Kobe rips Lakers over Gasol rumors

PHOENIX — With the Lakers sort of slouching, as evidenced by Sunday’s 102-90 loss at Phoenix, the attendant hand-wringing has been inspiring rumors of roster upheaval starring Pau Gasol.

But the Laker with a trade chip on his shoulder is superstar Kobe Bryant, who lashed out at management, saying, ''If they're going to do something, I wish they would just (expletive) do it.''

''He's been the consummate professional,'' Bryant said after the Lakers’ three-game win streak ended. ''He's going out and he's trying to do what he can. But let's be real. If you didn't know you were going to be here tomorrow, if your head's on the chopping block and you feel like you're just waiting, it's tough to put all of yourself in the game.''

Gasol trade rumors began before the season when the Lakers thought they had shipped him to New Orleans in deal that would have brought them Chris Paul. Commissioner David Stern blocked the trade.

“It's hard for Pau because of all this trade talk and stuff,'' Bryant said, bringing up the subject without any prompting. ''It's hard for him to kind of invest himself completely or immerse himself completely into games when he's hearing trade talk every other day. I wish management would either come out and either trade him or not trade him.''

Bryant said the Lakers have the foundation for another run at the NBA title with Gasol, who had 17 points and 12 rebounds in the loss to Phoenix — slightly better than his season averages.

''It obviously starts with myself and Pau and the emergency of Andrew (Bynum),'' Bryant said, ''but you can't have one of our pillars not knowing if he's going to be here or not. Do something. One way or another, do something. If they trade him, at least you have some type of closure.''

Bryant, as usual, was the last player to speak to reporters Sunday night. Gasol already had left after talking about the game but mentioning nothing about a potential trade.

''I talked to him a little bit about it,'' Bryant said. ''It's just tough for a player to give his all when you don't know if you're going to be here tomorrow. So I'd rather them not trade him at all. If they were going to do something, I wish they would just (expletive) do it. If they're not going to do it, come out and say you're not going to do it. This way he can be comfortable, he can go out and perform and he can play and he can invest all of himself in the game.''

In addition to personnel roulette, another of this season's popular NBA activities has been listing reasons the Lakers have reached the predicament stage.

For starters, they're not quite as defensive as first-year coach Mike Brown becomes when his preferred style of play is accused of lacking in entertainment value. For the record, that mighty triangle offense presided over by Phil Jackson didn't exactly function through excessive speed or fancy maneuvers. But when LA Times columnist T.J. Simers put Brown in the crosshairs regarding the Lakers' reduced watchability, Brown's published responses indicated this team would be built on defense.

Well, that perception's a bit exaggerated. Just ask Suns coach Alvin Gentry.

"Less possessions," Gentry said when asked before tip-off to gauge the Lakers' improved defensive prowess. "If there's less possessions, you give up fewer points and you're thought of as being better defensively."

The Lakers entered the game ranked fourth in points allowed per game (90.7). They coughed up 95.4 in Jackson's last campaign (eighth in the league), but what we really need to look at is points per 100 possessions, which gives us a team's defensive efficiency.

The Lakers were sitting at 100.4 this season, compared with 104.3 last season. Wow, an uprising of defense. But NBA offenses pretty much stink across the board in this post-lockout hay ride, with the Lakers ranked only 10th in defensive efficiency, compared with sixth in the final year of the allegedly lax Phil era. And the only thing that matters in this numbers crunch is how they stack up relative to the competition in a particular season.

True, the Lakers still are pretty salty defensively, but the offensive efficiency has slipped from sixth to 15th. That adds up to trouble. But the important question is why?

It's not really moving from the triangle to a more conventional offense. The pace is about the same. The fast-break-points ranking went from really relatively bad (26th) to the league's worst (30th), and even with All-Star center Andrew Bynum rising from seven to 12 shots per game, points in the paint have fallen from fifth to 18th.

With the ascending Bynum working the lane next to Gasol, you'd think the Lakers would play more paint ball. But, well, that's Kobe, who’s taking three shots a game more than last year.

After slapping 18 points on the Suns in the third quarter of Friday's 111-99 win in LA, Bryant went 11 of 24 (including 1 of 8 from 3-point range) for Sunday's 32 points. He also was bothered enough to commit 10 turnovers.

Moving Gasol for a player or players who might supply certain qualities the Lakers are perceived to be lacking could be much like robbing Peter to pay Paul. (No, not Chris Paul.)

It also should be noted that while coaching Cleveland to some regular-season glory in his final two seasons there, Brown presided over a really efficient offense (ranking sixth two years ago and fourth the year before that). Perhaps that efficiency had something to do with LeBron James moving the ball around. Putting Mo Williams alongside LeBron to knock in jumpers from the point guard position didn't hurt, and it also served as proof that Brown doesn't need an overtly drive-and-kick point guard, either.

He had a primary ballhandler in Cleveland (LBJ), just like he has one in LA (Kobe). In his offense, that should be enough. But in LA, he also has the best two-headed low-post monster in the NBA.

"Gasol, arguably, is the best low-post player in the league," Suns forward Channing Frye said. "Well, next to Tim Duncan."

And, according to Brown, consistent focus from Bynum, who had 16 points and 10 boards, could make him "a dominant force."

Unfortunately, Bynum occupied a seat on the Lakers' bench for the final 10 minutes Sunday. Thanks to the Suns’ 35-19 first-quarter blitz, Bryant's high-noon approach wasn't enough to pull LA to within striking distance.

So Brown was forced to play Troy Murphy and Jason Kapono because they have reasonable chances of making perimeter shots. As any Lakers fan worth his Kobe jersey knows, Metta World Peace and Derek Fisher have been stone cold all season.

The grinding, no-penetrating-point-guard style Brown has used probably would be working a lot more smoothly if Gasol and Bynum combined to average more than 25 attempts and the other guys simply made more perimeter shots. Although Gasol has been operating a bit farther away from the rim than in the past — his field-goal percentage is down (.495), his attempts are about the same — he and Bynum looked pretty efficient at times against the Suns.

"We just didn't come out the right way," Gasol said. "They were more ready than we were to come out and compete. The energy wasn't there, our minds weren't there. We thought we could maybe get away with playing through the motions and win at the end, but you can't."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.