To answer your other question, yes he takes up a roster spot.

The Pippen thing has me torn. The VladRad incident presented the perfect opportunity for the Lakers to open up a roster spot and cost them nothing. They aren’t the types, though. Should the Lakers desire Pippen’s services, the candidates for being cut are as follows: McKie, Williams, Mihm, Sasha, Smush. Probably in that order. If Scottie were Williams’ age or even McKie’s age, this would be a no-brainer. But 41-year-old Scottie makes me kinda nervous.

As for the Phoenix game, I’m proud of how they played. Considering the constant barrage of setbacks, being able to hold the Suns under 100 on the road is heartening, regardless of whether it was a function of the Suns just being off or of the defensive effort put forth. The team is going to need to find a way to overcome the mental impact of losing teammates to injury more than anything else. And all this loser talk (what I like to call Celtic talk) that’s started since Lamar went down again needs to be nipped in the bud. 60 games in and it’s time to throw it all away? No thanks.

And how about Smush blowing up in the 4th yesterday… apparently he and Phil got into it after Smush was pulled. Smush has been doing the sulky thing all year and finally got called out for it. Is he wondering why he wasn’t playing? Tell him to look at the box score… 3 points in 27 minutes with Nash going off everytime Smush was on him. Smush… be quiet and sit down until you decide to start playing some D!!!!!

Great to see Kwame back – he was great against Amare.

I think the last 4 minutes we played great with the unit we had on the floor. we clawed our way back and just couldn’t quite overcome the deficit.

Brian Cook was very solid, btw. defense is always suspect but you can’t overlook 20 and 10.

Did anyone else hear a usually competent Mike Breen say that “Smush is a good defender” on National TV??? I loved how right after he said it, Nash went around him for an easy lay-up.

With our 2-4th options out or back w/ training wheels, we need some force of stability, and maybe an ‘old head’ can bring that…

Here’s a try to explain “Phil” to both of us. The Laker “management” approach begins with the triangle. In this approach, everyone is a role player–and everyone is graded on how well they play their roles. Right now, Smush is the #1 point guard and Shammond has been promoted to #2 over Farmar (Ibecause he’s a vet?). Kobe is the #1 shooting guard with Evans #2 and perhaps MkKie #3 and Sasha $4.. With the loss of Walton and Radman, Evans and possibly McKie have moved to small forward. Bynum is currently #1 center, with Kwame #2 and Turiaf #3. With Odom out, Cook is #1 power forward with Turiaf #2. Thyat pretty much dictates substitution patterns unless the coaches get really mad or a really obvious mismatch presents itself.

Note that the assignment is by triangle offense–not defense. If the points were graded for defense, the orders might reverse, with Farmar #1, Shammond #2, and Smush #3. Likewise, Kwame supplants Bynum and Turiaf beats Cook. Evans and Kobe stay.

When the offenders start, how do you think it makes the defenders feel?