How Good Are The Lakers Currently Constructed?

[desertlakerfan]

Lakers don't have enough to beat Thunder in playoffs

Why the Thunder is a threat to the Lakers: The same reason the Lakers lost to the Thunder in last year's playoffs. Even with the Lakers acquiring Steve Nash and Antawn Jamison, they don't have enough pieces to keep up with Oklahoma City. The Lakers still can't do anything about stopping Russell Westbrook. They don't nearly match the bench support that James Harden brings to the Thunder. The Thunder know how to limit the Lakers' size advantage, with Kendrick Perkins fronting Andrew Bynum and Serge Ibaka playing physical on Pau Gasol. Thabo Sefolosha and Harden have been successful at making Kobe Bryant work hard for his shots.


Verdict: It will be a competitive seven-game series. But the Lakers still don't have enough speed and bench depth to match up with the Thunder. That doesn't mean it's impossible for them to beat the Thunder in the playoffs. But as the teams are currently configured, it's more likely Oklahoma City would know how to match whatever changes the Lakers bring.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/lakersnow ... 7610.story

Disagree completely with this guy, OKC hasn't improved their roster enough to keep up with our improvements. With Nash and Jamison we do in fact have enough to beat the currently constructed Thunder roster, since last post season's mishaps were PG and bench based. Magic said it recently, with Nash as our PG last year we don't have those offensive droughts in the 4th quarters that cost us our season.

With that said to complete our roster and cement ourselves as favorites out West we still need a better backup SG.

[Stebo_SSK]

All this speculation in the end is stupid. Thats why it must be played on the court. OKC doesnt have to keep up with LA's improvements, we must match or surpassed theirs. We did just get beat 4-1.

[Anklebreaker702]

All this speculation in the end is stupid. Thats why it must be played on the court. OKC doesnt have to keep up with LA's improvements, we must match or surpassed theirs. We did just get beat 4-1.

I don't see it as being dumb. That's the fun of sports predicting what will happen in your mind. 2 things about the OKC series. 1 it was last year & 2 that 4-1 loss was not indicative of how the series went at all. Like I've said on many occasions we should have been up 3-1 @ worse.

I have faith in our squad with the improvements we've made so far.

[Anklebreaker702]

I think you guys will win the West... Clippers may be a bigger threat than OKC if Blake can stay healthy. love their depth.

someone said earlier in this thread that the Lakers are due for an injury.. well look at OKC. if it wasn't for Ron Artest's elbow.. the Thunder haven't had a significant injury in how many years? 3? 4? it's getting borderline insane that they can be this healthy for this long.

plus how is OKC gonna get THAT much better? Durant and Westbrook don't have much room for improvement statistically and Harden can't be much better than he was last year as a 3rd option (until the Finals)

This is how I see it minus the injuries. Hate thinking about that seeing how we've had our fair share. OKC has 3 people who can score. We have much more than that. 1 or 2 more additions to the bench & we'll have it on lock.

[iamworthy]

We are 1-8 the last two years in the second round. Slice it anyway you want but the facts dont change. In an effort to not sound like other fans that we (laker fans) criticize for saying stuff like, well the series should have been this or if this would of happened it would have been that, Im just going to say that OKC will still be a very very tough out. I remember when we beat Denver three years ago iirc when Ariza came up with those two monster plays...I think steals at the end of the game that pretty much won us the game. Denver fans were saying that they should have won that series because of this and that. I dont want to be that guy, although its hard not to be.

[DEEP3CL]

This is funny because I usually try to avoid speculation, but like Stebo has pointed out several times our loss in the series to OKC was really simple. We had trouble defending their P&R and also truth be told our lack of execution in the crunch is what did us in more than anything.

Like iamworthy said we don't need to play that " we could have" card. While in fact it may hold true about those games being there for the winning, our flaws kept us from finishing. Bottom line I'm not worried about OKC in a playoff series, they still have a major weakness and we put a band-aide on ours. Their lack of interior production will do them in again as it did in the Finals. As for us Nash will help our execution down the stretch because of just his IQ alone, we had no QB fellas. Not looking for Steve to be a savior but he'll close the gap we had in that area.

As far as another piece, we need a perimeter/slashing threat at the 2 or 3 spot. Really don't matter what his scoring average is. I think Josh Childress or Barbosa can fill that void. Never been really thrilled with Barbosa but he got some juice left in the tank. But I doubt we land him if the old reports about him and Steve are true about the wifey step'in out of bounds with him.

As far as OKC?........pffft, they're beatable...very beatable.

[AcecardZ]

Could have should have would have blah!!!

Stern wanted his Durant vs Lebron matchup and got it and unless we get Dwight he's going to get the same NBA finals matchup again next year.

Don't get me wrong I do believe Nash will help but our pick n roll defense won't he any better and Bynum will always lack the speed to be consistently effective on both ends of the court against teams like Miami and OKC..

[Beethoven]

Currently constructed?
Pau Dwight
Kobe
Nash
Mwp
Jamison jordan hill
Earl Clark
Ebanks


Yeah.. I think we can get out of the second round now.

[EArl]

Win or go home!!