Metta World Peace Discussion: All aboard the Peace train!

Veteran, former DPOY, and champion scrub Who is willing to share his experience and wisdom

>

A young scrub with not enough potential to beat him out for a roster spot

 

With trodgers question out of these 5 who would you take Peace over, I've said Jabari, much as I like him. But we have a lot of scoring on this team and Metta's intangibles and leadership and yes even in limited minutes on the floor his play, he would be much more valuable. He should have a locker right next to Upshaw and work in every day in conversation that look that says, "don't eff this up for ALL of us with anything stupid".

Upshaw
Brown
Brown
Nance

 

i'm guessing metta doesn't bump anyone we'll miss two years from now. these aren't blue chippers, and you can only develop so many young players at a time. i'll trust management to handle this properly. if metta's been such a positive influence, that could be worth letting a jabari brown walk. though i think you could simply trade or cut sacre and kelly and keep everyone you want:

huertas/russell
clarkson/williams/jbrown
kobe/young/mwp/abrown
bass/randle/nance
hibbert/black/upshaw

that's 15.

 

Well said. If you listen to the breakdown with both Dave Miller and Mike Bresnahan, both of them don't expect Ron to make the opening day roster. However, you give him a chance on a non-guaranteed deal to make the team, and if he doesn't, you transition him to a player developmental coach.

 

These are the names he was working with. Kelly and Sacre already gone. I have to go over your list to see who you're leaving off to keep both Browns?

Suppose the starters are...
Russell
JC
Kobe
Randle
Hibbert

That means our second unit is...
Huertas?
Williams
Young
Bass
Black

If we juggle MWP in anywhere there, that means Williams at the 1, Young at the 2? I can't see MWP playing much SF, and he's not a better PF than Bass. And all this means that we have five spots left, minus one for Metta. So who're you tossing away?

Upshaw
Brown
Brown
Nance

Edit......he's only got 14. Have they said they won't go into the season with 15 spots filled? If not then we could keep both Browns.

 

Well said, from a guy "more excited about this than he should be". You're right on here. :Beertoast:

 

Welcome home, Ron.

Oh, how I wish we still had Pau.

There is not a cast of characters I'd rather have our youngsters to learn from the:

1. consummate professional and finesse, cerebral player - Pau
2. consummate professional, brute force, who also overcame a lot of adversity and bad decisions and is a cerebral, on defense, at least, player - Ron
3. consummate professional, student of the game, also overcame a lot of adversity, knows how to be a star and a leader - Kobe

Add in Roy and Bass and this is as solid a group of veterans as you can find.

 

Let Holmes and Frazier and Jabari fight it out for that 15th spot. Maybe Kelly if he's finally healthy and looking more awesome than we've ever seen him or hoped for.

 

"Nor tons of faith in Russell starting"

Hey! Back off my boy. I was on the Russell train over Okafor from day one. Saw it where none of you did ...... :magicsmile: :twothumbs:

 

Don't laugh. Metta World Peace certainly isn't.

His attempted return to the NBA isn't a sideshow. Neither are his reasons, he says.


"I want to win a championship," he acknowledged in a quiet moment at Lakers training camp. "I always thought we should have had at least one more."

Sometimes he can't stop thinking about the Lakers' getting swept by Dallas in 2011, Phil Jackson's final season as coach. The Western Conference semifinals started with Kobe Bryant on a painfully sore knee and ended with Andrew Bynum's whipping off his jersey after getting ejected.


That's the series that bothers World Peace. It's not the sole reason he's trying a comeback, more like the backbone of it.

"If you can't win with Kobe and Bynum and Pau [Gasol], it's kind of like, that's an absolute failure," World Peace said. "When you compete and you lose, you always remember it."

Lakers fans remember World Peace for the good times, mainly his key three-pointer in the 2010 NBA Finals and champagne-tinted jubilation at the postgame news conference. He breathlessly held up a Lakers-themed Wheaties box, told reporters they didn't seem excited enough and yelled, "Acknowledge me!" when too few looked up from their keyboards. He added a "please," lest anyone think he was being rude.

For all his kindhearted unpredictability in recent years, be it flag football games on the beach he organized via Twitter or the almost immediate decision to raffle off his championship ring for a good cause, World Peace has had a bad run career-wise.

His defensive skills gradually eroded, his speed slowing too much to help him stay in front of small forwards, so the Lakers waived him and his $7.7-million salary via the "amnesty provision" in July 2013, a move that saved millions in luxury taxes.

He caught on with New York but averaged only 4.8 points in 29 games while complaining about a lack of minutes. The only jerseys he wore last season belonged to Pallacanestro Cantu in Italy and the Sichuan Blue Whales in China.

When his international odysseys ended, World Peace returned to Los Angeles over the summer and started hurling himself at Julius Randle, turning scrimmages at the Lakers' facility into wrestling matches that were often "comical," General Manager Mitch Kupchak said.

The team was impressed enough by the effort to give World Peace the chance to resurrect his career at 35. The one-year contract he signed was not guaranteed. He could be cut at any time before it becomes guaranteed in early January.

Whether he makes the opening-night roster is a tough call. One person familiar with the situation said it was 50-50.

World Peace recently missed two days of practice because of a sore calf, putting the Lakers in a bit of a conundrum. They knew what he could do in the past — quick hands to poke away the ball, granite-like physique to move the sturdiest small forwards off the block — but wanted to see what he could do now.

He responded with a physical practice Saturday, trying his best to impress Kupchak and Coach Byron Scott.

If he doesn't make the team, there will still be one playoff season to remember.

In the "Acknowledge me!" game, World Peace had 20 points and five steals in an 83-79 championship-clinching victory over Boston. His three-pointer with
with 1 minute 1 second left gave the Lakers a 79-73 edge in a Game 7 in which points arrived with severe difficulty and Kobe Bryant made only six of 24 shots.

World Peace later raised about $600,000 for mental-health awareness by raffling off his ring and then won the NBA's citizenship award in 2011.

When he was waived by the Lakers, World Peace responded by thanking Kupchak on Twitter and announcing he would take up a new sport.

"I'm playing for the LA kings," he wrote, par for World Peace's course after he wore a blue Cookie Monster T-shirt to end-of-season meetings a few months earlier with Kupchak and former coach Mike D'Antoni.

Times are a little more serious in World Peace's career. The opportunities are running out.

"People never thought I would put the uniform back on," he said. "Having a chance is pretty cool."

http://www.latimes.com/sports/lakers/la-sp-lakers-metta-world-peace-20151004-story.html

 

Well if his chances of making the team were 50-50 before, I'm sure those chances have increased at least a little bit after tonight even without playing. Jabari looked terrible and mentally weak. I would've been fine with a few missed shots, but he got the ball stolen at half-court, didn't even attempt transition defense, and then airballed his next shot.

 

Be interesting to see what he brings once he's on the court. If he can get back on the court.

 

Loving it with Metta's more svelte body, quickness, hustle, muscle and play tonight.

 

I have to admit he surrised me in a very good way today. I was kind of for signing him but didn't believe he still really has something in the tank. I don't want to jump into conclusions after only one game but he seems to be in great shape, actually he looked better than the last time he was around... Watching him and Roy together on the court reminded me of the early 90's and Oakley LOL