RealGM

Hi everyone

Not a Lakers fan (actually a Bulls fan). Congrats first off to your team for making it in the finals. During the past two years, and particularly last year, I thought it was ridiculous how everyone was writing this team off as "a lottery bound team." I must have been the only one I knew saying "don't forget, the Lakers went on a tear early last year, WITHOUT Kobe." They're not as bad as everyone wants them to be. And frankly I'm not surprised at all to see you guys where you are.

Now with that said, I have a question regarding your offense. This should probably be more obvious to me as a Bulls fan, particularly one who's been following the Bulls since the early Jordan days--but I'll be honest, I haven't paid attention to the playoffs as well as I could have, particularly because of taking several CPA exams. The same was true for watching you guys this season before Bynum went down. Only a casual watching here and there--no hardcore analysis of your playcalling, etc.

With that said, I'll be watching the Finals intently. But in any case, regarding the running of the triangle, and how it usually involves running the offense by dumping it in to Gasol--have any of you who pay attention to this noticed a dramatic change from how the triangle was run with Bynum in the middle?

I'm just curious to see what adjustments Phil has made, if any, or if essentially the same plays that are used for Gasol are being run exactly how they were run for Bynum. If that turns out to be the case, is Gasol more efficient in this offense than Bynum? When Bynum comes back, do you see him as a PF in the offense or will he remain at the 5, since we know Gasol is not too shabby at the 4?

Hopefully you guys can give me some answers. There's really no reason for asking this, just something that popped up in my head and figured hey, what the hell, might ask them. Besides, you guys will have a pretty slow week until Thursday so this might lighten up the place a bit

Thanks in advance.

Gasol is a much better passer and can make decisions with the ball in the post, so he could be more involved in creating the offense to others than himself like Bynum would.

This is one main reason the ball gets dumped in more frequently for Gasol. Other than that, Odom has almost rediscovered himself by making cuts, which makes easier to feed off with the ball in the post.

I would say Gasol is more efficient in getting his in the confines of the offense while Bynum was getting most of his points on put backs and alley oops without getting the same number of touches.

As you know from the Bulls days with PJ, the triangle offense is a reactionary offense with a series of semi-set starting points. Depending on how the defense reacts, a collective series of offensive actions will take place. There is another thread on this topic on this very page.

As far as set plays of the triangle offense, there aren't really any that are set in stone