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Does anyone feel the same?

When Bynum comes back, which will be right before the playoffs, he will once again be a little rusty.

Let's cut to the meat. Kobe and the whole starting lineup plays better when Odom is in the lineup because Odom does not occupy the post thus, allowing more space for Kobe and Pau and Artest to operate.

I am not saying that Bynum isn't an effective player. He is and we all know he is. It's just there is no balance when him, Pau, and Kobe are all trying to post up.

This is the perfect opportunity for Bynum too because he gets a lot more touches if he comes off the bench.

If you ask nicely I could still put you on the bandwagon.

The way we beat cleveland is with bynum protecting the rim. Same with dwight and orlando. Orlando forced him into more jumpers and altered runners in the playoffs last year.

Shaq will dominate Pau and LeBron will not have any problem finishing over Pau.

Yes, this is our best finishing lineup. But Bynum has to play the majority of the 5 minutes against Cleveland. Shaq will be out for blood. Remember the game in Cleveland this year? He made Pau look worse than I've seem him his whole career.

Boston is the only match up we need Bynum to start and may be Cleveland depending on Shaq's health but the two times we beat Cleveland last season we did it with Odom starting.

j-far wrote:Boston is the only match up we need Bynum to start and may be Cleveland depending on Shaq's health but the two times we beat Cleveland last season we did it with Odom starting.

That was minus Shaq tho. say what you want about him now days, but against us in the NBA finals, he is going to play like a man possessed. I don't want Pau within 100 miles of that

j-far wrote:Boston is the only match up we need Bynum to start and may be Cleveland depending on Shaq's health but the two times we beat Cleveland last season we did it with Odom starting.

Now if Shaq isn't healthy, it's a whole different story. But Pau has zero chance of stopping Shaq if healthy

Shaq is really the last thing I worry about. Getting to the Finals is the only thing I care about. I'll take my chances once we get to the Finals.

Shaq will be even more rusty in the playoffs than Bynum and the grueling pace in the playoffs will slow him down a lot. Plus, we can just run him and pick and roll him to death.

Patterns wrote:Shaq will be even more rusty in the playoffs than Bynum and the grueling pace in the playoffs will slow him down a lot. Plus, we can just run him and pick and roll him to death.

This. lakers playoff strategy is 50 % Kobe - Pau pick n roll anyway.

j-far wrote:

Patterns wrote:Shaq will be even more rusty in the playoffs than Bynum and the grueling pace in the playoffs will slow him down a lot. Plus, we can just run him and pick and roll him to death.

This. lakers playoff strategy is 50 % Kobe - Pau pick n roll anyway.

See, I really wish I could be so easy to agree with you guys on this because i've been adamant all year that is our best offense and in big games I really wish we would have used it more. Do you think it's a reluctance to let those opponents see it before the playoffs? The Kobe Pau pick and roll is as good as any in the league, yet we use it like once a month.

Yes. See bandwagon. /thread

Point is not Bynum v Shaq Dwight et al, its the other main guys playing better when its Pau Odom. That took LA to back 2 back finals, not Bynum. Drew will still get his 30-32 mpg, so all this arguing about matchups is moot, he is playing 30 ish whether its Shaq or Perkins or D12 or a lightweight like Lou Amundson or Channing Frye.

IMO whatever points shaq scores on pau would be made up by how much more effective our offense is with the pau and lamar combo. Shaq can get his and we can still beat cleveland as long as we limit everyone else, which we can't seem to do with bynum in the starting lineup

Also, the presence of antawn jamison changes that matchup from what you saw before this season as well.

phil ain't gonna change his starting lineup this close to playoffs and it doesn't really matter who starts

I feel like we are better with Odom starting, and I think Bynum would be good coming off the bench because could dominate the ball on offense and he used to have great chemistry playing with Jordan Farmar when they both used to come off the bench together.

On the other hand I would like to see Bynum on the floor more, instead of Odom, down the stretch of games. Especially when he's rolling.... Sometimes Bynum will have 15-20 points on like 8-10 FGA and Phil wont play him at all the last 6 minutes of the game.

No.........if he's healthy he starts period. Some of you fall in love with "this is our best lineup" scenario too much. If Pau wasn't so weakly on critical possessions I'd maybe agree somewhat, Bynum protects the basket much better than Pau. In Pau this is a man who barely averages 1 block a game, much less changing shots.

Yes Kobe and Pau have a better sense on the P&R than he does with Drew, but Drew has a better chance of securing the ball on possessions than Pau does. Flat out I'm not trusting Pau when it comes to holding the rock, he's off balance or being knocked around too much for my liking.

This time with Drew is much much different than the previous two seasons, he's basically just waiting for some pain to subside and that's it.

As far as matchups, Pau can't handle either Shaq nor Dwight. Drew pretty much erased Dwight last time we played Orlando. Bottom line is this.......if Pau is going 35-40 plus against either of those two should we get to the Finals............we're screwed period.

DEEP3CL wrote:No.........if he's healthy he starts period. Some of you fall in love with "this is our best lineup" scenario too much. If Pau wasn't so weakly on critical possessions I'd maybe agree somewhat, Bynum protects the basket much better than Pau. In Pau this is a man who barely averages 1 block a game, much less changing shots.

Yes Kobe and Pau have a better sense on the P&R than he does with Drew, but Drew has a better chance of securing the ball on possessions than Pau does. Flat out I'm not trusting Pau when it comes to holding the rock, he's off balance or being knocked around too much for my liking.

This time with Drew is much much different than the previous two seasons, he's basically just waiting for some pain to subside and that's it.

As far as matchups, Pau can't handle either Shaq nor Dwight. Drew pretty much erased Dwight last time we played Orlando. Bottom line is this.......if Pau is going 35-40 plus against either of those two should we get to the Finals............we're screwed period.

Thank you DEEP

Dwight got nothing on Pau offensively. We've seen it during last year's finals and the numerous other times we played them.

I'm with Nicka, Bynum is too ball dominant to work on the starting lineup. Earlier in the year I have defended his passing, but for whatever reason he seem less and less willing to pass the ball. I don't know if it's from a lack of touches, but you know he will just try to score once he gets the ball even if it's against a triple team. It works well for the second unit because they needed more scoring and less chucking from Shannon/Farmar, but it doesn't work when it's with Kobe or Pau on the court.

If Pau wants playing time against Cleveland/Orlando if we get there, he needs to start knocking down that 13-17ft jumper consistantly like he was doing last season. This season hes been really sucking at that shot. Oh and he can't be a liability on the free throw line in close games.

j-far wrote:Boston is the only match up we need Bynum to start and may be Cleveland depending on Shaq's health but the two times we beat Cleveland last season we did it with Odom starting.

Based upon what? Can Bynum ever earn his stripes on this board? It's been proven time & time again to have success against us, rough Pau up & he disappears.

Drew was by far playing the best out of all the bigs (i'm not counting Lamar) before he went down. Phil was pulling Pau out 1st every time & was letting Bynum either finish games or not coming out until 2 or 3 minutes left in the 4th. Is that not saying something?

DEEP3CL wrote:No.........if he's healthy he starts period. Some of you fall in love with "this is our best lineup" scenario too much. If Pau wasn't so weakly on critical possessions I'd maybe agree somewhat, Bynum protects the basket much better than Pau. In Pau this is a man who barely averages 1 block a game, much less changing shots.

Yes Kobe and Pau have a better sense on the P&R than he does with Drew, but Drew has a better chance of securing the ball on possessions than Pau does. Flat out I'm not trusting Pau when it comes to holding the rock, he's off balance or being knocked around too much for my liking.

This time with Drew is much much different than the previous two seasons, he's basically just waiting for some pain to subside and that's it.

As far as matchups, Pau can't handle either Shaq nor Dwight. Drew pretty much erased Dwight last time we played Orlando. Bottom line is this.......if Pau is going 35-40 plus against either of those two should we get to the Finals............we're screwed period.

DEEP this is always over looked for some reason. I don't understand the Pau affinity & Drew hate on this board at times. The hypocrisy is crazy. Drew is too ball dominant? Yet how many times does Pau have turnovers from being too indecisive & facing up & doing nothing? Those same guysask for Pau to be more aggressive, when Drew does it he's too ball dominant, yet he averages less shot attemps per game than Pau.

Bottom line is this people, DREW GETS US EASY BASKETS. That is exactly what you need come playoff time to stem the many tides that will be seen.