Andrew Bynum is a sack. After reading his MySpace, I weep for the future of this country. The guy is dumber than a sack of doorknobs and he thinks he's the ish because he got drafted by the Lakers. If he had played on any other team, he wouldn't last 5 years in the league.
Thats partly why people say they're gonna be very good. Bynum's a a big potential All Star in the middle who's gonna blend into that core. There aren't many Laker promo photos with Fisher or even Odom in them. The Mavs reference is a good example of what other teams are hoping can happen to the Lakers. Last year's Celtics is also an example of annointing the champion first month of the season. Lakers are somewhere in the middle
The Lakers are playing great and you tell us not to feel bad? durvasa, I wouldn't make a conclusion of team building philosophy so fast, even if the Lakers turn out to be way ahead of the Rockets this year (big IF). IMO, three acquisitions in their "team building" made them this good: (1) the Bynum pick, (2) getting Fisher back, and most importantly, (3) the Gasol robbery. Without these three guys, they are just a mediocre team. I'd give them the Bynum pick. But Fisher and Gasol have nothing to do with their team building philosophy. They are just lucky getting them. Besides, Morey only has had two years so far. We need to see how his methodology works out in a few more years down the road.
Don't forget that Odom and Gasol tend to disappear in the playoffs but the Lakers are scary good right now.
The Lakers' formula is clearly better than the recent Celts, Spurs, & Heat formula (defense 1st priority, and half court offense 2nd priority). Oh wait, never mind.
Lakers are the best team in the NBA, don't compare them to the Mavs a few years ago because Kobe isn't a p***y like Dirk. Bynum and Gasol eat up the rebounds, too hard to take them off of the glass, add in Odom and they will outrebound you every night. They probably have at least 3 three-pt shooters that are way better than our three-pt shooters. Radmanovic Farmar Vujacic they make you pay, Farmar is one of the best three-pt shooting PGs in the league. Then they have Kobe, the best or 2nd best player in the league behind LeBron, who can conserve his energy until they need him, not to mention this guy is clutch AND has a killer mentality.
I thought that the Lakers length and quickness and passing would beat the Celtics in the finals last year. It turns out I was wrong. Interior toughness, rebounding dominance, and offensive execution was how Boston won. Well, I also think Boston doesn't have major deficiencies in length nor quickness. I don't think analytics and valuing length have to be mutually exclusive though.
THe Rockets should feel bad, they blew a 16 point lead and lost by 29. That is terrible, I'm sure some of lower rung teams of the league could've held lead better than that. THe Rockets were pitiful on Sunday, if they would've played, like they did last night in LA... They would've won.
Boston aren't that long. Aside from KG and Perkins they don't really have a 7 foot rotation player - both Powe and Davis are 6'8 without extraordinarily long arms. What Boston did well against the Lakers was close down the wings - through Peirce, Posey and Rondo they harrassed Kobe/ Vujacic and whoever else into bad decision making/ poor shot selection. It was Bostons defence that stood them head and shoulders above the pack last season, and it was their defence which won them the championship. At the worst the Rockets should take heart from Boston - a short defensive team can win the championship!
I didn't mean to shortchange their wing defense (Posey, Pierce, Allen). Boston also had PJ Brown last year in the finals (so KG, Brown, and Perkins was their major post rotations). Rebounding is part of total defense. Just looking back at the stats, Boston pretty much outperformed LA in everything: defense, rebounding, passing, shooting. I'm still surprised at how bad LA's defense was in allowing Rondo to be a passer the vast majority of the time. Anyhow, I was saying Boston doesn't have major length deficiencies. Last year they had 3 long guys playing the post for most of the finals. The Rockets this year have just Yao as size. Landry, Scola, and Hayes are all undersized relative to LA's frontcourt (Bynum, Gasol, Odom). I'm not too concerned though. I think the T-Mac, Artest, Battier (plus Barry) wing rotation will be stellar once it gets set. And having a Rafer-Brooks backcourt is sooooo much better than a Rafer-Head backcourt. Head is so bad in ways that don't even show up on the stats (like forgetting to box out his man).
I gotta agree. The Mavericks went on a ridiculous win streak to the start of the season after their Finals collapse, and almost everyone thought they were headed on their way to another Finals appearance. Same for the Suns who always started off hot. Same for the Kings back when they were still really good. The recent championship teams since the Lakers dynasty generally started off with a fairly mediocre start. The Lakers tended to lag around in the middle of the Western Conference rankings. Then they'd turn it up around mid season. The Spurs are notorious for turning it up before the Rodeo road trips. Same for the Heat when they won. Point being is early starts don't necessarily prove a repeat Finals appearance. It's reassuring sure, but not an all out guarantee. Slow starts can be painful to watch, but a strong finish is best come playoffs.
Also, this noteworthy in this decade, only 3 teams have won the NBA title having the best record. For this team, it would be better for them to have a great run in the middle or the end of season headed into playoffs...just good enough to stay healthy. We already know this team can 50 to 55+ games, but the thing is going to be can we get past the first round. I don't think we necessarily need home-field either. I think this team can definitely win on road (Dallas, Phoenix) with big margin victories. Besides, the Toyota Center is not really home-court, anyway.
Fiction. Fact - Battier (our 3rd best 3 point shooter) is a beter 3pt shooter than any player on the Lakers roster. Their top 5 3pt% shooters: Vujacic 38.2 Radman 38.2 Fisher 37.4 Farmar 36.0 Bryant 34.0 Our top 5 3pt% shooters: Barry 40.6 Head 39.3 Battier 38.9 Alston 35.5 Brooks 35.4 (47.6 this season and over 40% since the allstar break last season) Then we have TMac and Artest both shooting over 33% for their careers - Artest is over 38% last season and this year so far. Head doesn't play much - so you can see how Battier's presence is being missed on more than just the defensive end (ie - his 3pt shot and spacing ability for the stars to operate).
I think one should see down watch tonight's game between the Lakers and Pistons and look at how the Pistons are winning and staying in control of this game...then compare it to what happened with Rockets last sunday.
