The Lakers Offseason

 If Gasol goes to the knicks they become serious contenders. Don’t forget he led Memphis to three straight playoff appearances even though he was swept in all of them. The problem is I don’t see what NY can give the Lakers.

If he goes to Denver it depends on what they give up, but they become a team that will fight for homecourt advantage in the west. And if they keep Nene (the Lakers may want him) they have two post scorers, a recipe for success.

As for the other teams, I don’t know how happy Gasol would be to go to a rebuilding team late in his carreer and I think that a rebuilding team should rather continue to rebuild through the draft rather than sign a great veteran which will give them 10 more wins(unless you are happy with the talent you have and want to become a playoff team).

 Gasol is a top3 power forward when hes playing normal. There is a rumor that he and his girlfriend broke up and I guess that is really affecting him. I have watched all the games in the second round and Gasol just looks lost. Normally it would be okay if Gasol wasn’t playing great, but this Dallas team is for real. Having said that I know no team has ever come back from an 0-3 record, but if I had to put money on a team doing it I would still pick the lakers. They are still the 2 time defending champs and have dug themselves a huge hole, but it looks like the Mavs are just a better team right now

I’m sure the girlfriend thing has some impact but I don’t buy that excuse. He hasn’t just been playing poorly this series. Game 1 vs New Orleans 8 points 6 rebounds on 2 of 9 shooting. Game 2 8 points 5 rebounds on 2 of 10 shooting. At that time he was still with his girlfriend/fiance. Even before that he’s been struggling on the field and defensively for the last 15-20 games of the regular season. The guy is just simply playing poorly.

In Game 3, they relied heavily on Odom and he did well.  He should start at the 3 next year.  Shannon Brown played 19 minutes and played very well.  He should play more, perhaps starting at the point.  Fisher and Blake hit some shots. 

Game 3 told me that, hey, this is a big man’s game and this is Bynum’s team.  The Lakers went away from Bynum and lost. 

Next year, Kobe-Bynum-Pau-Odom should all play 35 or 36 minutes a night with Ron Artest (enforcer, can post up, defend, rebound) playing 25 minutes off the bench.  I think Shannon Brown should get around 25-30 minutes a night.  He played great.  He could turn into a Tony Allen-type player for them.  With Fisher off the bench at about 20 minutes a night, Blake getting a few minutes along with Barnes.  I think they need to play Devin Ebanks more.  He can be their backup swing man.  They need another big guy to come off the bench.

Pau can bounce back.  He’s still a good second option. 

This team needs to pound the ball inside, get Bynum going, run the offense through Odom, and use Kobe as a more of a spot-up shooter, or coming off screens (like Ray Allen or Rip Hamilton).  Shannon Brown is their second most important guard behind Kobe.  Fisher still has a role on this team, although it is probably coming off the bench and off the ball (use Steve Blake as a backup point guard and use Fisher more like Jason Terry).  Ron-Ron is strictly a goon/enforcer at this point.  Tell him to defend and rebound and he will be rewarded with post-up opportunities off the bench.  He needs to be their Rodman, and not their 3rd option on offense.  If they can find a veteran who can fit in with the Lakers, great.  If not, they need to concentrate on getting some back up big men.  Maybe Jeff Foster (as a good rebounder off the bench) or Kristic (can space the floor). 

Getting a new coach might be a good thing.  Their front line (Bynum, Pau, Odom) is the best in the league, and Kobe is a great scorer/shooter who can finish games.  That is the Big Four with the rest of the guys strictly being complementary pieces (Fisher’s shooting, Brown’s energy/athleticism, Artest’s zany, rugged play).  The team is an inside team with a great scorer to add another dimension to the scoring attack.  Fisher and Blake can hit 3’s but this is not really a 3 point shooting team anymore.  More like a standard big man team with long, strong athletes on the wings (Odom, Kobe, Brown, Artest, Ebanks).  Fisher and Blake are nothing more than Armstrong and Paxon at this point (at best). 

The Lakers can’t waste their second round draft picks.  They need to look at some bigs (Vernon Macklin, Alex Tyus, Josh Harrelson), and maybe a shooter (Diebler, Ravern Johnson, Lighty). 

With a new philosophy plus some decent signings and draft picks the Lakers will be right back in contention next year along with the Thunder, Mavericks, and Grizzlies. 

I don’t want to see any changes. Keep in mind Dallas is a very good team and 2’of the 3 games could have gone either way. Maybe an offseason of being pissed off will do them some good and it’s way too early to act like this core is washed up. Kobe and odom have been playing fine this series. Bynum and artest have been uP and down. Gasol is the only guy really playing drastically sub par. Although with all that said, would love to see Dwight Howard traded for gasol.

 No way would they take anything less than Bynum for Dwight. Secondly, as long as Ron is starting at the 3, we’re going to be lacking any real fastbreak points causing us to not be abe to get any easy baskets. Not to mention Derek Fisher always thinking he’s Allen Iverson on the break. Give me Pau/Shannon for Iggy,Williams, Hawes #16(BPA).

Follow that by Adding F/A pieces such as K-Mart with the LLE and JR Smith or Nick Young with the MLE. On Draft night you Get ahold of Dwight by trading Bynum,Ebanks,#16, future1st for Dwight. Sign Joel Pryzbilla or Jeff Foster for the Vet Min to go along with Sean Williams(BC) from the D-League and Kapono.

Dwight/Hawes/Caracter

K-Mart/LO/SeanWilliams/Dwight

Iggy/Ron/Pono

Kobe/Barnes/Fish

Smith/Lou/Blake