Which West Conf Team Should...

kenspiracy · Post #1 » by **kenspiracy** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 12:04 am

These are the 7 west conf teams I have making the playoffs. And in my own personal opinion. There are only three teams that worry me as a Laker fan. SA, The Blazers, and the Rockets. But the Rockets scare me the most if healthy. I know its still early.

First let me explain why the Hornets don't move me much. They are a good team but we toyed with them all yr once Bynum began to emerge as a dominant force. I just can' t see them giving us any sort of severe problems in a 7 game serious. Even with the new addition of Posey. Our size is to much for them.

The Spurs are the Spurs. If they can keep the texas trio healthy.Yes I do believe we are very noticeably more talented than they are. But all SA has to do is keep the game close until the 4th quarter. And if the Lakers fall asleep than they will put their supreme clutch performers alas Ginobili, Finley, Horry, Duncan and upset us. So yes Lakers are the better team, but can't sleep on their HOF coach, player clutch performers.

The Blazers, aka Our bad luck team! Not only does history tells us that they outplay us more times then they should. But now their talent is is lingering right around the same neighborhood as ours. Their front court matches up well with ours. Lamarcus Aldrige very athletic and aggressive and shot blocker. Yes Oden is unproven but he hasn't forgotten how to play good basketball. And what he did in college was nothing short of amazing. He has size and I do believe he will have a great solid yr. Brandon Roy is a good ball handler and facilitator. He will be a problem. Now the other names on this team speaks for itself. Highly talented. Raef Lafrentz, Channing Fry, Rudy Fernandez-awesome young prospect, Blake, Outlaw, Webster, Diogu. We must bring our A+ game if we somehow happen to meet this ball club.

Now I believe we can dodge the Blazers and the Spurs. But if the Lakers are going to win the west. Then this would be the team that gives us the most run for our money. We struggle against tough defensive minded teams. Every match up is a big time battle!
Yao vs Bynum, Kobe vs Tmac, Scola vs Pau, Alston vs Fischer, Artest vs Odom. Rick Adelman vs Phil Jackson. Who knows what could happen. Very scary Rocket team.

Now I'd like to hear from my fellow lakers fans. Which team(s) concerns u the most?

iamworthy · Post #2 » by **iamworthy** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 12:18 am

First off, size matters!!! Until the rockets can match up size wise with the lakers Im not even worried. I hope they play Schane and Artest at the same time Lakers would have a field day dumping the ball inside for easy buckets. They would be just to small. Everyone keeps talking about Battier and Artest as if they can stop Kobe or better yet the lakers, well breaking news....this isnt the kobe show anymore, we have a very good TEAM. So yeah I hope they focus on Kobe because the rest of the lakers would kill them.

Im not worried about the blazers their too young. They dont understand how to win yet. A good example of that is the lakers vs Celtics in the playoffs. Lakers were too young. Every team has to go through it. While I think Portland is a very good young team I dont think their ready. The way the lakers are currently constructed if we stay healthy we shouldnt have any problem.

WhiteMansKareem · Post #3 » by **WhiteMansKareem** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 12:39 am

There needs to be a none option.

Houston has T-mac so they will never get past the first round.

The Spurs are simply too old, and we easily beat them last year without Bynum and Mihm.

The Hornets were a fluke team last year, I don't think they will have nearly as much sucess as they did last year.

The Jazz are an overrated team. Deron Williams is probably the most overrated player in the league and Boozer and Keranlinko are just behind him.

The Suns are terrible. They aren't even a playoff team anymore.

LOL Mavs

And finally the Blazers. They have been in a downward spiral ever since we dominated them in the fourth quarter of game seven WCF. They are a bad team, Oden is injury prone, Roy is christian or somethin, and the rest of their team is pointless.

kenspiracy · Post #4 » by **kenspiracy** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 1:22 am

I can understand why some of us fans would believe us to be unstoppable. But lets not get to far ahead of ourselves. Last yr we took out the Spurs with a hurt Ginobili. And even though we won in 5 games. They still gave us a good fight.

Yes the Blazers are young. But this is the NBA where 60 win team Dallas losing to 8th seed Warriors happens!

iamworthy · Post #5 » by **iamworthy** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 1:31 am

Get ahead of ourselves!!!lol. The team that just won the WCF last year added another legit up and coming 7 footer. Im sorry, I cant even pretend to get worried about the western conference. We got beat by the Celtics. I'll start worrying when we meet them in the finals....again.

kenspiracy · Post #6 » by **kenspiracy** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 2:23 am

iamworthy wrote:Get ahead of ourselves!!!lol. The team that just won the WCF last year added another legit up and coming 7 footer. Im sorry, I cant even pretend to get worried about the western conference. We got beat by the Celtics. I'll start worrying when we meet them in the finals....again.

Yes we did get that much better by adding Bynum. But so did the Rockets by getting a healthier Yao and Artest. So did Portland by getting their #1 pick back plus an improving cast of young players. So on and so on! The past is the past. For now the west is up for grabs. until June of 2009. I'm pretty Sure the Lakers team staff would say the same.

DoctaJ · Post #7 » by **DoctaJ** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 6:37 am

WhiteMansKareem wrote:There needs to be a none option.

Houston has T-mac so they will never get past the first round.

The Spurs are simply too old, and we easily beat them last year without Bynum and Mihm.

The Hornets were a fluke team last year, I don't think they will have nearly as much sucess as they did last year.

The Jazz are an overrated team. Deron Williams is probably the most overrated player in the league and Boozer and Keranlinko are just behind him.

The Suns are terrible. They aren't even a playoff team anymore.

LOL Mavs

And finally the Blazers. They have been in a downward spiral ever since we dominated them in the fourth quarter of game seven WCF. They are a bad team, Oden is injury prone, Roy is christian or somethin, and the rest of their team is pointless.

Wow..

AceFresh · Post #8 » by **AceFresh** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 7:10 am

Rockets if healthy.

kenspiracy · Post #9 » by **kenspiracy** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 7:13 am

DoctaJ wrote:
WhiteMansKareem wrote:There needs to be a none option.

Houston has T-mac so they will never get past the first round.

The Spurs are simply too old, and we easily beat them last year without Bynum and Mihm.

The Hornets were a fluke team last year, I don't think they will have nearly as much sucess as they did last year.

The Jazz are an overrated team. Deron Williams is probably the most overrated player in the league and Boozer and Keranlinko are just behind him.

The Suns are terrible. They aren't even a playoff team anymore.

LOL Mavs

And finally the Blazers. They have been in a downward spiral ever since we dominated them in the fourth quarter of game seven WCF. They are a bad team, Oden is injury prone, Roy is christian or somethin, and the rest of their team is pointless.

Wow..

I know, Lakers fan arrogance at its finest haha!

Post #10 » by **LLcoleJ** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 5:16 pm

I highly doubt he is a Laker fan..

SALMIEN · Post #11 » by **SALMIEN** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 5:56 pm

none of the above

TonyMontana · Post #12 » by **TonyMontana** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 5:59 pm

kenspiracy wrote:
DoctaJ wrote:
WhiteMansKareem wrote:There needs to be a none option.

Houston has T-mac so they will never get past the first round.

The Spurs are simply too old, and we easily beat them last year without Bynum and Mihm.

The Hornets were a fluke team last year, I don't think they will have nearly as much sucess as they did last year.

The Jazz are an overrated team. Deron Williams is probably the most overrated player in the league and Boozer and Keranlinko are just behind him.

The Suns are terrible. They aren't even a playoff team anymore.

LOL Mavs

And finally the Blazers. They have been in a downward spiral ever since we dominated them in the fourth quarter of game seven WCF. They are a bad team, Oden is injury prone, Roy is christian or somethin, and the rest of their team is pointless.

Wow..

I know, Lakers fan arrogance at its finest haha!

Ya Mang, dont label this Kat as a Laker fan, so far he is a fan of something and its not a basketball team.

iamworthy · Post #13 » by **iamworthy** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 6:28 pm

Again, IF the lakers remain healthy this year we should be a hard team to beat. I projected them to win about 66 games this year in another thread we had. Most Laker fans have them somewhere around or above 60 win. Team Chremistry should be at a all time high. Chemistry wise this may and should be the best in years....including the shaq/kobe days. Pau Gasol gets a full year under Phil Jackson. 2 Legit 7 footers down low with the best player in the game on the wing. And now theres rumors of LO coming off the bench as a six man. This team has 4 potential max players, has there every been another team with that kind of talent? Maybe some of the OG's on the Laker board can answer that. But anyhow, Im way to excited about this year. Im going to enjoy the possiblities until proven otherwise.

Possible starting five:

Kobe
Farmar
Bynum
Gasol
Ariza

2nd unit

LO
Fisher
Sasha
Luke
Bynum or Gasol....whoever stays in the game or a healthy mihm

I dont know where to put Vlade?

hermes · Post #14 » by **hermes** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 8:45 pm

iamworthy wrote:
I dont know where to put Vlade?

and leave him there

oh and i'll say the hornets
that chris paul guy = really awesome

Asianiac_24 · Post #15 » by **Asianiac_24** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 1:15 am

first glance its the Rockets, but now its either the Hornets or the Blazers. If the Rockets play both Artest and Battier, sure they can stop Kobe, but how about Gasol? Bynum? They are simply too small size-wise to match up with us. Hornets have the best PG in the game CP3, two low post players who could stop our twin towers or neutralize them. For the Blazers, it all depends on how Greg Oden plays. If he's as good as people make him out to be, than watch out. If not, than no worries.

Post #16 » by **Slava** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 2:18 am

The pattern has been that we've had trouble with teams that can play physical, dirty and have very athletic players. Teams like Portland, Golden State of last season spring to mind immediately but Golden State have lost both Baron Davis and Ellis for at least the time being so there shouldn't be too much trouble there.

The new look rockets do look threatening though, particularly if they decide to start either Scola or Landry next to Yao Ming. They have the best Kobe defender in the league in Battier and then added a potent option in Artest and they play defense better than offense, which would trouble our counter attacks. We can exploit their lack of offensive creativity outside of McGrady though but we need to observe the offensive sets that they do decide to run next season.

Erik Eleven · Post #17 » by **Erik Eleven** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 3:35 am

Portland have incredible amounts of talent and they have what I think is a top five coach, in Nate McMillan. They will probably go deep in the playoffs already next year but I don't see them as our primary threat. I think they're still too young to go all the way despite their disgusting habit of embarrassing us. Remember how Seattle did the same thing to us under Nate McMillan? Plus, Oden will be exhausted by the time the playoffs roll around. The following season they will be the team to beat.

Houston. Until Yao and T-Mac both go injury free for an entire season, I don't think they can take away the WC title from us. If healthy, they're scary as hell. But again, I'd be very surprised to see Yao play 82 games and peaking perfectly going into the playoffs. If healthy come playoffs time, I think they will be the team to beat for us. But I doubt Yao will be healthy enough to be able to withstand a full force, hungry and aggressive Bynum. I don't think we'll have to worry about them the following season because by then, the Artest Effect should be in full bloom.

Jazz are a super solid team but I don't think they stand a chance if we have a healthy Bynum, Kobe, Gasol.

Spurs are getting a bit too old to compete with our young yet semi experienced team.

The Suns might not even make the playoffs.

The Mavs will not be our primary threat.

The Kings and the Warriors shouldn't be a problem, if they get that far.

I think New Orleans will be the team to beat. Bynum will abuse them but CP3 will also abuse us. Their roster is young but old enough to have a lot of experience. They've been together for quite some time now and they do have some playoffs experience as a collective. West, Chandler, Paul will only get better next season. The addition of Posey will also make a great difference to this matchup. Not only is he a very good defender, but he also brings two rings and the confidence that comes with it. Byron Scott is a fantastic coach and he will have them peaking and believing they can win it all come playoffs time. Chris Paul learned a lot about winning in Beijing. They won't go down easily.

Regardless of whom we meet in the WC playoffs, I like our chances to go to the finals once again.

what would jack bauer do? · Post #18 » by **what would jack bauer do?** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 6:02 am

I think scola is a damn good forward... He's got that championship "grit" you need from your role players to get over the hump. Their front court won't be their weakness if him and Yao are healthy all year. Their pg spot is pretty weak though, but so is ours. Anyways even if Yao is healthy all year I still think we take the conference. I can't wait to see some battles this year.

Patterns · Post #19 » by **Patterns** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 1:36 am

iamworthy wrote:Get ahead of ourselves!!!lol. The team that just won the WCF last year added another legit up and coming 7 footer. Im sorry, I cant even pretend to get worried about the western conference. We got beat by the Celtics. I'll start worrying when we meet them in the finals....again.

Well, this is exactly why many Lakers fans were shocked; fans who get ahead of themselves.

I am scared of the Blazers the most. They gave us all the trouble we can handle last year. This year, they added Oden, Fernandez, and their players got older.

It remains to be seen how Bynum does when he goes up against centers who are as big and as strong as himself. He had trouble with Perkins last year.

Plus, we'll never win another game up in Portland.

I pray that we don't run into them in the playoffs.

Post #20 » by **dockingsched** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 1:57 am

"never win another game up in portland"

"I PRAY that we don't run into them"

wow. there is overconfidence, then there is respect. what we have here is called get another pastime.

Which West Conf team should we fear the most?