We're missing one piece....

second_coming32 · Post #1 » by **second_coming32** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:35 am

Andrew Bynum, and I don't mean 1st two months of the season Andrew Bynum. I'm talking about a 7'1 280 pound post presence to beat up our opponents down low.

Pau is getting pushed around and it appears to me that the Lakers have turned soft. The Brad Millers of the world are pushing us around down low, and we have nobody on our team to stop it. Turiaf is not a bruiser, Gasol is a lightweight, Mihm will get pushed around, this team is really missing it's interior toughness. That is something we had when Kwame Brown was here. If nothing else he provided a post presence, pushed guys around, and intimidated perimeter players with thoughts of driving. Now? We are the Phoenix Suns 2.0...

If Andrew Bynum comes back and gives us 15 solid minutes off the bench in the playoffs, or good hardnosed interior defense, we're winning this thing. If Trevor Ariza can come back and give us the same thing on the wings will be unstoppable. We'll have it all, the interior defense, intimidation on the wings, scorers at every position, and team that can adapt to any style. If Bynum doesn't come back, we're losing to San Antonio.

Kreuk · Post #2 » by **Kreuk** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:43 am

second_coming32 wrote:this team is really missing it's interior toughness. That is something we had when Kwame Brown was here. If nothing else he provided a post presence, pushed guys around, and intimidated perimeter players with thoughts of driving.

Kwame, is that you?!?

LOL, you know what else we had when kwame was here? - a .500 record give or take a few games. And yeah, we'll suck at D for a bit longer until Bynum and Ariza get back... But I'll take Phoenix 2.0 over the 06/ 07 Lakers any day of the week, hour of the day, etc.

Rox_Nix_Nox · Post #3 » by **Rox_Nix_Nox** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:45 am

Well you just answered your own question

CITYOFANGELSX3 · Post #4 » by **CITYOFANGELSX3** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:57 am

Nice post Second_comings.

magic#32 · Post #5 » by **magic#32** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:51 am

Am i the only one who really likes this Phoenix stile? I mean, they didnt win anything in part because of injuries, except for last year when they really overplayed san antonio and imo lost due to bad luck, yeah we cant allow 70 points in a half but why not be a poor defensive team and the best in offense, games are won when you score 1 point over the other team, i really think you guys are really worried on defensive effort because last years champions were really good deffensive teams, but that doesnt mean we cant win anything this way.

asubennett · Post #6 » by **asubennett** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 2:31 pm

magic#32 wrote:Am i the only one who really likes this Phoenix stile? I mean, they didnt win anything in part because of injuries, except for last year when they really overplayed san antonio and imo lost due to bad luck, yeah we cant allow 70 points in a half but why not be a poor defensive team and the best in offense, games are won when you score 1 point over the other team, i really think you guys are really worried on defensive effort because last years champions were really good deffensive teams, but that doesnt mean we cant win anything this way.

Its cool that you all like Phoenix's style now. But I find it hard to believe that you are all convinced you can win with it now when for the last three years all we Suns fans have heard from Lakers fans in particular is you cant never win playing that style of basketball. Have to rebound and play defense to win etc......

Just finding a bit of irony in this thread.

Erik Eleven · Post #7 » by **Erik Eleven** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 3:26 pm

I don't think he's saying that they play that kind of ball, because they don't. He's just making the comparison

magic#32 · Post #8 » by **magic#32** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 3:28 pm

asubennett wrote:-= original quote snipped =-

Its cool that you all like Phoenix's style now. But I find it hard to believe that you are all convinced you can win with it now when for the last three years all we Suns fans have heard from Lakers fans in particular is you cant never win playing that style of basketball. Have to rebound and play defense to win etc......

Just finding a bit of irony in this thread.

Well i'm not the voice of Lakers fan and no one is my voice, im talking about my opinion i'm sure a lot of people thinks that way but i do not and honestly my winner last year should have been the Suns.

xSABOx · Post #9 » by **xSABOx** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 4:29 pm

Need someone to set the tone on defense, hopefully it's Bynum... hard to play great defense when most of your rotation is made up of guys who don't do a good job of staying in front of their man (Radmanovic, Walton, Vujacic, Fisher, Farmar), your bigs don't provide any toughness down low (Odom, Gasol) and your superstar starts to plays lazy on defense not getting through screens...

The Laker Kid · Post #10 » by **The Laker Kid** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 5:15 pm

Every team has a thug except the Lakers:

Detroit - Sheed
Spurs - Bowen
Suns - Bell
Denver - Carmelo/Allen
Kings - Artest

We don't have a 'thug' in this team who can knock down the opposition and instill fear in their minds. Gasol is soft, Kobe is going for the good boy attitude, Farmar and Sasha look like kids, and Ronny is simply not a thug. The Lakers is a clean cut, clean-image, white collar type of team. Artest can knock one of our players down and we won't do anything but watch.

Can we turn Coby Karl into a thug??

Big Bird · Post #11 » by **Big Bird** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 5:36 pm

I was just talking about this with a friend the other day. If a player would start abusing one of our players, I'm not sure we have a guy who would retaliate (I'm not talking about breaking bones, just some old-school bodychecking perhaps or some little dirty measures that don't get noticed by the refs) and let them know the Lakers won't be bullied.

Man, if only Mbenga could karate chop someone and get a 3 game suspension. That should instill fear into some before the playoffs start, imo.

I know all of this is far fetched, considering the league's policy in the last couple of years and the severe suspensions, but I can picture several guys (like a loco ala Artest) who would start some **** just for the heck of it.

RJM · Post #12 » by **RJM** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 7:37 pm

second_coming32 wrote:Andrew Bynum, and I don't mean 1st two months of the season Andrew Bynum. I'm talking about a 7'1 280 pound post presence to beat up our opponents down low.

Pau is getting pushed around and it appears to me that the Lakers have turned soft. The Brad Millers of the world are pushing us around down low, and we have nobody on our team to stop it. Turiaf is not a bruiser, Gasol is a lightweight, Mihm will get pushed around, this team is really missing it's interior toughness. That is something we had when Kwame Brown was here. If nothing else he provided a post presence, pushed guys around, and intimidated perimeter players with thoughts of driving. Now? We are the Phoenix Suns 2.0...

If Andrew Bynum comes back and gives us 15 solid minutes off the bench in the playoffs, or good hard nosed interior defense, we're winning this thing. If Trevor Ariza can come back and give us the same thing on the wings will be unstoppable. We'll have it all, the interior defense, intimidation on the wings, scorers at every position, and team that can adapt to any style. If Bynum doesn't come back, we're losing to San Antonio.

Good post bro, and believe me....he's coming soon. So will Trevor. We will be complete again and even scarier than ever.

daddyfivestar · Post #13 » by **daddyfivestar** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 7:40 pm

What do you mean no Thug???

Odom's foot is a beast.

He's already taken out Bynum and Ariza.

jdub114 · Post #14 » by **jdub114** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 7:46 pm

The Laker Kid wrote:Every team has a thug except the Lakers:

Detroit - Sheed
Spurs - Bowen
Suns - Bell
Denver - Carmelo/Allen
Kings - Artest

We don't have a 'thug' in this team who can knock down the opposition and instill fear in their minds. Gasol is soft, Kobe is going for the good boy attitude, Farmar and Sasha look like kids, and Ronny is simply not a thug. The Lakers is a clean cut, clean-image, white collar type of team. Artest can knock one of our players down and we won't do anything but watch.

Can we turn Coby Karl into a thug??

Neither of those guys are what you would consider a "thug" on the court...

hermes · Post #15 » by **hermes** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 7:49 pm

nice post
get well soon bynum and trevor

Post #16 » by **crazyeights** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:03 pm

daddyfivestar wrote:What do you mean no Thug???

Odom's foot is a beast.

He's already taken out Bynum and Ariza.

YiYaoYue · Post #17 » by **YiYaoYue** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:10 pm

Have you guys not seen kobe in the 4th quarter... he's the biggest thug in the game at times... just keep throwing his arms around getting foul calls constantly and finishing the game because if you touch him he'll make you pay

DreamOn · Post #18 » by **DreamOn** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:37 pm

i hope we sign Kwame this offseason. He would be a great back up to Drew. Like right now if we had Kwame playing next to Gasol we would be in great shape.

second_coming32 · Post #19 » by **second_coming32** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:56 pm

asubennett wrote:-= original quote snipped =-

Its cool that you all like Phoenix's style now. But I find it hard to believe that you are all convinced you can win with it now when for the last three years all we Suns fans have heard from Lakers fans in particular is you cant never win playing that style of basketball. Have to rebound and play defense to win etc......

Just finding a bit of irony in this thread.

Just to be clear, the suns style of basketball was pretty, I thought they could have won a title in one of the last two years...they just had some bad luck. The problem is the Suns were actually better at running that style offense than this current Lakers squad.

I'm willing to admit that while we CAN adapt to teh Phoenix style offense in a pinch, we aren't going to win a championship that way. We need some interior defense to have a shot. With Bynum and Ariza available for the playoffs I think we are the clear cut favorites, if we dont that it's gonna be a crapshoot and we probably WON"T win it.

second_coming32 · Post #20 » by **second_coming32** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:03 pm

DreamOn wrote:i hope we sign Kwame this offseason. He would be a great back up to Drew. Like right now if we had Kwame playing next to Gasol we would be in great shape.

I'm all for bringing Kwame back for the Vet minimum in the offseason. I don't see Memphis signing him and I don't think there will be big market for him. He's two times better than Mbenga and when Bynum was rolling Kwame was actually really good as a backup. It's when Andrew went down and Kwame had to step in the spotlight when it all hit the fan.

If Kwame's available for the vet min, sign him. If someone wants to pony up the MLE for him....let them dig their own grave. But it's clear in the off season we have to get some kind of interior presence in the Kwame Brown / Charles Oakley mold to back up Drew and Pau.