Re: *Official* 2007-2008 LA Lakers \"the year we missed out on KG\" thre
 

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10, 10, and 1.2 in 24 mpg is beyond impressive. I also have been impressed with what I've seen of his one-on-one defense.


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It's been 9 games. He's looking really good, but I don't think it's a given he will sustain this level of production or that he will improve substantially unless he works hard. Especially since questions have been brought up about his work ethic.

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His hands, frame, and agility, at his height/weight is something you cannot teach.

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Agreed, he has awesome hands and a great frame. His defensive agility is pretty great although it doesn't seem to translate into agility on the offensive block for some reason.

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Everything points to Bynum being an all-star.

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All I'm saying is that it's real early to be saying things like this. Biedrins averaged about 10-10-1.5 last year in 29 min, but I don't think he is going to be an all-star necessarily.

Re: *Official* 2007-2008 LA Lakers \"the year we missed out on KG\" thre
 

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He's looking really good, but I don't think it's a given he will sustain this level of production or that he will improve substantially unless he works hard.

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It has as much to do with PT as with hard work. Presumably, hard work will get him more PT...but if Bynum gets more PT, his production will go up. Simple math. At this point, I'd be stunned if he didn't end up producing around my preseason predictions (14/10 w/ 1.5+ bpg) assuming he continues to eat into Kwame/Mihm's minutes (which should be a foregone conclusion frankly).

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Biedrins averaged about 10-10-1.5 last year in 29 min, but I don't think he is going to be an all-star necessarily.

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Biedrins is skinny and doesn't have half the natural "gifts" that Bynum does. Despite that, he's gone from 10/9 in 29mpg last year to 13/11 in 36mpg this year. Not bad for a 21-year old non-All-Star.

Re: *Official* 2007-2008 LA Lakers \"the year we missed out on KG\" thre
 

sweet lakers got ariza and got rid of cook. kind of sad about evans but oh well.

Re: *Official* 2007-2008 LA Lakers \"the year we missed out on KG\" thre
 

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sweet lakers got ariza and got rid of cook. kind of sad about evans but oh well.

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yeah i don't think there is any other way of looking at this haha.

Re: *Official* 2007-2008 LA Lakers \"the year we missed out on KG\" thre
 

Facking godsend for the Lakers. Dumps the $10.5M owed to Cook over the next 3, gets a 1-year $3M Ariza. Step one to shipping Ariza+Kwame+whatever for a quality, overpaid vet. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: *Official* 2007-2008 LA Lakers \"the year we missed out on KG\" thre
 

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sweet lakers got ariza and got rid of cook. kind of sad about evans but oh well.

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yeah i don't think there is any other way of looking at this haha.

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My thoughts exactly. I loved Evans, but Ariza is basically a younger version of him. My only concern is that Mo came through with a 3 every now and again, but I don't think Ariza can shoot at all.

Re: *Official* 2007-2008 LA Lakers \"the year we missed out on KG\" thre
 

Ariza career 3pt %: 0.143

Re: *Official* 2007-2008 LA Lakers \"the year we missed out on KG\" thre
 

What a win last night. This team is freaking smoking right now. Pacers aren't a particularly good defensive team, but they still have been holding opponents to around 100 all season. 134? Wow. This is the Lakers this year. Kobe gets 30+ and shoots a perfect 11-11 from the line; 8 different guys get into double figures (and Mihm had 9); Kobe, Radmanovic and Farmar go a collective 11/19 from 3; the team shoots above 50% for both field goals and 3s; and the list goes on.

Its still too early to start sucking each others popsicles but wow what a performance. When shooting at this level I think its pretty obvious the Lakers can beat anybody in the league.

Re: *Official* 2007-2008 LA Lakers \"the year we missed out on KG\" thre
 

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When shooting at this level I think its pretty obvious the Lakers can beat anybody in the league.

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Well yeah. When anyone shoots at that level they can beat anyone in the league. I do not however think those numbers are sustainable unless they dust off Paul Westhead. That said, impressive victory and they are looking surprisingly good.

Re: *Official* 2007-2008 LA Lakers \"the year we missed out on KG\" thre
 

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When shooting at this level I think its pretty obvious the Lakers can beat anybody in the league.

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Well yeah. When anyone shoots at that level they can beat anyone in the league. I do not however think those numbers are sustainable unless they dust off Paul Westhead. That said, impressive victory and they are looking surprisingly good.

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Yeah obviously they will not shoot 58% FGs all season but I don't think it was a crazy fluke by any means. The key to all this IMO is not just the shooting but the fact that the Lakers might have the best bench in the league right now. Lakers bench has gotten at least 3 players into double figures five out of their ten games so far, you could even say 6-10 because in the Utah game Radmanovic got 9. In those games they were 4-1 (5-1 if you count Utah game). The one loss was a very weird Spurs game where Duncan shot abysmally, finished with 5 points, yet Bowen saved them going 6-6 from 3 and finishing with 25 points or something. In the Chicago game a stunning five players from the bench scored in double figures.

This is the key to this team right now, but a couple questions still remain, namely, what will Ariza bring (shouldn't be too much of an issue neither Cook nor Evans brought much to the table offensively and neither scored ten points all season). Also, the key question is can it be sustained. I don't see why not. The way the offense is set up everyone gets their share of good looks every game.

Re: *Official* 2007-2008 LA Lakers \"the year we missed out on KG\" thre
 

I never doubted the Lakers was bad; from the way it seems they're on pace with a 6th seed or so that I had projected them to be.

I hope Kwame sits out indefinitely for infinitely so Bynum can start pwning btches d-low

Re: *Official* 2007-2008 LA Lakers \"the year we missed out on KG\" thre
 

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The key to all this IMO is not just the shooting but the fact that the Lakers might have the best bench in the league right now.

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QFT. Farmer, Mo Evans (Ariza now), Radmanovic, and two of Turiaf/Bynum/Mihm is a great 2nd unit.

Re: *Official* 2007-2008 LA Lakers \"the year we missed out on KG\" thre
 

Didn't Ariza smoke the Lakers last year?

I guess I am happy for this trade, I don't really know enough to have an informed opinion.

Re: *Official* 2007-2008 LA Lakers \"the year we missed out on KG\" thre
 

I was at the Nets-Lakers game last night, it was absolutely brutal. Kobe couldn't hit the broadside of a barn (as Chick would say) until five minutes left in the game and then he just went off.

Some observations:

- Vujacic and Radmanovic are awful. They can't do anything other than hit standstill jumpers and foul people. Vujacic goes hard on defense, but I'm not sure he knows how to stay in front of anybody. He pressures the ball like crazy, but he never really comes up with a steal and often just gets beat off the dribble.

- Phil Jackson has the most bizarre substitution patterns. I just don't get it, it seems random. Fisher is 6/6 from the field, yet he sits out an entire quarter when the entire team is off. And I know that he doesn't like calling timeouts so that his players can "figure it out", but that doesn't seem smart when you don't have a single starter on the floor.

- Bynum looks really good. He has really strong hands and he looks insanely comfortable with his jump hook. Kobe gave him an awful lob pass into the post and Bynum basically tore off Shawne Williams arm to haul it in. He had six or seven boards in the first quarter, but he seemed to tire quickly and stopped going as hard on the glass. The biggest thing that I noticed is that he is awful at changing direction. He can get from point A to point B quickly, but he can't really adjust on the fly.

- Vince Carter is really good at drawing fouls. He just knows how to react to contact to sell the foul and how to throw himself into the defender.

Re: *Official* 2007-2008 LA Lakers \"the year we missed out on KG\" thre
 

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- Vince Carter is really good at drawing fouls. He just knows how to react to contact to sell the foul and how to throw himself into the defender.

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good observations but in general they are well known ;p

Re: *Official* 2007-2008 LA Lakers \"the year we missed out on KG\" thre
 

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- Vince Carter is really good at drawing fouls. He just knows how to react to contact to sell the foul and how to throw himself into the defender.

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good observations but in general they are well known ;p

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Yeah, nothing groundbreaking. I probably could've told you all these things before I went to the game. I meant to go into more detail with things, but I got lazy. You see a lot of little things when you are up close, but it's hard to articulate.

I honestly had forgotten how bad Vujacic was though. I don't understand why he's ever on the floor.

Re: *Official* 2007-2008 LA Lakers \"the year we missed out on KG\" thre
 

taraz,
How good was your seats? Up close? [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

I've been saying how much Sasha sucks since the first day he comes on board. Can't believe we wasted a first round pick on that POS, and thank goodness Cook is gone everytime I see him I don't see a big black guy who can only shoot treys, but just a 1st round pick surrounding him, and those that we could have gotten instead of Cook:
Leandro Barbosa
Josh Howard
Mo Will

ASDAGSTRH%ETRGERDFGFCSCDF

Re: *Official* 2007-2008 LA Lakers \"the year we missed out on KG\" thre
 

I was sitting right above the locker room tunnel. Probably the closest I've ever been.

Agreed 100% on Sasha and Cook. I just figured going to the game was a good excuse to bitch about him some more.

Re: *Official* 2007-2008 LA Lakers \"the year we missed out on KG\" thre
 

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I never doubted the Lakers was bad; from the way it seems they're on pace with a 6th seed or so that I had projected them to be.

I hope Kwame sits out indefinitely for infinitely so Bynum can start pwning btches d-low

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is english you first language?