Lakers ready to make moves? Doubtful

Though Kobe Bryant has tried to light a fire under the Lakers, the champs have lost their last two games at Staples Center. (AP)

It hasn’t been that long since we’ve been down this road — a presumptive title favorite playing middling ball, resulting in talk that the team was finished or needed to make a drastic change to compete. Last year, it was the Celtics, and the problems were actually serious; the team’s best players weren’t healthy, and they played .500 ball over the last 54 games in the regular season. Various reports surfaced indicating the team was mulling dealing Ray Allen in a deal with Washington for Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison — reports Boston president Danny Ainge denied publicly.

In the end, the Celtics made a minor deal for Nate Robinson, got healthy and came within a whisker of winning the title.

Which brings us to Tuesday’s sort-of news item: Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak declared that he might be willing to make a trade if his team, just 3-3 in its last six games (panic!), doesn’t start playing better soon. Here’s what Kupchak actually said, via NBA.com’s Scott Howard-Cooper:

“Regarding a trade, I may have to,” Kupchak said at the team’s practice facility a day after the convincing loss to the Celtics. “I’m not saying that I’ve made calls today or I’ll make them tomorrow. But I just don’t think that we’re playing as well as our talent level should allow us.”

And:

“It’s something I may do in the future. I just don’t think that our talent level is playing as well as they can play. We have an incredibly high payroll and we do that because we have players that normally produce at a high level. And I’m not sure I see that now.”

Sure, it’s newsworthy when the GM of the two-time defending champions publicly expresses disappointment in how his team has played. And there are things he should be concerned about here. Andrew Bynum’s left knee is sore again. The Lakers have struggled against the league’s top teams, they’ve essentially conceded the top spot in the Western Conference to the Spurs, Ron Artest has been mostly awful and Kobe Bryant is using up possessions as if it were 2007 again. And there’s that whole omen about how a Phil Jackson title team has never before lost four straight games — which the Lakers did earlier this season.

But I look at those Kupchak comments and I zero in on the fact that he hasn’t made any trade calls and might not even start making them today, on Feb. 1, a mere 23 days before the trade deadline. That leaves plenty of time, but this does not sound like a man dead set on shaking things up. And if you look at the Lakers’ salary situation, there isn’t a lot of good trade material here, unless they are ready to part with Bynum. Derek Fisher, remarkably, has two seasons at $3.4 million each left on his deal after this season. Luke Walton, even more remarkably, will make $5.8 million in 2012-13 and has a trade kicker. Artest has the option to earn $7.7 million in 2013-14. Steve Blake, putting up the worst Player Efficiency Rating of his career, will be paid $4 million in that same season.

These are not contracts any team is going to take on with an uncertain collective bargaining future — not unless it gets some serious sweetener beyond Jerry Buss’ cash stash and late first-round picks that carry little value. Matt Barnes and Shannon Brown would be more valued trade chips, but their salaries are too low to bring back anything significant. The trade exception the Lakers received as part of the Sasha Vujacic deal (worth about $5.5 million) could fit a mid-sized salary in theory, but it will be difficult to get a team to surrender an impact guy earning that amount.

Bynum could serve as that sweetener, I guess, and his huge contract could bring high-priced talent in either a straight-up two-team deal or a multiteam deal involving one of the big trade exceptions still out there (i.e. Cleveland’s) or the cap space still available in Minnesota and Sacramento.

The Lakers have invested so much time and money in Bynum, and he’s still just 23. And anyone clamoring to see what sort of wing player the Lakers might be able to get in return for him should remember that L.A. ranked 29th in defensive rebounding before Bynum’s return this season. And they should remember that L.A.’s defense — its weaker side — has played better this season and last with Bynum on the floor.

The history of NBA trades shows us that anything is possible; remember how everyone pegged Gilbert Arenas as untradable? Still, the smart money remains on the Lakers’ standing pat and riding with their current roster — the same roster (mostly) that won them the last two titles.