Lakers Thread

I like Vujacic in that he's a 6'7" PG and the Lakers seem to think he may become something of a role player... Right now though, he's trying too hard to get himself going...

As for Rush, he could have been a consistent role player but his attitude, like his brothers, is retarded.

no matter what you say, Sasha is NOT, I repeat, NOT a PG. He has a shoot first mentality (gee, I wonder from whom on the team he might've learned that from ) and his defense is god awful. He reaches and slaps everyone and doesn't move his feet. Occasionally the ref misses a call and the offensive player loses the ball because Sasha slaps him on the arm and Sasha gets the steal.

in the triangle offense, they need a tall pg who could shoot from the outside. shasha is pretty slow off his feet but he could play some pesky defense at times... that is if the refs are easy on the defensive calls. he might not be a PG if he was in another team but in LA the best role that fits him is the PG position.

gee, I wonder from whom on the team he might've learned that from

He learnt from Michael Jordan

his defense is god awful

At least he tries... without success...

He reaches and slaps everyone and doesn't move his feet.

Basic defensive principle: Use feet not hands, gotcha!

Occasionally the ref misses a call and the offensive player loses the ball because Sasha slaps him on the arm and Sasha gets the steal.

You forgot to mention the threatrics of Sasha arguing with the ref!

Also.. I get your point but I still like him! And he was drafted as a 6'7" PG lol I guess the plan isn't working out...

gee, I wonder from whom on the team he might've learned that from

He learnt from Michael Jordan

his defense is god awful

At least he tries... without success...

He reaches and slaps everyone and doesn't move his feet.

Basic defensive principle: Use feet not hands, gotcha!

Occasionally the ref misses a call and the offensive player loses the ball because Sasha slaps him on the arm and Sasha gets the steal.

You forgot to mention the threatrics of Sasha arguing with the ref!

Also.. I get your point but I still like him! And he was drafted as a 6'7" PG lol I guess the plan isn't working out...

if it's possible, i'd like to see a vujacic+mckie for jaskevicius (ind) deal.

Not happening. I wouldnt accept the two for a box of used team towels.

The Lakers have some real bad scrubs like Vujacic but he goes he doesnt get noticed enough because the other players cover him but he is quietly ruining the team and people should be more like Andrew Bynum when Vujacic has the ball.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6mOzQnwhqFE

Ahh classic.

Ah well, I want to see Smush not starting... we need someone decent... Is it me or all our mid level guys going to waste? First Divac, then McKie and where is Shammond Williams???

Not happening. I wouldnt accept the two for a box of used team towels.

wishful thinking . I don't think jaskevicius would mind that trade at all. He could be a starter for another team, rather than playing 10-20 min/game.

HALFTIME:

LAKERS 61
TORONTO 53

Kobe watch: 14 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 6-9 FG, 4 DAMN TURNOVERS

I was just about to comment on that. The 6 rebounds and 5 assists are excellent but the turnovers still need to be limited. I wish I could watch the game to make a proper judgment because sometime you cant just say its carelessness but I cant so I'll pretend 2 of them dont count.


Smush Parker going 5-6 with 11 points is another highlight of the night so far. Hopefully they can extend the lead come third quarter.

i dont get why the Laker thunderstix only come out in the 2nd half...is that a new rule or something?

EDIT:

THE LAKERS WIN! 107-100

Kobe had 31 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists and only had 2 more turnovers in the 2nd half.

God only knows. They should ban anything with such a retarded name anyways.


Whoop Whoop, Kobe with 31pts 10rbs and 7asts with 12 seconds left. Let me check the TOs.

edit: Ok he only added 2 in the second half so thats not too bad. 10 of 19 shooting aint bad either. Nice sign he is shooting over 50% so far this season, if he can keep it above 47% I'd be pretty happy over the course of the year.

a challenge is up next: the Bulls come to town!

dada, I haven't seen the game either but I have a feeling Kobe is really picking his shots carefully. Since Jax says Kobe's jumper isn't looking as right as it usually does, so it must mean Kobe is being a lot more patient... the assists show that he is looking at passing too. Not just pass but a scoring pass.

With turnovers, I feel that it must be because of his knee. It's not at full strength and he has complained about changing directions quickly. That should account for why he loses the ball...

Good stat line for Kobe GOod win for LA! And when the Bulls come to town, Kobe's gonna dunk on Big Ben... twice

I gotta admit that was a lucky win by the Lakers because they played shitty defense tonight. The Raptors got in the lane at ease and had so many uncontested shots.

The "championship contending Lakers" that you saw in the first few games of the season is no more. I think their best win (with Kobe dressed) had to be either the one over Seattle or Minnesota.
Kobe wasn't forcing passes to make himself look better, he was making good passes leading to scoring opportunities for his team.
Lamar was involved in the offense often. He had plenty of touches in the early games, esecially coming off the first 2 games where he was the #1 option.
The shot selection was balanced. The Lakers would have 3-4 guys in double digit attempts (and Kobe had a shockly low 7 attempts in the win over Minny)


Tonight Kobe must have had at least 3 behind the back passes (among other really bad passes & selfish moves) leading to a whopping 6 TOs. He his averaging almost 5 a game so far.
Lamar hardly touched the ball and the Lakers refused to swing the ball to the weak side when they had no good looks. Kobe would dribble the clock down to 6-8 seconds and would try to dribble and shoot his way out as opposed to passing it out and swinging the ball to the open man.
Kobe had NINETEEN shots tonight. That's the Kobe I know. Smush was the only other Laker in double digit attempts with 11.
Good job Lakers, you barely beat a struggling Raptors team. Let's see how you handle the good teams in the NBA.


EDIT: Zoom, I can guarantee you the TOs are NOT because of Kobe's knee. You can't blame mental errors and errors in passing the ball which requires hand/eye coordination on a knee problem. Sorry, but Webber on one knee still makes excellent passes. I remember 1 was from carrying the ball. Most of them were from being trapped & doubled but he would not pass the ball out until he realizes he can't shoot out of it, which resulted in a few bad passes out of bounds. He is forcing passes way too much and like I said had plenty of behind the back passes tonight. (you should add 1 more TO to his stats because one behind the back pass he threw went off the shoulder of a Laker teammate and they called it out on Toronto )

Zoom, I can guarantee you the TOs are NOT because of Kobe's knee. You can't blame mental errors and errors in passing the ball which requires hand/eye coordination on a knee problem. Sorry, but Webber on one knee still makes excellent passes. I remember 1 was from carrying the ball. Most of them were from being trapped & doubled but he would not pass the ball out until he realizes he can't shoot out of it, which resulted in a few bad passes out of bounds. He is forcing passes way too much and like I said had plenty of behind the back passes tonight.

As I said, I haven't watched any game highlights or the game itself. I will take your word for it. The getting doubled and stuff sounds like what usually happens, perhaps Kobe should look to pass earlier. But I still have faith in him, you can't change me! We will see what happens next... these first 20 games are critical to win. I can't see us doing that well on the road so we need to make a big buffer early in the season.

I dont get where this "championship contender" Lakers team came from in the first couple games without Kobe. Granted they were nice wins and they were undefeated, based on those couple games theres no indication that the team would perform at that level over the full course of the year. I'm always optimistic about the team but to be realistic bsed on the current lineup the playoofs will always be a good accomplishment and if they go deep thats splendid. I'd love them to win it all but if you asked me afterwards theres no way I would honestly tell anyone I had any strong inclination to believe they would be there. Kobe coming back didnt destroy any godlike chemistry the team had going, they could have easily won or lost those sad games with him in the lineup. Things always balance out during the year, you win some and you lose some.

That said, NINETEEN shots isnt worthy to be exaggerated like that. For a superstar like Kobe Bryant, who should be telling him he cant take 19 shots. Lebron took 24 tonight, Arenas 20, Carter 22, Iverson 22, so why exactly is it so horrible and selfish for Kobe to Take 19?

So what if the Raptors are struggling? I've seen struggling teams beat teams that were on long winning streaks before. I thought in a perfect team oriented world nothing else mattered but the W. I honestly just think its ridiculous the kinda things people find to criticize. Example criticizing his passes for trying to make himself look good. Look at how many players out there make flashy passes and such, please tell me Lebron or Wade doesnt throw their fancy behind the back passes then dont ct as though that was a dish from basketball Jesus. How can you criticize a guy for that when that applies to almost any high scoring superstar out there? Then afterwards we all argue how he doesnt pass the ball and when he doesnt shoot as much we argue how he did that out of being selfish.

At the end of the day, nobody can honestly tell me without any bias that the current Laker team is in any way better off without Kobe Bryant. Thats just ridiculous and I'd simply recommend a trip to VisionWorks.

At the end of the day, nobody can honestly tell me without any bias that the current Laker team is in any way better off without Kobe Bryant. Thats just ridiculous and I'd simply recommend a trip to VisionWorks.

Let QBaller talk, he's a hater

One question, is Lamar attacking as much as before? I have a feeling he needs to be a lot more consistent but I can't make a fianl judgement from stats alone.

Am I seeing this, or did Kobe score 31 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in 18 minutes(according to NBA.com)?

Nah, he played 40 minutes according to ESPN.com

Code:

STARTERS    MIN    FGM-A    3PM-A    FTM-A    OREB    DREB    REB    AST    STL    BLK    TO    PF    PTS
Kobe Bryant, SG   40   10-19   0-2   11-12   1   10   11   7   0   0   6   2   31

Hes knee makes it all,he doesn`t want to rush anywhere r something like that,he is slower than he was last year,cause of hes knee(also he needs to lower hes weight).
19 shots and hit 10 of them is good enough.7TO`s are also cause of hes knee,like i said,hes slow,he can`t tribble that fast and can`t take those fast moves.
Let`s see in january or smt like that,he will beat every player in NBA.

Oh they fixed it at NBA.com now...

Am I seeing this, or did Kobe score 31 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in 18 minutes(according to NBA.com)?

Man that woulda been an even greater line. Thank God I didnt see that and get all excited about Kobe being a dominant tease.

Hes knee makes it all,he doesn`t want to rush anywhere r something like that,he is slower than he was last year,cause of hes knee(also he needs to lower hes weight).
19 shots and hit 10 of them is good enough.7TO`s are also cause of hes knee,like i said,hes slow,he can`t tribble that fast and can`t take those fast moves.
Let`s see in january or smt like that,he will beat every player in NBA.

With turnovers, I feel that it must be because of his knee. It's not at full strength and he has complained about changing directions quickly. That should account for why he loses the ball...

True, his FG % is up so I'm excited that he seems to be picking the right shots.... but more of the reason why his point average isn't up is because he's still recovering from injury. He's still gonna take till January before he's back to the old Kobe.

So thanks for repeating what I have already said.