Are the Lakers better without Bynum?

As good as the Lakers were with Andrew Bynum in the lineup, I think they have been better with Gasol. AND I think it is possible that their best rotation is the one they have now. There is a mindset (proclaimed with much veracity by Stephen A. Smith) that when Bynum comes back, the Lakers will be even better and the favorites to come out of the Western Conference.

I must supply some caution to this way of thinking because addition of a good player does not always equate to a better team. The case study that gives me pause is the Phoenix Suns the year Amare Stoudemire came back from injury. Boris Diaw had been playing out of his mind including receiving the 2005-06 Most Improved Player of the Year. When Stoudemire came back the next year the team was good, but it did not necessarily improve. Diaw's production fell way off and has not been the same since (from 13-6-6 to now 8-4-4). Now, I know this example isn't a one-to-one correlation with the Lakers situation, but it is a cautionary tale. Maybe Bynum comes back and the Lakers cruise their way to Kobe's first Shaq-less championship, but I can see a scenario where the Lakers struggle to incorporate Bynum back into the mix. When Bynum returns: Gasol may not be as effective, Odom will have the potential to become even more nondescript than he at times is, and Kobe feeling the pressure to make good on the expectations that others place on the team (having such a potent line-up on paper) tries to do too much and ends up hurting the team.

Just a thought...

Update 3/17: I initially inked this to be posted over 2 weeks ago, but since then Mr. Gasol has sustained an ankle injury and it is showing how much the Lakers miss him in the middle.

Over analysis of the Shaq trade

It's only been 3 games into the Shaq experiment with the Suns and I have found the over analysis of the trade up to this point whimsical . After the first game against the Lakers, a Suns loss, there were favorable reviews. After the second game, a win against the Celtics, Shaq's 14 rebounds was lauded as the reason why he was brought to the Suns. After the third game, a blowout loss to my beloved Pistons, I heard a TV talking head say Shaq has turned the Suns into the Heat. Here are the facts - the Suns have played 3 of the best teams in the NBA and with or without that trade, they quite possibly would have had a 1-2 record in this stretch. Shaq just played in his 3rd game since Jan 21, he is in a completely different offensive system, and he wasn't brought in to help the Suns win regular season games where they consistently ran at a high tempo. The Suns traded for him in order to give themselves a fighting chance against other Western Conference foes with strong inside presences (Lakers, Spurs, Jazz, Houston) in the playoffs, when the game tends to be played more in the half court. To me, analysis this early is pointless because of a) lack of data and b) the period to analyze this trade is the playoffs, not the regular season.