Sun Yue will become Magic Johnson when he joins the Lakers. If you are worried about his bulk, that's easy, the In & Out burgers alone will make him as big a Magic. I did not say he will be good as Magic but there is always room for expansion horizontally.

There is no way for Farmar to grow vertically at 6'9". So if talents are equal in a year's time, the advantage is on Yue (Is it pronounced as Yoo' or Yu-weh.? What I know they pronounced the vowels: a-e-i-o-u in chinese).

A Beatle song will become a threat to Farmar, remember the tune of that song:

"Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
and I say it's all right

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like
years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it's all right.........."

Can someone tell me which channel carries the game tomorrow morning???

LakerTom,

He seemed to move well in the game against the US. His range is good, but not great, and that's pretty much all I can say about him. I hope to see him play a lot in the preseason to get a better gauge of his skill level.

Does anyone know if buying NBA league pass will include preseason games?

To the person who praised Mike Dunleavy's GM ability a while back, I have two words for you:

Yaroslav Korolev

You may now return to your regular Pau-bashing, already in progress.

PS The Lakers got Bynum at #10, and the Clippers took Koralev two picks later. Danny Granger fell to the Pacers several picks later. Imagine the gnashing of teeth if Mitch had taken the future manager of the Moscow Starbucks in Red Square.

Sonnybelfast,

What's your take on the whole Artest as a King thing?

GO LAKERS!

Thank goodness for you Sonny. I'd have a lot fewer links and posts to scroll past if it weren't for your clever, caustic, semi-political diatribes. Not to mention the wealth of Sacramento Bee story links.

Thanks Sonny. You're the best.

Edwin,

>>>>> Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
>>>>>and I say it's all right

One of my favorite songs ever by George Harrison although it’s the Richie Havens version I love best. Hope Sun Yue lives up to his promise. He and Jordan give us some potentially great young legs behind Fish.

Tom

In order to play Yue, Mitchell, Karl next season, we need Jeanie Buss badly. She has to influence this nutty Zen coach to recognize talents than scrubs, to respect the youth who are eager to play than the veterans who are comfy and lazy with their rich contracts. Somebody has to influence this old baby boomer!

By the way, am I the only person who thinks it's beyond hilarious that Canada hasn't won a medal yet?

Time to lay off the Moosehead and get in the gym, eh!

GO USA!

GO LAKERS!

Anyone know the terms of the Josh Powell signing?

GO LAKERS!

"Sun Yue will become Magic Johnson when he joins the Lakers. If you are worried about his bulk, that's easy, the In & Out burgers alone will make him as big a Magic. I did not say he will be good as Magic but there is always room for expansion horizontally."
Posted by Edwin Gueco

No! LOL! That would be like comparing Kwa-may Brown to Kevin Garnett and Kevin Durant to Kobe Bryant. Of course its certainly possible but remember Magic was the 1st overall pick back in 1979 and Sun Yue is a 2nd rounder. I know you said skill wise Sun Yue might not be as good as Magic. I would rather think a better comparison would be Boris Diaw in that he can play multiple positions (if Sun Yue bulks up he can probably play even power forward).
Even though Sun Yue is showing flashes of potential in the Olympics, its still too early to say he's the next Magic Johnson.

Don't count out Farmar. Like I said before he has been in the NBA for 2 more years than Sun Yue (1 had Sun Yue actually signed with us last year). So he knows the tricks of the trades plus he probably has more stamina to handle the sch of the NBA than Sun Yue does. If you compare Sun Yue to Magic then its fair to compare Farmar to Steve Nash or even Tony Parker.

However I agree if all else equal skill wise (penetrating the paint, jumpers, and defense especially) Sun Yue would have certainly the edge against Jordan, time will only tell.

LakerTom,

I think Sun Yue was a great signing because the risk is minimal and the reward could be huge. When Mitch and the rest of the front office evaluates players these kinds of things need to be addressed and I think our front office is actually incredibly gifted at it.

I remember reading Ronnie Lester say something regarding the Bynum draft pick and where the team was at the point (did they need immediate impact) and how they knew he was a project but in two to three years would be considered a top 3 pick (if not #1) and that was their line of thinking. I really commend forward thinking management and it's nice to know our guys can go either way (giving up prospects and cap flexibility to get Gasol).

I'm really excited about this team, probably for the simple fact that I agree with what you (and your wife) mentioned...I like these guys. And I really think that each and every guy on the squad is a hard worker. that kind of thing is addictive and usually delivers good results.

Tully Moxness,

"To the person who praised Mike Dunleavy's GM ability a while back, I have two words for you:

Yaroslav Korolev"

Touche.

GO LAKERS!

Jon,

My take on Artest as a King? As you know, I marvel at Bills ability and enjoyed watching him thunder down the court. While in rebuilding mode, Ron helped keep attendance from collapsing. I am glad he was here, and, I am glad he is gone. I'm even happier that we picked up two first rounders for him, which was my plan all along.

Go Niners!

Sonnybelfast

kobebryantblitz,

Didn't get my joke huh? I said horizontally meaning the belly and weight, not the talents of Magic. How about the vertical growth on Farmar?

LakerTom,

You better correct this Joel Myers who kept on calling him short cut Yu and dropped the e which is pronounced as you said the sound Yu "ah". In the case of Gasol, heard Steve Hartman saying: Gay-sol. It's Spanish so it should be a short ahhh not the long ayyyye.

It goes without saying - accents go in both ways and change much as it leaves its place of origin, so we should not laugh at people with funny accents! Isn't it nice we have a blog and learn something new?

By the way, does anyone actually think that the Chinese WOMEN'S gymnastic team is actually composed of a bunch of 16 and older WOMEN?

My answer? HELL NO!

GO USA!

GO LAKERS!

having Lamar guarding guys in the perimeter will help our defense especially with Drew and Pau, two 7 footers. Plus both Drew and Pau can score done in the post as well. Back in 2005-2006 season two 7 footers (Kwa-mey Brown and Chris Mihm) did help clog the lanes for defense purposes but we lacked any low post scoring and Lamar struggled penetrating the severely clogged lanes and Kobe was forced to shoot more perimeter shots since both Chris Mihm and especially Kwa-may Brown weren't good scorers. Having a slow Brian Cook did give us some offense but defense suffered greatly. Same thing happened in 2006-2007 teams again clogged the lane to prevent Kwa-may Brown from doing any scoring and an injured Lamar from doing any damage and Kobe again was forced to shoot. Once Bynum developed and especially with Pau we finally have an equal offense and defense capability and Lamar can defend more aggressively on the perimeter and can penetrate more since teams has to be concerned about not only Drew and Pau, they always have to worry about Kobe with Derek on the perimeter to shoot both long and mid range. Bynum will break out this year and Pau while not a great defender is solid enough to defend against the Power Forwards of today.

Pau limited Tim Duncan (the best Power Forward of all time, yes he will be greater than Barkley, Malone, and Garnett) to 22.4 ppg on 42.6 % shooting and also made Garnett score 18.2ppg on 44.4% shooting and Pau was playing out of position. And this was the same Kevin Garnett who torched Rasheed Wallace for 22.8ppg on 52.1% shooting in the Eastern Conference Finals!

With a solid but not great defender who can pass/score/rebound and think well at Power Forward, a beast at Center, a solid small forward, one of the best perimeter players ever, and a solid jump shooting veteran at point, combined with an ever strengthening bench, the 2008-2009 Lakers look darn good.

Tom,
you used to play bball in china town? which team?
-boba

Long Time Laker Fan,

Jannero Pargo is going to Russia? Crazy.

Well that's good for us. I didn't like Jannero Pargo playing for the Hornets. Nope. Not one little bit.

GO LAKERS!

boba,

>>>>> you used to play bball in china town? which team?

You know, it’s been so long (35 years, LOL) that I can’t remember the name of the team. At the time I was tutoring Cantonese kids in English as a volunteer while attending Cal State LA and I can’t even remember the name of the community center that I worked in but that was where the games were. Pretty good competition, too! And very American style of basketball, including all the foul calling and arguing over calls.

The point I was making was the Sun Yue’s play reminds me more of the guys I played with in that league rather than the usual more passive players on the China national team. I also played against one of the teams from Chinatown in a summer league at Cal State LA. This was back in the days when Raymond Lewis was playing, if there are any other longtime LA basketball junkies. I played against Raymond and he was the greatest shooter that I ever played against, a great 3-point shooter right around the time the ABA put the rule in.

How about you?

Tom

AZ,

>>>>> I think our front office is actually incredibly gifted at it.

I think this year will provide the proof to back up that statement. Good take, Andrew.

Tom

Mamba,

Here is the third try to post Mrs. LakerTom’s comments of the day. She is already ragging on me for the last two attempts getting screwed up. Guess that five less than signs in a row alerts TypePad to ignore what follows.

Anyway, the latest takes from Mrs. LakerTom:

>>>>>

“Without the trolls, the bloggers would spend all of their time destroying each other.
The trolls give them an outlet to vent their anger someone other than other bloggers.”

“She can tell from the posts that Mike T and I were both overaggressive defenders
in our day who mercilessly hacked and fouled every player we ever guarded.”

“AK and BK would both make excellent fathers because they already have solid
experience in handling juvenile delinquents.”

>>>>>

Tom

I'm with you there Jon K. There's something fishy in China, and I don't just mean the boxing.

Jon K, KBblitz:

Nothing wrong with Jordan Farmar, he can be good as Fisher with his last second heroics last season. If he becomes as good as Tony Parker, well and good but he has been inconsistent with his defense for the last two years now. He can't handle the fast guards like Brandon Roy, CP3, Deron Williams, Tony Parker, Rajon Rondo, Monta Ellis, Baron Davis and on and on and on. Therefore, when his contract become due for increase and extentions and he may be asking 60M for 4 years that's where the difference lies, owners would look for a cheaper alternative just like what happened to Ronny Turiaf. Now from the Lakers perspective, all of us in this blog love to speculate, we all want our speculation as the hard fast rule tho' it's just pure guesstimate from a fan's eye view. Nobody here read the mind of kupchak when he got Ariza in the 1st half and Gasol in the 2nd half. Not even the Stat-Man, LTLF who made a living out of memorizing everyone's PER and Stats or the LakerTom who is more optimistic than Confusius. or our basketball mind here who has been preaching the magnificent calves that will plug the middle. Lately, we sense some storms in the horizon when we see a lot of PG's being recruited. They drafted a PG, signed Yue who they drafted last year a PG, signed Karl last year another PG so why five PG's? Karl was the best Laker during the Summer League. That's when you ask questions, is it a possibility that they are packaging a PG and an expiring contract SF or PF for a Center who will take place of another expiring injury-prone Center. In conclusion, there is nothing really wrong with Farmar we're analysing the initial moves by Mitch, what is he hatching up?

Derek Fisher=Bill Paxson
Jordan Farmar=BJ Armstrong

Don't forget

Kobe Bryant=Scottie Pippen

hhahahahahahaha