobe in a trade from the Lakers, he is going nowhere now and that the Lakers are for real. Suddenly Lamar Odom is a distant fourth option on this team.

Kobe celebrated by putting up 47 points on the Raptors.

David Stern

Think of the wild thoughts going through the Commissioner’s head right now. He has the golden memories of all those Boston LA series with Larry Bird of the Big Three vs. Magic Johnson and Kareem Jabbar.

Now, Stern is thinking Kevin Garnett of the Big Three (Ray Allen, Paul Pierce) vs. Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum.

Stern is smart enough to see he role the Pau plays in this and also to see the immense marketing dollars.

Funny how a single trade of a guy that no one was talking about can change things so quickly.

As for Memphis? They are just unloading salary and cleaning house. They are pathetic and know it. Time to start over.

NBA Basketball Fan Question Has Mitch Kupchak delivered?

As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

More blogs about basketball.

NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Man, oh man. What is Isiah thinking now? He talks about winning championships in New York. He talks about staying and winning with some of the guys he has now.

What is he thinking?

Now as a long time Piston fan there is a soft spot in my heart for Isiah. He came to the Pistons as a small guard leaving Indiana early. He talked about winning championships. Isiah won championships.

Almost immediately he made the team better back then. He was full of fire and felt unstoppable. Every year he added something to his game.

As better players surrounded him, he played even better and took over the leadership role of the team backed by Bill Laimbeer.

Now with the New York Knicks, Isiah is still talking Championships.

I believe in (the team) and I believe that this is also the time that you can make serious mistakes with your roster that could set you back another three, four years,” Thomas said. “We have good talent, we have good players, we have young players.

“We have a good nucleus and we just (need) them to play well together. It’s not about breaking them up or tearing them down, it’s about getting them to play better as a team.” source

Do we believe him?

Thrown out

Remember, the Pistons Bill Davidson, the owner, threw him out. Read more

NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Who was that masked man?

Boston continues to roll, just stocking up on victories left and right. The Celtics are also getting all the pub that goes with it.

Geez, Garnett is even leading LeBron James in the All Star voting! There are not any Pistons even close in the voting.

And then there is the Big Three thing with Garnett, Allen, and Pierce, as they hope to imitate some of the success of the real Big Three of Bird, McHale, and Parish.

All of this kind of leaves the Pistons lurking in the shadows.

If you happened to catch the Pistons playing the Celtics in Beantown the other week, you witnessed a playoff style game with the Pistons pulling it out in the end. In other words both teams were really trying the whole game.

Now the Pistons are putting on an impressive streak of games and the NBA better look up and Read more

NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Danny Ainge can’t help but be happy these days

Who can forget all the epic battles with the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers. Boston had an unbelievable starting lineup with Dennis Johnson and Danny Ainge complementing the big three of Robert Big Chief Parish, Kevin McHale, and Larry Bird.

When my Pistons played them, it was pick your poison. Stop Parish, McHale and Bird would score. Stop McHale, Parish and Bird would score. Stop B…well, you never really stopped Larry Bird.

NBA Basketball Robert Parish factoid Did you know that Robert Parish played in 1,611 NBA games? More than any other NBA player.

Now there is a new trio in town with some connections to the old group. Kevin McHale pulled the trigger on the trade that sent Kevin Garnett to Boston. Danny Ainge is the GM in Boston and also picked up Ray Allen in another off season trade. Larry is still around as well, as GM of the Pacers. Read more

NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Visit my companion blog on the NFL at Squibkick.com

Hey you, sort of star, will you play with me?

Jermaine was under the tutelage of Rasheed Wallace when he played on the Portland Trailblazers, at the beginning of the Jailblazer time period. During those 4 years he barely played and barely scored, but everyone knew he would be a good one. Jermaine was drafted straight out of High School. The next 7 years with the Pacers established Jermaine as a rare 20 - 10 man as he averaged close to 20 points and 10 rebounds.

There is still a bitter taste in O’Neal’s mouth, because he never won a title. Some of those teams with Reggie Miller were pretty good teams, but always ran into someone like the Pistons and were stopped. The Pistons had Rasheed and he had the uncanny knack of shutting down Jermaine at all the right times.

Eventually, Reggie left and then there was Ron Artest and the Malice at the Palace with the Pistons. Read more