Defending Mitch's draft picks

Posted on 12/8 on LakersGround.net here:
A poster on LakersGround.net wrote:

Look at '89 to '96.
1996 24th - Derek Fisher - G - Arkansas-Little Rock none
1995 none 37th - Frankie King - G - Western Carolina
1994 10th - Eddie Jones- G/F - Temple none
1993 12th - George Lynch - F - North Carolina 37th - Nick Van Exel - G - Cincinnati
1992 15th - Anthony Peeler - G - Missouri none
1991 none 52th - Anthony Jones - Oral Roberts
1990 27th - Elden Campbell - F/C - Clemson 51th - Tony Smith - G - Marquette
1989 26th - Vlade Divac - C - Yugoslavia none

Just about every year, lottery or not, the Lakers made quality picks. The same CANNOT be said of Kupchak's tenure of the past 4-5 years. Of all those players, Frankie King and Anthony Jones are real busts. The other players at one point were either All-Stars, Starters, or quality bench players.

We can't say the same for Kupchak:
2003 24th - Brian Cook - F - Illinois 32nd - Luke Walton - F - Arizona
2002 27th - Chris Jefferies - G/F - Fresno State none
2001 none none 2000 29th - Mark Madsen - F - Stanford none
1999 23rd - Devean George - G/F - Augsburg 30th - John Celestand - G - Villanova

Of all these players, only Walton stands out and he's a defensive liability.

Cook is finally doing well with minutes. Madsen? Gone. Celestand? Gone. George? Took 5 years to wait for his potential and he's injury prone. None of these guys are the starters that Anthony Peeler, Fisher, Lynch, Nick Van Exel, Elden Campbell, and Vlade Divac were.

Hold on there! West resigned in 2000. I believe it was before the draft but he still worked with the team after his resignation and Madsen was his pick. In 2002, Mitch did a draft day deal to trade up for Kareem Rush. So Mitch's picks are:
2002  20th - Kareem Rush
2003  24th - Brian Cook
      32nd - Luke Walton
2004  27th - Sasha Vujacic
      56th - Marcus Douthit
2005  10th - Andrew Bynum
      37th - Ronny Turiaf
      39th - Von Wafer

• Rush was a poor pick and there were other talented players available - Prince, Dickau, Gadzuric, Boozer and Songaila.
  
• Cook has done OK and of the picks after him, only Josh Howard has turned out clearly better (other picks - Carlos Delfino, Kendrick Perkins, Leandro Barbosa and Jason Kapano)
  
• Walton was a very good pick for his draft position. Players picked after him include Zaza Pachilla, Keith Bogans and Kyle Korver
  
• Sasha looked like a bust last season, but he is now looking like a keeper. Players picked after him include Beno Udrih, David Harrison, Chris Duhon, Justin Reed and Trever Ariza
  
• Douthit will never play in the NBA

So Mitch's first year of drafting was his worst

Comments on a stupid SI.com article

Posted on 12/6 on Lakersground.net here
How does a guy with so little basketball knowledge get articles published in SI? Take a little Conventional Wisdom, sprinkle with a few clever metaphors and, voila!, basketball wisdom.

Although the season isn't even 20 games old, the Lakers apparent lack of talent -- outside of Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom -- is making it clearer by the day that the postseason is a long shot. Still, they're only two games under .500 and a game back of the eighth spot in the Western Conference.

I love it when writers contradict themselves one sentence later. If the Lakers obviously don't have enough talent to make the playoffs, how are they just one game back of the eighth spot?

As Smush Parker goes, so go the Lakers. In the Lakers' seven wins, Parker has scored five points more per game (15.9 in wins; 10.7 in losses) and hit more than 55 percent of his shots, compared to .425 in losses. As the season progresses and Parker becomes more comfortable in the triangle offense, the Lakers will only improve.

A semi-intelligent observation. The problem of late is that Smush has been playing carelessly, so the Smush's comfort level probably isn't as important as Smush's focus.

Play aggressively So far, only one of the Lakers has been aggressive on the offensive end of the floor, and if you can't name that player, you're living in a vacuum. : Balanced scoring is what the Lakers need, but it won't happen until Bryant makes those around him better, which is what Jordan did in the triangle during the Bulls' title years. If Kobe can show some confidence in his teammates, their aggressiveness will increase, and the scoring burden will be taken off No. 8.

The Lakers besides Kobe don't need to play aggressively - they need to play consistently. Odom over the last 7 games has scored 6, 23, 8, 27, 12, 24 and 7. Chris Mihm had a 5 game stretch where he scored 3, 20, 2, 2 and 20. Smush has also been up-and-down. Kwame, Devean and Luke have been out significant amounts of time because of injuries. If Kobe knew that the Lakers top 8 were all going to show up for each game, it would be a lot easier for him to trust them.

Playing on back-to-back nights is a fact of life in the NBA. The Lakers just haven't figured out how to play that second game. In three back-to-backs this year, L.A. is 3-0 on the first night and, you guessed it, 0-3 on the second night.

Talk about jumping to conclusions from a small sample set. 2 of those 3 losses were after OT games the night before and when the team had to travel. How often is that circumstance going to happen?

Get Latrell Sprewell Yeah, I know, it's highly, highly, highly unlikely (OK, virtually impossible) that Spree will take the Lakers' only available offer -- the veteran's minimum of $1.1 million, which he's already rejected, but the Lakers could use a proven scorer right about now. It's hard to say how the addition of Sprewell would affect the Lakers, but it's fun to speculate. In his worst season -- last year with Minnesota -- Sprewell averaged 12.8 points, his lowest average since his rookie campaign. Think the Lakers could use a 13-point scorer in their lineup? With Kobe and Sprewell at the 2 and 3, the Lakers' backcourt would definitely create some matchup issues and possibly earn the Lakers at least a few more wins, which could be the difference between the lottery and the eighth spot in the West.

This is moronic. Would you bench Odom in favor of Sprewell? If you slide Odom to the 4 spot so that you can start Sprewell, the Lakers lose their interior defense and a lot of rebounding. Kobe is getting bashed for shooting only 41.6%, but Sprewell hasn't shot that well since the '00-'01 season.

Laker performance by position from 82games.com

Posted on 11/8 at LakersGround.net here
At 82Games.com, each player is given a rating (PER) for he did offensively at each position he played, a rating for how his man did while he was in there, and the net difference between the two. Looking at the net PER, you can see how the Lakers are doing by position by player:
PG +4.9 (Parker +6.1, Vujacic +5.1, McKie -42.6)
SG +3.1 (Bryant +19.8, Profit -22.0, Vujacic -18.4, Green -7.2)
SF +1.1 (George -5.7, Bryant +16.9, Odom +2.0)
PF +5.4 (Odom +13.9, Brown -12.9, Cook -2.7)
C  -8.8 (Mihm -4.0, Brown -6.1, Bynum +5.1)

Some notes based upon the above:

• Sasha is doing a good job at back up PG
  
• McKie has been a major disappointment so far
  
• No one is doing a good job at back up SG
  
• I was really surprised at George's numbers. It may be because he has played so much against Carmello
  
• Odom needs to log more time at SF
  
• Odom is playing so much at PF because Brown has done so poorly there. Hopefully, Kwame will come around as he gets more familiar with the triangle

Atlantic Divison starts 1-5

Posted on 11/4 at LakersGround.net here:
Frequently described last season as the weakest division in the history of sports, the Atlantic division started out looking even weaker with a 1-5 start. Actually, 1-5 was the worst possible record they could have so far as Boston played New York and one team had to win. I watched Philly play Detroit and they looked awful. Milwaukee stomped New Jersey 110-96. Toronto last to Washington, 99-96. I wouldn't be surprised if the winner of this division has a sub-500 record.

Green (Devin) vs Green (Gerald)

Posted on 10/31 at LakersGround.net here:
I think it will be interestig to track how the unheralded Devin Green does compared to the overhyped Gerald Green. RealGM.com rated Gerald Green as #1 draft steal.

Here are Devin's numbers for the pre-season:
7 gms, 105 mins, 11-35 (31.4%), 2-8 from 3pt (25.0%), 5-6 FT, 20 rebs, 9 ast, 3 stl, 7 to, 1 blk

Gerald Green:
6 gms, 64 mins, 7-24 (29.2%), 1-4 from 3 pt (25.0%), 5-8 FT, 3 rebs, 2 ast, 1 stl, 4 to, 1 blk

How this year's bench compares with last years

Posted on LakersGround on 10/3 here
Our bench sucks - blah, blah, blah, blah

Let's look at our bench this year versus last year. For last year, I am including the difference in PER between the player and his man. The bench is listed in order of minutes played at the position. All stats are from 82games.com

Point Guard
Last year - Tierre Brown (-9.6)
This year - Smush Parker
Rating - Smush will be a solid upgrade

Shooting Guard
Last year - Butler (+0.8), Vujacic (-10.6)
This year - Wafer, George?, Vujacic
Rating - Hopefully on a slight worsening from last year

Small Forward
Last year - Jones (-5.7), Odom (-0.6)
This year - Jones, George, Odom
Rating - a healthy George provides additional depth and match up options

Power Forward
Last year - Cook (-1.0), Walton (-6.1), Jones (-3.6)
This year - Cook, Walton, Odom, Jones
Rating - Cook should be better this year. Walton had a terrible first half last year, but came one in the second half. Odom can play here for a "small" line up. Should be better.

Center
Last year - Grant -7.5, Cook -0.7, Medvedenko -2.1
This year - Divac or Blount, Dynum, Medvedenko
Rating - Depends on how Divac or Blount play. Grant was awful, Bynum will probably do well in the minutes he gets, so I think this will be a push or an upgrade.

Overall - three positions should be better than last year, one a push and one worse. Overall, the bench should be better this year.