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any given night the lakers can go 48 minutes with a big man pair of either gasol/bynum, odom/gasol, or odom/bynum out on the floor. so far this yr, its been the biggest advantage the lakers have had, statistically at least.

here are the net PER production of the five positions:
http://www.82games.com/0809/0809LAL5.HTM

after 4 games (just 4 i know), the lakers pf position (gasol/odom/some powell) has had a net positive production of +10.6. the centers (bynum/gasol/some mihm) have had a remarkable +13.4 net production.
if you look at the stats around the league, there simply isn't one single team that comes close to that type of combined big man dominance. there are individual players with highly impressive numbers, but as a group, the lakers depth up front with 3 highly capable players is proving to be a strength that is unmatched at the moment.

next, if you go to their top 5 man units, two of their top 5 lineups DON'T include kobe. last yr, you'd need to go to their 8th best lineup to find one without kobe. now, this is also connected to the health and improvement of ariza and the improved farmar, but this isn't possible if they are out there with turiaf/powell/mihm. they have a pf in odom that fits their style perfectly and they always have a center that can create his own shot.

http://www.82games.com/0809/0809LAL2.HTM
http://www.82games.com/0708/0708LAL2.HTM

combined stats:

88.6 mpg out of 96 mpg / 31.6 ppg / 26.6 rpg / 6.1 apg / 4.5 bpg



my point? having gasol/bynum/odom all game is pretty damn special.

We will need our big's tomorrow, that's for sure

we body up yao and make him uncomfortable, thats half the game won

What's even more remarkable is how much Kobe is dominating at SG.

http://www.82games.com/0809/08LAL4C.HTM

Defensive PER of 8.8 per 48 (5.6 per game) and Diff of +17.7 per 48 (+20.9 per game).

^^Kobe's defense is overrated. That's right, just go ask this on the General Board.

tkb wrote:What's even more remarkable is how much Kobe is dominating at SG.

http://www.82games.com/0809/08LAL4C.HTM

Defensive PER of 8.8 per 48 (5.6 per game) and Diff of +17.7 per 48 (+20.9 per game).

check out lamar's defensive PER


just realized that the lakers are also leading the league in rebounding right now.

We're number 1 in points allowed per 100 possessions too, aka we're the best defensive team in the league right now.

well.. I'm not a stats junkie. I hate comparing PER this PER that, FG PCT % AST STL% etc etc my head hurts with all those statistics. All that's important to me is that we look FORMIDABLE and SOLID.. and we're winning.

DEF boards +12.956 with 9.241 PER FG% PER .... what??????

dcash4 wrote:any given night the lakers can go 48 minutes with a big man pair of either gasol/bynum, odom/gasol, or odom/bynum out on the floor. so far this yr, its been the biggest advantage the lakers have had, statistically at least.

my point? having gasol/bynum/odom all game is pretty damn special.

88 out of 96 minutes -- that's what we were talking about before the season started, D. Barring spot duty, forget wasting Lamar at the 3. Keep him at his best spot and let him form a triple-tag team with Drew and Pau. Nobody in the league has that kind of frontcourt depth.

tkb wrote:We're number 1 in points allowed per 100 possessions too, aka we're the best defensive team in the league right now.

thats totally awesome, from what i've heard defense wins championships

All I know is that the lakers are 26-5 in the regular season since the acquisition of the Big Spaniard.

EDIT: When he is in the starting lineup.

I think the we're the best rebounding team in the league and best defensive team right now is a good start but really means nothing.

D-cash's point about Lamar on the bench is dead on, it's just as for the best in the league...we've played Portland, Denver, and the Clippers twice. That's not much competition, considering they are a combined 5/12 so far.

If we still maintain these stats throughout this next week, then that's a different story...

dcash4 wrote:next, if you go to their top 5 man units, two of their top 5 lineups DON'T include kobe. last yr, you'd need to go to their 8th best lineup to find one without kobe. now, this is also connected to the health and improvement of ariza and the improved farmar, but this isn't possible if they are out there with turiaf/powell/mihm. they have a pf in odom that fits their style perfectly and they always have a center that can create his own shot.

This might be a testament as to how good the bench on this team really is. Bryant is usually in exclusively against the opposing team's starters. When he's out, the opposing team is pretty much forced to conserve their starting core for when Bryant comes back in. With that said, some Laker bench players are able to thrive against the opposing team's bench players, with some combination of the Odom/Gasol/Bynum duo, which goes back to your main point about having a combo of them in for all 48min is a great asset.

Im happy to be witnessing the beginning of a team that has the potential to be one of the most dominant Laker teams ever assembled.

We've played some pretty bad teams so far. Let's hold our judgments.

Patterns wrote:We've played some pretty bad teams so far. Let's hold our judgments.

Clippers are not as bad as they look. 2 games against LA and 2 more against Utah would keep most teams in the same position as they are right now.

What does that prove? They still lost all 4 of those games. Patterns was just saying we haven't played the anywhere near the best of the best, yet. Thus far, we've played only bubble teams.

Clippers arent that bad?!?!?! Huh?

The only numbers that matter on the defensive side of the ball is, Defensive FG PCT, defensive rebounding, and blocks all those stats translate to "holding" teams down. But I'm impressed with the 39% they're making teams shoot so far.

odom/pau just destroyed the rockets to start the 4th quarter blowout

bynum/pau didn't allow anything easy in the paint.

dominance.