Lakers Thread

[GH33]

As a laker fan i'm concerned that anrew bynum will be out for two months, since he is one of the big reason why they are no. 1 right now, do you think the lakers are in trouble, they almost lost to the young Sonics, who do you think should fill in the shoes of bynum??? i don't expect on kwame stepping up, how about in the guards? Farmar? or the SHOOTING vujacic? how about radmanovic? the flying Ariza? somebody has to step-up other than kobe scoring more right?

are the lakers in trouble?

Discuss.

_________________

magic33 thread <-here

[shadowgrin]

The names you've given to step up: Farmar, Vujacic, Radmanovic, Ariza. None of them can replace Bynum's post presence and rebounding.
Lamar Odom is your only hope in the post.

[BIG GREEN]

Well...there's good news and bad news..

Good News Kobe jacked up 48 points and the game winner last night. Their winning streak stands at 7.

Bad News Kobe had to score 48 points to beat the freakin Seattle Sonics by just two points. 123 - 121.

That tells me two things

1. Their defense is lacking..

2. Lakers have fallen back into thier one man show and better hope kobe can average 40 ppg if they wanna continue winning. He only has to do this for 2 more months.

[Patr1ck]

Damn. How long did he do it for last year? Like 5 or 6 games?

[Bruce]

Hmm, the LA Times is reporting that the Lakers might acquire Webber. For the next 2 months that might be good. But after that, Webber would demand playing time etc. He's the biggest cry baby of them all. I was thinking they could acquire a player more a long the lines of a mikki moore type of player that they could get rid of once bynum, mihm and radman are back. I also wish they could use javaris crittenton a bit more, it seems to me crittenton could become a special player.

Update: Lakers' cross town rivals has ironically come to the Lakers' rescue. old guys Casell (32pts) and Mobley (12pts off the bench) edged out the Suns no less for a W. Putting the Lakers in sole lead for the best record in the West. Kobe is also now rated #1 for the MVP race.

[tommi]

Well...there's good news and bad news..

Good News Kobe jacked up 48 points and the game winner last night. Their winning streak stands at 7.

Bad News Kobe had to score 48 points to beat the freakin Seattle Sonics by just two points. 123 - 121.

That tells me two things

1. Their defense is lacking..

2. Lakers have fallen back into thier one man show and better hope kobe can average 40 ppg if they wanna continue winning. He only has to do this for 2 more months.

I'm sensing that you're wishing that they'd lose majority of those games so that you'd have something to gloat about on your Kobe vs LBJ thread.

Are you sure you don't hate Kobe?

Cause if you do, That's pretty F'd up.

[BIG GREEN]

I'm sensing that you're trying to goade me to argue like a 12 year old with you.

Are you sure you aren't 12?

Cause if you are, That's pretty F'd up.

[shadowgrin]

I was thinking they could acquire a player more a long the lines of a mikki moore type of player that they could get rid of once bynum, mihm and radman are back

A Mikki Moore type of player is relatively expensive. Just ask the Sacramento Kings.

[Bruce]

I was thinking they could acquire a player more a long the lines of a mikki moore type of player that they could get rid of once bynum, mihm and radman are back

A Mikki Moore type of player is relatively expensive. Just ask the Sacramento Kings.

So it turns out the Lakers took mbenga instead. Wide body, decent rebounder, heck I don't know $hit about him. No one even cared to publish any news about the Lakers picking him up either. haha. The only recollection I even have of him is him sitting beside mark Cuban in a Dallas playoffs game.

Anyway, Odom must have pretty big feet! Ariza broke his foot in practice because he stepped on odom's foot, as same as the cause for bynum's injury. Hope Ariza can still return this season.

And earlier today, the Lakers won a game over the Nuggets. hmm, go figure. And Melo got injured cause he stepped on Kobe's foot. Seems like one could say, Kobe pulled a Bowen there.

[[Q]]

Mbenga had some decent blocks last night in garbage time though. Regardless, his shotblocking is still better than Kwame's.

[BIG GREEN]

I wanna know why Turiaf isn't starting instead of kwame. He ain't nothin' but a played out rapper.

[Bruce]

I wanna know why Turiaf isn't starting instead of kwame. He ain't nothin' but a played out rapper.

I think it is because Turiaf is ineffective when playing long streches, and is more effective as an off the bench energy player. Turiaf also grabs rebounds at a rate an average small forward would. Plus, it would be a damned shame to start a second round pick over a first pick and the guy that was swapped for butler (who went on to play in an all-star game). haha

This is interesting, it says here Mbenga has a black belt in judo:
http://my.lakers.com/blogs/2008/01/21/d ... ick-facts/
He can spar with Kareem abdul-jabbar(jeetkundo) while bynum is away.
Looks here also like he would be a far superior shot blocker and rebounder than kwame brown or turiaf is.

I was thinking earlier that the Lakers might pickup Jelani mccoy from their NBDL affliate. I've always thought the Mccoy could have been a good backup for a good team.

[dada]

Woooooooooooooo!!!!!!

The good times are coming in LA. What a great complement of experience to Bynum we have now in Gasol. This takes alot of pressure off Bynum to perform and th greatest part of this deal is getting rid of that waste of space named Kwame Brown!!! Can you believe it? No more fumbled layups!!!

Bynum
Gasol
Odom
Kobe
Fisher

+that great bench we have. Watch out people, we could potentially have quite a dangerous team right here on our hands. Very exciting times indeed, I'm very pleased Kobe Bryant stuck around (now more so than ever) and no team they formed in Chicago woulda turned out this this. He must be the most elated of us all, cant wait to see this lineup in full swing. This is what putting pressure on the front office does. Wow just wow.

Lets just hope Bynum rehabs well and comes back ready to play(instead of missing the season as some are speculating) because we can now seriously believethat with that lineup we can compete seriously/consistently. Definitely a better deal in my eyes than going out and getting Swift and Miller. Decent players but there are only so much bodies you can put out there at once and shots to go around.

19 pts and 9 boards is definitely welcomed in LA. Give me 14-18 pts and 8-10 rbs on 32 minutes and I'll be pleased.

[Bruce]

Most impressive. I don't want to spoil anyone's party here, but we'll all just have to see how well this trade really goes. We'll see in a few weeks if Gasol does fit into Phil Jackson's system. <Insert more jaded cynicism here>.

Weighing in on what the Lakers gave up, Crittenton and 2 1st round picks. If the 2 first round picks turn out to be the next John Celestad or Travis Knight, this trade would be one of the greatest trade robberies of all time. I still think though that this trade is not a mere Gasol for Brown though, but more like crittenton+1st picks for Gasol. I think that Javaris will be a good NBA player, someone who will have at the very least have a solid 10 yr NBA career. I think the Lakers finally smelled blood when they were a top of the standings a couple of weeks ago. This is so uncharacteristic of Phil Jackson, that is to pull a blockbuster trade in the middle of the season. Ans so uncharacteristic of Kupchak to make a steal of a deal at all.

I wonder how kwame brown will fare in the D-League next season. HAHA

Right now, I feel like a kid who just woke up on Christmas Day!

[J@3]

What a trade... I can't believe it. Not only did it bring in Gasol and get rid of Kobe, Mitch also found a way to keep Farmar, who I would've thought would be the #1 target PG for teams looking for trades with the Lakers. Crazy, can't wait to see them play again.

[Sauru]

What a trade... I can't believe it. Not only did it bring in Gasol and get rid of Kobe

urge to kill rising.....

[J@3]

oops, 32 hours without sleep got to me.

Just did some more reading, apparently Memphis also got the rights to Gasol's brother Marc, who is dominating in Europe at the moment at 7'1 and 280... hmm.

[BIG GREEN]

I feel sorry for the western teams and I look forward to Cavs and Lakers in the finals...where the debate will be settled once and for all.

[Matt]

This trade has just spawned utter stupidity from a lot of people. All of a sudden we are printing Lakers v Celtics Finals tickets and talking about how the Lakers have the best "big 4" by far. On the other hand Celtics fans are claiming Lakers have "no chance" of beating the Spurs.

Hopefully all teams are at full strength in the playoffs se we don't have to put up with the usual if and buts.

[Bruce]

I feel sorry for the western teams and I look forward to Cavs and Lakers in the finals...where the debate will be settled once and for all.

Yes, If this happens, all the kobe haters will eventually agree that:

Bynum > BigZ
Gasol > Gooden
Odom > Larry Hughes
Fisher > Snow
Vujacic > Pavlovic
Radmanovic > marshall
walton > newble
turiaf > varejao
farmar > gibson
karl > devin brown

But
Bryant < Lebron

[Bruce]

This trade has just spawned utter stupidity from a lot of people. All of a sudden we are printing Lakers v Celtics Finals tickets and talking about how the Lakers have the best "big 4" by far. On the other hand Celtics fans are claiming Lakers have "no chance" of beating the Spurs.

Hopefully all teams are at full strength in the playoffs se we don't have to put up with the usual if and buts.

Hmm, maybe the next thing the nba should do is remove the "game preview", it is encouraging all these ifs and buts too much....

[dada]

:lol: oops, 32 hours without sleep got to me.

Just did some more reading, apparently Memphis also got the rights to Gasol's brother Marc, who is dominating in Europe at the moment at 7'1 and 280... hmm.

I wouldnt call it dominating more so than just showing great signs of progress. I visited the Girona website (club he plays for) and though I couldnt find any hard per game averages I did see where they highlighted a few of his solid games which generally were in the 18 points and 10+ rebounds department which is great but hardly an indicator that if he came over to play he'd undoubtedly be highly productive.


EDIT: Found Gasol's numbers on the ACB website. Its 16.1 points and 7.8 rebounds in 33 minutes per game it seems. Not bad but nothing to blow our brains over.


http://www.acb.com/jugador.php?id=B4W

What a trade... I can't believe it. Not only did it bring in Gasol and get rid of Kwame, Mitch also found a way to keep Farmar, who I would've thought would be the #1 target PG for teams looking for trades with the Lakers. Crazy, can't wait to see them play again.

Yea I am very pleased with the pieces we were able to keep. I love the combination of Sasha and Jordan together because they have been fearless and confident shooters (especially from the 3 point range) who play a very uptempo game which I like coming off the bench. Crittington was great as well but realistically we wouldnt have been able to use him much down the stretch with how well the 2 guys ahead of him have been doing. LA really has a great 1st and 2nd team when healthy that could be vital come playoff time.

2nd five:
Mihm
Radmanovic
Walton
Sasha
Farmar

From 1 to 4 we have a 3 point threat. This could really be a run and gun sort of bench who could really turn it on in relief if each player accepts their role at face value and focus solely on keeping teams off balance with their tempo considering the 1st team looks set to be a half court monster.



EDIT: Wow, I just realized that we could be an offensive rebounding monster if we put our minds to it. Consider we have the quickness and height of Lamar, Kobe, and Fisher to provide coverage on any fast breaking threat, we could just let Bynum and Gasol go loose for every rebound on offense. Just kinda let them camp out. We should gobble up most, if not all, defensive rebounds as well because two 7 footers and a SF the height of a Power Forward should be more than ample. Wow, the possibilities are endless with this side. Of course there are never any guarantees in this world but I'm definitely more than a little optimistic about our chances.

Cant wait to see Gasol in action tonight.

[J@3]

I wouldnt call it dominating more so than just showing great signs of progress. I visited the Girona website (club he plays for) and though I couldnt find any hard per game averages I did see where they highlighted a few of his solid games which generally were in the 18 points and 10+ rebounds department which is great but hardly an indicator that if he came over to play he'd undoubtedly be highly productive.


EDIT: Found Gasol's numbers on the ACB website. Its 16.1 points and 7.8 rebounds in 33 minutes per game it seems. Not bad but nothing to blow our brains over.

DraftExpress called him the best big man in the ACB, I'd be getting excited about that.

[dada]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=xOAF2zjkRDk
http://youtube.com/watch?v=maT6goJvbKs

Pretty much from what I see I can say he definitely has talent but then again I dont see anything that would indicate to me he'd be a sure hit in the NBA. Would be great if he could replicate his current numbers right now from the ACB at any point in his NBA career but I personally just have an inkling feeling that based on the tools I see him bringing to the table he'd be just about a serviceable reserves big on a good team and maybe competing for a starting spot on a mid-low level team. I guess what matters most is he doesnt move in slow motion, he can pass competently, has a nice drop step on the block and can actually make layups.


edit: DraftExpress seems a good site. Definitely more comprehensive statistics than what I found on his team's website. They have him as averaging 12 pts 6 rbs, 2 asts and a blk. 61% shooting is definitely great so I'll give him alot of credit for that. Thanks for sharing.

[Bruce]

I can't find the link anymore, but Curtis Borchardt is putting similar numbers as well, but a bit lower. So if anyone wants Marc Gasol, but can't land him, they can opt to sign Borchardt. hahaha