Shopping at K-Mart

Martin adds depth to an already deep
Clipper bench and team.

The Los Angeles Clippers have outdone the Los Angeles Lakers yet again -- a phrase that had never been muttered prior to this season.

Both vying for his services, it was the Clippers that have agreed to a deal with veteran Kenyon Martin, not the Lakers. It's the second time in as many months the usual second-rate Clippers have acquired a player the Lakers were interested in.

In December, the Lakers came to terms on a deal with the New Orleans Hornets that would have sent point guard Chris Paul to Los Angeles. Instead the league nixed the deal and less than a week later Paul would be playing his home games in Staples Center, just not for the Lakers.

Martin, 34, headed overseers to play in the Chinese Basketball Association during the would end of being a 161-day lockout. The former Denver Nugget had been playing for the Xinjiang Guanghui Flying Tigers, averaging 13.9 points and 9.7 rebounds per game, before reaching a buyout agreement with the team on Dec. 21.

He has also been cleared by the FIBA to return to the NBA two weeks before originally thought, making his now highly anticipated Clipper debut on Wednesday, Feb. 8 against the Cleveland Cavaliers very likely.

His former teammate in Denver, J.R. Smith, also played in China to start the 2011-12 season and will another hot commodity in his return to the NBA -- a commodity the Clippers might also be interested in adding to their already talented roster.

Since being named the Consensus 2000 NCAA Player of the Year and drafted with the No. 1 overall pick that same season by the New Jersey Nets, Martin has played 654 career NBA games.

The 6-foot-9 forward has averaged 13.5 points, 7.2 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.2 blocks per game during his 11-year career.

Fresh of back-to-back NBA Finals appearances with the Nets, Martin's best season came during the 2003-04 campaign. He averaged a career-high 16.7 PPG and grabbed 9.5 rebounds, earning him his first and only All-Star appearance thus far.

Martin will primarily play this season in Los Angeles as Blake Griffin's backup, earning the mid-level exception of $2.5 million.

But after failing short in two straight NBA Finals in the early part of the century, Martin is still of search of first NBA championship. He has come to accomplish that goal in the City of Angels.

Just not with the franchise that possesses 16 of them.

The Italian Job

Bryant looks to be headed back to a place
he has very fond memories of.

It looks as if arguably the biggest superstar in the NBA the past decade will be talking his game over seas. Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant has reached a verbal agreement to play for the Virtus Bologna in Italy during the NBA lockout.

The deal is said to be worth $3 million over a 10-game span in 40 days, but would be allowed out of the contract when the NBA lockout were to end.

Although there seems to be a scheduling conflict, putting the agreement on hold. Virtus opens their season Sunday Oct. 9 against Roma and continue to speak with other resilient Italian clubs about rescheduling some of their home games so Bryant's 10-game tour is in the biggest and most popular Italian cities and venues.

It has also been reported that the now 33-year-old Bryant is waiting to see how the this weekend's NBA labor negotiations go in New York before making anything official.

New Jersey Nets point guard Deron Williams got all this started by agreeing to play in Turkey back in mid-July if there was in fact a lockout.

Bryant, who was born in Philadelphia in 1978, spent the majority of his childhood living in Italy while his father, Joe Bryant, played for four different clubs from 1984-91. During that time Bryant was able to learn the Italian language and is a fluent speaker. The eldest Bryant has since returned to the United States and is currently the head coach for the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks.

As for the current Lakers star, if and when the NBA season gets underway, Bryant will be entering his 16th professional season in the NBA and have three-years and $83.5 million remaining on his contract with Los Angeles. Although that can be voided by his current employer if he is injured playing in Europe.

The five-time NBA champion is coming off a season that saw him average 25.3 point per game, the lowest total of his career since he averaged 24.0 PPG during the 2003-04 season.

Virtus and Bryant have until the end of next week to get a deal signed otherwise he'll have to look elsewhere. Bryant knows he has a lot more yesterdays than tomorrows in his career so he knows how important it is to get this deal done.

Bryant could be heading back to the place he calls "home". Arrivederci Kobe. See you soon.

Panic Button in L.A.? Not Yet!

Los Angeles limbed into the break losing
three-in-a-row for the third time this year.

The two-time defending NBA champions have been a topic of conversation much of the first half, especially after their most recent three-game skid.

It seems as if the Los Angeles Lakers dropped to a new low Wednesday night, losing to the NBA's worst team, the 10-46 Cleveland Cavaliers. Los Angeles embarked on their longest road trip of the season back on Feb. 5 at New Orleans. They started off an impressive 4-0 beating legitimate playoff contenders including the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks in consecutive nights.

However, the trip went sour, losing the next three to Orlando and two sub .500 teams, the Bobcats and Cavaliers.

All that being said it is not time to push the panic button in the City of Angels, yet.

Kobe Bryant's minutes are significantly down from a year ago. Bryant averaged 38.8 minutes per game in 2010 compared to the 33.6 he is playing this season, which will all change come playoff time. Coming off his second career knee surgery, Bryant is being rested carefully by head coach Phil Jackson for a deep playoff run into June.

Bryant's 25.1 points per game this season are right at his career average of 25.3. At times the frustrating part this season is their continued losses to teams below .500, seven of their 19 have come at the hands of sub .500 teams.

It seems we can attribute those to Los Angeles being disinterested in their opponent most of the game or just lack of effort.

Back on Feb. 27 of last season Boston lost to the miserable New Jersey Nets at home in TD Garden, a team that finished with 12 wins all season. As we now know, the Celtics positioned themselves for a deep playoff run and came a win away from their second NBA championship in three years, but en route to that, they also lost to the worst team in the NBA a year ago.

Could the Lakers being doing the same?

The Cavaliers were embarrassed by the Lakers back in January at Staples Center, losing by a video game like number, 55 points. You knew if the Lakers did not come out ready to play on Wednesday night, they had a very good chance to lose even to the NBA's worst team. Byron Scott, being a former Laker in his playing days, was not going to let his team come out flat against the defending champions again.

Much has been written about the Lakers inability not to just beat sub .500 teams, but their inability to beat teams above .500. The Lakers have posted a 15-12 record against teams .500 or better and a 23-7 mark against sub .500 in the first half.

The Miami Heat are only 12-13 against the league's elite, but are taking care of business on the other side, beating 29 of the 31 teams they have faced under .500. Yes, the Lakers need to be more consistent and sometimes play with a little more urgency, but by no means is it time to panic in Los Angeles, YET!

Come June, Jackson and Bryant will silence the critics once more.