The Lakers

[iki4life]

my philosophy on how to make this team gel. the following are the platforms which I FEEL they should follow in order to be the most productive basketball team we have seen...
now i know a few of you might disagree, but again, its how I FEEL.
with that said, i'd like to know how YOU FEEL our team should be playing..

JORDAN FARMAR- be a visual player. for his size and athleticism, he needs the mentality of a slash/dish player. he's a good slasher, but passing ability can be improved. farmar and bynum click very well sometimes, yet i feel like his ego is huge, and sometimes clashes with kobe bryant (i dont know maybe im paranoid but i feel that sometimes). he's not the type of player in which the game comes to him. he's gota go to the game to achieve success.

DEREK FISHER- defensively, he wont get any better than he is. he cant fight through a screen if his life depended on it. minutes should definately be limited. on the flip side, id never trade derek. hes a laker legend. he hits humongous shots for us night in and night out. but fisher is one of the players who cant change the way he plays anymore. he's too old for that. instead of fisher adapting to the lakers system, i think the laker system should adapt to fisher. this means, keep him in tight crunch time situations. let him relax more so than other players.

SHANNON BROWN- boy should be our starting PG. the amount he produces based on the minutes he plays is plausible. hes a great finisher, a decent defender, but the downfall is that hes a score first guard. if he can develop the ability to see the court and feed off our stars, he can be great. he's gota good jumper, maybe if he can work on the mid range a bit and make it automatic, i think he can be a great contributor for us.

SASHA VUJACIC- the good-pesky defender, and he can get in the opposing players' head pretty quickly. the bad- he needs to play within his game range. if you cant dribble, then dont. if you have a sweet spot for that lazer jumper, then spot ur ass up. if you're not a good decision maker, then let luke walton make ur decisions.

KOBE BRYANT- the only thing i can point out very quickly is his rebounding. sometimes he tends not to chase the ball, and it kinda just drops in his hands. being a little more aggressive on the boards would be nice. maybe take defense a bit more seriously as well. other than that, the black mamba is flawless in my eyes.

RON ARTEST- please be a little more selfish offensively than you are. we all know he is our best on-ball defender. we know he can shoot, post, pass, and do the intangibles. he needs to be our garbage man. i'd like to see him post up his defenders, because you cant do much to stop artest on the low block. he's a great FT shooter as well. we're not too familiar with im yet, so for now, step back a little from satisfying your team mates and being so passive that ultimately you actually might be hurting the team...and find that 3 point shot quick. we know you have that ammunition hidden somewhere. go find it.

ADAM MORRISON- give his contract to me, i promise ill do a better job.

LUKE WALTON- by far the best passer on our team. defense is O.K. at best. but then again, you dont expect a small forward to be an elite defender anyway, aside from artest. you need to knock down those corner jumpers consistently buddy. they come to you all day. and you miss them all day. the 15-20 foot J has got to be consistent, consistent, consistent! phil jackson probably uses luke most wisely. if there's one man on the team that can get a team clicking, its luke walton. i dont think he gets enough respect out here. but his IQ is head over heels the most of any other player. only if he can hit the jumper, i actually wouldnt mind starting him permanently, and bringing artest as the 6th man.

LAMAR ODOM- sheesh where do i start? i'd say hes my favorite player on this team. the biggest mismatch in the nba. capable of playing the 1,2,3,4 positions at a high level. all i ask of you is bring your A GAME and not ur GAY GAME. he can be an unstoppable force, IF HE FEELS LIKE IT, and if he doesnt, then we have the biggest liability on the floor. lamar odom, please....do something about this. take advantage of the position you are in. you are a beast! utlilize yourself to the fullest! PLEASE!

PAU GASOL- obviously he has a wide array of shots 12ft and in. his defense has improved significantly since 2 years ago. (see finals on dwight) i thought he did a superb job. just get well soon pau. we need you out there. and if i was phil jackson i'd forbid him to play in europe. you work in the united states. you get paid here. we expect you to be up to your fullest expectations.

JOSH POWELL- give him some more playing time. hes a hustler. his jumper is money. i like his defense as well. i think his contract is also a steal for what he can provide. give this guy some more minutes. we will only see good out of him.

ANDREW BYNUM- see DEEP3CL's post. (defense, defense, defense) on a side note, please try not to convert this into an andrew bynum war. try to stick with this nature of the post. anyhow, he's got the offense. he needs to step it up defensively. and knock on wood, he doesnt get injured. i think he has a legit chance of making the all star game this year. maybe that will boost his confidence for the post season. all in all, he is not playing according to the contract he signed. be a little less selfish offensively. get it in your brain that there is a such thing as passing the ball to the open man.

DJ MBENGA- i like his attitude. soft spoken and good individual. true defensive presence. worth the contract. great backup to pau and bynum. maybe if he can finish a little stronger around the basket.

[DEEP3CL]

I like the break downs iki4life, regarding Jordan.........I'll be the first to say it but he's gotta go. He doesn't have the mentality of a player willing to play within the system like ours. He's better suited for the run and gun won't ever win nothing teams like the Suns, the Warrior and Knicks. He's look like an All Star in those systems.

Second player who needs to pack up is Sasha, he's mentally fizzed out. If he can't make shots, he's fouling all over the damn place. And now he's starting to display a bad attitude towards his teammates when they try to correct him.

Bottom line the team needs to refocus and realize last year is DONE.

[iki4life]

yeah i agree, but my laker sleeper is josh powell. i honestly think he has the tools to be a great contributor. i understand we have a stacked rotation as it is, but i mean..look at the celtics. doc rivers has limited the starters minutes in an outstanding fashion.
when guys like kg, ray, and pierce are playing no more than 25min a game and winning, i think thats great coaching. letting powell get some burn will do the team good. i agree with the sasha/jordan thing. ive never been a fan of them really (except sasha before he got the 3 year 15 mil offer)

[branch]

Kobe forces too much bad shots at times.

[Magicontinues]

when guys like kg, ray, and pierce are playing no more than 25min a game and winning,

Two problems, they all ARE playing more than 25 a game, (Peirce and Ray are all over 30 minutes a game) and will continue to play more minutes as they get into the season, KG is coming off injury, so of course he will play reduced mintues for now, but he's still over 25, and when the playoffs roll around will be playing even more.

[Magicontinues]

Kobe forces too much bad shots at times.

Yea, well, I'd rather have Kobe force a bad shot at times, than many players brick a good one.

[TonyMontana]

SO far to me its seems as if this team isnt hungry anymore. Hopefully we can get our ish together before we start losing more game and fall in the standings and not be able to get H.C.A.
As far as Farmar and Sasha they need to get traded. They're not helping this team at all. Not only are they not helping this team but their bad decisions are dragging down the rest of the team as well.

[iki4life]

yea 'mang' lol...farmar and sasha are weenies. they've gots 2 go quickly....id give both of them up in a package for a reasonable pg...like even antonio daniels if not kirk hinrich, or maybe bring critt back

[Magicontinues]

SO far to me its seems as if this team isnt hungry anymore. .

This after three games? And us missing our second best player?

ridiculous comment.

[TonyMontana]

SO far to me its seems as if this team isnt hungry anymore. .

This after three games? And us missing our second best player?

ridiculous comment.

Rightttttttttttt.......... okayyyyyyyyy.

So you just became a Laker fan this year??? Did you???

Cause I could swear I havent seen ish changed when it comes to both of these guys, specially since our loss in 08 finals to Boston. Has it???
Tell me are they playing any different than they have since 08. Have you seen any improvement when it comes to these two guys. Come on now dont hold out, you already called me out.

[tracey_nice]

Shannon Brown is a score first pg but sadly we have know pass first pgs and for what we have he takes the best shots-attempts of any of our pgs, every game I end up saying to myself why the **** did you shot that? To Fisher and Famar. So I agree he should be starting, with him the Lakers athleticism in the starting 5 would be realy scary, not saying that it isn't.

I think Artest will come into his own offensively, he'll learn to pick his spots and find instances within the offense were he can get his own, not really worried about that.

I disagree that Luke is by far our best passer, Odom and Kobe. And, I think he should never see the floor, unless its garbage minutes. Luke never seems to improve each season, its sad.

[Magicontinues]

[
So you just became a Laker fan this year??? Did you???

No, been a Laker fan for longer than you have been alive, why do you ask?

Cause I could swear I havent seen ish changed when it comes to both of these guys, specially since our loss in 08 finals to Boston. Has it???

What conversation are you in brotha? Cuz my point was that your ridiculous premature evalutioin of this Laker squad three games into the season is kinda a child like and seemingly Youngster approach to overreacting.

Tell me are they playing any different than they have since 08. Have you seen any improvement when it comes to these two guys. Come on now dont hold out, you already called me out.

You mean 09?
What does 08 have to do with this squad? We have an older Bynum, we are missing Pau, and we have Ron Artest who is still working his way into figuring out how to play with new teamates, so again dude, what freakin conversation are you in here? Geez.

[iki4life]

Shannon Brown is a score first pg but sadly we have know pass first pgs and for what we have he takes the best shots-attempts of any of our pgs, every game I end up saying to myself why the **** did you shot that? To Fisher and Famar. So I agree he should be starting, with him the Lakers athleticism in the starting 5 would be realy scary, not saying that it isn't.

I think Artest will come into his own offensively, he'll learn to pick his spots and find instances within the offense were he can get his own, not really worried about that.

I disagree that Luke is by far our best passer, Odom and Kobe. And, I think he should never see the floor, unless its garbage minutes. Luke never seems to improve each season, its sad.

never, ever will odom be our best passer...hes an average passer, but not the best...i'd have to say luke walton still...luke gets a lot of hate around here. i understand that because he reached his ceiling the 2nd year. he wont be any better than he is...but he was born for the triangle offense. he understands it quite well, and this is the only system he will have any chance of flourishing in...why so? because the triangle is about finding the open man...and thats what luke does best.

[tracey_nice]

Luke Walton brings very little to the table, I agree IF he has chance to flourish it would be in the triangle but I don't think he has a chance to whatsoever.

[hermes]

[
So you just became a Laker fan this year??? Did you???

No, been a Laker fan for longer than you have been alive, why do you ask?

may i ask how many that is, because i roughly know tony's age

and i think it could be interesting