Good god is this funny. The worst perimeter defense in the league in a perimeter oriented league that will funnel toward a foul prone center is the "BEST DEFENSE IN THE LEAGUE!" Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Chris Rock, Nobody can write **** like this.
meh not scared of the Lakers at all Dwight isn't the player people claim he is although hes better than Bynum but its not a massive leap and hes super foul prone and can't hit ft's. Now people will say well Shaq couldn't hit ft's well Shaq also had a monster offensive game and could go for 40 on any night Dwight can't do that.
The joke here is the fact that people think Dwight doesnt make the LAL the team to beat in the west as it is now. They added a HOFER in Nash who is still great and added the best center in the league by a good margin. Yes Bynum has a low post game and D12 does not. However Bynum disappears for stretches at a time and takes forever making a move to the hoop. Yes D12 cant hit FT's but with Kobe and Nash controlling most of the game anyway, he shouldnt have to hit too many. Getting Nash will make this a PnR team that will get a ton of easy dunks/baskets. With Gasol to stretch the floor at the 4 and no one that can double down on D12 or Kobe the Lakers are going to be a nightmare matchup for every team in the league. Nash historically runs game on Westbrook and most other PG's. Dwight now becomes a secondary scoring option probably for the first time in his life. That team is STACKED. Im in favor of cancelling every other teams scheduled games and just having an 82 game season of LAL vs Miami. That could be some GREAT basketball.
disagree for a variety of reasons..... but the main one being that you are over-estimating the difference between Bynum and D12. Keep in mind Bynum's production last year, and what the Lakers did WITH IT.
As a frame of reference... Lebron's Eff. rating was a full 2.5 points higher than Kevin Durant's. The difference between D12 and Bynum was 2.3 We are talking about intangible differences. The production is about the same, which leads to a miniscule win% increase.
To me, the team we will see rise up in the West is MN. They stockpiled a lot of young talent, last yr was not their yr but look at their core positions, the guys who handle the rock. Lots of talent there, maturing talent. Sect is making his usual error, BBall is not Sabremetrics, the real question is how does this effect Kobe and Nash et al, not how much he scores etc, what he accomplishes is allowing better floor spacing on offense along with more second chance shots. some see this as a defensive move, imo it is more designed to provide a more consistent presence in the paint that Gasol did not offer and Bynum has Namath knees at best, Howard is still on the upswing.
You're spending a lot of time on something that you find hilarious. Lakers offense will improve without Bynum... it's addition by subtraction in that regard. Forcing to Bynum was not the answer. He was horrible at reading the defense and passing the ball. Much rather have the ball in Gasol's hands (or Kobe or Artest) on the low block than Bynums.
Lakers offense won't be better. Bynum is a much better offensive player than Howard. He's the best offensive Center in the league by far. The best post player by far. I didn't think it was possible to try and spin that not having a dominant post player to hand the ball to for easy buckets was a good thing smh. Lol at rather having it in Artest's hands on the block. Let's not be ridiculous. The problem with the Lakers will be the same as last year. Mike Brown is still a terrible coach.
Heres the problem with that: Dwight Howard was playing hurt and unmotivated last year. He made it clear he wanted out, criticized coaches and teammates numerous times. He didnt have a typical Dwight Howard season. Bynum may be a better offensive player (this is debatable btw...Dwight did average 20 a game 4x in his career, something Bynum has never done) but Dwight is a better rebounder and defensive player by a fair margin. If anything I am understating how much of a difference there is. Dwight is a 3x DPOY...how many does Bynum have? Dwight affects more shots because of his explosive leaping ability leading to a lower FG% against. Bynum's skills are solid but hes slow and it forces a slower tempo. The Lakers offense wont be better because of Bynum, it will be better because of Nash. Nash taking the ball out of Kobe's hands at least some of the time will lead to a more efficient and exciting offense. The one thing we agree on is Brown is a terrible coach. Luckily he has Nash to handle the offense for him. He doesnt really need to do anything except handle the D.
Well duh. Pretty sure he was trying to say the Lakers are better off with Howard than Bynum offensively, not that they will be better because of Nash. That's common sense. Nash is still a terrific player. Mike Brown is the luckiest coach in the league to be in such a position. He'll still find a way to **** it up somehow though I'm sure.
I'm making my "usual" error? Then why am i right every single year with my projections? Basketball is a numbers driven game. All large sample size sports are.
Then give credit where credit is due to teams that have improved and stop HATING. free advice from yo boi FinO
I dont care how old Nash is, where is this supposed drop off people talk about? '05/'06: 19/11, FG% 50/3 pt % 44/FT% 92 '06/'07: 19/12, 53/46/90 Ok, now let's look at his last two seasons. '10/'11: 15/11, 49/40/91 '11/'12: 13/11, 53/39/89 What a miniscule drop off in 3 pt %? Id say Nash has done just fine vs Westbrook even with a declining and eventually poor team last year: http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/h2h_finder.cgi?request=1&p1=westbru01&p2=nashst01
Until I see LA play together and Kobe not hog the ball and chuck like he always does I'm going with OKc. Much better back court and Lets see if Perk can defend Dwight like old times. Anyways reason I post is La and the cap. Every other team worries about it, LA goes tens of millions over, adds salary, and its no issues. Makes no sense. Can anyone clarify?...
I don't see why you posted offensive statistics when I pointed out his defense. I never said he declined. He's still a very good offensive player who is horrible defensively. Now imagine him vs an athletic PG like Westbrook.
Nope, as I've explained ad nauseum, think of the NBA as two seasons: -Regular season for dumbasses who wish to be entertained -Playoffs, when it matters For that matter, if one wishes to be accurate with the stat monkey stuff, look exclusively at 4th qtr performance, especially the last 8 minutes or so, in BBall that is where the talent rises and stats guys fall off. regular seasons stats mean -0- when it comes to the playoffs, you see starters taking breathers 10 gms or so prior to the playoffs unless a plumb seeding is on the line, for a reason...even then all "home court advantage" amounts to is 1 extra road game.
Well I probably shouldnt have posted it in response to you. But hes held his own vs westbrook and if hes matching westbrook offensively in terms of total output the Lakers are going to be in very good shape vs OKC. Hes never going to score 40 like Westbrook can but he can rack up 12-15 assists any night which Westbrook rarely ever does. Just cancel out Westbrook with his ability to get others easy baskets and OKC is going to have a very hard time with LAL.
You just said, OKC is going to have a hard time with LA, well no kidding. What kind of incite is that? The same can be said about LA trying to beat OKC. They're both good teams, good teams are hard to beat, this is nothing new.
Unless Mike Brown can find a way to masterfully screw this up, the Lakers should be a fun team to warch this year.
So long Dwight. I know he's glad that trade worked out before the season started. He would have gotten his *** booed off at every home game otherwise.