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Someone here mention that LeBron James play with D-league players, whether that person is serious or joking is beyond me, but with that said let look at the Lakers roster shall we?

It is often view that Kobe has the best talents surrounding him, but if you look take a moment to look at other teams roster you will be pleasantly surprise. It seem like Kobe haters like to underrated Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum, Ron Artest, and Lamar Odom to show that Kobe isn't all that great. Some haters even go as far as saying that the Lakers have 4 all-star beside Kobe .

If the latest games between the Lakers and Thunders doesn't show any indication of how valuable Kobe Bryant is then nothing will. Kobe Bryant had to be the man by scoring 40 points just so the Lakers can escape with the win. Without Kobe, the Thunders win hand down no question ask. Paul Gasol is the next go to guy after Kobe but even he has not shown the leadership that Kobe has show. During the Thunder run, Pau Gasol could not find a bucket to stop the run.

Now it hilarious when people ask who is better? Pau or Duncan. This is a huge knock to Kobe Bryant, because Gasol is no where near Duncan. I like Pau, he a Lakers, but he is no where near Duncan level or ever will be. Gasol is a scorer, he can create his own shot but he is not a leader, at least not on the Lakers.

Now Andrew Bynum would be underrated had he not be injure throughout his career. He would probably be on the same level as Dwight by now because he is a better scorer, post player, free throw shooter than Dwight. Dwight however is a lot more athletic than Bynum.

Lamar Odom: are u kidding me? He is too inconsistent to be an All-Star player and at most he fit with the Lakers system. He is perhaps one of the most overrated player of this decade. He not that good with layup either. For a big that has the handle off a point guard, he really could be so much better.

Now that bring us to Ron Artest. Ron Artest is a defense specialist, and a poor to average offensive player at best. He is basically an upgrade version of Ariza yet is a downgrade of Ariza when it come to the offensive side.

And the Lakers have some of the worst bench excluding Lamar Odom in the league. A best that keep giving up 15 to 20+ points lead.

Now all these players fit in the Triangle system and compliment Kobe well but Kobe has to do most of the work when it come to a tight game. Simple put: Kobe Bryant is underrated and Kobe teammates are overrated. Kobe Bryant help his teammates to become overrated because without Kobe getting double and setting the picks, they wouldn't be very good.

There are team that have better players than the Lakers including the Magic, Celtics, Hawks, and a few other.

It is Kobe Bryant that makes the Lakers a championship team because let be honest take Kobe Bryant out of the Lakers squad and let compare them to the Magic and a few other teams.

Bynum
Gasol
Odom
Artest

Or

Lewis
Carter
Nelson

Or

Wallace
Pierce
Allen
Hill

or

Horford
Bibby
Crawford
Smith

Parker
Ginobili
Jefferson
Mason

Take your pick.

if youre gonna take off the best player from the lakers you need to take off the best players from these other teams too

and who isnt overated nowadays

I moved this thread to the Laker board.

Reason 1) The op took some time to type it up. Normally, though it would be locked up.

Reason 2) See above - there are enough topics with underlying Kobe vs. Lebron topics and they are not productive and lead to inflammatory - bitch fests.

Enough already..

Jimmy76 wrote:if youre gonna take off the best player from the lakers you need to take off the best players from these other teams too

and who isnt overated nowadays

Thanks, I must have miss that.

BTW I'm not sure who is the best players on the Celtics but I'm guessing it is KG?

As a fellow Laker fan I respectfully disagree. Lakers have the best supporting cast as well. People think that Kobe's greatness has to be directly coorelated to how good his supporting cast is or how good Lebron is, etc. It's no knock on Kobe for having a great supporting cast, so by showing their worse doesn't make him better or showing they're better doesn't make him worse. "they are who we thought they were".

At the end of the day, he's a great player AND he has the best supporting cast. Our bench sucks yes, but the starting 5, minus fisher adding Lamar is pretty amazing.

Unsung wrote:

Wallace
Pierce
Allen
Hill

?

Not sure which Hill you're referring to but either way... Pierce should be considered the Celtics #1 with KG, Allen, Rondo, Wallace making up his supporting cast.

96 Til Infiniti wrote:

Unsung wrote:

Wallace
Pierce
Allen
Hill

?

Not sure which Hill you're referring to but either way... Pierce should be considered the Celtics #1 with KG, Allen, Rondo, Wallace making up his supporting cast.

Wondering who Hill is aswell.

Phil X wrote:I moved this thread to the Laker board.

Reason 1) The op took some time to type it up. Normally, though it would be locked up.

Reason 2) See above - there are enough topics with underlying Kobe vs. Lebron topics and they are not productive and lead to inflammatory - bitch fests.

Enough already..

As far as I'm concerned Phil this is a bunch of gibberish about nothing. I hate when these threads pop up relentlessly almost daily. Look the bottom line is this is basketball, no reason to over analyze it and come back to the same the same way you started........coming up with nothing. Truth be told no one basketball team will EVER be built picture perfect, every team has flaws.......you cover them with 2 or 3 great to good players and great coaching. Both of which the Lakers have.

What is being proven here ?

DEEP3CL wrote:

Phil X wrote:I moved this thread to the Laker board.

Reason 1) The op took some time to type it up. Normally, though it would be locked up.

Reason 2) See above - there are enough topics with underlying Kobe vs. Lebron topics and they are not productive and lead to inflammatory - bitch fests.

Enough already..

As far as I'm concerned Phil this is a bunch of gibberish about nothing. I hate when these threads pop up relentlessly almost daily. Look the bottom line is this is basketball, no reason to over analyze it and come back to the same the same way you started........coming up with nothing. Truth be told no one basketball team will EVER be built picture perfect, every team has flaws.......you cover them with 2 or 3 great to good players and great coaching. Both of which the Lakers have.

What is being proven here ?

If I had wanted to post this on the Lakers board I would have done so but I didn't. I feel in every way disrespected especially by a Lakers mod. Just cause you don't feel like it OK does not make it right, I am not breaking any rule. You go too far when you take your opinion out and feel that you are right.

Pierce is a wonderful player, but I think Garnett is more important to the overall success of the team.

Overrated, underrated, or anything in between, this current Laker team has yielded a record of 23-4; Good for 1st in the Pacific, 1st in the Conference, and 1st in the NBA. Thats what it all ultimately comes down to.

Unsung wrote:

DEEP3CL wrote:

Phil X wrote:I moved this thread to the Laker board.

Reason 1) The op took some time to type it up. Normally, though it would be locked up.

Reason 2) See above - there are enough topics with underlying Kobe vs. Lebron topics and they are not productive and lead to inflammatory - bitch fests.

Enough already..

As far as I'm concerned Phil this is a bunch of gibberish about nothing. I hate when these threads pop up relentlessly almost daily. Look the bottom line is this is basketball, no reason to over analyze it and come back to the same the same way you started........coming up with nothing. Truth be told no one basketball team will EVER be built picture perfect, every team has flaws.......you cover them with 2 or 3 great to good players and great coaching. Both of which the Lakers have.

What is being proven here ?

If I had wanted to post this on the Lakers board I would have done so but I didn't. I feel in every way disrespected especially by a Lakers mod. Just cause you don't feel like it OK does not make it right, I am not breaking any rule. You go too far when you take your opinion out and feel that you are right.

You shouldn't feel disrespected, I think you'll find better arguments and less flaming here. Things get so out of hand on the general board, it's ridiculous.

You do have a good point though. There's alot of agenda's out there on diminishing Kobe's value on the Lakers.

What I like about the current MVP talk this season so far is that for the first time(arguably), Kobe actually deserves the season MVP. He absolutely carried this team without Pau Gasol, and has led the team with a relentless fevor with the common goal of a new championship. Half of the Lakers' great start should be credited to Kobe, which is more than enough to show Kobe's value to the team.

It's very audacious on the OP's part to call a team that's 23-4 overrated. They have the best front-line in the game with Pau and Bynum, plus Kobe. Oh and they also have the best coach of all-time who has 10 rings. But anyway... why am I even wasting my time making this argument?

When Ron Artest is your 4th or 5th option, you are not overrated, you are the best team in league.

So Gutta wrote:It's very audacious on the OP's part to call a team that's 23-4 overrated. They have the best front-line in the game with Pau and Bynum, plus Kobe. Oh and they also have the best coach of all-time who has 10 rings. But anyway... why am I even wasting my time making this argument?

When Ron Artest is your 4th or 5th option, you are not overrated, you are the best team in league.

Are u watching the Lakers and Cavs game? And this was not meant for the Lakers fan you can thanks phil for moving it.

Unsung is right. I've always thought that this team is overrated mainly because of the terrible guard rotation of Sasha, Farmar, Brown, and Fisher.

Patterns wrote:Unsung is right. I've always thought that this team is overrated mainly because of the terrible guard rotation of Sasha, Farmar, Brown, and Fisher.

Phil should move this thread back to general discussion where it was suppose to be. See how much it make sense now if it was back on that board? I hate u phil.

The Lakers are overrated because the media has overrated Bryant.

The team is still the most talented team in the NBA by far.

But what team can win when you have one guy going 11-32 FGA? LOL

Unsung wrote:

Patterns wrote:Unsung is right. I've always thought that this team is overrated mainly because of the terrible guard rotation of Sasha, Farmar, Brown, and Fisher.

Phil should move this thread back to general discussion where it was suppose to be. See how much it make sense now if it was back on that board? I hate u phil.

Phil did the right thing. Why clutter the board with spam from Bryant fans such as yourself?

Other than Kobe, the rest of the team always plays lackadaisical. No worries though - they're just a bit bored right now. They will step up when they need to.