Part of our Lakers Nation “Sound Off’ Series – If you’d like to sound off, click here.
by: Tom
This year has been disappointing for me so far. Even though the Lakers are in good position in the standings, they are not playing like the number 3 team. A couple issues that just IRRITATES me:
1) Bynum
He is the second best center in the league, best offensive center in the league and he is acting like a man-child. I don’t understand how one can act childish while you’re getting paid millions of play basketball on live television. Refusing to participate in huddles? Shooting 3’s? Until Bynum acts like the leader that he should be, I think the likes of Marcus Camby and Tyson Chandler are better players than him until he matures up.
2) Mike Brown and the PG Spot
WHY is Steve Blake getting more time than Ramon? Scratch that, when the game is on the line, Kobe is shooting 2-10 and you only have two more quarters left in the game, why isn’t Sessions out there distributing the ball to the Laker bigs? As much as I have praised Brown’s defensive mindset, he clearly lacks any offensive common sense. Being the coach of a premiere NBA team, his voice doesn’t seem loud enough for this team.
3) The Bench
They are not a bad bunch of guys, but it seems like they find themselves in the wrong rotations. The bad part about this bench is that they don’t really compliment each other’s games. Clearly our main problem, if our bench was able to maintain a lead or even give us momentum, The Lakers would be a top 3 team this year.
4) Ball Movement… yes this one is about you Kobe!
The problem the Knicks had early in this season was because every time Carmelo got the ball, you already know that 75% of the time the ball will stop there. This has been the problem on the Lakers since the start of the season, except Kobe makes his shots. He is an elite scorer and yes, I understand he needs possessions to be effective. But really Kobe? 2-15? Shooting over triple teams because you “don’t trust” your teammates? Go watch all of the bigger Laker wins this year, they happened because ball movement was on point and everyone was able to utilize their advantages from their skill sets. Lets not forget, the Lakers best weapon are the two bigs we have, they should be anchoring our team.
5) Consistency…
Remember when we had a couple guys not named Kobe that we were happy to see every night because you know they will bring it? No? Me neither. Since the departure of Ariza, the closest player we had that could be considered consistent would be number 7 on the Dallas Mavericks. Now I have very high hopes that Sessions can be that guy, but why aren’t Pau and Bynum the guys doing this? Pau still isn’t as good as he was a couple years ago and Bynum has plenty of off-nights throughout the season. I hope that this will be addressed to by the time Playoffs start, or else we might have trouble getting out of the second round again.
Just my 2 cents, and despite all my negative ramblings, there are also easily a handful of good things I can talk about too. I just hope some of these problems are addressed by the time Playoffs start. Lakers ALL DAY!
