What concerns you more heading into the playoffs?

[The Skyhook]

Bynum and Luke being back and healthy. If they can come back just before the playoffs our bench gets better. Lamar and Luke would both be back on the bench and keep it together like glue. Bynum will provide a defensive presence down low and some strong scoring down low.

I'm interesting in how Drew will be able to score because he does get a lot of easy baskets but in the playoffs it will hard to score easy baskets. I'm confident in Drew though because he was showing a lot of aggression before he got hurt.

[microfib4thewin]

Bynum and Luke being back and healthy. If they can come back just before the playoffs our bench gets better. Lamar and Luke would both be back on the bench and keep it together like glue. Bynum will provide a defensive presence down low and some strong scoring down low.

I don't get why so many people praise Bynum for his so called defense when he plays good defense about as frequently as Gasol does. He has the size but has never played good defense consistently, and his rebounding involves letting the ball bounce to him. Having Bynum and Luke back doesn't erase the fact that we have too many guys who can score on the inside and no one to score from the outside.

[The Skyhook]

Bynum and Luke being back and healthy. If they can come back just before the playoffs our bench gets better. Lamar and Luke would both be back on the bench and keep it together like glue. Bynum will provide a defensive presence down low and some strong scoring down low.

I don't get why so many people praise Bynum for his so called defense when he plays good defense about as frequently as Gasol does. He has the size but has never played good defense consistently, and his rebounding involves letting the ball bounce to him. Having Bynum and Luke back doesn't erase the fact that we have too many guys who can score on the inside and no one to score from the outside.

Because in recent games he was doing better sizing guys up then Pau was. And I never said that Bynum and Luke were going to strengthen our outside shooting. I said they were going to help strengthen the bench. And for all we know all the attention that our insides scorers might open looks for the outside shooters.

I also think people are going to use Ron Artest as a scapegoat if we fail to repeat but the problem doesn't lie within Artest is lies within the play of our point guards and bench.

[microfib4thewin]

Because in recent games he was doing better sizing guys up then Pau was. And I never said that Bynum and Luke were going to strengthen our outside shooting. I said they were going to help strengthen the bench. And for all we know all the attention that our insides scorers might open looks for the outside shooters.

I also think people are going to use Ron Artest as a scapegoat if we fail to repeat but the problem doesn't lie within Artest is lies within the play of our point guards and bench.

And how many games did he play where he actually acted like a 7 footer? Gasol has played better for a longer time this season and he is now struggling for over a month. I do want Bynum to play better and make this team better in the process, but there are very few games where I can say Bynum put up good numbers while helping the team win.

I was not on board with the Artest signing, so I am definitely surprised that Artest is the least of our problems. Unless he's having consecutive 3-14 games I would not put the blame on him if we do come up short. The team just isn't structured correctly, and our offense sucks when Gasol doesn't play well. Aside from thinking everything will work out eventually there's not much else they can do.

[semi-sentient]

The team just isn't structured correctly

That right there is my biggest concern.

[Edrees]

We don't need more 3 point shooting. We scored 92 points against the hawks. that's enough to win the championship. it's allowing 109 that is killing us. it's our weakness against PG's. That causing EVERYTHING.

[semi-sentient]

We don't need more 3 point shooting.

We still need it to maximize our offense.

Yes, we need better defense from our PG, but we also need guys that can hit shots. How many times does Fisher (and Kobe for that matter) clank a wide open shot that leads to a fast break or easy score on the other end? Hitting more shots allows us to set up our offense and prevent some of those opportunities. As a bi-product, we take less 3's to begin with because making them opens up things in the paint.

I don't think we can realistically expect any lockdown defenders at PG (not with what we have to offer). Fisher's getting burned like nobodies business, but he's NEVER been an above average defender to begin with. No one is suggesting going out and getting a shooter that plays no defense. We need a good mix of both. JJ Redick for president.

[H00PDREAMS]

Starting 5 good to go. But our bench is trash.

[amb1ent]

[microfib4thewin]

We don't need more 3 point shooting. We scored 92 points against the hawks. that's enough to win the championship. it's allowing 109 that is killing us. it's our weakness against PG's. That causing EVERYTHING.

Where did you get the idea that scoring 92 is an indication of good offense?

[Kilroy]

What I believe he's saying is 98 is enough Offense to beat anybody in the league...

As long as your D limits them to less than that... Which is a valid point. Albeit a little optimistic and one sided.

I do agree that we don't need more 3 point shooting. We just need one damn guy on the team that can bury the three when he's as wide open as whoever Fish is gaurding.

3s should be a last resort. Our team would be fine if every time down the court, Odom or Ron or whoever catches the ball at the 3pt line would make a grown-a$$ move to the basket and either make the shot or make the extra pass.

Our offensive woes begin an end with flatfooted passing around the perimeter while we wait for someone inside or Kobe to get position. Then we make that one pass and whoever gets it isolates and throws up a shot with no intention of looking for a better option. This season, our guys just aren't looking for the extra pass.

Ron and Odom are good enough that we probably don't want them shooting threes. I think we want them trying to penetrate and create something for our bigs or as a last resort Kobe.

And kobe needs to drop the Hakeem bs and get back to what he does naturally and what got him where he is. He's not going to have the post game Jordon did... He's just not physical enough and they aren't letting him get away with the elbows and pushing off they let MJ get away with.

Kobe's the most dangerous perimeter threat in the league. And that's what we need now anyway.

Let Odom, Ron, Pau, and Bynum post people up. It'll make your career longer anyway.

[The Skyhook]

Because in recent games he was doing better sizing guys up then Pau was. And I never said that Bynum and Luke were going to strengthen our outside shooting. I said they were going to help strengthen the bench. And for all we know all the attention that our insides scorers might open looks for the outside shooters.

I also think people are going to use Ron Artest as a scapegoat if we fail to repeat but the problem doesn't lie within Artest is lies within the play of our point guards and bench.

And how many games did he play where he actually acted like a 7 footer? Gasol has played better for a longer time this season and he is now struggling for over a month. I do want Bynum to play better and make this team better in the process, but there are very few games where I can say Bynum put up good numbers while helping the team win.

I was not on board with the Artest signing, so I am definitely surprised that Artest is the least of our problems. Unless he's having consecutive 3-14 games I would not put the blame on him if we do come up short. The team just isn't structured correctly, and our offense sucks when Gasol doesn't play well. Aside from thinking everything will work out eventually there's not much else they can do.

What matters is who plays better during the big moment and with the momentum that Bynum had going into the playoffs there was going to be reason for teams to be aware. Remember Derek Fisher lit a a spark under Bynum's ass and then Drew went off. Imagine all the motivation that will be going around during the playoffs. Guys are going to step up their games. Lamar is going to play hard and you know Ron is going to bring it.

[microfib4thewin]

Bynum is going to miss at least two weeks right before playoff starts, even with him playing well in his last several games I would hardly call that a momentum. If you are going to be so confident about Bynum playing as if he didn't miss a beat then we might as well do the same with Gasol.

[Edrees]

I admit I"m exagerating when I'm saying we dont need "any" more 3 point shooting, I'm just saying if I were coach, I wouldn't be thinking "damn, how can our team start sinking more baskets" I would be more concerned about the effort level on fundamentals on boxing out, playing better D against opponents point guards. and all that. You can't just "fix" 3 point shooting suddenly and I believe we can still win the ship by fixing the things we can change as a team.

I think what's happening is our team is taking low quality three pointers trying to play catch up, and that we are playing catch up because we can't defend point guards. The lack of 3 point shooting as a problem is exaggerated by our defensive (mainly, PG) woes.

So you're right 92 isn't really a good offense, but I think if our defense was stopping opposing point guards, giving us momentum, transition opportunities, etc. we'd be scoring 100-105 points for those kind of games. See where I'm coming from?

[The Skyhook]

Bynum is going to miss at least two weeks right before playoff starts, even with him playing well in his last several games I would hardly call that a momentum. If you are going to be so confident about Bynum playing as if he didn't miss a beat then we might as well do the same with Gasol.

I said he had momentum prior to getting hurt. That was the only thing I said about momentum. What I did say is that other guys are going to get motivated and play hard when it comes time to the playoffs. Motivation and momentum are two different things.

[Sedale Threatt]

We don't need more 3 point shooting.

We still need it to maximize our offense.

Exactly. We've got about five or six significant deficiencies, and I put this near the top of the list. It's a double-edged sword. Not only are we not getting production from a critical area, it allows teams to concentrate on neutralizing one of our biggest strengths.

We're shooting something like 29% on 3s in our losses. Not only that, we tend to take a LOT of them in those instances, because that's what teams are giving us. And we can't take advantage. Contrast that to last year's playoffs, when we were shooting 38% with both Odom and Ariza right around 50%. That was a critical, critical part of our success.

Teams aren't stupid. They're going to make guys like Fish beat us as opposed to Bryant and our post players.