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If the lakers get knocked out in the first round does the team need to be broken up?

i know its a bit premature but all throughout this year, lal have looked really tired and old. do we have to aggressively make moves to freshen the team up going in to next year?

what moves could we make?

im not having a knee jerk reaction here because i know its still early days and we are still reigning champs until june but really. we've look laboured all year imo

The problem is that we can't do anything with our older players, so there is no way we can break up our core.

Kobe isn't going anywhere, unless he's dumb enough to demand out.

Gasol, Artest, Walton, and Fisher aren't going anywhere because no one in their right mind would take on any of their contracts.

Bynum isn't going anywhere because Jim Buss isn't open to trading him.

Shannon and Blake aren't going anywhere because they both suck.

That basically leaves Lamar Odom, and the only thing we can do is let him expire or look at a possible sign/trade. I don't really know what the options are.

We have mot likely 3 more series after this one which will have a major impact on our off season plans and this is probably the worst time to make a decision on what we do. We don't know how other teams will act and who will be available either.

we don't have 3 series left....i mean a loss to the hornets? and in dominating fashion? then the 5 losses in a row and we hardly beat sac......we look like tired trash....and the bench for whatever reason doesn't know the meaning of the word hustle.....and pau gasol is living up to his reputation....this team is terrible to watch....i thought we would be fired up for the playoffs...guess not....then we're gonna have this we're going to win the next game just because we're the lakers attitude and probably put ourselves in a 0-2 hole going into NO.....terrible.....we just suck right now...Last yr's teAM didn't even play this lazy and piss poor....

robg146 wrote:we don't have 3 series left....i mean a loss to the hornets? and in dominating fashion? then the 5 losses in a row and we hardly beat sac......we look like tired trash....and the bench for whatever reason doesn't know the meaning of the word hustle.....and pau gasol is living up to his reputation....this team is terrible to watch....i thought we would be fired up for the playoffs...guess not....then we're gonna have this we're going to win the next game just because we're the lakers attitude and probably put ourselves in a 0-2 hole going into NO.....terrible.....we just suck right now...Last yr's teAM didn't even play this lazy and piss poor....

yeah, lets just break up the team. blow it up, they suck. we suck THIS teAM SuxOrz.


If the Lakers get bounced out in the first round, I'll feel badly for Phil Jackson.

i'll kill myself

Are we really having a real discussion in a thread about losing in the 1st round?

losing in the first round is quite a big reality right now. its not like the hornets stole one off us. they beat us fair and square.

the other week when we played okc. it wasnt like they stole one either. we gave it our best and they beat us.

people talk crap about how the lakers just flip the switch but its not been like that. some nights when we've come to play we've been beaten by a better team.

kobe thinks he can still shoot 26 times and that'll get us the win. his usage rate this season has been mad considering who he has on his team

0HeadAche0 wrote:losing in the first round is quite a big reality right now. its not like the hornets stole one off us. they beat us fair and square.

the other week when we played okc. it wasnt like they stole one either. we gave it our best and they beat us.

people talk crap about how the lakers just flip the switch but its not been like that. some nights when we've come to play we've been beaten by a better team.

kobe thinks he can still shoot 26 times and that'll get us the win. his usage rate this season has been mad considering who he has on his team

All of the top seeds in both conferences came out pretty damn flat in Game 1.

It took a 13-1 run for the Chicago Bulls to pull out a win at home.
It took a blocking foul called on the refs when Wade really kicked to create space for the Heat to pull away from Philadelphia.
It took an illegal screen for the Celtics to pull away from the Knicks.
It took a no call offensive goal tending for the Thunder to win.
Spurs lost outright (didn't watch the game..so).
Lakers lost outright (I feel like the turning point was that terrible blocking foul called on Fisher).
Portand played the Mavs close the whole way.
Hawks just shut down the Magic, besides Howard, and Jameer (second half).

This is why it's a 7 game series, and not a best of 1 game series.

Some people lack confidence, this is a 7 game series. Teams with the better players usually win, I see no different.

well i think you could say that all the teams you thought would win, did win. spurs were missing ginobili, dallas are missing butler and they're playing a good team.

whats our excuse?

you're right. it is a 7 game series and i hope this thread looks really silly in 2 weeks time. just i have no confidence in the lakers in the way they've played this season. even if we get past the hornets i still cant see us really winning a championship.

i hope im wrong. i want to be wrong but i've seen LA give their best emotionally a few times in recent weeks and we havent won. that scares me. you could argue that the lakers have taken games off over the past few years and say thats why we lost but you knew we could actually play our best at some point and destroy teams. whereas this year, i've seen us play our best on a number of occasions and end up losin

Honestly, even if we win the title this year, we should probably still start looking at options for the rebuild. This year, to me, is the last stand for this group of players. Every year, this team gets less and less interested, energetic, enthusiastic and dominating. This time next year, they just aren't going to be enough any more. If we can swing either Gasol or Bynum for Dwight Howard, we shouldn't even hesitate a second to do it. Are we going to do it? I have no idea, but we should. If we get Howard for Bynum, and then add TMac or Vince Carter or some other perimeter shot creator, we might have another shot at the finals. Otherwise, this current group of guys won't make it past conference finals.

After this year, Finals or no Finals, the Lakers need to make the transition from Kobe as the #1 option to Pau Gasol as the #1 option. I want Odom to become the facilitator (bring ball up the court), Kobe at shooting guard used in a Ray Allen type role (coming off screens), Artest to guard the best wing opposing wing player, Pau the #1 option on offense, and Bynum the defensive anchor. Kobe will guard the point guards on defense. Odom needs to be a starter though, that's for sure.

stunnar0b wrote:i'll kill myself

the spurs kept intact...every team has their ups and downs....1 game guys..relax

The Hornets had to play a near-perfect game to beat the Lakers. As bad as the Lakers played, they had a small chance at the end to come back and win.

The knee jerking continues.

We are not losing in the first round. Two weeks from now, this thread will be a joke.

stop pressing it

just want to say. yeah maybe we get through this round. we're still favourites but in my mind we're really not going to win it all this year.

if we did then it would be probably the greatest championship win in the last ten years because we're clealrly not anywhere near the best team in the league right now.

0HeadAche0 wrote:just want to say. yeah maybe we get through this round. we're still favourites but in my mind we're really not going to win it all this year.

if we did then it would be probably the greatest championship win in the last ten years because we're clealrly not anywhere near the best team in the league right now.

To the original poster, don't feel bad about starting this thread! I also feel the same way about this team, and am concerned, even for this series. The reason why is because we all thought the 5-game losing streak, and near losses to a gutted Spurs team and Sacramento team, was a coast-job by the Lakers, but the first game showed that it was a real problem.

I think that we should win the series, but we all know that anything is possible. Let's just see how it plays out.