Thrill of the chase

In blockbuster-mad West, Lakers may be big winner

By Steve Aschburner

Growing up as I did in a city where dead people voted, it’s no big deal now to cover a league in which retired people get traded.

What worked so well for so long for the Democrats in Chicago elections seems to be the ticket now for stirring the big pot of NBA player movement as Thursday’s trade deadline approaches.

If packaging Aaron McKie and Keith Van Horn in major transactions long past the point of their hardwood usefulness and ever so close to their NBAPA pensions can facilitate trades of marquee names such as Pau Gasol and Jason Kidd, imagine how the East and West landscapes might shift once Reggie Miller, Larry Bird, Walt Frazier, Oscar Robertson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Michael Jordan hit the peddlers’ market again.

Now if only there were some way to combine the two charades — the habit of Chicago election monitors to look the other way when Harold Washington, Mike Royko, John Belushi, Al Capone and Mrs. O’Leary (of cow fame) show up to mark their ballots, and the NBA’s collectively bargained, overly complicated and self-mocking trade rules — we’d really have something to talk and write about this week. The mind boggles at what Wilt Chamberlain, Pete Maravich or George Mikan could bring back in trade.

How this Sixth Sense strategy of building out and legitimizing trade packages (I see dead careers. And pay $4.3 million for them) looks better to commissioner David Stern and his integrity cops than Jerry Stackhouse flaunting the 30-day rule for re-signing with the club that just dealt you is a story for another day. What we do know is that the tactic has enabled and escalated an arms race in the Western Conference that, successful or not come June, has made for some dynamite theater between now and May.

If the Los Angeles Lakers don’t surprise everyone — and offend San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich’s sense of fair-market value, if not fair play — by landing Gasol at a bargain price from Memphis (including McKie’s rusty services), then the Phoenix Suns probably don’t risk their magnificently tuned Ferrari attack by hitching a Winnebago to the back bumper. Bad enough that Shaquille O’Neal’s Superman alter ego got appropriated by Dwight Howard in the slam dunk contest last weekend; what’s worse is that O’Neal looks to have downed a few too many Kryptonite cocktails this season, to the point he is more a Man of Steal Money than the Man of Steel.

Still, if the Suns don’t gamble on O’Neal, the Dallas Mavericks maybe don’t try and try again to procure Kidd’s services from the New Jersey Nets. The Mavs, of course, had to sacrifice; they no longer can drool over the prospect of Kidd craftily passing on the break to Van Horn’s cleaned-pressed-closeted-and-musty jersey. But they did manage to keep Devean George, who set an unofficial NBA record by committing a blocking foul on a half dozen players, two franchises and tens of thousands of fans, all at once. And Stackhouse, too, minus the sort of loophole leaps that make tax attorneys rich while keeping their clients that way.

That puts it to Denver, Utah, Houston, San Antonio, New Orleans and Portland to call, raise or fold through deals or no-deals of their own. (Golden State must have gotten confused, going the cemetery route by digging up Chris Webber, but then keeping him). Names of players such as Mike Miller, Andre Miller, Ron Artest, Ben Gordon, Sam Cassell and Vince Carter still were being bandied about this week, and if any of them ended up with a Western Conference contender, the ante would be upped all over again.

“People in the West are getting stronger because of the Spurs,” Kevin Garnett told USA Today. “The Spurs are the best team in the league. Yo don’t have to go by records; they’re the champions. Phoenix made their move because of the Spurs. I think the Lakers made their moves because of the Spurs.”

The Spurs’ big move, to this point, was adding point guard Damon Stoudamire, but more out of need in Tony Parker’s injury absence than as a move to intimidate or overpower. Still, it was one more NBA brand name moving to the West’s upper division.

Speaking of which …

“It’s about time for Kevin Garnett to come back to the West, isn’t it?” Minnesota coach Randy Wittman said just before the All-Star break, on the night the first permutation of the Kidd trade leaked out.

If the Lakers, the Suns or the Mavericks manage to reach the NBA Finals this spring, simple cause-and-effect assumptions will chalk up their 2008 success to the winners’ recent gutsy move. Shaq will have fixed Phoenix’s size problem, Gasol will have given the Lakers needed frontcourt scoring or Kidd will have imposed order on and injected energy into Dallas’ attack.

Two out of those three teams, though, will have their maneuvers dismissed as unsuccessful, unnecessary, maybe even mistaken, because they won’t advance much further than before. And if the Spurs win again, or the Hornets, Rockets or Nuggets break through, the whole concept of an on-the-fly, February makeover might take a hit that lasts for years.

Except, that is, for the Lakers. While the Suns’ and Mavericks’ moves were made for now, Los Angeles’ low-cost addition of Gasol, 27, was done for now and for later.

That’s why, on the eve of his team’s extended break, Lakers coach Phil Jackson sported that bemused, cat-ate-the-canary look he does so well. First he poked a needle at the Mavericks and those who instantly classified their deal with New Jersey as the “Kidd trade.”

“I was a Devin Harris fan, so you know, I’m happy to see him in the East, personally,” Jackson said. “He’s a good player, took a lot of charges, an improving player, one of those young kids with good energy. Got the ball back for his team a lot. I know they’ll miss him. But this is a trade that brings a lot of veteran leadership to Dallas.”

Then Jackson agreed when I suggested his team’s deal had more “legs” than those of Phoenix or Dallas.

“There’s some truth to that,” he said. “Obviously, Dallas gave up some first-round draft picks, though they’re going to be 25 [spots] or so down. Phoenix is sitting there with some older players, especially [Steve] Nash in that situation.

“I just asked [my] coaches, ‘Does Dallas feel like a team whose window is starting to close on them, with [Dirk] Nowitzki at 30 [actually 29]?’ Some people say yes. I still think he’s got three or four good years left. But yeah, it looks that way. On paper it does.”

If healthy and motivated, of course, O’Neal still could warp opponents’ game plans down the stretch and make life miserable for someone in a seven-game series. If happy and motivated, Kidd in his own way could do likewise, maybe even taking the Mavericks two victories beyond their 2006 success/setback.

“He’s the ultimate point guard,” said Wittman, whose team faced Kidd and the Nets twice in three weeks before All-Star weekend. “He controls everything. He’ll fit right in there, no question about it. He’s just so good at understanding situations, where the ball has to be and when it has to be there. Hurts you if you leave him open for a jump shot.

“The big thing, everybody is going to weigh this three, four years from now, seeing Devin Harris maybe being an All-Star somewhere and Kidd’s retired, sitting in his rocking chair.”

Cue Jackson’s grin. His Lakers team is as deep as any he has had, in talented, malleable players. Bryant’s damaged right pinky finger is a dilemma and a potentially fatal flaw for this postseason, and Andrew Bynum’s expected March return from a left knee injury is a challenge for him and those with whom he’ll play. But Gasol is, if not forever, at least a likely fixture. Los Angeles is 5-1 since Gasol moved into the starting lineup, all those games on the road.

“He’s an agile athlete,” Jackson said. “He can do a lot of things. His mobility and his basketball savvy has helped us along. We’re still adjusting to how to play with him at the defensive end. He has worked out quite well offensively.”

Does Gasol make more sense for the Lakers, as the West superpowers muscle up, than O’Neal in Phoenix or Kidd in Dallas?

“Let’s see how it fits together,” Jackson said. “We still have a large order to come, with Andrew getting back and playing this year. If and when he does, that will be a major adjustment for our team. But right now, it fits really well.”

Steve Aschburner covered the Minnesota Timberwolves and the NBA for 13 seasons for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He has served as president or vice president of the Professional Basketball Writers Association since 2005.  Here