Lakers Problems... Opinions?

[breggie31]

Looking at this team through 25 games, Ive noticed one thing. The guy that everyone said would make a difference including myself is not pulling his weight. Maybe the management should have held of on his contract or maybe they shouldnt. Who knows. Kobe Played with this kid and as a competitor he saw things that none of us from the outside saw and that prompted his rant a summer ago. Maybe Kobe is wrong and was angry at management and it came off as him bashing the kid? With that said we are relying on a 21 yr old who never had a passion for basketball like most kids growing up with a ball in there hands every day. He is not your typical teenager that saw basketball as his gateway. Therefore, this might account for his lack of desire thus far to reach for greatness at a young age. Most of us are spoiled by guys like Kobe because at 18, 19 he wanted to be the best on the court every single night.

Andrew Bynum is just not ready for us to put so much responsibility on him. Phil, usually a good judge of players overall mentality seems to have gotten this one wrong. He is a Hall of Fame coach and I hope I'm wrong but so far it looks like too much is being put on a 21 yr old whos only played basketball for 5 yrs.

Our defensive philosophy is geared towards having him in the paint to alter and deter small guards yet he is late on his rotations and out of position. The weak side zone is a precise defense that requires alot of accountability because u have to play your area and trust that the ext man will play his. If one person loose containment or is late in his rotation that leaves everyone scrambling.

I have to say that I'm not blaming Bynum for all our problems and other players have their faults on this team and Kobe is included. I put most of the blame on the scheme that we run because it bails out the guards from playing solid defense. Maybe they need to tweak it a bit to make sure the guards stop playing this funnel the player to one side and hope a big helps out. The perimeter guys need to play better straight up man defense while the other 4 guys sit in the zone to help out.

Like Ive mentioned above, its not all on the young fella. He has to take responsibility for not stepping up because hes not on a rookie contract anymore but it might be a bit premature to put out title hopes on him. If he does step up to the challenge and does the things he needs to do to anchor our defense we will see great success otherwise we will be a good team that can still get to the title game but will still have disappointment at the end of the road.

One solution to light a fire under him is to put him on the bench and have him play with the second unit. He seems like the type that is ignited by what he does on the offensive end like most young ball players. While running with the second unit he will be the go to guy and thus maximize his potential because the offense will run through him.

New Lineup if things dont change (Lamar seems to be accepting of his new role but not thriving in it. Maybe moving back to the starting lineup will get us going. Yea we lost to Boston but we got to the finals with him in the lineup. So why fix what isnt broken. Experience (mental toughness) and youth was the reason we lost to the Celtics. If a few things went our way we would have been celebrating last June. Notably losing a 24 point lead.. etc...):

Fisher/Farmar
Kobe/Sasha
Vlad/Trevor/
Lamar/Luke/
Gasol/Bynum