First, that “one man zone” comment wasn’t mine. It was Tex Winter’s, when he complained to Roland Lazenby about Kobe’s defense. And if you know how the Tex/Phil relationship works, Tex says the things Phil wants to but can’t because of locker room politics.

Second, opposing point guards shot a whopping 51.4% against him this season and had a PER of 15.1, which shows me Kobe’s defense was about the league average. In case your curious, in the Chucky Atkins disaster of a season, opposing 2 guards shot 46% against Kobe.

Third, Kobe’s collapsing was part of the Lakers defensive rotations problems. As a team, the Lakers were slow rotating if the guy who blew past Smush got into the lane and passed out. Kobe was one of those who was slow.

I think all that was more knee than anything else, I expect him to come back with a fire next season.

The reason he’s had to play defense the way he has has to do with the other guys getting burned badly on defense. If you had a clue, you’d see that he’s constantly looking over to see if he can help. It’s the same thing that happened when Chucky Atkins was part of this team. Kobe would always be moving over to provide help to Chucky thus weakening the defense a bit. In that situation it becomes a choice of two: you either stay on your man and let your teammate get burned or you try to help out while getting back to your man if possible.

The idea that he was a part of the defensive problems on this team is laughable. His defense as a whole would look a lot better on paper to the basketball clueless like you, if we a much solid team on the court that didn’t rely on help defense so much. He wouldn’t have to be in a help mode so often. He’s our best defender and in fact, our only consistent defender. He WAS slowed down in the early part of the season, but he rebounded in performance. It just can’t be helped that the rest of the team needs help so often, nor is it his fault that our bigs (aside from Kwame) can’t play proper pick-and-roll defense.

I am not alone.

Given such a shaky win on their own court, the Mavs may be a bit woozy. Golden State, still up 3-2, still has nothing to lose.

The fans in Oakland might have taken exception when a Maverick threw Baron Davis to the floor. They might not have liked that referee call near the end of the game. Given Bay Area hysteria, and Dallas desperation, game 6 of Warriors/Mavs may make an earthquake seem tame.

Whoa, Nellie!

Maybe the Lakers can bring a few of those California vibrations all the way to Arizona.

Assuming Mihm recovers and plays to par with his performace before the injury. We’d have a pretty decent center at hand. If I remember correctly, the starting 5 that time were Smush, Kobe, Odom, Kwame, Mihm. (Am I right?)

If we apply that to today’s set-up, it would be:
Farmar, Kobe, Walton, Odom, Mihm/Kwame.

Mihm would be second string at center. A very good one at that place. However, Bynum’s minutes would be dwindling at this point. Which makes him harder to deal anywhere as his stock value might suffer too. Potential won’t be as much anymore as he will be out of the rotation.

Therefore, I am suggesting that we pounce on a deal involving Bynum in exchange for a big name. KG or JO but not Kidd or Bibby. I wonder if there’s anything Philly would like in our roster apart from the core. I am sold at the idea that Andre Miller is 2x better than Mo Will.

PG – Andre Miller
SG – Kobe
SF – Korver
PF – Odom
C – Kwame/Mihm

just a vision…

We’ve had 3 full years of trying out and possibly half of the Laker wins can be attributed to group chemistry and perhaps half – Kobe heroics. Now, at the brink of destruction and so far away from glory, we ponder… Is this our team? or can we do better.

It leads me to conclude that the personnel acquired from the Shaq trade wasn’t necessarily what we needed but what was the best possible pieces offered. Now we know certain things and we move on. In search of glory once more. Knowing our captain is right here at Full Throttle. Lets not wait till there is little or none left in the tank.

As I can notice, I doubt if there’s anyone in this forum that is against the idea of KG. But due to 22million reasons, I’m thinking he is farther to reach than what we think. Even Mike Bibby was on the way until the Maloofs vetoed the deal coz he couldn’t stomach Bibby killing them.

It changed to 92!

I like your analysis, but there are alternative possibilities.

The biggest unknown for this team is the health of Chris Mihm. If Mihm is not healthy, the Lakers won’t sign him. If Mihm is healthy, the Lakers almost certainly would sign him–giving the Lakers 3 desireable/tradeable centers. Without trading anyone , they would already have improved their team. More imporatantly, it would provide the necessary glue to put together multi-player deals.

Since they earn enough, trading either Mihm or Kwame could be one-for-one.

The biggest advantage to trading Bynum for a major player is that it allows the Lakers to unload players that otherwise wouldn’t be accepted by another team–to make salaries match.

For this reason, trading Bynum would likely include Odom and others and could lead to a breaking up of the Laker team as we know it.

I think that’s what you like!

Now lets see our team on what we have and what we can do – Its automatic that you would have to let go of Kwame or Odom. Say he lets Kwame go. He will be letting go of a significant cap relief in 09. I know teams in struggle mode are interested in his 9M expiring. But we are too. Unless its a KG or JO, Kwame should stay. No not even for Kidd or Bibby.

Lets say he lets go of Odom. Unless a bigger name is out there and he plays the 4 or 5, Odom is off limits. What do we have now then? We have nothing to improve the team.

Vlade Radman? Brian Cook? Sasha Vujacic? these guys are salary fillers and throw-ins. They aren’t sought after players. Mihm is injured, Mckie, Smush and Shamu are probably gone. Turiaf is a good energy player and theres Evans and Farmar from there. Nothing more.

I say we’re doomed. I say we ain’t got nothing unless we part with Bynum. Let him go Mitch. Its okay… Its okay…