Lets Move Kobe to Small Forward

[laduane1]

JR and all his tatoos can stay in Denver. All he wants to do is score and shoot and Phil does not like his players who do not play any D. Remember the first round. We won so easy due to the Nug Pups played like this was a summer league game and just wanted to know how high they could send the score up.

[Dexmor]

Kobe is not actually 6'7.
Pierce did a wonderful job on him and Allen couldn't.
Lets go over the guys that have played him the best in the past.

Pierce
Bowen
Battier
Bowen

All those guys are sf's.

He needs to stay at the sg spot.
They need a pg because Kobe shouldn't be the playmaker.

[Dexmor]

PG is right. We need a pg so Kobe doesn't have to be the pg sg sf and defensive specialist. He is human you know. He needs to complain like Wade and be a pg.

[daddyfivestar]

Now that Baron Davis is upset at what has gone down:

PG Baron s&t 16mill, C Perovic 1mill
for
SF Odom 14 mill, PF Turiaf s&t to the contract they have offered 4 mill

re-sign Sasha and use part of the MLE on Kurt Thomas (toughness, rebounding)

Baron/Farmar
Kobe/Fisher/Sasha
Ariza/Vlad/Luke
Pau/Kurt Thomas
Bynum/Mihm/Perovic

[ClubLakers KB8]

I'm warming to the idea of sending Lamar to the Pistons for Hamilton. Stuckey is the SG of the future in that town, they get expiring cash, and they can start Lamar at PF next to Sheed at C. They still have a very deep team, but they gain great flexibility cap wise.

As for LA? Let Sasha walk, maintain Ronny. Bring back Mbenga. Sign veterans... half of the MLE on someone like Pargo? Kurt Thomas. Split it between them?

C - Bynum, Mbenga, Mihm
PF - Gasol, Turiaf, Vlad
SF - Bryant, Ariza, Walton
SG - Hamilton, Karl
PG - Fisher, Farmar

[Jajwanda]

That lineup works nicely as far as offense goes. I'm just not sure how well Hamilton matches up against some of the other SFs in this league. If there's one major benefit to it it's that it provides the Lakers with a true backup SG which means that we can let Vujajic go.

Kobe would have to gain back some weight to around 220 which is not really all that worrisome for me, what bothers me is that Hamilton isn't just a bit heavier.

If he were around 210 lbs this wouldn't be a problem. 6-7 is tall enough for a SF in this league.

The only bad thing with this lineup is what happens when you face Carmelo, LeBron, and Pierce?

[supaflash]

From all reports Hamilton is the least likely to go, they want Stucky to play point.

Billups is a better fit anyway, more range, ball handling, and penetration. Better at defending elite PGs.
Prince would be the second best option if Detroit were to part with a guy for Odom. Either works but I think Billups would be best.

Kobe is fine to defend most of the SFs, Lebron is really the one exception as he is just a bit to big for Kobe but no one is really going to defend him much better then Kobe. And he's fine on Pierce as long as guys are doing their job on all the screens. If you watched, Pierce did very little when Kobe was on him and when he did score it was because KG was constantly setting (illegal) picks. On Mello, Kobe can sit in his lap because Mello struggles when he goes inside on big lineups. Pau and Drew would frustrate him inside. Nice thing with Kobe at the 3 is you don't really need a backup 3 either as they won't get much mins. Luke or Vlad can fill for a few mins at a time.

Other then a Battier/Jackson deal for Odom, Billups over anything else is the next best option.

Dumars is too smart and stubborn to take any trash in a deal and they seem to want a good young SF.

LO, Ariza and Farmar for Billups and McDyess. Kobe moves to the 3 spot if we can't pick up Posey. We would need to sign a 2 guard along with Sasha (preferably Azibuke, but Barry would do on the cheap) Or Dooling and let Fish man the SG with Sasha. Its probably the most realistic way to get something done. A Cross conference deal, with cheap young talent and a quality player that has a nice expiring contract.

Billups/Fish/Yue
Azibuke/Sasha
Kobe/Luke/Vlad
Pau/McDyss
Drew/Mihm

or

Billups/Fish
Kobe/Sasha
Posey/Luke/Vlad
Pau/McDyess
Drew/Mihm

Either way it shores Up our D and takes a ton of pressure off Kobe. Don forget, MJ wasn't the facillitator, Pip was.

[Jajwanda]

Well, I want to clarify that I'm emphasizing ballhandling/passing in the backcourt.

EE, I don't want to imply that this guard (or forward) needs to be lightning quick and able to penetrate. Or, that he has to be Steve Kerr with his shooting. I just feel that ballhandling/passing is the number one priority for our team - has been for years.

I like Billups a lot, I just think he's pretty tough to get. But yeah, he would be awesome. I liked Steve Blake when he was a free agent - twice. Duhon was a good second choice - twice. I loved Calderon, and I thought we should left no stone unturned to get him last year, when it was reported Colangelo was shopping Calderon to participate in the 2007 draft. All these guys have in common? They're capable, some even elite, ballhandlers/passers.

The thing with these ballhandlers is that they allow the best players on the floor to be great. They allow them to do their thing by taking a lot of pressure off them. Brandon Roy is a terrific player, even might be a capable point guard himself; but having Steve Blake completely frees him to attack defenses.

If they have other skills, great, terrific. All of it can be utilized and accommodated in the triangle offense. In fact, the triangle offense allows even big guards and forwards to assume this role with varying degrees of responsibility, as Harper, Pippen, even Kukoc, Kobe, Shaw, attest to.

It's another reason why I've liked Kirilenko so much, because he's one of the best passing small forwards in the NBA. And unlike Odom, he handles the ball and passes very effective in the halfcourt, even playing point guard for the Jazz when Williams goes out.

But whether nominal position a player usually plays, point guard, shooting guard, or small forward, I think the real important question is, can this player handle the ball, facilitate the offense, make decisions, and free up Kobe to do what he does best - score? Can he feed Bynum? Can he find Pau Gasol in scoring position? Can he simplify the game for the other players?

Let's be real - Kobe's been playing both Pippen and Jordan's role on this team. The limitations of that were clear last month. Until Bynum becomes Shaq and we can just throw him the ball, the best offensive option is still Kobe, and unfortunately, the Lakers haven't exactly made it easy for him. We need to find a way to maximize Kobe's impact, Bynum's impact, Gasol's impact, everybody's impact.

Getting a real capable ballhandler/playmaker/decision-maker really is the catalyst that would allow this team to self-organize. Kobe takes higher-percentage shots. Pau gets more touches. Bynum will get fed. Kobe will have more energy to commit to defense and the 4th quarter. No more Kobe-watching. Everybody gets involved, and that's Laker basketball.

The inefficiency in our play is a painful contrast to the beauty and almost effortlessness of Laker basketball.

Thing is, against elite defensive teams, we can't play Laker basketball because these defensive teams know that our playmaker and our scorer is one player, and are capable of shutting him down, and thus our entire team shuts down.

"Cut off the head of the snake!"
"Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered."

Well, we need more heads on this team. We need more shepherds.

Stephen Jackson do it for ya Miles? He'd be the scorer and Kobe the play maker.