Oh Pau I love you so much when you play well. Why must you be so inconsistent sometimes.
Same goes for you Nick Young.
I hate to say it (okay, that's a lie - I love saying it) but Kobe breaks that team atm. I mean, he tried to facilitate which was nice, but he was also trying to be a dominant ball handler and the attitude was just completely different.
On December 21 2013 15:23 Jibba wrote: That team is built around speed and aggressive PG play. I don't think Melo would fit into that at all, even if he were an efficient player. Sadly they could use someone like Drummond but THEY'LL NEVER GET HIM NO ONE WILL BACK AWAY. >:|
I think they've got a lot of options in the draft though. If not, Chandler Parsons would be another strong option. Maybe as a safety net get Danny Granger on the cheap. I don't think Gerald Green is a legit starter, he's a 6th man.
Also, it remains to be seen how much Markieff and his brother improve. It's possible he'll make it to near all-star level.
I dunno, his Denver teams of old played with a pretty good pace under Karl and Melo was better for it IMO. I think he's good enough to fit in with a quick team. The big issue is and always will be his ball dominance. Whether or not he could play more off the ball and let Dragic/Bled get him good looks would be the issue. It would be an intriguing team though.
Oh Pau I love you so much when you play well. Why must you be so inconsistent sometimes.
Same goes for you Nick Young.
I hate to say it (okay, that's a lie - I love saying it) but Kobe breaks that team atm. I mean, he tried to facilitate which was nice, but he was also trying to be a dominant ball handler and the attitude was just completely different.
It's a combination of things, Kobe coming back was always going to do things to the team chemistry even before he was assigned all of the primary ball handling duties due to the point guards being injured. It was just something that was going to have to happen before he would be fully integrated.
What made the game so fun tonight was how well both Young and Gasol played, and they have been amazingly inconsistent throughout the entire season (looking nearly worthless on bad nights and incredible on good nights) and that was the case long before Kobe came back into the line up.
When the team is playing well they are a joy to watch, when they aren't and the energy isn't there then it's much less so and that's going to be true with or without Kobe.
Gasol has been hobbled by nagging injuries. He is looking noticeably more nimble lately. Dunno how you could criticize their energy. Well they at least try really hard every single night. There are going to be nights when they are simply overmatched by better teams. They've done great so far as far as I'm concerned (without Kobe).
Yep the Lakers have been over-performing I think; everyone expected them to be pretty trash but they put up a fight on most nights. They've had a few very close games (barely losing to Portland, losing to the Wizards by 2-3 points, etc)... they could easily be 17-9 rather than 13-13 if a few games had swung the other way. You also can't say much about Kobe playing only 5-6 games. They were always going to struggle when he came back into the lineup... he had no training camp or anything so there are two primary issues:
1) the current team is brand new (minus Gasol and Jordan Hill) and have been playing together for training camp + preseason + 20 games, and all of a sudden you're inserting a new guy to the lineup.. there will be struggles
2) Kobe isn't back in shape yet, would probably have taken him another 2-3 months to really get back into form.
I think the whole idea is for them to be in striking distance of the playoffs (around 7-9 seed) and by April, the team should be fully integrated and Kobe back in full game shape, and MAYBE they steal a round in the playoffs... that was basically the ultimate ceiling of this team. More unlikely now with Kobe missing 2 more months.
Anyway - I'm looking for a torrent of LA vs Blazers game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference Finals... anyone got a hook up?
On December 21 2013 18:54 Xeris wrote: Yep the Lakers have been over-performing I think; everyone expected them to be pretty trash but they put up a fight on most nights. They've had a few very close games (barely losing to Portland, losing to the Wizards by 2-3 points, etc)... they could easily be 17-9 rather than 13-13 if a few games had swung the other way. You also can't say much about Kobe playing only 5-6 games. They were always going to struggle when he came back into the lineup... he had no training camp or anything so there are two primary issues:
1) the current team is brand new (minus Gasol and Jordan Hill) and have been playing together for training camp + preseason + 20 games, and all of a sudden you're inserting a new guy to the lineup.. there will be struggles
2) Kobe isn't back in shape yet, would probably have taken him another 2-3 months to really get back into form.
I think the whole idea is for them to be in striking distance of the playoffs (around 7-9 seed) and by April, the team should be fully integrated and Kobe back in full game shape, and MAYBE they steal a round in the playoffs... that was basically the ultimate ceiling of this team. More unlikely now with Kobe missing 2 more months.
Anyway - I'm looking for a torrent of LA vs Blazers game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference Finals... anyone got a hook up?
I used to hate him because of his delusions of grandeur jacking up terrible stuff when he was on the wizards, but I just can't help liking him, he's too funny. Just the sight of him with one of those goofy looks makes me laugh, then randomly he'll do a 360 layup into the crowd for no logical reason.
Player A fakes a shot. Player B, who is a foot bigger than A and is 5 feet on front of A, jumps trying to block it. He jumps with his legs slightly open, say a bit wider than shoulder-width. Player A quickly gets back control of the ball and tries a bounce pass. Ball hits the leg of player B. Consider player A didn't have the intention of throwing the ball on B's, he wanted the complete the pass. Is it a kick ball violation?
I'm going to agree with Ace that the Suns should just keep acquiring good players with their assets as they become available. They could pull off what Houston did by constantly maintaining valuable assets like picks, players at good value, and cap space, and then jump in when a star player becomes disgruntled or a team looks to blow things up. They're actually in a better position than the Rockets because they have two potential Allstar level players in Dragic and Bledsoe (moreso the latter IMO), and some emerging talents at valuable positions (Morris twins as stretch-PF's and Plumlee as a rim protecting C). If those players continue to improve, they could become an attractive place for stars to go simply by being good and appearing to be only a star away from true contention.
I disagree that Melo isn't a "star", but it's easily arguable because everyone's opinion is different as to what that even means. However, I agree that Melo isn't a good fit for the Suns as a high usage, ball-dominant player. They'd be better off looking to acquire a star wing player in the Paul George mold, who can be effective while not dominating the ball and playing good defense, or a star PF/C as an upgrade to either the Morris twins or Plumlee. Love would be a great fit if Plumlee can develop into a solid defensive C.
I see this current Lakers squad (minus Kobe) as something like the Spurs when they rest their big 3. A bunch of solid role players who have talent but lack the consistency to be truly good, playing in an effective system that maximizes their talents. It's a credit to D'Antoni that he has been able to get so much out of so little, and also have the team playing as hard as it has.
As for Swaggy, you can't not love the guy since he's such a happy-go-lucky goofball. I think he's great and enjoyable when the Lakers are in their current state where there's no real expectation of success, but he'd probably be much more frustrating and get a lot more flack for his bad plays if there were actual expectations of success for the team.
EPT
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