Pretty amazed at our improvement. Some notes 1- Destroyed the Zone. In the past, teams have destroyed us with the zone. The bucks and Pistons last season beat us just buy throwing the zone and our ball movement would stagnate and would result in bad 3's. Today, we destroyed the zone by moving the ball and getting good looks. Excellent development 2- Some excellent rotational defense. When Ariza, Kobe and farmar are out there the athleticism/energy is amazing. Our team defense was superb today, Deron couldn't breathe. Improvement is great, derson torched us last time by getting inside at will. 3- Kobe's shot is coming back. He was in a rut with the Groin energy, his shot was flat and he got no elevation. Now he seems to be getting healthy, his shot looks better and he is getting inside more regularly. We need Mamba, we don't need 6-20 Kobe who looks scared to drive. 4- Lamar's looking more comfortable. Lamar was never comfortable being the 2nd option on offense and being required to be Kobe's pippen. Now that Farmar, fisher and Bynum have come Odom can now produce without the added pressure. This is who Lamar is, a guy who can do it all but isn't a 2nd option on a championship team. We look really good. Still need to cut down on the turnovers (well Kobe had 5 of them today) and keep on working on defense and we can go places this season. And Ariza is an f'n steal. Young, athletic who can slash (perfect with Kobe because of the offense we run and the attention he recieves) and who is an energy defender. He has played some excellent defense on Barbosa, Iverson and Hill disappeared while he was being guarded with him. Him and Kobe are wreaking havoc with the steals and energy.
And let me stress, the Bynum-Kobe connection is simply amazing. I don't think there is another SG in the league who knows how to feed the ball to bigs like Kobe can. Not even wade. He got the ball to Shaq better than wade and Penny every dreamed off and he is one of the reasons why Andrew's offensive production is so efficient. Kobe will dribble penetrate and find Andrew for easy slams. This is why i think Kobe could take Yao to new and better places. He simply knows how to find bigs, he was groomed like that.
Right On !!! Gotta give credit where it is due. The Kobe haters can hate all they want, but the truth is that Kobe will go down as one of the best ever. I also like how to refer to the Lakers as "we".
As impressive as that was, now imagine how good they could be without him (since "their only weakness is: KOBE BRYANT").
As much as people hate the Lakers and Kobe, I keep wondering if people really know how teams defend them. Defensives are geared to throwing double and triple teams at Kobe. Take that into account and you wonder how would that team do if they had absolutely NO ONE who could do that? I'm guessing the lottery.
Done what, won a title? Obviously MJ couldn't do that without Scottie either. Again, I call BS. How did MJ "make him tough"? Where is this documented anywhere, by anybody? Has Scottie ever stated such a thing, a coach, MJ...anyone? If your take is that Pippen's life as a player was easier because he didn't receive as much defensive attention due to Jordan then I completely agree (like the previous examples you gave for Worthy and McHale). I will also state that same for the majority of Hakeem's teammates. But this talk of Jordan making players tough is pure garbage, and that credit isn't given to any other player in league history. I never hear of Magic, Wilt, Kareem, Hakeem, Bird anyone else raising a players mental state, making them tough, hard....whatever. So you are saying because the previous guy was a punk and Scottie was someone that could deal with tyrant Mike, that Mike "made him tough"? How about Pippen just wasn't a broad like Sellers and could play with a star that liked to throw hissy fits? I don't recall the source, but I remember reading that Scottie was the calming force in the locker room and the player everyone turned to for support or guidance while MJ was b****ing at everyone and punching people. Again, I never recall anything about folks becoming tough because of Mike....and this honor is given to no other player that I can think of....and those other players (Magic, Bird, Isiah, etc) surely were as competitive and wanted to win just as much as MJ. So MJ was basically a tyrant....we all know that. But how does him doing all that make people tougher? Do you think he only started doing that when the team started winning? Why didn't that stuff work when he was playing with scrubs instead of very talented players? MJ, like every other player, started winning when he got help....i.e. when Pippen and Grant became star players. He didn't make anyone. Pippen and Grant showed great potential as rookies and as their games developed the Bulls finally won. Mike didn't make them, just like he didn't make any of the scrub players he had before they arrived, or the players that he had after he left Chicago.
Yep. I think they would fall further than any other team by removing only one player. Maybe cleveland would be worse w/o bron than lakers w/o kobe, but the cavs don't have as far to fall. I think they realize it, just like to be contrary.
I concur. From the few Lakers games I've watched this season, hesees the floor well and isn't afraid to take it to the basket. Kind of seems like he has a "leadershipish" type of personality as well. My only points of concern is his defense. I know hes quick, but can he handle the bigger pt guards (deron williams?) IMO, any team needing a starting pt guard should be trying to get Farmar or Jose Calderon of the Raps (though i doubt these 2 are for sale).
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