Lakers - The Big Five (Full packed)

[willie0828]

Do you believe in magic?
I admit Lakers rooster is aged. Like Pau Gasol, Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash and Ron Artest.. But these individuals are still physically capable of winning another ring..

Here are some points of winning:

1.) Kobe Bryant (Black Mamba): Kobe's historical 81 points versus Toronto Raptors before stunned the NBA season. His incredible styles, athletic moves and highlight reels are awesome that time regardless of his age and his injury.. So, if kobe fired up like that.. Lakers will definitely win.

2.)Dwight Howard (Superman): This guy is really though.. Imagine Lakers with full offense and full defense, it will be a Perfect Team (Dream Team). Dwight, came from ORLANDO who is a defensive player, who can block your shots in transition. No body can just jump-in in the paint when Dwight is on site.

3.)Steve Nash: Damn this guy, his assist are awesome.. Imagine Lakers in good harmony with Nash, Kobe and Dwight it will be a spectacular and winning team in result..

4.)Pau Gasol: The FIBA monster from Spain.. He will play as support for Dwight inside the basket like what he does with Bynum.

5.)Ron Artest (Metta World Peace): This guy is also a good defender and can pressure his opponents resulting to fist fight.. LOL well, its his strategy..

6.)Antawn Jamison: Can play as an excellent support for Kobe..

*If you have more analysis, just feel free to comment*

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[bigcooley]

i didn't know dwight played 4 the MAVS thats sum new to me i mean he should have a ring already from last year lmao im pretty sure he played for orlando

 

[james brown]

they'll lose to OKC....again.

 

[willie0828]

i didn't know dwight played 4 the MAVS thats sum new to me i mean he should have a ring already from last year lmao im pretty sure he played for orlando

I edited it LOL.. I was confused by that Nash .. LOLOLOL

 

[willie0828]

they'll lose to OKC....again.

Was Black Beard left the OKC?

 

[drxdroopy]

it is going to be a sick team

 

[~Hasashi~]

Honestly, it's simple as this, if steve nash can run this offense properly, handling the ball-hogging of kobe, and ego of dwight, there isn't a team in the NBA who can beat them. Question is, can they do it the first year, don't think so. If they can, the thunder are good, the lakers outsize them and can match them in transition(obviously they aren't as good as them, but they are still a formidable transition team), same goes for the heat.

 

[AP2k]

17>16
/thread.

 

[willie0828]

Still Lakers will be different.. From worse to best =)

 

[PUU]

In this upcoming season, I still consider Lakers inferior to the Heat and Thunder until they prove they can beat either team in a playoff series.
Here is my input in the Lakers matching up against the Thunder…

Matchups:

Spoiler

• Westbrook vs Nash - With the addition of Steve Nash the Lakers can now have more fluidity in their offense, we have seen too many times the Lakers offense become stagnate and end up giving the ball to Kobe to play some hero ball. Nash brings the Lakers offense better pick & roll/ pick & pop lethality with D12 and Gasol being the beneficiaries. Also he brings to the table deadly 3pt shooting and relief for Kobe who doesn’t have to carry the team in terms of scoring, now in the 4th quarter the Lakers have another scoring threat. But even that is not enough in this matchup because as we all watched last year Westbrook was the Lakers worst nightmare. I like Nash but he doesn’t have a lick of defense and will get abused if he is matched up on Westbrook, he is too fast/quick/strong for him. He will continue to do his patented pull up jumper from the elbow and attacking the rim (even with D12 patrolling the paint). On the defensive end he can make it difficult for Nash, I’m not saying he is going to be on-ball stripping Nash like he was doing to players in the London Olympics but his on-ball pressure and intensity could make Nash less comfortable bringing the ball up the court and running the Lakers offensive sets.

Advantage - Westbrook obviously

• Sefolosha vs Kobe - I’ll be quick with this one. Sefolosha is one of the premier perimeter defenders and he actually plays Kobe well on a number of occasions, but Kobe is Kobe and whenever he is on the court he is the biggest threat to opposing teams when they play the Lakers.

Advantage - Kobe obviously

• Durant vs Ron Artest ( I refuse to call this nigga Metta World Peace) - Now if this was 03-04 Artest we could entertain this matchup and I could go into detail but it’s not so I’ll try to keep this short. Ron Artest showed his offensive ineptitude vs the Thunder in last year’s playoffs going 17-45(38%) which I don’t really see changing if they matchup again. And as far as him stopping the best scorer in the world… not happening, the only thing he can hope for is to limit the damage (in Durant terms that’s like 27 pointsxd).

Advantage - Durant obviously

• Ibaka vs Gasol - This is probably the closest matchup in the starting 5. Gasol has frequently showed the ability to be able to stretch the defense and hit the deep mid-range shots which we seen in last NBA Finals, it was a problem for the OKC bigs because they wanted to pack the paint to stop LeBron and Wade which let open jumpers for Bosh. The same thing can happen if they face OKC this upcoming year, Nash running the pick & roll/ pick & pop will force the OKC bigs to come out of the paint and play the screens could create open jumpshots for Gasol. Ibaka if guarding Gasol in the low post can make things difficult with his strength (Gasol is known to being soft if played tough), also Ibaka is steadily improving his jumper which the Lakers somewhat have to acknowledge. Ibaka’s athleticism is also an asset in this matchup; Gasol cannot keep up with his speed if the thunder gets out in transition which could lead to Ibaka getting some easy baskets.

Advantage - Gasol but by a narrow margin

• Perkins vs Howard - Again I will try to be quick with this one because it’s quite obvious. Yes Perkins is one of the premier post defenders but how is that going to help him when D12 comes off of pick & rolls, alley-oops, transition, etc… D12 is too athletic for Perkins to stop all of this. The only thing Perkins has a chance in is guarding D12 in the low post and even that will be a huge challenge for Perkins to overcome. We don’t have to talk about Perkins offense because he simply doesn’t have it, also with the addition of D12 the Lakers Defense has dramatically improved with the best defender in the league protecting the paint (but he has to be careful not to get in foul trouble from Westbrook, Harden, and sometimes Durant attacking the paint).

Advantage - Howard obviously

Chemistry:

Spoiler

This is one of the main reasons why I think the Thunder would win if they were to play in the playoffs this upcoming season. As we seen how the Heat did their first year, it took a while for them to gel (if you ask me they really didn’t start to gel effectively until the next season after they lost to the Mavs because LeBron needed a wakeup call which was that the team success first runs through him) in terms of how the offense is going to be run, who turn is it to get theirs, who will take the last shot, which play should we run in certain situations, etc… The Thunder’s core has been together long enough to overcome these problems. Time will tell how the Laker’s chemistry progresses, until then…

Advantage - Thunder

Bench:

Spoiler

The Laker’s seem set in terms of backups (PG’s, SG’s, and PF’s), Steve Blake, Chris Duhon, Jodie Meeks, and Antawn Jamison are solid backups with the latter being their sixth man. I’m not really feeling their “Bigs”, other than Jamison their “Bigs” & SF depth is lacking in talent to me but whatever. As for the Thunder their bench seems to be deeper than the Lakers to me. They have size in Aldrich, Thabeet (even though he’s a bust, the dude is tall and lanky as shitxd), and Collison. They got the biggest NBA draft steal in Perry Jones (look out for this guy) who will backup Durant in the SF spot. If needed Cook can give them a 3pt shooting option, but last but not least they have the reigning sixth man of the year James Harden who can give you 20 points easily and he is arguably the Thunder’s best passer.

Advantage -Thunder

In conclusion:

My concern of the Laker’s chemistry will ultimately decide who wins this. The Laker’s starting 5 is slightly better overall but the Thunder’s bench and chemistry to me will be the factor in their victory over the Lakers. I could be wrong but this is my analysis… OKC wins in 6.

Didn’t match them up against the heat because I didn’t feel like it, maybe I will some other time

 

[OG Smoove]

17>16
/thread.

Celtics fan eh well if so your team is not seeing the finals as long the big three is on the Heat

 

[Heartofali0n]

Lakers all the way! I believe in the Lakers and if they really want #17 they will get it.
I'm truly excited to see what happens this season especially when they play the heat -___-',
I'm hoping Howard, Kobe and Nash get on the same page quick along with the rest of the team. I feel like Nash can help with bringing the team together a little bit more because he's an outstanding point guard and he'll get the ball to everyone not just Kobe and Howard. For Kobe the new addition of these two players will get the other players from other teams off his back and put less pressure on him so he can REALLY shine My hopes are high for this team... and I swear.. If they stress me out like they did last year I might just rip out my hair... =/
LAKER NATION BABY! <3

 

[~Hasashi~]

In this upcoming season, I still consider Lakers inferior to the Heat and Thunder until they prove they can beat either team in a playoff series.
Here is my input in the Lakers matching up against the Thunder…

Matchups:

Spoiler

• Westbrook vs Nash - With the addition of Steve Nash the Lakers can now have more fluidity in their offense, we have seen too many times the Lakers offense become stagnate and end up giving the ball to Kobe to play some hero ball. Nash brings the Lakers offense better pick & roll/ pick & pop lethality with D12 and Gasol being the beneficiaries. Also he brings to the table deadly 3pt shooting and relief for Kobe who doesn’t have to carry the team in terms of scoring, now in the 4th quarter the Lakers have another scoring threat. But even that is not enough in this matchup because as we all watched last year Westbrook was the Lakers worst nightmare. I like Nash but he doesn’t have a lick of defense and will get abused if he is matched up on Westbrook, he is too fast/quick/strong for him. He will continue to do his patented pull up jumper from the elbow and attacking the rim (even with D12 patrolling the paint). On the defensive end he can make it difficult for Nash, I’m not saying he is going to be on-ball stripping Nash like he was doing to players in the London Olympics but his on-ball pressure and intensity could make Nash less comfortable bringing the ball up the court and running the Lakers offensive sets.

Advantage - Westbrook obviously

• Sefolosha vs Kobe - I’ll be quick with this one. Sefolosha is one of the premier perimeter defenders and he actually plays Kobe well on a number of occasions, but Kobe is Kobe and whenever he is on the court he is the biggest threat to opposing teams when they play the Lakers.

Advantage - Kobe obviously

• Durant vs Ron Artest ( I refuse to call this nigga Metta World Peace) - Now if this was 03-04 Artest we could entertain this matchup and I could go into detail but it’s not so I’ll try to keep this short. Ron Artest showed his offensive ineptitude vs the Thunder in last year’s playoffs going 17-45(38%) which I don’t really see changing if they matchup again. And as far as him stopping the best scorer in the world… not happening, the only thing he can hope for is to limit the damage (in Durant terms that’s like 27 pointsxd).

Advantage - Durant obviously

• Ibaka vs Gasol - This is probably the closest matchup in the starting 5. Gasol has frequently showed the ability to be able to stretch the defense and hit the deep mid-range shots which we seen in last NBA Finals, it was a problem for the OKC bigs because they wanted to pack the paint to stop LeBron and Wade which let open jumpers for Bosh. The same thing can happen if they face OKC this upcoming year, Nash running the pick & roll/ pick & pop will force the OKC bigs to come out of the paint and play the screens could create open jumpshots for Gasol. Ibaka if guarding Gasol in the low post can make things difficult with his strength (Gasol is known to being soft if played tough), also Ibaka is steadily improving his jumper which the Lakers somewhat have to acknowledge. Ibaka’s athleticism is also an asset in this matchup; Gasol cannot keep up with his speed if the thunder gets out in transition which could lead to Ibaka getting some easy baskets.

Advantage - Gasol but by a narrow margin

• Perkins vs Howard - Again I will try to be quick with this one because it’s quite obvious. Yes Perkins is one of the premier post defenders but how is that going to help him when D12 comes off of pick & rolls, alley-oops, transition, etc… D12 is too athletic for Perkins to stop all of this. The only thing Perkins has a chance in is guarding D12 in the low post and even that will be a huge challenge for Perkins to overcome. We don’t have to talk about Perkins offense because he simply doesn’t have it, also with the addition of D12 the Lakers Defense has dramatically improved with the best defender in the league protecting the paint (but he has to be careful not to get in foul trouble from Westbrook, Harden, and sometimes Durant attacking the paint).

Advantage - Howard obviously

Chemistry:

Spoiler

This is one of the main reasons why I think the Thunder would win if they were to play in the playoffs this upcoming season. As we seen how the Heat did their first year, it took a while for them to gel (if you ask me they really didn’t start to gel effectively until the next season after they lost to the Mavs because LeBron needed a wakeup call which was that the team success first runs through him) in terms of how the offense is going to be run, who turn is it to get theirs, who will take the last shot, which play should we run in certain situations, etc… The Thunder’s core has been together long enough to overcome these problems. Time will tell how the Laker’s chemistry progresses, until then…

Advantage - Thunder

Bench:

Spoiler

The Laker’s seem set in terms of backups (PG’s, SG’s, and PF’s), Steve Blake, Chris Duhon, Jodie Meeks, and Antawn Jamison are solid backups with the latter being their sixth man. I’m not really feeling their “Bigs”, other than Jamison their “Bigs” & SF depth is lacking in talent to me but whatever. As for the Thunder their bench seems to be deeper than the Lakers to me. They have size in Aldrich, Thabeet (even though he’s a bust, the dude is tall and lanky as shitxd), and Collison. They got the biggest NBA draft steal in Perry Jones (look out for this guy) who will backup Durant in the SF spot. If needed Cook can give them a 3pt shooting option, but last but not least they have the reigning sixth man of the year James Harden who can give you 20 points easily and he is arguably the Thunder’s best passer.

Advantage -Thunder

In conclusion:

My concern of the Laker’s chemistry will ultimately decide who wins this. The Laker’s starting 5 is slightly better overall but the Thunder’s bench and chemistry to me will be the factor in their victory over the Lakers. I could be wrong but this is my analysis… OKC wins in 6.

Didn’t match them up against the heat because I didn’t feel like it, maybe I will some other time

Kinda hard to believe you're the same guy I had all those arguments with during the finals o.o

I agree with you on basically all your points, except a couple things. I think the lakers can be extremely superior to both the heat and thunder, the key is in the chemistry, which I don't think will come this year. They have much more size than either team, and while ron artest is a crap offensive player(although, I expect him to have a much better year offensively this year, he get nearly as many shots this season, and the ones he will are probably going to be wide open shots/clear paths to the basket) but he is one of the better defensive players in the league, comparing him to durant isn't fair, cause no one can really shut down players of that caliber when they are hot, or when they aren't, but like you said, he can limit him, which plays a huge role when playing the thunder.

Also, I think gasol easily wins the matchup vs ibaka, I'm a big ibaka fan, but at the end of the day, he's a shot-blocker, not a very good on ball or post defender in one on one situations, nor is he an overpowering rebounder or scorer, he has a decent jump shot when he is shooting well, besides that, he's primarily a shot-blocker, he has a lot of potential to be a lot more, but he's yet to prove he can out play someone like gasol, IMO it's more than minor advantage to the lakers.

Even without good chemistry, this team is a huge threat to both the thunder and heat, they have enough athleticism to keep up with them(for the most part), and with howard and gasol they'll dominate the boards, if dwight comes back 100%, I'd be more afraid of this lakers team(on paper) than both the heat and thunder.

 

[PUU]

Kinda hard to believe you're the same guy I had all those arguments with during the finals o.o

I agree with you on basically all your points, except a couple things. I think the lakers can be extremely superior to both the heat and thunder, the key is in the chemistry, which I don't think will come this year. They have much more size than either team, and while ron artest is a crap offensive player(although, I expect him to have a much better year offensively this year, he get nearly as many shots this season, and the ones he will are probably going to be wide open shots/clear paths to the basket) but he is one of the better defensive players in the league, comparing him to durant isn't fair, cause no one can really shut down players of that caliber when they are hot, or when they aren't, but like you said, he can limit him, which plays a huge role when playing the thunder.

Also, I think gasol easily wins the matchup vs ibaka, I'm a big ibaka fan, but at the end of the day, he's a shot-blocker, not a very good on ball or post defender in one on one situations, nor is he an overpowering rebounder or scorer, he has a decent jump shot when he is shooting well, besides that, he's primarily a shot-blocker, he has a lot of potential to be a lot more, but he's yet to prove he can out play someone like gasol, IMO it's more than minor advantage to the lakers.

Even without good chemistry, this team is a huge threat to both the thunder and heat, they have enough athleticism to keep up with them(for the most part), and with howard and gasol they'll dominate the boards, if dwight comes back 100%, I'd be more afraid of this lakers team(on paper) than both the heat and thunder.

Haha I know what you mean, even though we disagreed a lot in the past tbh I kinda missed the back and forth wall of texts.

I agree that they have much more size than the Heat but disagree with them having much more size than the Thunder. If we look at each team as a whole and not just the starting 5, the Lakers are not that much bigger than them… if anything the Thunder maybe bigger. As you and I said, chemistry is key which I don’t see them reaching their full potential this season because D12 will miss some time in the beginning of the season, and even when he comes back 100% the Lakers starting 5 while have to adjust to him and begin the process of getting to know each other tendencies while on the court at the same time. And as I said in my previous quote it took the Heat a whole year and a lost in the NBA finals to really start clicking. When I was matching up Durant and Artest I wasn’t trying to compare them because you and I both know that Durant is a much better player, I was just saying that the Artest in the past could probably do a much better job defending the best scorer in the world (Durant) than the current Artest. I agree that he is still one of the best perimeter defenders in the league but he is a shell of himself from his pacers days and Durant is such a talented player that Artest can only hope to limit him.

Ibaka not being a very good low post defender is true, but something about Gasol’s game changes when you are up in his face and physical with him. We both know Gasol can easily shoot over Ibaka but if his mentality turns soft like it usually does to physical play then I think Ibaka vs Gasol matchup can be a much closer battle than you think imo.

You are correct in saying that the Lakers would still be a threat to both Lakers and the Heat even without chemistry. I actually have them ranked as the 3rd best team in the NBA but they are going to need more than just the best starting 5 and size to beat the Thunder and Heat. As for them having enough athleticism to keep up with both Heat and the Thunder is where I have to disagree. The Thunder… probably, The Heat is a different story imo. The Heat although have a much smaller, their athleticism (speed and quickness) and 3pt shooting are almost unparalleled in the NBA. They probably have the 2 best players at getting to the rim and finishing, they have a position-less lineup, they have a ton of 3pt specialist who can run the court and hit open 3’s from LeBron and Dwade going to the paint, they probably have the most athletic defense in terms of moving side to side and getting up on the dribbler, and they probably have the best fast break with LeBron and Wade terrorizing opposing teams. Like you said Gasol and D12 with dominate the boards, but the Heat and Thunder will have advantages in other categories which could nullify the rebound disadvantage. I agree that the Lakers have the best starting 5 on paper but as you and I know championships aren’t won on paper.

Off topic question: Who is your favorite team?

 

[Boa Hancock]

Being a Suns fan, I'll just say this:

Steve Nash is not a defensive liability. He plays above-average defense, but when you compare him to Westbrook, who can guard the man except the likes of Lebron, Rose, Wade, Kobe?

He even plays better defense than Chris Paul and Deron Williams.

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Let the myth die.

 

[Dominate]

I've been a Lakers fan for a long time and I'm not sold on this team. Artest does nothing on offense, Gasol disappears in the playoffs almost every year, and their bench is terrible. Also, I'm sure this won't happen with Nash there running the offense but if Kobe has the ball in his hands as much as he did last year they won't go far. Howard should be able to help with that terrible interior defense they had last year though. I'm looking forward to the season though and I hope to see a Lakers/Heat finals.