I'd go for a 3rd and 4th scorer. Not just a 3rd one. I want to keep Battier. A slasher like Mobley was (20 ppg)..and a power forward who can score inside (haha, Elton Brand is the star level type of the PF i envision, but someone a tier or 2 below him). Can't be like Mo Taylor though, the 4 would also need to rebound..and blocking shots would be a plus, be relatively mobile to complement Yao, be able to defend opposing big men, have good bball IQ/awareness, and be able to knock down an open jumper. Sigh! Not easy to find.
man do u hav frekin Alzheimer's Disease ? tracy was better than kobe in his near MVP season in 02. kobe never became this great until this past couple of years. u gotta be frekin kidding me for saying this about our star player
tracy will never be considered as great as kobe until he wins. i really think overall game, tmac has him beat. the only thing kobe is better than tmac right now is scoring. tmac has him beat by MILES on playmaking (even w/o yao). but that doesn't matter as long as he keeps getting bounced out of the first round. hope he takes his training seriously this offseason and improve.
Shaq has an indomitable will to win? No you are wrong there. Shaq ALWAYS showed up at camp overweight. There was that thing with the surgery he put off until the season started and his very questionable work ethic. no Shaq does NOT have an indomitable will to win. And please don't give me any "he brought it when it was important" crap. Truth is, guy is blessed with strength, size, and got calls like no one. Yao would foul out in 6 minutes if he played like Shaq. Enough of the "TMac and Yao have no desire" line of thought. They lost cuz they weren't good enough - it is not because they did not care about winning.
One blows up a coach to accomodate two of your best players, you don't blow up two best players to accomodate a coach. I was not saying Yao and T-mac aren't as good as Shaq and Kobe, I was saying they are not so good as Shaq and Kobe one on one. Stockton and Malone aren't as good as Shaq and Kobe one on one, but they went to the finals, why? They had a quality coach and quality system that maximized their team playing potential. Yao shouldn't be used a low post creator only. Low post creator, decoy in the low post feeding cutters, finisher in the low post, high post offense, pick and rolls with T-Mac and other variabtions should all get mixed up. Yao and T-mac aren't Vlade and Bibby. They are Yao and T-Mac. Please don't downplay our best players. Vlade could never do some of the things Yao does. Bibby could never do some of the things T-Mac does. 111 is one of their own kind of combo. It's like a video game. Yao isn't a brute barbarian like Shaq. Yao and T-Mac are druids whose has shapeshifting strengths. When you pair shapeshifters with a no change type of coach, you are doing suicide.
Yao is also blessed with strength/size... and got PLENTY of foul calls in the 7 game series. He has an advantage over Shaq in that he actually hits his FT's. But, when he finally started playing with the aggressiveness that Shaq brings every game (in the 4th quarter of game 7), he shined.
Shaq and Kobe are arguably 2 of the greatest players of all time. Yao and Tmac are perennial All-Stars. There is a big difference there. Please do not donwplay Yao and TMac. They are great players. Quite possible future HOFers - however not close to Shaq and Kobe. We do not need to follow "a model" to win here - be it 2 "superstars", 5 man balanced, whatever. Just assemble the best team you can. If that involves blowing up the team, then fine. If you ask me, all we need are a healthy Yao and Tmac, and upgrade at 2 positions. Hopefully - just hopefully - we can actually fill one of those needs through the ******* draft for once!!!!! I would be more concerned with Yao and TMac's physical capability to play moreso than anything. These 2 guys have missed a bunch of games the last couople of years and we may even be "lucky" that they both played in the playoffs at all. Even then, Yao was clearly not at 100 percent. I don't think TMac has been at 100 percent for a long time. I'm also concerned about JVG. Does it seem awfully easy to get into his "doghouse"? None of us are privy to practices, but I wonder if Brandon Roy would have gotten any playing time if he had somehow fallen down to us anwyas. One thing I am sure is that Rudy Gay would probably have gotten no pt and be considered a bust by now if he had stuck with us. I was so excited about the Bonzi and Kirk Snyder signings. I thought that we now had a legitimate third scorer and some bench depth. I'm not sure if another coach could have actually gotten something out of them but I think some might have.
kobe never became this great until this past couple of years. I've heard it all now. To again borrow your own words: do u hav frekin Alzheimer's Disease ? and u gotta be frekin kidding me. You need to sleep off whatever you've just taken. Kobe has been great a loooooong time.
answer me this: would kobe done anything if he had never played w/ shaq? shaq took penny to the finals. and that was HIS 2ND YEAR. tmac > penny, so tmac would have won those 3 rings easily too. again, kobe's status is elevated b/c he has won. b/c what he has done the past 2 yrs => what tmac has done in orlando. but he's still mentioned as "the best player" b/c of his 3 rings. so really, i can't wait for tmac to win so all this crap can end.
the rules tell us that if we are going to find another piece it's got to be in the form of a scoring guard. PF priorities will have to come second to that. here's why: with the rules the way they are these days, we need a (fill-in-the blank with about 20 players) "threat" who can shoot drive and create. perimeter guys seemingly ALWAYS have the right of way. and add one of these and subtract say... sura and we've got a helluva team. no need to complicate things too much. just another "all-around" complete perimeter player who can shoot drive and create. whether it's a sg, sf, pg. doesn't matter. we can plug tmac wherever to complete the rest of the perimeter. not that those types of players are to come by...
kobe is a far superior defender and has proven to be clutch in the playoffs. shaq wasn't carrying those teams in the late 4th quarters...
Well if it's not will I don't know what you want to call it - was he just that naturally talented that he managed to put up 3 of the most dominant seasons of any player ever in the late 90's early 00's (including hakeem, wilt, everyone), and maintain and even improve on that performance in the playoffs - while not even caring? I find it doubtful. He took games over down the stretch. No aw shucks clap or staring at the floor and cursing to himself, you couldn't single cover him with Mehmet okur and be satisfied. Wow, I'd hate to see how good he would have been had he actually wanted to be.
great my fuking ass....u put kobe on that orlando team and they would never have gotten out of the first round either and kobe would not have the same offensive capability as the tmac then. but if u put then-tmac with shaq with those same role players at that time and they would've won more than 3 titles. yes, tmac is not his pre-injury self anymore. but what i'm arguing is that the 02' tmac is better than the 02' kobe. Juz saying.....
u sure about that? let's see how "big" kobe's role are in those teams as compared to tmac's. shaq was their best player. tmac is this. and let's see the STATS. u think tmac didn't do enough in the playoffs? in the years he played w/ shaq, these are kobe's playoff averages 99 - 20, 7, 5 (lost in 2nd round) 00 - 21, 5, 4 (won finals) 01 - 29, 7, 6 (won finals) 02 - 26, 6, 5 (won finals) 03 - 32, 5, 5 (lost conf. finals) 04 - 24, 5, 5 (lost finals) as u see, outside of 01 and 03, he didn't put up the stats tmac had to put up for the team to even win the finals. i mean, 21, 5, 4 and STILL WIN??? u mean, kobe had 21, 5, 4 that playoffs and lakers still won? can tmac put 21, 5, 4 and we win a game??? so with that out of the way => kobe had the top 3 center of ALL TIME playing with him. and arguably the most DOMINANT of all time. tmac does more right now for this team than what kobe had to do. kobe never had to score all the time. he never had to defend all the time (he had harper or fox for that). he never had to playmake all that (as seen by his assist #s). he did defend b/c he never had to do those other things so what do i mean to say w/ this post => this yr, tmac avg 25, 5, 7. and we lost in the first round. 2 yrs ago, tmac avg 31, 7, 6 and we lost in the first round. tmac obviously can play better b/c he's just that good, but when u have a kobe putting up 21, 5, 4 and still win the whole thing => it says that u need a TEAM. he had shaq in his prime (which is 10x better than this yao). he had better role players than us. i can claim this tmac is at least on par w/ the kobe shaq had with him, but that's cutting tmac short. tmac has more responsibility on this team than kobe had in those yrs COMBINED. so let's get that straight. don't be fooled by the kobe of the last 2 yrs and forgot how much of a load he carried the yrs he played with shaq. thats why tmac's playoff stats DWARF kobe's stats. they're not even close in any category. tmac just has more of a load to carry than kobe has ever, outside of the last 2 yrs. and tmac's load is as comparable.
yes tats right...and not juz a guard, but preferrably a scoring point or combo guard that can penetrate and distribute. the most voable option may unfortunately be mike james. steve francis is good as well.
he's a superstar by default b/c the centers suck in today's games. but compared to shaq, duncan (playoff version b/c he does "COAST" in the reg. season now), he's not even close. i just wish ppl stop comparing tmac to kobe when he played w/ shaq. it's not a fair comparison b/c tmac has more of load than kobe ever did. and my previous post proves it. kobe always got out of the first round w/ shaq. ALWAYS. and never had to be great. tmac has to be beyond superhuman for us to get to 7 games. he put up 29, 13 and still can't win a game 7. so please, STOP THE COMPARISON. compare tmac to shaq and yao to kobe is more like it in terms of roles.
now let's look at shaq's #s in those laker yrs 98 - 31, 10, 3 (blocks), 61% fg 99 - 27, 12, 3, 51% fg (win finals) 00 - 31, 15, 3, 57% fg (win) 01 - 30, 15, 3 56% fg (win) 02 - 29, 13, 2 53% fg 03 - 27, 15, 2 54% fg (lost in finals) NOW those are superstar #s. now REALLY, u dont think tmac can win w/ those? yao this yr as his BEST yr in the playoffs - 25, 10, ****0.7 blocks**** and ****44% fg*****
