Optimism Discussion: The Laker's Sky Is Not Falling

JJ: "The Lakers - I think they have a legit championship chance."

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1 game or 2, if we can't win a play-in game or two, with Lebron, AD and this group, we don't deserve to make the playoffs.

 

i think he's right about that number. i mean, obviously gs, phx, and the clips are still the favorites if they have all their guys. we have lebron, AD, and a much improved roster. dallas still has kyrie and luka, and denver, memphis, and sac have been good all year. hell, i saw someone talking up minny's chances today, and it...made some sense--they're finally healthy.

i'll say this--if denver doesn't get out this year, they have to ask themselves what they can do. they've had things go their way, health-wise; this has to be their shot.

 

Denver wouldn't be in this position if everyone else was healthy. It wouldn't be shocking if they got bounced early. I don't think anyone fears the Nuggets in a 7 game series. Or Memphis and Sacramento either.

 

I think anybody can win the west...including Nuggets, Kings or Grizzlies. That's how much of a toss-up it is right now. I give the Nuggets, Kings, Grizzlies, Suns, Clippers, Warriors, Twolves and Lakers all equal shot at winning the west this year. And yes, I do believe those will be the 8 teams that MAKE the playoffs. Mavs, Thunder and Pelicans will be on the outside looking in...and many had Mavs and Pelicans in their top 5 in the west before season began so it would be jarring to see both teams miss it (Pels have more of an excuse due to injuries to Zion and Ingram, Mavs? Not so much).

 

Mavs excuse, if you can call it that, is that their dumb a** FO traded for Kyrie and gave away defense and size. They were 29-26 before then and at or around 5th. Probably would have stayed around there if they didn't make that trade.

 

Much more like it. Nice win.

 

The starting lineup is championship caliber.

The bench though and the way Ham uses it is the big question mark right now and results aren't pretty so far

 

So which + / - above is correct?

 

I think the bench - the NEW bench, is better than they played in the CHI win. They'd have to be: the bench was 0-7 from 3, for example, with Malik only hoisting up ONE. The only problem I have with the new bench: Wenyan is our biggest guy and we really need a true Big on the bench. I wonder what the FO was thinking on this?

 

LTLakerFan, I didn't double check it, but the Jovan tweet is saying that the starters were +22 point differential. The Raj tweet is saying they were +65 net rating. So they can both be correct, they're talking about different things.

However, I did check the Laker FIles AD/LBJ/DLo 4-0 stat (which I saw on other tweets too), and I can't find all 4 games for some reason. I see the wins on 2/15, 2/23, and today, where all 3 played together, but that's it. Plus, LeBron's only played in 4 wins since DLo came, and DLo didn't play on 2/26. Not sure what I'm missing here, but it looks like the stat should be 3-0 and not 4-0.

 

I would like to think that bench is better, but don't have good reason to think so. As dicussed in GameTime by many, that unit lacks a true ball handler and facilitator, as Schroder is serviceable but not the best play maker for others. So the others don't have enough distribution or play making to get them good shots. And as you said, Wenyen is not big enough to be the full time backup C, he's better as PF.

So we really shouldn't be seeing that entire unit out there, instead Ham needs to be staggering the starters with them. DLo, Reaves, and LeBron should not all be coming off the floor at the same time, but 1 or 2 of them should be in there with bench units to facilitate better. If Ham can realize this, then there is reason for optimism for bench units.

 

Yeah but you know Bev is forever his boy for coming to his defense with that forearm shiver. Bev still called Lebron his big brother after the last game. I think the players liked Bev.

 

Me either

 

The most important, and ALARMING, stat in the above is 15 minutes.

Bacon Pimple doing work.