Horry: "Lakers won't make Finals"

[Sofa King]

Lakers won't make finals, says Robert Horry

America's National Basketball Association (NBA) has showcased players of sublime talent and skill over the last seven decades, but not many of them can stake a claim to be men with the Midas touch. Robert Horry can.

Not since Bill Russell's all-conquering Boston Celtics of the 1960s has there been a player who has been part of seven NBA championship winning teams, except the 42-year-old former forward.

Horry, who is in India for a clinic, is also one of only two people to win titles with three different teams - Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs.

Four years since bringing his 16-year career to a close, Horry has become a keen observer and commentator on the game.

And in his opinion, even with a retooled roster that includes two-time Most Valuable Player Steve Nash and perennial All-Star Dwight Howard in addition to the great Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, the Lakers won't be able to make a title run this year.

"I don't think the Lakers are going to be in the NBA Finals, despite Howard and Nash. To go deep into the play-offs, you need a strong bench, not just a great starting line-up. I still believe (last year's runners-up) Oklahoma City Thunder are the favourites in the Western Conference, and (champions) Miami of course have just gotten stronger with Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis.

You pick up history and you'll see the bench that outplays its opponents usually wins," Horry told Mail Today.

The Heat and the Lakers both have rosters that look like fantasy league teams, and Horry believes that it is the general managers, not just the players, who must draw flak for trading their big players away, leading to this polarisation.

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/robe ... 17014.html

[SashAlex]

Whatever...

[nbaintel1]

Before the Horry bashing starts, I'd like to say that the title does not match what he said.

He said HE THINKS - not the Lakers won't. OP, you should know better than that trying to stir up controversy.

And for the record, I have no problem with what he said. A lot of people are picking OKC over the Lakers and they have legitimate reasons to do so.

[TheXFactor]

He picked Orlando to beat the Lakers in 6 games in the 09 finals too

[doobee]

Heat won last year with no bench

[Matt6288]

Is our bench really that bad? I think we have a pretty good bench, its definitely better than Miamis and they won last season.....

[LApwnd]

Heat won last year with no bench

not true at all, they had no C but Haslem, Cole, Miller, Battier all contributed during key moments of each game. Battier started in place of Bosh but he was a bench player. But I dont agree with horry bout having to have a "great" bench, during the recent b2b, the only true consistent bench guy was Odom, with random/spuratic contributions from Shannon here and there. This current bench is solid, doesn't need to be great as long as starters get off to a good start and these bench guys can maintain the league we'll be fine. Last yrs bench usually gave up leads and caused a deficit to grow larger w/o the starters.

[Edrees]

Lakers won two titles with a bench consisting of the likes of Sasha Vujacic, Jordan Farmar, Shannon Brown, an injured Andrew Bynum, no andrew bynum, DJ benga, Josh Powell and Luke Walton as the best players....so if titles are won by bench players, with Meeks, Barbosa, jordan hill, jamison and blake off the bench, lakers should 5 peat.

Can you honestly look at the last two titles the Lakers won and say they didn't have the worst bench of every playoff team both years? With a straight face?

The Lakers beat the celtics, who had Glen Davis, Tony Allen, Rasheed Wallace coming off the bench. Compare once again

Sasha Vujacic
Josh Powell
DJ Benga
Luke Walton
Shannon Brown

with

Rasheed Wallace
Tony Allen
Glen Davis
Nate Robinson

Who won that series?

[LAKESHOW]

what the deal? It is an obvious fact that everyone already knows about. Our bench killed leads last year. Until we fix that problem, a situation will always arise in games where they will let us down. And have already.

[Kilroy]

When Horry won those championships with LA, the bench consisted of him pretty much...

So take it for what it's worth...

Our bench could use some help, but it's a lot better than last season...

And OKC has a decent bench because of Harden...
They're going to start a lineup of Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka, Perkins, Sefolosha... That leaves Harden and parts...
Harden is better than anyone on our bench by a lot... But, I think overall... Jamison, Blake, Hill, Meeks, Ebanks, Clark may be better than Harden, Mohammed, etc...

[desertlakerfan]

Our bench added two players who were starters on their respective teams last year, one of which is a former 6th man of the year.

In other words, what the hell is Big Shot Rob smoking these days?

Blake or Duhon
Meeks
Jamison
Hill

9 man rotation right there, don't see any team with a better playoff rotation of starters and bench players than that.

[Kilroy]

^And we picked up Earl Clark too...

[Matt6288]

Our bench added two players who were starters on their respective teams last year, one of which is a former 6th man of the year.

In other words, what the hell is Big Shot Rob smoking these days?

Blake or Duhon
Meeks
Jamison
Hill

9 man rotation right there, don't see any team with a better playoff rotation of starters and bench players than that.

Exactly! we have the best starting 5 in the league and we have a great bench, plus we might be getting Barbosa.

[AcecardZ]

Our bench should be better next year than it was last year. I wouldn't be surprised if Pau starts and takes a seat three or four minutes into the game only to return towards the end of the first quarter anchoring the second unit.

If we don't win a championship this year it won't be because of the bench. It will be because:

1) Age/health Let's face it our team is comprised of a bunch of very old players and a guy recovering from back surgery so it's not completely out of the question that we'll never be completely healthy at any point during this upcoming season. When was the last time Kobe was near 100%? It's been years.

2) Kobe needs to quit taking bad shots and start sharing the ball more. He's not physically dominant enough to single handedly take over games the way he used to. If he doesn't trust Nash, Pau and Dwight to help shoulder the load and play more efficient ball the Lakers won't make it past OKC. This might sound crazy but if Kobe refuses to get with the program and play team ball Mike Brown should play him tons of minutes with the second unit. I don't want to see this happen but Brown can't risk Kobe poisoning the chemistry between Nash, Dwight and Pau.

3) Mike Brown He's still an unproven commodity. If the Lakers remain mostly healthy this year and fail to get to the NBA finals Mike absolutely must shoulder some of the blame.

4) Bad luck? Putting together a great team is no guarantee of anything. Plenty of great teams have failed to reach their full potential.

I can also make a pretty nice list as to why I think the Lakers will win a championship but I'll save that for later.

[AcecardZ]

and we have a great bench,

Woooo!!! Slow down my friend. I wouldn't go quite this far.

I do think we're loaded in the front court but if Kobe's efficiency continues to decline and Nash's age becomes an issue our backcourt will need help.

Beyond Kobe and Nash we have:
Meeks
Blake
Duhon
Goudelock
Morris

If Kobe and Nash struggle for any reason we can't really expect any of those guys to fill the void.