<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Jordan Farmar had just answered his last question and was set to walk toward his father, who waited a few feet from a group of reporters, when a kid stopped him. "Can I have one of your shoes?" the fan asked. Without hesitation Farmar threw him a shoe, leading to an inevitable second kid standing nearby asking for the other shoe. Farmar tossed it to him, too. For two weeks Farmar was the biggest Laker, signing every autograph, even approaching the stands to sign for those without access to the floor. At 19, Farmar behaves as though he has long been a professional. Playing in the Summer Pro League just made it official. "I was never intimidated," Farmar said. "My father was a professional athlete. He taught me the ABC's when I was born: aggressive, balance and confidence. As long as you exhibit those three things, you'll be alright." In seven summer-league games Farmar did more than say the right things. He led the team with averages of 16.7 points and 4.4 assists and recorded his first noteworthy moment as a pro. With the Lakers leading the Grizzlies by a point and fewer than 30 seconds to play, Farmar appeared to be running the clock before he crossed over his defender, penetrated and slightly turned his body to avoid two Memphis defenders for a reverse layup. "He wants to make the right decision," said Kurt Rambis, the Lakers summer league coach. "He wants to make the big plays." What Rambis seemed most impressed with, though, was Farmar's understanding of the triangle offense. "He's inquisitive. He already has a solid grasp of the offense," said Rambis, after two practices. "He's picked it up really quick." Farmar looked poised throughout the summer league, calling for the ball after defensive rebounds, resetting the offense after offensive rebounds and creating shots for himself and his teammates. Rambis said Farmar also made sure his teammates were organized and in position. "He understood the offense because he understands basketball," Rambis said. But even after a notable summer-league performance, Rambis kept Farmar's situation in perspective. "It's a whole different ball game, summer league vs. regular season," Rambis said. "And our training camp will be against a different caliber of ballplayers than what he faced in the summer league. So whether or not he gets time he'll have to earn that in training camp." With the recent acquisitions of point guard Shammond Williams, guard Maurice Evans and forward Vladimir Radmanovic, Farmar likely will enter a training camp in which he will compete with a handful of other players with Lakers experience just for a spot on the active roster. And so, when asked if he would take a break at any point this summer, Farmar had an immediate response. "It's my job, and I don't really have a solidified spot to be taking breaks right now," Farmar said.</div> Source Appears the starting point guard position is wide open heading into pre-season!
totally. on this team it seems the most important thing is not skills but "getting" the triangle - fox and fisher back in the day got it, although both were average players at best. i think smush needs to be on a run and gun team to flourish.
Competition is always a good thing, if both players (Smush/Farmer) try to out do each other, by playing harder/better then the other it can make for some good quality minutes out of both of them...I do however think Farmer will take over the PG job sooner or later this season...
Wow, I thought for sure Smush had the starting spot. After reading this, I'm not so sure. Everything is wide open now, I'd love for Farmar to swoop in and steal the starting spot from Smush. Farmar/Parker/Williams Bryant/Vujacic Radmanovic/Walton/Evans Odom/Turiaf Brown/Bynum/Mihm That should be our starting day rotation. The reason Mihm is 3rd is because of his injury.
i can see evans coming in to spell kobe at the 2 spot sometimes too, or even playing the 2 and letting kobe move to the 3. having mo evans on the team really gives pjax a lot of flexibility lineup wise.
It's very possible, but Phil has said that he wants to use Sasha at the 2 to relieve Kobe. I think it's a move to help the glut of PG's we have.
I'd love to see Farmar come in and start immediately. However, seeing as how PJax is our coach, that automatically deems it slightly less likely. However, I think there is a strong possibility. I'm sure that PJax still has visions of Smush's horrid playoffs in his mind, and we all know that Shammond Williams is more of a 2...so, who knows. I think it's going to be a wide-open and won't be final until opening night. I think whoever shows up and performs best during training camp/preseason will take the job. I don't think Smush is just going to have it handed to him.
Phil doens't play rookies, but I don't think he'd shut down a rookie if he warranted the time and the spot. So far, Farmar's making one hell of a case to start. I bet that his case will get even stronger as training camps get going, as the pre-season gets going, and such.
I hope the case gets stronger. I would love to see Farmar get some significant minutes. He seems like he's already mature beyond his year/age, and his basketball IQ seems to be through the room. Couple that with the fact that he's already got a good grasp of the offense, and I think he's making a good enough case before camp even starts. Personally, I'd start him...but I'm not Phil. However, I really hope he performs well and ends up with that starting job, even though Phil doesn't like that thought.
It doesn't matter who starts, it matters who finishes. The one positive I was hoping Farmar brought to this team was giving Smush legitimate competition at PG. Now Smush not only has to deal with the Lakers hot rookie fighting for his minutes, he has Shammond Williams and Mo Evans jeopardizing his PT. Last summer the Lakers penciled in Aaron McKie as the starting PG and Laron Profit also showed a lot of promise of being the traditional big PG PJax likes to use. Smush Parker played with a lot more energy when Profit was on the roster and after he went down with the achilles tear, Smush's numbers dropped considerably. He only had to worry about the 5 to 8 solid minutes Sasha gave the team before getting the quick yank, or getting into foul trouble. Smush will have to step his game up to keep his job and minutes. I really hope he worked on the aspects of the game to continue developing in the Triangle system. He also has added incentive to perform well this season because he's in the final year of his current deal.
He should have stayed in school. He will not be a factor for a few seasons. I can't wait to see how right I am on this! Weak pg at that postion on the team or not, he's not doing jack for least 4 yrs.
He had one season left at UCLA, and it's highly doubtful that they could have even come close to having the same success they experienced last season. He got to the NCAA tournament finals, and like i said, no way they would have gotten there again this year. I think his stock was at it's highest, and would only have fallen if he stayed in school and UCLA didn't win the title. The only way he won't be a factor is if he doesn't get playing time. If he plays, he will be a factor (since the LA pg spot isn't one of the strongest around).
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting LongLiveChickH.:</div><div class="quote_post">He had one season left at UCLA, and it's highly doubtful that they could have even come close to having the same success they experienced last season. He got to the NCAA tournament finals, and like i said, no way they would have gotten there again this year. I think his stock was at it's highest, and would only have fallen if he stayed in school and UCLA didn't win the title. The only way he won't be a factor is if he doesn't get playing time. If he plays, he will be a factor (since the LA pg spot isn't one of the strongest around).</div> Actually I think he had two years left of eligibility and if he had stayed all four years his leadership paired with incoming recruit Kevin Love would have been something to watch and would definately have made UCLA instant Final Four contenders because of their depth and the return of players such as Josh Shipp, Luc Mbah Mute, and Arron Afflalo... I actually think they're a shoe in for the elite eight this upcoming season without farmar his return would only have taken them further.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting bruin007:</div><div class="quote_post">Actually I think he had two years left of eligibility and if he had stayed all for years his leadership paired with incoming recruit Kevin Love would have been something to watch and would definately have made UCLA instant Final Four contenders because of their depth and the return of players such as Josh Shipp, Luc Mbah Mute, and Arron Afflalo... I actually think they're a shoe in for the elite eight this upcoming season without farmar his return would only have taken them further.</div> Yep, you know it. I have a very good friend that decided not to play for UCLA last season....and looked how well they did. LOL! He was sick of playing 5-8 mins. here & there & had some injuries issues. OH well.
