The truth about the Lakers

[Antonio]

I dunno if you all care about this aspect of the game, but.. Lakers are right now a joke, defensively. Fisher is a great one-on-one defender, but he's getting old, and when he defends hard he doesn't have power no more in the other side of the court. Against the Nuggets Phil put him against Dahntay Jones late in the game, and Fisher stepped up offensively hitting some big shots. He's getting old, i understand it. It's not bad attitude. Anyway he just can't defend against high pick'n'rolls. Kobe is a lock-down defender, but he only defends 10-15 minutes per game, cause he has to carry the offense. He's not defending well right now, and he didn't defend well against the Rockets. Too many times i've seen him surprised on a defensive rebound, or beated in a one-on-one penetration. Melo exposed him a couple of times in Game-1. Ariza? Well.. he's the best defender in the team, by far. He lacks some muscles, and he suffered Melo because of that, but you can say nothing about Ariza's attitude. He's the best defender in the team. Gasol? Embarassing. He doesn't move his fucking feet. He's just there, standing, and defending against his man when he receives the ball. He does no team defense. No movements to stop penetration, he doesn't double the other pivot, he's not playing well at all, defensively. He defends better when Lamar is on the floor, cause Lamar is a team defender, and he does the dirty works. But i'm disappointed by Gasol. Bynum? A complete disgrace. This kid is one of the worst defenders in the League, plain and simple. It's embarassing. That's the reason why he never gets a good minutage. Ok, he got the size. Ok, he got long arms. But damn, he's outpowered and outrebounded by everybody he faces, and he does ZERO team defense. I gotta say i'm highly disappointed by him. For sure he has room to improve, but we can't have him on the floor for long, at the moment, cause he's embarassing defensively. Kareem should teach him how to defend, and not only how to make some spin moves or baby sky-hook. Talking about the bench, Shannon Brown is a good defender. He's a wonderful athlete, he can run, he can stay with his opponent, and i like his attitude. Farmar, Sasha and Walton are not defensive specialists, but they are role/bench players, so it's not that important. I mean they don't stay on the floor long enought to be a problem defensively. Powell is a good defender. He hustles, he uses his body, he's a good athlete. I'm happy by his efforts. And Lamar, i already said it, he's along with Ariza the best defender in the team. Absolutely 10x more important than Bynum for this team, at the moment. He's the real key for our success. No Lamar, no party. Cause he's the only one defending inside with real team defense.

[Kool Beenz]

you can nik can argue about this shit lol

[Antonio]

Our two great problems defensively are:

1) high pick-n-roll's. Cause Gasol and Bynum just doesn't move their asses (and Fisher and Farmar doesn't have the size to "swich" the defender)
2) open 3 pointers. Cause our guards just doesn't move their asses quick enought to defend the perimeter well. Too many open 3's against us.

We are too lazy. No passion at all. We aren't moving our asses.

Phil A.K.A. mr. "take a long breath" should really try to do something about that. And fuck his zen.

[wcsoldier]

the pb is that the team is not commited to D ... the rare times they put effort in it , they look good ...  outside Fish and Walton , everybody has the physical tools to play at least decent D  but working hard is obviously not in the Lakers vocabulary and on a team with a lack of veterans , the coach has to show the example and give his team the mentality ... you have to push Gasol and Bynum who are lazy fucks on D to put effort in it but the " team has to auto-coached itself" theory of Jackson shows his huge limits

[Antonio]

the pb is that the team is not commited to D ... the rare times they put effort in it , they look good ...  outside Fish and Walton , everybody has the physical tools to play at least decent D  but working hard is obviously not in the Lakers vocabulary and on a team with a lack of veterans , the coach has to show the example and give his team the mentality ... you have to push Gasol and Bynum who are lazy fucks on D to put effort in it but the " team has to auto-coached itself" theory of Jackson shows his huge limits

It worked with Jordan, Rodman, Harper and Pippen tho'.

(i know, they were not young, and they were menthally on another planet compared to Bynum, Gasol, etc...)

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

we play great D......it's just that we dont apply ourselves on the defensive end as much as we should. THATS IT.



as for Bynum...he's a good defender too. this is the same guy who had 7 blocks against Dwight Howard. he was an enforcer in the paint...right now, it's CRYSTAL CLEAR that Bynum is not the same player he was prior to the injury. he doesnt have the same lift, the same speed, the same energy...he doesnt move around the same. you think maybe that's stunting his defense? LOL...lets just be realistic here. Bynum was our key on defense prior to the injury...PeACe

[.:DaYg0sTyLz:.]

real shit Antonio.

Its an attitude thing more then anything.  I just think the Lakers are relying on their offense and thinking they can simply outscore everyone.....turn the defense on and off when they want. That kind of shit almost got them bounced in Rd 2.  Like Ive always said with the Lakers, this is the leaders fault. Kobe AND Phil.  I know Kobe has to carry the offensive load a lot at times, but fuck that...he should be an example on defense for the rest of the team.  Phil is so overrated to me its sickening.  He DEFINETELY needs to be on his team more about defense. Sit guys the minute they start draggin on D.  The problem is, this is something that would need to be addressed a LONG time ago. You cant address it now, once the playoffs start.  You cant really just start comin down hard on the guys for poor D now, when you havent all year....youll just create chaos.  At this point, the team is what it is. They need to just play off their strengths and hope those are good enough to overshadow their weaknesses.  The team is good, but if I was a Laker fan I would be hella frustrated. Mentally they should be better.

["THE" MoSav]

Lakers play great d when they want. FIsh is not a great defender anymore. DId u watch Brooks eat him up or was that just me?

[Antonio]

as for Bynum...he's a good defender too.

No he is not. He is our main problem at the moment. He's just embarassing, man. I'm not hating on him, i'm not saying he's a bum or stupid shit like that. But he just doesn't have timing on defense, and he ain't moving his feet well enought. I dunno if it's due to his injury, i think it's not. I think he just ain't focused enought. His only defense is if there's someone in the post with his ass in front of the basket, cause he has a big body. And he might block some shots here and there, cause he has great arms. But that's it.

he was an enforcer in the paint...right now, it's CRYSTAL CLEAR that Bynum is not the same player he was prior to the injury. he doesnt have the same lift, the same speed, the same energy...he doesnt move around the same. you think maybe that's stunting his defense? LOL...lets just be realistic here. Bynum was our key on defense prior to the injury...PeACe

Maybe, yeah. The fact is that we defend 10x better with Gasol playing Center, and with Odom as the PF. And you know i'm saying it from months.

[OG Hack Wilson]

agreed   they suck

[Antonio]

Lakers play great d when they want. FIsh is not a great defender anymore. DId u watch Brooks eat him up or was that just me?

Of course Fisher can't guard Brooks, man. He's getting old. And Farmar has the speed but he lacks IQ on defense. I think Shannon Brown will have a great minutage for us in the next season, if we don't acquire another PG via trade.

["THE" MoSav]

Lakers play great d when they want. FIsh is not a great defender anymore. DId u watch Brooks eat him up or was that just me?

Of course Fisher can't guard Brooks, man. He's getting old. And Farmar has the speed but he lacks IQ on defense. I think Shannon Brown will have a great minutage for us in the next season, if we don't acquire another PG via trade.

calm down, someone had said he was a great defender, which he isnt

[Antonio]

Lakers play great d when they want. FIsh is not a great defender anymore. DId u watch Brooks eat him up or was that just me?

Of course Fisher can't guard Brooks, man. He's getting old. And Farmar has the speed but he lacks IQ on defense. I think Shannon Brown will have a great minutage for us in the next season, if we don't acquire another PG via trade.

calm down, someone had said he was a great defender, which he isnt

I'm calm. lol. It was an opinion.

["THE" MoSav]

Lakers play great d when they want. FIsh is not a great defender anymore. DId u watch Brooks eat him up or was that just me?

Of course Fisher can't guard Brooks, man. He's getting old. And Farmar has the speed but he lacks IQ on defense. I think Shannon Brown will have a great minutage for us in the next season, if we don't acquire another PG via trade.

calm down, someone had said he was a great defender, which he isnt

I'm calm. lol. It was an opinion.

i know jk haha

[Rick McCrank]

I've been saying this same shit all year, especially 2nd half of the season

they've been playing like this for a while now

I still think they can manage to win it al, even though they play under their potential a lot of the time

but it's gonna be a crazy ride

at this point they won't change, just gotta hope they survive the mistakes

and bring their best game like they can, if they getting rolling no one in the league is fucking with them

they just need to consistently get rolling god damnit!