Posts tagged Paugasol at FanHouse

Only in dreams can these Lakers screw up a plum roster, a legendary coach, and maybe the surest path to a top seed in the past four, five years. Not since the Lakers of 2001-02 has a team looked so unstoppable on paper. (You could make an argument for the 2003-04 Lakers, though many rightfully doubted the impact of the Payton and Malone acquisitions.) With a core that just ripped through the Western Conference playoffs before bowing out against a sterling defensive juggernaut, the current Lakers are heavy conference favorites. Adding to that core a complete man-child hitting his physical stride, a cat who'd be the best player on about 12 NBA rosters ... this team's potential for devastation is immeasurable. The only dudes who can screw it up are the dudes themselves.

Lamar Odom already bristled at the suggestion he'd come off the bench in a prospective altered line-up amid Andrew Bynum's return. Instead, Phil Jackson set up Odom as the offensive initiator, a point guard in gazelle's clothing. As a form of discipline but amid reports Bynum and Pau Gasol have been incompatible as a duo, Young Drew came off the bench for two preseason games. I wonder what his completely matured and enlightened opinion will be. Get us an answer, Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register (via TrueHoop).

Bynum ... oozed petulance when asked by a TV reporter late Thursday night if he liked coming off the bench. He slowly rolled his eyes and then said: "Not at all."

Fourteen Western Conference fan bases are absolutely loving this. You're doing it right, Drew. Make your money. You should be starting. You should be starting and taking 20 shots a night.

A lot of rookies are handled with kid gloves. They're coddled, to a certain degree,and heavily invested in and supported. Javaris Crittenton didn't have quite so soft of a rookie season. He was drafted nineteenth by the Lakers, who already had Jordan Farmar and Vlad Radmanovic, not to mention Kobe Bryant, and who added Derek Fisher. Then, in the midst of an exciting season on a premier playoff-caliber team, he was traded in his first season to the Memphis Grizzlies as part of the swindle that brought Pau Gasol to Staples Center. Crittenton, however, had tremendous athletic talent, and really started to make an impact as the year wen ton in Memphis. As this season, started, though, he found himself on the block again, the subject of constant rumors, including the now failed Zach Randolph rumor.

I caught up with Crittenton last week and talked to him about dealing with the harsh realities of the NBA that many rookies are shielded from, working with Mark Price, and keeping focused amidst distraction.

MM: What's the biggest thing you learned last year?

JC: The biggest thing I learned last year is this is a business. You've got to be professional. You've got to come to work prepared. So in the offseason I spent time working on things I needed to improve on last year.

Mike Conley Jr. is at the forefront of the Grizzlies' youth movement. Drafted fourth overall in the 2007 NBA Draft, he entered a team in the midst of tearing down the old roster in pursuit of rebuilding. Conley eventually worked his way into the rotation and was the featured point guard by season's end. Expectations are high for Conley to be a key factor in the Grizz turning things around in Memphis after the departure of Pau Gasol and the addition of Marc Gasol and O.J. Mayo. Conley is of vital importance as point guard in the run and gun style that Marc Iavaroni wants to implement.

I caught up with Mike the other day after his first week of practice to talk to him about becoming a leader on a young team, working the transition game, and of course, Halo 3.

MM: What's the biggest thing you learned last year?

MC: Just to be patient. People come into the league, they want to play 120%. You have to know how to play smart and fit into an NBA game. That's one big thing I learned.

One of the most amusing compelling stories of the offseason has been the wait for Andrew Bynum to return to the lineup and destroy everything in his path in pursuit of his destiny as the best center in the NBA. Well, okay, the most recent wait . Ask anyone that's big on statistics, as most of the NBA scribes are, and they'll tell you that Bynum was on pace to produce simply devastating numbers last season based on his thirty five games of action, and his projected path of development through his early years. Of course, then he suffered a severe knee injury. But it's no big deal, because he definitely made his estimated return of March. Well, okay, April. Well, okay, the second round. Okay, no, he had surgery again and was out until this season. But seriously! When he gets back, you're all on notice!

Unfortunately, based on the word coming out of Lakers camp via the OC Register's Kevin Ding, Bynum's a little behind schedule on that whole "next Kareem" thing. As in, he may not start. The wunderkind is apparently having issues meshing with Pau Gasol, and Lamar Odom has outworked him in training camp. The issue, at least according to Tex Winter, is one of effort.

"He's just not exerting himself, maybe," Winter said. "And most of the other guys are. I think he just needs to play a little harder."

Bynum has said himself that practice work hasn't had him completely riveted.

"This is the first year where it's kind of a little bit boring just because we have to run through the same stuff we already know," he said.

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Yesterday we had the overview; today we have the predictions. The Pacific Division appears to be no better than a two-team race, with a third team potentially in the mix, and the last two teams, well, finishing in last. Let's start things off in the cellar and work our way up, shall we?

The Los Angeles Clippers (again, regal) are going to have a tough go of it due to the enormous drop off in talent they have between their starting lineup and the players coming off the bench. In fact, if you want a visual of said drop off, go watch this, and pretend the guy jumping off the building is falling in the space between the talent of the Clippers' starting players and that of their bench players. And the parachute not opening represents the gigantic FAIL that the Clippers can expect this season anytime the bench takes the floor to try and hold onto a lead. It's not going to be pretty, folks.

Up north where the Golden State Warriors play, it won't be pretty either, at least for the first few months of the season. That's because their best player (apologies, Mr. Maggette) decided to engage in low-speed moped riding during the off-season (this still amazes me ... the moped = injury part), which will lead to his absence from the lineup, and an unavoidably bad start for the Warriors.

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A season ago, the Pacific Division was able to send just two of its teams to the playoffs, but one of them went all the way to the Finals. And while that's not likely to change this season -- at least the part about the two playoff teams -- each club definitely has its share of intriguing story lines.

Let's start off in Los Angeles, where the Lakers' playoff run last season took place with one of the team's key components on the sidelines. There are always many stories in Laker-land, but a lot of the team's fans seem to be most interested in this one: With the return of Andrew Bynum, do the Lakers have a shot to win 70 games?

Despite the recent flood of positive Andrew Bynum stories hitting the L.A. papers lately (seriously, his P.R. machine is working overtime), I'm not convinced that his addition to the lineup automatically makes the Lakers unstoppable. There's the whole thing about figuring out how to co-exist with Pau Gasol, and how Lamar Odom will perform (likely) playing further away from the basket. When you add in the fact that even if the team was capable of winning 70 games, there's really no motivation to do so, unless someone else is on the same ridiculous pace and it would mean home court advantage.

Maybe this can be attributed to general niceties or legitimate spite over a break-up, but comments from Memphis players on new teammate Marc Gasol which lump in references to brother Pau sure say something. From the Memphis Commercial-Appeal's Ron Tillery:

"Whereas Pau is a guy who would rather play out on the perimeter, Marc doesn't mind banging with guys," swingman Rudy Gay said. "He's doesn't mind confrontation down there (in the paint). That's kind of refreshing. He wants to be his own player, and he's working toward that. He's definitely asserting himself."

And the narrative of Pau as a sissy continues. It could be argued this is the most damning assertion yet: Gay is a nice guy, and this particular comment seems less directed at boosting Marc's name than drawing a stark contrast. That could have been the leading question, for all we know. But NBA players are savvy enough to skate around something like that.

Meanwhile, there hasn't been indication that Marc will get the starting nod over Darko Milicic at center. Enough if Darko maintains his spot, here's to guessing Gasol will make gains quickly. Darko blocks shots, but isn't nearly the rebounder you'd expect him to be and is slow of foot. He's also unbearably awful on offense. Seems like Gasol could at least match the production, save perhaps in the blocked shots column.

The Lakers, like a lot of NBA teams, play several pre-season games in cities that are nowhere near NBA arenas. The idea is to give those fans a chance to see some live NBA action, which is normally a great idea. But this season, if you live in Fresno, Ontario, San Diego, or Anaheim, you may just want to pass up this opportunity. Because according to Phil Jackson, due to the heavy workload of playing through the Finals and then in the Olympics, Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol are likely to see an extremely limited number of pre-season minutes.

Jackson said he's trying to limit some of their activities because both are coming off the Olympics, and hinted that their participation in exhibition games could be limited as well.

"I'm just going this week, see how they're doing, how they feel, what their energy level is like," Jackson said of Bryant and Gasol. "I was told not to say that I wasn't going to play Kobe in exhibition games. So I'm not going to say that Kobe's not going to play in this exhibition, but there's a chance he may not play in exhibition games."

Ah, Phil, always the comedian. I'm sure he was told not to say anything about sitting Kobe and Pau by the league, as it probably wouldn't help ticket sales in those markets that I mentioned. Will he be fined for giving the fans and the media the heads up? Maybe, but I'm pretty sure it's worth it to have a slightly more rested duo of stars to begin the regular season.

While we imagine a Lakers frontline that can actually rebound, it appears the decision-makers in Los Angeles have other ideas. Instead of slipping big Lamar Odom into the small forward slot, the Orange County Register's Art Thompson III (via TH) reports Trevor Ariza and Luke Walton will battle for the gig while Odom will apparently move into a sixth-man role. Odom seems to be on board.

Odom has discussed with the basketball staff the possibility of accepting a sixth-man role, which has all sorts of delightful possibilities to it, due to the 6-foot-10 Odom's versatility.

He could come off the bench to play small forward or play the two position (shooting guard) or power forward. The Lakers' staff even has discussed with Odom the possibility of him being a hybrid point forward and initiating the offense in that role.

This set-up does have some delightful possibilities. (That should be the L.A.'s 2008-09 motto: "The Los Angeles Lakers. Delightful Possibilities.") With Odom as a starter, you basically stick a poor man's Shawn Marion with less opportunity into the mix. Kobe and Pau Gasol will handle most of the offense (extremely well), and even Andrew Bynum will take priority over Odom. You assert yourself as one of the dominant rebounding teams in the league (probably top six), but the bench suddenly looks a bit offensively anemic.

Ariza's a damn fine rebounder in his own right, and a better "explosive" defender than Odom. Ariza can even trade down and help Kobe defend the Wades and Martins and Manus -- something Odom can't do. And suddenly, Odom running the second unit when Kobe sits ... that's some sort of beautiful, assuming he's locked in (hardly assumable) and prepared.

So long as L.A. has Bynum (an elite rebounder) manning the pivot, I think the team can afford to go smaller at the three. It will interesting to watch, if nothing else.

FanHouse's Tom Ziller argues his ranking of the top 50 players in the NBA.

Pau Gasol's reputation among the loudest NBA fans changes like the weather. A daily tracking poll would look like a heartbeat monitor. And if that were the case, this thing would have crashed in the NBA Finals, where Gasol got pounded off the boards and the block by Kevin Garnett and friends.

But don't get tangled: Gasol's a key player, one of the most adept power forwards in the league at scoring nattily and moving the ball.

Gasol's almost, to me, a poor man's Yao Ming: he scores efficiently, passes the ball well, rebounds worse than you'd think, and doesn't block as many shots as he could. Yao's defensive weakness comes from his lack of mobility; Gasol is limited by his frame, which looks like an aversion to contact on the big-screen. That's not totally right: Pau's a passionate player who, like any other NBA star, doesn't like to get punked. He'll fight back. Whether anyone notices -- including the guy he fights back against -- that's a different story.