Bynum is no Kobe

[dingclancy]

Bynum is no Kobe in a sense that he is not showing that he wants to be the first option of this team. Kobe and Shaq had fights because Kobe always insisted on being in the team spotlight. Always want the big shot, always make the flashy play. always want to play up to the crowd. And Shaq hated him for that. It also created the best 1-2 punch in history.

Meanwhile, Bynum is chilling. Maybe he was on his way to break out last season as the second option of the Lakers. A true Kobe-Bynum 1-2 punch. But right now since Phil told him that he cannot get 20/10 with this team, he either a) lost touch with his role with the Lakers which is to anchor the defense or b) Lay back since he knows this is not his year to shine.

He has to THINK that he can be an all-star even with this stacked team. He has to go there and become the 2nd option, and show Phil that he deserve more shots than Pau. He should be the player that Kobe want to pass it to first. He should develop the swagger of Kobe at the same age. He had that swagger last season. If he wants to be a superstar he has to cement his status now or else he will be behind the curve.

[G35]

The difference between the Shaq-Kobe Lakers and this years Lakers is the talent. Everyone knew Shaq and Kobe were the 2 best players. Everyone else just filled a role.

But Pau is good, Lamar is pretty good and Bynum is the future so that makes it hard for everyone to figure out their role. I think they should leave it as it is and not screw up the chemistry. I think that's the Lakers biggest problem is who does what.

Fisher seems to want to be a scoring PG some nights and we all know he can't finish to save his life

Farmar wants to make his mark also and that's why he causes so many TO's and the offense wasn't as efficient as it should be. Hopefully he doesn't come back trying to do too much.

Sasha comes into the game shooting. Can you imagine Shaq trying to post up and Sasha launching 3's as soon as comes in the game.

VladRad well what can you say, he really is the Space Cadet.


As far as Andrew I think he is coming along. I see this as a chemistry year for the Lakers to get use to playing with each other. I think they will be even better next year when they really know how to play with each other. These guys have so much talent it does come too easy for them but they can honestly play better than they are now and that should scare the rest of the league.....

[lakersfanatic]

yeah, the lakers are currently figuring out their chemistry right now.. which hopefully will be well situated near post season.

Bynum definitely needs to step up more and get more open if he wants his pts. He's not playing with the same excitement he had the year before. I remember watching him posterizing stoudamire and jumping up and down smiling like no other. That's the bynum we need to see again. There are days where Pau is a no show and our other best option is bynum and he needs to see that and take over.

[TonyMontana]

You know whats funny about this thread????
Last night at the end of 3rd qt, Kobe and Fish addressed the team NOT PHIL.
So what did Phil do, he went up to Bynum and told him stay focused and ready cause we will call you and we need you to step up, I GUESS HE MENT DEFENSIVLY.
So the time came and Bynum checks in, then guess what I think it only took him 3 minutes to get his 4th or 5th foul and then he was out...............
How sad is that, WE NEED YOU and then you get in foul trouble AGAIN.
I dont think we will see Bynum at his best this year, I think it will take him a while to get in rythem and sync in with this team.
All I know is Im gald we got Pau, Pau is the difference in this teams success, he has heart and he is seriously carrying this team with Kobe this year.

[El Hardee]

Bynum should not be mentioned in the same sentence as Kobe. Bynumis the west coast version of Eddy Curry, minus the gay stuff. The same way Curry's insane contract is killin the Knicks, Bynums will hurt us in the future. Hopefully we can package him while he still has the "potential" tag on him.

[That Nicka]

LOL at this thread... Laker fans turn on their players faster than Judas

[SPuL]

Little bit easier to decide you're going to take over on offense when you're a guard.. Kobe handled the ball alot, he could put up shots at will & aslong as enough of them fell he'd stay on the floor.. Bynum has to rely on his teammates to feed him the ball.. Not quite the same situation

[TonyMontana]

LOL at this thread... Laker fans turn on their players faster than Judas

Really????
Turn on Bynum???
Since Im one of the posters on here that isnt impressed by his performance then I take your post directed to me as well as others on here, so here's my take on your post.
Myself, I never thought Bynums worth Max contract when him and his agent were pushing the Lakers into signing.
I have never liked his performance level and I still dont.
He didnt do much or impressed me when he was a backup to Kwame and last year when he came off the bench, he had a few decent games.
Before he stepped on the court he was bitching about money and contract, yet he played good cop bad cop with his agent.
He got a phat deal from LA, and now he needs motivation.
Do I like Bynum, yes, do I think he has potential, maybe, is he doing what we expected him of doing, hell no.
By they way, werent you one of the posters on here last year that was pushing so hard for the J.O Bynum trade????????????
I'm sure your not going to deny it? Are you now?
Now your claiming that we turned Judas............LOLLL
At least I didnt flip my tune, at least I have been saying the same thing even before we signed Bynum.

Okay........

[lakersfanatic]

I don't think any of us are against bynum... just that he has the potential and he's not playing toward that level. I mean we saw how he can be last year. Maybe the word "defensive role" made him feel he's restricted to do anything else.

I just hope he doesn't become another mihm and get call on fouls just because lol.

And i also think it's still too early to think about trading him. We'll see how he performs in the post season. hehe

[hermes]

i think last year during Bynum's run of great play, he had or was getting close to finding his role on the team, his injury along with the addition of Pau has thrown everything off course

Pau is a smart and seasoned veteran, he can easily adapt to different players, as he has shown, but bynum is young and is having trouble doing that. i would imagine this is one of the first times he has played with another big like Pau at the same time. it will take some time, he's in a learning process

as far as playing like your the first option, i don't think that is bynum's game or will ever be bynum's game, as long as Kobe is here, or maybe even Pau (who is a better option on offense) and i think it would be unwise for him to try and become a #1 option on this team right now

my main concern is that bynum should just try and find himself, find something on this team that you can do, and improve on that, and build on it. start with defense, grab all the rebounds, block all the shots, limit the fouls, protect the lane..whatever, just take it one step at a time

right now the team's success is not dependent on bynum finding his game, we have enough talent right now to win without him being what he was last year. so we can afford to let him take his time, and i'm alright with that as long as he continues to improve, inconsistency can come and go, with a young player in bynum's situation i can accept that, he just needs to keep on keeping on

[Sedale Threatt]

Fanatic took the words out of my mouth -- I'm not against Bynum, by any stretch.

I generally like his game and I think he's going to be an important contributor to our team for a long time to come. I just want him to play up to his potential, and start rebounding and protecting the paint like he's capable. One rebound and zero blocks in 24 minutes or whatever it was just sucks, plain and simple. That's not acceptable, and he needs to know that.

So if Phil is indeed benching Andrew in the fourth to try to get that message across, then I support it wholeheartedly. It's like a puppy who hasn't been house trained. You smack him enough times after he pees on the rug, eventually he'll get the message and quit doing it. Hopefully it eventually sinks in with Andrew as well (rebounding and protecting the paint, not peeing on the rug).

[That Nicka]

Yes I wanted to trade Bynum for a sure talent two summers ago when he was still unproven.. We had two (then) solid centers in Mihm and Kwame.. JO wasnt as injury riddled as he is now and he was only 1 season removed from being a legit MVP candidate... Not to mention the best player in the league wanted to be traded because the Lakers didnt have enough talent (and he was willing to settle for a 34 year old Kidd over Bynum -- something I wouldnt even think about)... However Bynum shut him up and most of the fans that wanted him traded after he started last season so strong

The bottom line is that he is 21, he is going to have his ups and downs throughout the season... How about we let him play a full season and see how he handles the playoffs before we talk about what we can bring in for him?

I find it funny that whenever any player on this team has a 2 week slump everyone immediately talks about how much they suck or who we should trade them for -- Never taking into account what injuries they may be going through at that time...

Last year Farmar was great, this year he sucks... Well, maybe his numbers might go down considering there are less shots to go around and he's playing less minutes... Last year Bynum was great, this year he sucks.. Even though he is putting up virtually the same numbers on a deeper and much better team... Kobe has lost a step, even though he is shooting career high percentages... Fisher is a chucker, even though he is top 5 in 3 point FG%... Luke has sucked since 2005, even though he was a main reason why we swept Denver and have we even lost a game with him in the starting lineup this year???

There most likely wont be any trades this season for us so I think we might as well see how this team does together come playoff time and hope that we are healthy come June and stop talking about how much everyone sucks and who we can get for them

[El Hardee]

I never "turned" on Bynum cause I never liked him. He was Jimmy's pet pick and the Laker history of dominate big men was used as propaganda to build him up. I want to know where all the posters are who tagged him the next great laker big? Bynum is making set to make big money, starting next year he will be paid to PERFORM not DEVELOP, by the looks of him now he is way behind the curve of what a top dollar NBA player is.

[That Nicka]

uhm... compare his numbers to Dalembert, Dampier, Bogut, Okafor who all make similar or more money and he is better than all of them and younger... He will get better by default... it would only be wasted money if he became injury prone or started to regress

[TonyMontana]

To address eveybodys post on here I will address everyone in one post.
I have never ever bashed any player on this team, NEVER.
I have only expressed my dislike about Sasha and his gayness on the court.
I have always stood my ground about Bynum and his softness and no being the contributer we all thought he would be, well let me correct myself, I have had faith in Bynum and his game, I disagreed his approach to his contract and the way his agent pushed this team into making a quick decision in resigning him.
Again Im a team player, I have never ever posted that we need to trade for Bynum.
The only players on here that I have posted to be traded are, Sasha, Luke and Vlad, and I still think they need to be traded for a solid S.F.
Now Im down with you guys on waiting for Bynum to recover from his injury and work himself into the rotation blah blah blah, but I think we didnt do well with him and his new contract, we shouldve waited to see how well he wouldve done this year before we resigned him.
Thats my take on it, and I stand my ground until Bynum improves, until then he has done nothing impressive for me or this team.
He's just an average center in this league.
Now we are all bringing up Pau and Bynum role in this team.
Sure Bynum isnt our first option or second, yet he can contribute in many other ways.
Defense, staying out of foul trouble, Rebounds, assists, he needs to lower his turnovers, he needs to be much much more aggressive both ends of the court, he has no fire and he's backs down from stronger centers and thats what leads him into getting in foul trouble to early in the game.

[El Hardee]

uhm... compare his numbers to Dalembert, Dampier, Bogut, Okafor who all make similar or more money and he is better than all of them and younger... He will get better by default... it would only be wasted money if he became injury prone or started to regress

All the guys you named are all big ole bust, save Okafor. I can se Bynum being a 15/7/1 player someday, pretty solid but not worth the money he is getting or the ridiculous praise from some of the fans round here.

[hermes]

Yes I wanted to trade Bynum for a sure talent two summers ago when he was still unproven.. We had two (then) solid centers in Mihm and Kwame.. JO wasnt as injury riddled as he is now and he was only 1 season removed from being a legit MVP candidate... Not to mention the best player in the league wanted to be traded because the Lakers didnt have enough talent (and he was willing to settle for a 34 year old Kidd over Bynum -- something I wouldnt even think about)... However Bynum shut him up and most of the fans that wanted him traded after he started last season so strong

quoted for emphasis, i think bynum's play last year had a large part to do with proving himself to maybe not the rest of the league, but to his teammates, he knew he could be good, he just needed to show everyone else

what he now needs to realize is that he is in a profession where you constantly need to prove how good you are, he needs to find the fire to play hard and with a chip on his shoulder from within, it cannot always come from an outside source (kobe's comments about him) and once he finds that fire, that drive to want to be great and want to prove yourself night in and night out, all the better for us, all the worse for the rest of the league

[RJM]

As long as we don't turn into the early-90's Blazers, I'm cool

Reference: Loads of talent, but just can't get it done cause some players don't fully understand their role.

[TonyMontana]

Bynum is making set to make big money, starting next year he will be paid to PERFORM not DEVELOP, by the looks of him now he is way behind the curve of what a top dollar NBA player is.

Im with you on this post.
Were not a lottery bound team or a development league, were the returning W/C champs that lost last year to the Celtics and we are in contention right now.
We are the power house of the West and we are a making a strong run for the title.
If it wasnt because of Pau we would be the same team that got eliminated by the Suns a few years ago.
Bynum got his deal and he is playing alongside of the best player in the league we have a H.O.F coach that isnt really too fond of Bynum as we speak, with the addition of Pau, Ariza, and the return of D.Fish this team is solid.
We now have invested a great amount of money on a 21 year old kid who still needs someone to walk his ass to the bathroom and help him unzip his pants so he can pee.
This isnt what we expected of him and he isnt a kid.
He is a multi millionare playing for a franchise most baller can only imagine of playing for, can he at least try?
I dont even see him trying, I see a few spert of moments here and threre but nothing serious.
What else does he want or need, maybe somebody needs to wipe his butt next so he can get motivated. Its not enough that we are doing everything possible to support him.
We are not going to win a title unless Bynum steps up and performs at a higher level than he is right now.
Were not.

[That Nicka]

All the guys you named are all big ole bust, save Okafor. I can se Bynum being a 15/7/1 player someday, pretty solid but not worth the money he is getting or the ridiculous praise from some of the fans round here.

Regardless what you think of any of those players, it shows that you must pay top dollar for defensive anchor type centers... Other can be added to that list as well Kaman, Chandler, Camby... All these guys are basically average Centers.. But a rebounding and shotblocking player of this caliber is so rare that its not worth giving up for a 17 ppg SF... There is a reason why these guys make that amount of money, regardless whether you think they suck or not.... And I'd take Bynum over all of them -- especially considering he is the youngest of the group