Not surprised by this. I read last week the brace was really irritating him. You can tell his explosion isn't there on rebounding. He isn't a natural rebounder, he has to work to get them and right now he can't. I still think he is useful on offense and clogging the paint on defense, though. I think he needs more minutes.
To be honest, I don't think Drew is even that much after seeing him tonight. He looks afraid to go down into the post, which is understandable. He is starting his possessions from out too far.
Do we bring in DJ then for this series? Drew doesn't look too hot in any area, though he covered Yao well there for a little bit.
Drew looks like he has no confidence. Remember how he started the year off slow? His confidence just seems right around that level.
I think it depends on how far we go and how much faith Phil puts in him. I honestly think we need to rest him up and let him go hard in practice and get his groove back there.
Well I hope long term Bynum is healthy, he is 21 and when healthy is a top 5 center in the league imo.
We're already resting him up, he can't be feeling too tired with the lack of minutes. He can contribute here and there, he just got into a slump against the Jazz for some reason.
It's just the wrong environment for him to attempt a comeback. He's out of rhythm and gets himself in trouble with stupid fouls. Unfortunately, the Lakers aren't blowing teams away which would allow Drew to play some productive garbage time minutes and get his rhythm and confidence back. If Bynum can give us a solid 10 to 12 minutes that's perfect. I do like the hard fouls he takes knocking guys on their backside. He just needs to continue playing tall and stop reaching in and jumping at every head fake. He also needs to be less obvious about shoving guys out of the paint.
I don't think it is the wrong environment, I just think his confidence was killed in the first round after being demoted. I'm hoping for a break out game soon, but I'm not expecting it.
He was demoted because he wasn't ready for this level of play. It's hard enough getting rhythm in a regular season play when you've been injured for an extended amount of time. The environment is wrong because of the pressure and intensity of every playoff game. Teams are going to play you tough every night and if Bynum is playing with rust he's not going to have the luxury of shaking it off unless he's out there in garbage time. The speed of the game is just overwhelming for him right now and he hasn't been able to stay on the court long enough to adjust. At least he's making progress from the last series and his baby jumper has been sharp.
I think it is more confidence, than anything. He looked good in the regular season when he came back. The foul calls are really killing him right now.
