By letting him make 10 3 point shots, kind of a rare night.
Who do you have as fourth best? Brooklyn?
Supposedly D'Antoni is finally ceding to the fact that Pau needs to play in the post so we might see a return to form for Gasol, who IMO hasn't been used correctly since he was being coached under Phil Jackson. We'll see. Lakers have to win at least 70% of their remaining games to make the post season. I still think they can do it if they get Pau & Dwight back SOON.
I'm already hearing people say Chalmers is as good as Westbrook & Rose.
Cousins is a center. He has a lot of talent but will probably be like Rasheed Wallace and never really reach his potential. Rasheed could have been better than Tim Duncan. IMO he's going to waste in Sacramento... He needs a veteran to guide him. Wish he got traded to a team that would get him in shape.
With that frontline? I honestly consider them the least trustworthy in terms of comparing them to the eastern conference's elite.
You gave up on Kincks so easily. They aren't what they are now. That said, I think Knicks still has hopes in playoffs vs your "grind it out" teams. "Grind it out" teams like Pacers, Bulls and Celtics have one thing in common: really bad offenses. That and mix that with the "potential" of Knicks defense, I think they'll still come out on top of those teams in playoffs. But, I also believe they need to adjust some things (lower Amare's minutes to 15mpg and Smith's minutes, bench Novak) and they also need some guys to be healthy.
There's no way in hell Paul Pierce is retiring as anything other than a Celtic
Jared Sullinger is working on it!
Celtics aren't known to trust rookies. And big men usually takes 2-3 years to fully reach their potential. Sull still fouls too much (3.3 fouls per game in 19 minutes a game), only second to Zeller among rooks.
Only lakers fans will believe this...
They sure put a lot of trust in Avery Bradley last year and this year. Sullinger too. The Celtics are only going to get better now. They're still better than the Knicks and the Nets.
The 8th & 7th seeds aren't that far away from the Lakers, & with Minnesota imploding, the Jazz getting sloppy lately, & the Trailblazers having a worse bench and starting five than the Lakers it's not unreasonable that the Lakers do make a run and enter the playoffs. The Lakers' biggest problem has been their defense and it looks like they've finally acknowledged that are working in unison to help that. Earl Clark can probably play an Odom-esque role in acting as a bridge between Dwight and Pau. With some luck the Mavs might be able to make the playoffs too.
I'm pretty sure that Bradley is in his 3rd year now. He's not a rookie last year.
Don't see it. If a coach is asking his 34-year old guard to spearhead their defense who also happens to be the one spearheading their offense, I call it trolling. Odom and Clark are on different level (actually, very far). Pau is not interested. Dwight is still hurting. Nash is enjoying LA life. Bench sucks. No, just lose hope.
Of course. Care about the offense more than the defense. This is your first mistake.
Are you high
Defense is still my no. 1 option, but the only way to beat the Heat is to have an offensive big man. The Pacers nearly did it last year with Hibbert, it's just they entirely forgot about the big guy and ran every play on Granger, which won't cut it.
You think the Wolves, with their lackluster defense and offense and without Love for the foreseeable future are going to pull ahead of the Lakers?
They still have to contend with Utah and Portland, which I think have better chances than LAL. Heck, even the Wolves has better chance; they still have enough time to make a run when Love returns (1 month at worst). And gotta agree with DR, Portland has better bench than LA (not good, but better than LA's). They might be unknown to you, but the Portland bench are young and energizers. I'll take Nolan-Babitt-Meyers-Jeffries than Jamison-Clark-Duhon-Meeks-Sacre anytime. The loss of Hill really hurts for the Lakers...
Who's the best for the Lakers?
The Pacers at least had a shotblocker and rebounder who could crash on the boards.
