This team doesn’t do that.

“Sasha and Vlad have picked it up.” “Walton does his part.”

“Who’e left?”

Please tell me you are not arguing that Bynum plays poorer defense than those three players because that notion is sadly mistaken. Again, the numbers don’t support the theory that Bynum is not a good defender. Perhaps the Lakers just suck at TEAM defense, just like they have the past 3 years (before Bynum even played).

What is the deal with the Bynum hate in Laker land (moreso on other blogs, but still notice it hear as well).

Miami, Memphis, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Minnesota, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Sacramento.

At least if they were on those teams they should be starting.

We are clearly weakest at the forward spot. I think Turiaf will bounce back and be a legitimate starter. Vlad is probably never going to be a legitimate starter but could be a decent sixth man coming off the bench.

If you compare our 4 – 12 players to the top of the league at each position of course they are not going to look good but compared to the middle and bottom they rank quite well.

I would love to have a discussion about the talent on our team and different opinions are great but I think we’ll get the most out of a debate like this if our points are backed up by something. It doesn’t have to be statistics. drrayeye has some good arguments about Bynum’s defense based on observation, for instance.

In positions 1-3 you have Kobe, Bynum (who is still learning, and is limited in the number of minutes he can play primarily due to fouling tendencies), and Lamar, who is overpaid for what he provides.

As currently constructed, this team is not likely to make it past the second round, if that far, ever.

Stop worrying about the 2nd and the 3rd scorer. You are solving the wrong problem. With Kobe, Inc., we can score.

What you all have to face is that Laker defense is unacceptable. When the Lakers give up more than 100 points they are likely to lose. This has happened a lot recently.

Right now, this team is losing much like they did last year. It’s not Kobe. It’s not Farmar. It’s not Ronny. VladRad and Sasha have picked it up. Walton has done his part.

Who’s left who plays a lot?

Don’t only look at the box scores, and don’t just look at individual matchups.

Although Bynum has shown remarkable progress on the offensive end, he gives them back on the defensive end–just like last year. It’s a little of this and a little of that. He is just not basketball savvy enough yet.

With Ronny at power forward and Kobe helping as appropriate, Andrew can look fine against the right competition. Add in Derek and Walton, who understand the team concept, and you have an acceptable defensive team around Bynum as a starter.

Against the opponent second team, Andrew has a chance to score without as much “blowback” collateral damage on defense.

Switch Brown for Bynum and you have a good defensive team.

Now, that does nothing about the Odom problem on defense. If Lamar could just play defense as a 3 and within the team concept, the Bynum problem might lessen or even disappear.

Lamar’s inability to score consistently could easily be overcome if he could defend consistently.

We’ll see what happens if Trevor can get a little bit of traction.

Vlad is going through a slump right now. It happens to all shooters. For the season he’s 39% from three which is damn good. I don’t know what you were expecting but 40% from three is excellent 3 point shooting. When you see it on the box score however it can be decieving.

Both Bynum and Farmar are playing great right now, especially when you consider their age and this is only the second season each of them have gotten significant minutes. Their progress is quite remarkable. Bynum has a PER of 20.36 ranking him 9th as a center and 34th overall. Farmar has a PER of 18.65 ranking him 10th among PG’s and 57th overall.

Much of Bynum’s improvement comes from his amazing ability to grab boards. Bynum is tied with Camby for the second best rebound rate (percentage of rebounds a player grabs while on the floor) at 22.2%. Kurt Thomas leads the league at 24%. Bynum is also hyper effecient on the offensive end with the 5th best FG% in the league an improved turnover ratio.

We can attribute much of Farmar’s improvement to his improved stroke. He clearly practiced his shooting because he’s hitting 39% of his shots from beyond the arc and 49% overall. His improved 3 point shot has opened things up for him to drive the lane. He also grabs a hell of a lot of rebounds for a point guard. At 7.2% he’s tied for 5th best with Antonio Daniels. Per 40 minutes he’s averaging 19 points 5.2 rebounds and 5.6 assists.

Our team has loads of talent.

Hi Mike,

If you watch carefully, Bynum’s profound problems with D will be obvious. He’s slow. He doesn’t know how and when to come out, rotate, and/or switch back . Maybe it will come in a few years, but now it is embarrassing. With Lamar “helping,” this is exacerbated, because he doesn’t know how either.

The result is that with a few passes, somebody (recently a center-Celtics-or a forward-Utah-or a big power center–Orlando) forces Bynum to provoke a team defensive breakdown, and the opponents make a huge number of points in the paint.

When other teammates try to help Andrew out by double downing, the ball is passed out for an unguarded 3. That’s the main reason why there is such a huge discrepency in defense between the games in which “Twinkletoes” Brown starts and the ones in which Bynum (and now Odom) starts.

Bynum gets his blocks (and many rebounds) when someone covers for him enough so that he can recover–especially when someone drives the lane. If he were guarding his man, he wouldn’t get the defensive rebounds so often because the guy he was guarding wouldn’t shoot.

When Ronny played center, things changed because Ronny was big ehnough and quick enough to both guard his man and make switches or rotations.

If you don’t have a foundation down low, you don’t have a defense.

Basically, if we want to go young, then trade Kobe for an Al Jefferson type young player. Then we have a bona fide strategy of developing a core unit of young talent.

If the stategy is to win now, then obviously our chances would be better if we moved Farmar or Crit or Bynum for a veteran #2 option on this team.

Maybe it isn’t so cut and dry, but I do see conflicting strategies.