If we are to be a challenger for the West crown, we are gonna have to go thru the Cream o the Crop, the Lakers. Looking at the depth PG: Rafer/AB SG: TMac/Barry/Head/Wafer or DJ/ SF: Ron/Shane PF: Luis/Carl/Chuck Hayes C: Yao/Joey PG: DFish/Jordan Farmar SG: Kobe/Vujacic/Crawford SF: Odom/Rad/Ariza/Walton PF: Pau/Powell C: Bynum/Mihm/Mbenga Clearly, they still have better depth than us, especially up front. Look at their SF rotation !!! And none of our power forwards can mess with Gasol. Kobe >>>> Tmac, and I think Rafer is a better pure point guard than DFish, but because of his defense and clutch shot making, i give the advantage to DFish. However, overall I think Aaron Brooks might be ready to really cause havoc against the Lakers. The Lakers love to trap pg's, especially at the end of games, so AB's speed will be a huge weapon. Also, AB has had a history of owning Jordan Farmar, goin back to their Pac-10 days. The real advantage though is Ron Ron. He really can destroy any one of those Laker SF's, I remember him even posting up Odom last yr with a lot of success. Despite the depth at SF, I think that's where we clearly have the advantage. And I think Yao still is way better than Bynum, but this is where stamina worries me with Yao. Tmac used to get up for Laker games. Even when on the crappy Magic, he would always try to outduel Kobe. Now he's content with Kobe lockin him up and shooting like 6-20 or something like that. Seriously, has Tmac EVER played well against the Lakers? If he decides to take the challenge of matching up with Kobe, takin big shots, then that's where I see a chance for us to win. Thoughts ?
PG: Equal (DFish ~>= Rafer, AB ~>= Farmar) SG: Favor Fakers (Kobe >>> TMac, Barry/Head >> Vuja) SF: Advantage Rockets (Artest\Battier >>> All) PF: Equal (Scolandry ~= Gasol) C: Slight Favor US (Yao >>> Bynum, but no Yao backup yet) Only the Fakers match up almost evenly with us, but I would still give the edge to the Rockets. Artest and Battier are two legit NBA starting SF's; the combination will eat any team's SG/SF alive. We need to sign a legit backup center, I have doubts about Joey.
i agree with your assessment how t-mac doesnt play well against kobe. you would think the bright lights of LA would be enough to motivate him, but it does seem like he shies away when kobe's on the court. i think we match up against LA similar to how Boston matched up with them. we are a really similar team to Boston. we basically are as good defensively, maybe a little worse inside since they have KG who was the DPOY, and we're a little worse offensively. in fact, we're basically a little worse than the celtics.
Well we don't have Kevin Garnett, who absolutely pwned Gasol !! That's why they won IMO, Pau Gasol was reduced to a straight chump, and we don't have the personal at PF to do that And in regards to the Kobe thing with Tmac, he just has to step up, not shy away from the challenge. Tracy is capable of scoring on Kobe whenever he wants , he just has to bring it
You are doubting what Scolandry can do on offense to Gasol and what Artest can do to him defensively. If Artest is on Gasol, Gasol will be crying by the end of his 2/12 9 pts, 2 rebound performance. Gasol needs to just be pushed around a bit and he backs off. (Similar to the Dirk fellow everyone seems to hate ).
Thier starting five is better than ours but we have more depth. It wont even be close if the Lakers don't come out of gate strong.
you guys take individual matchups too seriously. kobe >>> pierce, but pierce outplayed him last yr in the series. kobe is better than tracy, but if artest can provide that presence, don't be suprised if tracy goes off. and since phil rarely doubles yao, expect yao to obliterate the lakers as usual. kobe will be much less efficient v. us w/ battier AND artest going at him. i think we match up great with this team.
They lost Turiaf, and don't really have a dependable second center. Mihm and Mbenga don't cut it, and neither does Dorsey. So, overall, I think the center position easily favors us by a moderately large margin.
I am shocked at how many people think the Lakers have more depth than the Rockets. I am mroe shocked by the hype that Sasha Vujacic has received. I am optimistic in that T-Mac will play Kobe to a standstill because we have the two best wing defenders in the entire league, while T-Mac will be guarded by Kobe (who has a scoring load to carry), Ariza, Fish or Odom. They won't be going head to head, but I think T-Mac will want to show off and he will have an advantage in this regard. Kobe played extensive summer ball as well, which won't help. I can't see Kobe winnning the series. He will have his games because he is Kobe, but on average, this is the worst matchup in the league for him. As for our depth. Landry, BAttier or Artest, Barry, Brooks, Francis, Head, Hayes and possible Deke? I can't imagine that the Lakers depth is better. I look forward to this series. I would be optimistic, even if THEY had homecourt advantage.
I think the matchup with them is gonna be all about the intangibles. Whoever is tougher, more clutch, etc. We saw in the Finals that they lack toughness. Now that we have Artest, I think we beat them.
Those are very fair comparisons, in my opinion, but I wouldn't break it down strictly by position myself. For instance, Ron Artest will probably see some good minutes at the 4, and Scola will be our primary backup 5. Odom & Radmanovic are in a similar situation at the 3/4 in LA. So I'm thinking you gotta break it down player-by-player so you can factor in their overall contributions to the game: Yao >> Bynum (Yao is a go-to guy, Bynum is an active big) McGrady << Bryant (Anything Mac can do Kobe does better) Artest >> Odom (Point Forwards? Artest wins on both sides of the ball) Battier > Radmanovic (They both can drain the three, only one can lead a defense) Scola < Pau (Really similar players here, but Pau's the vet) Alston =< Fisher (Fisher wins on offense, Alston wins on defense) Landry >> Mihm (Game changer vs. Big Body) Barry < Vujacic (Similarities abound, but Vujacic is more mobile/better on D) Brooks = Farmar (Both are serviceable, but have their deficiencies) Hayes = Mbenga (Exist for defense & rebounding: Chuck's better, Mbenga's bigger) Add up the "greater thans" (definitely the most accurate sabermetric ), and I've got the Rockets with 7 and the Lakers with 4.5.
Doesn't matter if Kobe is better than Tmac. Ron is going to shut him down!! I prefer Landry guarding Gasol..Landry is quicker. That's why i say Landry should start the game.
I watched Lakers vs Raptors preseason game yesterday. The Lakers are really impressive - big, athletic lineups. Their scoring abilities are out of the roof & explosive. If the Lakers can tighten their defense, they are the team to beat. Sam Mitchell said their twin towers, Bosh and O'neal, look small when compare to the Lakers frontline. LOL!
If its about defense, its gotta be rockets. Battier did great against Kobe last year, and now there will be artest who can take turns to defend Kobe. Let other guys beat us..i'm more frighten to see kobe on fire and hitting shots at will
Don't forget, Chuck can play some good D as well. If you have to just throw him on Gasol for spurts. I really can't see how anyone can say they have more depth than us. Its really not close. The only place they have us beat is kobe over Mac and even that isn't a huge margin. We are one of the only teams with a guy close to what d-bag bryant can do. Throw in the fact that Shane and Artest will be on him and there you go. Also I would take Scolandry over pau. Thats just me though. I look forward to playing these guys and proving what we can do. Let the other teams get the hype, I just want the trophy.
I agree with this apart from your statement that anything tmac can do, kobe can do better. Tmac rebounds and dishes out assists better. He has the ability to make his teammates better, something that i dont believe kobe has.
Bryant is probably better than McGrady in every statistical catergory, but McGrady is still a better playmaker than Kobe. The Rockets don't need McGrady to score that often now that we have terrific finishers in our team.
Lakers weakness is Kobe takes a large amount of shots. On average if you force him into a lot of contested 3's you win. We should be able to achieve that - we already gave them trouble last year though we never really had a mature matchup. ie they didn't have gasol in game 1 and we weren't really playing scolandry yet.
