Phil Jackson to return next season
As news spread that Ron Artest is set to join the Lakers, most folks treated this development as a strong sign that Phil Jackson was likely to remain in the fold as head coach. Well, the clues proved correct. On the Lakers' web site, PJ confirmed he'll be sticking around to help the purple and gold retain ownership of the purple and gold.
"After consulting with Lakers team internist Dr. John Moe, I feel confident that I can gainfully pursue an NBA season with another long playoff postseason. All things point to go!," said Jackson.
And with that item now crossed off the list, the Laker Nation can focus its concerns on resigning Lamar Odom and Shannon Brown (who, if you missed it during all the Ron Ron/Ariza madness, called into yesterday's 710 ESPN podkast).
Also, Hoopsworld's Eric Pincus offers a very interesting and detailed take on the negotiations that resulted in Trevor Ariza latching on with the Houston Rockets. As I suspected on Wednesday (which feels like seven years ago, by the way), David Lee seemed to be engaged in a lot of aggressive posturing and took rather personally the Lakers not offering TA the world. But just like Lee, even while mentioning Artest as a "shorter commitment fallback," I didn't expect Mitch Kupchak to move so quickly in another direction. I'll admit that twist ending caught me by surprise.
Of course, I'm not Ariza's agent, which is a very important distinction. Unless Team Ariza earmarked the Rockets as a destination every bit as attractive as the Lakers, I think there is a reason Lee's clientele of importance can be counted on one hand while flashing a peace sign.
AK
(Photo: Robert Gauthier, LAT)
I expected nothing less, Phil is the key, and we can work around his physical discomfort. Despite what Mitch says, I do expect Phil to take off at least a few road trips, definitely not all of them though, or even a majority, but at least a few, possibly a little more than that, depending.
Posted by: Critical Beatdown | July 03, 2009 at 01:36 PM
Repost from prior thread:
If Phil is coming back, can he get a toe ring for number 11?
Go World Championship Lakers!!!
(Man I like the sound of that.)
Posted by: lazNirv | July 03, 2009 at 01:43 PM
Wow Laker Blog Fam,
This is just an exciting time for the Lakers.
I fully expect the Lakers to resign LO and ShanWOW, in addition to trimming off salaries by trading Farmar, Morrison and maybe Sasha.
The 2009-2010 Lakers are going to be beasts.
Ron Artest will have no problem fitting in. Doesn't mean he won't get technicals but he'll have his head in the game. And though he's had his problems before I think we'll quickly find out in the first 25 games of the season that this was a great move by Mitch.
We should expect a lot of criticism from other GM's and head coaches after the first 25 games about how the rich got richer, how it's unfair for one team to have so much talent, how it would be easy for anybody to win with a stacked team like the Lakers.
I'm gonna do a BK (predict the number of wins without listing the teams of course) and say that the Lakers go 23-2 during the first 25 games, they'll have (3) 20 game winning streaks, will win over 60 games but probably closer to 70+ and will have the best overall record in the NBA at the end of the season with home court advantage throughout the playoffs, and repeat as champions without dropping more than 3 games total during the championship run.
Can't wait for the season to start!
Posted by: Fan of the Mamba | July 03, 2009 at 01:54 PM
Ariza, we love.
David Lee, jump off a bridge.
Sorry, Trev. See ya.
Ron? Giant snake eggs!
Los Angeles crazy pills!
Second 'ship? Indeed.
Posted by: generic_one | July 03, 2009 at 01:55 PM
Re-signing Lamar Odom has become critical because of his relationship with Ron "The Pitbull" Artest.
Lamar Odom = Laker for Life.
What do we play for? RINGS!!!!
Lakers Today... Lakers Tomorrow... Lakers Forever.
GO LAKERS!!!!
Posted by: Jon K. | July 03, 2009 at 01:59 PM
Is it time for the regular season to begin yet?
What do we play for? RINGS!!!!
Lakers Today... Lakers Tomorrow... Lakers Forever.
GO LAKERS!!!!
Posted by: Jon K. | July 03, 2009 at 02:00 PM
That's nice, PJ is coming back.
Phil, on your way to Montana, stop by and visit us in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Maybe we can shoot some hoop and share Kwame and Smush stories.
Posted by: Fatty | July 03, 2009 at 02:02 PM
With Artest signing and Phil saying he will be back, we are getting better and better.
Now we need the last big piece--Lamar Odom and we'll be set.
Of course we also need Shannon Brown but he'll come in for a bargain. Since he's not a Bird free agent we could spend our Bi-Annual offer (since we didn't use it last year) which should be more than enough to re-sign him.
"I fully expect the Lakers to resign LO and ShanWOW, in addition to trimming off salaries by trading Farmar, Morrison and maybe Sasha."
If Shannnon is re-signed look for Farmar to be also on the trading block for salary dump with Morrison. Maybe even possibly New York or New Jersey because both are looking for contracts that are expiring and both are in the 2010 sweepstakes.
Sasha is harder to dump since his salary goes on for two more years but hey if we found a way to dump Vlad Rad's salary then we can do the same thing to Sasha.
Posted by: KB Blitz | July 03, 2009 at 02:05 PM
All we need to do is get rid of Sasha and our Domination is COMPLETE. Oh, and AB needs to come back strong too.
Hurrah!
Posted by: Cactus Berry | July 03, 2009 at 02:07 PM
Toronto is the kicker on Lamar, they are the last team that could steal him away.
Its so quiet on the Odom front, that's what scares me. When they are talking stuff on the blogs, you know its not true. But almost nothing on Lamar.
We wantz Lamar! We wantz Lamar! We wantz Lamar!
Posted by: Fatty | July 03, 2009 at 02:07 PM
dear mr. plaschke,
before i take your article seriously about how bad a move this was for the lakers to get artest instead of ariza, answer me this: how many nba championships have YOU won?
Posted by: 88 | July 03, 2009 at 02:11 PM
I guess PJ has no leg swelling if he's driving from LA to Montana.
Posted by: ajax | July 03, 2009 at 02:12 PM
I'm with Fatty,
We wantz Lamar! We wantz Lamar! We wantz Lamar!
Posted by: Fan of the Mamba | July 03, 2009 at 02:13 PM
I love this behind the scenes power play:
"A source tells HOOPSWORLD that Kupchak was prepared to give Ariza an offer equivalent to the full MLE but at 10.5% raises, totaling at approximately $33.8 million over five years.
LA's ceiling might have been a $6 million starting salary for $36 million over five but before negotiations progressed after 9:00pm Pacific on Tuesday night, the source says that Ariza's agent, David Lee, took a confrontational approach with Kupchak.
Lee wanted a deal in the $50 million range and took offense to the team's stance that Trevor should test the market first for that level of compensation.
By the next morning, the Lakers were going after Artest in full force with Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom and even Magic Johnson reaching out to the Houston forward."
This team is now stocked with prime time players. Kobe--in his prime. Lamar—Prime. Gasol--Prime, Artest--prime. Fisher a bit past his, but for his clutch shooting.
This is a team that's built to win championships much more so than last years squad. I still don't know how we did it last year with so many young guys.
Wes
Posted by: wesjoenixon | July 03, 2009 at 02:18 PM
With the Hedo deal, doesn't that leave Toronto as the ONLY team that can offer LO more than the MLE???
Can anyone confirm this to me.
If this is true, LO is ours and gives buss and mitch ALL the leverage.
Posted by: Long Live Chick | July 03, 2009 at 02:24 PM
Ya gotta love Phil..."I feel that I can gainfully pursue an NBA season with another long playoff postseason".
He's not HOPING for another title, he's EXPECTING it!
One other thing about Artest...he provides insurance should Andrew continue to be injury plagued. Ron can play the 4 in some scenarios.
Posted by: bronxlakerfan | July 03, 2009 at 02:27 PM
Mr Nano - Love Lord of the Rings stuff
If Lee is Worm tongue?
Then that makes Stu Jackson, Saruman
David Stern, Sauron
And the Celtics, the Orks (sword lights up green when they are around)
I've always thought of Kobe as Aragorn
Pau as the Elf, Legolas - That's 19 pts!
And Fisher as Gimli - Yeah, but mine counts as 3's!
And of course me as Gandalf the White
Galum, Plashke? Devious and always conniving.
Would that make you Frodo? And Tim-4-Show, Sam Wise the brave?
Just wondering?
Posted by: Fatty | July 03, 2009 at 02:35 PM
"One other thing about Artest...he provides insurance should Andrew continue to be injury plagued. Ron can play the 4 in some scenarios."
Bronx,
Bynum is not necessarily injury plagued. While the first knee injury may seem like he was injury plagued (really landing on LO's foot should have been made LO get injured not Bynum), the 2nd one was just an unfortunate wrong place at the wrong time as Kobe landed on his knee. That injury was more common in the NFL.
The Deal with Bynum is whether he will bring energy into the court. This Laker team assuming Odom is re-signed has become not only better defensively but offensively as well with Ron being better at scoring than Ariza and his FG% might since rise since 1) He's playing in the triangle offense which is designed for the best shot with the least resistance, 2) Playing alongside Kobe Bryant which makes less attention towards Ron than he has since well, since we was teamed up with Reggie Miller (my favorite UCLA Bruin along with Lew Acindor/Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton) and 3) Playing for the best coach of all time in Phil Jackson. This combined with the possible re-signing of Shannon Brown will gobble up many more shot attempts AWAY from Bynum. Bynum will not feel confident in his game and his defense will suffer since he is more offensive center like Shaq except not as talented nor as dominant. This will only prove (however much I really want to be proved wrong) that Bynum is overpaid and that his production does not equal the current contract.
Anyways Ron will be a great addition to this team and when the lineup of Fisher/Brown-Bryant-Artest-Odom-Gasol is on the floor, this team is unstoppable.
Posted by: KB Blitz | July 03, 2009 at 02:40 PM
We need more Bresnahan and less Plaschke. The worst thing about this time of year is an article like Plaschke's stays above the fold for WAY too long. It is like a neighbor putting a big blue tarp on their roof (not a great example, but ...)
ARTEST ! Yeah baybe!! I was so excited last night I was jumping around screaming !! Also really liked RonRon on sportscenter. "I will do exactly what is asked". My man !!
Doug
Posted by: Doug | July 03, 2009 at 02:41 PM
Fatty,
Yes.
David Lee is Wyrmtongue.
What do we play for? RINGS!!!!
Lakers Today... Lakers Tomorrow... Lakers Forever.
GO LAKERS!!!!
Posted by: Jon K. | July 03, 2009 at 02:52 PM
Still shamelessly plugging that podcast I see AK/BK (;
You can tell Shannon I'll pitch in $75 too if he's willing to stay. So if $300 is the difference he won't have to worry. :D
How come the talks are so quiet on re-signing Lamar?
I'm going to miss Trevor so much. It stinks he had to pick up a dumb agent like Lee. He got royally screwed over by the guy that is supposed to be the "smart" reasonable guy. I mean that's why players hire agents right? I think I could have done a better job negotiating then Lee. I'd even go as far as to say Trevor might have been better off representing himself then having a fool like David Lee representing him
Posted by: cinz | July 03, 2009 at 02:53 PM
Wes,
"By the next morning, the Lakers were going after Artest in full force with Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom and even Magic Johnson reaching out to the Houston forward."
This is good news. If Lamar Odom was petitioning for Ron "The Pitbull" Artest to join the Lakers, then it's been assumed that Lamar is returning to the Lakers.
Good.
Lamar Odom = Laker for Life.
What do we play for? RINGS!!!!
Lakers Today... Lakers Tomorrow... Lakers Forever.
GO LAKERS!!!!
Posted by: Jon K. | July 03, 2009 at 02:55 PM
Fatty,
T.J. Simers if Gollum.
What do we play for? RINGS!!!!
Lakers Today... Lakers Tomorrow... Lakers Forever.
GO LAKERS!!!!
Posted by: Jon K. | July 03, 2009 at 02:57 PM
Another thing...
Andrew Bynum, Ron Artest, and Lamar Odom's Bio-Chrono readings each heavily compliment the others' Bio-Chrono readings...
And they're all from the New York/New Jersey area...
Should make for decent chemistry.
Andrew and Lamar should form the nexus of that social network which I mentioned is so critical in ensuring Ron Artest's success and stability.
What do we play for? RINGS!!!!
Lakers Today... Lakers Tomorrow... Lakers Forever.
GO LAKERS!!!!
Posted by: Jon K. | July 03, 2009 at 03:00 PM
Now I'd like the Lakers to make the following two trades:
Luke Walton and Adam Morrison to Chicago for Kirk Hinrich..and...
Jordan Farmar to Portland for Rudy Fernandez.
Both trades pass the trade machine test. This gives us a starting point guard for this 5 year run and a great bench scoring SF.
I think both trades are doable.....Mitch?
Wes
Posted by: wesjoenixon | July 03, 2009 at 03:09 PM
KB Blitz....
I chose my words very carefully. I didn't mean to say that Bynum is injury "prone", suggesting some inherent weakness. I meant that he's just been unfortunate with injuries these past 2 seasons.
Artest is also insurance against other frontcourt injuries. To Pau or LO, for instance. Ron provides quality depth and additional versatility to the team.
Posted by: bronxlakerfan | July 03, 2009 at 03:18 PM
I am not disappointed in Ariza in leaving the Lakers.
His agent did a terrible job of negotiations and although Mitch could have waited a few more days, maybe he felt he would miss out on both Ariza and Artest if he didn't act quickly.
I have no idea how much Dr.B makes off the Lakers but 100 mil is 100 mil. That is a LOT of money. Thanks for willing to spend good doctor!
Posted by: LakerLee | July 03, 2009 at 03:29 PM
Fatty, John K,
Artest is Gollum, he's desperate for that precious ring
Trevor is Frodo, he just threw away the ring, although reluctantly
Pippin is Lamar, and I don't mean Scottie. Makes some dumb mistakes, but is always forgiven
Walton is an Ent , slow moving and slow decision making
Sasha is the ring itself, has a tendency to disappear
Kobe is Aragorn, the rightful king to the throne
Farmar is an Elf only with bigger ears
Gandalf the Gray is Phil
Gandalf the White is Tex
Posted by: LAKER TRUTH | July 03, 2009 at 03:33 PM
Send Bill Plaschke to France to get feedbacks of Armstrong come back in Tour de France. He loves drama and intricate analysis of competitors. He should rent a bike and take the hike with the riders. If he falls down hard in the Pyrenees, God bless the mountain.
Posted by: Edwin Gueco | July 03, 2009 at 03:38 PM
"I don't think it was ever Mitch's call when it came to Bynum. I think Jim Buss made that call. Bynum is after all his pick and his pet project or rather his claim to legitimately being apart of the basketball world of scouting great talent."
Fan of the Mamba,
Again kudos to Mitch for not bowing to ANY pressure whether it was David Lee's or management in Trevor's case. Yes Jim Buss may see Bynum as a pet project but Mitch still had all the leverage at his disposal and still had to blink into a $14 million deal with Bynum.
"who thinks lamar should start with artest and have bynum come off the bench? defensively we could switch on any screens and we would be less foul prone. other teams would not be in the penalty so early anymore."
blh,
I agree that Bynum/Gasol tandem hasn't worked out fully and that Odom-Gasol is by far the best combination. I was an advocate of Bynum coming off the bench until he showed that he rarely brought great energy off the bench and was even a bigger liability than if he was starting which gives him some sort of "I'm important" attitude only to be sent back to the bench in foul trouble.
Gasol-Odom is by far the best combination for the front court because both are really great passers and both can run the break very well and both are very good on screen and roll defense especially. Fact of the matter is though that it is best for Bynum to start to at least get some production from him which will be even more harder because of the addition of Ron Artest and especially if Odom re-signs. We can still put more minutes into Fisher/Brown-Bryant-Artest-Odom-Gasol. Probably the best lineup in the NBA.
bronx,
I agree dude.
Posted by: KB Blitz | July 03, 2009 at 03:39 PM
WesJoe,
"This team is now stocked with prime time players. Kobe--in his prime. Lamar—Prime. Gasol--Prime, Artest--prime. Fisher a bit past his, but for his clutch shooting."
How about Drew? Is he?
( ) Medium done
( ) Medium rare
( ) Rare
( ) Raw cattle
Posted by: Edwin Gueco | July 03, 2009 at 03:46 PM
Haven't been watching ESPN, have they interviewed TA? Man - I would think he's all torn up as he looks back on what just took place.
Freaking agents!! A bad one can F you over royally!!!! He's gotta be thinking how the hell am I NOT in LA anymore? WTF did you do? And he is such a nice kid - love his story - we are really going to miss you Trevor!!!
Can you imagine if you were him and you sent in your agent to bargain for you - but he comes out with no contract and in a few hours screws up your life??!!!! One can only hope that somehow Mitch can bring TA back to the Lakers - even if it's not this year.
TA (and Bynum) dump that scum bucket!!!!
We don't really know how this went down - but Mitch is a bad ass mf-er!! Gotta give him credit for pulling the trigger on this deal. He is ice!!!
I think someone like TA would have preferred it to go down differently - like if DrBuss, Mitch, PJ, Kobe, sat down with him and told him - we love what you did for us this year - you're a critical part of this team but we also need to add Artest to make this a dynasty - we obviously can't pay you the MLE but are you willing to take $3mill? (or whatever number) Keep on playing your role - keep improving - and you will be part of a team that will possibly set records. In 3 years - then you will get your big contract with us and you'll be a Laker for life.
Oh well - Groundhog Day to do this over.
Best wishes Trevor!!! We'll still be rooting for you except when you play the Lakers!
Posted by: DaveW | July 03, 2009 at 03:48 PM
I'll bet the Ron signing has gotten Phil's blood pumped a bit for next season.
Fatty - I wouldn't worry about it being quiet on the Odom front. He's repped by Jeff Schwartz who knows how to get it done without lobbying the press.
Wes - any trades will probably be done to save money so we'd probably be looking for players with expiring contracts, etc.. (no, I'm NOT suggesting Cook or Kwame, haha).
Posted by: dave m | July 03, 2009 at 03:48 PM
Wes,
Unfortunately the only place your trades work is the trade machine! :)
why would Chicago trade their only guard other than D.Rose for two small forwards, where they already have John Salmons and Luol Deng.
Why would Portland trade for Farmar , if they already have better versions of him in Bayless and Mills??
LGFI
Posted by: Laker Guru From India | July 03, 2009 at 03:50 PM
50 Million?
50 Friggin Million??
A budding legacy reduced to summers playing lotto fever with the Funs over 50 MILLOIN DOLLARS?
The love of money is the root of all evil, indeed.
So long, Trevor. Fire your friggin agent!
Posted by: utzworld - THE BANNER HOLDER | July 03, 2009 at 03:57 PM
Fatty,
I love to sing the tales of our heroes of Lakerland, and the story of the Last Ring, but are better suitors for Frodo's character ;-)
Posted by: MrNano | July 03, 2009 at 04:00 PM
Lebron is Denethor, who wants the throne of King for himself, not being the rightful heir.
Posted by: MrNano | July 03, 2009 at 04:04 PM
Nasty Dynasty.
Lo come home. I've been worried since there hasn't been much noise several threads ago. Either boom we got LO or another big signing or trade.
Posted by: Charles | July 03, 2009 at 04:06 PM
I meant "Lotto fever ALONGSIDE the Funs & the other cellar dwellers in the NBA..."
Posted by: utzworld - THE BANNER HOLDER | July 03, 2009 at 04:09 PM
Trevor's agent obviously let his own ego get in the way of his client's best interests. Saying that his client did not feel appreciated based on one single conversation the agent had with the Lakers is exactly the opposite of what Trevor said after his personal meeting with Kupchak.
Posted by: Gene | July 03, 2009 at 04:20 PM
I'm not a member of the twitter community, but someone who is should tweet Ron Ron to choose #18 as his jersey number. It's a no-brain-er.
R is the 18th letter of the alphabet and 3 years from now he'll help the Lakers hang banner #18 in Staples Center. How could he choose anything else.
Please, someone tweet this to him.
Posted by: Laker Larry | July 03, 2009 at 04:39 PM
I could not agree with this post more. TA was a humble, deferential, and intangible presence that was a perfect cog in the Championship machine run by Kobe Co. The Lakers had to know the short-person-suffering-syndrome agent was unequivocally bluffing when he publicly decried TA was feeling shunned and estranged, emotions completely out of character and lacking any sense of proper truth when compared to earlier comments. And then, in one of the greatest tail-between-your-legs face-saving acts of crow consumption in the history of baby-diaper-humble-pie, he con(vince)s his bewildered client into "accepting" a traumatically equal contract of lottery-bound proportions. From hardball to kicked hard in the balls. And despite my disoriented excitement in anticipation of the Crazy PIlls era, I will truly miss the quiet storm of hustle and flow that was Trevor Ariza.
Posted by: SaltLaker24 | July 03, 2009 at 04:39 PM
Agree with many of the posts. Feel bad for Trevor, but I do not think Lee held a gun to his head to make him his agent. But what a bone-head. You can't 'blow-up' with a team on the way down. He probably missed out on 5 to 10 million in endorsements over the next 5 years. In Houston its going to be Trevor who...
Think of all the good young players Portland has. If any of them were playing for the Lakers they would be household words. People know Sasha is the machine if he was in Portland or Houston he would be the Maytag repair man machine.
Plaschke was nutso in that article. Barely blaming Lee and pre-judging everything bad about Artest. Seems to me Artest is going to be like Rodman, work his behind off and help Kobe to at least 2 maybe 3 more championships. I know he is not the greatest guy but teammates seem to like him and yes people do get a chance to change and make up for stuff. Plaschke does sea-saw all over the place but that was probably the worse article I have ever seen from him.
Posted by: LarryofLA | July 03, 2009 at 04:39 PM
Very happy Phil ic coming back, he is critical to this thing. I hoper we get 2 to 3 years.
Oddly, Phil is actually often underrated as a coach in spite of his 10 rings, perhaps because of his unique style.
I cannot imagine wanting anyone else to coach the Lakers. To me any number 2 on the list is way below Phil. He knows the game, coaches playing it the right way, understands how to coach for the long haul of a season and understands how to work with players as men.
Posted by: Tom Daniels | July 03, 2009 at 04:42 PM
This off-season is making me smile more and more. Let's sign LO and Shannon, and I'll be ready to relax.
Go Lake Show!
Posted by: The Outlaw | July 03, 2009 at 05:01 PM
Blitz : " I was an advocate of Bynum coming off the bench until he showed that he rarely brought great energy off the bench "
understatement of the century! I don't think I've seen Bynums "game face" yet. I wonder what it looks like? So far from what I've seen its part "woe is me!" and part "hey, I'm a person too!"
Doug
Posted by: Doug | July 03, 2009 at 05:09 PM
"Freaking agents!! A bad one can F you over royally!!!! "
No doubt. what is worse - a sports agent or a real estate agent? And what the difference, really, between that and "stock broker"? Or "bag boy"? same ethics apply across the board.
I will say this - Ron Ron got it done by directing things. "I am not playing for money at this point but to win". My man! That's the attitude that produced results here. Solid life lesson. The wisdom of RonRon! Indeed.
Doug
Posted by: Doug | July 03, 2009 at 05:14 PM
If you want to truly grasp how miserable the Clippers are, check out Simmons article: http://tinyurl.com/lzzbzg
I gotta hand it to him on this one. It made me feel even better to be a Laker fan today.
Posted by: Laker Kev | July 03, 2009 at 05:18 PM
Good Afternoon Charles....Good Afternoon Everyone....
I’m goin’ to Jackson....look out Jackson town... some more good news, seemingly, as it were..now how about some Lamar and Shannon news (the good kind natch)...
I am still trying to sort out what I think about the Artest thing...guess I am like some of you, kind of a lot of excitement mixed with a heavy dose of trepidation...
And like some of you my first reaction was not very positive as I have never really liked Artest or his antics, but it seems I am really warming up to the idea and am leaning toward the positive aspects, and there are a lot of them, seemingly....
Which Artest will we get? A highly skilled, highly motivated team player or a highly skilled nut job? Probably a bit of both, which overall will still probably be a very good thing...
I guess this was the veteran free agent signing on the cheap ala Rick Fox that I predicted would come our way....still think there may be more of those as well, and as I said before I don’t think Mitch is done by a long shot...
Obviously still need to re-sign Lamar and Shannon
one thing we haven’t really talked about in regards to next season is the other X factors on our team...the biggest question in my mind,....wait for it...how is Bynum going to play / develop.. And will he prove to be injury prone ala Sam Bowie?
Because really, even with this move and any other that we will end up with, the Bynum factor is extremely huge, as well as being overlooked to some degree...
Will he work hard this summer (even harder than last summer?)...can he become the player and force that all of us fans as well as ownership want / need / expect him to be?
If he can return to pre injury form (or better), a lot of our other conversations about our other players become mute in a lot of ways...
I have always thought that Bynum has the tools offensively with great fundamental footwork, solid basketball instincts, and a soft touch (with the power necessary as well), and good passing skills...
Of course his defense development is key...he simply needs to learn how to play better defense with his feet (as well as better team defense) and not foul the crap out of anyone within a five mile radius...
In a lot of ways it seems that Bynum is the forgotten man, even a non factor to some fans and especially to opposing teams, probably due to his limited impact last season and in the play-offs..
Obviously the Lakers were a dominating team and indeed a Championship team last season pretty much without a significant contribution by Bynum—I don’t think many of us or the media in general, or the rest of the league or whatever can hardly imagine what this team will be like with a contributing and consistent Bynum...it’s quite a staggering thought
Put in the work Andrew and build the Dynasty for the next ten years...
The other X factors:
will / can Sasha return to form with solid and consistent shooting?
Can Farmar continue to develop and mature into a legitimate point(starting) guard?
Walton, Walton, or Walton? (I really don’t know what that even means).
Will Lamar (if signed) finally become consistently consistent consistently?
Even with X factor questions we are still the Championship team we were (sans Ariza plus Artest) which should indeed be the scarey part for the rest of the league and the bitchin' part for all of us...
The New Dynasty is upon us—4 of the next 6 rings are ours, 6 of the next 10...
AS ALWAYS, AS EVER, YET ANOTHER GREAT DAY (AND CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON) TO BE A LAKER FAN !!!
GO LAKERS !!!
Posted by: Floyd | July 03, 2009 at 05:20 PM
Glad X is coming back.
The man loves him a challenge & boy, oh boy, does he have himself a challenge next season.
Should be another exciting, unpredictable & (melo?... nah)dramatic year 4 the Lakers & their fanatics.
Trust in Mitch, but beware.... live by the Ron; die by the Ron!
Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some crow to eat.
-Fowl Out
Posted by: Flagrant Fowl | July 03, 2009 at 05:25 PM