Laker Defense?

[BCLakerFan]

I love reading this board, I do not post that often but have been around for a long time. This current laker squad will be much tougher defensively than anything we have seen over the last 5 to 6 years, you can bet on that.

The bench is still a question mark but another year together will have its benefits. It seems Mitch is very confident that Odom and JP can handle the PF position, Luke is Luke and I don't believe we will see much of Adam Morrison on the floor. I hope he has good suits so at least he can take advantage of the women of LA. Who honestly knows what Sasha will bring offensively but he is a pain in the _** on defense. Farmar will really have to up his game to crack the 2nd unit over Brown if you ask me but I am sure we will see him out there with the faster PG's we come up against. The question for me is will Mbenga be able to up his game and play some C other than at garbage time (doubt it, but hope for it).

I think everyone here knows that we match up with any team in the league pretty well except at pg. In Fishers younger days he was always noted for his defensive effort and now, this is where we are the weakest in the starting 5.

But I think everyone is under estimating what affect a full training camp with Fisher is going to have on Shannon Brown. SB is young, hungry, athletic, and wants to make his mark in the league. Fisher is smart, talented, and a great mentor and a die hard Laker, he loves this franchise. I believe Fisher knows his skills are declining and will be pouring in all the knowledge that SB can take. And a full training camp will make a big difference over coming in through a mid season trade.

I also believe Shannon will be the gaurd going against D Fish in practice every day which will help his growth even more. By mid season this year I would not be surprised to see Shannon in the starting line up even if it is just to give Fisher a rest on those legs for the playoff push. A starting 5 of Brown, Kobe, Artest, Gasol, and AB is very scary! You have speed in Brown and Bryant, toughness in Artest, and length with Gaasol and Bynum coaches will be up late trying to put together the game plan against this team.

Bring on the Celtics there fan base seems to think they can crush our hopes...lol! Nothing is sweeter than beating Boston even if its beating Shaq and Lebron. Go Lakers!!!

[what would jack bauer do?]

and Gasol steps up defensively when he realizes what's on the line.

You don't think Pau knows what's on the line?

Oh trust me, Gasol takes weeks off at a time on the defensive end. I mean yes he plays defense, but he never has that all out instinct that the elite defenders have until something is on the line. He was basically playing it safe last year until we played boston on christmas and then he finally did some dirty work on D. Bynum and Odom have their lulls, but their effort defensively is way more consistent than Gasol.

Maybe I should've wrote "Gasol steps up defensively when something is on the line", but I'm sure most people understood that's what was implied.

[Dexmor]

There starting lineup is the best defensive starting 5 in the league. If they were to add A Luther Head and Bruce Bowen they could hold a team to 0 points in a quarter 1 game.

[Anklebreaker702]

I love reading this board, I do not post that often but have been around for a long time. This current laker squad will be much tougher defensively than anything we have seen over the last 5 to 6 years, you can bet on that.

The bench is still a question mark but another year together will have its benefits. It seems Mitch is very confident that Odom and JP can handle the PF position, Luke is Luke and I don't believe we will see much of Adam Morrison on the floor. I hope he has good suits so at least he can take advantage of the women of LA. Who honestly knows what Sasha will bring offensively but he is a pain in the _** on defense. Farmar will really have to up his game to crack the 2nd unit over Brown if you ask me but I am sure we will see him out there with the faster PG's we come up against. The question for me is will Mbenga be able to up his game and play some C other than at garbage time (doubt it, but hope for it).

I think everyone here knows that we match up with any team in the league pretty well except at pg. In Fishers younger days he was always noted for his defensive effort and now, this is where we are the weakest in the starting 5.

But I think everyone is under estimating what affect a full training camp with Fisher is going to have on Shannon Brown. SB is young, hungry, athletic, and wants to make his mark in the league. Fisher is smart, talented, and a great mentor and a die hard Laker, he loves this franchise. I believe Fisher knows his skills are declining and will be pouring in all the knowledge that SB can take. And a full training camp will make a big difference over coming in through a mid season trade.

I also believe Shannon will be the gaurd going against D Fish in practice every day which will help his growth even more. By mid season this year I would not be surprised to see Shannon in the starting line up even if it is just to give Fisher a rest on those legs for the playoff push. A starting 5 of Brown, Kobe, Artest, Gasol, and AB is very scary! You have speed in Brown and Bryant, toughness in Artest, and length with Gaasol and Bynum coaches will be up late trying to put together the game plan against this team.

Bring on the Celtics there fan base seems to think they can crush our hopes...lol! Nothing is sweeter than beating Boston even if its beating Shaq and Lebron. Go Lakers!!!

Good stuff! Our PG situation (as far as matching up) is going to be way better with Shannon Brown able to log minutes this year. As far as Mbenga, he's not a garbage time player (defensively) he needs more time is all. Unfortunately for him he's on a team that's stacked with bigs & a young promising center that keeps getting hurt. So those minutes keep going back to him once he returns. Had those injuries not occured Bynum would probably be where he is supposed to be & Mbenga would be getting more miuntes when they count.

[Dr Aki]

Bring on the Celtics there fan base seems to think they can crush our hopes...lol! Nothing is sweeter than beating Boston even if its beating Shaq and Lebron. Go Lakers!!!

sometimes i wish lakers played in the eastern conference

that way, we'd shut them all up

[CowsMoo]

Bring on the Celtics there fan base seems to think they can crush our hopes...lol! Nothing is sweeter than beating Boston even if its beating Shaq and Lebron. Go Lakers!!!

sometimes i wish lakers played in the eastern conference

that way, we'd shut them all up

Why should we move there? They should come here! Wish they played in the Western Conference.

[Dr Aki]

Bring on the Celtics there fan base seems to think they can crush our hopes...lol! Nothing is sweeter than beating Boston even if its beating Shaq and Lebron. Go Lakers!!!

sometimes i wish lakers played in the eastern conference

that way, we'd shut them all up

Why should we move there? They should come here! Wish they played in the Western Conference.

if they moved here

they wouldnt have the same records beating on below avg talented sides and might not even make the finals

[battousai]

I liked a lot the concept of "funneling" that LA used for defending the perimeter players.

They never allowed easy three pointers, and they knew that help was coming from the bigs always.

[ClubLakers KB8]

Barring injury, the Lakers will be one of the top-3 defensive teams in the NBA next season without question. The addition of Artest alone will spark players to want to improve their defense. I can see Kobe and Artest making it their mission to completely lock down the perimeter. You know Kobe loves challenges like that.

A healthy Bynum anchoring doesn't hurt either...

[CowsMoo]

Steady ball movement beats our defensive scheme most of the time unless all 5 players are rotating beautifully. Last year, I was most impressed with Lamar because it was usually him that would create good traps and close out on the corner shooters. Interior passing from quick points is what can tear us apart as well as the screen and roll. But that's when I expect Bynum to be a force in. As long as he can alter shots then we have a much cleaner defensive scheme.

But who knows. Now that Rambis is gone, we might adopt a different scheme.

[Dr Aki]

Steady ball movement beats our defensive scheme most of the time unless all 5 players are rotating beautifully. Last year, I was most impressed with Lamar because it was usually him that would create good traps and close out on the corner shooters. Interior passing from quick points is what can tear us apart as well as the screen and roll. But that's when I expect Bynum to be a force in. As long as he can alter shots then we have a much cleaner defensive scheme.

But who knows. Now that Rambis is gone, we might adopt a different scheme.

steady ball movement breaks down the majority of defenses, but that was the reason for massively overplaying ball-handlers and funneling them baseline, to control the offensive ball movement as much as possible by giving them a "path of least resistance"

it also covered up a lot perimeter defensive issues with players staying in front of their man. so by limiting whether the ball-handler can go left or right, they only needed to prevent the ball from travelling from strong-side to weak-side and shade their man into a 7-foot shot blocker

i remember reading somewhere that the way to combat the properly performed SSZ/SOS defense is to drive as far into the teeth of the defense as possible before throwing a baseline bounce pass to the weak-side corner for a 3, and causes the defense to mass scrambling due to a 2 on 3 weak-side zone and 3 players tied up with defending the ball-handler and slashing big under the basket

think it was a FB&G post about 10 months ago, right around the time the lakers had overwhelming #1 defense