Why Didn't the Lakers Consult Kobe Bryant on the Hiring of Mike Brown?

– Ric Bucher, Wednesday morning: Kobe publicly endorsed Brian Shaw; was in favor of “Adelman or Van Gundy.”
– Chris Broussard, Wednesday afternoon: “Kobe is on board with the hire.”
– Broderick Turner and Mike Bresnahan, LA Times, Wednesday night: Kobe had “no comment.”
– Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo, Thursday morning: The Lakers didn’t consult Kobe. (Also, Lakers’ VP Jim Buss gets torn apart. It’s great.)

Ingesting all those links, especially the last one, it seems like Jim Buss is going to call the shots as he sees fit, and he plans on building around Andrew Bynum and Mike Brown. Everyone else – well, I can’t see them trading Kobe – is for sale.

I’d be leery building around an injury-prone center, but hey, what do I know. Bynum’s been in the league for six years and he’s never played more than 65 games in a season. If the Lakers can get Dwight Howard for Bynum, they should do it in a heartbeat. I’d think long and hard about a Bynum-for-Chris Paul trade due to his shaky knees … but if you make that move and somehow keep Gasol and Odom, I’ve got no problem with it.

Jim Buss definitely has a challenging few years ahead of him with this fossil-rific core.

Since you care, Bill Plaschke hates the hire.