Goodies and Playoffs

Welcome! I'd like to hit on a couple of subjects before we talk Lakers and what they need to do for a deep playoff push.

Bynum's Maturity

Blah Blah Blah *Static* *White Noise*

I get it.  He's young.  He's an All Star, next in line to Mikan, Wilt, Kareem and Shaq.  Depending on who you ask, he might even be the best Center in the league right now.  But if he's a walking technical foul that keeps getting thrown of out of games while shooting rhythm-killing threes, what's the point?  It's the regular season, I know.  The guy has a chip on his shoulder and wants to be the man.  I love the edge he plays with but he needs to channel it the right way.  He's going to end up with a Rasheed Wallace rep, not exactly a good way to be perceived by referees.


Bynum needs to get his Jedi on, and find that balance between rage and peace. 

Want to shoot threes?  Work on it in the off-season and add it to your arsenal.  However, with his size and footwork, I don't see why it would be efficient to do so.  The Lakers need him down low.  Passing out of double and triple teams is what Big Drew needs to be focusing on because of his tendency to hold on to the ball too long at times.

The Lakers are going to need Andrew Bynum come playoff time, so put the shenanigans aside, grow the fuck up, because in a couple of weeks it's go time.


 It's still Laker town...for now.

In a span of about an hour, David Stern and the Lakers got me switching from euphoric to maniacal when news broke that the Lakers had acquired Chris Paul.  After Stern's veto, I said to myself: "Wait, he can't do that, he just Vince McMahoned the Lakers."  It seriously made me wonder if the NBA has a WWE script to it.  I had daydreams of CP3 lobbing to Bynum and Kobe, just hoping that a similar deal might go down.  Days later, CP3 went to the Clippers.  Hello, Twilight Zone.

I have to admit, I always thought the Lakers would be looking up at the "little brother" team in the standings.  They were for a good chunk of the season, then the Clippers started being the Clippers, how delightful.


The Lakeshow has taken the season series once again 2-1 and if all holds well, may even take the division title.


Blake Griffin and Chris Paul will have their time, it might be next season already, but for now, it's still Laker town.

If the Clippers do end up winning the division, will they hang a Pacific Division title banner next to all those championship banners and retired Laker numbers? hmmm



#52 going up. Lakers will retire Jamaal "Silk" Wilkes jersey next season.

 

  
As somebody who truly loves the history of the game, it's nice to see Jamaal Wilkes get into the Hall of Fame and join the Laker greats up above Staples Center.  


Nicknamed "Silk" for his smooth game and J, he's a guy that doesn't get mentioned enough when you talk about the Showtime Era.  Magic, Kareem, Big Game James Worthy, and even Michael Cooper gets the love but let me tell you, Jamaal Wilkes was a vital cog in that machine, especially the first two chips in 80 and 82.


1980 NBA Finals, Game 6: Magic Johnson beasted it with 42 Points, 15 Rebounds,7 assists.  We all know that, what gets left in the dust is that Silk chipped in 37 points and 10 boards.  Magic even goes on to say that without those 37 points, they don't win that game.


For as long I've been a fan (12 years) those Lakers retired jerseys have been up there, never moving, always epic.  I'm definitely going to try my best to be there when Wilkes' goes up.



Oh by the way...some big guy is getting his jersey up there next season also...

#34 also going up

It's Shaq, enough said.
Two jerseys being retired in one season, Wow!

Now back to the present, the Lakers currently hold the number 3 seed in the West by a thread.  The Clippers are right behind them by half a game and Memphis is lurking in the background along with Dallas, Denver, and an unusually good team in Houston.  The way the Lakers have been playing, they are looking at a tough first round match up and possibly a quick second round exit.  The Purple and Gold hung their hats on defense for  most of the season, but since the Sessions acquisition, they have slipped big time.  

I thought getting rid of Fisher for a quick point guard was supposed to be the answer?  I don't know what happened.  On Offense, the Lakers are still trying to figure out who they are with Sessions.  Fourteen games in, he still needs to smooth out some edges.  The important matter is he fits well on what the Lakers do.  Despite this, they have enough fire power in the Big Three of Kobe, Bynum, and Gasol to keep pace with any team in the league.

However, Defense is where they will live and die.  Now that quick point guards aren't getting by them, for some reason, new problems arise.  In their recent road game against Houston, Luis Scola with his nailed-to-the-floor-old-school post moves in the paint made Pau Gasol look like a statue.  At Phoenix, their old pal Shannon Brown dropped 24 and they somehow managed to make Michael Redd look like an All Star again in a 20 point loss.


I can attribute the L's to Bynum's ejection and Kobe sitting out but good teams find a way, especially championship teams.


The Lakers don't look like either at the moment.


The Spurs and the Thunder are the favorites to come out of the West.  The Lakers have the pieces to get it done against them, especially the Spurs, but they have to shore it up on the defensive side of the ball.  Dallas is a favorable match up because they are simply a shell of the 2011 championship team last year, plus the Lakers have the revenge factor going for them.  Houston and Denver, while it will be a gritty and tough series, simply don't have enough against the Lakers in a seven game series.  In short, they have to stay at that 3 spot because dropping could mean Memphis (yikes) or the Blake Griffin and friends (should be fun) in the first round.


I haven't even mentioned the injury bug that's plaguing the starters and keeping Kobe out.


The last 9 games are a real test for the Lakers.  They will see San Antonio three times and OKC again.  It's a good gauge of what they will look like in the playoffs.  Defense, Defense, Defense.

"Either we heal now as a team, or we will die as individuals."

- Any Given Sunday

 

Peace.

 Photos from Lakers.com, ESPN.com, and various websites, Googled images and such.

Reloaded

Heart, Class, Character, Champion: Thank You Derek Fisher!

Emotions aside, Derek Fisher was quite simply not capable of being an NBA-level starting point guard anymore.  On offense, he can't drive the lanes, his shot isn't consistent. (Though he hits them when it matters).  Where he really killed the team is on defense.  He's slow.  On a night to night basis he had to check the likes of Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, Derrick Rose etc.  Not exactly a job for a soon-to-be 38 year old.  The problems on D is not all his fault because the the Lakers as a whole is a pretty good defensive team.  However, there has been plenty of games when the opposing point guard simply torches him for a big scoring night.


That's all gone.


Gone also is his locker room presence; his leadership.  Gone are the right words the team needs to hear at the right moment.  They will miss those inspirational and ass-kicking speeches.  One of the few people that Kobe Bryant trusts and respects on the court.  I'm sure it's a short list.  His intangibles are irreplaceable.  There is a reason why the players entrusted him with all their NBA lockout stuff.  The guy is pure Character.  I, as a basketball fan, will especially miss his crunch time heroics. 


He would have been serviceable off the bench.  I wish he never got traded because I know that Derek Fisher will win you a playoff game in a series.  Everybody remembers 0.4, his three pointer that sent Game 4 of the 2009 Finals against Orlando into overtime, and I always remember him taking over the final moments of Game 3 in the 2010 Finals at Boston.  


But it is what it is.


From an emotional stand point, it is difficult, but it's for the best.


Pau Gasol (recently anointed new team Co-Captain along with Kobe) must now step up and fill the leadership void.  Not like this though.

"You can't always get what you want
And if you try sometime you find
You get what you need" - Rolling Stones

  
Little words of wisdom that apply to the post-trade deadline Lakers.  Minus all the sentimental and nostalgic stuff, the Ramon Sessions acquisition and Derek Fisher trade makes the Lakers a more efficient team on the floor.  


Sure they traded away a couple of first round draft picks in a deep NBA Draft, but I trust that Sessions is a better choice for a "Win Now" situation than whomever they could have drafted next season.  The Lakers have given him the keys and made sure that in coming here, he would be the unquestioned starter at the 1.


Like the rest of the league, they now have a point guard that can run the pick and roll, turn that corner, and make decisions with the ball.  He can beat players off the dribble, get into the teeth of the defense and kick it out for good looks at the basket.  It's great to finally have someone not named Kobe Bryant to be able create his own shot from the perimeter.  All of these are exactly what the team needed so desperately.

Class In Session

First game, off the bench: 7pts on 3 for 6 shooting, 4reb, 5asst, 3TO on 19 minutes of play ( that is already better than Fisher's season averages)


He's definitely quick.  I see flashes of athleticism when he rebounds.  With the ball, he is calm and instinctive.  All of this will do wonders for the Lakers offense because of the ball movement he will create.  His jump shot is still suspect to me, but I think that will iron itself out over time.


It's just a matter of gelling with the rest of the squad now.


The other trade acquisitions:

Christian Eyenga

Has length and athleticism, that's really all you can say about him.  Very green and probably needs more time to develop.  D-League, I wouldn't take him over Devin Ebanks at the moment.

Jordan Hill

6'10 and 6 more fouls? I don't know. I can see him getting a little burn.  I doubt he can hustle more than Josh McRoberts but you never know.  However, I would still prefer Troy Murphy's ability to space the floor over Hill.




Hopefully the new-look squad's play leads to more of this...

 

and before I go...

LOL, okay thats it.
I'm out. Peace.

 

Photos from: Lakers.com, TheLakersNation.com, and all over the web.

Hollywood Hope?

One month ago from today, Lakerland fell to to a state of mediocrity that it is not accustomed to.  They stood at 14-11 coming off a loss to the surprising 76ers. Although the team managed to squeak one out against arch nemesis Boston, any optimism was quickly deflated when Jeremy Lin torched L.A's backcourt with a 38-point game.


The same gripes and complains reverberated louder than ever in Hollywood.

Fisher is too old, Gasol is inconsistent, the bench is non-existent, too many minutes for Kobe, and Bynum's knees will always be in question.

Fast forward to today, the Lakers are 23-14, winners of 8 of the last 10 games, coming off a stellar performance against the Miami Heat.  Granted, Chris Bosh did not play and the Heatles are a different animal when their Big Three are on the floor together. Still, it is no easy feat to string W's in the NBA, regardless of who is missing on the other team's lineup.  They are sitting pretty above the Clippers in both the Pacific Division and the number 3 spot in the Western Conference   If their recent play is any indication that the Lakers have finally found themselves, there is no reason not to believe this team might go farther than previously expected.

They may even have a shot at the title this season.

Yeah, I said it.

Even if they decide not to make a trade and go to war with the current roster,I believe they have what it takes.  Here is why:

1) D -- The playoffs is a pressure cooker. All of sudden that rim is smaller, defense is tighter, and those easy shots you get in the regular season, are much tougher to create.  The Lakers have been playing grind it out, East-coast style ball all season, their Offense might hiccup at times, but the D has kept them in games. Come playoff time, Defense is what you go to war with.

2) Experience -- younger and more athletic teams like the Thunder, Grizzlies, and the Clippers will run circles around the Lakers.  However,  the core of the roster has gotten it done before.  Veteran savvy, in most cases, trumps youth and inexperience.  It may not matter to some, but to me, it counts for something.

3) Size -- There are very few teams in the league today that can handle LA's size up front.  Each of the thirteen post-Michael Jordan era champions had atleast one or two bigs that can get it done in the paint.

Pistons (04) Ben and Sheed Wallace
Heat (06) Shaq
Celtics (08) Perkins/Garnett
Mavs (11) Chandler/Nowitzki
Spurs ( 99, 03, 05, 07) - Robinson/Duncan
Lakers (00, 01, 02, 09, 10) Shaq/Gasol/Bynum

Last time I checked, Bynum is healthy and having an All Star season. Gasol's numbers are down, but he is still one of the better forwards in the league, averaging a double double.  If those two can continue to dominate the paint, come playoff time, Lakers will be a tough draw for any team.

and last but not least...

4) Kobe Bean Bryant -- The league's most ruthless winner.  Can anybody say otherwise?  What he now lacks in speed and athleticism, he makes up for in smarts and savvy.  You just cannot count out a team with this guy on it.  If he decides to play to the Lakers strength inside, not jack up ill-advised 25-30 shots a game (though he will make them more often than you think) and really pick his spots, oh boy...

Assuming there will be no overhaul of the roster with a big trade, there is hope in Tinseltown.  False hope?  Perhaps, but hope nonetheless.

All Star Break 2012

Hello! Finally, my first post, first blog, first on this everything! I love the NBA, but let me get it out there that I am a die hard Lakers fan at heart. I will always bleed purple and gold.  However, rest assured that I will try my very best to stay objective in everything I talk about here. I'm looking forward to being able to interact with different people and listening to different opinions also.

The biggest news that I got today is: Rasheed Wallace joining the Lakers.

Like I said, I am an avid Laker fan.  This news comes to me as a precursor move to possibly two things:

A) Pau Gasol, my favorite Laker, is on the move, and Sheed was signed to help bolster the front court hole he is going to leave.

B) As an Andrew Bynum insurance since he reportedly requires some kind of injection on his right knee, though he will play and start his first All Star Game, there is chance that he might miss time again.

Sheed has not played in an NBA game in a year and a half, but apparently he is in good shape.  At this point, I am not sure if he is even an upgrade over Troy Murphy or Josh McRoberts.  If he is, Sheed provides the Lakers some much needed perimeter shooting and some interior toughness.

The glaring need is still at the guard position, particularly the point guard spot.  Derek Fisher is not starting material anymore, and Steve Blake, along with the rest of the Lakers bench, is mediocre at best.

The bottom line, Lakers definitely need to make some moves as the roster cannot compete for a title as it is.  Bryant and Gasol aren't getting any younger either.   Their window is closing fast.  I think a small tweak here and there would be fine.  Hopefully, whatever move or no move comes up by the March 15th trade deadline, does not hurt the Lakers chances of landing that BIG 2012 Free Agent.