(Fox Sports)Will Lakers remain the best in the West?

What exactly is the matter with knocking the Rockets due to health concerns?

 

Because every team in NBA has health concerns.

Yes, Rockets has the concern of a shaky T-Mac, and a big man who injured his foot twice in two years and didn't get enough rest in the summer due to Olympics. But so does every team in the West. Laker has two of their biggest names played for national team this summer, Bynum ended his last season with injure and don't forget Paul Gosal missed almost entire season two years ago. How about Hornets? Those sports writers tends to forget injures took their entire starting lineup at some point 1 season ago. Phoenix has a overweighted Shaq waiting to get injured, with Amare who had surges on both of his knees.

Yes, injures was one thing that keep Rockets' pace down, but it is not all. This team had gone through a dramatic transformation since they drafted Yao. They trade for T-mac, which makes the team go from Yao-orientated to T-Mac-orientated; they signed Coach Van Gundy, and they become a defensive minded team; then they had this point guard try-out, from Mike James to Alston, then back to Mike James, then to Alston again; then they got Coach Aldaman, and went from defense-orientated to offense-orientated. Seems to me this team never get a break every year.

But this year is different, we traded Artest without breaking the whole team down. Ron and Shane CAN play same style, just Ron is an upgrade to Shane. There is finally some continuation. And we have a stable pg/pf situation, which we never did in past few years, right now. With all that, injures is not something to concern, because if God says you are gona have injures, you gona have injures, nothing you can do about it. SAME THING TO EVERY TEAM IN NBA.

 

Injuries are certainly an issue with every NBA teams. However, we are more prone or should I say our frequency of injuries are greater then most other teams.

Keep in mind, some teams are "injury prones" like us, however those were lottery teams no one cares. example like the clippers.

Why so many medias are dogging us year after year? It is because they are expecting something good to happen to rockets with Tmac and Yao, two of the most powerful and promising stars in one team. Nonetheless, we could never could get out of first round. High expectation leads to big disapointment, and it leads to us being on top of the "injury" discussion.

The odds are this year if we play all the cards right, we should be injury free or keep it to minor ones.

I really don't care if we win less games than last season or we being at the 8th seed. I just want the team to be free of injuries and make it to the playoffs.

 

Have y'all read the comments? There are ignorant j*zz fans again claiming they should be higher because they beat us. How is it that everyone forgets our injuries? Did they not see how we had them beat with Rafer? Is that denial? I don't get it.

Plus with the streak, how do people ignore that? Every other team with a streak close to that won it all, injuries stopped us from seeing what we could've done. You never know.

Oh and didn't we beat the fakers for the 22nd win? Without Landry as well? At least it was close right......oh yeah.

Watched the game last night. I'm so hyped for this season because of our depth alone. I honestly believe we have the deepest team in the league. Shane is a starter. Landry is close to one.

I hope the bandwagon stays empty this year and we go all the way. SI can have ping pong or something else on the cover when its done.

 

On paper we are great. I mean GREAT!

But....

After watching the game last night, I am very concerned about TMAC and Yao. They both looked like they were thirty five years old out there. TMAC has looked terrible in my eyes, terrible. He looks very slow and his first step no longer exsists. I am hoping that this will all come back to him and that he really is just not 100%, but if I had to bet on it I would say that TMAC's career is in some deep trouble. Yes we are deep, but if TMAC does not improve, and Yao feeps falling down four times a game, we will be in the same shoes we have been in for the last decade. I am very concerned.

 

To me, it is ironic that most of these brain-dead media types are picking a team where 3 out of 4 of the Lakers best players...are just as injury-prone as the Rockets...has any of them had enough time to check how many games Gasol, Odom, and Andrew "Already Asking for Big Contract after having a slightly above average month and everybody thinks I am the Next Big Thing" Bynum have missed on average compared to Yao and T-Mac. I see two average that are pretty close.

I haven't even mention how [overrated] their bench is...they're going to fly to Western Conference, winning 62+ games and the NBA championship.


People, even on this board skeptical about the Rockets, yet it is crazy to be skeptical about a team who were somewhat of fluke (good and that's it Utah team and a Spurs team with an injured Ginobili), benefited from favorable schedule, and got crushed in the Finals. Figure this in with tougher teams on the horizon...like The Rockets, Suns, and Trailblazers.

These media types keep raving about Andrew Bynum (how he might be the next best center and might be the best one right now), yet Yao was outpacing Shaq stat wise...but many consider it sacrilege to consider him the best center in the league.

Vujacic was supposed to be this great defender, because he shut down Ginobili (who was obviously injured). Gets to the NBA Finals, every single Celtics swingman (Allen, Pierce, Cassell, Rondo, and House) had a field day with him. Truth be told, he can't even guard Rafer Alston (watch the Houston games from last year).

This great Laker bench has the likes of Farmar, Walton, Radmanovic, Mihm, and Ariza...is that supposed to strike fear into teams?


Both Gasol and Odom, two injury prone and unclutch players themselves folded in a good bit of the games. As Gasol has never been 20 and 10 guy and has only averaged over 20 points once in his career...while Odom needs the ball to be successful...has to play an on the wing swingman is not the best way to use him.

 

It's all about proven track, Lakers just won conference without Bynum, only the first year Bynum could do something and/or Gasol available.
Rox haven't done anything in the last 4 years. Yao and TMac have to prove they can make some noise in playoff before media take them serious.