what in the world is wrong with the Lakes

Sky

I know you respect the Spurs a lot. What do you think of them in a seven game series with the Lakes. If everybody is healthy. 100 % healthy.

WHat do you think is going on with Gasol? He is struggling after a great start.

He does not do it every night but has trended passive at times this year...your opinion?

Ditto Artest. He is not really a part of the of the offense and seems a lillte off kilter within th flow of the whole team.

Big game today. I got the butterflies

jeb wrote:Sky


Big game today. I got the butterflies

jeb,


My butterflies are dive bombers.


bob

.

bobheck

you are a warrior!

I hope i get to see the damn game!

VERY big game today - i hope BB can play. hammies seem to be notorious for being stubborn and slow to heal. but we need all the bulk (and height) we can muster against LA.

one key to the game - early foul trouble on our bigs. that would put us down looking up.

sort of related key - KG vs Gasol.

another key - where's RR and who's stolen his jersey? wherever he's been, we really need him back ...

last key - PP vs Artest.

what do you think?

jeb - you GOT to be watching this game ... i'm pulling for you - you KNOW that the whole community here is !

Michael

An article about Phil Jackson's likely successor, Celtic draftee friend Brian Shaw.

http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2011/2/1/1967693/demarcus-cousins-andrew-bynum-lakers-kings


bob

.

I am not one who thinks Artest will be traded but it will be quite interesting if he is... I am ok with LA keeping him or moving him.

http://espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&page=Artest-110202

What idiot GM would take on that nightmare and 22 million dollars of remaining contract?

Gilbert Arenas and Rashard Lewis were traded with 'untradeable' contracts much worse then Artest's contract.
LA won't trade Artest just to move him.
If he does go, I would think he and Bynum might be traded together.
LA can send Artest, Bynum, Caracter and a 1st round pick to Denver for Carmelo and Nene.

If he would produce like he is capable of doing, he wouldn't receive so much heat for LA's struggles.

tjmakz wrote:Gilbert Arenas and Rashard Lewis were traded with 'untradeable' contracts much worse then Artest's contract.
LA won't trade Artest just to move him.
If he does go, I would think he and Bynum might be traded together.
LA can send Artest, Bynum, Caracter and a 1st round pick to Denver for Carmelo and Nene.

If he would produce like he is capable of doing, he wouldn't receive so much heat for LA's struggles.

Denver would run for the hills on that offer.

I wish the Lakers would, in effect, trade Artest for Carmelo while weakening themselves with Nene at the center position rather than Bynum. Of course, they'd relieve themselves of any nagging concerns about Bynum's knee. But, I can see Paul Pierce licking his chops right now if Artest leaves. The question is why the Nuggets would want to trade a gate attraction for a distraction.

Sam

I agree. I was just making up a fantasy trade proposal.

Sam wrote:I wish the Lakers would, in effect, trade Artest for Carmelo while weakening themselves with Nene at the center position rather than Bynum. Of course, they'd relieve themselves of any nagging concerns about Bynum's knee. But, I can see Paul Pierce licking his chops right now if Artest leaves. The question is why the Nuggets would want to trade a gate attraction for a distraction.

Sam

Sam,

Denver wouldn't want that deal.
The Carmelo saga has been the biggest 'distraction' in the NBA after The Decision.

Magic thinks the Lakers are in trouble too.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/basketball/nba/lakers/la-sp-lakers-fyi-20110202,0,4047216.story

The Lakers have two things going for them: Zen and the League.

In the next scene in the production of As The (Capitol of the Basketball) World Turns, Phil gives Ron Artest a copy of the classic book, Zen and the Art of Archery. Ron reads it and instantly finds a mystical sense of oneness with his teammates. Meanwhile, Kobe hears Artest quote the old Chinese proverb, “One beam alone... No matter how stout... Cannot support a house,” and he also has a flash of enlightenment. Together, they lead the team to an undefeated record for the rest of the season.

An alternative ending has the NBA enact a new rule that states that any contact between a Laker and an opposing player will result in an immediate foul called on the opposing player, no matter who actually committed the foul. The League defends the rule by saying that it just codifies existing practice. The League also announces the trade of Ron Artest and Luke Walton for Kevin Love and a first-round draft choice. The League defends the trade by stating that the Lakers used to play in Minnesota.

Great point in your second paragraph.
Just like how the US has had to hand over property to certain Indian groups, King Stern should be able to send Love, Rubio and a 1st round pick to LA for nothing because the Lakers were from Minn. Stern will probably have to call his business partner LeBron to see if he is ok with it...

The Lakers play the Spurs tonight and I dont have any ideal what the outcome will be. You would think the Lakes with homcourt would be favored but they dont have much of an advantage at home this year.

If I had to pick I'd say Spurs by 8.

The Spurs game will be a great indication of how much the Lakers learned from the Celtics game. Specifically, it should have been a wakeup call and an indication of how much intensity is required against the top tier teams. While I assume the Lakers will respond to the challenge, it's by no means a prediction.

Sam

sam wrote:The Spurs game will be a great indication of how much the Lakers learned from the Celtics game. Specifically, it should have been a wakeup call and an indication of how much intensity is required against the top tier teams. While I assume the Lakers will respond to the challenge, it's by no means a prediction.

Sam

Bynum is questionable tonight with a bone bruise in his knee. If he's unavailable Lakers will have their work cut out for them. Actually they will even if he plays...

jeb wrote:
The Lakers play the Spurs tonight and I dont have any ideal what the outcome will be. You would think the Lakes with homcourt would be favored but they dont have much of an advantage at home this year.

If I had to pick I'd say Spurs by 8.

jeb,

The line, as of 2 pm PST is Lakers by 3.5. This is very fluid, however, due to the unknown status of Bynum. Of course, to those of us who are basketball junkies, we know that Bynum's status is a fluid thing all the time and has been ever since he came into the league.

Homecourt is usually worth about 3 points, so what this says is that the Lakers would be slight favorites on a neutral court. I don't believe that. The Lakers lost BIG to us and had to rally to win their next game in OT against the 22-38 Houston Rockets.

I don't want to say the Lakers are on the verge of imploding, but they are on the verge of something unpleasant. Their back-to-back losses against Sacto and Boston, and unimpressive comeback after getting spanked by the Celtics, doesn't appear to reveal a strong reversal in the trend. They are one game behind Miami in the loss column and have the 4th best record in the league now. A victory by Miami over Orlando and a loss by the Lakers would create some daylight between them, and that would not be good in the playoffs for them.

Then again, how many people were shoveling dirt onto the Celtics in March and April last year?

bob

.

Bob,

Not to be picky, but I like the Rockets, and you shouldn't spread such vicious lies about them. They're 22-28, not 22-38. Oh, and they have the fifth-best record in the league, not fourth, behind the Spurs, Celtics, Bulls, and Heat.

Cheers,

Outside

I will believe that the Lakers are done this year when I see the corpse and not before.

Outside wrote:Bob,

Not to be picky, but I like the Rockets, and you shouldn't spread such vicious lies about them. They're 22-28, not 22-38. Oh, and they have the fifth-best record in the league, not fourth, behind the Spurs, Celtics, Bulls, and Heat.

Cheers,

Outside

Also, Houston recently beat Boston at Boston without Kevin Martin. They are a pretty feisty team.

Another big game, another loss. Damn.

Good win by the Lakers last night in the second game of a back-to-back against the Knicks.

If Amar'e isn't one of the worst man-to-man defending big men in the league, I'm not sure who is. A lot of Pau Gasol's success came because Amar'e was going for every head fake (as Rick Barry used to say "joining the paratrooper corp") or was taking his eye off of Gasol because all he wants to do is come over from the weak side for a spectacular block and Gasol would go without the ball for an easy one.

If the Knicks think that getting Carmelo will make them a better team, then they're dumber than I think they are. It'll put butts in the seats, but they'll still be incapable of handling any team with an even halfway decent center.

I was a Knicks fan growing up in NY during the Reed/Frazier/Debusschere/Bradley/"Earl the Twirl" days but I'd be very happy if the Mike D'Antoni style of play is discredited. Running is good, not being able to matchup because you've put together a team of gazelles and nothing but gazelles is bad.

bob

.

bob,

Why wouldn't the Knicks try to get Carmelo? It will make them a much better team, especially if they don't have to give up much. That doesn't solve the problem that they don't have an NBA-capable center, but they will have to address that problem another time. NY also is starting a rookie 2nd round draft pick at SG. It will take years to rebuild the disaster that Isiah Thomas and James Dolan built, but getting Amare, Felton and Carmelo in the same year would be a great start to rebuilding the Knicks franchise.