The Official Los Angeles Lakers thread

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

Kobe when asked by Chinese reporter why he change his jersey number to "24" :

"Very simple, a whole day is 24 hours, half of the game is 24 minutes, and one possession has 24 seconds. Now I am standing in the middle of my career. I've fought on the court for ten years. Now the most important thing to me is how to score steadily and efficiently. So it can alway remind me that every second on the court for me is very important."

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

Fantasy Team Previews: Los Angeles Lakers

By Adam Madison, TalentedMrRoto.com
September 13, 2006 - 9:24 a.m.
2005 OVERVIEW

The Lakers are in the midst of an interesting project. After the disaster that was the 2004-05 season, Lakers management knew there was no choice but to actively rebuild the roster. They drafted their center of the future, then 17-year-old Andrew Bynum, with the tenth overall pick, traded for 23-year-old Kwame Brown and rewarded 24-year-old Smush Parker’s impressive training camp with the starting point guard job. The Lakers also decided to show faith in the progression of 25-year-old Lamar Odom, hoping he could transform into a true second star behind Kobe Bryant. It’s rare to see a lottery team push a youth movement and still expect to make the playoffs the following year, but that was the goal. The average age of the starting lineup was just a hair over 25.

A year later, with a successful playoff appearance under their belts, it looks like it was a wise decision. The Phoenix Suns did knock them out of the first round, but the Lakers pushed it to seven games and were even up three games to one at one point. A pessimist might notice the end result and call it a collapse, but they brought a 54-win team to the brink of elimination when many wondered if they would even win a game.

In an attempt to build on this end-of-the-season momentum, the team made the decision that more firepower was needed. Vladimir Radmanovic was signed to a five-year, $31 million free agent deal, and the move represented management’s line of thinking: the Lakers can be a threat in the Western Conference without abandoning the long-term rebuilding process, as Radmanovic is just 26 years of age. With their first-round draft pick, they selected Jordan Farmar, a 19-year-old point guard out of UCLA. Farmar is raw but explosive, and one can again see the long-term plan for the franchise in the logic behind this selection. By keeping the team competitive yet still building for the future, the Lakers prevent a losing atmosphere from permeating the traditionally successful franchise and give the young players much-needed experience.


ADDITIONS:
Vladimir Radmanovic, PF
Jordan Farmar, PG
Shammond Williams, PG
Maurice Evans, SG
J.R. Pinnock, G


LOSSES:
Devean George, SF


PROJECTED STARTING LINEUP:
C – Kwame Brown
PF – Lamar Odom
SF – Vladimir Radmanovic
SG – Kobe Bryant
PG – Smush Parker


WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN 2006:

Yeah, I’m sure you know it’s Kobe’s team, but in the playoffs, we saw an odd sight indeed: Kobe not shooting. Kobe averaged more than 27 shot attempts per game in the regular season in 41 minutes per game. In the playoffs, he shot less than 22 times per contest despite nearly 45 minutes played per game. While it was a small sample size – just seven games – and it was mainly due to a concentrated effort to pound the ball inside against an undersized team, it could be a harbinger of things to come. Radmanovic has no problem shooting the rock, and he shoots it well from the outside – he made almost 42 percent of his three-pointers. The much-maligned Kwame Brown played exceedingly well in the second half of the season. It’s still Kobe’s team but don’t be surprised to see more production from the role players.

What was lost in the shuffle of all of Kobe’s scoring antics is that Phil Jackson did a great job of molding this collection of young talent into a team with an identity. Jackson has always preached defense for his teams, and later in the year it started to pay off. After allowing Sacramento to score 114 points on March 14, they allowed just two other teams to score more than 100 points - one of which was an overtime game, and the other a game against the Suns. As a whole, they allowed just 94.3 points per game during their last 17 regular season games, and even held the Suns under their season average for the first four games in their playoff series. For comparison purposes, that would put them eighth in the league in opponent points per game. Radmanovic is by no means a defensive improvement, but if they can be a top ten defensive team in the league, the Lakers become one of the best sleeper teams in the league.


KEY BENCH PLAYERS / POSITION BATTLES:

Kwame Brown seemed to gain Phil Jackson’s faith as the season wore on and did start 49 games, but Chris Mihm, the normal starting center, missed 23 games with an injury. Mihm has been injury prone throughout his career – in seven seasons, he’s missed 23 or more games five times and has never played a full season. In addition, he is a free agent after this season, so this season should be the year where Brown fully takes over the center position. Of course, most people expected Brown to start at the beginning of last year, but he ended up in the doghouse until January. Jackson has no problem showing tough love toward Brown, so make sure Brown is in shape and ready to play when training camp hits.


PLAYERS WE LOVE:

Kwame Brown, how thou teases. Say it with me: this is the year Brown establishes himself as a viable NBA starter. As noted earlier, Kwame flourished once January hit, and while he still showed inconsistency, he was slowly improving: he scored double digits 18 times out of 22 games, including the playoffs. Kwame became very efficient from the field as he shot nearly 59 percent in 30 games after the All-Star break, averaging 29.6 minutes per game. In his last 31 games – from March on, including the playoffs – he averaged 11.0 points, 7.6 rebounds, 0.7 blocks, and shot a whopping 58.2 percent from the field. Those are more than adequate numbers for your third center, and because Brown is disliked by so many fantasy owners, you won’t have any problem landing him late in your draft. If Brown gets even a few more shot attempts per game, or a few more minutes per game, he could get you 15 points and eight rebounds – something only four centers did last season.

The best player in the playoff series versus the Suns was not Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Shawn Marion, or Boris Diaw. It was the enigma Lamar Odom, who mixes in occasional greatness with frustrating inconsistency. Odom went off on the Suns, routinely torching Shawn Marion in the post. Odom averaged 19.1 points, 11.0 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 1.1 blocks, and shot nearly 50 percent from the field to boot. While he did have many factors in his favor in the series – the Suns’ undersized front court and tempo-pushing offense helped, as well as the Lakers’ dedication to their front court – Odom was incredible the entire second half of the season. He averaged 16.3 points, 9.2 rebounds, 5.9 assists, 1.0 steals, 0.7 blocks, 1.2 three-pointers, and shot 53 percent from the floor after the All-Star break…eye-popping numbers. While some of it has to be attributed to playing over his head (there’s no way Odom is a 43 percent shooter from beyond the arc), one can’t entirely write it off. Odom is talented enough to put up these kind of numbers and more. Odom thrived in his second year under Phil Jackson and the triangle offense; he was extremely efficient, the team’s best rebounder, and the emphasis on spacing and ball movement resulted in the second-highest assist average of his career. A motivated Odom can be one of the best players in the league, and if he can manage to stay healthy again, Odom’s name will be thrown into list of elite fantasy performers.

Only six players in the entire NBA averaged at least 1.5 three-pointers and 1.5 steals per game: LeBron James, Jason Kidd, Gilbert Arenas, Kobe Bryant, Eddie Jones, and Smush Parker. Only Parker played in all 82 games. For an undrafted free agent, a 24-year-old just looking for a roster spot, to do that? Parker even has upside – don’t forget that this was the first significant playing time he has ever had in his career. It showed at times, and he did seem to tire: he shot just 39.7 percent in April, and an even worse 33.3 percent in seven playoff games. A full season under his belt should help him, and note the in-season improvement – his field goal percentage, free throw percentage, rebounds, and assists all improved. The Lakers are still thin at point guard (Farmar is a year or two away and Shammond Williams is merely a bench stop gap), so Parker will be reprising the same role he had last year. Feel confident with Parker as your number two point guard.


PLAYERS TO AVOID:

One-trick ponies can bring value, but there’s something about Vladimir Radmanovic: he offers almost nothing of value outside of three-pointers, yet still gets taken much earlier in drafts than he should. There is nothing inherently wrong with Radmanovic – he’s all right for what he does – but players who only get three-pointers and do little else are not a rare commodity. Radmanovic’s defensive problems often put him in a coach’s doghouse – he’s too big and bulky to defend small forwards, but not physical enough to give power forwards a tough time. Phil Jackson has no problem laying down the law against any player who looks uncommitted, and he has Brian Cook to do virtually the same thing as Radmanovic – Cook is a career 39.6 percent shooter from long-range.


BOTTOM LINE:

Phil Jackson has done a great job of guiding one of the youngest teams in the league to be a competitive one. Last year was a learning process for many of the players, and while they learned, Kobe Bryant gunned up the shots and points to take the pressure off them. Now, armed with playoff experience, a full season of learning from Jackson and more confidence, expect more help for Kobe. Odom is making that jump from a good NBA player to a borderline great one, and both Smush Parker and Kwame Brown should be better than last year to cement themselves as serviceable fantasy starters. Do not expect too much from Radmanovic, though; Phil Jackson likes what he knows, and he knows Luke Walton and Brian Cook better than Radmanovic. As a whole, this team is deeper and more experienced than last year. Instead of respectability, the goal is to make a push for home court in the playoffs. It’s not too far out of their grasps.
 

[LAKERS_FAN89]

28 more days untill the Lakers play

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

Wow...I'm a little more excited about the signing of Shammond Williams after seeing these:

Regular Season (FIBA) Stats

FIBA All-Star Game Stats

FIBA Finals Re-cap


He tore up the FIBA! Not saying I wouldn't have prefered Rush, but there was probably a good reason we signed Shammond...PeACe

[Antonio_]

He did pretty well in Spain, but nothing spectacular.

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

He did pretty well in Spain, but nothing spectacular.

21.1 PPG
4.6 RPG
5.5 APG
1.2 SPG
56% FG
47.1 3FG%
81.6 FT%


^^ is pretty spectacular to me...

[Juronimo]

15 days till training camp 

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

Bryant says his knee is healing well
Says he can't run on it yet but expects to be ready for the start of the season.
 
10:00 PM PDT
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
The Associated Press
 
LOS ANGELES - Kobe Bryant took care of a number of things this summer: He traveled around Asia -- where some of his basketball comments got lost in translation -- underwent knee surgery and hit the weights.
 
One thing he didn't do was play for the United States at the world championships. He wanted to be on the team, but his right knee didn't cooperate. He had arthroscopic surgery instead, a decision he's altogether happy with as he gets ready for his 11th season.

"The knee's getting healthier and stronger day by day," the Lakers star told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "I haven't been able to run yet; I should be cleared to run in a while. I've been doing a lot of weight training, things of that nature."

Bryant hopes to hit the court running before the end of the month -- just in time for the start of training camp Oct. 3.

"We just have to play it by ear," he said. "The most important thing is to get all the strength in my leg back. You don't want to rush it."

Bryant expects to be 100 percent healthy by the time the Lakers open the season Oct. 31 against the Phoenix Suns.

"I hope so," he said with a laugh.

It was common knowledge that Bryant's knee bothered him last season, but apparently more than he let on.

"It took me 45 minutes to warm up for practice and games. It was crazy," he recalled. "It was very sore, you just played around it. I couldn't attack, put pressure on the defense the way I wanted to."

Maybe not, but he still managed to win his first scoring championship, averaging 35.4 points -- the highest since Michael Jordan's 37.1 in the 1986-87 season and the eighth highest in NBA history.

Bryant led the Lakers to a 45-37 record and the playoffs after they went 34-48 a year earlier, when they failed to qualify for the first time in 11 years. Los Angeles extended Phoenix to seven games in the first round before losing.

Bryant, who turned 28 last month, figured rest was all his knee needed. But that didn't do it.

"I got back into my training, a couple days into it, it got sore," he said. "Then, it started getting worse."

He had surgery July 13, thinking he would make a full recovery in eight to 12 weeks. He seems right on schedule.

Bryant hopes the signing of Vladimir Radmanovic, Maurice Evans and Shammond Williams will strengthen the Lakers.

"We made some key additions with those guys," Bryant said. "We turned some heads the way we performed last season. We were a very young team. We're still a young team. I think it will be exciting."

Bryant helped put on three clinics this summer -- in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Philadelphia -- and will be part of a three-sport clinic Tuesday in conjunction with the New Orleans Recreation Department and the Fox Sports Network's "Best Damn Sports Show Period."

"It's an uphill battle," Bryant said, referring to the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Katrina. "With any uphill battle, the important thing is to take it one day at a time. They're not alone in this."

Member of the New Orleans Saints are expected to participate along with the New Orleans Hornets and the New Orleans Zephyrs, a Class AAA baseball team.

During the summer, Bryant toured Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan. While in Taipei, he was quoted as saying the U. S. basketball team will have to work on its chemistry to perform well at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Didn't happen, he says now.

"Those words never came out of my mouth," he said. "I think something must have gotten lost in translation. Obviously, they misunderstood everything I was saying."

Bryant plans on playing in the Olympics, joining the likes of LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade. He credits other national teams for improved play, pointing to the world championships as a good example. The U. S. lost to Greece in the semifinals and finished with the bronze medal.

"I think they played extremely well," he said, referring to the American team. "Greece played better on that day. What can you say? It's on us to have that challenge to step up to that level."



Sounds good...I wonder if he'll play pre-season?

[GangstaBoogy]

11th season? Damn that's crazy. It's seem just like yesterday I was a 9 year old watchin 18 year old Kobe.

Ahh well I can't wait for the season to start.

[Stone Cold is Bout It, Bout It]

Training Camp is just around the Corner  ..Can't wait for that 1st pre-season game.

[Teddy Roosevelt]

Kwame Brown interview

The last thing Kwame Brown said when we were wrapping up our interview Friday was ``I can’t wait for training camp.’’ Those words have to be music to the ears of Lakers fans, given Brown’s importance in the big picture of this season.

The Lakers have invested $25 million into developing Brown as their big man. He's only 24 years old yet going into his sixth NBA season. If Brown can pick up where he left off in the spring, when he averaged 12.4 points and 8.6 rebounds in 18 games with Chris Mihm out, the Lakers could be in business this season.

Here’s a transcript of the interview. We’re going to run a story in Sunday’s paper. As hard as it is to believe, training camp starts a week from Tuesday.

Q: How has the off-season gone? What have you focused on in terms of your game?

A: I’m just trying to get my legs and hamstrings back in order where I can be consistent. Last year, I think I had a great finish to the season. But I just want to have a great start. Instead of a letdown in the beginning, I want to come out of the gate and try to start out like I (finished) last year.

Q: Are your legs still an issue from when you broke your foot in Washington?

A: It’s just trying to get my hips and stuff balanced. The trainers know more than me. Some days everything feels good and then some days everything’s not balanced and lined up. I worked on my legs a lot, getting them bigger and stronger, so now I’m just working on my conditioning and trying to get my touch back on my shot.

I think that’s the main thing for me. I can get to the basket with my jump hook so I’ve got to add a little bit to my game where I can get some type of finesse (move) with a little 15-foot jumper or a little touch jump shot around the basket so I don’t have to bang every play and get tired.

Q: When you look back at last season, how different would the year have been if you didn’t get hurt early?

A: I was just thankful for the opportunity. I look back at it and say, `What if Chris Mihm would have never got hurt?’ I would have never got the opportunity. I was trying to show the coaches that they can still have confidence in me, that I’m going to come back and try to be out of the gate like that now that I’m comfortable in the offense and guys know what I can do, and if I’m not doing it, they can hold me accountable for it.

Q: How much confidence do you have in your own game after the way you finished last year?

A: I have a lot. I think now my mindset and my teammates’ mindset should be if I have the ball on the block, let me go to work. As opposed to the beginning of last season (when) I was looking to just pass the ball and get the ball to Lamar and Kobe.

I think now that when I get the ball, I’ve earned the trust in them and in myself to go ahead and go to work.

Q: Do you think teams are going to look at you this year as an offensive threat? A lot of teams weren’t giving you much respect even as you had a couple of big games at the end of last season.

A: It doesn’t matter what they do. It’s all about what we do. I think we’re going to be a very good team. I’m working on my legs and defense first because I think people don’t talk about it enough that it wasn’t our offense’s fault. We scored enough points to win games. Even (Game 6) that we lost. If our defense would have held, we had enough points to win the game.

I think we’re going to first work on our pick-and-roll defense. If anybody breaks down our tape, that was the main thing we were poor at was rotating and helping and showing hard on the picks. I don’t know what our game plan is going to be against screen-and-roll this year, but I know that’s the main thing that I’m looking to try to get better at, whatever I need to do.

Q: When Mitch talked to us at the exit meetings, he said, `Kwame cannot afford to get away from the game this summer.’ Was this the best off-season you’ve had in terms of the work you put in?

A: I think for the beginning of the summer, I was on such a high off of last year, I started conditioning too early. I started running and running. Mitch pulled me in at one point in the summer and was like, `Why are you running so much at this stage? You should be working on your skills, getting jump hooks and jumpers. That’ll keep you in shape while you’re working on your skills.’

I think now I’m more so working on my skills instead of running, because I’ll get in shape during camp. If it kills you, they’re going to get you in shape. Now I’m trying to work on my skills more because Mitch was right. He knows the game. I’m just trying to come in and get off touch shots and get my jump hooks down and get my timing back on the floor.

Q: What kind of range do you hope to have? Fifteen-footers would be a sight to see.

A: That’s wasn’t a long shot for me. I came in shooting that easy. I just got away from that. Like Mitch was saying, `If you work on your skills, it’s like second nature.’

My problem is when I do something wrong or bad, I just work on that one thing. I’ll come in and work on 50 jump hooks and then I get good at jump hooks and I have no jump shot. You’ve got to do all of that. Now I’m shooting a lot of jump shots but before I leave (today) I’ll do a bunch of jump hooks.

Q: When Lamar came over from the Heat, he said it takes one year for a player to get used to being a Laker. Do you feel a lot more settled coming into this year?

A: I’m trying to tell you that arena was very, very tough to play in. It’s intimidating, even when you’re (the road team). It’s a big arena. There’s celebrities all on the side. It’s a tough place to play. It’s Hollywood, so you’re a little wide-eyed.

Once you get comfortable and the fans understand you’re going to work hard, then it’s cool. That’s any arena. Anybody that comes and plays us, they’re like wide-eyed. They always say, `That’s Denzel!’

Q: You also had to learn the triangle, which is never easy.

A: The triangle was tough for me because as a post-up player, it bothers me with a lot of cutters around me when I’m posting up. Especially as a young post player, I don’t do well when there are a lot of cutters. That third cutter really bothered me because I want to go middle. Then you’ve got a guy coming up to the middle, so you’re nothing but a passer.

I think Chris knew the system a little better than me, knew when to duck in. We have a couple of isolations. Now I think I know when to duck in, when to go one-on-one. My teammates started demanding that of me at the end of the season, to go one-one-one, once I started finishing. (The) first thing is catching, instead of rushing.

Q: Do you like the new ball?

A: I hate the new ball. Oh my God. The last ball, it would get a little play on the rim. This ball, if it touches the rim, it’s coming out. It’s squirting right off the rim.

Q: What about handling the ball in the post?

A: The only difference about the ball is you can grip the ball a little better when it’s dry. When it gets wet, it gets a little heavier and lot more slippery than the other ball.

Q: So you’re not a fan

A: Not a fan. Not a fan at all.

Q: Did you get a chance to talk to Kobe this off-season? Did you see him ever?

A: He was here. He was nursing that knee. He said he’s going to be fine, as you would expect. You know Kobe’s going to come in ready to play. He had an injury and he’s in better shape than everyone. Nobody’s worried about him in that aspect.

It’s good to have him around because he’s always going to talk positive for us. If you’re missing shots, the key words you always remember him saying is, `Will it in.’ You get down, he’s always saying something that reinforces you in a strong way instead of a weak-minded way.

Q: Do you feel like you’ve improved as a foul shooter? I know it’s hard to say until you get into a game situation

A: It’s not that I improved as a foul shooter. I improved mentally. Most of the time, I didn’t even want to get fouled because I didn’t want to go to the line. At the end of the year, all they would do is foul me, so I’m like, `OK, I’ve got to go to the line so you might as well stand in there and just make it.’

Q: If you look back at last year, what was satisfying for you personally?

A: The only thing I think I did that I would say was satisfactory was gaining the trust of my teammates. That’s the most important thing to me is I want to be able to come out on the court and know I can look the other four guys in the eye and say, `You know what to expect. I’m going to go hard. If I’m having a bad game, I’m going to rebound it. If I’m having a bad rebounding game, I’m going to play defense. I’m going to give you something, and I’m going to give it all I’ve got.’

I felt like at first it was defense. They knew I was going to come out and play hard defense. If I wasn’t, Lamar or somebody would say something. Then it was like, `OK, now you’ve got to catch this damn ball.’

Q: You feel like once you proved to them you could catch the ball and finish that was it?

A: It’s just slowing down. That’s the thing everybody was telling me. I would be making my move before I had the ball. Once I slowed down and just let the game come to me, instead of trying to force the game . . . it was easy after I slowed down and read what the defense was doing.

Q: Could this be a breakthrough year for you?

A: Yeah. I don’t like saying that because every year I’ve said that, I’ve gotten hurt. After my third year, I had a great finish with the Wizards, then I broke my foot that summer. I just want to come in healthy. That’s it. If I come in healthy with a positive attitude, then I’m good.

Q: What’s the story with the 15-10 card Phil gave you? Did he actually do that?

A: After the season, he wrote (it) down on a piece of paper. He said, `With the free throws that you’ve been missing and a couple of rebounds, you could average 15 and 10.’ He said, `That’s what I want your goal to be.’

Not that it’s going to be a letdown if (I) don’t get it, but that’s where he wants the bar at. The games where I had it rolling, a few free throws here, a few rebounds there, I could have had it. Lamar is such a damn good rebounder, we’re out there fighting for those rebounds.

Q: Do you still have the card?

A: I’ve got it in my wallet. It’s a little soggy because my wallet got wet, but it’s in there.

Q: Do you need to have a 15-10 season?

A: That’s just where the goal is. I don’t know if I need to. We’ll see what we’ve got once we get in here. I saw Radmanovic shooting and he must have made freaking 200 shots in a row. He’s definitely going to help our team. That jumper is effortless. We’re going to have an interesting team. We have a lot of guys that play the same position, but I think that’s a good problem to have, especially when you have so many people that are skilled at what they do.

Q: How do you think it’s going to work out with both you and Chris at center?

A: That’s not my problem. Chris is going to do his job as far as getting in shape and coming out as hard as he can and I’m going to do the same. That’s the coaches’ job (to figure out). That’s why they get paid the big bucks.

Q: Could you play that 4 spot on the wing if you need to? It seemed like last season proved you were a center first and foremost.

A: Anytime you’ve got a 270-pound guy on the wing, I don’t think that’s (to) his best advantage. I’d definitely like to be down low, challenging guys and putting the pressure on people. But if I have to be on the wing, hey….

Q: How good do you think this team can be this year?

A: We have the potential to be as good as our defense. The only thing I’m worried about is our screen-and-roll defense. Apparently (returning assistant coach) Jim Cleamons is a defensive guy. I think we’re going to improve. Just by having Radmanovic and a healthy Chris Mihm, we’re going to be a better offensive team.

The only thing I think we really need to improve on is our screen-and-roll defense, get a concept down and just keep doing it. We had so many different things we were doing from game to game. We’d come in with a game plan and then when it didn’t work, we would kind of fall apart.

It’s going to be tough with a team like (Phoenix) to trap and rotate, but for the most part I think we should trap, rotate and work on that.

Q: You said you were on a high going into the off-season?

A: You can’t be on a high when every time you see someone it’s, `Damn, you should have won that Game 6.’ It was a constant reminder. When you look at tape (of Tim Thomas’ shot), I ran from the corner and I ran up to the top and I was thinking, `If I would have hesitated one second, maybe I could have blocked that shot.’

But with him, if you hesitate a second, he’ll make it anyway. He had an unbelievable playoff series. That shot right there, I can remember it like it’s happening right now.

Q: Have you seen Phil at all?

A: You know how Phil is. He’s a funny dude. I didn’t know he was that funny for a guy that smart. He comes in and he plays with you, jokes in a quiet way. A funny dude.

Q: Laron Profit gave Phil a lot of credit for how he approached coaching you last season.

A: I think because he knew my history, and I’d had so much negatitivity that he never made anything a negative. Even when I was playing bad, he could have went in the papers and said anything because my game was reflecting basically nothing.

Even when the coaches said to me, `Maybe we’re playing you out of position,’ he was still positive in saying, `Just come in and give me what you can and play defense.’ He broke down the game in segments for me.

`If you don’t feel comfortable scoring and doing all that, then run the court and get rebounds. Once you start doing that, let’s take another step.’

He broke the game down for me and I think that helped. Even when I was getting down on myself, he said, `You know what, don’t worry about it. It takes some guys three to six months to learn this offense.’

I’m like, `Wow, he’s still not killing me.’ It was crazy to see that approach. Most coaches, they can’t do that. This is a business. It would have been easy for him to say, `We’ve got this guy, he ain’t doing (anything), and that would have been it.’

That’s the true meaning of a coach, when he can lift a player up. I’m not saying everybody should do that, but some guys need different stuff.

[Doggystylin]

Q: What about handling the ball in the post?

A: The only difference about the ball is you can grip the ball a little better when it’s dry. When it gets wet, it gets a little heavier and lot more slippery than the other ball.

fuck, u gotta be kidding me 

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

Q: What about handling the ball in the post?

A: The only difference about the ball is you can grip the ball a little better when it’s dry. When it gets wet, it gets a little heavier and lot more slippery than the other ball.

fuck, u gotta be kidding me 

Yea man, I'm really pissed about this new ball BS...Not only does it look shittier, but it's supposedly a lot harder and is tougher to play with as well...


Other than that, Kwame sounds pretty much ready to go...Can't wait to see how they start the season, I'm predicting that we're comin' out KILLIN...PeACe

[Juronimo]

Q: What about handling the ball in the post?

A: The only difference about the ball is you can grip the ball a little better when it’s dry. When it gets wet, it gets a little heavier and lot more slippery than the other ball.

fuck, u gotta be kidding me 

Yea man, I'm really pissed about this new ball BS...Not only does it look shittier, but it's supposedly a lot harder and is tougher to play with as well...


Other than that, Kwame sounds pretty much ready to go...Can't wait to see how they start the season, I'm predicting that we're comin' out KILLIN...PeACe

Me too, I think we'll surpass 50 wins this year. I have a good feeling about this season, better than the feeling I had before last season.

[GangstaBoogy]

You know what, that Kwame Brown interview game me A LOT of hope for this season. I really can't wait for October now.