Cleveland Cavaliers @ LA Lakers--Game Thread (1/19/09)

No, I meant I hope Wafer aspires for a lot more.

The only things Vujabic may have on Wafer right now are shooting and passing. Vujabic has only shot well for one season though. 4 out of 5 seasons he has Rafer-like numbers (sub 40% from the field). And his defense is overrated. He tries hard and frustrates opponents but at the end of the day, he's not good enough or strong enough to guard his position. He's a wuss.

Wafer can score in multiple ways. He has an outside shot as well as the speed, strength and ballhandling skills to slash and finish inside. Wafer has a lot to learn as far as team defense but he can become a far better defender than Vujabic if he's determined to work at it because of his superior strength and quickness. Wafer is also a far better rebounder.

Vujabic is a decent complementary shooter on a good team but Wafer has a larger skill set and far more potential.

 

Vujabic's Rafer-like career numbers, excluding last season:

Year Team G GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% OFF DEF RPG APG SPG BPG TO PF PPG
04-05 LAL 35 3 11.5 0.282 0.270 0.947 0.4 1.4 1.8 1.5 0.3 0.1 0.43 1.20 2.9
05-06 LAL 82 4 17.7 0.346 0.343 0.885 0.4 1.5 1.9 1.7 0.6 0.0 0.61 1.80 3.9
06-07 LAL 73 4 12.8 0.392 0.373 0.878 0.4 1.1 1.5 0.9 0.6 0.0 0.41 1.40 4.3
07-08 LAL 72 0 17.8 0.454 0.437 0.835 0.3 1.9 2.1 1.0 0.5 0.1 0.72 1.50 8.8
08-09 LAL 37 0 16.1 0.382 0.355 0.868 0.2 1.5 1.6 1.5 0.9 0.1 0.43 2.00 5.9

And shooting is the only reason he is in this league.

 

It seems you guys have high expectation on Wafer.

I hope he can be as good as your expectation!

 

speaking of expectations.......
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My main point was that Vujabic is nothing special but of course we all want Wafer to do really well.

 

Assuming everybody comes back healthy and Adelman sticks with the same starting 5 as last season, we could have an explosive set of reserves:

Brooks
Wafer/Barry
Artest
Landry/Hayes
Mutombo

How many teams have 4 guys off the bench that could legitimately drop 20 on you any given night?

yes, i know this has nothing to do with the thread

 

i couldn't believe vujacic actually took that layup. you could see lebron setting him up from about halfcourt for the block. maybe the easiest block he'll ever get. he really should've just caught it and that would've have been an even better highlight and got cleveland the ball.

 

It was funny to watch that play transpire. The block was inevitable much like Kenyon Martin's tech late in the Rockets game. Vujabic was probably thinking to himself, "I is machine. No one stop machine."

 

Is it just me or t-mac is a better FT shooter this season than LJ and KB.

 

Anybody else notice Collins slurp Lebron?

 

Kobe with dislocated finger?

TMAC would be out three months with that.

 

Kobe is better than LBJ. No question about it.

 

that was like jordan over marion in the all-star game a few years ago. kobe knew lebron would block a normal jumper and put some arc on it.

and then a crazy one-footed runner with a foul. kobe has played pretty damn well in the second half with the exception of a few forced turnovers in the 3rd quarter.

 

Kobe wins this round and breaks the Lakers streak against the Cavs. Looking forward to the rematch in Cleveland.

 

Cavs are making the game boring to watch, horrible passing.. too many turnovers.

 

It's not over yet.

But I disagree with CHI. It's now clear (this season) than Lebron is better than Kobe. It's just that Kobe is only an inch behind (sort of speak)

 

If you look at career H2H, LeBron is winning the battle in almost every respect, even after tonight: http://www.basketball-reference.com/fc/h2h_finder.cgi?request=1&p1=bryanko01&p2=jamesle01

And it's not like LeBron had a great supporting cast in previous seasons. Kobe had some subpar supporting casts but so did LeBron. One could argue that LeBron did more with less talent around him.

On top of all that, LeBron is still improving. Kobe is at his peak.

 

it seems like kobe and lebron are both getting fouled with no calls a lot tonight. lebron probably moreso.

 

Game over