<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">ANAHEIM - For his career, Lakers forward Vladimir Radmanovic has taken an average of 300 3-pointers a season and established himself as one of the NBA's most dangerous long-distance shooters. When Radmanovic fires away this season, however, it could come with a piece of foam taped between the ring finger and pinky on his shooting hand. Radmanovic has a torn ligament in his shooting hand that likely will require surgery this summer. In the meantime, he will try to find a way to play through the injury, which is not expected to get any better. "It's frustrating, especially as a shooter," Radmanovic said. "Your right hand is your biggest weapon and you've got it messed up. I'll just have to find different ways to score and help this team win."</div> Source
I don't know who else is starting to feel this, but I have almost no hope for this season. Kobe is going to rush back from injury whether anyone admits it or not. Radmonavic is playing through pain on the one part of his body the Lakers payed $30 million for. Kwame Brown isn't going to be effective for a while, if at all because we all know we were hoping for big things from him. Chris Mihm is about 8 months removed from playing so he's going to have to work back into shape. Those are just the major injuries. Honestly, unless Odom and Bynum become complete BEASTS this team has almost no hope. God d*mn it
<div class="quote_poster">ilive4ball Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I don't know who else is starting to feel this, but I have almost no hope for this season. Kobe is going to rush back from injury whether anyone admits it or not. Radmonavic is playing through pain on the one part of his body the Lakers payed $30 million for. Kwame Brown isn't going to be effective for a while, if at all because we all know we were hoping for big things from him. Chris Mihm is about 8 months removed from playing so he's going to have to work back into shape. Those are just the major injuries. Honestly, unless Odom and Bynum become complete BEASTS this team has almost no hope. God d*mn it</div> What are your expectations for this squad coming into the season? I don't think anyone expects then to contend for a title this year, but I still see the Lakers making the post season again, and possibly advancing into Round 2. Right now these three things are keeping me upbeat about the season. 1. Andrew Bynum taking another step toward becoming an impact player 2. The overall improvement from our young players, Luke, Sasha, Cook, Turiaf, and Smush 3. Tracking Jordan Farmar's progress all season long The Lakers are still one of the youngest teams in the league, so it's important for all these guys to improve and become role player specialists in order to support Kobe and Odom. This Laker team is still in semi-rebuilding mode.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">What are your expectations for this squad coming into the season? I don't think anyone expects then to contend for a title this year, but I still see the Lakers making the post season again, and possibly advancing into Round 2. Right now these three things are keeping me upbeat about the season. 1. Andrew Bynum taking another step toward becoming an impact player 2. The overall improvement from our young players, Luke, Sasha, Cook, Turiaf, and Smush 3. Tracking Jordan Farmar's progress all season long The Lakers are still one of the youngest teams in the league, so it's important for all these guys to improve and become role player specialists in order to support Kobe and Odom. This Laker team is still in semi-rebuilding mode.</div> Your right, I guess I was just looking for the veterans to lead us further into the playoffs- I was looking for a MJ like ephiphany from Kobe (which hopefully will happen) where he learns how to trust his teammates completely, I was looking for Kwame to step it up to 15 and 10, and I was looking for 15-17 from Vladamir. Now, a lot of the lakers success is in the hands of the younger players. Andrew Bynum needs to win the Most improved player and carry this team while Kobe is out. Lamar needs to assert himself as the leader on the floor and Kobe just needs to take his time coming back. I'll be honest though- I'm still worried.
<div class="quote_poster">ilive4ball Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Your right, I guess I was just looking for the veterans to lead us further into the playoffs- I was looking for a MJ like ephiphany from Kobe (which hopefully will happen) where he learns how to trust his teammates completely, I was looking for Kwame to step it up to 15 and 10, and I was looking for 15-17 from Vladamir. Now, a lot of the lakers success is in the hands of the younger players. Andrew Bynum needs to win the Most improved player and carry this team while Kobe is out. Lamar needs to assert himself as the leader on the floor and Kobe just needs to take his time coming back. I'll be honest though- I'm still worried.</div> It's a long season, so all those things you mentioned are a possibility. I didn't have high expectations for Radman coming into the season, so I'm not too down on his lousy offseason. I figured if he could give us a consistent 10 to 12 a night and just be a threat on the perimeter he'd help tremendously. Last year Cook and Sasha were responsible to play that role, but both were streaky and when neither could hit from outside the Lakers struggled. In preseason Sasha is shooting the lights out and isn't hesistating, Cook looks sharp, and if Radman comes around (which I'm positive he will), this team can make some noise out West. Last season the Heat won the title because they came together and peaked at the right time. Conversely, the Mavericks hit a dry spell during the NBA Finals and ended up losing even though they were the heavy favorites. So the early part of the season for Laker fans is not worrying too, much about the wins and losses, but keeping a close watch on how the team improves from week to week and how the chemistry develops.
Considering how horribly he played throughout the pre-season, I would rather see him rest up rather than playing with his hand injury. The guy is a terrific shooter, but the hand injury limits him. It would be better to have him out a couple of games, and for him to return strong
<div class="quote_poster">Brian Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Considering how horribly he played throughout the pre-season, I would rather see him rest up rather than playing with his hand injury. The guy is a terrific shooter, but the hand injury limits him. It would be better to have him out a couple of games, and for him to return strong</div> I fully agree with you. He was stinking it up in the pre, and if "it doesn't look like it's going to get any better" then he better get that fixed/rested.
<div class="quote_poster">ilive4ball Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I don't know who else is starting to feel this, but I have almost no hope for this season. Kobe is going to rush back from injury whether anyone admits it or not. Radmonavic is playing through pain on the one part of his body the Lakers payed $30 million for. Kwame Brown isn't going to be effective for a while, if at all because we all know we were hoping for big things from him. Chris Mihm is about 8 months removed from playing so he's going to have to work back into shape. Those are just the major injuries. Honestly, unless Odom and Bynum become complete BEASTS this team has almost no hope. God d*mn it</div> Isnt it kind of early to be giving up on the team? We haven't even played a single regular season game. Kobe is a warrior. Odom has been more consistent. Bynum may just be the next elite Big Man on the Lakers. Farmar is doing great in the triangle. I see nothing but positives. If the Lakers can hang around till All-Star break, I think we'll have one hell of a team. Hang in there!!!
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Isnt it kind of early to be giving up on the team? We haven't even played a single regular season game. Kobe is a warrior. Odom has been more consistent. Bynum may just be the next elite Big Man on the Lakers. Farmar is doing great in the triangle. I see nothing but positives. If the Lakers can hang around till All-Star break, I think we'll have one hell of a team. Hang in there!!!</div> You're all making valid points which are cheering me up lol, I guess I'm just stating that I'm readjusting my expectations for this season and hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised. I guess, I'm usually so optimistic that I always expect the Lakers can win the finals- after all P.J did once say "any team with Kobe Bryant on it has a chance to win the championship". Last year, if you think about it, we had a straight shot to the finals. If we'd beaten Pheonix, We'd of played the Clippers who I think we would've beat. Our confidence would've been so F'ing high, then comes Dallas which the Lakers have seemed to have a psychological advantage over for the last 6 years..... anyways, before all this news of injury I was (unjustly) hoping for the finals and now I see that not happening, but hey- it hasn't started yet, letsee what happens
So far, Radman deserves to come off the bench. He's only in our team for shooting and he's been unsuccesful so far. However, I understand he will improve with Kobe in the side as he'll get more open looks. I'm a little concerned that he's a waste(so far) without Kobe. Kobe hasn't played a full season in a long time and with the amount of punishment he takes day in day out, there is a high probability of him getting injured. I doubt we are going to have Kobe for the whole season so I'm concerned he'll be of little use. Thus far, younger players like Farmar and company have shown better signs of playing well without Kobe. For me, Luke Walton gets the place above Radman as a SF.
he should just get the surgery now as soon as possible cuz he might injure it even more. if he does it now he could be back a little after the allstar break, or the worst case scenario would be towards the end off the season, which we could desperately use some long range shooting to open up the floor for kobe in the playoffs
