It's Liberation Day as trade season opens

It has been nearly six full months now since Vladimir Radmanovic's cell phone rang in Serbia and Kobe Bryant was on the other end, telling him, "We need your shooting."

And since we're now one-quarter of the way through the season, and since Vlade has knocked down only a dozen shots from behind the 3-point arc, we're prepared to say that Kobe is still of the opinion that the Lakers need some shooting -- just not Radmanovic's.

Relief is at hand for the Lakers should they choose to find it, because as of today, the shaggy-haired shooter and the majority of other players who signed as free agents over the summer can now be traded under an NBA rule that sets Dec. 15 as Liberation Day for teams who now realize that what seemed like a good idea over the summer really wasn't.

Radmanovic's role with the Lakers will increase over the next month due to the injury to Lamar Odom, unless Brian Cook can get himself fully healthy and cement a spot in Phil Jackson's rotation, which would free the Lakers to try to move Radmanovic in a trade.

Radmanovic's five-year, $31 million contract cannot be considered the worst free-agent signing of the summer, but it certainly is close. The signing we're dubbing the most dubious of '06 gives us someone to lead our list of 10 players who (along with Radmanovic) become eligible to be traded today.

So we begin with …

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