Deng or Kobe, hmmm...

Anyone still want Luol Deng? Didn't think so.
Ingnore the numbers from yesterday. Pay more attention to the records of the two teams. The Bulls, toiling at the bottom of a weak Eastern Conference while the Lakers compete with the big boys out west. The Lakers supporting cast is much improved, no doubt. I mean look at Sasha Vujacic's 19 point effort last night, to lead all Lakers, in the 103-91 win over the Bulls. That followed a 14 point game for him against the Clippers. But truth be told, give Kobe the Bulls supporting cast and they would have a better record than Lakers.

Deng is a terrific complementary player. He's a mid range jump shooter with a high basketball IQ. He's Carlton compared to Will Smith. He's great when you put him around stars, but can't carry others on his shoulders.

By the way, Ben Wallace had 5 rebounds in 28 minutes. I'll just continue to say I told you so. I bet they wish they had Tyson Chandler back.

Chandler is averaging 11.6 rebounds per game to Wallace's 8.7. On top of that, he adds 11.6 points also, to Wallace's 4.5. He also shoot 58% from the field to Wallace's 34% and makes $5 million a year less than Wallace.
John Paxson= smaaaaart.

And then also:
Kevin O'Neill will officially succeed Lute Olson when Arizona's coach legendary coach decides to retire. That could be sooner than some think. Sources tell me Olson may never coach again. One source even went as far to say that he'd bet $100 bucks Olson would not come back.


As always, an updated Lakers +/- (through 24 games) Lakers: 15-9, 5th in West

(Note: technically the Lakers are 4th in West, but since Denver is leading the Northwest division, they would receive the higher seed. Still, the Lakers, who would face Denver in the first round in the 4/5 matchup, would have the homecourt advantage. Sidenote: Having three divisions is stupid.)

Fisher +64
Kobe +102
Turiaf -17
Odom +61
Mihm -19
Walton +86
Bynum +123
Farmar +81
Radmanovic +137
Brown -5
Vujacic +24
Crittenton -19
Karl +5
Ariza -4

Up Next: at Cleveland, Thursday 5 p.m. PST