http://lakers.freedomblogging.com/2008/10/02/jackson-he’s-not-in-shape-lamar’s-not-ready-to-play/ So much for Lamar working on his jumper and improving his range this offseason. He hasn't done shit. His excuse? "I'm recovering from injury blah blah blah." Sound familiar? Oh yeah, Fat Daddy O'Neal, except unlike O'Neal, Lamar isn't even an allstar. He probably hasn't even picked up a basketball until training camp started. So what does that mean? Basically I have little to no hope of Lamar succeeding at small forward. We need a small forward who can knock down open shots and at least keep the defenses honest. So basically the shooting we'll see from Lamar next season will be pretty much the same exact shooting we saw from him last season. Horrid. Shape was right when he said he was disappointed about hearing nothing about Lamar this offseason, turns out he actually didn't do anything at all. This is not the type of attitude I want in the locker room, bitching about a starting job without even doing anything to earn it. Putting this into perspective, Trevor Ariza, a small forward, hungry for minutes, in his contract year (pretty much same situation as Lamar) goes out in the offseason, lifts weights, gets in the best shape of his life, shoots jumpers and practices his shots to the point where he'll feel comfortable pulling up when he's left open. Who's attitude do you prefer, and who's attitude do you think represents that of someone hungry for a championship? Honestly I hope Lamar gets traded. I'm sick of him and the same shit he pulls every season. He never practices during the offseason and never will. Lamar's just one of those guys who gets by on talent alone, and quite frankly, I'm hoping we can do better. I wouldn't mind Ariza taking over Lamar's starting position later on in the season, when Lamar proves to us he cannot play SF (I'm 100% sure this will happen). Personally, if he can stay healthy, I'm loving the idea of Ariza becoming our future starting SF. I hope Lamar gets his ass traded. At the very least, I hope he shuts his mouth if his ass gets benched later on in the season because it's his fault he didn't do shit in the offseason. Not Phil's.
Shocker! Trevor Ariza's work ethic and desire to improve reminds me of Caron Butler. I remember Butler was asked to slim down and work on his speed and quickness to play PG for us during his exit interview. Butler shed the weight and worked on his ball handling and perimeter quickness to defend PGs. He was the ONLY Laker player to show up to every summer league game to support the guys. Then we trade him the same summer in favor of keeping Odom. Butler has since evolved into an All-Star, while the only All-Star status Odom has achieved is shaving stars into the side of his head. Remember that? I don't think the Lakers want to make the same mistake again.
I don't care if he isn't in shape. We all wanted Odom to take it easy this off-season, remember? We all wanted him to heal from his injuries, and that is what he did. Phil said Bynum looked tired out there, why aren't we all jumping on Bynum's case? We've pretty much got a month left until the season starts, he has plenty of time to get in shape. Speaking of Ariza, his jumper isn't much better than last year, either. There was an article in the Press-Enterprise talking about Ariza's jumper and how Phil said it wasn't much better. I think the team would be better with Ariza starting, I just don't think it has to come at the expense at pissing Odom off and ruining team chemistry. Phil needs to cool it with his chopping back-hand comments. He's sent two at Odom now and one at Bynum. Yeah, he's been notorious for doing it, but it's going to cause some tension if he doesn't calm it down.
I'm mostly ok with this. If Odom had some injuries that needed to be taken care or, so be it. As long as he's in shape and ready to go come the season opener, I don't care. It's not even preseason and we're already all over him. He's got plenty of time to get there, so give the guy a break. Though, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't frustrated with him not working no his jumper, cause it'd be very nice if he could drain an open one occasionally.
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Possibly, but you could argue we went after Gasol because Bynum got injured. Then again, if Odom wasn't on the team, than his foot wouldn't have been near Bynum to land on and twist his knee. If the Lakers go on to win a title and Odom can be a contributor then I'm sure no one will remember this pre-season drama. BUT if the Lakers don't win a title and Odom continues to be a distraction we can bring this up over and over again.
A few quotes from Phil via Lakers.com: On Trevor Ariza: “I don’t think anybody’s going to consider him a threat. I think he’s got an adequate jump shot that can keep people honest with it. I’m impressed with his abilities to make the jump shot. However, that’s not the strength of his game. His game’s going to be getting out there, being a slasher.” On Josh Powell: “He’s impressed us a lot. He’s coming in playing hard. He’s got a lot of tenacity. He refuses to be boxed out. You’ve got to really put an effort into keeping him off the boards. He’s creating a lot of problems with our big guys, they know they’ve got a tiger down there after the rebound. He seems to have an idea of what we’re trying to do even though he’s only been here for one day. He seems relatively comfortable playing in our offense.”
