Looking over the lineups

 
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guillermo0130
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 7:10 am    Post subject: Looking over the lineups

February 07, 2006

Looking over the lineups

Phil Jackson second-guessed himself after this loss to Dallas about playing Sasha Vujacic and Luke Walton in place of Smush Parker and Devean George late in the third quarter when the Lakers had momentum and the lead. (Actually, based on Jackson's postgame comments, he mistakenly thought he subbed out Brian Cook, too, when Cook stayed in. Perhaps Jackson is even imagining the destruction that occurs upon using Kwame Brown.)

So given that -- and some natural speculation by you readers -- here are a few of my thoughts on Jackson's rotation:

1) Play George more and Brown less. This is material I covered in my NBA column in Tuesday's paper -- http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/sports/atoz/article_986000.php -- and it almost looked as if Jackson heeded the words a little late when he replaced the sleepwalking Brown with George in Quarters 2 and 3 Tuesday night. George might shoot a few too many jumpers instead of taking it to the rack, but he is a solid defender and the rare Laker who has some idea of what do to in the triangle offense. Jackson has been playing George at power forward in small lineups some this season during games, and he should be playing George more there. Jackson's reasoning for not starting with a group of Chris Mihm at center, Lamar Odom at guard, George at forward, Kobe Bryant at forward and Smush Parker at guard is that Odom would have to guard the opposing power forward, which is a major drain on his energy. Jackson also believes he needs someone with some experience to give energy and execution off the bench (George). But Brown is obviously a joke on offense and seems to be regressing on defense, where lately he isn't even capable of making proper rotations or slides to plug the lane or simple box-outs. At what price comes Brown's snail's-pace development?

2) Andrew Bynum is not the answer now. On this one, Jackson and I agree. If you look at his offensive game compared to Brown's, I can see why many people think Bynum is more useful, but that's solely on an individual level after seeing Bynum's lust for scoring. Bynum -- to state it flatly -- has very little clue what's going on from a team perspective, and I mean that at both ends of the court. Frankly, he's lucky he doesn't get called for an offensive foul every time he sets a pick, becuse he moves into the defender so blatantly. He gets away with it because his lower body is so weak that his picks don't offer force even when he does move in like that.

3) Regarding George and Walton, part of the problem is that they are small forwards in an era when Bryant is now playing that position in the triangle. As much as Jackson has bumped George up to power forward and Walton down to guard (although the latter happens less often now that Jackson thinks Walton isn't organizing the offense that great), both of them are used to playing the triangle from that wing spot. Both have worked on ball-handling in hopes of playing guard while Bryant plays forward with their triangle knowledge, but it's a stretch. The same would've been the case if Caron Butler had stayed and tried to play guard while Bryant played forward. So even after shipping out Butler and Jumaine Jones, Mitch Kupchak still came away with an awkward roster.

4) The Lakers' major injuries have seemed minor considering they've taken down Slava Medvedenko, Aaron McKie and Laron Profit. But all three of those guys would be helping. McKie, who could be back this month, is a rare veteran guard on the roster (although his triangle education has now been set back badly), and Profit showed signs he could operate in that key role, too. Medvedenko knew the triangle and could've offered offense to balance all that Brown isn't providing, especially now that defenses are totally locked in on Bryant.

-Kevin Ding
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Surfitall
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 7:40 am    Post subject:

Hi Kevin. Nice job you got there. I love the caliber of people that post on this forum.

I agree with most of what you say, but I think that there an intimidation factor with having Bynum in the paint that throws off the opposing teams defense. While I agree that at times he seems lost on the court, I also feel there is a pretty strong case for Phil to play him more than he is currently playing him.
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guillermo0130
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 7:56 am    Post subject:

Surfitall wrote:
Hi Kevin. Nice job you got there. I love the caliber of people that post on this forum.

I agree with most of what you say, but I think that there an intimidation factor with having Bynum in the paint that throws off the opposing teams defense. While I agree that at times he seems lost on the court, I also feel there is a pretty strong case for Phil to play him more than he is currently playing him.


Surfitall,

Just to clarify, I am not Kevin Ding.

PS. In seven minutes of PT, Bynum had two blocks last night.
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Sage_10
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 9:07 am    Post subject:

Nice post Kevin,

Can't say I agree w/ all of it b/c I didn't read all of it. But what I read sounded good.
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Panthas
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 11:08 am    Post subject: Re: Looking over the lineups

guillermo0130 wrote:
February 07, 2006


3) Regarding George and Walton, part of the problem is that they are small forwards in an era when Bryant is now playing that position in the triangle. As much as Jackson has bumped George up to power forward and Walton down to guard (although the latter happens less often now that Jackson thinks Walton isn't organizing the offense that great), both of them are used to playing the triangle from that wing spot. Both have worked on ball-handling in hopes of playing guard while Bryant plays forward with their triangle knowledge, but it's a stretch. The same would've been the case if Caron Butler had stayed and tried to play guard while Bryant played forward. So even after shipping out Butler and Jumaine Jones, Mitch Kupchak still came away with an awkward roster.

-Kevin Ding


I agree most of the our players our having to play outside of thier natural position, so it is almost expected that they would be lacking from thier game.
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