Lakers Odds and Ends + The Bench Needs Help
By Ryan Kane
Hope your holiday’s were great- the Lakers were a mixed bag over the last few weeks. Let’s recap in no particular order:
Kobe is Amazing (also this)
Pau’s Hurt (again)
Artest Fell
The Lakers are Awesome
The Lakers Can’t Hold a Lead
Lakers Struggle Against Cavs; Laker Fans Suck
Nevermind that the mamba has been playing his best ball with an injured finger on his shooting hand. Nevermind that he’s got 3 game-winning buzzer-beaters in a stretch of 29 days. Nevermind the injuries that are obviously hurting the team. Lets talk about something controllable: The Bench.
Phil tried an 8-man rotation. We had the starters of Bynum, Pau, Artest, Bryant, and Fisher. The bench consisted of Odom, Brown, and Farmar. Vujacic, Powell, Morrison, and MBenga were relegated to mop-up duty. That didn’t work at all.
Now Phil is just throwing players into the game at seemingly random moments to try to find a combination, ANY combination of players who can effectively hold a lead with Kobe off the floor.
Farmar has his nights, but he’s turnover-prone and inconsistent at best. Shannon Brown shows promise, but being an amazing dunker doesn’t do anything for us since every other area of his game has been inconsistent. Lamar is starting to pick up, but still a failure overall for the season so far.
Vujacic has actually shown a little promise lately. He’s not “The Machine” by any stretch, but he’s hit a few shots over the past few games. Perhaps his random playing time actually IS helping.
Josh Powell showed an improved jump shot earlier this season only to reiterate later on that he is one of the easiest shooters to block in the NBA. Lack of minutes is the only excuse I can come up with at this point.
Adam Morrison and DJ Mbenga are being played, but I highly doubt they’ll see any meaningful minutes unless we are absolutely forced to use them.
Which begs the question: What the hell do we do?
My suggestion? Farmar has played decent lately, and we’re heavy on small guards. Perhaps we could get a combo 2/3 player who can backup Kobe when he’s out, or play the 2 when the Lakers go small and Kobe slides to the 3. For a promising player like Farmar, there may actually be some biters out there. Throw in Adam Morrison’s expiring contract while you’re at it.
A guy can dream, can’t he?