"AK/BK: A Laker draft and trades thread, please."
                                                                      —Laker Tom

"AK/BK. Only 28 days until the draft. Can we start talking about the players the Lakers have scheduled for workouts?"
                                                                      —Jon Kavulic

As always, BK and I remain men of the people. And to spark a little conversation, here's a list of those who did or will work out for Sly and the Family Kupchak, courtesy of Hoopsworld.com.

Kenny Adeleke, Arron Afflalo, Maurice Ager, Morris Almond, Louis Amundson, Jose Juan Barea, Will Blalock, Cedric Bozeman, Dee Brown, Paul Davis, Guillermo Diaz, Mike Efevberha, Jordan Farmar, Nick Fazekas, Thomas Gardener, Taj Gray, Matt Haryasz, Shawn Hawkins, Chris Hernandez, Ryan Hollins, Daniel Horton, Alexander Johnson, Bobby Jones, Daniel Kickert, Tarence Kinsey, Christian Maraker, Gerry McNamara, Paul Milsap, Yemi Nicholson, Steve Novak, Kevin Pittsnogle, Leon Powe, Chris Quinn, Brandon Roy, Julian Sensley, Marcus Vinicius, Viera De Souza, James White, Eric Williams, Shawne Williams, Shelden Williams, Tang Zhengdong.

If you're drafting purely on "name" upside, the Lakers will absolutely take Tang Zhengdong. Sure, he doesn't really fill a need. But aside from a sweet moniker, the guy's "age is mysterious." What more do you want?

For more of the article's info, click here.

Enjoy.

—AK

With Miami's 89-78 win over Detroit last night, Shaq Daddy is one game away from the Finals. One game away from a shot at the Larry O'Brien. One game away from a chance to swing the whole "Shaq/Kobe" breakup in his favor. Yes, Kobe hoisted a group of YMCA players onto his back and nearly beat the Suns, but if Shaq wins another title he'll see some serious glory and at least some of that will be to Kobe's detriment (even if the engine that powers Miami's ship is named Wade...). Not that it's necessarily deserved, but it'll happen.

So here's the question. Are you past the whole breakup? Are you willing to let Shaq have another moment of glory? Maybe you actually still like the guy — there are such people, but many have, at least on this site, been forced into hiding — and will smile at his success. If not, please rate your level of anger on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being "I'm happy for the Diesel," 10 being "I couldn't be angrier if the Diesel himself came over to my house and keyed my car, stole my significant other, kicked my dog, and ate all the food in the fridge."

Me? I'm at about a five. Honestly, when the championship Lakers broke up, I said that both Shaq and Kobe deserved to live out a titleless career for not allowing their egos to recognize how good they had it in L.A. together, at least in a world where karmic energy plays some sort of role. So on the one hand, I don't think Shaq should get it. Plus, I don't like the notion of Antoine Walker with a ring. On the other hand, I do like D-Wade, and 'Zo has earned a little hardware, considering what he's gone through. So I can't say I'd be thrilled, but I won't be jumping off any overpasses onto the 101, either.

—BK

P.S.: Does the Riley factor make Miami winning more or less appealing to you?

As BK and I take things down a notch (this will be the last new post for about a week, unless any Laker related news items pop up, of course), we wanted to quickly express our gratitude to the blogging nation. Your active, loyal and enthusiastic readership has been an integral part of this blog's energy. The Times considered its foray into sports blogging to be a huge success and that couldn't have happened without you. So again, thank you. We appreciate it.

Also, a reminder. BK and I will be checking and updating the comments, so feel free to keep leaving comments on this thread. We'll do our best to keep your banter going during our brief hiatus.

Enjoy.

—AK

Hey, even bloggers don't want to get an incomplete on their report cards, so without further delay, here are my final grades...which coincidentally will be our final act for the season on the Lakers Blog.

Actually, it won't be that dramatic, but we are going to take a little break after this post. We'll keep the comments updated and obviously will throw up news if it should break out, but assuming things stay quiet through the rest of the playoffs (as they usually do), we're going to scale it back. When we return, we plan on posting a couple times a week until stuff really heats up on the hot stove. 

So here you go—more debate fodder. As a reminder, here are my first half grades:

As we prepare to shift into it's the off-season, there isn't nearly as much to talk about, plus the Times isn't paying us our full rate while the team's on hiatus, so we're gonna start posting a little less mode, I wanted to add at least one more entry that provides closure of sorts. And few things in life provide closure like a final report card. They pretty much left no ambiguity when it came to summing up how mediocre I did in high school. Anyhoo, grades were once again assessed, along with the usual peanut gallery remarks. And I'm sure BK will chime in with his two cents soon enough.

If you want to reference the first half report card, here it is.

Here's the rest of Mitch's final conference, with my comments in italics.

—BK

On Kobe and USA Basketball:

"We talked a little about that in our exit meeting. They start towards the middle of July in Las Vegas and they travel quite a bit. They're in Vegas, they go to Korea, they go to Japan. And then once they're in Japan they make a stop or two before they finally get to the finals, hopefully, which is right outside Tokyo. (They have five games of pool play?) That's correct. I saw Coach Krzyzewski in Phoenix two days ago (this would have been around the first weekend in May), we talked for about 20 minutes about what his vision was for the Olympic team. How he hoped to play with the talent that he had on the team. With Jerry Colangelo lurking in the shadows and with Coach Krzyzewski's feel for players, I don't expect to see two-a-day practices that go three hours that players get burned out at. I expect to see a group of players that are going to practice hard, (but) I don't think they'll jeopardize their careers with overpractice and fatigue, and they have a certain vision for the type of basketball they'd like to play as well, which I think fits with what Kobe feels as well going forward."

Do you expect Sasha and Ronny to play for their respective teams?

"Well Lamar is (going as well). Lamar and Kobe for USA Basketball, Ronny would be for the French National Team, and Sasha would be for the Slovenian National Team. I think it's possible that all four of those players would be on their national teams this summer."

Was it hard for you and Coach K to talk? Duke and North Carolina?

"Not with this year's recruiting class at Carolina. (laughter) Actually, as you know, we interviewed him two years ago and I have a relationship with him. He's very easy to talk to."

Sorry. After five or so of these, I'm starting to get a little punchy. As promised, here is the transcript from Mitch Kupchak's final press conference of the year. The second half will be up ASAP. Particularly interesting are the parts where he talks about trading Kobe*.

*(Ed. note: may not have actually happened.)

Opening statement:

"We're pleased. Our goal was to make the playoffs. We maintained from day one that that's something we thought was achievable. We'd gone on record and said that was a goal of ours, that we thought this team was good enough to make the playoffs, and we did make the playoffs. We played very well, in particular the second half of the season. And as you know, started out the playoffs and played really well. I don't think our play throughout the playoffs diminished with the exception of Game 7. I think Phoenix got over the fact that they were behind quickly, and their game improved as the playoffs went along. That may have had something to do with the way the playoffs ended, but that's a credit to them. They recovered from being down 3-1 and they played very well. Certainly losing Game 7 in the manner that we lost it was disappointing, and that took a little bit of the glow off of our achievements. But here it is two days out (the interview took place last Monday), we're over the shock of losing a playoff series. But in retrospect, we thought we had a good season and our future is very bright with young players going forward."

Kobe and Sir Charles may not see eye to eye, but at least they got to clear the air between them. Kobe dropped by the TNT set last night and explained his side of things when it came to the "controversial" 3-shot second half of game 7 against Phoenix. Those foolishly counting on some Octagon-worthy action were likely disappointed.  Either way, there was one thing Kobe and the Chuckster absolutely agreed on: The Lakers shooting guard is a first team All-NBA kinda guy. A nice honor for Bryant, whose face now hurts a little less.

This has nothing to do with Kobe, but it's hilarious.

Not that this provides a whole lot more than what you already knew, but we wanna keep you in the loop as much as possible.

AK

Last night, much of the Laker Nation was convinced they'd somehow smoked some serious crack, despite having no recollection of ever sucking on a pipe. But how else could one explain seeing one Jack Nicholson, a Lakers fan nobody can accuse of faking the funk, sitting courtside in Phoenix to cheer on the Clippers? For many a card carrying member of the Laker faithful, this sat worse than Lindsay Lohan trying to negotiate her chair after an 11th appletini. The only thing worse than bandwagoneers wearing newly purchased "Bryant" jerseys come playoff time is seeing a theoretically "true fan" putting his Ocho jersey in a drawer and throwing on a red afro wig. Such actions prompt cries of "unpardonable sin!" But does it actually deserve such wrath? Can a Laker fan, their team now done until October, actually hold his head high while yelling, "Go Sam I Am!" Would you be okay with it?

My personal opinion? No worries. The Lakers are hands down my favorite team in the NBA, but the Clippers have always been my runner up, other than a brief phase when my appreciation for KG made me a semi-Wolves rooter (unless they battled the Lakers, of course). I've always had some love for the Clips. Truth be told, there's not a ton to hate about them, especially with the Kandi Man now on the east coast. Dunleavy's a good coach and a pretty nice guy. Great young players like Maggette, Kaman, Livingston, etc. And as my MVP vote made clear, I certainly admire Elton Brand's game. But even if I didn't appreciate any of those elements, I still don't think there's anything about the Clips worthy of prompting Lakerdom fury. Yeah, there's a legit rivalry in the making. A few years (and a few heated series) down the road, I may snarl at Sterling's Soldiers the way I rooted against Team C-Webb/Bibby/Mr. Jackie Christie. But for now, I don't understand how a Lakers fan could truly hate the Clips. They've been too harmless. I totally understand why a Clippers fan would hate the purple and gold. The franchise has (rightfully) made anyone rooting L.A.'s "other team" feel somewhere between eighth class citizen and delusional masochist. It's enough to make you hate yourself, much less an organization in the same area code that's contintually flirting with dynasties. But a Lakers fan hating the Clips? Why bother? It's like a St. Louis Cardinals fan actually loathing the Cubs. Chicago's been to the playoffs 4 times since the first Reagan administration and remains powerless to the curse of a goat. They're hardly worth mustering up the energy required to hate them. And when it comes down to it, the Clippers are representing your city. They make noise. L.A. makes noise. Simple as that.

Unless you'd prefer silence, thank you very much. Many folks believe a Lakers fan roots one team and one team only. The Lakers. From the start of the preseason until the season ends. Then said fan goes into hibernation until Bynum and Wafer are suiting up for Summer Pro League. And if you did somehow justify rooting for a second team, it ain't gonna be no squad sharing quarters with the purple and gold. That's borderline incest, man! You wouldn't root to hook up with your cousin, would you? (And if you would, just keep it to yourself!) Besides, the further the Suns advance, the more street cred the Lakers get for losing to them. It's a lot easier for some to handle losing to the Western Conference champs than some clowns eliminated in the semi's. By osmosis, the better the Suns postseason, the better the Lakers postseason. Hell, let them win the whole thing. Yeah, it would really suck to see Raja Bell slip some bling on his finger. But if it somehow grants more credence to the Lakers' '05-'06, there's comfort to be had.

So where do you come down on all this. Happy to see Jack in Phoenix representing L.A.? Or pissed enough to toss out your DVD of A Few Good Men? Be sure to explain either opinion.

AK