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I'm a little too young to remember this, so -- who was the Lakers primary backup at point guard behind Magic?
Or maybe a better question is, who spelled Magic, because as I understand, they quite often shifted positions and kept Magic on the floor with Micheal Cooper?

Well for the most part he never had a consistent back up, basically Micheal Cooper shifted to his spot when Magic went to the bench. That's how it was for a long time, for some reason they could never find an adequate back up.

DEEP3CL wrote:Well for the most part he never had a consistent back up, basically Micheal Cooper shifted to his spot when Magic went to the bench. That's how it was for a long time, for some reason they could never find an adequate back up.

hey that's understandable...it's kind of hard to find an adequate backup for the greatest player of all time...

It was mainly Cooper coming in for Magic.
Basically, Magic, BScott, and Cooper got the minutes at the guard position.

Norm Nixon and Mike McGee spelled him at times too.

Lakers having pg problems. Shocker.

Magic was Magic's backup.

I didnt even know Magic had a backup?? loll Most of the time he played the entire game .

Magic played very heavy minutes in those days. All the starters did.
In the playoffs, there was essentially a 7 or 8 man rotation.

Magic never rested, the only guys that I remember were around to back him up was Coop, BScott at times, Wes Mathews. We finally got it right when we signed Sedale Threatt but that was Magics retirement year. Magic,Sedale PG rotation would have been incredible.

Michael Cooper's 9 points and 5 assists andin 27-28 minutes and lockdown defense of multiple positions. I'd say he did more than an adequate job of filling in as point guard.

Dexmor wrote:Lakers having pg problems. Shocker.

haha.......magic starting and rotating with coop is a pg problem i'd love the lakers to have again

The GREAT Michael Cooper. He and Vinnie The Microwave Johnson are two of the great forgotten rotation/combo guards of that era. Both were truly great role players.

Kilroy wrote:Norm Nixon and Mike McGee spelled him at times too.

The odd part is that both Norm and Magic played starting point for LA together. Neither of them totally subjugated their games to 2-guard mode. That provided much versatility and ball movement until the realization that Magic's ceiling was so much higher than Norm's, that they could get away with the traditional SG beside him (a taller, younger one at that).

nonplayerzealot wrote:

Kilroy wrote:Norm Nixon and Mike McGee spelled him at times too.

The odd part is that both Norm and Magic played starting point for LA together. Neither of them totally subjugated their games to 2-guard mode. That provided much versatility and ball movement until the realization that Magic's ceiling was so much higher than Norm's, that they could get away with the traditional SG beside him (a taller, younger one at that).

Yeah, to be honest I don't really remember Magic sitting very much during games either... But I think they'd try to sit him a bit at the start of the 2nd and 4th...

Riles was kind of a ball-buster though and seemed to be a big believer in the stars playing as much as possible.

I know Norm and Magic weren't really known for their D but I seem to remember Nixon playing sort of the same role Farmar does for us in that he matched up better with the faster Gaurds.

Magic always was ready to do what the team needed and if that meant a stop, that's what he did. But I've often wondered if the perimeter players on the Lakers played just a little bit better D, how many championships would we have one? We tried to out-shoot everyone and were good at it but if we could have slowed the other team at the same time, we might have had like 5 in a row....

Kilroy wrote:

nonplayerzealot wrote:

Kilroy wrote:Norm Nixon and Mike McGee spelled him at times too.

The odd part is that both Norm and Magic played starting point for LA together. Neither of them totally subjugated their games to 2-guard mode. That provided much versatility and ball movement until the realization that Magic's ceiling was so much higher than Norm's, that they could get away with the traditional SG beside him (a taller, younger one at that).

Yeah, to be honest I don't really remember Magic sitting very much during games either... But I think they'd try to sit him a bit at the start of the 2nd and 4th...

Riles was kind of a ball-buster though and seemed to be a big believer in the stars playing as much as possible.

I know Norm and Magic weren't really known for their D but I seem to remember Nixon playing sort of the same role Farmar does for us in that he matched up better with the faster Gaurds.

Magic always was ready to do what the team needed and if that meant a stop, that's what he did. But I've often wondered if the perimeter players on the Lakers played just a little bit better D, how many championships would we have one? We tried to out-shoot everyone and were good at it but if we could have slowed the other team at the same time, we might have had like 5 in a row....

Farmar is no Nixon. Stormin Norman was an all-star caliber point while Magic was winning high school and collegiate titles. The Lakers brilliantly moved him while his value was high but his game had begun to wane. Farmar has light years to go.
To answer the OPs question, LA usually carried another point guard behind Magic and Coop, in case of foul trouble. McGee, Wes Matthews, Larry Drew, David Rivers in the magic era.
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