Vlade Radmanovic...finally?

[TheUrbanZealot]

Are we finally witnessing the Radmanovic we envisioned? In his last 5 games he's averaging 12 pts, almost 6 boards, almost 5 assists, and less than a turnover while shooting over 50 from the field, over 50 from 3, and perfect from the line.

Phil has been Jekyll and Hyding Vlade all year- playing him starters mins for a stretch, then benching him and barely using him for stretches. The past few games however, have been his most consistent stretch as a Laker.

I actually am now convinced he is perfect for this system, especially now that Gasol is there. Vlade spaces the floor for Gasol, and Gasol, if they dare to double team him, has shooters galore he can pass out to. The most dangerous shooter on the Lakers (and most clutch outside of Kobe) is Radmanovic.

I don't want the Lakers to mess with this lineup. I made a post earlier that the Lakers should make some more trades, but I think anything more at this point is going to be overkill.

I am, however, even more convinced Walton is just not the best piece for this offense. He is a good glue player, but his shot is just not consistent enough...

[Sofa King]

To be accurate, Vlade was injury for a certain stretch of the season so thats why Phil hasn't been playing him consistantly.

Vlade is starting to live up to his contract. I think with the addition of Gasol, it should help give him more open shots.

[Tommy Trojan]

Vlad has been great lately. He is starting to get his confidence back, we will need that come playoff time

[bobobolas1]

now we can say vlade fits in the system perfectly

[davidse]

when bynum and gasol are healthy and playing together (hopefully very soon), i expect vlad to get at least as many minutes at small forward as odom - as soon as phil sees that odom prevents this team from realizing it's full pottential with bynum, gasol, and kobe.

odom will probably see most of his minutes at back up power forward after starting games at small forward - mostly for appearance's sake and confidence purposes.
when ariza comes back, that will probably only be more apparent.

vlad being a consistent shooter is far more important for this team (when in full strength) at small forward than anything odom can bring.

[iamworthy]

when bynum and gasol are healthy and playing together (hopefully very soon), i expect vlad to get at least as many minutes at small forward as odom - as soon as phil sees that odom prevents this team from realizing it's full pottential with bynum, gasol, and kobe.

odom will probably see most of his minutes at back up power forward after starting games at small forward - mostly for appearance's sake and confidence purposes.
when ariza comes back, that will probably only be more apparent.

vlad being a consistent shooter is far more important for this team (when in full strength) at small forward than anything odom can bring.

Nice post

[That Nicka]

To be fair, he was playing well early this season before he got injured.

[xX_BabyBoy_Xx]

there was a sequence in last nights game where the ball was thrown into the post, and back out to a wide open Vlade, the D soon recovered and doubled him, and he tried to make a pass to a wide open Gasol, but was fouled. I agree with how much more important shooters(Vlade/Sasha) are to this offens due to the spreading of the floor. Glad to see the team trying to find the open man.

[Dexmor]

I think that is crazy. Odom should start at sf for sure. Kobe and Fisher are 2 players who can space the floor and you can't double Gasol and Bynum and leave either of those guys open and if you leave Odom open he will score. Radman or Ariza or Walton should not be getting as many minutes as Odom.
Odom will thrive even at sf and just be an excellent role player, maybe the best in the league (role player that is) and at the sf spot give us 14 10 and 5. All he needs to do is work on his outside shot now but lets face it Odom wasn't exactly and Elton Brand type pf anyway so the move to sf will be easy. Espially if he gets beat there are 2 7 footers who are there to block shots.
This is clearly the best lineup and I really don't know how anybody can think different

C.Bynum/Ronny
PF.Gasol/Radman
SF.Odom/Walton/Ariza
SG.Kobe/Sasha
PG.Fisher/Farmar

That is a deep 11 man rotation with the perfect starting lineup. 4 Great passers, 4 guys who can post, 4 guys who can shoot, 3 guys who can drive, 2 guys who are clutch all in the starting lineup and then there is the bench.

Mihm and DJ and Coby should just be in case of emergency players.

[Cboywhitey]

Vlad has been playing great I have noticed but to take odom out for vlad? I'm not so sure. Has anybody been watching Odom since pau has showed up? The guy has been playing a very high level of basketball. He even came up with the game saving "block" last night. Van Gundy said it was arm. Looked very much like hand to me when I watched it a second time...thought it was arm live then slow motion replay looked very much like hand (which is ball) anyhow that is a side story...what I"m saying is look at how well Odom is fitting in with Pau. This is the perfect place for Odom...here are odoms stats over the last 3 with Pau...

71% from the field on 15 for 21 shooting.
10 rebounds per
3.5 assists per
2.5 turnovers per
15 points per

The leading factor for me right now is defense. Odom is still far superior to vlad on the defensive end and that includes rebounds (Odom has more rebounds than Pau over the last 3 and Pau is playing the cernter spot so I don't buy that when Bynum comes back pau and bynum will collect all the boards) I really want to see the front court of Odom Pau and Bynum on D. In my mind Vlad fits the offensive end better than Odom with Pau and Bynum in but with kobe - fish - bynum - and Pau do we really need more offense?

Vlad is doing much much better on D. I enjoy that he is actually getting scrappy with his D and I can see the effort. But it's much like sasha...lots of hard work but not efficient work which leads to sloppy fouls...often getting out of position and allowing the whole team defense to break down because of it. Odom is a far superior TEAM defender. I'm not saying Odom is an all nba defensive player but I would rather see him with more minutes than Vlad at least for now.

[what would jack bauer do?]

As rough of a passer as Vlade is, I'd have to say he's been moving the ball a lot better than Luke since he came. Luke looks like Farmar did last year; he's thinking way too much on the floor making him completely useless even when he's trying to be aggressive. The one thing I'll give Luke props for is that he defended Lebron really well last week, other than that Radman has pretty much surpassed him.

[TheUrbanZealot]

what's funny is that Vlad gets the label as a bad passer, when he is probably the 2nd best passer on the Lakers. The problem w/ Vlad is that his boneheaded mistakes usually end up trumping his strengths, one of which is being a very very nifty passer (especially in the paint and on cuts).

I watched Vlad in Seattle a lot and he seemed to play more inspired the more mins he received. SOme players are just like that. I wouldn't be surprised if Phil told him he was going to get the mins so now the effort is following suit.

This offense, right now, couldn't be any better for Radman. He has arguably one of the top 3 passing 4's in Gasol, one of the top 2 passing 5's in Bynum (only Miller surpasses him), and an all around facilitator in Kobe. He should be the 1st person those 3 look for when they are doubled, as he's shooting over 42% from the 3pt line. We want to turn teams into being forced to play the Lakers 1 on 1. If shooters like Vlad and Sasha keep shooting at this clip, teams are going to have to pick their poison and the Lakers, on offense, are going to be close to indefensible.

I don't want Phil to play the Jekyll and Hyde game w/ Vlad anymore. He should stick with him in the starting lineup the rest of the season, and bring Bynum off the bench. Who comes off the bench really doesn't matter anyways, it's who ends the game that counts. I don't care that Walton is a glue player, or that Ariza is a world class athlete. Neither of them bring the dagger ability that Radmanovic does- which is perfect for this offense.

[PdxLaker]

Vlad is refreshed by the fact that now that we have Gasol he is not a focus of the offensive game, just a contributer. He used to come in with the second team and it seems like he tried to carry the offense too much. Now that he is a true role player he is more relaxed and able to chip in his 12-15 point per night. Once this team starts rolling with all of it's pieces back we are going to stretch teams defenses so far it's going to be ridiculous. We are going to have the perfect compliment of post players, outside shooters, and those who can create their own shots.

[Sofa King]

Welcome to the board.

[milesfides]

Several things to be wary of.

1. There's a major minutes crunch at SF; only injuries to Walton and Ariza opened up this much PT for Vlad, who was third in the depth chart
2. Vlad is shooting lights out the past few games, even by his own standards - will he be able to keep it up?
3. Vlad may quite possibly be the worst finisher on our team
4. Vlad has no post game whatsoever
5. Vlad is the worst defender on the team

That being said, he's making the most of his time by doing what he's supposed to do - shoot the rock, and he's shooting it well.

If all our forwards were healthy, that presents an interesting dilemma: Radman's shooting? Ariza's defense? Walton's playmaking? And yet each has at least one major flaw to his game.

In terms of offense, with Bynum back, Radman does seem to be the logical fit - his ability to spread the floor would be vital.

However, ultimately we're talking about the backup forward role. Bynum's return would move Odom to the small forward.

This is another reason that I think the Lakers will either trade Odom or let him walk. There are just too many players, there is too much money, tied up at that forward spot. I would rather keep Odom and jettison Radman and Walton's contracts, but that would be a rather difficult feat.

[KingLakers]

If Vlad continues to play close to how he's playing right now for the remainder of the season he could be a nice trading chip during the draft for the Lakers if they want to get back back into the 1st round of the draft. Plus it'll also be a financial move it eases the luxury tax on the Lakers and it gives the Lakers a little more to offer Ronny and maybe Sasha in summer.

[CITYOFANGELSX3]

Vlad is playing great and fitting in the triangle perfectly. I love when he just stands in the corner and busts that wide open 3. Its a dagger in the hearts for other teams.

[davidse]

Vlad is playing great and fitting in the triangle perfectly. I love when he just stands in the corner and busts that wide open 3. Its a dagger in the hearts for other teams.

imagine how much that will help spread the floor for bynum, gasol, and kobe when we're in full strength, and how much better we'll be for it...

it's like bowen's deadly corner 3's for the spurs.
it's importance cannot be overstated.

[BrianFellow_17]

The most dangerous shooter on the Lakers (and most clutch outside of Kobe) is Fisher.

Sorry, changed that for you.

0.4 anyone?

[hermes]

To be fair, he was playing well early this season before he got injured.