Farmar Continues to Impress

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">
Little wonder that Lakers assistant coach Kurt Rambis praised Farmar, the former UCLA and Taft High of Woodland Hills standout, for being a "nasty competitor" after the last game of summer league play Wednesday.

"He goes over there and listens," Rambis said. "That's the smart, crafty little move that he did. I liked that. He has as much right to stand there as the opposing player."

It was the most telling moment in an excellent summer league for Farmar, the Lakers' first-round draft pick, who led the team in scoring - 16.1 points per game - and played beyond his years the past two weeks in Long Beach.

He grasped the triangle offense so quickly that Rambis remarked after the first game that Farmar must have been studying it the last two years at UCLA. But Rambis' most telling comment came when he was asked if he thought Farmar looked 19 on the court.

"I just think he grew up having nothing but dreams and aspirations of playing in the NBA, being a point guard his entire life," Rambis said. "He's got instincts and vision you just can't teach, somebody's had to grow up playing that way.

"He's just got to be able to do that and execute that style of ball with those capabilities against bigger, stronger people. That's going to be his adjustment coming to the NBA."

Whether Farmar will be able to earn minutes next season remains to be seen. The Lakers have four ballhandling guards on the roster in Smush Parker, Shammond Williams, Sasha Vujacic and Farmar. They can activate only 12 players for each game.

But Farmar made a strong case that more can be expected out of a player taken near the end of the first round.

"I've got great confidence whenever the ball's in his hands," Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said, "and I think overall, he's played better than a lot of people expected."

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I hope he doesn't go to the NDBL. He's shown so much promise in the SPL and needs around 15 minutes a game on the NBA court to gain experiance. He's a highly intelligent player and I think he'll pick up the traingle in a short period. Farmar is the point guard we've been after, hopefully we utilise him correctly.

 

I hope PJ doesnt play around with Farmar and stick him in the NBDL to "Toughen Him Up" a bit. He needs to be out on the court.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Laker_fan:</div><div class="quote_post">I hope he doesn't go to the NDBL. He's shown so much promise in the SPL and needs around 15 minutes a game on the NBA court to gain experiance. He's a highly intelligent player and I think he'll pick up the traingle in a short period. Farmar is the point guard we've been after, hopefully we utilise him correctly.</div>

See thats the thing. He ALREADY is playing with the triangle excellently.

 

I know Phil hates rookies, but I wonder if he's ever had a rookie come in knowing the triangle as well as Farmar... I hope Phil plays him because he doesn't seem like a normal rookie. So far, he's reminded me of Walton in his rookie year in terms of basketball smarts and Phil played him, so I'm pretty optimistic.

 

i just hope this isn't another case of a rookie dominating the summer league and then crashing in the regular season. after all, summer league competition and nba competition are really not even close. i'm a big fan of farmar's though, and really hope to see him succeed. plus, it seemed like bynum played twice as well when he had farmar feeding him inside. that's another definite bonus. while maintaining his own solid play, he's been lifting his teammates with him. very rare to see that out of a rookie...

 

yeah, I hope that too...

okay, I really only posted so I could show off my awesome new sig from SP23, lol.

 

with lakers insiders gushing about this kid it looks like the Sasha-Smush experiment won't be renewed this season. Farmar will start soon enough. Did they say the same things about Smush when they got him? Did they say he has "instincts and vision you can't teach" and we have "great confidence" in him? the job is farmar's to lose.

 

I dont want to jinx anything...but i think Farmar is going to be something special for the Lakers in years to come

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting phunDamentalz:</div><div class="quote_post">with lakers insiders gushing about this kid it looks like the Sasha-Smush experiment won't be renewed this season. Farmar will start soon enough. Did they say the same things about Smush when they got him? Did they say he has "instincts and vision you can't teach" and we have "great confidence" in him? the job is farmar's to lose.</div>

I dont really care for Smush much, but he did help us get into the playoffs. If we had to start Sasha all season and do w/o Smush I dont know if we would have had enough to make the playoffs.

I have confidence in Farmars game. Im sure he'll make his mistakes, but he looks to have a solid Basketball IQ and knows how to play a team game. From what I've heard, he has grasped the Triangle quickly and very well. Thats a good thing. The triangle is not an easy thing to learn.

 

I hope Farmar starts towards the end, I just don't rely on Smush in the clutch of games.

 

I think Smush is gonna surprise a lot of ppl next season.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting BigBalleR8:</div><div class="quote_post">I think Smush is gonna surprise a lot of ppl next season.</div>

I think so too. I thought he was working on his game, defense, and his shot and saying he doesn't plan to disappoint the Lakers next year.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting BigBalleR8:</div><div class="quote_post">I think Smush is gonna surprise a lot of ppl next season.</div>I don't see Smush surprising many people again this year. He did that simply by making the team last season. He continued to do that by playing well for the first half of the season. Too bad he got too comfortable and knew his starting role wasn't in jeopardy so he got lazy and kind of tapered off as the season progressed, and then was just plain awful in the playoffs.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting BigBalleR8:</div><div class="quote_post">I think Smush is gonna surprise a lot of ppl next season.</div>I don't see Smush surprising many people again this year. He did that simply by making the team last season. He continued to do that by playing well for the first half of the season. Too bad he got too comfortable and knew his starting role wasn't in jeopardy so he got lazy and kind of tapered off as the season progressed, and then was just plain awful in the playoffs.

 

Forget Famar, Bynum was 10-10 in the last SPL! **** I want to see Prince Andrew get some minutes.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Franchise4Ever:</div><div class="quote_post">I think so too. I thought he was working on his game, defense, and his shot and saying he doesn't plan to disappoint the Lakers next year.</div>

I really hope so. The pressure is on Smush to keep that starting spot. Hopefully thats enough to get him back into game mode.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting TheBlackMamba:</div><div class="quote_post">How does Bynum's play have anything to do with Farmar? Two different positions.</div>


well from what i read in the SPL reports, bynum and farmar played very well together, with farmar finding bynum for lots of easy baskets. i think bynum's play definitely does have something to do with farmar. but i don't see why bynum deserves more minutes for farmar making him look better than he really is. lol