I like what Bill Plaschke has to say about Andrew Bynum’s contract extension.  He basically just explained what I’ve been thinking of for the past two or three weeks.  I’m sure you know how it’s a relief when somebody whose views are being read a lot (relatively speaking) echoes your sentiments.

My take is this: Andrew Bynum deserves the max contract, if, and only if, he can prove he can show his skills for about 82 regular season games (or about 10 games less) and 28 playoff games (or less).

Look, Andrew Bynum has shown us his potential last year.  No doubt, he eventually will become the next Most Dominant Center in the universe… if, and only if, he won’t get injured for the majority part of this coming season (including the playoffs, of course).  When I say “majority”, I don’t mean 51% of the games this season.  I mean plenty enough to make the Lakers champions again.

What is David Lee’s (Andrew Bynum’s agent) hurry anyway?  The Lakers are not low-balling Bynum.  They’re just taking their time to evaluate his health.  A max contract is a huge amount of money.  When you spend something like that you will want value in return.  

You can’t evaluate one’s health with a couple of preseason games where nobody plays hard.  Bynum seems to be cool about the contract extension thing, saying it’ll just come when he shows off his skills.  

I think it all boils down to greed.  Some people just want money up front, not having patience.

The agent knows that the Lakers management knows how good Bynum is or will become, and they are willing to pay max for it.  The Lakers are just verifying the equation skills plus health = max contract.

The agent just can’t wait.