It has been well documented how well stacked the Lakers are this season with the addition of Pau Gasol. This moved Odom to third in the pecking order, the ideal place for him to best shine. He’s playing like a poor man’s Magic. Yeah. You heard me right.

It has also been well documented about how young this team is and how bright their future looks with Bynum, Farmar and potentially Ariza all young budding stars. The Lakers look set to compete for championships for years to come, even beyond Kobe’s prime. Besides, with his fire and winner’s mentality, Farmar is the poor man’s point guard, big-eared version of Kobe.  

Of course there are some minor problems. A potential logjam at SF is one. As mentioned above, Odom is playing magically, but how will he play when Bynum is entered into the equation. One potential is having Bynum be the sixth man. Have him come off the bench with the second unit (which they will probably do when he comes back this season). It worked extremely well at the beginning of the season before Drew was inserted into the starting lineup.

Continue reading "Poor Man’s Version"

The Lakers are the best team in the best conference in the history of the NBA. 

Huh, that was my Bill Walton moment.

Bynum’s a beast. 

And the best part is the Lakers don’t even need him to win a championship this year. I want him back for sure, but I’d rather he not risk anything. The Lakers are good enough to win it right now without him. 

I drafted Pau Gasol as my second pick in my fantasy basketball league. That means he was taken 16th overall in my fantasy league. My cousin and I knew what he brought. I’d always admired his game. 

When I heard the news about him being traded to the Lakers, I literally could not wipe the smile off my face. The rest of the day I felt like a newly christened born again Christian bearing the good news. I went around to co-workers, my family, friends and random people wherever I went and asked them if they’d heard. I was met with mostly, “Who’s that?” and “That’s great! Kwame’s gone.”  

Continue reading "Kobe, Potential to Be Greater than Jordan"

I’m getting a bit worried of late. Teams are getting physical on the Lakers. This is the second game in a row that the opposing team has used 80s Pistons-like thuggery. Kobe said a couple weeks back that this wasn’t the 80s. Well, sorry Kobe. From here on out, teams will be gunning for that injured hand of yours. It’s the only realistic way of stopping you.  

Exhibit A: The Dallas Mavericks made their game against the Lakers a down and dirty affair. The Mavs had 29 fouls and sent the Lakers to the line 50 times. That’s right. 50 times. Kobe had 27 by himself, a couple including some hard fouls by Erick Dampier who ended up fouling out.

Exhibit B: Last night against the Kings the Lakers went to the freethrow line 40 times. Kobe had 16 of those. Again, the big brute in the middle for the opposing team got physical with Kobe. Brad Miller unloaded a couple of his five fouls onto Bryant. In fact, Udrih and Artest also had five fouls. No starter for the Kings had less than three.

Continue reading "Getting Rough and Rising to the Challenge"

The following is an excerpt from a chat of ESPN analyst John Hollinger on his MVP selection up to this point in the season:

Jason (Upland): Who is your MVP for this season? Last week you said Lebron, CP3, then Kobe, despite Lebron only having a subpar 34-26 record (8 games over .500) in the WEAK East (who's team won't even be in the playoffs if they were in the West), while both CP3 and Kobe have their teams a whopping 20+ games over .500 on the TOUGH West.
 

John Hollinger: First of all, a lesson on schedules -- 58 of the 82 games are identical regardless of which league you're in, so in terms of individual performance and team win-loss records they rarely make a large impact.

Continue reading "By the Numbers: Why Kobe is the MVP Over Lebron"

Here’s another look at the top three MVP candidates this year. Apologies to Kevin Garnett, who has missed significant time and whose statistics just don’t quite measure up. If KG is going to be seriously considered, his team will need to finish with around 70 wins. His presence is felt mainly on the defensive end, so his defensive player of the year award should be a no brainer, however, KG has even said himself that Pierce is the Celtics' MVP.

No apologies to Tracy McGrady, who, if asked, would probably himself say that he is not worthy of an MVP consideration because the Rockets are defined by team effort and chemistry. Besides, no MVP can miss 15 games, regardless of a historic 22-game win streak. 

So, what was done here is I’ve gone over the schedules for each of these three players and taken the stats from quality wins (a quality win is against any team with above a .500 record). I’ve also pointed out the poor losses to bottom-feeding teams (or, any team under .500). The numbers are quite telling.

Continue reading "MVP Race Continues"

Kobe’s shot wasn’t falling, and he got hammered on several drives and didn’t get the calls. Sure, he went to the freethrow line 15 times, but there were at least two calls where he took it hard to the hole and got hit by multiple defenders. Nothing.

The most absurd demonstration of how inconsistent the calls were tonight was on a touch foul that went against Kobe at the end of overtime while he d-ed up Caron Butler. Caron took it to the hole and Kobe shaded him. It was a ticky tack foul that even Butler looked surprised to get. Kobe sort of grabbed his crotch in frustration and turned away, a sardonic smile creeping up his face.

But that was it. Even after getting hammered on the two plays above, he simply walked away from confrontation. Sure, he’s got to, he does have 15 technicals. One more gets him a one game suspension. But that’s the beauty of Kobe’s transformation this year. He knows he’s needed. And he’s making sure his next technical doesn’t come until at the very earliest, the first game of the playoffs.

Continue reading "Kobe Keeps His Cool"