Irrelevant article. Describes Manu as "not at full tilt" against Mavs last year - how about "not playing". Ignores Duncan's tendonosis. Ignores Blair and McDyess. Assumes RJ will not be an improved defender in our system. Fail.
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Irrelevant article. Describes Manu as "not at full tilt" against Mavs last year - how about "not playing". Ignores Duncan's tendonosis. Ignores Blair and McDyess. Assumes RJ will not be an improved defender in our system. Fail.
You cant tell me the defense is not gonna be better with RJ and Dice in the starting lineup....
Artest does not need to lead the Lakers. They have Kobe or even Gasol.Quote:
Originally Posted by cd98
Artest has fit and been a great contributor to EVERY team he has been on. Pacers, Kings, Rockets. I don't understand why some Spur fans are saying he will give Lakers chemistry problems. That is bullshit!!! and you know it.
Artest is gonna kill with the Lakers.
The key to me for the Lakers is to keep Odom. They will IMO. If they don't they are toast. If they do they have a chance.
But on the other hand, Lakers backup guards are complete shit. Pathetic. And the rest of their bench is pretty pathetic too. Lakers have taken a step back mainly for losing Ariza and doing nothing to improve their backups.
i would have artest and jefferson as equal and i would also have to be cautious of bynum. the bynum of the regular season would be better than mcdyess but the post-season bynum would not be. also, it would be mason that is less than kobe and not manu as manu would come off of the bench and he would make the bench for the spurs as good as that of the lakers.Quote:
Originally Posted by Allanon
a series between the two would be epic i believe, assuming everyone was healthy.
+1000Quote:
Originally Posted by Nathan Explosion
I've been stressing that about how well Ariza guarded Parker for A WHILE NOW, and it's very under-represented in discussing matchups.
Put simply, the Lakers now have NO ONE that can guard Parker, at all. Artest can't, Kobe can't, Fisher DEFINITELY CAN'T, Farmar can't, Sahsa can't, etc. They have no one: Parker, the Spurs youngest proven player is going to carve the Lakers defense into SHREDS. The more the Lakers rotate to try and stop him, the more that will open up Manu/Jefferson to go ballistic because Kobe/Artest are no longer guarding them.
The Lakers, by letting Ariza walk, have made a HUGE MISTAKE: Parker might average 40ppg in a series with the Lakers, and it wouldn't surprise me. Or the Lakers will try to trap/double team him, leaving the 3 point shooters open.
Which is what the Spurs were built for.
When comparing the Lakers and Celtics, I think Laker fans should be worried. The Celtics are one of the few teams that can matchup size with size, and have the advantage. The Lakers can throw out Bynum, Gasol, and Odom (assuming he re-signs) if they want. The Celtics can counter with Perkins, Sheed, and KG.
I'd give the Celtics the slight edge on those matchups.
Then you'd have Kobe and Fisher vs Pierce and Rondo. Kobe is the better player but Pierce can punish Kobe in the low block wearing him down. And does Rondo vs Fisher really deserve a comparison?
I can't wait until the NBA releases the 2009-2010 Schedule. I want to know when we play the Lakers, so we can all finally see how we match up.:toast
Also, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the NBA gives us an inordinate amount of back-to-backs again.:bang
Oh, and in my last post, I forgot a guy named Ray Allen. I think the guy's a little bitch, but that little bitch can shoot lights out.
For some reason Bynum has a 20 point 10 rebound game against the Grizzlies, follows with a 14 point 9 rebound game against the Clippers, and all of the sudden the Lakers are acting like he is right up there with Kareem, Shaq, and the other legendary Laker big men.
Yet when he gets relegated to the bench in the playoffs, where the talent is that much better, the Laker fans talk about his potential.
Kind of reminds me of Dampier, actually.
The only thing worse than comparing Blair to Malik Rose is comparing Bynum to Dampier. :lol
Lakers looked so - so in getting through the West last year. Look closer. The heavy weights in the Western Conference all had injuries to key players that led to a poor post season performance. Which explains LA's relative ease at winning the west and why they got to play the Nuggs instead of a good team in the WCF.
Injuries: See Utah (Boozer barely back, Okur, and Williams at first half of season), Mavs (Howard missed lots of games), Spurs (Ginoboli missed half season/playoffs); New Orleans (Paul injured, Chandler, Peja), Houston (Yao/McGrady). Makes for an easier passage to the finals, no?
Not as distant as you'd think. You see, Dampier had enough good games that people thought he had potential to be the best center not Shaq. That's why he got a huge contract.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nathan Explosion
Then, he continued to show the same inconsistent play until finally settling on being an average center in the NBA (which means you suck, but you're 7 feet tall and somewhat mobile).
Bynum has enough good games to make you think he's worth the contract L.A. gave him. But then you watch the playoffs and see that he's not getting any minutes. Especially against Houston when Yao was down. That should have been his series to dominate. Why wasn't he? Because he is overrated. Hard for some to accept, but what exactly has he done to show he's not Eric Dampier?
id love if both teams were at full strength. i believe a 100% bynum is a bigger deal in the matchup than a 100% manu
I know the comparison between Bynum and Dampier is a fair one. That's the sad part. That's why I said while I didn't like the comparison between Blair and Malik was being made, I think comparing Bynum to Dampier is even worse, for Bynum that is.Quote:
Originally Posted by cd98
Wasn't Bynum 100% in the playoffs this past season?
My bad. It's the limitation of communicating ideas in writing. It's especially hard to catch sarcasm.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nathan Explosion
That's just it about Artest...he doesn't really live in the post now. He has become alot more of a three point shooter, with a bad shot selection. It's easy to think all of a sudden thats going to change because of the influence of Phil and Kobe, but Ron really doesn't roll that way. He will be great at times, and much of the time he will frustrate the hell out of the rest of the team with basketball that just is not smart. I don't think changing Ariza out for Artest is a big upgrade...Ariza is younger, faster, more athletic, and is a better defender than Artest at this point in their careers, and fits within the Lakers team concept. We'll see, but Ron is not a role player. Watch tape of last season's Rockets. That is what you are getting.Quote:
Originally Posted by Allanon
Way too early to tell..Lakers obviously have the advantage, that's the respect they'll get as defending champions..
I want to see how our guys look in the SL, because they can potentially give us a significant advantage over LA's weak bench..we'll see if they can show some good potential for the regular season bench..
quite possibly the stupidest method for evaluating matchups, props :tuQuote:
Originally Posted by Allanon
Lakers and Spurs have a massive drop off in talent from the starters to the role players. Crazy to think how the teams would look if contracts of people like Sasha/Luke/Finley/Bonner went to other players. Not great players, but good role players. All these players have had pretty big struggles in recent history.
I'm just not terrified at the thought of playing the Spurs. You can sit there and run through your little player by player comparisons until you're blue in the face but the reality is that Phil Jackson's teams have usually had the upper hand over Pop when the talent levels were equal. This is a team that Jackson has proven he can beat time and time again.
This is going to be the strongest Laker team since '01. Internal improvements to Bynum, another year of chemistry with the core, and the addition of Artest is going to take this Laker team to the next level. The Spurs as constructed probably wouldn't even beat last season's Lakers, expecting them to take down this upcoming team is wishful thinking at best.
And we are all operating under the assumption that Duncan and Ginobili's bodies will hold up until the playoffs. A humongous IF at this point in their careers.
The Spurs look like a powerhouse team. It might just come down to health. If both teams are healthy I like our chances. We have 4 guys who can go for 20 points a night, obviously they won't do it every night but it will be nice to know that there are several players capable of posting those numbers.
We got younger with a solid draft and retaining two players from last year. We hopefully get to see Ian.
We got a center, though I wanted Zaza. I like our prospects.
Its also a pretty big "if" that Bynum steps up the way you think he will next year. His past says otherwise, he is injury prone and has decided to eat up a 10-11 million dollar contract.Quote:
Originally Posted by DrHouse
You will also learn what happens when a key player decides to play for his national team for consecutive years. I have heard that Pau is going to play for Spain again this summer. We liked Manu playing when he was 25 for his national team. That changed when he turned 30, which is what Gasol will be this year.
You also make a big assumption that Artest will step in and mix well with the chemestry of the team. That has not been the case for most of his career. Maybe he gets distracted playing in LA, certainly you would agree that there is plenty there to distract. Lets see how Kobe and Artest gell, I don't know that Kobe will have the effect over Artest that Jordan had over Rodman.
Lets wait and see. But the last time LA said they weren't worried about the Spurs was the time the Spurs ended the threepeat.