Evaluating the Current Roster

[tugs]

since the implementation of the lock-out, all teams are stuck with their current players, whether they be assets or liabilities on and off the court.

assuming the Lakers are stuck with this team and the lock out ends with no transactions made and the season starts, as a coach what would you do to better utilize all of your players? what are each strengths and weaknesses that you may exploit to make better use of what you have?

we know what we will get from are starting 6 players (Fish, Kobe, Pau, Ron, Bynum, LO), the question is how we get the others into the equation?

Possible major concerns last season:

Blake - issue with the triangle offense?
Barnes - health? consistency?
Walton - ?
Johnson, Ebanks, Caracter - playing time?
Ratliff, Smith - aging?

what could be done to address these issues (or possibly more)? plus they have the two rookies.

[Slava]

To me, it breaks down like this:

Players that need to be kept:

Kobe Bryant
Derek Fisher (not as a starter obviously but as Kobe's babysitter)
Devin Ebanks (cheap, young and good upside)
Matt Barnes (cheap, reliable back up)
Steve Blake (give him a year in a more comfortable system)

Players that can be had for the right pieces (Blockbuster trades)

Andrew Bynum
Pau Gasol
+ (2011 & Future Draft picks)
Lamar Odom

Players that need to be on the block

Ron Artest (I can't see him getting any better)
Luke Walton (waive him if nothing else)
Shannon Brown (explore &T option)

[tugs]

appreciate Slav.

though I was referring to "assuming no transactions are done". I'm interested to see if anyone can come up of a better use for Walton and Artest.

can Luke play an LO PG role? he needs to work on his ballhandling more and agility to be able to do this but is it too much of a risk? he did a good job distributing pre injury and during Shaq, Malone, Payton season. and if Artest did lose some weight, he can be back to his SAC form. Caracter can fit into a role like Powell did also.

[Slava]

I cannot see this roster winning a championship. One of our biggest failings last season were lack of big man depth when Bynum was down and transition offense.

The only good transition players for their position on the current roster are Gasol and LO. Kobe is an unknown with his knee situation so the youth infusion has to come at the expense of Artest, Walton and whoever else we trade.

I think we need to scale down on the talent and build some youth and depth.

[tugs]

good points. and I agree with our depth, been obvious for a while now. our assets right now is that we have a lot of youth and they have a high upside. but with limited front court depth, think we can play Nelson small ball?

[Slava]

We don;t have to play Nelson small ball but we cannot be last in league in fast break points. Think of our line up in 07/08. We could play big as well as have guys like Kobe(Still a great athlete then)/Ariza/Farmar/Gasol and LO running breaks like these:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09qeRO6NkVM[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzjAMTk2wTE&feature=related[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6oqCCbtNuQ[/youtube]

[Gek]

Colby Karl makes me laugh in the last vid, idk why.

[iamworthy]

We don;t have to play Nelson small ball but we cannot be last in league in fast break points. Think of our line up in 07/08. We could play big as well as have guys like Kobe(Still a great athlete then)/Ariza/Farmar/Gasol and LO running breaks like these:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09qeRO6NkVM[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzjAMTk2wTE&feature=related[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6oqCCbtNuQ[/youtube]

That Gasol play was sick for a big guy

[eckoner]

Who knows? With a more uptempo and free ranging offense this team could possibly do alot better than they did last year.

It's a big maybe but who knows?

I am sure we will have a few fresh faces and perhaps a guy or two audi 5000 but again with a new system in place this could be the same team but look very different in the way they perform on the court.

[Slava]

I cannot see a different offense changing the players' attributes. Artest isn't suddenly going to start handling the ball well and finishing on the break for example. His best asset on offense is his streaky shooting.

[Sofa King]

Blake, Barnes, and our rookies better find an outside shot. Doing so will help spread the floor for our bigs and Kobe.

[tugs]

Blake, Barnes, and our rookies better find an outside shot. Doing so will help spread the floor for our bigs and Kobe.

not just that but also leading the breaks. they don't have to facilitate, they just have to run and finish. the team has excellent passers on the team.

[Anklebreaker702]

I cannot see this roster winning a championship. One of our biggest failings last season were lack of big man depth when Bynum was down and transition offense.

The only good transition players for their position on the current roster are Gasol and LO. Kobe is an unknown with his knee situation so the youth infusion has to come at the expense of Artest, Walton and whoever else we trade.

I think we need to scale down on the talent and build some youth and depth.

I agree with some of this but how in the world do you scale back talent for youth? Are you saying get younger regardless of talent? Anyway though I think the team could use some good tweaks, this team could win a title. Dallas got hot at the right time & showed they were the best the league had to offer in the post season. So had we gotten by them who was going 2 stop us?

[tugs]

they don't have to scale down on talent I believe. adding youth and depth can be done without sacrificing talent. who knows LA's acquisitions last year and this year could be the missing pieces.

our team looked old during that series. no one closed out on shooters due to fatigue. with our young legs I think we're still on the right track.

[Anklebreaker702]

they don't have to scale down on talent I believe. adding youth and depth can be done without sacrificing talent. who knows LA's acquisitions last year and this year could be the missing pieces.

our team looked old during that series. no one closed out on shooters due to fatigue. with our young legs I think we're still on the right track.

I also think complacency had something to do with it also.

[tugs]

I also think complacency had something to do with it also.

and that.thought it'd be a breeze during the early series. they probably thought they did it once during the early 2000's, they can do it again, and being back to back champs, no one can stop them or could've overlooked the competition and looked forward to some other team. hunger from the young guns can definitely re-ignite the passion, and of course losing helplessly in the 2nd round will add fuel to the fire.

[MambaTime]

they don't have to scale down on talent I believe. adding youth and depth can be done without sacrificing talent. who knows LA's acquisitions last year and this year could be the missing pieces.

our team looked old during that series. no one closed out on shooters due to fatigue. with our young legs I think we're still on the right track.

We definitely needed more depth. I don't understand when people say we are so deep. Outside of Gasol/Bynum/Odom, we have no big men.

We might have looked old, but it's hard to get to the Finals four years in a row. It could have been a combination of things, but when everybody is taking their best shot at you, it's tough.

[tugs]

only depth they had was at the wing position and it was underutilized. Barnes was injured, Ebanks was not playing. I can't say the same for our backcourt since Brown and Blake were disappointments.

call me crazy but I'm still very high on Walton. I am still hoping for a comeback season for this guy.

[Anklebreaker702]

they don't have to scale down on talent I believe. adding youth and depth can be done without sacrificing talent. who knows LA's acquisitions last year and this year could be the missing pieces.

our team looked old during that series. no one closed out on shooters due to fatigue. with our young legs I think we're still on the right track.

We definitely needed more depth. I don't understand when people say we are so deep. Outside of Gasol/Bynum/Odom, we have no big men.

Because how many teams can even say they have that?

[Jase]

I think we need to scale down on the talent and build some youth and depth.

This. And in addition to that, we need to give that youth a chance to play and develop; something Jackson wasn't a fan of.

I hope Brown is.