Offseason Movement: The Lakers re-signed Sasha Vujacic and signed Chinese guard Sun Yue. They probably overspent on Vujacic (three years, $15 million) but had to compete with European teams for his services. Vujacic had a great year shooting the ball, but didn’t play particularly well in the Finals, especially on defense.
Keep Your Eye On: Lamar Odom
It’s not clear how Odom is going to fit in with Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum on the Laker front line. It’s going to be tough for Kobe Bryant to find any room to drive when the three big men are on the court at the same time, so the most likely scenario has Odom or Bynum coming off the bench. It’s going to take some time Bynum and Gasol to get used to playing with each other, and if Odom is the one coming off the bench, he’ll have to adjust to a sixth man role. The good news is that if things aren’t working by the trade deadline, they can probably unload Odom for a good player that is a better fit.
The Big Question: Is Bynum’s return enough to get the Lakers over the hump?
Conventional wisdom states that if you take a team that lost in the Finals the previous season and add an up-and-coming seven-foot center to the rotation, then the team will inevitably be better. While that’s certainly a distinct possibility, there’s no guarantee that Bynum will jive with the rest of the rotation. Just because the Lakers are better on paper, it doesn’t mean that they’ll be able to once again run the gauntlet that is the Western Conference playoffs. A lot of things had to go right for the Lakers to make the Finals last year, and a lot of things have to go right for them to make a second straight trip.
Outlook: Despite some training camp kinks that need to be worked out, there is no team in the league with more talent top to bottom. They also have one of the best coaches in the league, so the Lakers are the odds-on favorite to with the title, and rightfully so. Still, there are a number of roadblocks they’ll have to overcome. First, Phil Jackson must find a way to use Gasol, Bynum and Odom to the best of their abilities without limiting what Kobe can do on the drive. Second, Kobe must stay healthy, which means the problem he has with his shooting hand can’t bother him too much and those knees have to stay relatively pain-free. And lastly, they must show better toughness if they meet the Celtics again in the Finals. Bynum brings a lot to the table, but he’s not going to make this team tough by himself. The Celtics were hungrier than the Lakers last season, but now the roles are reversed. If Jackson can get Odom, Bynum and Gasol to play together well, or if the Lakers can trade Odom for a better fit, they should make it to the Finals again. There is just too much talent here; they should be able to figure it out.
Tag: Pau Gasol (Page 10 of 11)
Offseason Movement: The team acquired Antoine Walker and Marko Jaric as part of the deal that brought O.J. Mayo to Memphis in exchange for Kevin Love and some loose change. Walker is in the last year of his contract, while Jaric has three years and $21 million remaining on his deal. Neither player is likely to figure into the team’s long-term plans.
Keep Your Eye On: O.J. Mayo, G
Mayo is a highly touted combo guard. He showed some serious ability in college, but has struggled over his career with his maturity. However, he has more recently earned a reputation for being an extremely hard worker, which is one of the key components to NBA stardom.
The Big Question: Have the Grizzlies turned the corner?
Believe it or not, the 2007-08 season might have been the franchise’s low point. In addition to Mayo, the Grizzlies can now boast about a talented group of youngsters that includes Rudy Gay, Mike Conley and Hakim Warrick. The team also has Kyle Lowry, Javaris Crittenton and Darrell Arthur on the roster. Memphis projects to have a load of salary cap room over the next two summers, so if they can find a star power forward and/or center to run with Conley, Mayo and Gay, the Grizzlies may be a team to be reckoned with in two or three years.
Outlook: 2007-08 will be known as the season that the Grizzlies gave away Pau Gasol. In the short term, the move hurts the team’s chances to win games, but in the long term, it looks like it will help the Grizzlies get back to the land of respectability. Gasol’s contract runs through the 2010-11 season, so it is unlikely that the team would have had the cap space in the summer of 2010 to make a run at a star player. Now the team has a young core to build around and if they’re able to develop and add a couple of star/superstar veterans over the next two seasons, the Grizzlies will be back on track. One problem with that plan is the ownership situation, which continues to be in flux. In order to become a viable contender in the West, the team needs an owner willing to invest in its payroll.
Check out our NBA Preview page for a look at every team. We’ll be posting three previews per business day, which will take us up to the start of the season on Tuesday, October 28th.
In last week’s column, I covered the trouble Phil Jackson was having with finding a good spot for Lamar Odom to play now that Andrew Bynum is back from injury. The LA Times’ Laker blog says that things might be going a little better in that regard this week:
As mentioned in yesterday’s practice report, talk again surfaced about the best role for Lamar Odom this season. Could, perhaps, that snug fit come as a sixth man off the pine? Phil Jackson used LO off the bench for much of yesterday’s workout and after some sluggish possessions, the versatile forward acquitted himself nicely in unfamiliar territory. It should be stressed that Jackson hasn’t committed to this concept, even while noting that a quality sixth man can play starter’s minutes, which could very well be interpreted as a reassuring hint dropped. Thus far, Odom hasn’t been thrilled with the notion of joining the bench mob, but he does dig the increased preseason opportunities to handle the rock.
I think this is going to come down to Lamar Odom’s (or Andrew Bynum’s) willingness to come off the bench. A frontline of Odom, Gasol and Bynum, while imposing, probably isn’t going to work from an offensive perspective. The three would do best in a rotation, which means one of the three will usually be on the bench. For the most part, this will work fine, but what about crunch time?
Despite being outmuscled and outhustled by the Boston Celtics in the Finals, the Los Angeles Lakers enter the season as the odds-on favorite to win the title. With the up-and-coming Andrew Bynum returning from injury, their status as favorites does some sense. But there is already trouble in Lala Land, as the coaching staff can’t figure out how to best utilize the talent on the roster. There are two issues at hand: 1) Lamar Odom is in the final year of his contract and has always been a bad fit for the triangle offense and 2) it’s no sure thing that Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol can play well together.
Heading into the season, the team seemed intent on moving Gasol to power forward and starting Bynum at center, so much so that Phil Jackson suggested that Lamar Odom might come off the bench. While the trio would make a long and formidable frontline, none of them can hit a jumper outside of 15 feet, and even that’s a stretch. Defenses would simply pack the lane, which would make it next to impossible for Kobe Bryant to get to the rim.
For his part, Odom bristled at the idea of coming off the bench.
“He must have woke up and bumped his head. He probably hit his head on something — boom,” Odom said about Jackson. “To start off like that, you’ve got to be out of your . . . mind.”
“I’ll make you a deal. If my armpits smell like roses, I’ll come off the bench.”
I could write a thousand words about why Odom’s umbrage at the prospect of moving to a sixth man role proves that he’s selfish and thinking only (or mainly) of himself, but suffices to say, he’s in the final year of his contract and he doesn’t want his stats to take a hit. The better his numbers, the better the contract he’s going to get next summer.
(Of course, there’s the argument that a selfless move to the bench that resulted into a NBA title would only serve to enhance his value. If a sixth man role is good enough for Manu Ginobili, then it’s good enough for Lamar Odom. Period.)
Okay, so Odom isn’t willing to be a sixth man. Now Jackson is experimenting with the idea of playing him at point guard.
Odom, who has already clashed with Jackson in training camp, has brought the ball up court for the Lakers in their first two days of practice.
Derek Fisher has shifted to a shooting-guard role on offense and Kobe Bryant has moved to small forward.
The concept, if it sticks, has its pros and cons.
Odom, 6 feet 10, could post up smaller point guards, though the team would lose some of his offensive rebounding if he stayed out on the perimeter.
When I heard this, I really did think that Jackson had bumped his head. I don’t know if the idea of Odom running the point has any pros, but it certainly has some cons. The notion that he’d be able to “post up smaller point guards” is ridiculous as no opposing coach in his right mind is going to ask his point guard to defend Odom. Moreover, it still doesn’t address the issue of the Lakers having three guys on the court that can’t hit a consistent jump shot. Whether Odom is on the wing or at the top of the key is irrelevant; defenses can still pack the lane and take Kobe’s penetration away. Besides, the triangle offense doesn’t really have or need a traditional point guard, so Odom would essentially just bring the ball up and get the team into its offense. I don’t see the point. (No pun intended.)
Now there’s talk of Bynum coming off the bench, mainly because he and Gasol aren’t playing very well together.
“Right now, they’re very clumsy; they’re not working well together,” Jackson said Monday. “We’ve got a group that played very well together last year. There are some things that we have to discuss and see how long we drag this out — or how quickly we facilitate it, because I think we have got the ability to play exceptionally well if we use all our skill players.”
Said [Assistant Coach Tex] Winter: “The complexion of our team changes considerably when you’re playing Gasol and Bynum together. That’s going to be a real project to work that out so both those guys can play up to their potential and really show what they can do.”
I think that Bynum and Gasol will eventually find a way to fit with each other. Gasol is decent facing the hoop and is able to work the elbow and the wing, but for either guy to have enough space to operate, they need to be surrounded by three guys capable of hitting jump shots with consistency. That brings us back to Odom.
I just don’t see how the three of them on the court at the same time is going to work. And we’re talking about three of the team’s top four players. This is a major issue.
If I’m Odom, I would embrace the role of sixth man. I’d rather anchor the bench unit at 30 minutes than start and play fourth- or fifth-fiddle for 35 minutes. But clearly, Odom is not of the same mindset. This leads me to believe that after some experimentation in the first month or two of the season, the Lakers will trade Odom for a more complementary player. They already have $10.4 million per season invested in two other small forwards – Luke Walton and Vladimir Radmanovic – but neither guy is starter quality on a championship team. Walton can play defense but lacks any semblance of a consistent jump shot, while Radmanovic can shoot but can’t play a lick of D. So, if they trade Odom, they’ll need to land a player who can space the court with his outside jumper while also holding his own defensively. (If Trevor Ariza improves his jump shot, and that’s a BIG “if,” he could ultimately fill this role.)
So who should the Lakers trade for?
The Ron Artest ship has sailed, but they might want to swing a deal for Shane Battier, if the Rockets would be willing to give him up. It’s doubtful that either team would want to risk helping the other, but it probably makes sense for both sides. Odom is probably best as a power forward, while Battier is better at small forward. With Artest and Tracy McGrady (who can also play off guard), the Rockets have a glut at the position. Mike Miller is an obvious candidate, but after the uproar over the Grizzlies’ decision to “trade” Gasol to the Lakers, they were unlikely to work out a deal for Miller. Now that he’s in Minnesota, that becomes a possibility again, though it’s doubtful that the Timberwolves would want to take on Odom (or his salary) when they have their power forward of the future (Kevin Love). Orlando’s Hedo Turkoglu is another possibility, as both he and Odom are in the final years of their contracts and the Magic could slide Rashard Lewis to small forward. However, the Magic will probably elect to keep Turkoglu because they need shooters to space the floor for Dwight Howard. Richard Jefferson would have been a great fit, but that’s no longer an option now that he’s in Milwaukee, and the Nets would rather have a young prospect (Yi Jianlian) than an aging vet like Odom. Andres Nocioni would be an interesting acquisition. He’s a hard-nosed player who has a nice jump shot and can defend. He should be starting this league, but is playing behind Luol Deng in Chicago. Maybe the Bulls would be interested in Odom? Or how about a swap with Miami for Shawn Marion? He’d be the most expensive option on this list, but he also has the most talent.
Whomever they find, Odom is still the odd man out. He’s unwilling to even consider the idea of coming off the bench yet his lack of perimeter skills makes it impossible to play him alongside Gasol and Bynum. The three could make for a great rotation at power forward and center, but that means someone has to swallow his pride and come off the bench.
Thus far, it looks like Odom is unwilling to be that guy.
The U.S. men’s basketball team accomplished its goal of winning a gold medal by defeating a feisty Spanish team, 118-107. I give credit to NBC for airing the game live even though it was on at 2:30 AM on the East Coast. It’s too bad that they didn’t plan to air it again later in the morning, because it was a great game.
With Kobe Bryant and LeBron James in foul trouble throughout the first half, the game was tight but Dwyane Wade came off the bench to score 21 points in the first two quarters to lead the Americans to a 69-61 halftime lead. Spain continued to fight back throughout the second half, eventually cutting the lead to two on a Rudy Fernandez long ball with 8:13 to play. It was gut-check time for the U.S.; they had allowed Spain to get back into the game with a combination of sketchy shot selection and poor defense and once again it looked like the Americans would be plagued by fractured play.
But down the stretch it was Kobe who took control, scoring eight points and dishing out a couple of assists over the next five minutes to build the lead to nine. Spain cut it to four with 2:25 to play, but Wade hit a clutch three to push the lead back to seven. Carlos Jiminez missed a wide-open three (after just knocking one down) that would have cut the lead to three with 1:33 to play, but Bryant hit a tough shot in the lane on the Americans’ next possession to effectively put the game out of reach.
Defense had been Team USA’s calling card throughout the Olympics, but save for a couple of key stops, they just didn’t have it tonight. Luckily, they were able to knock down their three-pointers (13/28, 46%), which is something that has hurt the U.S. in the past. Wade led all scorers with 27 points and had four steals. Bryant chipped in with 20, including those eight crucial points in the fourth quarter. LeBron James played a solid all-around game, posting 14 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Spain was led by Pau Gasol (22 points), Fernandez (21) and Juan Carlos Navarro (18). They were playing without Raptors’ point guard Jose Calderon, who was sidelined with a groin injury. (Fernandez joins the Portland Trailblazers next season and he looks like a star in the making. He’s just 23, stands 6’6″, and has a great jumper. He also handles the ball well and attacks the rim. He is starter-quality, but may come off the bench behind Jerryd Bayless and Brandon Roy.)
Hats off to Jerry Colangelo and Mike Krzyzewski for putting together a team capable of winning the gold. For the most part, they set their egos aside and played together, which is necessary these days to have success at the Olympic level. Every player knew and played his role.
Now where does the program go from here? It will be interesting to see if USA Basketball pushes forward with the same philosophy or, with this success, if they get lulled into a false sense of security. I’m betting on the former, but you never know.
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