Mitch hate on LG.net

Posted on LakersGround.net on 7/31/07.

Many, many poster (probably the majority) here hate Mitch. I read the Celticsblog.com frequently and occasionally check in with T-Wolves Central and Pacers Digest. All three of those teams have/had All-Stars on them. All three of them have seen their winning percentage drop for the last three seasons. All three were out of the playoffs last season. Yet on those boards, there is never the level of hate towards their GM as there is on this board for Mitch.

Comparing the recent drafting of the Lakers and Celtics

Posted on LakersGround.net on 7/31/07.

2003 Draft
#13 - BOS Marcus Banks (in deal with MEM)
#24 - LAL Brian Cook
#27 - BOS Kendrick Perkins (in deal with MEM)

2004 Draft
#15 - BOS Al Jefferson
#24 - BOS Delonte West
#25 - BOS Tony Allen
#27 - LAL Sasha Vujacic

2005 Draft
#10 - LAL Andrew Bynum
#18 - BOS Gerald Green

2006 Draft
#21 - BOS Rajon Rondo
#26 - LAL Jordan Farmar

Of Boston's 7 draft picks, 5 were taken before the Lakers drafted.

Banks was a bust for the C's, who didn't pick up his option. Kendrick Perkins was a HS draft pick and contributed little his first two years and now is a back up C caliber player. Cook was drafted by NBA contender for more immediate help and is a back up PF caliber player.

Jefferson is a starting PF caliber player. West and Allen are better than Vujacic but are still back up caliber players and were drafted ahead of him.

Green has only played well when the C's were tanking. Bynum is 21 months younger than Green and is already a solid contributor to a playoff caliber team.

The only big success Ainge in those draft picks was Jefferson and that was for one season on a bad team.

Now, the price to the C's of developing all those young players has been a bad season and a terrible season.

Comments on what the Lakers can learn from the Celtics

Posted on LakersGround.net on 7/31/07.

A tremendous display of emotion trumping facts by iceberg01

iceberg01 wrote:
While the Lakers FO is hemming and hawing about possibly giving away too much for KG, or too much for JO, the Celtics are pulling off deals.

As others have pointed out, the Lakers FO did not hem and haw about possibly giving away too much for KG.

iceberg01 wrote:
While we hear the Lakers FO state what it's NOT going to do, i.e., trade Odom & Bynum for JO, or trade Kwame for Artest, Boston is telling the NBA what it CAN and WILL DO.

Every indication is that Mitch has told Larry Bird what he will do for JO.

iceberg01 wrote:
Boston traded it's draft pick for Ray Allen, an aging superstar shooter who is asking for BIG money.

A terrible trade that would have doomed the C's to years of mediocrity if McHale hadn't saved Ainge.

iceberg01 wrote:
Then, it turns around and trades probably a future All-Star big in Al Jefferson, a future possible All-Star in Gerald Green, a good player in Ryan Gomes, and TWO future 1st round picks for an aging superstar bigman, who's going to ask for a $125 million extension.

"Future possible All-Star in Gerald Green"??? Talking about seriously overvaluing another team's player. Green only plays well when the Celtics are tanking. My guess is that the C's winning percentage when he starts is less 15%. He was the third best young SG (behind Tony Allen and Delonte West) on the 2nd worst team in the NBA.

As for Jeffeson, he has one season of good numbers while his team was playing terribly and he's "probably a future All-Star"? There are so many good PF's in the West that it will be tough for a player on as bad a team as Minny is going to be to make it.

iceberg01 wrote:
While Boston has assembled a Finals or Championship-caliber team, we here at LG, and the Lakers FO are patting ourselves on the back for "not giving up too much". Makes me SICK!

I don't think they will be that good - they have nothing beyond their Big 3. It's also a lot easier to be a Finals-caliber team in the East with the three best teams (San Antonio, Dallas, Phoenix) in the West.

iceberg01 wrote:
The Lakers FO had and still has a chance to assemble the defensive EQUIVALENT of the Celtics. By pulling the trigger on the LO/Bynum for JO & trading Kwame for Artest, the Lakers could have THREE All-Defensive teamers on one team, and a team certainly capable of making the Finals or winning a championship.

There's also the distinct risk that that same team could totally implode.

So you want to make some dumb moves on the chance that something good might happen. You have tremendous potential as an adviser to President Bush.

iceberg01 wrote:
Al Jefferson has shown MORE potential to be an All-Star NBA big than has Andrew Bynum.

Have you consider that might be because Jefferson is almost 3 years older than Bynum? Jefferson's numbers last year (7.9, 5.0) weren't that exciting. My guess is that the Lakers FO is hoping that Bynum will blow up this year or next.

iceberg01 wrote:
Gerald Green has also shown the same amount of potential, if not more.

iceberg01 wrote:
On top of that, Boston included TWO future picks.

If Boston is truly "a Finals or Championship-caliber team", those draft picks will be REALLY valuable

iceberg01 wrote:
We, on the other hand, are SCARED to give up an INCONSISTENT Lamar Odom, HOPING AND PRAYING for the MIRACULOUS DAY he becomes a consistent, All-Star player, and Andrew Bynum, who, to this point, has shown mostly that he can block shots, rebound SOME, catch the ball, and score layups (the vast majority of his baskets come off of feeds from other people, and at point-blank range).

... for a LEGIT 20/10/3 guy in JO.

JO has never averaged 3 blocks. He hasn't averaged 10 rebounds in 3 years. Odom is a better rebounder and shots a higher percentage. JO isn't going to be taking 15-16 shots per game for the Lakers - Shaq didn't even do that in his last season with the Lakers.

Later I added:

iceberg01 wrote:
The Lakers FO has been guilty of telling teams "the most they'll do". I believe that they made an offer of Kwame, Bynum & Odom (& not much more).
:
I won't even acknowledge the thing about the draft picks. But you can be sure that us giving up 2 #1's, in ANY deal, would have been an issue for Kupchak & Co.

Do you have anything to support these opinions? Minny getting back their #1 was meaningless as the C's weren't going to get it, so the C's really only traded one #1 pick.

iceberg01 wrote:
But, primarily, this comment was aimed at JO & the Lakers arrogant attitude towards acquiring perhaps the LAST legit 2-way big man available.

And, although you can argue semantics if you like, the Lakers FO has essentially given Indy an ultimatum: EITHER a package of Bynum & Odom, or nothing, essentially saying that they CANNOT do what Indy is offering.

My understanding is that Indy wanted Bynum and Odom and the Lakers said no. What do you think Indy is offering?

iceberg01 wrote:
You can debate about the quality of Boston's players included in the deal all you like. My point is exactly that, in fact: while some here think Bynum is the second coming, other GM's around the league may think he's crap. Opinions vary. But the point is, Boston could have refused to give up Jefferson (who, BTW, IMO, IS a future All-Star) and Green, much like we're refusing to give up LO & Bynum for JO. That's my point.

Well see about Jefferson being a future All-Star. To me, it's a no-brainer to give up Jefferson and Green for KG. However, trading Bynum and Odom for JO is more of a lateral move.

iceberg01 wrote:
And for those of you who think a lineup of three All-Stars: a shooter, physical swingman & do-it-all Top-5 caliber paint player ISN'T a contender, maybe you should return to the planet earth & stop smoking that wacky tabacky. They're legit. Depth or not.

We will see.

iceberg01 wrote:
As for O'Neal, he's a near-league leader in blocks. About 2.7, I believe. And, if you'd rather Odom DEFENDING opposing PF's at 230 (while JO is about 250-260, I believe), you're guilty of some serious Laker homerism. JO is UNDOUBTEDLY bigger, more physical, and the better defensive player. Playing alongside Kobe will also undoubtedly raise his FG%.

Do I think JO is a better defensive player than Odom? Yes. Do I think JO is a better rebounder than Odom? No. Do I think JO will score 20 ppg playing next to Kobe? No. Do I think Mihm+JO is better than Bynum and Odom? I lean towards not.

So you agree that you were overstating things when you called JO a 20/10/3 player?

iceberg01 wrote:
Lastly, when do the excuses STOP? We've been hearing why we CAN'T do deals for a couple of years now: Boozer, Davis, etc. Now, I'm not mad about losing out on Davis, who is clearly injury prone, but at some point, this Lakers FO has to take a chance: they've become PARALYZED by fear!

Funny, I thought the Lakers did a high risk trade about two years ago. There is a problem with high risk trades - they are high risk. Mitch takes a lot of risks as GM - just not the risks that you want him to take.

Where is your support for your "Future possible All-Star in Gerald Green" statement? Based upon the PER ratings from 82games.com, Sasha is a better player offensively and defensively than Gerald Green.

Thoughts on the Garnett trade

Posted on LakersGround.net on 7/30/07.

IMHO, this is one of those trades were both teams are made worse. Minny loses KG and the only thing of worth in return is Al Jefferson. He's a promising young player, but he is on the level with a number of young bigs in the East. When he played with the All-Star Paul Pierce, the Celtics still couldn't post a winning record.

The Celtics are going to be the shallowest team in the history of the NBA. Here is their roster assuming Minny gets Jefferson, Green, Telfair, Gomes and Ratliff:
C: Perkins, Davis
PF: KG, Powe
SF: Pierce, Scalabrine
SG: Ray Allen, Tony Allen
PG: Rondo, Pruitt
Perkins, Powe and Scalabrine averaged 4.5, 4.2 and 4.0 ppg respectively last season. Davis and Pruitt are 2nd round picks from this draft. Tony Allen is coming off a terrible knee injury and has legal problems. Rondo is the best of the non-Big 3 players and he put up poor numbers until the C's started seriously tanking.

Can Odom make the All-Star game?

Posted on LakersGround.net on 7/26/07.

To me, Odom is competing with Josh Howard, Shawn Marion and Mehmet Okur for an All-Star berth (all made it this year). Here are their stats for last season:
Odom:
15.9 ppg in 39.3 mpg, shooting 46.8%, 29.7% on 3's, 9.8 rpg, 4.8 apg, 0.95 spg, 0.57 bpg, 2.91 TO, 1.66 A-to-TO

Howard:
18.9 ppg in 35.1 mpg, shooting 45.9%, 38.5% on 3's, 6.8 rpg, 1.8 apg, 1.17 spg, 0.80 bpg, 1.76 TO, 1.03 A-to-TO

Marion:
17.5 ppg in 37.6 mpg, shooting 52.3%, 31.5% on 3's, 9.8 rpg, 1.7 apg, 1.95 spg, 1.53 bpg, 1.43 TO, 1.18 A-to-TO

Okur:
17.6 ppg in 33.3 mpg, shooting 46.2%, 38.4% on 3's, 7.2 rpg, 2.0 apg, 0.45 spg, 0.48 bpg, 1.56 TO, 1.25 A-to-TO

To me, the most important criteria for being selected an All-Star is ppg, then rpg. Occasionally a low-scoring defensive specialist will get in, but it's normally high scorers that get in. Also, the higher team winning percentage, the higher the chance that a player will be selected.

Odom shot better, out-rebounded and out-assisted Howard and Okur. He tied Marion for rebounding, out-assisted him, but had a lower shooting percentage. All three outscored Odom by 1.6 to 3.0 pts.

The winning percentage for the various teams on 2/2 when the reserves were announced:
Lakers - .609
Mavericks - .808
Suns - .804
Jazz - .660

The winning percentage of the various teams on 2/13 when the replacements were announced:
Lakers - .577
Mavericks - .824
Suns - .765
Jazz - .667

Breaking Odom's stats down by quarter of the season:
1 - 18.4 ppg in 39.7 mpg, shooting 47.7%, 35.8% on 3's, 9.1 rpg, 5.1 apg, 0.70 spg, 0.80 bpg, 3.85 TO, 1.32 A-to-TO
2 - Injured
3 - 15.2 ppg in 40.9 mpg, shooting 41.7%, 29.0% on 3's, 10.4 rpg, 4.4 apg, 0.94 spg, 0.35 bpg, 2.76 TO, 1.60 A-to-TO
4 - 14.7 ppg in 39.5 mpg, shooting 52.1%, 18.4% on 3's, 10.4 rpg, 5.2 apg, 1.28 spg, 0.56 bpg, 2.17 TO, 2.38 A-to-TO

In the first quarter, Odom put up better scoring, shooting percentage, rebounding, assists, steals and blocks than Okur. If Odom hadn't been injured, the Lakers would have a better winning percentage. My guess - if Odom hadn't been injured last season prior to the All-Star game, he would have made the All-Star game instead of Okur. He may have had a borderline chance of beating out Marion because it would have been the second Laker All-Star versus the Suns' third.

For this season, a big key to if Odom has a chance at the All-Star game is how much scoring Bryant does. In the first quarter of the season, Bryant was averaging 18 shots per game and Odom was averaging 13.2 In the last quarter of the season, Bryant was averaging 29.2 and Odom 10.7. If Odom doesn't average at least 13 shots per game, he doesn't have any hope of making the All-Star game.

Laker Stats Broken Down by Quarter

Posted on LakersGround.net on 7/26/07.

I think there were four distinct quarters to last season based upon player injuries and I thought I would break the Laker stats out for each quarter to see what I could learn. The quarters were:
10/31 - 12/10 Start of season 14-6
12/12 - 1/20 Odom injured 13-9
1/22 - 3/9 Walton injured, but Odom returns (6-16)
3/11 - 4/18 Odom and Walton are back (9-9)

I am going to use some stats that you might not been familiar with. See the definitions at the end of the post. Here are the team stats:
Quarter     1     2     3     4   (Best - Average - Worst for season)
eFG%      52.7% 51.7% 48.8% 51.5% (55.1% - 49.6% - 47.1%)
OReb%     28.5% 24.7% 26.0% 25.6% (31.7% - 27.1% - 22.2%)
FT/FG     26.6  25.5  25.0  22.4  (28.9 - 24.6 - 20.9)
OEff     106.0 107.5 103.0 108.1  (111.4 - 103.7 - 100.0)
%Assist   62.7% 59.1% 55.9% 61.0% (67.4% - 58.3% - 51.7%)
TO Rate   18.1  14.8  15.3  13.5  (13.5 - 15.9 - 18.3)
Opp eFG%  50.0% 50.6% 49.3% 49.9% (46.6% - 49.6% - 52.9%)
DReb%     72.4% 71.8% 72.4% 72.8% (77.0% - 72.9% - 68.1%)
Opp FT/FG 22.8  26.8  27.8  27.3  (20.1 - 24.6 - 31.4)
DEff     103.0 108.2 106.8 108.4  (97.0 - 103.7 - 109.7)
Opp TO    16.9  14.4  13.9  13.5  (18.2 - 15.9 - 14.5)

Things that stand out to me:
* The Lakers were terrible at forcing turnovers virtually all season
* The opponents eFG% was fairly constant at near average
* The turnovers at the beginning of the season were awful but ended quite well
* FT/FG dropped significantly the last quarter of the season
* The rebounding significantly dropped in the 2nd quarter due to Odom's injury
* The Lakers were very inefficient offensively in the 3rd quarter

Player stats per quarter order by minutes per game
Quarter 1
           Gm GS  PPG  MPG eFG%  Eff ORPG  RPG FT/FG APG  TO
Odom       20 20 18.4 39.7 53.2 22.0  1.4  9.1  32.6 5.1 3.9
Bryant     17 17 26.4 37.6 53.6 23.4  0.8  4.6  39.1 4.4 3.4
Walton     20 20 12.7 32.3 58.2 15.4  1.3  4.5  22.4 3.7 2.1
Parker     20 20  9.4 29.4 48.2  8.2  0.6  2.4  16.9 2.7 1.9
Brown      13  6  8.9 26.2 57.5 13.2  2.4  6.6  30.0 2.2 1.8
Bynum      20 14  7.4 18.8 55.4 11.0  1.2  5.5  48.9 1.1 1.6
Farmar     18  0  6.4 18.2 56.8  7.5  0.3  1.8   7.4 2.5 1.1
Evans      20  2  6.8 18.1 50.4  5.9  1.3  2.3  16.4 0.8 0.8
Radmanovic 19  0  4.9 13.8 44.9  5.8  1.2  2.9  17.0 1.3 1.1
Turiaf     16  0  4.6 10.1 66.7  6.7  0.8  2.4  42.9 0.5 0.6
Vujacic    15  1  2.5  9.9 38.0  1.6  0.3  1.1   6.5 0.7 0.7
Cook       12  0  4.8  9.6 44.9  5.0  1.3  2.4   8.5 0.7 0.7
Williams    5  0  0.6  7.0 25.0  1.2  0.2  0.8   0.0 0.8 0.0
* Of the top 7 players, only Smush wasn't shooting at least 53%
* Brown was the best offensive rebounder but weak defensively
* Radmonovic, Vujacic, Cook and Williams played very poorly
* Parker had a poor efficiency because he added little beyond scoring

Quarter 2
           Gm GS  PPG  MPG eFG%  Eff ORPG  RPG FT/FG APG  TO
Bryant     22 22 29.7 39.8 49.5 27.2  0.8  5.9  41.8 6.3 3.4
Walton     22 22 11.1 34.7 45.7 14.4  1.7  5.3  24.8 4.7 2.0
Parker     22 22 13.0 31.0 55.4 11.9  0.5  2.7  17.0 2.2 1.5
Brown      11 11  8.5 29.0 54.7 12.3  2.6  6.6  14.7 1.8 2.0
Evans      22  0  9.0 24.1 48.8  8.2  0.9  3.1  23.9 1.0 1.0
Bynum      22 11  8.7 22.1 58.6 14.0  1.7  6.7  32.0 1.4 1.6
Cook       22 17  9.4 20.7 57.4 11.6  1.1  4.5   7.1 1.5 0.9
Radmanovic 22  4  7.2 19.5 48.2  6.3  0.7  3.0  17.1 0.8 1.3
Farmar     22  0  6.0 16.3 55.9  6.9  0.3  1.7  17.6 2.2 1.0
Turiaf     18  0  4.0 14.8 41.9  6.4  1.1  3.5  32.3 1.1 0.7
Vujacic    21  0  6.0 14.0 60.8  6.9  0.5  1.7  21.6 1.0 0.4
Williams    2  0  1.5  6.0 37.5  1.5  1.0  1.5   0.0 1.0 1.0
McKie       1  0  0.0  5.0  0.0 -1.0  0.0  0.0   0.0 0.0 1.0
Odom        1  1  0.0  3.0  0.0 -1.0  0.0  1.0   0.0 0.0 0.0
* No one stepped up their all-around game to replace Odom's
* Odom's minutes went to Brown, Cook and Radmonovic, all of whom are weaker rebounders
* Odom was leading the team in TO's and the team's TO's dropped by almost the amount he was committing
* Bryant's eFG% went down and Walton's went way down
* Parker and Cook's eFG% went way up
* Farmar had as many assists as Parker in almost half the minutes

Quarter 3
           Gm GS  PPG  MPG eFG%  Eff ORPG  RPG FT/FG APG  TO
Bryant     20 20 30.9 42.0 47.9 27.4  1.2  6.5  38.5 5.8 3.8
Odom       17 17 15.2 40.9 45.7 19.7  2.5 10.4  24.2 4.4 2.8
Parker     22 22 12.0 30.8 49.8  9.6  0.5  2.3  11.8 2.5 2.1
Bynum      22 22  8.5 29.2 51.4 13.4  2.2  7.0  30.7 1.5 1.5
Evans      21  8 10.0 28.1 41.6  9.2  1.5  3.5  26.7 1.2 0.6
Brown       6  0  7.0 26.2 58.6 10.8  1.3  5.7  27.6 1.8 1.7
Radmanovic 11 11  9.6 25.8 54.0 11.4  1.2  5.1  13.8 2.0 1.6
Cook       19  7  7.8 18.7 49.6  8.0  0.9  3.5  11.1 1.0 1.0
Walton      1  1  3.0 18.0 75.0  6.0  0.0  3.0   0.0 2.0 1.0
Turiaf     20  0  6.1 16.5 59.7  8.6  1.5  3.8  48.6 0.9 0.7
McKie       9  0  2.4 14.0 64.7  4.9  0.1  2.0   0.0 1.4 0.8
Williams   13  0  4.2 13.3 66.7  5.2  0.2  1.4   7.7 1.0 0.8
Farmar     18  0  2.4 12.8 37.1  2.0  0.3  1.3   0.0 1.1 1.2
Vujacic    21  2  3.9 12.8 45.9  3.6  0.2  1.1  19.2 0.6 0.3
* This quarter the Lakers were decimated by injuries
* On 3/7 game, the Lakers started Parker, Vujacic, Evans, Cook and Bynum
* With injuries to Brown, Odom and Radmonovic, Bynum's minutes increased 50%
* The extra minutes pulled down Bynum's game
* Farmar hit the rookie wall
* Evans played more minutes but his eFG% is awful
* Radmonovic played his best ball of the year and then is injured
* Of the top 5 players, only Parker had a eFG% of better than 50%

Quarter 4
           Gm GS  PPG  MPG eFG%  Eff ORPG  RPG FT/FG APG  TO
Bryant     18 18 39.4 43.8 50.8 32.4  1.1  5.6  33.5 4.7 2.7
Odom       18 18 14.7 39.5 53.9 22.7  1.8 10.4  30.2 5.2 2.2
Walton     17 17 10.8 32.6 51.9 14.5  1.5  5.4   9.3 4.6 1.9
Brown      11 11  8.5 28.5 67.2 11.9  1.2  4.6  27.6 1.5 1.9
Parker     18 16  9.4 28.3 47.5  9.7  0.7  2.8  12.0 4.0 2.0
Evans      13  0  7.2 18.9 56.3  7.4  1.3  2.6  18.1 0.8 0.6
Turiaf     18  1  6.4 18.3 54.3 10.5  1.4  4.6  17.4 1.1 0.9
Bynum      18  6  6.2 16.1 59.0  8.4  1.6  4.0  16.9 0.5 0.9
Vujacic    16  1  4.3 14.1 50.0  5.3  0.6  2.0  11.5 1.2 0.3
Farmar     14  2  2.1 12.5 35.9  3.6  0.4  1.8   5.1 1.6 0.6
Williams   10  0  3.3 12.4 43.2  3.5  0.5  1.5   2.7 1.2 0.1
Cook       12  0  3.0  7.6 38.6  2.3  0.4  1.6   4.5 0.4 0.3
Radmanovic  3  0  0.7  4.7  0.0  1.7  0.3  1.0 200.0 0.7 0.3
* Walton came back and the eFG% of everyone but Parker went up
* The 3rd quarter wore Bynum out and his play dropped
* Farmar continued to hit the rookie wall
* Evans minutes went down and his eFG% went way up
* Turiaf had gradually been getting better all season and out played Bynum
* Walton, Parker, Turiaf and Bynum's FT/FG numbers were way down
* Cook slid to the end of the bench

Kwame Brown
    Gm GS  PPG  MPG eFG%  Eff ORPG  RPG FT/FG APG  TO
1 - 13  6  8.9 26.2 57.5 13.2  2.4  6.6  30.0 2.2 1.8
2 - 11 11  8.5 29.0 54.7 12.3  2.6  6.6  14.7 1.8 2.0
3 -  6  0  7.0 26.2 58.6 10.8  1.3  5.7  27.6 1.8 1.7
4 - 11 11  8.5 28.5 67.2 11.9  1.2  4.6  27.6 1.5 1.9
Kwame was injured on-and-off all season. His rebounding went from weak to awful.

Kobe Bryant
    Gm GS  PPG  MPG eFG%  Eff ORPG  RPG FT/FG APG  TO
1 - 17 17 26.4 37.6 53.6 23.4  0.8  4.6  39.1 4.4 3.4
2 - 22 22 29.7 39.8 49.5 27.2  0.8  5.9  41.8 6.3 3.4
3 - 20 20 30.9 42.0 47.9 27.4  1.2  6.5  38.5 5.8 3.8
4 - 18 18 39.4 43.8 50.8 32.4  1.1  5.6  33.5 4.7 2.7
Kobe started the season recovering from knee surgery. He scored the least in the first quarter but had his best shooting percentage. His shooting percentage went way down in the 3rd quarter. In the last quarter, his scoring exploded while his FT/FG severly dropped off.

Andrew Bynum
    Gm GS  PPG  MPG eFG%  Eff ORPG  RPG FT/FG APG  TO
1 - 20 14  7.4 18.8 55.4 11.0  1.2  5.5  48.9 1.1 1.6
2 - 22 11  8.7 22.1 58.6 14.0  1.7  6.7  32.0 1.4 1.6
3 - 22 22  8.5 29.2 51.4 13.4  2.2  7.0  30.7 1.5 1.5
4 - 18  6  6.2 16.1 59.0  8.4  1.6  4.0  16.9 0.5 0.9
Bynum was the only center to be healthy all season. The Lakers limited his minutes in the first half of the season, but had to play him starter minutes in the 3rd quarter. His game really fell off in the 4th quarter.

Brian Cook
    Gm GS  PPG  MPG eFG%  Eff ORPG  RPG FT/FG APG  TO
1 - 12  0  4.8  9.6 44.9  5.0  1.3  2.4   8.5 0.7 0.7
2 - 22 17  9.4 20.7 57.4 11.6  1.1  4.5   7.1 1.5 0.9
3 - 19  7  7.8 18.7 49.6  8.0  0.9  3.5  11.1 1.0 1.0
4 - 12  0  3.0  7.6 38.6  2.3  0.4  1.6   4.5 0.4 0.3
It looks like he needed steady significant minutes to play well. He didn't get those in the 1st and 4th quarter and his play was poor.

Maurice Evans
    Gm GS  PPG  MPG eFG%  Eff ORPG  RPG FT/FG APG  TO
1 - 20  2  6.8 18.1 50.4  5.9  1.3  2.3  16.4 0.8 0.8
2 - 22  0  9.0 24.1 48.8  8.2  0.9  3.1  23.9 1.0 1.0
3 - 21  8 10.0 28.1 41.6  9.2  1.5  3.5  26.7 1.2 0.6
4 - 13  0  7.2 18.9 56.3  7.4  1.3  2.6  18.1 0.8 0.6
His worst quarter was when he got the most minutes.

Jordan Farmar
    Gm GS  PPG  MPG eFG%  Eff ORPG  RPG FT/FG APG  TO
1 - 18  0  6.4 18.2 56.8  7.5  0.3  1.8   7.4 2.5 1.1
2 - 22  0  6.0 16.3 55.9  6.9  0.3  1.7  17.6 2.2 1.0
3 - 18  0  2.4 12.8 37.1  2.0  0.3  1.3   0.0 1.1 1.2
4 - 14  2  2.1 12.5 35.9  3.6  0.4  1.8   5.1 1.6 0.6
Hit the rookie wall the last half of the season.

Aaron McKie
    Gm GS  PPG  MPG eFG%  Eff ORPG  RPG FT/FG APG  TO
2 -  1  0  0.0  5.0  0.0 -1.0  0.0  0.0   0.0 0.0 1.0
3 -  9  0  2.4 14.0 64.7  4.9  0.1  2.0   0.0 1.4 0.8
He was done when the season started.

Lamar Odom
    Gm GS  PPG  MPG eFG%  Eff ORPG  RPG FT/FG APG  TO
1 - 20 20 18.4 39.7 53.2 22.0  1.4  9.1  32.6 5.1 3.9
2 -  1  1  0.0  3.0  0.0 -1.0  0.0  1.0   0.0 0.0 0.0
3 - 17 17 15.2 40.9 45.7 19.7  2.5 10.4  24.2 4.4 2.8
4 - 18 18 14.7 39.5 53.9 22.7  1.8 10.4  30.2 5.2 2.2
His numbers in the first and last quarter were almost identical. He and Bryant had by far the best efficiency numbers of anyone on the Lakers.

Smush Parker
    Gm GS  PPG  MPG eFG%  Eff ORPG  RPG FT/FG APG  TO
1 - 20 20  9.4 29.4 48.2  8.2  0.6  2.4  16.9 2.7 1.9
2 - 22 22 13.0 31.0 55.4 11.9  0.5  2.7  17.0 2.2 1.5
3 - 22 22 12.0 30.8 49.8  9.6  0.5  2.3  11.8 2.5 2.1
4 - 18 16  9.4 28.3 47.5  9.7  0.7  2.8  12.0 4.0 2.0
Parker didn't contribute much beyond scoring and he wasn't that good of a scorer.

Vladimir Radmanovic
    Gm GS  PPG  MPG eFG%  Eff ORPG  RPG FT/FG APG  TO
1 - 19  0  4.9 13.8 44.9  5.8  1.2  2.9  17.0 1.3 1.1
2 - 22  4  7.2 19.5 48.2  6.3  0.7  3.0  17.1 0.8 1.3
3 - 11 11  9.6 25.8 54.0 11.4  1.2  5.1  13.8 2.0 1.6
4 -  3  0  0.7  4.7  0.0  1.7  0.3  1.0 200.0 0.7 0.3
It's a measure of how badly injuries ravaged the Lakers that Radmanovic started 15 games despite having a torn muscle in his hand. He was a big disappointment, but will hopefully bounce back this season. He was playing his best when he got injured.

Ronny Turiaf
    Gm GS  PPG  MPG eFG%  Eff ORPG  RPG FT/FG APG  TO
1 - 16  0  4.6 10.1 66.7  6.7  0.8  2.4  42.9 0.5 0.6
2 - 18  0  4.0 14.8 41.9  6.4  1.1  3.5  32.3 1.1 0.7
3 - 20  0  6.1 16.5 59.7  8.6  1.5  3.8  48.6 0.9 0.7
4 - 18  1  6.4 18.3 54.3 10.5  1.4  4.6  17.4 1.1 0.9
Turiaf got more minutes each quarter and shot a good percentage every quarter but the 2nd. Was he still recovering from open heart surgery? However, he didn't rebound much better than Cook did.

Sasha Vujacic
    Gm GS  PPG  MPG eFG%  Eff ORPG  RPG FT/FG APG  TO
1 - 15  1  2.5  9.9 38.0  1.6  0.3  1.1   6.5 0.7 0.7
2 - 21  0  6.0 14.0 60.8  6.9  0.5  1.7  21.6 1.0 0.4
3 - 21  2  3.9 12.8 45.9  3.6  0.2  1.1  19.2 0.6 0.3
4 - 16  1  4.3 14.1 50.0  5.3  0.6  2.0  11.5 1.2 0.3
He had one good quarter. I am ready to write him off.

Luke Walton
    Gm GS  PPG  MPG eFG%  Eff ORPG  RPG FT/FG APG  TO
1 - 20 20 12.7 32.3 58.2 15.4  1.3  4.5  22.4 3.7 2.1
2 - 22 22 11.1 34.7 45.7 14.4  1.7  5.3  24.8 4.7 2.0
3 -  1  1  3.0 18.0 75.0  6.0  0.0  3.0   0.0 2.0 1.0
4 - 17 17 10.8 32.6 51.9 14.5  1.5  5.4   9.3 4.6 1.9
He had a poor second quarter and he shot few free throws in the last quarter. The team shot better when he was playing.

Shammond Williams
    Gm GS  PPG  MPG eFG%  Eff ORPG  RPG FT/FG APG  TO
1 -  5  0  0.6  7.0 25.0  1.2  0.2  0.8   0.0 0.8 0.0
2 -  2  0  1.5  6.0 37.5  1.5  1.0  1.5   0.0 1.0 1.0
3 - 13  0  4.2 13.3 66.7  5.2  0.2  1.4   7.7 1.0 0.8
4 - 10  0  3.3 12.4 43.2  3.5  0.5  1.5   2.7 1.2 0.1
Contributed very little.

eFG% = Effective Field Goal Percentage = (FG + 0.5*3P) / FGA
OReb% = Offensive Rebounding Percentage = ORB / (ORB + oppDRB)
FT/FG = FTM / FGA
Possessions = FGA + 0.44*FTA - ORB + TO
OEff = Offensive Efficiency = PTS / Possessions
%Assist = Assists / FGM
TO Rate = Turnover rate per possession = 100 * Turnovers / Possessions
Dreb% = Defensive Rebounding Percentage = DRB / (DRB + oppORB)
DEff = Defensive Efficiency = oppPTS / opp Possessions
Eff = Efficiency = (PTS+TR+AS+ST+BK-(FGA-FGM)-(FTA-FTM)-TO)/Gm

Looking back at the '05 off-season - Lakers' options for a PG

Posted on LakersGround.net on 7/19/07.

It's the dog days of the NBA year with nothing happening except an occasional rumor. I am going to make a series of posts reviewing the past in attempt to distill some wisdom from it.

Do you remember the 2005 off-season? Mitch-bashing was almost as popular that off-season as it is this off-season (there wasn't much Mitch-baching in 2006). People were screaming for Mitch to do something useful. My recollection is that many posters were outraged that Mitch hadn't signed Antonio Daniels or Earl Watson to fill our obvious hole at PG. Mitch passed on both of those and many posters responded with disgust at their signings with Washington and Denver respectively. Instead, Mitch wanted a veteran PG on a short contract and the unheralded Smush Parker. The choice for the veteran PG came down to Aaron McKie and Derek Anderson and Mitch chose McKie. Next off-season, Mitch drafted Jordan Farmar and signed Shammon Williams. Did Mitch make the wrong choices?

Smush Parker
'05-'06: 33.8 mpg in 82 games, 11.5 ppg on 44.7% shooting, 36.6% on 3's, 3.3 rebs, 3.7 asts, 1.7 stls, 1.8 TO for $745,248, 24 years old
'06-'07: 30.0 mpg in 82 games, 11.1 ppg on 43.6% shooting, 36.5% on 3's, 2.5 rebs, 2.8 asts, 1.5 stls, 1.9 TO for $798,112, 25 years old
No more years on contract

Aaron McKie
'05-'06: 8.6 mpg in 14 games, 0.5 ppg on 25.0% shooting, 0.0% on 3's, 1.4 rebs, 0.8 asts, 0.4 stls, 0.1 TO for $2,500,000, 33 years old
'06-'07: 13.1 mpg in 10 games, 2.2 ppg on 64.7% shooting, no 3's, 1.8 rebs, 1.3 asts, 0.4 stls, 0.8 TO for $2,500,000, 34 years old
No more years on contract

Jordan Farmar
'06-'07: 15.1 mpg in 72 games, 4.4 ppg on 42.2% shooting, 32.8% on 3's, 1.7 rebs, 1.9 asts, 0.6 stls, 1.0 TO for $939,120, 20 years old
'07-'08: $1,009,560, 21 years old
'08-'09: $1,080,000 (team option), 22 years old
'09-'10: $1,947,240 (team option), 23 years old
'10-'11: $2,874,126 (qualifying offer), 24 years old

Shammond Williams
'06-'07: 11.5 mpg in 30 games, 3.1 ppg on 40.7% shooting, 40.0% on 3's, 1.3 rebs, 1.0 asts, 0.4 stls, 0.4 TO for $1,750,000, 31 years old
No more years on contract

Antonio Daniels
'05-'06: 28.9 mpg in 79 games, 9.7 ppg on 41.8% shooting, 22.8% on 3's, 2.2 rebs, 3.6 asts, 0.7 stls, 1.1 TO for $5,000,000, 30 years old
'06-'07: 22.0 mpg in 80 games, 7.1 ppg on 44.2% shooting, 30.2% on 3's, 1.9 rebs, 3.6 asts, 0.5 stls, 0.9 TO for $5,400,000, 31 years old
'07-'08: $5,800,000, 32 years old
'08-'09: $6,200,000, 33 years old
'09-'10: $6,600,000, 34 years old

Earl Watson
'05-'06: 22.5 mpg in 70 games, 8.9 ppg on 43.0% shooting, 40.4% on 3's, 2.3 rebs, 4.1 asts, 1.0 stls, 1.9 TO for $5,000,000, 26 years old
'06-'07: 27.9 mpg in 77 games, 9.4 ppg on 38.3% shooting, 32.9% on 3's, 2.4 rebs, 5.7 asts, 1.3 stls, 2.2 TO for $5,400,000, 27 years old
'07-'08: $5,800,000, 28 years old
'08-'09: $6,200,000, 29 years old
'09-'10: $6,600,000, 30 years old
In the middle of the '05-'06 season, Watson was traded from Denver to Seattle in a 4 team, 9 player trade

Derek Anderson
'05-'06: 24.3 mpg in 43 games, 8.1 ppg on 35.6% shooting, 29.9% on 3's, 3.3 rebs, 2.3 asts, 0.5 stls, 1.3 TO for $1,670,000, 31 years old
'06-'07: 23.8 mpg in 50 games, 8.0 ppg on 42.9% shooting, 35.5% on 3's, 2.3 rebs, 2.7 asts, 1.0 stls, 1.1 TO for $901,397, 32 years old
In the middle of the '05-'06 season, was traded from Houston to Miami for Gerald Fitch. Miami waived him in the 2006 off-season, eating the second year of his contract and he then signed up with Charlotte for th '06-'07 season

My thoughts
Smush provided more scoring to the Lakers than Daniels and Watson provided to their teams at a fraction of the cost. McKie and Williams were a waste of money, but the Lakers didn't sink a whole lot of money into them. They were decent insurance policies. Anderson played more games than McKie, but my impression is that McKie was a great locker room guy and Derek Anderson wasn't. Farmar looks like a very good pick up. Daniels looks like a flop for Washington and he will be collecting some big bucks while past his prime. Watson is harder to assess, but he couldn't win a starting position on one of the worst teams in the league. Overall, I think Mitch made the right decision to settle for stop gaps at PG rather than sign Daniels or Watson to a big dollar contract that they couldn't play up to.
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I added later:
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Mike@LG wrote:
MLE could've been used elsewhere to improve the roster talent...

On who? The other players who signed for the MLE were Stromile Swift, Jerome James and Shareef Abdur-Rahim. The Lakers never really had a chance at SAR, Swift has been a disappointment and James may be the worst MLE signing ever.
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I added later:
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Per 40 minutes stats for last season:
Smush
14.8 ppg on 43.6% shooting, 36.5% on 3's, 3.4 rebs, 3.7 asts, 1.9 stls, 2.5 TO

Watson
13.5 ppg on 38.3% shooting, 32.9% on 3's, 3.4 rebs, 8.1 asts, 1.8 stls, 3.1 TO

Smush scored more points per minute with a better shooting percentage and with a better 3 pt percentage. The only statistic where Watson was superior to Smush was assists and you would expect a triangle PG to have much fewer assists than a traditional PG.

DraftExpress's write up on all the 2007 picks

Posted on LakersGround.net on 7/12/07.

DraftExpress.com does the most detailed write ups of summer league games, though I find their evaluations to be on the overly positive side. Here are all of the write ups for the first 5 days of the Vegas Summer League for 2007 draft picks from DraftExpress.com in draft pick order. At the end are all of the players whose team were at Vegas but the player wasn't mentioned.

Portland Trail Blazers #1 - Greg Oden

6 Points, 10 PF, 2 Rebounds on 7/6
-Tonight was truly a tough one for Oden. He was met in the paint by two pit bulls in Davis and Powe, and found himself committing frequent fouls from the start.
-Oden did have his moments though, as he threw down a monster slam on one end and got his hand on a few shots on the other.
-He was double teamed almost every time he receive the ball, and showed the ability to find the open man on a few occasions, but also made a couple bad decisions. He was probably pretty nervous, as the inexplicable goal-tend he had early in the game after a shot was already well on its way down.

13 Points, 4 Blocks, 9 PF on 7/8
-For the second straight game Oden found himself committing numerous fouls and sitting on the bench more than necessary.
-Unlike last game, Oden appeared a bit frustrated, and didn’t get going offensively until very late in the second half.
-He finished a few dunks when he caught lobs with deep post position, but showed a surprising spin move for an easy slam on his most impressive play of the evening.

Seattle Supersonics #2 - Kevin Durant

18 Points, 1 Rebound, 5-17 FG, 7-9 FT on 7/6
-It became apparent early on that Dallas wasn’t going to give Durant anything easy. This became the theme of the game for the lanky wing as he was sent to the line frequently. Once he got into a groove offensively, Dallas’s defense had a very hard time shutting him down. He went into the post an awful lot and looked to go to work with crafty footwork, often leading into a turnaround jumper.
-Many of Durant’s misses from the field were shots that he normally makes with ease. It is entirely possible that he was feeling a bit tentative because of the atmosphere and wanted to defer to his teammates.
-Durant had a hard time on the glass, as he can no longer use just his length to pull down boards. Don’t look for his rebounding numbers to increase immediately either, as he spent a large portion of his time on the floor defending away from the basket. Seattle played him extensively at the 2 or 3 spots.

18 points, 1 rebound, 2 turnovers, 4-19 FG, 2-6 3PT, 8-8 FT on 7/9
-Kevin Durant had a very tough game here, getting blocked on drives to the rim and struggling to convert on his outside shots, as he clearly hasn’t adjusted to the higher level of play here.
-Durant also has been missing on fairly open shots as well, so that part of his game will come around with time, as he gets past this stage of nervousness.
-Durant’s just one rebound on the game is cause for concern, though, as he should be pulling in a lot more, even if he does need to get stronger to reach his full potential.
-Durant looked lazy on the defensive end at times, not really moving his feet to stay in front of his man, not putting in much effort.

Memphis Grizzlies #4 - Mike Conley

12 Points, 5 Rebounds, 2 Assists on 7/6
-Conley displayed the tremendous body control that made him one of the most impressive point guards in the NCAA last season. His ability to float in the air and finish with both hands around contact is extremely impressive.

8 Points, 1 Rebound, 3 Assists, 2 Turnovers, 4 Fouls, 2-7 FG, 4-4 FT on 7/9
-Conley was decent today, but didn’t play as well as he did in the first game.
-His floater wasn’t falling, making it difficult for him to score around the rim. However, he was hitting from the foul-line, which alleviated some of those struggles.
-He hit one jumper from about 20 feet out, and utilized his crossover to effectively create space.

Seattle Supersonics #5 - Jeff Green

7 Points, 8 PF, 3 Turnovers on 7/6
-This was far from the debut Green expected it to be, as he committed numerous fouls early and appeared to lose his aggressiveness.
-Offensively, Green didn’t look comfortable putting the ball on the floor when playing out on the perimeter. It will be interesting to see if he is moved inside, or if he continues to try and score from the outside. A change will need to be made in the near future, as Green doesn’t seem to be in rhythm at all right now.

17 points, 3 rebounds, 4 turnovers, 5-12 FG, 1-4 3PT, 6-7 FT on 7/9
-Jeff Green played a pretty nice game, hitting from long range on multiple occasions, including one NBA three-pointer.
-Green also attacked the rim in transition, making one extremely nice dunk where he took off from about 10 feet out, and went through two defenders without even being phased, drawing the and-1 opportunity.
-Green didn’t get to show off much of his passing game here, though he spent most of his time on the wing, not in the high or low post.

Milwaukee Bucks #6 - Yi Jianlian

23 Points, 7 PF, 7 Turnovers on 7/6
-Yi showed the qualities of two very different players throughout this game.
-In one sequence, he blocked a shot on a weakside rotation before outhustling everyone to the other side of the floor for an awesome dunk in traffic. On a subsequent play, he simply threw the ball away.
-Early in the game, Jianlian appeared out of rhythm, but he improved as the game went on.
-Yi’s mid-range jumper is simply a thing of beauty. He also looked aggressive getting to the free throw line.
-Defensively, Yi struggled badly, picking up five fouls in the first five minutes.

9 Points, 7 Rebounds, 2 Assists on 7/7
-Yi struggled mightily today, as his shot simply wasn’t falling. He still managed to put up a decent point total, but failed to impress throughout the game.
-He consistently shied away from contact, and didn’t make it to the line as frequently as he should have. He will need to become more adept at scoring close to the basket if he wants to be effective immediately.

20 Points, 14-17 FT, 8 PF on 7/8
-Yi’s stat line is incredibly misleading, as he really did not play all that well. He did score quite a bit in the fourth quarter, but almost all of those points came off of free throws.
-His jump shot was not falling at all, and he struggled to defend the offensively anemic Dwayne Jones. The only notable shot he hit was the game winner when he Cleveland switched a guard onto him off a pick and roll.
-Yi doesn’t seem to be dealing too well with contact so far.

Minnesota Timberwolves #7 - Corey Brewer

7/9
-Brewer played relatively well in his debut, and some of his mistakes can probably be attributed to anxiousness.
-Brewer didn’t shoot the ball extremely well, but he made a few jumpshots and sprinkled in a few nifty finishes for good measure.
-Brewer played solid defense, and pursued rebounds on both end when he saw opportunities.

Sacramento Kings #10 - Spencer Hawes

19 Points, 7 Rebounds, 1 Assist on 7/7
-Hawes was simply dominant all game long. He used his deep repertoire of moved to score at will over both Wang ZhiZhi and Yi Jianlian.
-He showed especially deft touch on his jump shot out to the NCAA three-point line, and it seems like he may be capable of extending his range in the future.
-Defensively, Hawes used his size to contest shots and actively pursued rebounds outside of his area.

8 points, 6 rebounds, 1 block, 4 turnovers, 4-16 FG, 0-1 3PT on 7/11
-Spencer Hawes didn’t fare as well in his second game of summer league, struggling to convert on mid-range and outside jumpers, and not getting much going in the post.
-Hawes looked very impressive on a few post sequences, showing off his impressive array of moves and not having much trouble getting them off against the more athletic competition.
-Hawes also did convert on one shot from 20 feet out with a hand in his face, something he’s proven he can do before.
-Hawes did a decent job boxing out on the boards, and also played solid post defense on Kyle Visser.

Philadelphia 76ers #12 - Thaddeus Young

5 points, 2 rebounds, 2-6 FG on 7/6
Young came out looking to fire initially, but will need to work on his ball-handling skills.

11 Points, 3 Rebounds, 1 Assist on 7/7
-Young looked good running the floor tonight, but didn’t look as good pulling up off the dribble. His ball-handling skills need a lot of work, especially his right hand.
-On the defensive end, Young showed active hands, and sparked a few fast breaks with scrappy defense.

15 points, 11 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 turnovers, 7-20 FG, 1-1 FT on 7/9
-Thaddeus Young had a pretty tough game, scoring 15 points, but on 20 shot attempts, a very inefficient showing.
-Young missed on outside shots and fancy drives to the rim, getting most of his scores on putbacks when he really pursued the boards, something he can really excel at with his size and strength from the wing position.
-Young did have a few nice scoring plays, though, including a spot-up shot from 18 feet and a left-handed floater that he was also fouled on.

9 points, 5 rebounds, 4 turnovers, 4-7 FG, 1-1 3PT on 7/10
-Thaddeus Young didn’t have a very impactful game, not creating many opportunities for himself offensively, but he showed flashes of good things when he touched the ball.
-One thing Young does very well for a small forward is rebound, specifically on the offensive end, where he has the strength and athleticism to go up and score on putbacks or get to the free-throw line, something he did a few times this game.
-Young wasn’t hitting on his outside shot for much of the game, but came up with a key three-pointer in overtime.

NOK Hornets #13 - Julian Wright

10 Points, 5-9 FG, 3 Rebounds on 7/7
-While his stats may not have been that impressive, the way he put them up definitely was.
-Wright showed a vastly improved jump shot with range out to the NCAA three-point line. He knocked down a number of spot up shots and even his an elbow jumper off the dribble with a hand in his face, even if his ball-handling skills clearly need work.
-He also looked very active and energetic on defense.

7/9
-Wright played a very good game today, moving the ball and setting up his teammates as well as anyone could have expected him to.
-Wright utilized his length to get into the paint, before dishing the ball to teammates for an easy basket or scoring himself using his jumper.
-Wright showed the same range he did yesterday, hitting a three to send this game into overtime.

Los Angeles Clippers #14 - Al Thornton

24 Points, 8 Rebounds, 2 Blocks on 7/8
-Thornton looked good shooting the ball from the mid range, but struggled to hit from outside the arc.
-He keeps the ball low when attacking off the dribble, which should bode well for him when he starts playing against NBA competition.
-Defensively, Thornton showed his athleticism and timing by climbing the ladder for a couple of impressive blocks
-Thornton’s quickness was unmatched in this setting and he did a great mixing up his drives with his pullup and turnaround jumpers.

17 Points, 7 Rebounds, 1 Assist, 6 Turnovers, 5 Fouls, 5-13 FG, 7-7 FT on 7/10
-Thornton had a rough go of things this game, making a few unnecessary errors with the ball.
-Thornton did play very well offensively, knocking down a bevy of midrange shots from out as far as the NCAA three-point line.
-Thornton has the potential to be one of the best rebounding small forwards in the game if he commits to attacking the glass every play.

Detroit Pistons #15 - Rodney Stuckey

14 Points, 4 Rebounds, 3 Assists on 7/7
-Stuckey played a brutally efficient game, playing minutes at both guard spots.
-His jump shot looked great, and he only missed on shot from outside of the mid range.
-As a point guard, Stuckey may have been too aggressive defensively, but he showed a lot of poise running Detroit’s offense.
-When given the opportunity, Stuckey also showed off his excellent ball-handling skills.
-It will be interesting to see how he looks when Maxiell gets tired of dominating and he can really let loose.

27 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 2 turnovers, 9-16 FG, 0-1 3PT, 9-9 FT on 7/9
-Stuckey may have had the most impressive performance of the day, hitting on various shots out to college three-point range, and consistently getting the first step on his man.
-Stuckey was at his best taking his man off the dribble, especially when he got a high screen at the top of the key.
-Stuckey used various spin and crossover moves to get past his man, showing the ability to pull up from mid-range or take it to the basket, where he can score with either hand or draw contact and get to the free-throw line.
-Stuckey exhibited pretty good court vision here, but is more of an opportunistic passer, and doesn’t really have a true point guard’s mentality.

Washington Wizards #16 - Nick Young

11 Points, 1 Rebound, 1 Assist, 1 Block, 3 Turnovers, 7 Fouls, 3-14 FG, 0-3 3FG, 5-7 FT on 7/10
-Young had a decent debut, but really struggled to get going from the floor. He may have been a bit nervous given that this was his first game as a pro.
-Young did exert a great deal of effort on the defensive end, but was overaggressive at times leading to fouls.
-Young did look comfortable with the ball in his hands, and will have the opportunity to make amends for his pedestrian performance in the coming days.

Golden State Warriors #18 - Marco Belinelli

37 Points, 14-20 FG, 5-7 3FG on 7/7
-Belinelli loves to shoot, and is the type of player who only needs to make a few shots to really get going. He is never gun shy from the perimeter.
-Whether it was coming off of screens, pulling up off of a hesitation dribble, or spotting up from well outside of the three-point arch, Belinelli was absolutely devastating all game long. His game looks almost effortless, and was completely in the zone today
-On the other side of the floor, Belinelli showed active hands, even if he has a tendency to gamble sometimes.
-He also showed a willingness to attack passing lanes, and managed to come up with a few deflections for easy dunks.

23 points, 2 assists, 2 steals, 9-23 FG, 5-8 3PT on 7/9
-Belinelli’s game revolves around his outside shot, which has good form and a very quick release, while Belinelli has absolutely no conscience about shooting every chance he gets.
-Belinelli was lights out when spotting up from deep yet again today, but he struggled when he tried to go off the dribble inside the arc, not hitting with the same consistency on pull-up and fade-away shots with a hand in his face.
-Belinelli made some nice drives to the rim, but he doesn’t draw much contact and he usually opts to put up fancy, soft shots that are prone to being blocked, even if he does show good creativity getting them off.
-Belinelli exhibited some decent ball-handling an occasion or two, not turning the ball over when he put the ball on the floor, but he doesn’t look like he can consistently create that way yet.
-Belinelli played solid defense when in man-to-man situations, moving his feet and showing solid fundamentals.

15 Points, 3 Assists, 2 Steals, 1 Turnover, 3 Fouls, 5-13 FG, 2-3 3FG, 3-5 FT on 7/10
-Belinelli played a solid game, but didn’t get as hot as he did in previous contests.
-Belinelli was much more conservative offensively, but still took a handful of fallaway jump shots from beyond the arch.
-Belinelli ran the floor well, and saw quite a few touches on the fast break. On one occasion, he made a great deflection to himself for an easy dunk.

Los Angeles Lakers #19 - Javaris Crittenton

18 Points, 8-13 FG, 4 Rebounds on 7/8
-Critentton stole the show today as he repetitively juked his defender off the dribble, dunked the ball with a purpose, and knocked down jump shots from all over the floor.
-He hawked the ball well defensively, and used his size to help out on the glass.
-The shot he hit in crunch time shows improved confidence in his still developing jump shot, which will pay dividends for him down the line.
-The Lakers have to be awfully pleased from what they saw from Crittenton today. On the flipside, Jordan Farmar probably isn’t.

0 points, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover, 0-5 FG on 7/10
-Javaris Crittenton had a very non-descript game compared with his first game performance, coming off the bench, playing less minutes, and not really getting very involved in his team’s offense.
-Crittenton did make a few nice assists on drive-and-dishes, but wasn’t able to hit on any of his shot attempts, mostly mid to long range jumpers.
-Crittenton did have one very nice sequence where he crossed the ball over twice on a drive, brought the ball behind his back, then went up with a scoop shot off the glass, though he wasn’t able to convert.

Philadelphia 76ers #20 - Jason Smith

2 Points, 5 Rebounds, 1-6 FG on 7/6
-There is no question that Smith seemed out of sorts today. He failed to differentiate himself from the other players on the floor, and didn’t show off any of his athleticism.
-For what its worth, Smith’s jump shot didn’t appear to be as fluid as usual, indicating that he may be a bit nervous.

7 Points, 3-6 FG, 8 Rebounds on 7/7
-Smith has really struggled to separate himself from the pack, but did get the chance to show the potential the made him a first round pick.
-On one sequence, Smith tipped a Detroit miss to a teammate before beating everyone down the floor for a big two-handed slam.
-Smith will need to work on the mechanics of his jumper if he wants to see the immediate playing time many expect him to see. His release point hasn’t looked entirely consistent through his first two games, as he seems to be pulling the string a bit. In warm-ups he looked fine, so he might just be nervous.
-Regardless, Smith is not a player Sixer fans should expect anything immediate from.

12 points, 10 rebounds, 2 blocks, 4 turnovers, 5-10 FG, 2-2 FT on 7/9
-Jason Smith started off the game roughly, missing on a few mid-range shots, but his touch came around as the game went on, as he hit on a few from 10-18 feet out, including a spinning fadeaway from 15.
-Smith didn’t fare too well when he tried to take his man to the rim, missing badly on a couple of occasions, not having the strength to force his way to the rim yet.

10 points, 9 rebounds, 2 steals, 4-11 FG, 2-3 FT on 7/10
-Jason Smith had a rough start to the game, missing on most of his outside shots, as he’s done all week here in Vegas.
-As the game went on, Smith did manage to hit a few mid-range shots, and also scored on a nice runner in the lane that he was also fouled on.
-Smith has done a good job rebounding the ball here, but has really struggled getting his scoring game going, not yet fully adjusting to the higher level of competition.

New York Knicks #23 - Wilson Chandler

12 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 2 turnovers, 5-10 FG, 0-2 3PT, 2-2 FT on 7/9
-Wilson Chandler had a strong debut for the Knicks, showing confidence and solid form on his outside shot out to NBA three-point range, converting on two shots from around 18 feet in the game.
-Chandler finished well in transition, getting out on a few occasions, and starting a few breaks himself with weakside steals.
-Chandler played good, tough defense in general, making a few deflections leading to turnovers in addition to his picks.

Houston Rockets #26 - Aaron Brooks

21 Points, 1 Rebound, 8 Assists, 2 Turnovers, 5 Fouls, 6-14 FG, 3-6 3FG, 6-8 FT on 7/10
-Brooks had a great debut, knocking down his shots and distributing the ball.
-Brooks possesses a solid shooting stroke, and really caught fire during the second half. His first step allowed him to get to the line, and but he still needs to work on finishing with contact.
-Brooks found teammates for easy baskets throughout the game and showed very good court vision.

Detroit Pistons #27 - Arron Afflalo

14 Points, 5-13 FG, 2 Assists on 7/7
-Afflalo was aggressive with the ball on night long, and tried be assertive both with his shot selection and dribble drives.
-In trying to get to the rim, Afflalo showed much better dribbling ability then he showed as a collegiate.

11 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 turnovers, 4-13 FG, 1-3 3PT, 2-3 FT on 7/9
-Afflalo didn’t shoot for a high percentage here, but took mostly good shot attempts, and looked made some very nice plays with the ball.
-Afflalo had some nice, crafty finishes around the hoop, showing good ability to adjust and good ability to draw contact near the rim.
-Afflalo exhibited nice court vision on a few occasions, dishing out a few good passes.
-Afflalo wasn’t hitting his long-range shots here, but that’s something that should come around with time.

Phoenix Suns #29 - Alando Tucker

7/9
-Tucker didn’t look great today, but managed to get to the line often enough to still be effective.
-Tucker’s jump shot doesn’t appear to have improved much, as he made an NCAA three-pointer, but missed a few shots from around the range.
-Tucker still isn’t a pure enough perimeter player to fit perfectly into the Suns’ system.

Houston Rockets #31 - Carl Landry

14 Points, 4 Rebounds, 1 Assist, 1 Steal, 1 Turnover, 2 Fouls, 7-12 FG on 7/10
-Landry did a great job of getting off the floor to get rebounds and eating up space down low.
-Landry showed good range, hitting one eighteen footer, but will need to become more consistent from that distance.
-Landry also showed the ability to run the floor and finish effectively with contact.

San Antonio Spurs #33 - Marcus Williams

3 points, 2 rebounds, 1-7 FG, 1-2 FT on 7/9
-Marcus Williams really struggled here, constantly settling for contested, fadeaway shots that he wasn’t able to convert on.
-Williams’ one made shot of the game was on a lay-up cutting to the basket, which is something he should do more of, as opposed to settling for off-balanced perimeter shots.
-Williams’ defense was inconsistent, at times playing good defense on Gerald Green, but at others not looking so formidable.

Dallas Mavericks #34 - Nick Fazekas

4 Points, 1-7 FG on 7/6
-Fazekas didn’t really look comfortable on the floor. His shot looked less natural than usual primarily because of a lack of lift created by mechanical footwork. He played almost strictly on the perimeter and his shot wasn’t falling for him at all.

7 points, 8 rebounds, 3-6 FG, 0-1 3PT, 1-1 FT on 7/11
-Nick Fazekas had a pretty non-descript game, not getting many opportunities with the ball and not showing anything we haven’t seen before.
-Fazekas got stuffed on one post-up opportunity early in the game, something that will be a concern for him in the future with his lack of lift.
-Fazekas did have one nice hook shot in the post for an and-1, though, and also converted on a 10 footer with a hand in his face.
-Fazekas did a good job boxing out on the boards, and was fighting for a lot of rebounds, but sometimes he was outmuscled for the ball.

Boston Celtics #35 - Glen Davis

3 Points, 6 Rebounds, 8 PF on 7/6
-Davis looked a little sluggish today, and had a very tough time hedging the pick and roll due to his poor conditioning and lateral quickness.
-He didn’t look to score very often offensively, and appears to be satisfied with letting Leon Powe do most of the dirty work in the paint.

12 Points, 9 Rebounds, 1 Assist, 1 Steal, 1 Block, 5 Turnovers, 4 Fouls, 2-8 FG, 8-10 FT on 7/9
-Davis played an inspired game tonight, running the floor much harder than usual.
-He used some effective spin moves around the rim, but didn’t create a lot of space for himself leading to numerous trips to the line.
-Davis rebounded out of his area, and showed some football-like explosiveness with a big block on one possession.

Minnesota Timberwolves #41 - Chris Richard

7/9
-Richard looked good in somewhat limited time.
-Richard is very similar to Craig Smith in that he gets his by working hard in the paint.
-Richard converted on a dunk and a tip in, but came up short on his only back to the basket opportunity.

NOK Hornets #43 - Adam Haluska

7/9
-Haluska made a number of outside shots today, but also contributed with some nice drives and smart passes.
-Haluska showed a nice reverse layup off a crossover that really hasn’t been part of his game in the past.
-Haluska even blocked a shot on defense leading to an easy basket on the other side of the floor.

Dallas Mavericks #44 - Reyshawn Terry

8 Points, 6-6 FT on 7/6
-Terry didn’t put up great numbers, but deserves recognition for the work he put in on the defensive end.
-His athleticism and smooth game seem like they would be well suited for the NBA game.

7 Points, 2-7 FG, 1 Assist on 7/8
-Terry didn’t see a lot of minutes today, but wasn’t his usual self when he was on the floor.
-His shot wasn’t falling today, but that didn’t deter him from using his quick hands to make an impact on the defensive end.

Los Angeles Clippers #45 - Jared Jordan

3 Points, 4 Rebounds, 6 Assists, 1 Turnover, 1 Foul, 1-4 FG, 1-2 3FG on 7/10
-Jordan had his hands full with Aaron Brooks, but still managed to play a good game.
-Jordan’s ability to create plays for his teammates made him standout amongst LA’s other guards.
-Jordan showed some nice range on one NBA three-pointer, but still needs to develop his jumpshot further.

Washington Wizards #47 - Dominic McGuire

10 Points, 7 Rebounds, 1 Assist, 2 Steals, 3 Turnovers, 4 Fouls, 4-6 FG, 2-2 FT on 7/10
-McGuire is the kind of player that is hard not to like. He works hard, is athletic, and plays a quietly effective game.
-McGuire finished around the rim extremely well, making a number of acrobatic layups around defenders in transition. He doesn’t possess a great jump shot, but is extremely good at playing the efficient offensive game that he does.
-McGuire rebounds well on both ends of the floor, utilizing his size and athleticism to clean the glass.

Portland Trail Blazers #52 - Taurean Green

5 Points, 1 Steal, 3 Turnovers on 7/8
-Green gets special mention here for showing great hustle on a handful of occasions. He shows no hesitation when it comes to getting dirty and diving for loose balls.
-Offensively, he’s playing off the ball an awful lot, which obviously doesn’t suit his strengths.

Philadelphia 76ers #55 - Herbert Hill

11 Points, 5 Rebounds, 1 Block on 7/7
-Hill had a better game than he did yesterday.
-He was constantly active, and is the type of intelligent post player than doesn’t make a lot of mistakes out on the floor.
-His hands are terrific, and he’s very reliable around the basket with his assortment of post moves.

9 points, 1 rebound, 2 blocks, 2 turnovers, 4-5 FG, 1-2 FT on 7/9
-Herbert Hill had some nice possessions working out of the mid and low post here, scoring on mini hook shots and fade-away jumpers from the 5-10 feet range, which is his specialty.
-Hill hasn’t made much of an impact on the boards here, though, not possessing much in terms of fundamentals in that area, so he’s realizing that his athletic tools alone won’t be enough to get the job done on the glass at this level, which was what he relied on mostly at Providence.
-Hill made some nice weakside blocks in the game, coming from out of position and using his physical tools to patrol the lane.

Detroit Pistons #57 - Sammy Mejia

12 Points, 2 Rebounds, Game Winning Shot on 7/7
-Mejia was solid but not spectacular, scoring with his typical craftiness getting in the lane.
-He hit a turnaround rainbow turnaround jumper early in the game that got the crowd’s attention before ending the game with a corner three to beat the buzzer.

2 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 3 turnovers, 1-4 FG, 0-2 FT on 7/9
-Mejia blended in with his team well, not doing anything outstanding but not making many mistakes.
-He made a few nice passes on drives and cuts to the basket, exhibited good court vision and decision-making abilities.
-Mejia looks a step slow against this higher level of competition, and his ceiling as a player will likely be limited due to his lack of speed with the ball in his hands.

No comment by DraftExpress in their write ups:
Golden State Warriors #8 - Brandan Wright
Portland Trail Blazers #24 - Rudy Fernandez
San Antonio Spurs #28 - Tiago Splitter
Portland Trail Blazers #30 - Petteri Koponen
Boston Celtics #32 - Gabe Pruitt
Portland Trail Blazers #37 - Josh McRoberts
Los Angeles Lakers #40 - Sun Yue
Philadelphia 76ers #42 - Derrick Byars
Golden State Warriors #46 - Stephane Lasme
Los Angeles Lakers #48 - Marc Gasol
Dallas Mavericks #50 - Renaldas Seibutis
Portland Trail Blazers #53 - Demetris Nichols
Houston Rockets #54 - Brad Newley
Milwaukee Bucks #56 - Ramon Sessions
Phoenix Suns #59 - D.J. Strawberry

Comments on 7/11 SPL game

Posted on LakersGround.net on 7/12/07.

• Critt, Farmar and Karl made 19 out of 33 for 57.6%. The rest of the team made 5 out of 20 for 25%
  
• With 6:45 left in the game and the Lakers trailing 59-62, the Lakers went to a Critt-Farmar-Karl line up for the rest of the game and outscored Portland 22-11. Critt, Farmar and Karl scored all but the last of those 22 points.
  
• The PG's were looking to score instead of passing. Farmar had 2 assists and Critt had 1
  
• Critt and Farmar both had 0 TO's
  
• I watched from mid-first quarter until half time and Shaw was using a three guard rotation of Critt, Farmar and Karl. In the second game, Rambis for the most part played two platoons and Critt was stuck with the pathetic Ere as his backcourt mate. This game, Ere played less than 4 minutes
  
• From what I saw, the Lakers were pressuring the Portland PG's in the backcourt. If the PG got past the initial pressure, it was easy for him to break down the Lakers' defense
  
• Critt shot 54.5% on FT's. The rest of the team shot 82.8%
  
• The Trailblazers shot 55.2% on FT's. Zendon Hamilton went to the line 14 times and made only 6. If he makes them all, it's a tied game
  
• I have seen several posts saying that Gay will get a camp invite. He had a terrible game, shooting 0-4. He had more fouls (4) and TO's (3) than points (1), rebounds (2), assists (0), steals (1) and blocks (0)

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

I added later:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
4th quarter scoring:
Farmar - 10 pts
Critterton - 10 pts
Karl - 6 pts
Smith - 2 pts
Graves - 2 pts
Turner - 1 pt

Farmar and Critterton played all of the 4th quarter together.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Thoughts on the Lakers SPL team

Posted on LakersGround.net on 7/11/07.

Our roster outside of Farmar and Crittenton is old and low on talent. On a talent basis, we should lose every game. From a talent point of view, the 76ers should have crushed the Lakers. Yet, the team is literally just a second away from a 2-0 start. I watched probably half the game last night and it looked to me that the team's success is due to some players being willing to do the dirty work to make Farmar and Karl look like stars.

Here is the age distribution of the team outside of Farmar and Crittenton :
24 - 5 players
25 - 2 players
26 - 1 player
27 - 1 player
28 - 1 player
30 - 1 player
The only other players drafted are Jabari Smith (45th in 2000 draft) and Rodney White (9th in 2001) and they are the only players with NBA experience.

From what I could tell, the Lakers were playing two platoons - the A team and the B team. The A team had Farmar, Coby Karl, Rodney White, Jeff Graves and Larry Turner. The B team had Critterton, Ebi Ere, Brandon Gay, Andre Patterson and Jabari Smith. The A team played ~25 minutes and the B team played ~15 minutes (with the exception of Graves and Gay, who played 15 and 31 minutes respectively).

OTOH, the 76ers played this like a NBA game, with the starting 5 seeing heavy minutes (30-37 out of 42) and the minutes dropping off significantly as you move down the bench (13, 10, 9, 5, 2). Their starting 5 were:
Louis Williams - averaged 11.3 mpg in his second NBA season last season
Thaddeus Young - #12 pick in 2007 draft
Rodney Carney - #16 pick in 2006 draft
Herbert Hill - #55 pick in 2007 draft
Jason Smith - #20 pick in 2007 draft
With a bench of:
Edin Bavcic - #56 pick in 2006 draft
Derrick Byars - #42 pick in 2007 draft
Bobby Jones - averaged 7.6 mpg in his rookie year last season

As you can see, the 76ers had way more talent than the Lakers and played their best players for far more minutes than the Lakers did. How did the Lakers keep in the game when the 76ers had so much more talent?

What I saw was that on the A team, White, Graves and Turner didn't look for their offense. I didn't see them once post up, take an outside jumper or dribble drive. I am not sure about White, as Dancing Barry called him "a space cadet", but the other two set picks constantly and then cut to the hoop. Farmar was using the picks to drive-and-dish and Karl was using the picks to get open. White, Graves and Turner were getting most of their shots as point blank shots when Farmar dumped off to them. Farmar wound up with 11 assists. Karl was bombing from the outside, scored 23 points on 8-13 shooting including 3-5 on 3 pointers. White, Graves and Turner shot a combined 8-14. The A team shot a scorching 62%.

The B team play was much more ragged. Ere and Gay shot the ball whenever they thought they were open. Critterton couldn't get the team to get into the offense and forced things, shooting 0-5. Smith had some nice plays and I don't remember a thing Patterson did. The only consistent success I can remember the B team having is when Gay sprinted down the court for some fast break points. The B team had as many turnovers (12) in 15 minutes as the A team had in 25 minutes. The B team shot 42%.

The Lakers have a problem in that their 3 best players are all guards. If they platoon, someone has to play on the B team and is going to struggle because that team isn't very good. Last night, it was Critterton and he did struggle. My guess is that his success in the first game came from playing with the rest of the A team.

Net PER's from 82Games.com

Posted on LakersGround.net on 7/10/07.

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. I find the net PER the best one number summation of how a player is doing. Here is how the Lakers did last season:
PG: -4.3 (Parker -5.2, Farmar -3.7, Williams +0.9)
SG: +3.7 (Bryant +10.7, Evans -0.6, Vujacic -3.0)
SF: +3.9 (Walton -0.6, Bryant +17.2, Evans -3.0, Radmanovic -4.9)
PF: -3.0 (Odom 0, Cook -2.2, Radmanovic -8.0, Walton -8.4)
C: -1.9 (Bynum -2.1, Brown -4.1, Turiaf +5.1)
(The players are listed in order of minutes played at the position and I only list ratings where the player has played at least 5% of the possible minutes at that spot)

As you can see:
* Kobe is the only starter with a positive net PER
* Turiaf and Williams were the only other players with a positive net PER
* PG is the team's weakest position
* C is the second weakest position
* Back in Feb, uberzev had a post on how Odom and Walton were the 4th weakest 2-3 punch in the NBA

Thoughts on criticizing the Lakers FO for letting the Bulls sign Nocioni

Posted on LakersGround.net on 7/06/07.

Car54 wrote:

Hector the Pup wrote:
A FA agreeing to terms with his original team because they can offer the most money?

NO WAIT!!!!

That never happens.

Impossible.

I don't believe it.

Thats no surprise but They want mihm and we supposedly wanted him but Mitch probably didnt even entertain a S&T for Nocioni.

Again, what are we offering the Bulls that would make them want to do that trade? Right now, the Bulls have Nocioni and a good chance of signing Mihm. We were going to talk them out of doing that by offering them Mihm?

Car54 wrote:
You get free agents by selling yourself to them. Chicago was up for trading him. You can continue making excuses for Mihm and I'll continue bashing while good players are agreeing to terms. Then you can give me ur I told you so speech when mitch big splash in free agency is Hart or Blake for the MLE

Money talks in this league. The Bulls were offering Nocioni above the MLE, so the Lakers weren't going to get him to come here for just the MLE. Now, you seem to be saying that the Lakers should have convinced Nocioni that he should have demand the Bulls trade him to the Lakers. And when the Bulls said "No", Nocioni would have then signed the contract with them. Nocioni had no leverage to demand a trade.

Guess what - NBA players first priority is themselves, not the Lakers. Your anger at Mitch seems to have totally destroyed your perspective. If the Lakers make you this unhappy, why don't you follow another team?

Criticizing the Lakers FO this off-season compared to last

Posted on LakersGround.net on 7/05/07.

Krispy Kreme wrote:
about a year ago, anyone who was criticizing the FO was deemed as "not a fan" or a "pessimist" or my favorite, "pissing and moaning".

now all of the sudden Kobe talks about our crappy FO, and now everyone is criticizing the FO and NOW people are not labeled as "pissing and moaning"

quite hilarious

Last off-season, the FO looked pretty damn good. They had rebuilt the oldest team in the league into the second youngest in 2 seasons. That second youngest team took the Suns to 7 games with their starting C (Mihm) out due to injury. They had a promising project in Bynum. They then made a very good looking pick in the draft in Farmar. They picked up Evans for a song. They then signed Radmanovic to a MLE contract. Many of the players talked about how the Suns loss was motivating them to work super-hard in the off-season. The future looked really bright.

Then Cook injured his thumb, Odom lost his son, Mihm never recovered from his injury and Radmonovic tore a muscle in his shooting hand. Kwame started the season injured. Despite those setbacks, the Lakers managed to start the season 23-11. Analysts were talking about the Lakers being the best passing team in the NBA. Walton went down on 1/26 and the team never recovered its chemistry.

Doing the wrong thing is always quick and easy to do

Posted on LakersGround.net on 7/05/07.

What happens when a GM does something to do something:

An exceptionally well-connected league insider once told me the story of how Brian Cardinal got his mid-level. Seems Memphis owner Michael Heisley, frustrated by general manager Jerry West’s lack of activity, walked into West’s office one day and asked why he hadn’t signed anyone yet. So an exasperated West picked up his phone, called Cardinal’s agent and offered the mid-level on the spot. Then he turned to Heisley and said something along the lines of “There, you happy now?”

Now nobody in Memphis is happy about Cardinal’s contract _ other than Cardinal, of course.

(Link)

Age of 2007 Summer League roster

Posted on LakersGround.net on 7/04/07.

That's an old roster. Age distribution of the roster outside of Farmar and Crittenton:
24 - 5 players
25 - 2 players
26 - 1 player
27 - 1 player
28 - 1 player
30 - 1 player

Quizno’s with Andrew Bynum

Posted on LakersGround.net on 1/09/07.

I didn't find this posted, but here is a Slam blog entry on Lang Whitaker having lunch with Bynum at Quizno's. There is one neat picture that makes Bynum look like a really young kid.

For more fun, a Celtics blogger is really upset that Bynum would get some print in a major magazine while Al Jefferson hasn't. The blogger, who doesn't seem like the sharpest knife in the drawer, doesn't like LA:

First, LA is full of stupid, rich people who pretend to care about things but can’t muster up the energy to follow a very good basketball team because they’re too busy blowing their money on coke and tutes.

And he doesn't think much of Bynum:

Second, the LA Lakers are doing a much better job of building young players than the Celtics are, so much so that a player who is inferior both talent and athletic wise is being touted as the next big thing. Andrew Bynum is good, but he is not Al Jefferson.

Bynum gets minutes in important games without ever having proved himself in a game situation. It is clear to the Lakers that since they spent their 11th overall pick on him, that maybe they should play him sometimes over one monumental suckfest of a player in Kwame Brown. You are probably thinking to yourselves, well it shouldn’t be hard to put someone else in instead of Kwame Brown, but the Celtics did not play Big Al over Raef or Mark Blount.

And then he riffs on how the Lakers are doing a better job of developing their young players than the Celtics:

Potential is enough for the LA Lakers front office to justify playing time, while it means nothing in the Celtics organization. The Lakers have given confidence to a player who has earned very little of it, while the Celtics are just recently realizing that Big Al is the man, and partially because the team has had many injuries and was forced to play him more. I’m glad to see the Celtics are playing the young guys, regardless of the reasons, but they are still terrible at consistent minutes to young players who are awesome. Sasha Vujacic, Luke Walton and Smush parker look like frickin all stars, because they are getting the opportunity to play and gain experience. If Gerald Green and Big Al were on the Lakers, you don’t think they would be getting minutes every night over those guys? Phil Jackson would play those guys all the time and they would already be dominating the league.

One other major thing that the Lakers have been able to do is to keep great franchise players within the organization. Magic is always around and Kareem is working with Bynum on a daily basis. Bynum gets to work with the leading scorer in NBA history every day and Jefferson works with…? Well it’s not McHale and it’s not Walton and the last time the Chief was seen was in a Chicago alleyway yelling at trash cans because they were trying to steal his cocaine.

The records of the Lakers and elite teams analyzed

Posted on LakersGround.net on 1/08/07.

The Lakers won another quality win last night. The Lakers have a problem of beating the good teams and losing to bad teams. I thought it would be interesting to analyze how the Lakers, Jazz, Mavericks, Spurs and Suns are doing at winning at different levels of competition:
          Elite  Good   Avg    Poor   Bad
Jazz      0.714  0.500  0.667  0.800  0.750
Lakers    0.667  0.571  0.857  0.600  0.750
Mavericks 0.625  0.400  0.857  0.900  1.000
Spurs     0.429  0.400  0.571  1.000  0.833
Suns      0.000  0.800  1.000  0.923  1.000
Rockets   0.375  0.833  0.429  0.667  1.000

          Elite  Good   Avg    Poor   Bad
Jazz      5-2    2-2    6-3    8-2    3-1
Lakers    4-2    4-3    6-1    6-4    3-1
Mavericks 5-3    2-3    6-1    9-1    5-0
Spurs     3-4    2-3    4-3    10-0   5-1
Suns      0-6    4-1    6-0    12-1   3-0
Rockets   3-5    5-1    3-4    6-3    5-0
The Mavericks, Spurs and Suns only have one loss each against Poor and Bad teams, where as the Lakers have 5. If the Lakers had only one loss against Poor and Bad teams, they would have a NBA best 27-7 record. The Spurs are below .500 against both Elite and Good teams. The Suns have lost every game against Elite teams, but are stomping on the rest of the NBA.

The bad news is that the Lakers are hurting their post-season seeding by not taking care of business against the lesser teams in the NBA. The good news is (1) I would think that would be an easy area to improve on and (2) once the playoff starts, a teams records against Elite and Good teams is much more indicitive of how they are going to do and the Lakers have done well against those type of teams.

Definitions:
Elite: winning percentage >= .650
Good: winning percentage < .650 and >= .550
Average: winning percentage < .550 and >= .450
Poor: winning percentage < .450 and >= .350
Bad: winning percentage < .350

My thoughts on why newspaper basketball coverage is awful

Posted on LakersGround.net on 12/05/06.

I have always been amazed that the quality of reporting is so much better here at LG.net than in the LA papers. DancingBarry's game write-ups are so much better than the equivalent sports section write ups. The basketball knowledge demonstrated in the LA Times by Mike Bresnahan, Bill Plaschke, J.A. Adande and T. J. Simers pales in comparison to the basketball knowledge of many of the posters here. I enjoy writing posts based upon tons of research and the Times writers seem to pull their "facts" out of their hats. Yet, they are still getting published and the best posters here aren't.

Here are the biographies of Andrew and Brian Kamenetzky, who operate the Lakers blog on latimes.com:

Andrew Kamenetzky grew up in St. Louis, attended USC and has lived in L.A. ever since. He's a regular contributor to ESPN The Magazine and espn.com, including Page 2 and Page 3. He and his brother Brian co-wrote "Fishing on the Edge," the autobiography of 2003 Bassmaster Classic champion Mike Iaconelli, available May 2005, on Dellacorte Press.

I [Brian Kamenetzky] was born in St. Louis and am a die hard Cardinals fan, a fact which will become really obvious on this site as the season rolls along.

My brother Andrew (ak.mlblogs.com) and I are regular contributors to ESPN the Magazine, ESPN.com, and ESPN Page 2. Our first book, "Fishing on the Edge" co-authored with Bassmaster Classic champion will be released through Delacourte Press on May 17.

Notice the lack of any mention of basketball in their bios. And they write by far the most knowledgeable stuff on the latimes.com website.

TV and radio are famous for "dumbing down" what they present because they have so little time and present to such a broad audience. Yet, TV and radio regularly get former players and coaches to provide analysis for basketball. Rarely do they have generalists providing analysis. With print publications, there is lots of time to provide more detailed analysis and the audience tends to be more knowledgeable than the casual fan. Yet, I can't think of a single former basketball player or coach that writes regularly for a major print publication. As for the LA Times blog, it's target audience is diehard fans, and yet they chose two guys who apparently know more about bass fishing than basketball to run their blog. I don't mean to single out the LA Times. I have read articles on other papers' websites which makes the LA Times team look brilliant.

So why do print publications not have people with basketball expertise writing their basketball analysis pieces? My ideas:
1. Because there is a weak connection between readership and knowledgeable writing
LG.net would quickly turn into a ghost town without the more knowledgeable posters. There are lots of other Lakers boards and people would drift to those if there wasn't good information here. On the other hand, the LA Times doesn't have any serious competition in the LA area and people rarely make subscription decisions based upon the quality of the basketball coverage.

2. IMHO being successful with other sportswriters is more important to a sportswriter than being successful with readers
Who makes the decision to hire a sportswriter? Another sportswriter. Who decides what raises and promotions a sportswriter will get? Another sportswriter. Who helps a sportswriter find a better job? Other sportswriters. IMHO, you can write absolute nonsense, but if you know how to be buddy-buddy with other sportswriters, you are going to have a successful career.

3. A lot of sportswriting is stenography, which reduces the need for knowledge
Fans are far more interested in what Kobe or Phil has to say than what any sportswriter has to say. So being on Kobe and Phil's good side is important because that's how you get exclusive quotes. However, good analysis of the Lakers would certainly include criticizing Kobe and Phil. Therefore, writing good analysis hurts a writer's ability to get good quotes.

4. Because newspaper people confuse controversy with buzz
A related newspaper legend:

An illustrative story--legend has it that a music reviewer at the Chicago Trib, Claudia Cassidy, shredded a new music director of the Chicago Symphony (Rafael Kubelik, I believe). After a torrent of protesting letters, the publisher, Maj. McCormick, supposedly asked who this staff writer was that caught all the complaints. When told she was an arts critic, he said "Double her salary".

Saying something that gets readers fired up will get you noticed, even if what you said was stupid. This explains why T. J. Simers still has a job.

5. Because having the right resume is probably more important than actual knowledge
I don't know the background of the Lakers sportswriters, but my guess is that in order to make it pass HR to an interview, they have to had a college degree (probably in journalism) from a top tier college, preferably with outstanding grades. That's a great way to recruit writers who are white and from upper middle class or better backgrounds for whom basketball is a interest (but not a passion), but not a great way to recruit writers who know the game.

The internet has been around for a while now and my impression is that newspapers haven't woken up to the potential of recruiting writers from popular websites. The one media channel that does recruit from the media is talk radio. At the same time, basketball organizations haven't grasped that blogs and message boards have much more to say than newspapers and instead (apparently) grant press cards as if it was 30 years ago.

I know Eric Pincus and Mike Garcia are trying to establish themselves as basketball experts in the "media" and I would be very interested in hearing their thoughts on the topic.

I later added:

activeverb wrote:
It's ridiculous to suggest that the posters here are more knowledgable than newspaper reporters who cover basketball. For one thing, reporters have constant access to players, coaches, and other sources that give them greater insight that we can have.

In DancingBarry's summary, he reports that one of the big keys to the win was the switch on defense between Odom and Walton. That switch and Kwame's excellent defense on JO lead to the Indy starter's poor offensive performance, which lead to the Lakers blowing them out early. Can you find for me in any of the LA Times Lakers stories on the game (here, here and here) any discussion of how the Lakers got their big lead? I couldn't find any. Hell, Walton isn't even mentioned in any of the three articles and he lead the Lakers in +/- with +27.

activeverb wrote:
Also, I don't think people come here to revel in the genius and insights of other posters. People come here, as they come to other Internet boards, primarily because it gives them a chance to express their opinion. These boards are more about having the chance to talk as opposed to listen.

My guess is that there is a significant number of people who come here after every game to read DancingBarry's summary of the game. My guess is that there are a number of people who read mainly the posts from proven posters (emplay, Mike@LG)

activeverb wrote:
Most of the posts here, like most Internet fan boards, tend to at best regurgitate viewpoints you've seen a gazillion times before. They are often uninformed and downright silly. I read a lot of these boards and I've only come across one poster who strikes me as extremely knowledgable and a good writer. (it wasn't this board, by the way).

That's true. However, there are certain posters who consistently post insight that you won't find in MSM.

Or Forum Blue and Gold's previews are much, much better than any preview I have read in the LA Times.

activeverb wrote:
There are certainly players who act as commentators and writers. Steve Kerr comes immediately to mind.

Steve Kerr is the only one I can think of. I believe he writes only for Yahoo!, but I could be wrong.

activeverb wrote:
But for the most part, former players don't have the skill or interest to be writers. And while some players can provide commentatory, they don't have the interest or ability to be reporters.

And how do you know that? I would think there would be many former players that would love to keep their association with the game through sportswriting. That aren't that many basketball-related job opportunities for former players.

activeverb wrote:
I really doubt a sportseditor would troll these boards looking for writers and it would be a waste of their time to do so. For one thing, newspapers prize reporting skill above anything else, and there is virtually no original reporting here.

Are you saying that DancingBarry's summaries aren't original reporting? Are you saying that emplay and Mike@LG have nothing original to add here at LG?

activeverb wrote:
It's possible, albeit unlikely, that if someone wrote an Internet blog that attracted enormous attention that could lead to a staff job. But to get a job at a premier paper like the Times, you would need to show an enormous amount of talent and writing ability.

Bill Simmons wrote for a web site (Digital City Boston) before landing a writing job for ESPN's web site.