Bynum: not playing with same energy as last yr

[dockingsched]

http://www.pe.com/sports/basketball/lak ... a38c9.html

To solve his recent struggles, Andrew Bynum is delving into the past.

He's been watching film from just before he suffered his season-ending knee injury last season, a six-game stretch in which he averaged 17.3 points and 12.2 rebounds and established himself as LA's center of the future.

"When I watch last year's tape and this year's tape, there's a difference I can see pretty clearly," Bynum said. "I don't think I'm out there taking advantage of the opportunities I'm getting right now. The only way to change that is to put more into it."

Bynum's immediate results were mixed: He grabbed 10 rebounds in 35 minutes, but scored only four points and was rarely a factor on offense.

i don't know whether to be glad he recognizes his sluggish play, or be worried that it seems like he says this every 4-5 games with little results. he avg'd less than 8 rebounds in december for crying out loud. thats inexcusable.

[TylersLakers]

I thought he showed good energy last night. He was jumping to rebounds, tipping them when he couldn't get control, etc. We just for some reason never looked into the post at all. That's on the guards and wings.

[dockingsched]

yeah, his activity last night was very good, and that was with minimal shot attempts too. sometimes he suffers from low focus when he's not getting shots, so last night's effort was a good sign. i'd like to see him keep it up against someone not named greg oden.

[hermes]

pau lifting weights, now bynum going to give more effort

what next? lamar makes all his layups?

[snaquille oatmeal]

pau lifting weights, now bynum going to give more effort

what next? lamar makes right handed layups?

fixed

[Minhee]

pau lifting weights, now bynum going to give more effort

what next? lamar will attempt to not make low IQ plays?

There =)

[hermes]

thank goodness you guys are here for me

[Danny Darko]

pau lifting weights, now bynum going to give more effort

what next? lamar makes all his layups?

I'm gonna say Vlad for Defensive POY?

[semi-sentient]

What a joke.

We basically give this ass wipe a Lamar Odom type contract to produce considerably less, and it's largely a result of him not putting in the effort as he himself admitted?

Where is the outrage? Let this be any other player on the squad and there are non-stop trade threads.

Now I understand he's young and developing and blah, blah, blah, but hearing stuff like this really chaps my ass. I'm tired of seeing us throw money away on these guys (Walton, Vujacic, etc.) only to see them turn into half the player they were. This is precisely why I had hoped we wouldn't sign him to such a ridiculous contract in the first place. Oh well.

[crazyeights]

pau lifting weights, now bynum going to give more effort

what next? fisher makes all his layups?

The true fix. According to 82games.com, Fish's eFG% from "close" range is 22.7%. Horrible.

And Ty is right, at least last night, the problem was a lack of entry passes. With that said, I'm perplexed by Bynum this year. I honestly think it's going from the responsibility to play well last year, vs this year where we're so deep people can take it easy. In the end this is going to stunt Bynum's growth. There is no way he's getting better offensively this year. He's regressing in that regard.

But I think that's the case with the entire team. Everyone's numbers are down for the most part. And this is all due to the diffusion of their necessity to step up and make plays. We're just coasting. Kobe's even said this team has many gears to go. He's still on 2nd gear.

Our schedule tightens up soon. Hopefully we'll see what this team is really made of.

[Sedale Threatt]

What a joke.

We basically give this ass wipe a Lamar Odom type contract to produce considerably less, and it's largely a result of him not putting in the effort as he himself admitted?

Where is the outrage? Let this be any other player on the squad and there are non-stop trade threads.

Now I understand he's young and developing and blah, blah, blah, but hearing stuff like this really chaps my ass. I'm tired of seeing us throw money away on these guys (Walton, Vujacic, etc.) only to see them turn into half the player they were. This is precisely why I had hoped we wouldn't sign him to such a ridiculous contract in the first place. Oh well.

Ass wipe? Don't you think that's a little strong?

I'm definitely disappointed with Andrew's performance thus far, especially with his apparent lack of interest/ability in being a defensive anchor.

I was expecting, or at least hoping for, a slight improvement on last year. Instead, he's taken a slight step back. Whether or not that has anything to do with his contract, I don't know. But it's disappointing nonetheless.

That said, I certainly wouldn't throw him under the bus at this point, not so early in his contract -- which we were going to end up paying one way or another next summer -- not so early in the season and definitely not considering that he's still giving solid production at a key position.

Walton, Radmanovic -- those guys are stealing money. But Andrew can at least say he's top 10 at his position.

[semi-sentient]

But I think that's the case with the entire team. Everyone's numbers are down for the most part. And this is all due to the diffusion of their necessity to step up and make plays. We're just coasting.

I wish I could believe that, but I don't.

Last season Gasol and Odom averaged 19 RPG (Gasol = 7.8, Odom = 11.2) in games where they actually played together.

This year Gasol and Bynum are averaging 17.2 PRG (Gasol = 8.9, Bynum = 8.3), which is the opposite of what was supposed to happen. Bynum is playing just as many minutes, so how does he grab 2 less rebounds a game and block less shots than last season when that was the primary reason we signed him? He was supposed to be the guy that helped us out-rebound opponents and provide a defensive anchor, was he not?

There's still lots of basketball to be played this season, so he does have some time to turn things around, but so far this season he has been a major disappointment in my eyes.

[semi-sentient]

Ass wipe? Don't you think that's a little strong?

lol... yeah, I guess it was a little strong, and I thought the same thing after re-reading my post.

[Sedale Threatt]

No worries, I got a chuckle out of it. If you don't love your team enough to hate on guys when they screw up, then you're not much of a fan in my book.

[semi-sentient]

I'm definitely disappointed with Andrew's performance thus far, especially with his apparent lack of interest/ability in being a defensive anchor.

That's one of my biggest pet peeves about him. I don't really care that he isn't scoring much or that his FG% is down, but defensively, there is no excuse for the drop off (rebounds, blocks).

Walton, Radmanovic -- those guys are stealing money. But Andrew can at least say he's top 10 at his position.

If he's top 10, then it's by the slightest of margins, which isn't saying a whole lot since there aren't that many good centers out there. Here's how he ranks in "centerly" things, according to ESPN:

PTS: #9
FG%: #9
FT%: #13
REB: #12
BLK: #4

I'd agree that Walton and Radmanovic are stealing money to a certain degree, but starting next season they will be making considerably less than Bynum, so he'll be stealing money as well. It's hard to imagine that he's not even top 10 in rebounding, but that appears to be the case. Heck, if he could just crack top 5 in both rebounding and blocks (he's been on the decline in this area), then I wouldn't have much to complain about really.

[Sedale Threatt]

Well, unfortunately, centers are probably the most consistently overpaid players in the league.

Like QBs in the NFL, you have to pay a premium for their services because they're so hard to find. That's just the way it is. There isn't a doubt in my mind that a player with his youth, potential and proven production would have gotten a virtually identical contract, probably even larger, next year on the open market.

I totally get where you're coming from; I just had a conversation last night with a buddy about how disappointed I've been with him. Just try to keep in perspective that it's not like he totally went into the tank or anything. He's at a B-minus compared to last year's B-plus, with 50 more games to improve.

I'll take that over what those two slugs have given us.

[TonyMontana]

You would think that big ass contract he just recieved shouldve gotten his ass motivated.
But hey I dont want to sit here and say "I told you so". or "We shouldve waited to see how he would do before we resigned him" cause then EVERY body on here will get mad at me........lolllllll
But me personally I wish we wouldve resigned him for that much money and waited to see how he would do this season.
But we all know what happens when these guys sign for big money.
Look at Luke, Vlad, Sasha.
And you know what even funnier, and you guys need to admit this.
HIS FREAKIN AGENT.
Where is this dirt bag at now? Specially when he was asking for max.
Oh Bynum is making it rain now, too bad its in the clubs and not on the court.

[fareweatherfan]

I dunno, I'm not dissapointed at all in Bynum right now. Perhaps this has more to do with the fact that my expectations were conservative going into this season. The contract never makes the player (or changes my expectations of the player, for that matter).

The only problem I have with Bynum is that he is taking too long to learn how to get the angles down on penetrators to measure the block/contest of the shot and not pick up body fouls.

Numbers wise, you can't make too much of his rebounding numbers. He is trying very hard to anchor the defense and that pulls him out of rebounding position. Also, he's made a concerted effort to avoid foul trouble, so he's less active on the offensive boards (can't really fault him for this either).

All in all, I think if you just look the numbers, you're doing AB a disservice. We should be ecstatic that he doesn't seem to care much about the numbers, he's just doing what it takes to win. Could he do it better? Sure, but he's trying and he's learning.

[TommyTheCat]

he's definitely showing some inconsistency in effort from game to game. i'm glad he's calling himself out on it but it's time for him to show he's going to do something about it. forget about last year and concentrate on being his best in 09.

[lakerz12]

I've been noticing this all year from Bynum. He just looks dead out there--like he's not having fun anymore. I think maybe he feels like less of a man because now Gasol is the focal point underneath and not him, and so he is playing into that role of being a secondary option and thus not as good. He almost looks like the goofy 7th grader who is too tall for his own good and can't pull enough coordination together to play well. I hope he snaps out of it. It will be a change in his attitude and thus a change in his aggressiveness and energy that does it. I think if he keeps the desire to be great, he will eventually find it and will realize his potential-a vast potential.