The Reason I think John Hollinger is a hack

Here's a bit of JH's analysis of the Lakers...

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dime-LALPreview0809

STOMP

 

The quote from the poster was "there is nothing in the article that I disagree with". I challenged that statement, and other than you, no one has answered it, let alone the poster who made the claim.

 

Embarassment of riches? What? Lakers are good and all, but Vlad, Luke and Ariza aren't all that scary to deal with. And I thought Laker fans didn't like Luke.. Odom and Gasol are really good.. but not those three that Hollinger mentioned...

 

Thanks, this here speaks to the thread title.

 

geez... I was thinking just the opposite. I'd rather have Frye and then Outlaw more then any of those guys. They're average at best yet Hollinger is gushing like they're world beaters.

I think they'll probably end up starting Vlad and bring Lamar off the bench... let him be part of a 3 man rotation at the Big spots. I don't think he can keep up with the starting 3's of the league anymore.

how long has it been since a team lost in the finals and the next year came back and won it?

STOMP

 

Vlad is one-dimensional.. LA fans I get the feeling from their forum view Luke as our Jarrett Jack.. and Ariza barely played for them when they acquired him last season.
I would take our guys over their reserve forwards for sure.
Their guard depth is more impressive with Farmar, Fisher and Vujacic, along with Kobe.

 

I did answer and I still find nothing in the article I disagree with

 

Are you REALLY comparing the likes of Travis Outlaw and Frye to Radmanovic? Jesus Christ on a stick. The guy can't even stay healthy much less get in the games when he is. Frye and Outlaw are more one dimensional than Vlad? Vlad can shoot and that's where it ends. Frye can rebound and shoot. Travis can shoot, dribble and shoot, and block shots coming from the weak side. Pretty weak to compare those two to Vladamir R.

Why? When has he shown he could be a superior player to Travis? Seems like a pretty random statement to say when Ariza has had very few productive games. He's a nice punch off the bench but the dude has a horrid jumpshot and is subpar on the offensive end. I'm not even an Outlaw fan and see that your logic fails on this one.

I would be very surprised to hear of any GM who would take Luke Walton over Jarrett Jack.

 

He makes him out to be much softer than he really is. He is not Pau soft or anything like that. He is a finesse big man... but he is amazing and has all the potential in the world to get better....

I think in his prime he could easily be a 26 and 9 player.

But i was not impressed with his scouting. Greg on the court will not really cut into LMAs minutes... if anything cuts into his minutes it will be our depth, specially at the PF and C position. we want LMA and Greg on the court together as much as possible, imo.

And LMAs defense is underrated. Just because he is soft does not mean he is not a good defender. I actually think he is an above average defender and only getting better.

I think it is very unlikely that Travis takes any of LMAs minutes. I think Frye is a better PF than Outlaw anyway... we are loaded at the PF position, and not so much at SF after Webster goes down. And while Travis may be in our 4th QTR lineups sometimes, i don't think it will be like last year at all where he is one of our main 4th QTR players...

I can see it being... Blake, Rudy, Roy, Aldridge, Oden... or maybe Roy, Rudy, Outlaw, Aldridge, Oden or somehing like that.

 

I agree almost 100% with what you just posted!

 

I do not like the soft label as well. L.A. is fast, long, has good footwork and fantastic face-up shooting abilities. Why do people insist on making him a low-post banger is beyond me. We have Joel and G.O. for that.

I also disagree that his defense is lacking. He might have problems against bigger/heavier/wider bigs that can move him - but he does fantastic job against similiar sized power forwards and is great against perimeter players defending the switch on a pick and roll - a lot like Chris Bosh.

 

I think you said just about what I was going to say.
And Ariza is 23, Travis is 24.. and right now that one year doesn't really seem that big of a difference in their development to the point that Ariza has a chance to be a much more superior player than Travis. Ariza has a chance I guess, but Travis is much further along in what he can do on the floor.

And Blazer fans weren't too irrational in their dislike for Jack, since the guy isn't even here anymore. But I'd still still take him over Walton, who you don't even notice much when he's on the floor.

 

The man's J is money in the bank though. Him stepping out to clear out space for Greg to work is exactly why we are going to start killing teams soon. If he lived in the paint or was not willing to step out we would have another Eddie Curry/ ZBO situation.

 

or ZBo/SAR situation. It's like some people get hung up on the name Power Forward instead of recognizing that basketball 101 puts only one guy on the low block at a time... things work best when at least one of the two Bigs can step out.

Think of the best Big combos... Duncan/Robinson, McHale/Parish, heck Lucas/Walton... in each case one guy is the low post bully and the other is primarily a jump shooter at the top of the key. Can anyone think of a great frontcourt where the two primary guys were both primarily low post scorers?

Ideally your two Bigs have skills at both the high and low post so you can exploit mismatches as they arise. Nate will probably be a traditionalist this year and keep Greg near the hoop, but he has shown the ability in practice to make shots around the FT line and LA has had some success on the low block last year (just remembering those back to back right and left handed hook shots he made vs the Lakers). It bears saying again that Oden and LaMarcus look like they could eventually be in the all time best Big combo discussion. Can't wait to see this start to play out.

STOMP

 

I don't really disagree with Hollinger's assesment. I think Aldridge could stand to play with more power in going for rebounds and muscling up against opposing players on defense. I agree with STOMP, though, that on offense, Aldridge is no less valuable for playing less of a post-up game and will, in fact, mesh much better with Oden due to that.

I generally think Aldridge's short-comings on defense are overstated. He's not Kevin Garnett or Tim Duncan on defense, but I think of him as generally a defensive asset. His man defense needs work, but he's a useful help defender. The combination of him and Oden will really make things difficult on slashers. If he can get his man defense up, it will be difficult to attack Portland anywhere.