they will be fine lets not pick at the Lakers when our team is far worse. Bench? Their bench is fine when compared to the rest of the league. You only need 3 decent players off the bench on a championship team. Most coaches and teams have always run a 8 man rotation. Even our very own RA prefers to run a 8 man rotation but our team is different. Lakers have Odom who is one of the best players coming off the bench in the league. Next up they have Steve Blake, Barnes, and Brown who are all decent players.
artest starts so he can defend the other team's best player usually. they don't need another offensive unit when they have kobe and gasol on the floor. odom brings in more offense and length within the bench. that was always his original role.
There bench isn't a top ten bench. Odom started up until December. Now going back, he is the only answer for a poor showing of Fisher/Artest, so you really have only Odom, Kobe, Bynum, and not even lately Gasol trying to win games for you. Blake Brown and Barnes have all dipped. They are not hitting their shots in all of december and blake for being a renowned passer, is just plain horrible. Comparable to benches of other contenders, like SA, Boston, Orlando, Dallas, Miami, Chicago, EVEN HOUSTON, LA has ways to go.
Dude what are you smoking?? I cant believe you are going to make me defend the Lakers (i hate them) but they do not have a worse bench than Miami. Lets take a look at the teams you listed Lakers 2nd unit Steve Blake 5ppg Shannon Brown 10ppg Matt Barnes 8ppg 5 rpg Lamar Odom 16ppg 10 rpg 3apg Now how is Miami's bench better? Miami's 2nd unit Mario Chalmers 6ppg 2apg Eddie House - 5ppg James Jones 7ppg Juwon Howard LOL Dampier LOL again 2nd best center? 1ppg 3rpg Clearly lakers have the edge against Miami. Not even close.. Lamar alone makes them way better Now if you look at the Spurs bench of Hill, Neal Udoka, Spliiter and McDyess Only Hill and Neal can score off the bench. The others are defensive role players Boston has a overrated bench.. Who the heck does Boston have coming off the bench. Avery Bradley who? Nate Rob - midget Daniels - 5ppg roll player and Jermaine Oneal - decent backup center But put those guys together I wouldnt consider it to be better than the Lakers Only teams you listed with deep benches are the mavs, magic and the Rockets but we are not even close to being contenders so ignore the Rockets. The Mavs I agree have a deep team but they have injury problems now. Orlando is another deep team but time will tell on how the new Magic team will gel. They gained a lot of offense off the bench in Arenas, Richardson, and Reddick but they no longer have a defensive stopper in Gortat after the trade. And again most teams only play a small 8 man rotation so the Lakers are plenty deep.
I don't think Artest is the problem. They really need to put Shannon Brown in the starting unit and bench Fisher. Brown has proven to be a better player the last 2 years, and can do a lot more on both ends than Fisher can right now.
But Fisher is so clutch! I've long thought Fisher was a garbage player and it's even more true now that his defense isn't good anymore. Fisher would not have been needed in all those clutch situations he's known for if he hadn't been such a major liability the first 40 minutes of the game.
