Anyone concerned that the Lakers are getting too old?

[0HeadAche0]

basically this was all prompted by the prospect of having kurt thomas come in as our 3rd center as a replacement for mbenga. i like kurt thomas hes a good player and this isnt a thread about him

we could potentially lose, powell, mbenga, sbrown and farmar who are all under 30, i mean they may not play big minutes but brown and farmar were able to give some youthful exuberance to the team when they checked in

right now we have two players guaranteed for next year who is under 30. couple this with the fact by next years playoffs everyone will be a year older, more miles on the clock possibly slowing down. personally i would love to back our 7+ years vets with some just youthful energy.

im sitting here hoping ebanks and caracter make the roster to give us a better balance.

i love our vet team but possibly after another 82 games and some hard playoff battles could we find ourselves possibly coming up short because we're a bit too old. with guys like k thomas and the 30 year old blake as our bench?

[chupaculomod]

im sitting here hoping ebanks and caracter make the roster to give us a better balance.

you just answered your own question. Caracter has a nice back to the basket game with a nice little jump hook similar to Pau's. Plus he just seems to outwill rebounders who are taller than him. Ebanks looks great too plus he's 6'9 and can move the ball well.

as far as next year, who knows. Trade Odom.

[LApwnd]

NOPE, once Kobe is done we're rebuilding, sorry I dont believe in Bynum hype, he's isn't our future. So better to add solid vet pressence for our current window.

[supaflash]

We are fine for the window we have, look at the Celts last year...

Only thing that concerns me though is regular season minutes and we need quality guys that can play mins and get the job done. 3 straight finals plus olympics is a ton of minutes in a row without much rest.

[LApwnd]

We are fine for the window we have, look at the Celts last year...

Only thing that concerns me though is regular season minutes and we need quality guys that can play mins and get the job done. 3 straight finals plus olympics is a ton of minutes in a row without much rest.

should/hope to see a better Kobe/Pau with their rest from internation play this summer.

[Penberthy]

I agree with you. I don't believe that Bynum will ever be above 80% in the playoffs, but I know there is a team out there that sees him as the second coming of Hakeem. I say trade Bynum for a young servicable defensive-minded center AND a young combo guard that can back up Kobe and also play the less demanding trianglePG. I know trading Bynum doesn't necessarily help of get rid of an old player, but it would help us bring in 2 or possibly 3 young players and maybe Kobe's eventual replacement. Some possibilities for Bynum include:
Biedrins+Ellis
Marc+OJ

[CX44]

Lakers are concerened about winning now. Look at thier contract structure I don't think anyone is signed for more than 4yr total. Within the next 3-5yrs the Lakers will do some serious rebuilding hoping that Bynum stays healthy and will be one of the cornerstones of the franchise or they trade him for a player who has some superstar "potential".

[0HeadAche0]

im not worried about building another team 5 years down the line.

im thinking that we're not going to win next year because everyone is 30+, even the celtics had rondo, perkins, powe, big baby etc. to energize them over the past few years.

[Kilroy]

Well, we haven't signed Bell or Thomas yet, so maybe this is a little premature... But I'd be a little concerned if we did...

Look at Boston... They're old as hell, but they have some youth and athleticism they can bring off the bench. Our bench would be older than our starting lineup...

I think we need some springy legs, but we got 1.8M to spend, and the only young athletes we could afford would likely be total scrubs, so we have to look at some vets.

I just don't want to recreate the whole tired-ass Malone/Payton debacle...

But we are in win-now mode so why not bring in guys like Bell and Thomas and maybe Tmac?

[slifersd]

Unless you have young players who can actually be cornerstones of your franchise in the future, it makes no difference what age your players are. If we are not contending any more, guys like Farmar, Brown, Powell, Morrison and Mbenga are out of here no matter what.

[Optms]

Not worried about it all. Why should any of us? Maybe in the regular season where guys may just start going through the motions, but not in the playoffs. Age just speaks experience to me. Especially in this league. Aged veteran teams survive more often than not.

Take a look at Boston's big 3 for example, who are all much older then our core 3 (Bryant-Gasol-Bynum). Those guys are still getting done and probably expected to compete in the East again if healthy. The key is health. Which is my only concern as time goes. The older the guys become, the more nagging injuries/healing time become an issue that we just have to live with.

[0HeadAche0]

Take a look at Boston's big 3 for example, who are all much older then our core 3 (Bryant-Gasol-Bynum). Those guys are still getting done and probably expected to compete in the East again if healthy. The key is health. Which is my only concern as time goes. The older the guys become, the more nagging injuries/healing time become an issue that we just have to live with.

kind of missed my point about the fact that they had loads of young guns coming off the bench to give them energy. how we wont have that if we get bell and thomas

[LAKERS_1981]

No. We have 3-4 year windo to win know with Kobe.
So i say get players that want to win know and are solid know. Not waiting for some young legs.

[Optms]

Take a look at Boston's big 3 for example, who are all much older then our core 3 (Bryant-Gasol-Bynum). Those guys are still getting done and probably expected to compete in the East again if healthy. The key is health. Which is my only concern as time goes. The older the guys become, the more nagging injuries/healing time become an issue that we just have to live with.

kind of missed my point about the fact that they had loads of young guns coming off the bench to give them energy.

Sorry. ;o

I wouldn't worry about it, though. The bench cannot possibly play any worse than they did this year. Even with Jordan and Brown gone. You have a point eluding to their youthful energy but you have to recall that it wasn't all there for most of the regular season games. Or at least it didn't result into anything positive. Hell, I'd argue these guys were the reason LA failed to 60+ games, they were all set backs as soon as they hit the floor. Nothing consistent was given and hardly any sparks. The only thing the guys had going for them was their age, which didn't do us any good seeing as how we had to roll out the starters to play extra minutes just to maintain leads for most of the season. Why worry about a young bench when they were crap to begin with? I wouldn't.

[Gek]

We have a young Bynum to continue building off of and we have Ebanks if he pans out, we'll eventually start getting draft picks again. I honestly want to trade Caracter to get someone to take Walton's contract b/c I don't think he'll fit in LA for awhile if at all b/c he is a small guy and despite his appearance, not a prolific rebounder (See Joey Dorsey).

[larry14r]

I agree with you. I don't believe that Bynum will ever be above 80% in the playoffs, but I know there is a team out there that sees him as the second coming of Hakeem. I say trade Bynum for a young servicable defensive-minded center AND a young combo guard that can back up Kobe and also play the less demanding trianglePG. I know trading Bynum doesn't necessarily help of get rid of an old player, but it would help us bring in 2 or possibly 3 young players and maybe Kobe's eventual replacement. Some possibilities for Bynum include:
Biedrins+Ellis
Marc+OJ

You know that neither team won't trade with us. espeically Memphis face it we are never going to see Marc again. Also if you want a young guard then go sign Shaun Livingston or draft ourselves because no team will bail us out.

[larry14r]

NOPE, once Kobe is done we're rebuilding, sorry I dont believe in Bynum hype, he's isn't our future. So better to add solid vet pressence for our current window.

he will if you add another young player around him.

[larry14r]

Not worried about it all. Why should any of us? Maybe in the regular season where guys may just start going through the motions, but not in the playoffs. Age just speaks experience to me. Especially in this league. Aged veteran teams survive more often than not.

Take a look at Boston's big 3 for example, who are all much older then our core 3 (Bryant-Gasol-Bynum). Those guys are still getting done and probably expected to compete in the East again if healthy. The key is health. Which is my only concern as time goes. The older the guys become, the more nagging injuries/healing time become an issue that we just have to live with.

That's the thing that worries me.

[larry14r]

We have a young Bynum to continue building off of and we have Ebanks if he pans out, we'll eventually start getting draft picks again. I honestly want to trade Caracter to get someone to take Walton's contract b/c I don't think he'll fit in LA for awhile if at all b/c he is a small guy and despite his appearance, not a prolific rebounder (See Joey Dorsey).

Well we need him because we can't afford anyone else right now. Also no one will takes Luke's contract.

[lakers16xchamps]

LOL @ this thread. Their average age is only 28, veteran teams win titles not young teams like OKC.