Traded some Q&A material with Daniel Sagal of Laker-devoted LABallTalk in advance of tonight’s game, which should be fascinating on many fronts, including most especially whether the crowd will turn on the team when the Lakers go on their inevitable 20-4 run to seize command of the game.

Other things to watch for:

** The number of fans wearing bags on their heads.

** The number of fans holding signs, a la Guns ‘n’ Roses, asking “Where’s Monta?”

** Whether Bob Delaney will continue his streak of Warriors-Lakers games.

In any case, on to the Q&A:

48minutes.net: So, does Mitch Kupchak highlight Andrew Bynum’s line on the boxscore after every game and then leave it in Kobe Bryant’s locker? And, more seriously, is Bynum the piece that puts this team over the top this season?

LABallTalk: I highly doubt Kupchak is too happy with Bynum right as he has proven to be somewhat lazy and immature. You hear about all the guys working their butt off in the gym and in practice trying to improve while Andrew only does what he is asked. I’d like to see him grow up a bit more but I supoose that will come with age.

Read the rest of this entry…

One of my favorite pieces from any NBA writer last season came from ESPN’s J.A. Adande, sizing up the Suns in the wake of their February acquisition of Shaquille O’Neal, and what it meant for Phoenix.

Under Mike D’Antoni’s theory of basketball, a team should need only 7 seconds to get a shot off. Under Shaq’s theory of basketball, 7 seconds is the bare minimum to creep his way past the half-court line. The two views were patently incompatible, a fact Adande — spinning off the revolution once promised by D’Antoni’s system — wryly noted by saying, “La revolucion esta muerta.”

There’s a little bit of that same “end of an era” vibe to the Warriors’ decision not to pick up the fourth-year option on point guard Marcus Williams.

It’s not that Williams is likely to blossom into an All-Star next season for another team. But ridding themselves of Williams in this fashion, with no regard to salvaging even the slightest hint of value, highlights the fact that the apparent tug-of-war between team president Robert Rowell and executive vice president Chris Mullin for control of the franchise’s direction is threatening to take the team on a road to nowhere.

It’s one thing to have a coach come in and decide that he doesn’t like a certain player. Happens all the time.

To decide that a player whom you’ve just acquired a few months earlier — at the probable cost of a future first-round pick — is not worth a single season at $2.1 million is unusual.

To decide that without seeing the player participate in a single regular-season game on your behalf is just ludicrous.

Even Patrick O’Bryant, whom Nelson had no use for from the jump — and vice-versa — had a full season to prove himself before the team decided to deep-six him by similarly declining their option.

It’s kind of astounding to look back at the volume of players who have failed, in two short years, to live up to Nelson’s standards. One item from Al Harrington’s various pronouncements on Tuesday that I really do believe is something he told Marcus Thompson II:

“We all know how Nellie is. We all know his history. If you’re not one of his dudes, you ain’t never going to be one of his dudes.”

O’Bryant can back that up.

So can Ike Diogu.

And Troy Murphy.

Or Adonal Foyle.

Even Sarunas Jasikevicius.

And Kosta Perovic.

Heck, even some guys who started out as Nelson favorites — hello, Matt Barnes…