Turiaf A Warrior; Sonics Get New Identity; Sparks Brawl

As much as I loved Turiaf's energy and enthusiasm, at 4 years and $17 million, I'm kind of glad the Lakers didn't match the offer sheet. Question now is, what are they going to do with the money saved? I've been hearing grumblings that they probably won't do much because they feel a healthy Chris Mihm would help fill the void left behind by Turiaf, and thensome. James Posey is now a New Orleans Hornet, so you can scratch him off the list. And other teams may have better offers on the table for Ron Artest, leaving the Lakers looking elsewhere. Perhaps Artest still becomes a free agent after the coming season and signs with the Lakers anyway.

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The old Seattle Supersonics, who were recently approved to move to Oklahoma City, now have a new name: the Oklahoma City Thunder. I was thinking something more along the lines of Tornados since they tend to get quite a few of them in Oklahoma, but I guess they get a lot of thunderstorms too. Be interesting to see the new team logo.

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Anyone by any chance catch that WNBA brawl the other night between the Sparks and Detroit Shock? Who says women can't fight?! One player, Cheryl Ford of Detroit, former NBA legend Karl Malone's daughter, was accidently knocked over by one of her own teammates during the melee, and wound up with a torn ACL and is done for the season. Detroit's assistant coach, former Detroit Piston 'Bad Boy' Rick Mahorn from those late 1980s championship teams, was ejected, and ultimately suspended, for apparently shoving the Sparks' Lisa Leslie to the floor. Numerous suspensions and fines were handed down to players, including Leslie, and teammate Candace Parker, who was part of the two plays that initiated the brawl, receiving one game each. Here's how it went down...

Turiaf Signs Offer Sheet

Restricted free-agent Ronny Turiaf signed a 4 year, $17 million offer sheet with Golden State today, meaning the Lakers now have seven days to match it or lose the player. This could be a blow to the Lakers depth charts at the power forward/center positions. Stay tuned...

Vujacic And Turiaf Get Qualifying Offers

In a much anticipated and expected move, the Lakers have extended qualifying offers to both Sasha Vujacic and Rony Turiaf, making them restricted free agents. The Lakers now have a week to match any other offer each of the players receive.

Let The Rumors Begin

Here we go! The fun part of the off-season: the trade and free agent rumors before free agency. And the Lakers are right in the middle of it all.

Despite coming two wins shy of their 15th title in franchise history, the Lakers will obviously be looking to find ways to improve the roster. Here's what we know so far:

• Trevor Ariza exercised the option on his contract, and will return next season.
• Chris Mihm will not opt out of his contract, and will also be returning next season.
• Salary cap restrictions will make it difficult for the Lakers to be active in the free-agent market if they intend to re-sign restricted free agents Rony Turiaf and Sasha Vujacic.
• Lamar Odom could be on the trading block with one year left on his contract.

Now for the BIG rumor: word is circulating around Laker and Sacramento King-land that Kings forward Ron Artest will opt out of his contract to sign a mid-level exception contract with the Lakers. This hasn't been confirmed obviously, and Artest has already indicated he's 99.9% sure he won't opt out. Obviously he's not going to say anything else otherwise until he actually does opt out. But word is he wants to play with Lamar Odom (even though other rumors suggest he could be traded to clear salary cap space) and Kobe. Either way, adding a player of Artest's stature would certainly help the Lakers, primarily because he's a defensive specialist who also happens to average about 18 points a game. This could be a HUGE signing if everything falls into place. Stay tuned...

Lakers Dominate S.A. Heading to Texas

Talk about two games completely opposite of each other. The Lakers looked lost, confused and tired for about two and a half quarters in game one Wednesday, and found themselves trailing by 20 points with a little over five minutes left in the third quarter. Since then, the Lakers have outscored the Spurs by a whopping 54 points. They rallied to beat the Spurs in Game 1, 89-85, behind Kobe Bryant's 25 second half points, and then demolished the Spurs last night in Game 2, 101-71.

Last night's game was a pretty evenly matched game, until the Lakers broke a 37-37 tie with a 9-0 run to end the first half. They never looked back. They've been getting some expected contributions from the usual suspects: Kobe, Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol, Derek Fisher; and from the role players: Vladdy Radmanovic, Sasha Vujacic, Jordan Farmar, Luke Walton, Rony Turiaf. And it's generally been someone different stepping up with key baskets and big plays defensively. In Game 1, it was Sasha. Last night it was Farmar. And in the meantime, everyone else has been consistent offensively and defensively.

The series heads to San Antonio now for Games 3 (Sunday night at 7:30pm CT) and 4 (Tuesday night), and it's obviously extremely pertinent for the Lakers to maintain, and even increase their intensity. The Spurs won't be a pushover on their home court. Split on the road and come home and take care of business!

10 down, 6 wins to go to #15.

Lakers Rockin' 'n' Rollin' Again

Since acquiring Pau Gasol, the Lakers have gone an impressive 4-1 on the road trip (4-2 overall on the trip with three more to play), including an impressive 117-113 win tonight in Orlando. How impressive you might ask? Well, in two of the games, Kobe scored a total of 17 points (he injured a finger on his shooting hand against Jersey when he jammed the finger trying to steal the ball from Jason Kidd in the second quarter of that 105-90 win on Tuesday night, the first of those two games), and tonight, the Lakers gave up 44 points in the first quarter, and were down 11 after the quarter, and led by one at the half and by 11 after three quarters.

What's really surprising me is how quickly the team has turned it around after its little funk with Kwame Brown playing the bulk of the minutes at center before last week's trade. Even more amazing is the production the Lakers continue to get from the bench. One night it's Turiaf; another night it's Farmar; another night it's Radmanovic (when he isn't starting). Tonight, as it has been on several occassions, it was Sasha Vujacic, who scored 10 points off the bench. The bulk of tonight's scoring came from the starters, though. Kobe led the way with 36 while adding 11 boards and 6 assists. Pau added 30 and 9 boards and D-Fish, Odom and Radmanovic had 14 (and 7 assists), 12 and 10, respectively.

Next up for the Lakers is Miami on Sunday, an intriguing match-up for a couple of reasons. Two nights ago, the Heat and Phoenix Suns pulled off the second stunning trade in the league in a week when Miami sent former Laker superstar center Shaquille O'Neal to the Suns in exchange for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks. My reaction? Why, Phoenix, why? They had the best record in the West. Everything was hunky-dory in Phoenix. Why mess with something if it isn't broken? Shaq is a soon-to-be 36-year old over-the-hill, overweight log who can't run anymore, isn't very mobile anymore, still can't shoot free throws and he can barely get his feet off the floor when he jumps. Oh, not too mention he's injury-prone. And let's not forget... Phoenix LOVES to run! So basically they just traded arguably their most athletic player and pure scorer in Marion, for an aging guy who can't get up and down the floor anymore in a run-and-gun offense. Good luck Phoenix!