The Arms Race Continues

Lakers' Nation awakes this morning and takes notice. The 2009-10 NBA season is starting to remind me a lot of the 1980s, where you have a few elite teams that are very, very good, and everyone else just stinks. In the early 1980s, you had the C's, the L's, the Bucks, and the Sixers. Later on, you had the C's, the L's, and the Pistons. Usually some other team rose to the occasion for a season or two.

The other similarity is how the bad teams raced to shed their good, but expensive players. Remember how the Lakers got MycHal Thompson for a cola and a bag of chips? Sort of like how the Lakers got Pau Gasol 20 years later. Of course, the Celtics originally triggered this arms race not only by getting KG and Ray Allen, but then destroying the purple six out of eight times that season.

In technology, we use the analogy of only being able to fit so many painters (ie., programmers) into a closet (ie., a piece of code). After a while, you reach the point of diminishing returns. When the Lakers acquired Wilt Chamberlain before the start of the 1968-69 season, they asked Bill Russell to comment on the Lakers formidable roster.

"They still just play the sport with one basketball, right? And only five guys can be on the court at the same time? I think we'll be alright," Russell said. The interesting thing is that once the Celtics add Grant Hill, I don't think they are done adding painters to the closet.

Stephon Marbury, having previously indicated that he was done playing for the C's, just might reconsider now that the entire team is made up of all-world players. Plus Danny has the contracts of Scal, TA, Giddens, Walker, and Pruitt to dangle.