It's all good if the so-called "Space Cadet" got into all that space in his own head! I want to see the Vlad that kicked our butts a few years back. He was deadly from the 3 pretty much all the time. If he can get his head out of his own way, we'll all be on the "I LOVE VLAD" bandwagon!

ok this will be somewhat of a long post so I suggest to those who aren't interested in the re-Bltiz-Hobbit debates please please scroll down:

"How do you respond to Tex scoffing at Lamar? Thoughts
on his pg prowess?"

Hobbit you just went around in redundancy. Wasn't it you said that Lamar was no Scottie Pippen in the beginning? And we both agreed that Lamar is not the defender nor the capable 2nd man that Scottie was. Lamar will never be Scottie Pippen. That being said, making Lamar bringing up the Ball as a point forward doesn't make him Scottie Pippen. Biggest difference is that Pippen was the 2nd guy on the team and could be the 1st guy as well. Lamar at best is a 2nd guy, not really a 1st guy. Lebron has played a point forward role in Cleveland's offense does that make him a Scottie Pippen? Boris Diaw played a point forward role during the 2005-2006 season during times Steve Nash was sitting on the bench, did that make him Scottie Pippen? Larry Bird, Grant Hill, and Antoine Walker (in his prime) all played a point forward role and they should not be confused as Scottie Pippen. Lamar being a point forward may seem like it but 1) He's not the 2nd guy the offense goes through 2) He's not the quarterback of the defense like Pippen was and 3) He's not the defensive force that Pippen was. Tex is right, him being compared to Pippen is absurd. At the same time though, don't confuse that Lamar being a point forward means he's going to be Scottie Pippen.

And trying to use Tex Winters as the "ultimate source"? Well I respect Tex very much and I did read that very long book of his on the triangle offense. That being said Tex also called Shaq "over rated" especially during the 2003 Playoffs (Source: The Last Season: A team in search of it's soul"). It's up to you whether Tex was right about Shaq but I'll say it now, Tex is *Not* the All-Knowing Grandmaster of Basketball. Why did I say this? Simple using Tex Winters in an argument against isn't going to work.

"Do you believe he's right? (about 10ppg 12rpg 8 ap)"

No I think he was simply trying to state a goal rather than being realistic. If Lamar is being realistic then it would be more 10 ppg 7 or 8 rpg (because of Pau/Bynum/Kobe and especially Powell) and around 5 or 6 apg. If he can have a FG% of over 50% that would be very fine to have. I would take those numbers from a 4th option anytime of the week even if he is over paid.

The tendinitis thing? It's simple it was either that or arthoscopic surgery.

http://tinyurl.com/57hg89

Had he had arthoscopic surgery, he would have been forced on recovery and not being able to work out and could have missed a portion of training camp. By going for extended rest the tendinitis in the knee went down and afterwards was able to work out in Las Vegas. Sure while he was resting on the beach with a Corona may seem "lazy", but if you can't work out because of tendinitis, what else can you do?

http://tinyurl.com/6hr5wn

An article about tendnitis and the most common treatment is rest and anti-inflammatory drugs although there is an on going debate whether the drugs work (having two relatives as MD's does get me some interesting info despite their debates to be somewhat annoying at family gatherings).

"Your thoughts? I ask, because I know Kobe's response
would have been very different."

If Kobe had tendinitis then he would have the arthoscopic surgery like he did back in 2006 and because of that he missed the 1st two games of the regular season. Because Lamar is not like Kobe he thought rest would have worked better. Remember there is no *guarantee* that arthoscopy would have taken away the tendinitis. Either way, it *did* Lamar to work out in August at least.

"re: "it won't work". There's this saying: "Keep it simple
stupid". The paradigm of Lamar at pg and then switching
off to SF for defense is flawed. It is not simple. It opens up the
opportunity for missed defensive assignments long term.
Since quickness is *NOT* Lamar's strong suit and neither
is defense, putting him in a position where he has to
rely on quickness and defense seems flawed."

There are many examples of people guarding other positions on defense and going on in another on offense.
Bowen guards a variety of positions from SF, to SG, to PG, heck even some PF and yet on offense he still plays the small forward shooting out of the perimeter. MJ always guarded the best perimeter guys from PG, SG, to SF and always returned to his SG/SF slot on offense. Kobe does the same with SG/SF/PG and always has returned to SG back on offense. It's also happened before back in 2005-2006. Ron Artest always guarded Kobe when Artest came to Sacramento and Lamar was guarded by a combo of Shareef/Kenny Thomas and back on defense Lamar guarded Ron Artest and Kobe guarded Kevin Martin/Bonzi Wells. Same thing happened in 2004 Finals when Kobe was guarded by Tayshaun Prince and yet had to guard either Rip Hamilton or Chauncey Billups on defense. On WCF it was Pau who guarded Tim Duncan yet Pau played Center and Tim played PF and it was Odom who guarded the Centers of Oberto and Kurt Thomas. And in the NBA Finals it was Odom who guarded Perkins even though Perkins played center and Pau guarded KG even though KG played PF and Pau at the time played Center. Like I said it isn't uncommon for players to guard other players on defense and play a different role on offense. And still talking about Lamar's defense, please don't make me bust out the stats again of how Lamar did defensively against Perkins (he limited Perkins after Perkins had a very good series against Detroit, almost a double double against McDyess).

"I would never tell you that Lamar is not a versatile big man.
I would tell you that Lamar is somewhat passive. From
a team design stand point, I would tell you that versatility
is not as high a priority as defense. I would tell you that
there are *NO* passive champions."

Tim Duncan is one of the most passive players in the NBA. NOT SAYING LAMAR IS COMPARABLE TO TIM. Just proving your point that just because people are passive, doesn't mean they aren't champions. If Tim was actually more aggressive, he wouldn't even try to use his mid range bank shot and instead keep dunking the ball and his FG% would have went up and would actually have challenged Shaq. As I said, Tim Duncan is one of the most passive players in the NBA yet he is a 4 Time NBA Champion and 3 time NBA Finals MVP and a 2 time NBA Season MVP. This only proved you don't have to be "passive" to be successful.

And defense again. Man I already showed that Lamar played solid defense. Like I said, it seems *nothing* I say will convince you otherwise like *NOTHING* YOU SAY WILL CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE.

"His desire *NOT* to play "Manu" for the Lakers is a 'little'
troubling to me. Yes, I understand wanting to start."

It's troubling for me too. I just think it's a motivation to play better from Phil, if it works it works, it seems though he would be willing to play 6th man even though Lamar won't be happy about it.

"BTW, your quest for great matchups would best be
served if he was coming off the bench."

If I could choose great matchups it would be Kobe at the 1, Trevor at the 2, Lamar at the 3, Pau at the 4, and Bynum at 5. Kobe would play defense on point guards and score, Trevor would guard the other perimeter guy, Lamar would facilitate the offense, and Pau and Bynum pounding them underneath.

That's all I have to say and want to say for that matter. I really don't want to continue this when I thought we concluded that we can't convince either one about the other's opinions.

-blitz

Mamba24 aka Lar-dizzle

You are a crack up brother!

Kobebryantblitz,

The other thing is that LO will probably still be guarded by SF when he plays on offense. No coach is going to switch their PG to LO and their SF to Fisher just because LO is the guy bringing the ball up the court. So there likely won't have to be much switching for us on D.

I remember doing Vlad's Bio-Chrono reading a long time ago and he is mental on three of four levels. I mean, the guy is probably psychic he's so mentally focused. No joke.

Physical - He's creatively based. Meaning it's important for him to feel attractive to others and engage in new physical experiences and challenges. It also makes him competitve.

Emotionally - He's mentally based. Meaning trust is a big deal to him. He needs to feel trusted and that his trust is valued by others. He's quick to forgive, but slow to forget. So break his trust too many times and he'll have a complete emotional freak-out. Trust him and value his trust and he'll go the extra mile for you.

Mentally - He's mentally based. (This level is VERY important for Vlad). This means that he needs to feel important in his group, to feel respected, and to be surrounded by people with whom he clicks. His social environment is EXTREMELY important to him and his mental clarity. He needs to feel valued, respected, and important to that group. If he doesn't feel that way, he'll start being disrespectful to others and it will throw his whole worldview out of balance... and he'll make bad, self-destructive decisions as a result.

Creatively/Spiritually - He's mentally based (like Lamar). This means its important for him to have something to believe in. For Lamar, its important that he have people he feels he can believe in (such as his team) as well as feeling that other people believe in him. Concepts of "destiny" are particularly important for Vlad, so much so that if he sets his mind to something (positively or negatively) he can create a "self-fulfilling prophesy" regarding his actions and related actions of those around him.

Believe it or not, Vlad has a great Bio-Chrono reading for a competitor, despite the tendency for him to get lost into his head. The solution? Bring him out of his head and into the group. Vlad's social relationships (and his membership in a team, group, or community) is EXTRAORDINARILY important to his success as a human being. If those relationships are steady, deep, trustworthy, and positive, they will facilitate bringing out the best in Vlad. If they are negative, shallow, unstable, and unreliable, they will bring out all the worst in Vlad.

I hope somebody mentions that to Phillip Jackson. His little snarky comments won't acheive the results he's looking for, because they communicate a lack of trust and respect for Vlad. At first Vlad will brush them aside and find them to be a little bit of a challenge and motivator, but he won't forget a single comment, and if they keep up, eventually Vlad will reach a boiling point and completely rebel. Its just the way he is. So, Phillip better change the way he's dealing with Vlad because its not good for Vlad nor is it good for the team.

Not at all.

GO LAKERS!

The best thing about Vlad? Well, at least he's not Luke.

Now Lamar, at Vlad's salary, would be just about worth it.

Lamar=Laker until we find a taker

Ship his A$$ out!!!!!!!!!

Trade:

Lamar Odumb + Space Cadet + Puke = 2008 Champ & Save $25 mil

Video from today's practice is up:

http://www.nba.com/lakers/multimedia/0708video.html

Interviews with Pau and PJ. Really odd tone. Definitely the awkward middle portion of camp. Seems like there's an uneasiness and uncertainty that goes along with "tinkering" and having to adjust to new positions. Pau was very casual talking about Drew and adjusting to playing PF. PJ bristled a little bit when told Drew wants to be an all-star. It seems like the reporters have an excitement about Drew. Drew has an excitement about himself. But that's something that might rub some of the players and or the coach the wrong way. It's interesting to see PJ want to temper Drew's enthusiasm but at the same time go the other way on players who don't bring the intensity. I get it. PJ doesn't want to hear Drew talking about scoring a lot. He wants him to be a force defensively and on the boards.

Save$25mil,

If only it were so!

Need I remind everyone, if those three morons weren't on the team last year, Andrew doesn't blow out his knee and Pau doesn't tweak his ankle late in the season either.

Lamar = Laker until we find a taker

Blitz,

Here are some replies to your post.

"Tex is *Not* the All-Knowing Grandmaster of Basketball. Why did I say this? Simple using Tex Winters in an argument against isn't going to work."

Ill take a Hall Of Famer coach's Basketball opinion about a player he is in touch with. Not that our blog crew opinion cant be valid, but using Tex Winter's argument can work against a blogger's opinion...

"Tim Duncan is one of the most passive players in the NBA. NOT SAYING LAMAR IS COMPARABLE TO TIM. Just proving your point that just because people are passive, doesn't mean they aren't champions."

Your talking about his personality not his in game effort. Pop-vodkavich would not have a passive team player in execution. Tim is a bland poker faced player.

"If Tim was actually more aggressive, he wouldn't even try to use his mid range bank shot and instead keep dunking the ball and his FG% would have went up and would actually have challenged Shaq."

Ah, let's use a Laker and a former Laker. Sasha during his early days and Von Wafer? Aggressive shooting.

Plus have you forgotten Hakeem. Drop step, up and unders and fadeaways. That's how you challenge someone. Box a fighter, Fight a boxer.

"And still talking about Lamar's defense, please don't make me bust out the stats again of how Lamar did defensively against Perkins (he limited Perkins after Perkins had a very good series against Detroit, almost a double double against McDyess)."

Yes and Perkins banged up his shoulders against A-Mac. He was even out for a game in the finals where the Lakers failed to capitalize on. He just got Surgery done.

"If I could choose great matchups it would be Kobe at the 1, Trevor at the 2, Lamar at the 3, Pau at the 4, and Bynum at 5. Kobe would play defense on point guards and score,"

We want to preserve Kobe's playing time. Playing hard on defense against PG's would be too much for the regular season on Kobe. PJ wants to limit his minutes to 36 and Kobe is not disagreeing. Unfortunately, the NBA is not full of Damon Jones'. We have Mo Williams, Baron Davis, Chris Paul, Deron Williams, AI, TJ Ford, Agent Zero, Brandon Roy, Devin Harris, Skip to my Lou, Barbosa, Monta Ellis (when not riding a mo ped) Ray Felton, Juan Calderon, Mike James, Tony Parker etc... would be too big a defensive work load for Kobe.

"Trevor would guard the other perimeter guy, Lamar would facilitate the offense, and Pau and Bynum pounding them underneath."

Ok I'll buy that. But with a different PG on your proposed line up facilitating the offense.

lakers_sth-

yea, thats interesting about the Celtic tickets. because for the Cs game last year i was signed on the first second of the presale (tomorrow) and it was completely sold out so I figured that all the season ticket holders bought them up, guess not.

maybe ill try to get tickets for the Cs game tomorrow even though I'll probably be in San Diego. Curious where all the tickets are. All I care about is opening night though

Lamar = Laker for Life

GO LAKERS

Hey blogg-o-maniacs,

Boy, it sure has picked up a bunch around here. The K Bros must be blogging their fingers to the bone with this and Dodger Blue, which I do not frequent because I think blogging about baseball is kind of hard because so much of the game is truly mental (plus I am a DIE HARD Angel fan).

Lamar as the starting PG is a great idea for three reasons:
1 - This might sound strange, but defense. I don't think there is a gap between how quick Fish and Lamar are. Plus, it frees up Fish to help out with defensive screens which he is so adept at using to draw offensive fouls. Lamar will become a better help defender when the ball moves inside with Kobe and Fish switching on the perimeter. Phil's teams play a man-to-man switching defence anyway, so it doesn't matter too much what postion the 1 through 3 spots actually play.

2 - Depending on the foul situation, Lamar will be able to revert to either the 3 or 4, or stay in the 1 slot. His versatility will be used to it's maximum in this regard.

3 - Post up. Post up. Post up. Opposing guards will not be able to handle LO in the post. He can back them down, forcing the double team, and he'll be able to dish out of it.

I agree with some people who have posted that guys with quick hands (CP 3, D-Will, Iverson) will make life hard bringing the ball up, but playing against a brick house like Lamar will wear them down, cause them to reach in and get called for silly fouls 50' from the rack, and the PG in the triangle usually dishes the ball off in the first 5 seconds of the offence or so.

We did try Lamar at the PG spot, but Rudy T was the coach, and I don't think he had a very solid plan from day one. I think he was overwhelmed on day one. I think his hiring was a mistake on so many levels, I don't even want to get into it. I wish that they had promoted from within and I'll leave it at that.

I always thought that Lamar should be the intiator of the offence. He sees over the top of guys extremely well and he has better than average handles, about as good as Fish, a little less so than Farmar.

I also think this is a move to get Farmar in gear and out of this sense that his status as PG of the Future on the Lakers is etched in stone on the wall of Dr. Buss' office. He was the biggest let down in the Playoffs and needs to step it up if he wants to be considered an unmovable fixture here. He tops my list of trade bait because he still has a significant upside, but that will go away if he has another second half let down like last year. (That last staement might not get too many kind words, I know there are a bunch of Farmar fans). I think this move will hurt him the most because with Kobe and Sasha splitting time at the 2 and with Kobe being spelled by Ariza, VladRad and Luke (in that order), there doesn't seem to be too much Farmar time.

This also saves Fish for the end of the year. Fish played the last third of the year hurt, and I thought it showed more on defence than anywhere else, he was a step slow and wasn't able to get to his spots before the other guys did, which led to him picking up lots of unnneccesary fouls in the playoffs.

It seems like Phil is going against the mainstream media with this decision, and who can blame him, in that this doesn't address our 'toughness' issue, but it plays to the teams strengths in that we are now a more fluid and dynamic team at any given moment. It clears up the log jam at the three by creating a logjam at the PG, but it gives the Lakers size at the PG position that I believe is sorely needed in a Phil Jackson defensive scheme.

It gives Lamar the spot light in a contract year where the onus is on him to be all that he can be, no need for cheeky motivational techniques, just own it, or don't be a whiner if you fail. the chance was given, the gauntlet dropped, now go be a man.

PS: I love the OC register bit on Fish keeping the young guys focused. 6" short should be made into a t-shirt and given to the team so they don't get complacent.

laker hopeful,

I plug some information into a computer program I've got.

GO LAKERS!

laker hopeful sez:

"Imagine how great it would be if could vote Kobe, Pau, Bynum, and Lamar as All-Star starters."

You are hopeful, aren't you? Seeing as how the All Star game is in PHX this year, there's not a snowball's chance in the desert that such an abomination would take place.

Amare will get the nod, kobey probably will, but - Lam-Od? No way!

vlad is a good player

just please no more luke

Tha Blitz sez:

"Man I already showed that Lamar played solid defense."

I don't know what FInals you were watching, but Lam-Od played downright poor D against Boston. Someone with Lam-Od's physical skills should have been able to cover someone in that series, but the dude lost his nerve and melted like microwaved cheddar.

Now give us those stats to "prove" your point.

AK/BK,

Oops, that no name post about teams defending LO at the point was from me.

GO LAKERS!!!!!!!!!

"Can he stay away from the slopes, though?"

Butler boy, he managed not to Snowboard last season. He's still a Space Cadet regardless.

-blitz

Anyone have an internet dodger feed? Pleeeeeease.

And Ocho Cince, BTW, saying he wants to kiss the Dallas star is totally wacked out of his mind. You don't honor another team like that while you play against them. If I were a Cincy fan I'd be really mad at the guy. That's like kissing another girl while you're on a date. (not a bad thought, just don't publicize it).

My lord.

Wes

humanomaly,

>>>>>....future's so bright, he's gonna need to wear shades...huey lewis & his band,
>>>>>forgot their name, oh that wuz dare name...

Got to love Huey, one of the great bar bands to actually make it big. Another Marin county music great. Along with Carlos Santana, Sammy Hagar, Bonnie Raitt, Michael Bloomfield, Van Morrison, Janice Joplin, Jerry Garcia, Jesse Colin Young, Grace Slick, Tupac Shakur, etc. Home of Sweetwater, best intimate music venue in America. A little slice of Heaven.

Tom

Sammy Hagar is from Fontana dude.

Tupac was from Oakland!

htj-

If Lamar doesn't work I doubt Gerald Wallace will. That's the problem. How do four good players (Lamar, Kobe, Bynum, and Gasol) all co-exist? Bringing Gerald Wallace in wouldn't help at all, and I'm sure he would want a nice paycheck too so there wouldn't be any salary relief.

If it ain't broken then don't fix it. Lamar is yet to fail this year and played the best basketball of his life last year so until Lamar starts sucking he is going to stay on the Lakers. No need for trade talk. And Gerald Wallace is a Corey Maggette type player. They will never be winners or great, just a mediocre player on a crappy team, no thanks.

Lamar = Laker for Life

GO LAKERS

Brian K.

I must disagree with you on a very important issue from the last thread. Christmas vacation was in a different league than European and Vegas Vacation. Maybe not as good as the original, but don't lump a classic like Christmas Vacation in with the other two.

:-)

wow, yeah. tim is passive because he actually knows how to score from more than 3' out. maybe having and using different moves makes it harder to defend him. maybe a pf shouldn't play like a 330 pound ogre who's at the 5. and maybe you shouldn't act like you know how the focal point of the only active dynasty should be playing better than he does.

if manu wasn't hobbled we probably wouldn't have gotten past them.

of course, this year they'll be trampled like everybody else by our front court.. or just murdered by one of our 40% 3-point shooters.