Its a reason they wanted to get rid of the so called best big in the game for a pg. Their footspeed is terrible and have 2 guys starting who should playing 20 minutes a night. They need a quicker pg and small forward.
Before acquiring Gasol the Lakers were in 1st place that year. Lakers dont have to trade for an all star but they do make small upgrades (PG) and (SF) and they'll be alright
The Lakers need several things. 1) The Lakers need Kobe to be able to penetrate the paint. He can't do that anymore, so the Lakers don't have anybody to be able to do that. Kobe is basically a jumpshooter now; the only way he is near the basket is when he posts up, which makes it harder for the big men to do their thing b/c the paint is so congested. 2) The Lakers' big men are 4th/5th options. That isn't going to work 3) The Lakers don't have dependable shooters, outside of Kapono and he can't get shots Unless they swing a trade where they either get another star or upgrade their PG/SF position along with their bench (A LOT OF IFS), they are going to lose in the 1st/2nd round.
they're also an elite defensive team. Not saying those issues dont exist but they're manageable if the games are close. Not a title contender as currently constructed but not a 1st round/2nd round exit either
try 5th. these are standings as of the morning of January 29, 2008. http://soulfulsolitude.wordpress.com/2008/01/29/nba-0708-standings/ by the 31st, the Suns were 33-14, New Orleans was 32-13, Dallas was 31-14, San Antonio was 29-16. the Lakers were 28-16 the day before they traded for Pao Gasol on Feb 1st of that year
Lol, I love how the laker fans and kobe apologists are always so quick to point out how the lakers were "already in first in the west" when kobe got gasol, and its really just a myth they all spout as fact.
Bynum went down with a knee injury 3 days before they reached 1st place http://www.nba.com/lakers/news/080321_gameday_sonics.html They got to 1st place with a healthy Bynum for most of the season in 2007/2008 before Gasol arrived
^ oops I posted the other link of the Sonics/Lakers matchup from that year I was looking at. Heres the correct one http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jan/15/sports/sp-lakers15 Lakers were tied with PHX for the West lead but they had defeated them on Christmas day and Suns opening night to hold a 2-1 season series advantage to be in 1st place
and they lost the VERY NEXT NIGHT against the Suns (negating that tiebreaker) in a 5 losses in 7 games stretch, putting them back at 5th place when they traded for Pau. LOL. when you say "for most of the season" you mean one day in mid January when the Suns were idle and not playing. the Suns were consistently ahead of the Lakers throughout all of November, December , and January of 07/08. http://espn.go.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/phx/year/2008/phoenix-suns http://espn.go.com/nba/team/schedule?name=lal&year=2008 do you seriously want to keep rewriting history? check out the records of the Spurs, Mavs, Suns, and Hornets at the 10 game mark, the 20 game mark, and the 30 game mark of the 07/08 season. http://espn.go.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/no/year/2008/new-orleans-hornets http://espn.go.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/dal/year/2008/dallas-mavericks http://espn.go.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/sa/year/2008/san-antonio-spurs
All I said was they got to 1st place before Gasol got there, you guys twist it however you'd like. They were on top of the West before Gasol got there with a healthy Bynum being a key contributor in that team
You guys also dont take into account they lost Trevor Ariza for the rest of the season for the next night so yes. Between the time of Bynum's injury and Gasol's arrival they lost 2 contributors
for a day, dude. a day. no one's twisting anything. don't stop believing, hold on to that feeling. tied atop the Western Conference for a day. the two seasons are similar. the Lakers have the worst bench in the league.
They might be better, but If Kobe continues to shoot more than Pau & Bynum combined, they are in SERIOUS trouble...
Don't be surprised if the Lakers are underwater at the season's midpoint. I guarantee you they will make a major trade before the deadline because this team is going in circles. I'm almost beginning to wonder if they'll make the playoffs but no way the Rockets and Jazz will finish in front of them. Also, at some point, they will figure things out enough to improve and sustain it.
No they are not better than last year. They had Odom last year and all are a year older. No and no. The only thing that could make them artificially better is if the officiating helped them in every game. Other than that its plane to see they are worse.
