With the owners and players ready to deal, Bynum sent those giant thumbs flying into action, firing off a text message to Sean Zarzana that it was time to get seriously ready for the season and there was not a moment to spare! Sure enough, Bynum was on a flight within hours to go from Los Angeles to Atlanta and resume high-octane workouts.
He hasn't come back yet.
In a phone interview from Atlanta, Zarzana said: "He's looking phenomenal right now. He's as good as I've ever seen him as far as being in shape – and mentally all there. He was healthy all offseason, so he doesn't have any of those nagging questions."
This is why the Lakers would be wise to take a wait-and-see approach with the trade market, even if New Orleans is pushing for a Chris Paul trade now. (Important side note: I love CP3 and believe completely that he is a truly special gamer. He has more winning character in his bad left knee than Dwight Howard has in his whole cartoonish body. Yet there's still no way you can pick Paul over Howard. This is, fundamentally, a game in which you need big boys to win big.)
Bynum's stock will be on the rise again after he plays some ball and reminds everyone what he morphed into the second half of last season – and flaunts what he has added in fitness and fluidity during the long lockout. Bynum definitely improved his body and feet and especially built his confidence up with his boxing training with Freddie Roach and Alex Ariza. But, as Zarzana told him when Bynum informed him he wanted to try boxing, there's no forgetting his real business.
If that deal is really going to do down, the Lakers would be nuts to rush a shot now at Howard's end.
There is absolutely no reason to trade Bynum and more players – and rest assured Magic GM Otis Smith wants more – at this time when anxious Lakers fans have created this frenzy to go get Howard. It has created leverage that Orlando otherwise completely lacks.
The Lakers can trot Bynum out there (after his five-game NBA suspension), let everyone appreciate he is the Western Conference All-Star center at 24, win a bunch of games with the continuity and depth in this roster and gauge what they really want to do later this season. The trade deadline likely won't even be until March, and by that time, Smith will be really sweating it in the Orlando humidity as Howard begins to flex that contract-opt-out muscle.
The timetable might well be accelerated just by the Magic not wanting this negativity hanging over the franchise when it is playing host to the NBA All-Star Game at its new arena in February. Or the power can shift toward the Lakers as soon as Howard makes his first public peep of the season that he might be ready to move on.
The risk in waiting is if Bynum gets hurt – because he so often does. His trainer is certainly biased, disbelieving of the Lakers' assessments that Bynum is predisposed to knee problems, but Zarzana can offer this much as a first-hand reporter from all these months since you last saw Bynum: "Everything's fine. He hasn't complained once about any pain."
This is the rare offseason Bynum hasn't been recovering from knee injury. Zarzana, whom Bynum first hired in 2007 (the same time Kobe Bryant was caught on a certain parking-lot video asking to ship Bynum out), explained how meaningful it has been: "It's huge for him. Mentally, especially. He always had to test it and feel it out and see if he's ready to start building up. This year, he didn't have to do any of that. He could just focus."
interesting take, discuss!
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