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just face it lakerfan. lakers will be slow for a while. Fisher is not retiring. Bag of Bryant is bone on bone. nothing can be done about that
I never thought this Laker team would fall from grace so fast, but unless serious roster changes are made next season to improve perimeter quickness the Lakers aren't getting anywhere near another LOB.
Watching the Heat and the Bulls is making me realize how incredibly slow their perimeter players are. When Kobe is your fastest guy you have major problems. Fisher absolutely needs to be demoted to a minor role next season and a much younger and more athletic PG needs to be brought in. You simply can't play good defense when your PG is consistently getting burned off the first few dribbles. It compromises the entire defense.
Also, the Lakers need more athletic wing players coming off the bench. A Trevor Ariza style player that can hustle, hit open shots, and play solid defense is sorely lacking from this current roster. Shannon Brown is not the answer, as Kobe once famously said "SHIP HIS ASS OUT".
just face it lakerfan. lakers will be slow for a while. Fisher is not retiring. Bag of Bryant is bone on bone. nothing can be done about that
I'm sure Luke Walton and Steve Blake could get the Lakers a young, athletic wing player... maybe someone like James White.
No .
Artest is signed for 3 more years, btw.
Enjoy.
Nah Fisher has seen his last days as starting PG of the Lakers.
In a way, I have to commend DAL for soundly thrashing the Lakeshow. It's going to force the FO to take a long and hard look at the team and make the changes that need to be made.
And don't you ever forget. This is the ing Lakers we're talking about here. They are never down and out. As for your franchise....
We mortgaged his development in this team for Ron-Ron. In hindsight, I get it and Ron was key in getting the LOB last year but did we really do the right thing?
People will be quick with their assessments on Trev with Houston and NO but he was a p-u-r-f-e-c-t- fit with L.A.
...Damn,
fixed and repaired
Don't second guess a move that directly results in a le. Ariza likely couldn't have had an impact on Paul Pierce Artest had.
This. If LA has Ariza last year, they lose to Boston.
Though Pierce backin' up on Artest at the arc was incredibly stupid. But, then Pierce had vowed not to even be there in Los Angeles at that point.
Devin Ebanks IMO should get a shot as a rotation player next year.
Ariza's shooting performance in the 2009 playoffs was somewhat fluky. I think LA knew he'd never shoot like that again, and so far he hasn't.
In essence, that's what I typed Jam. "In hindsight, I get the move" to get Ron-Ron. I understand that immediacy is the concept in this league but it does bite you in the ass and owner and fan bases shouldn't cry once the candy has been eaten.
Selita Ebanks should get a shot over Fisher.
....no matter where he's landed.
Artest is all but useless if we're not playing a team with a slow wing player they depend on scoring from. And even in that he's started to slip and lose his hold a little.
We probably lose with Ariza last year, but going forward I think he'd be the better fit for this LA team. His man defense on wing players is worse than Ron's, but not by as much as Ron's finishing at the rim/transition baskets/cutting is worse than Trevors.
This team needs easy points in the worst way.
Would Laker fans trade Pau for Josh Smith and Kirk Hinrich?
I think Atlanta would strongly consider that with Teague playing pretty well and being able to slide Marvin Williams to the starting role again. They'd lose an important piece but add a lot in the frontcourt in terms of size and scoring. Lakers would lose a lot of size but address two starting positions and get much more athletic. Could start LO at the 4 and Josh at the 3. They'd lose depth up front but that's a nice starting 5.
Who are the Lakers going to trade besides Bynum? The only players worth anything on the team are expirings and Andrew Bynum. Kobe, Gasol, Blake, and Ron-ron are locked up through 2014 to monster contracts. Walton makes 5.7 mil next year and 6.1 the year after that. The Lakers have $61,000,000+ wrapped up in FOUR players in 2014.
Good luck with that. I suspect Memphis isn't going to be content to be your farm team this time around.
Jam,
No.
I like Hinrich, but he doesn't appear to address the Lakers problems right now. Their bench is thin as it is. They just have no one who can run on that team. Consider a Fisher/Kobe/Odom/Smith/Bynum lineup. That just seems primed to give up 105+ points to any competent offensive team. To say nothing if any of those players get in foul trouble with the Lakers bench as-constructed, minus Odom on the starting 5.
ing godamnit. Walton is like the neverending contract, I swear that seems to get longer every year.
Artests 5 year contract was almost as much of a bumble . Have the Lakers ever heard of depreciating assets?
good luck having Hinrich chase the Westbrooks, Conleys, Roses, Rondos, Parkers, Bareas of the NBA.
Here's the thing. Players obviously love long contracts. The Lakers basically said, "We can get a group of really, really good players now if we oversign them to massive deals." So they locked Kobe up ($30,000,000 in 2014!), they paid Artest the paper, and spent a huge sum on the frontcourt, thinking it would be enough to mitigate an atrocious bench and no competent point guard.
It did really well. You guys got two les out of it. But now the aftermath of that is closing in. Fisher is just done, and you can't blame him as he outlived his expectancy long ago for clutchness. Shannon Brown is just not the player the Lakers FO expected him to be. Barnes wasn't the same after his injury and doesn't appear to be a good fit despite the Lakers' need for a player like him. Kobe is aging faster than they hoped. Artest is suddenly a bad player overall and seems to hate playing next to Kobe. And while this happened, the West took a breath and just got so much younger and faster. It's not a coincidence that in the span of about 18 months Kobe went from being one of the best defensive guards in the league to actually having trouble slowing down anyone out West. I wouldn't call him a liability now, but I would hesitate to say he's even "good" on defense anymore, especially when he's frustrated by any mental errors his team makes (although obviously when he makes one, it was just Kobe being Kobe). And now the Lakers are left holding the bag (for what it's worth, the Spurs are in the same boat, except we aren't contract-locked like LAL). The bag has 2 LOBs in it, but at the expense of the next 3-4 years in addition to this one. Who knows how the CBA will change things, but as they stand it's going to be really freaking difficult to retool. There are just too many gaps in the roster.
You can't overpay players ridiculous sums of money, win two les, and still be able to reload year after year.
And FWIW, I don't see Marc ever being at the level that Pau is/was. He might end up being a better player soon, but if Pau doesn't come to LA, neither do two les. You might be looking better now going forward (although that's debatable), but it was still a very obvious trade to make, IMO.
I still don't understand how the Lakers' FO thought Walton or Blake were worth that much. Artest I can understand because you were desperate for a d-stopper and an enforcer, and you had to pay the man. But Walton and Blake... wow.
Last edited by Cry Havoc; 05-16-2011 at 10:21 AM.
Give us at least a fortnight to reload.
Why? Got another farm team in your pocket? You hoping Orlando is going to bail you out now? Just answer me: who on your team has a trade value that even approaches their current contract outside of Bynum? What do the Lakers do if Dwight stays in Orlando? Any ideas at all?Give us at least a fortnight to reload.
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