**LAKERS @ MAVS 3/12/11--6 PACIFIC KCAL OR NBATV**

[DEEP3CL]

Drew is beasting lately but lets see it for 30 games let alone 82.

Agreed, but I doubt if any big man besides Howard plays all 82. Game is just too rigorous today.

[Dr Aki]

dwight doesnt have good enough range to play power forward and it would only lead to clogging the lane on offense

as if teams dont pack the paint against us now? gasol doesnt have dirk range, hell he doesnt even have the range of bosh. gasol barely does enough to know to help open up the paint.

besides howard has a developed a nice little jumper/bank shot this year.

offense would not be a problem.

the point is our defense would be off the charts. it would more than make up for the loss of offense.

this is all speculation anyway, im happy with what we have and was simply posing an opinion.

its silly to say a howard--gasol duo would be >> than a howard--bynum duo imo.

I agree 100% with you, let's not get it twisted them two would blow the league away. Besides since when it was required for a PF to have "range" ? I've watched the NBA long enough to remember when power forward actually meant just that. No guys in the 70's or 80's who manned that position relied on jumper after jumper. It wasn't until the late 80's and 90's did the position change to what we see today.......soft bigs standing 7 foot tall shooting jumpers and 3's. To me it's a punk bitch way to play the PF. Drew and Dwight together would be a throw back to the old NBA C and PF combo...devastating.

when i mean range, i mean hit a FT jumper range. and i know we cant rely on howard to hit that FT jumper with any consistency. a 12ft bank shot from dwight howard is not what i want teams to be forcing the lakers to do when options A, B and C are taken away in the playoffs

and im speaking about this in terms of triangle efficiency. whenever our offense stagnates its almost always because of spacing and a major part of that issue is hitting outside shots to force defenses to play further from the basket so that we can take advantage of pau or drew's defender down low. (and kobe going into hero mode)

having dwight would only exacerbate that issue, and every time we begin to throw up long jumper after perimeter jumper as defenses will be designed to combat our size inevitably do. teams start to fill the floor with long defenders that sag to prevent the post entry pass and the ball goes around the perimeter into the 2man game on the weakside and defending big-men sag to prevent penetration and it stagnates for another 5 seconds of the offense.

dwight howard is no karl malone. an oldschool NBA C/PF combo would hurt the lakers on offense. that's why we use the triangle in the first place. one of the primary reasons the triangle runs as well as it does is because we have pau gasol making decisions. its not fair to pau that he doesnt get as much credit as he should.

that said, our defense would be spectacular, but my argument is only about the offense

[Doormatt]

dwight doesnt have good enough range to play power forward and it would only lead to clogging the lane on offense

as if teams dont pack the paint against us now? gasol doesnt have dirk range, hell he doesnt even have the range of bosh. gasol barely does enough to know to help open up the paint.

besides howard has a developed a nice little jumper/bank shot this year.

offense would not be a problem.

the point is our defense would be off the charts. it would more than make up for the loss of offense.

this is all speculation anyway, im happy with what we have and was simply posing an opinion.

its silly to say a howard--gasol duo would be >> than a howard--bynum duo imo.

I agree 100% with you, let's not get it twisted them two would blow the league away. Besides since when it was required for a PF to have "range" ? I've watched the NBA long enough to remember when power forward actually meant just that. No guys in the 70's or 80's who manned that position relied on jumper after jumper. It wasn't until the late 80's and 90's did the position change to what we see today.......soft bigs standing 7 foot tall shooting jumpers and 3's. To me it's a punk bitch way to play the PF. Drew and Dwight together would be a throw back to the old NBA C and PF combo...devastating.

totally right. besides, even if teams did pack the paint, what would that accomplish? not many teams have the bodies to cover bynum and howard individually. with BOTH of them on the court on the same team, its game over. like deep i prefer the old school power combo front court. 7 foot 3pt shooters are weak bitches.

i would venture to say howard looks more dominant covering PFs than he does long centers like drew.

[DrewBynum77]

I wish Carlisle was smart enough to run a play for DIRK in crunch time than have him set screens for Terry

Mavs are a joke. They're a 1man team. No one should be worried about them.

hey man! you don't post in the General Board anymore?

[Doormatt]

often the lakers biggest problem with post entry is gasol or bynums inability to seal. lately bynum has been a monster in that regard. gasol often plays around the elbow and makes plays, because he isnt always comfortable with his back to the basket against a player with strength.

no way teams could stop howard and bynum from sealing and getting good position early on. i struggle to think of one team that has two bodies strong and big enough to accomplish that. most teams put their strongest player on gasol, root him out the post and force him to play just outside the key, but you cant do that with howard.

i see little problems with the howard--bynum offensive combo. besides, how often has offense been a problem for the lakers in losses?? very few.

[TheBillWalton]

Kobe Bryant: the majesty, the artistry. It's poetry in motion.

[DEEP3CL]

Aki you make good points but like myself and Doormatt have pointed out an old school C/PF combo is deadly. Secondly with a combo like that who says we need the Triangle ? Yes the Tri would be needed if we relied on the offense going through a center who needs to make reads of the defense.

With Drew and Dwight our game would switch to a power smash mouth interior attack, in this style your PF only needs a soft type 10-12 foot jumper to keep the double off the center. But in reality that job would fall to the guards and forwards, slashing and shooting from distance.

When I look at a combo like that common sense tells me we can do away with parts of the Triangle and switch to more conventional NBA sets. But it's asinine to think a combo like that won't work. Like I said I've been around long enough to see it.

[iamworthy]

Drew is beasting lately but lets see it for 30 games let alone 82.

Agreed, but I doubt if any big man besides Howard plays all 82. Game is just too rigorous today.

We have lowered our standards

[Dr Aki]

its probably a good thing no team can bring an oldschool C/PF combo to defend us (and this applies to all teams)

probably one of the reasons why pau gasol is so effective

[Doormatt]

its probably a good thing no team can bring an oldschool C/PF combo to defend us (and this applies to all teams)

probably one of the reasons why pau gasol is so effective

we'd be screwed. drew definitely benefits from the fact that other teams prefer putting the stronger, bigger player on gasol. we're fortunate gasol is so effective outside of the paint with his vision and decision making. he really has regressed in the sense that he's almost useless in the deep post game. unless he has a SERIOUS height/strength advantage, pau has a hard time scoring in the paint.

[KB24TBOTB]

its probably a good thing no team can bring an oldschool C/PF combo to defend us (and this applies to all teams)

probably one of the reasons why pau gasol is so effective

we'd be screwed. drew definitely benefits from the fact that other teams prefer putting the stronger, bigger player on gasol. we're fortunate gasol is so effective outside of the paint with his vision and decision making. he really has regressed in the sense that he's almost useless in the deep post game. unless he has a SERIOUS height/strength advantage, pau has a hard time scoring in the paint.

When he wants to he can dominate in the paint

Edit: Talking about pau btw

[Doormatt]

its probably a good thing no team can bring an oldschool C/PF combo to defend us (and this applies to all teams)

probably one of the reasons why pau gasol is so effective

we'd be screwed. drew definitely benefits from the fact that other teams prefer putting the stronger, bigger player on gasol. we're fortunate gasol is so effective outside of the paint with his vision and decision making. he really has regressed in the sense that he's almost useless in the deep post game. unless he has a SERIOUS height/strength advantage, pau has a hard time scoring in the paint.

When he wants to he can dominate in the paint

Edit: Talking about pau btw

meh, imo it has more to do with matchup than want.

no doubt he has been less effective this year than past. even when he's motivated he doesnt play a great all around game (see miami). he really has faded as the year has gone on.

i really hope he turns it on in the playoffs. with bynum being more of a physical presence, we need gasol hitting the boards harder.

[KB24TBOTB]

meh, imo it has more to do with matchup than want.

no doubt he has been less effective this year than past. even when he's motivated he doesnt play a great all around game (see miami). he really has faded as the year has gone on.

i really hope he turns it on in the playoffs. with bynum being more of a physical presence, we need gasol hitting the boards harder.

I agree with him not crashing the boards with force the last 2 games but i feel he'll be good to go when the playoffs come along. I also think the drop on his rebounding has something to do with Drew just dominating the glass.

[DEEP3CL]

Drew is beasting lately but lets see it for 30 games let alone 82.

Agreed, but I doubt if any big man besides Howard plays all 82. Game is just too rigorous today.

We have lowered our standards

Naw bro I haven't lowered my standards at all, I'm staying in reality. The only thing I've asked and probably everybody has asked from Drew is to just get what we're getting on a consistent basis. Big Game you've been here long enough to know I was one of toughest critics of Drew. I knew what he needed to be doing but he didn't know it nor was he given the chance to do because of Phil's quirky way of coaching.

All Drew has to do is show this is what he can do on a nightly basis.....that's it, and also take a look around and tell me how many centers are going to play all 82 aside from Dwight ? Hell how many are hurt or have missed or will miss just as many games as Drew did this year ?

And if standards are lowered then what is the standard ? Cause expecting somebody to suit up for all 82 just ain't happening in this era.

[joelafan]

Drew had very good game. I can only hope that his confidnece is raised. If hes 22pt and 15 rebound guy a night or close to that . I wil be more than happy with bynum play.On a another note im glad we are winning games under 100 pts .Really shows are defense is getting better.

[iamworthy]

Naw bro I haven't lowered my standards at all, I'm staying in reality. The only thing I've asked and probably everybody has asked from Drew is to just get what we're getting on a consistent basis. Big Game you've been here long enough to know I was one of toughest critics of Drew. I knew what he needed to be doing but he didn't know it nor was he given the chance to do because of Phil's quirky way of coaching.

All Drew has to do is show this is what he can do on a nightly basis.....that's it, and also take a look around and tell me how many centers are going to play all 82 aside from Dwight ? Hell how many are hurt or have missed or will miss just as many games as Drew did this year ?

And if standards are lowered then what is the standard ? Cause expecting somebody to suit up for all 82 just ain't happening in this era.

I think we both want the same thing....just be consistent. As of now he's been getting the job done since the all-star game. Lets see if he can keep it up. Defensively he's the key.

[TheRunKiller]

so kobe sprains his ankle and comes back in and plays while carlos boozer has missed the last 2 games boozer needs to be a man like kobe

[Boognish]

Kobe Bryant: the majesty, the artistry. It's poetry in motion.

I'm a fan, glad you're back Bill!

[Boognish]

ALSO, don't put dashes in the thread title, fcks it up

[stunnar0b]

quote of the game "pau gasol taking a page out of bynums book and contesting in the paint"