Kobe!

Kobe!

Kobe!

This Mark Kiszla guy hates Kobe so much, the entire Nation of China might hunt him down and paddle him to death with those oars from the Opening Ceremonies.

Rick,

I need to say this -- what you posted is buffalo chips. A team does not get to the finals by playing bad defense. A team does not beat Utah (fundamentally sound) and SA (defending champs) by playing "soft" -- whatever the hell that means. I don't correct Mike T and Let's Go C's because ... well, they're insane.

It's just not logical analysis -- Garnet was labeled "soft" for failing all those times with the T-Wolves -- so he gets with Pierce/Allen and suddenly he's not?

Playing styles make series in the NBA -- Plain and simple. You want to talk soft, look around Let's Go C's midriff area.

Watching kobe try to find the NBA three point "line" versus Greece made me laugh. And it seemed to be working, too, which makes me laugh even more. goes to show how much repetition is a part of shooting.

HmrHed,

Where did I use the word "soft" in the post above? Please don't put words in my mouth. Yes, the Lakers outscored their opponents enough times to become Western Conference champs, last season. Is that all that matters to you?

The Lakers have an extremely talented roster. All I'm asking is that they play up to their potential.

Rick,

Sorry for implying something that wasn't there. But the Lakers did play up to their potential -- they had no center and still made the finals -- that's outstanding.

It makes me happy to read a thread that a) starts with a Kam Brother being as confused as I am when it comes to finding the olympic basketball on TV and b) proceeds to a comments section featuring one from Mamba 24 and zero (yet) from mike t.

I sure as hell enjoyed this blog a lot more when that guy wasn't around.

JesterGuru:"I sure as hell enjoyed this blog a lot more when that guy wasn't around."

JesterGuru you are to kind sir.

So much of this "soft" talk is a question of semantics. I'm in the camp that it's hard to say the Lakers, as a team, were "soft." Soft teams don't beat up on Utah and San Antonio, win a brutally tough Western Conference in the regular season and the playoffs, etc. And I think most of you know by now that I don't think the Lakers were a "soft" or "bad" defenseive team last year. They weren't. Relatively speaking, they were actually pretty good.

There's a difference between being not being as good as the Celtics on defense and not being good at all. Clearly the Lakers weren't the former, but they were hardly the latter. The Celtics, it's worth remembering, werne't simply good defensively, but historically good. One of the best defensive teams in NBA history.

Odds are the Lakers won't see a team that good this year, even if they face the Celtics again. That said, the Lakers do have to tighten up. For me, though, where they're weakest isn't inside, but in transition. They have to do a better job crossing t's and dotting i's. To improve, they have to be more attentive defensively, but also smarter about the choices they make with the ball and with their shots.

In the half court, they're not too bad. Overall, between the improvement that good health should provide, along with the lessons learned from last season and an increased commitment to every possession on that end, I would expect the Lakers to be better this year than last. As good as the Celtics? Probably not, but that's the wrong standard to use. The Lakers shouldn't try to make themselves into a smashmouth, Pistons-esque squad just because of how the Finals ended. They need to work to improve where they can without undercutting those things that help make them so effective.

They need to get better, but we're not talking leaps and bounds. Remember, the season lasted until Game 6 of the Finals.

BK

HmrHed,

Oops. I did use "softness." My bad. My apology. An overstatement, to be sure.

Getting up at 4:30 a.m. to watch the game causing softheadness on my part. Yikes! I wonder what else I'm going to screw up today.

To be fair, so far today's game was the best game of Kobe, he finally connected his 3 pointers but still missing lots of easy shots. What China is witnessing is 75% of real Kobe, the guy who shoots lights out with 81 pts and 63 pts against Nowitsky. I think, he is being bothered by that torn pinkie. Frankly, the best player in USA team today is D'Wade followed by Lebron. Kobe handles the defense on the high post so he becomes the 3rd or 4th option in offense but No. 1 in defense. The power of Howard and Bosh in the post and the nimbleness of Deron and CP3, no team in this Olympics can pair well with Team USA. If they'll ever lose, it's b/c of carelessness in frequent steals and turnovers on deep fast breaks.

What makes Kobe click in China or w/ Asians like Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia? It is all about soap opera of Kobe Bean, being trashed by sports media in America but redeemed himself with his exceptional talents in high scoring w/c 2nd to Wilt Chamberlain. His flair, hangtime an absolute heir to Air Jordan plus the emergence of the lakers as a power team this year are all package into one as part of Kobe's image. There are two mecca basketball cities of NBA in Asia, that's Boston and Los Angeles, temporarily in the 90's Chicago got into the map b/c of MJ but it's popularity diminished after MJ departed. As to the Kobe soap opera, asians loved the role of an underdog and what is a "sexual assault" case referred in the Colorado courts, it's a "macho" image in the streets of Asia. "He is the Man". huh! Everybody wants to be identified with the man who can do creative dunkings in the air and score at will, that's Kobeeee'. Secondly, they knew Kobe was right in his rants last summer. While the press here blamed him for creating turmoil and a distration to the team & Laker management to manage, in Asia he's the forsaken small dragon hero and the villains are the Buss Family and Mitch Kupchak, poor Kupcake, he got involved. haha! That's the street persona of Kobe - the Man who faced other mighty dragons, not afraid to go against BigShaq, not afraid to face court trials, not afraid to go against the cheapo owners and Lakers GM and finally got his MVP, Kobe against the Hate-Kobe Sports Media. Therefore, the Redeem Team has links to Redeem Image of Kobe Bean.

Nike made an excellent decision in not dropping Kobe and further alligned their shoes with the anti hero (perhaps the 40M contract was already signed when case erupted.) while McDonald, Sprite and Nutella miscalculated what the consumer pulse and considered him as risk-averse to their products w/o analyzing what the after effects to the hoops market in the streets. Lately, Coke's vitamin drinks are now heavily promoting Kobe on the billboard ads. Kobe got the last laugh in saying: "I can't explain it."

I was in China for the summer shortly before the Olympics started and I can verify that Kobe is indeed king there. Yao Ming may be the most well-known and respected player for obvious reasons, but Kobe is the most loved player. The people there seem to love to watch 2 teams: the Rockets and Lakers.

I even had a conversation with a college student there who was also distraught about how the Lakers got crushed by the Celtics. The cool thing was that he echoed the sentiments of the legions of Lakers fans in the U.S.: They'll be back next year with Bynum!

One more thing, basketball is the number 1 sport in that country. At the university that I was studying at, there were at least 20 basketball courts there and they were always full of students, adults, old men playing.

EDWIN GUECO:"Kobe got the last laugh in saying: "I can't explain it.""
OUT FREAKIN STANDING POST EDWIN!

latopia-

Well put.

BK

Mamba24, you're the modern day Boozer on this blog. You give life to everyone, yet you don't post often.

However, I've to remind your assignment during the preseason, find Fatty amd JWW, I found their names in the column of Ann Landers griping against the K-Bros. lol!

Well, it has been said that the Chinese are smarter than 90% of Americans so that pretty much explains it. Americans hate Kobe because they say he's arrogant and selfish...those are virtues highly regarded in other countries. Arrogance is a sign of power and success in most countries and it is an accepted phenomena.

In the US, we tend to dislike that even when people can back up their arrogance.

Anyway...more importantly...HI MAMBA24!!!

Oh, there's so many things I could say...

"I think I'm in the best situation ever," Brown, 26, said Tuesday during a teleconference with reporters. "I came in as the No. 1 draft pick and now there are no expectations.

"I'm just happy I can come out and just play hard and play smart."

Brown was attracted to the idea of playing for Pistons president Joe Dumars -- "I definitely hope he'll see in me what a lot of people don't see," Brown said -- as well as new coach Michael Curry. He also liked the Pistons' history of developing productive players who did not pan out with other teams.

EDwin Gueco:" find Fatty amd JWW, I found their names in the column
of Ann Landers griping against the K-Bros. lol!"

STOP THAT! STOP IT NOW! LOL! I don't know where
JWW is but Fatty is on Faiths Blog. Ask her to give you
the address I lost it. By the way how dId you know I had
some booze in my hand? LOL! As to my lack of Posting, that
last loss took more out of me than I thought. The only way I was able
to start Blogging again is seeing theChinesse reaction to KOBE. I'll be
blogging more often FROM NOW ON.

Larry(Mamba24)

I posted this before and it seems to be holding up ok, though my cable operator, Time Warner, seems to be having some switching issues vs the QVC show which I guess is supposed to air on USA at 5:00 AM. I haven't seen my recording yet. Last time, I must admit, the bizarreness of what the QVC was showing was highly entertaining:

http://tinyurl.com/5um94w

Sun, Aug 10, 10:15 a.m (Eastern). USA - China (M) on NBC

Tues, Aug 12, 8:00 a.m (Eastern). USA - Angola (M) on USA channel

Thurs, Aug 14, 8:00 a.m (Eastern). USA - Greece (M) on USA channel

Sat, Aug 16, 10:15 a.m (Eastern). USA - Spain (M) on USA channel

Mon, Aug 18, 8:00 a.m (Eastern). USA - Germany (M) on USA channel

Larry,

I hope you didn't think that sentence was meant for you. That one was meant for Mike T.

As far as you go, I sure as hell enjoy this blog a lot MORE when you're around.

With Mike, I just get so tired of every single post being about how soft Pau is, by extension still attempting pathetically a year later to justify his Kwame-love and Bynum-jinxing.

Of course I try to scroll past but it seems like every other post lately is from Mike T. Ugh.

Larry. Bring it, brother. The more bandwagons, the better!

Mamba24, i mean Boozer, the bench warmer of Team USA, who plays less but gives a lot of boost to teammates. Latest reaction, they just adopted him and gave the star from the West a new name: KOH BEE. If there is a country who could pay Kobe 50M, it will be China not Europe. His role there will not be playing basketball but promote China. There are 1.3 billion chinese in China and about 200 million more outside of China. Marketers will just be targetting 100M to spend $1 and that's 100% profit! Who cares about the Lakers 24M with lots of pain-blame to bear from T.J. Simers to Let's go C being called Kobiatch from sunrise to sundown? Here he is Koh-Bee the magnificent and the dragon symbol will be replaced by Mamba8. LOL!!

I would be drop dead shocked if Kwame averaged 6 and 6 next year.

My challenge to Mike T still stands. If Kwame averages 6 and 6 through the first 20 games of the season I will publically apologize for all the nasty things I said about Mike T. If Kwame does not average 6 and 6, then Mike T has to publically admit that Kwame sucks eggs.

HmrHed,

Kwame could offer 6 and 6, but I think 4 and 5 are more likely.

GO LAKERS!

Morning all.....The Lakers Nation is reporting that the Lakers have signed Josh Powell......Not a bad signing

Benjamin:

nice analysis you had so let me explain further.

"Defensive 3 second violations have actually replaced the old illegal defense calls. The whole change overall allowed greater zone defenses making it tougher, not easier, to score."

The old illegal defense calls were made to make defenders not be lazy and force them to guard a man or double team/trap. While Defensive 3 seconds made zone defense more tougher, it made sure that no players, especially big guys such as Shaq and Dwight Howard, from staying in the paint. If you see old footage of back in the 80's and 90's most often you will always see a big man always in the paint for offense and especially defense. With no big man in the paint due to Def. 3 seconds, guys like Kobe, Wade, and Lebron can penetrate the paint more and get a basket quickly and possibly get an "and one" if a big guy tries to rotate over to help with defense or pass it to an open guy to score. Thus there was less space given by defenders to score in the paint compared to today.

"I think part of the reason they stopped allowing hand-checking is because their loosening of zone D rules made it harder for the perimeter player and they wanted to keep the game dynamic and interesting instead of slow and plodding"

Exactly and without hand checking offensive players can score better. Thus personal defense isn't as good as it was back in the 80-90's. Thus no hand checking=less contact=more easier scoring. So yes its getting more entertaining with more 40 point explosions. It is up to anyone and their opinion to decide whether they like seeing 40 point games by a single player or getting the same amount of points with the same players.

And to compare how effective hand checking was I will compare Kobe's scoring from the final 3 years of hand checking to the years without it:

Kobe's scoring:
Last 3 years of hand checking: 227 games - 26.59ppg
(From 01-02, 02-03, 03-04)
Since the new hand checking rule was made: 305 games - 30.83 ppg
(From 04-05 season to 07-08)

"The "arc around the basket" as you call it which most know as the restricted area just gives a slight advantage to the offensive player. It's like the offsides rule change made by FIFA in the early 1990s. It doesn't provide a huge change, just makes the game slightly more interesting by giving a slight advantage to the offensive player. You should be blocking shots not trying for charges right under the basket anyway."

The restricted area not only not lets big men try to take charges but also small guards as well. Hence its harder to stop fast breaks and thus more points can be made. Still gives an advantage to the offensive player regardless.

I'm a little old school since the days of Kareem and Magic to Kobe and Shaq years. I love watching us Lakers win and next year will be our year. Yet compared to the defense of then to that of today makes it a little too spoiled especially when guards then like MJ and Clyde Drexler had a tougher time to score back then yet managed to score well. FIBA retains some of the old school rules yet its never the same with the NBA.

I guess the NBA should be fun to watch regardless. i just prefer the old rules than the new ones which allows guys like Wade to get fouls by simply driving to the lane and touching a defender.

Here's a link how defense has been watered down, and yes even Tex Winters agrees:

http://hoopshype.com/articles/defense_lazenby.htm