Media Day was yesterday and training camp starts today. Trade Rumors, Season predictions etc. will all be discussed in this thread but before we get to any of that, I'd like to take a moment of silence to honor the passing of Agent Zero/Habachi
Are you serious? All those players you named are way better than Chalmers/Z/Pittman... Even with Haslem hes an undersized Center and still cant guard his position effectively...Lakers, that's great and all but may I remind you, the Lakers won a championship with AC Green, Ron Harper and Glen Rice starting in the playoffs. They avg 4, 9 and 12 points respectively. A matter of fact, Glen Rice was the team's 3rd leading scorer with 12 points.
And now you're telling me Mario Chalmers, who easily can avg 10 points, 4 assists and 2 steals and Big Z who has a career avg of 14/8 and just recently avg 13/7.5 in only 27 mpg cant be effective? Or Mike Miller, James Jones and Eddie House who will get more open looks than they've ever had in their careers?
Haters keep hating. Your tears will be delicious this season.
Rondo/Nate
Allen/Delonte West
Pierce/Marquis Daniels/Von Wafer
KG/JOneal/Glen Davis
Perkins/Shaq
it's all about those playoffs
So yeh, when Artest a few years ago held lebron to 16 points, like 2-25 shooting and 0 assist for the first time in his career, yeh im sure Artest cant hold Lebron *major face palm..... Even if Battier helped, Kobe is a pretty good man defender himself along with Barnes... Plus, who needs to worry about Wade... Whatever Kobe puts up will be better than what Wade does anywaylol its hilarious to think either barnes or kobe could contain either wade or lebron let alone both of them at the same time. Ill give artest the benefit of the doubt on wade, but lebron is way more physical, even for artests standards. and not to mention nobody on the lakers can even think of matching up with bosh. Hes soft, but not as soft as gasol and way too quick for bynum. Odom might be able to match up decently against him, but im not sure about his post defense (or defense at all)
and also ROFL at "kobe>wade". what basis are you depending this comparison on? You mean the dwyane wade who won a championship with an over the hill shaquille oneal and realistically nobody else at all? are you talking about the kobe bryant whose team went unnoticed for 4 years without shaq or any other supporting players because he can't win without a second superstar on his team? Kobe, even after being in the league for twice as many years as lebron, is still way more immature at this current time. Kobe is constantly complaining and throwing his teammates under the bus and giving up. LeBron is the best player because of his energy and hustle on the court. He gets chase down blocks. He gets steals. He works the court.
anyway. go bobcats and wizards.
The Lakers were first in the West before the Gasol trade..... Granted, the Gasol trade turned them into a top team but they were basically the same in 08' with Gasol as they were with Bynum.. Also, that trade hasnt looked as one sided as it once did since Marc Gasol has been pretty good himselfMeh, the only reason the Lakers are even remotely good is because the Grizzlies basically gave them Pau Gasol for free a few years back; I guarantee had that trade never happened, the Lakers would still perennially kicked out of the playoffs around rounds 1-2. Hopefully no one will kid themselves about Kobe leading the team, because that clearly wasn't happening back then; he was good enough to get them to the playoffs, much like how Lebron forced the Cavaliers into the playoff picture, but anything beyond just getting there was out of their league.
So imo, I give Gasol all the credit for making the Lakers good; Kobe and the others can suck dick or something.
That'll be pretty impressive with the 24 minute limit Yao has placed on him by the Rockets.Rockets will destroy Lakers in the Season Opener. Yao will go 30/10