Lakers Thread

That's terrible. Can't imagine what his parents are going through right now.

Wow, that's really sad. My thoughts go out to his parents.

Pau Gasol, you sir are insane.

Wow, that's tragic for that family, kid was only 2.

Seriously, Dirk over Pau? Seriously people?

Kobe Bryant's Grinch styled shoes.

he'll wear it on Christmas, in a game against the Miami Heat (natch) for all of us to behold.

If anyone could make an avatar of a side by side pic of that Kobe image with same image as that of my current avatar, please do.

That thing is fucking ugly.

The shoes too!!

on christmas day he is going to wear yellow purple and green? wtf

Is Jim Carrey a Lakers fan?

Back to back losses, not anything to panic about ofcourse but it's not very fun either.

A question to anyone who checks in on this thread..

I'm very excited about Shannon Brown this season now that he's added an outside shot, but with his improvement a little bit of fear of losing him has also found its way to my mind. Do you guys think LA will keep him or will they let him walk if he's seeking a payoff at the end of the year? He's only 24, I've heard Kobe is quite high on him as a player so imagine he has the work ethic Kobe has, it would be a shame to watch him walk away and explode on some other team..

Thoughts?

I think they'd be willing to keep him, but he might want to play somewhere where he can have a bigger role, plus if he keeps this up he'll probably get a very nice contract somewhere else. I think it depends on what he wants, and I have a feeling he wants a bigger role. But anyway, the Lakers have way too many good players now, so it'd only be fair to see him go

I guess, Fisher isn't getting any younger though. Actually, the entire LA squad isn't one of the youngest as a whole. They should try to keep some youth.

Who knows, perhaps Bynum & Brown could be the future of the franchise. It's a longshot, but who knows?

He might not opt out of the second year of his deal given that a lockout seems to be looming. Vujacic's in the final year of his contract and I'm guessing they won't be re-signing him. That trims the payroll a bit if they want to pay Brown somewhere in the $5-8 million range without going too much further into luxury tax territory.

Back to back losses are no cause for immediate concern. Even the 72 win Bulls had back to back losses.

I don't think Shannon will do a 'Farmar' (signing to another team just to be a bench player again). Shannon will probably bolt away if a team guarantees him a bigger payoff and a starting role.

Last edited by shadowgrin on Tue Nov 30, 2010 12:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I don't mind the loss of Farmar.

Blake>Fish>Farmar.

Shannon Brown will honor his 2 year deal in LA and then look at what Kobe is looking like down the track before deciding whether to move to a different team. If he wanted a bigger role, he would have gone to Chicago or New York. He took a smaller role and less money to stay in LA because of the championships and also because he was confident he could etch himself a nice little niche. It's great to see that he did that.

I reckon he loves it too much in LA to go... I reckon he will weigh up waiting for Kobe to finish up and try and take over that starting 2 guard spot. If he doesn't think it will come soon enough, he may bolt for a bigger contract elsewhere.

I think he signed on this year to earn his bird rights. He could have probably moved in the off season and make maybe 4-5 mil a year. But the way he is playing right now, it would not be surprising to see him get a bigger offer and a starting role on another team. Perhaps it may also be that he got tired of being moved despite showing promise early in his career. Early on in his career it almost seem like he is bound to be a journeyman the rest of his career. So being able to stay put seems like a good deal.

He has definitely proven himself on the Lakers team, especially when filling in for Kobe in a starting role or just delivering points off the bench. I do not see him getting converted to a PG though, he does not seem to have the PG mentality, or maybe not just yet. But, as always it is an intriguing prospective move.

If he is content being the 6th or 7th man, then good for him. As he gains a bigger role, I don't see him getting short changed in the pay department. If he moves, which the temptation will likely come, I just hope he takes Walton's stupid contract with him. Or better yet, Walton's contract get's hit by the CBA, and is terminated early. So the Lakers can pay Brown after his contract is up.

Disappointing loss against the Grizzlies, the team doesn't seem to be playing very hard, Fisher & Bryant were both way too laid back on defense. Odom & Gasol seem lethargic on both ends of the floor.

The sense of urgency doesn't really seem to be there after losing two in a row. Bad loss.

At the same time, the Grizzlies really played the best they could, while the Lakers had a really bad game, so I'm not worried for them. Bad loss for sure though.

Guys what do you think is wrong with the team? 3 straight nasty losses. There are some talks in the realgm that we can't make it to the finals because we went there 3 straight already.

I expect them to bounce back real soon after this game though. Maybe we should sign Ammo back I think he bring some luck

The Lakers just aren't playing as a team and don't seem to be trying as hard as they should. It was funny to see Kobe criticize his teammates but for this whole season, he hasn't really played that well and really hogged all the shots. He's got such talented teammates that he needs to defer like he has done so in the past. Ron Artest has always been lost out there for the team. He's even stated that he doesn't quit understand the team's offense. Hopefully he will start to focus more now that he has raffled off that ring. Pau Gasol is 'suffering from fatigue' (He opened the season so well but now is not making near as much noise). The bench hasn't really performed like they did at the start of the season, which was the main reason we were winning (cause from memory, Kobe shot quite poorly in a lot of games where the bench pretty much lifted us and won games).

I think people might be panicking a little bit. Just because we been to the Finals 3 times in a row does not mean these guys are any less motivated. There are 5 new guys for crying out loud. The core may be old but we got new guys who would want to play in the Finals, not to mention that Kobe is wanting to chase Jordan. I doubt that motivation is an issue. The NBA season is a long one and there are still 50ish games to play - plenty of time to catch up to the Spurs/Mavs.

I will say this though, the Lakers haven't played many meaningful opponents so far and the season's schedule is only going to get tougher in the New Year. If LA don't pick it up, it's going to get ugly.

EDIT: Just saw the Lakers-Spurs result. My point exactly... I hate to say it but Kobe is hurting the team. It's up to him to help turn this season around. Pass to Pau!

http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archi ... n_antonio/

Kobe joins Lakers’ latest blame game

Fair point raised here:

Fans can light up the phone lines for L.A.’s talk shows, but deep down even they know each year in Lakerland is marked by four seasons: Kobe’s Mad at His Teammates; Kobe’s Shooting Too Much; Kobe Leads the Victory Parade; Kobe Receives His Championship Ring.

I wouldn't say that's a foregone conclusion this year, they haven't done too well against teams with winning records and there are a couple of teams in the West that could dethrone them this year if they don't get it together, especially if they don't have homecourt advantage. Still, plenty of time to get themselves on the right track and put these struggles behind them.

We won't know for sure but right now I will give my team the benefit of the doubt and state that they are playing bad because they are playing down to the level of their opponents. Teams often play worse against worse competition and they've spent the first two months of the season against sub .500 teams. I hope that my assesment is correct.

And although great teams beat the teams they should beat, I will have to admit that the Lakers have not looked like a great team in recent weeks. There's still a few months to go so I don't see any need to panic. However, as a fan, I am frustrated with the way this team has lost ball games.

Same as Sit, not really panicking but more of frustrated. Some analyst in NBA.com said that the main concern for the Lakers is boredom, they don't really take it seriously until the playoffs.

Besides Phil's threepeat teams doesn't alway have the homecourt advantage.

Besides Phil's threepeat teams doesn't alway have the homecourt advantage.

They haven't always, but usually do. I wouldn't say they're absolutely, positively doomed without homecourt advantage, but looking at other teams in the West this year I think that they have an excellent opportunity to knock the Lakers out of the Playoffs if they're the ones that have homecourt advantage.