Lamar Offers To Come off Bench

[laka4life]

http://www.ocregister.com/sections/lakers-664493/

Lamar has offered to come off the bench and is talking to the Lakers staff about the increased possibilities this would give the Lakers offense. He even offered to play two guard, three, or four. The Lakers staff seems to think he would work best as a point forward.

Bench:

Lamar
Farmar
Vujacic
Walton
Powell

So much versatility, so much passing ability.

To me, this is why we re-sign Lamar. It's obvious he's not looking for a contract year selfish output, and he's willing to take a statistical fall for the team. In my opinion, he wants to be our Ginobili, and we should commend him for this. Ariza now becomes a defensive stopper and a major energy force in our starting lineup.

Wow Lamar, that is true team play.

Thoughts????

[dockingsched]

ha, i should bump my thread on him coming off the bench. i always felt he'd be open to the idea since its better for the lakers and for him. struggling at sf shouldn't be his idea of earning a new contract.

[hermes]

see Kilroy Mitch knew what he was doing, look at that second unit, we're going to be so awesome

i'm getting a little choked up just thinking about it

[AceFresh]

we shall see

[TylersLakers]

How do I get to the article? Can't seem to find it.

EDIT- Nevermind. http://lakers.freedomblogging.com/2008/ ... rward-too/

Derek Fisher/ Jordan Farmar/ Sun Yue
Kobe Bryant/ Sasha Vujacic/ (Joe Crawford/Coby Karl/Dwayne Mitchell)
Trevor Ariza/ Luke Walton/ Vladimir Radmanovic
Pau Gasol/ Lamar Odom/
Andrew Bynum/ Josh Powell/ Chris Mihm

That would be great. I still think they want to test out the large front line though.

[chefy]

Still, the best thing to do is wait.

[DEEP3CL]

How do I get to the article? Can't seem to find it.

It's in the blog "Full at forward,too"

[Erik Eleven]

I'm not opposed to him coming off the bench as long as he isn't. Of course he'd be great to have on the second unit. Having a player of his caliber as a sixth man is a crazy luxury. Especially since we can still put together a functioning starting five without him — one that's competitive with any other starting five.

My guess is that Phil won't even consider it until Ariza bulks up and starts shooting the three at a high clip.

[Slava]

Thats LO's character. He's sacrifice himself before anybody else for the good of the team despite being in a contract season. Playing him off the bench is one way to mask our lack of quality depth in the front court and also get some use off our SFs but I'm still not comfortable with either of Luke/Radman or Ariza starting for us. Best way to go would be to play Sasha at SG and Kobe at SF depending on match ups.

[Erik Eleven]

... but I'm still not comfortable with either of Luke/Radman or Ariza starting for us. Best way to go would be to play Sasha at SG and Kobe at SF depending on match ups.

Agreed. Kobe's efficiency at the three is devilish.

[lakerboy]

it won't change that much if ariza pratices his shot-starting a game was never lo strong side anyways-4th qtrs is what i wanna see from lo if he worked on his game (his lat quickness),he is going to finish the game as a sf right?

[laka4life]

I would say the only way LO isn't on the floor to finish a game is if he has a terrible matchup defensively and Ariza can lockdown whoever the matchup is

[Frantik]

unless its sasha at 2 and kobe at 3, im not agreeing with this.

I like the idea of LO at the 2 or 3. Im not buying the idea of Ariza starting. thats a huge downgrade on that position iif Ariza starts.

and... Hell No to Sasha at 3.

[Slava]

I've been reading stuff off posts stating that Ariza should start at SF for defensive purposes if Odom gets moved to the bench and frankly I just don't agree with this POV. The sole reason of moving Odom to the bench would be the lack of spacing and as such starting Radmanovic would be a defensive nightmare for us.

So looking at what Ariza can provide defensively that Odom can't:

Size: Advantage Odom. Better build and can absorb tough contact compared to Ariza who would need to add some bulk to defend guys like AK47, LBJ, Melo etc.

Lateral Quickness: Advantage Ariza but not by much. A fit LO is very nimble and he might have trouble with SFs of the Richard Jefferson kind but he'd hold his own against the likes of Paul Pierce, Peja Stojakovic who have given us a lot of trouble.

Versatility: Ariza's versatility is limited to the 1,2,3 spots and he demonstrated that by guarding the likes of Iverson at times but LO hasn't done poorly either. He was our best option against Steve Nash and his wing span gives much trouble for quicker players to get by him. Also he can guard the 4s like Boozer/Bosh or Nowitzki much better than Ariza can because of his upper body strength.

Shot Blocking: Neither of them are especially good.

Rebounding: Advantage LO by a mile.

Foul trouble: Clearly Ariza gets called more defensively because of his tendency to reach in for steals while LO is pretty clean unless while committing charges and offensive fouls.

So unless we do have a better shooter, LO easily is the better option over Ariza imo.

[Luxury]

Ofcourse with the addition of Bynum, it changes up a lot of things. I still think its quite premature to have a set opinion on the starting line-up. I'm open to any line-up as long as we have a set rotation for the last 40 games of the regular season then going into the playoffs.

I can see it already. There are going to be a massive amount of complaints like "Why did Phil do this, why did Phil do that" throughout the first half of the season. Let's bare with it because we're trying to find the right forumla thats equals up to a championship.

[TonyMontana]

Thats LO's character. He's sacrifice himself before anybody else for the good of the team despite being in a contract season. Playing him off the bench is one way to mask our lack of quality depth in the front court and also get some use off our SFs but I'm still not comfortable with either of Luke/Radman or Ariza starting for us. Best way to go would be to play Sasha at SG and Kobe at SF depending on match ups.

+1
Just like we did in the playoffs and finals.

[Sedale Threatt]

Between Bynum, Gasol and Odom we should have enough depth at the 5/4 that the concept of starters is almost moot. Even if they handle every available minute, that's still only 32 apiece. That should give Jackson a tremendous amount of flexibility to either dictate or adjust to particular matchups.

[milesfides]

I'm surprised if Odom did this, it would significant hurt his market value in a contract year. It would also be the first time in his career that he'd come off the bench not due to injury.

Would he also be willingness to accept much less money? Say, the MLE?

Anyways, I'm not so sure how effective it is for Odom to come off the bench.

Odom willingness to play the 2, 3, or 4 doesn't really matter, since he's played all those positions anyways, from the backcourt to the frontcourt. It's not about position for him, it's about how he's productive, and it's still uncertain how Odom can be best maximized in our offense, on this team.

And minutes-wise, if Bynum is worth a max contract, he should be playing at least close to 35 minutes a game, as should Gasol. Considering that the SF is also stacked silly, Odom coming off the bench would most likely mean one thing; less Odom.

I think it's a grand gesture by Odom, but I still don't see how it would help us where we failed last year, which was figuring out how to beat Boston.

When push comes to shove, you need to have your best five on the floor against their best five...if Odom's coming off the bench, what's the point?

P.S. Stop with the Ginobili comparisons, please! If Odom had a PER rating close to Kobe's, if Odom was a great scorer and playmaker with the utmost confidence in himself, yes, he can be a Ginobili off the bench. But he's not, and we shouldn't expect him to be.

If Odom comes off the bench, he'll be what Luke Walton was this year, a player who moves the ball, taking advantage of a smaller player in the post, and being challenged to shoot jump shots.

[reincarnatingDABULLS]

Been proposing this for awhile, glad to see LO is down with it too... it would make our squad that much more potent.


Bynum
Gasol
Radman
Kobe
Fisher

2nd Unit

Mihm/Giles
Odom
Ariza
Sasha
Farmar/Heath

IR
Walton
Powell
Yue

I would also like for us to take a chance on Giles and Heath as well. I don't see Yue as a viable pg option, he's more of a forward IMO. Yes he's big and has good ball handling skills(so does odom), but i dont think he has the skillset to translate into an actual NBA pg, and i dont believe he can defend pgs as well and leaving Kobe or Sasha to guard opposing pgs would create even more havac on our team.

[dockingsched]

giles/heath active, luke/powell/yue IR? the heck?