Free Agents

NBC, which has long made Thursday the bunker for its comedy, moves into Wednesday this week with a pair of solidly constructed new sitcoms, "Free Agents" and "Up All Night," about grown-ups in moments of midlife transition. Compared with the metafictions and mockumentaries and postmodern ironies that have come to characterize the Thursday night comedies, they are more reality-based, more particularly concerned with relationships and maturity and, in a less than sentimental way, matters of the heart.

Listen to what Chris Paul offered as a key step for the Clippers to improve next season after a successful 2011-12 campaign. "First of all, I know one thing that can get us better is I have to get better," Paul, a first-team NBA all-defensive selection, said Monday. "It starts with each one of us individually. " Translation: There are times when the best improvements a team can make come from within. That means every player taking stock in his physical condition, and to be ready when training camp begins in October.

Magic Johnson, the man who helped make L.A. a Lakers town as a player, will soon be an owner of the Dodgers. Will the presence of the ever-popular Johnson in the ownership group help the Dodgers reclaim the city from the hoopsters at Staples Center? Writers from around the Tribune Co. discuss the topic. Feel free to join the conversation by voting in the poll and leaving a comment of your own. Barry Stavro, Los Angeles Times In L.A. the sports buzz-meter points first to Kobe and the Lakers.

Here's a look at what the Lakers should do with their agents as well as players who hold either team or player options. Andrew Bynum, center Status: Lakers hold $16.1-million team option Verdict: Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak told The Times' Mike Bresnahan that the Lakers will exercise the team option before the June 30 deadline. But Bynum expressed indifference to reporters after the Lakers' Game 5 loss Monday to Oklahoma City on where he plays.

Take away center Brad Richards — and several teams would like to — and the NHL's free-agent class is pretty thin. Though there are some useful players available, Richards is the only elite player on the market among unrestricted free agents. Here's a list of the top 10 players available. This doesn't include restricted free agents, whose teams have a right to match any offer sheet they sign with another team. Forwards Brad Richards: The playmaking center led Dallas in scoring with 28 goals and 77 points in 72 games, missing 10 because of a concussion.

The Angels do not plan to negotiate with their seven potential free agents before the end of the season, increasing the likelihood that the club will have to compete with offers from other clubs if it wishes to retain any of those players. "It's unlikely we'd do anything during this time period," General Manager Tony Reagins said Friday. "We don't want it to be a distraction. We want to focus on trying to win."

The Kings now have to look toward next season, when change is sure to come. They have six players who are now unrestricted free agents and three more who are restricted. Some of these players may not be back. Here are the names, their 2009-10 salary, key stats and comments from The Times hockey Hall of Fame columnist Helene Elliott. Unrestricted Alexander Frolov, $4 million; 19 goals, 51 points. The talk is he wants a new deal for $5 million per season. Have fun in Russia in the Kontinental Hockey League, Fro. Fredrik Modin, $3.5 million; 3 goals, 5 points in 20 games after trade from Columbus.

Aside from the odd sight of conservative George Will siding with labor ("Free Agency Made Baseball a Hit," Op-Ed Page, Sept. 27), his argument that free agency has somehow brought about parity and attendance records just doesn't fit with the facts. Consider the top teams this year: Toronto, Detroit, Minnesota, St. Louis, New York, Montreal, San Francisco. Every one of these teams built themselves up the old-fashioned way--trades and/or their own farm system. Not one of these teams has a high-priced free agent, and you'll find no direct correlation between a team's standing and its payroll.

The Dodgers used to be able to entice free agents by offering the chance to play for a perennial winner, and in front of a packed house. These are strange and troubled times in Los Angeles, with prospective free agents taking notice as their teams visit Dodger Stadium. As the Dodgers and San Diego Padres battled for fourth place in the National League West last weekend, all the empty seats stunned the Padres' All-Star closer, Heath Bell. "It's a lot sad, with nobody being there," Bell said Monday.

Passed over in the NFL draft, offensive lineman Kris O'Dowd is determined to show pro scouts he can handle a rush. Soon, he'll get his chance. The former USC center, along with a few hundred other undrafted hopefuls, will wind up signing with an NFL team shortly after a new collective bargaining agreement is in place and the lockout is lifted. In a normal year, O'Dowd surely would have hooked on with a team already. But because of the lockout, there wasn't the traditional post-draft flurry of signings, the frantic grab for rookie free agents who didn't hear their names called over the course of seven rounds.

Ramon Sessions, Jordan Hill and Devin Ebanks are all potential free agents in July, with the Lakers showing varying degrees of interest in them. Tuesday was the first day of the rest of the Lakers' off-season. Already, there were very few answers. Six players went through annual exit meetings with Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak and Coach Mike Brown, most of them saying the same thing afterward to reporters: See you in training camp ... maybe? Ramon Sessions and Metta World Peace were the headliners Tuesday, with Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum scheduled to appear Wednesday at the Lakers' training facility for individual 30-minute sessions.

GLENDALE, Ariz. — The blueprint was not original ... well maybe to the Kings, who spent too many seasons chasing success with a checkbook and patchwork trades. But General Manager Dean Lombardi followed a plan that was almost as old as the game, and had been successful during his time as the San Jose Sharks general manager. "You walk a fine line between getting younger and getting better," Lombardi said. The Kings have done both this season and are two victories from reaching the Stanley Cup finals after a 4-0 victory Tuesday over the Phoenix Coyotes in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals.

The Lakers' off-season, whenever it starts, becomes a little more intriguing whenever Ramon Sessions and Jordan Hill have strong games. They will probably be unrestricted free agents July 1. Their contributions are usually notable, though they each struggled Tuesday against the Denver Nuggets in Game 5 of the first round. Sessions, 26, becomes a free agent with a few strokes of a pen. He is expected to opt out of the final year of a contract that pays him $4.6 million next season.

Pennant fever,shutdown mode The District of Columbia last played host to a postseason game in 1933, so fans in Washington are understandably giddy over their first-place Nationals. The Philadelphia Phillies are creaky. The Miami Marlins are combustible. In the National League East, maybe this is the Nationals' year. Yet the Nationals say they will shut down Stephen Strasburg before the end of the season, even if the team might need its ace to get to the playoffs.

Ivan Rodriguez returned to Rangers Ballpark on Monday to throw out a ceremonial first pitch after earlier in the day announcing his retirement following a 21-year career. But as the public address announcer told the crowd, "It doesn't seem right, ladies and gentlemen. " So instead of tossing a pitch, the player known as "Pudge" walked from the mound to a much more familiar spot -- behind home plate. The 14-time All-Star catcher sent Michael Young out to second base and fired one last throw across the diamond, much to the delight of the crowd.

The Angels already are playing catch-up against the division-rival Texas Rangers, trailing the defending two-time American League champions by seven games through Sunday in the AL West. And they'll be way behind the Rangers again in June when it's time for Major League Baseball's annual amateur draft. Because of losses in compensation picks that came with the team's off-season free-agent signings of first baseman Albert Pujols and pitcher C.J. Wilson, the Angels' first pick will be in the third round, No. 114 overall.

The decision by the Dodgers not to offer arbitration to pitcher Randy Wolf or any of their other free agents Tuesday should not be viewed as a sign that their uncertain ownership situation is affecting them financially, General Manager Ned Colletti said. "Our decision was made strictly from a baseball perspective," Colletti said. The Dodgers' most reliable starter last season, Wolf was among seven ranked free agents who played for them last season, the others being second baseman Orlando Hudson, infielder Ronnie Belliard, and pitchers Vicente Padilla, Jon Garland, Guillermo Mota and Will Ohman.

It's not typical baseball strategy to reduce the playing time of a 26-year-old, second-year major leaguer who accounted for 29 homers and 87 runs batted in as a rookie. But that seems to be what's happening to Mark Trumbo . The Angels sat Trumbo for a second straight game Tuesday, starting Alberto Callaspo at third base and underlining the point that the slugger's conversion from first base to third is still a work in progress. "I understood I wouldn't be playing every day, and that's what's playing out," Trumbo said after an extended practice session of fielding ground balls as infield coach Alfredo Griffin and Manager Mike Scioscia watched.

It's tough to imagine an NBA player "never getting a chance" in almost five years as a pro, the cliche enough to make most people scoff. But Ramon Sessions has pushed back a series of basketball boulders to reveal a meadow of opportunity. "It's crazy. My whole career, there's never been a point where I kind of had control," he said. "Now I've got control. " He's been the Lakers' point guard for one month, and it's never been easier to remember his decision to leave the University of Nevada and enter the 2007 draft as a junior because he figured there was a lack of point guards in a draft heavy on big men. His name almost wasn't called.