<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"FacebookPinterestGetty Images\n\nLate-period Kobe is late-period Kobe. But the last few years, it's been the Lakers big men that have set this team apart in the West. Then came this season. Lamar Odom was shattered, first by almost being dealt, then by the team following through, seemingly because it didn't feel like looking him in the eye. Gasol was on the block right up until the trade deadline. But Odom and Gasol are aging bodies. Andrew Bynum is the future, not just of the frontcourt, but of this entire franchise. That's where things get complicated.\n\nUp until such time as Dwight Howard signs another long-term contract, Bynum will be seen as a potential chip in a deal for the Orlando star. That's a perfectly reasonable, if unnerving, calculation. Howard could quite securely carry the Lakers into a post-Kobe era. Bynum isn't quite that good, but he improves ever year, and saying a center isn't Dwight Howard hardly constitutes a put-down. Howard is the ideal future; Bynum is, practically speaking, what the Lakers will have to work with. And even if LA would be thrilled at the opportunity to bring in Howard, they will move ahead, enthusiastically, with Bynum.\n\nYou're not alone if the above makes you a little uncomfortable. Player loyalty has been transformed into a moral imperative, while teams are applauded for making moves and demonstrating some measure of flexibility. The best teams are made better through a willingness to tinker and take risks, while bad ones can, at very least, be looking to shift around personnel in an effort to go from stagnant-bad to bad-with-possibilities, or room to improve.\n\nIt does, however, put Andrew Bynum in an awkward position. He's arguably the most important player on (arguably) the league's most important franchise. He is being groomed to succeed (arguably) the greatest player of the last decade. And yet the Lakers almost have to consider the possibility that Bynum can be improved upon.\n\nNo matter what happens, Bynum has already had quite the eventful career. There was Kobe's well-publicized resentment of the preps-to-pro center, who he felt was holding up the Lakers return to glory; Bryant learned to love Bynum the fall before he really made an impact on the league. Bynum has missed plenty of time with injury, and yet still been able to play a pivotal role in two championships. He started the All-Star Game this year. Bynum is coming to prominence without Phil Jackson to guide his development; this was Kobe's point about Bynum's benching for ill-advised three-point attempts. Instead, the Lakers have Mike Brown, a young, if seasoned, guy known most for his defensive wizardry and his inability to keep LeBron James from taking over the Cavs.\n\nIn part, this explains both Bynum's willingness to \"test his limits\" (as Kobe put it), if we're talking about both the outer reaches of Bynum's skill-set and Brown's willingness to put up with it. The benching was the kind of authoritarian blowback that, for all its harshness, does little to address the situation. This is where Phil Jackson, not standard-issue coaching leadership techniques, would really come in handy.\n\nLast night, in the Lakers' loss to the Thunder, Bynum tried his hand at setting off the break. Again, shaky results. He wasn't benched, but plays like this, and the body language he's started to display (I'm not a fan of shit like that, but like Blake Griffin, there's been a marked shift in the way Bynum comports himself and reacts to plays), are cause for concern. Bynum finished with good numbers against OKC, but clearly was unhappy with, well, a lot of things, including not getting the ball enough at one point. Recent reports suggest what happens on the court is only half of the problem. It's a disappointing turn, to say the least. Then again, who's to say if it's the result of entitlement or insecurity."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.gq.com/story/one-way-or-another-andrew-bynum-is-the-lakers-future>