With pre-season over a lot of questions were answered for the Lakers. Can Bynum & Gasol co-exist? Absolutely. Their timing and chemistry on the floor has improved every game Did we figure out who are starting small forward is going to be? Yes, Vlad Radmanovic Did everyone come away with a clean bill of health? Yes, Kobe had a scare, but he's fine and ready to go How's our depth? FANTASTIC Out of all the highlights in the preseason the squad I'm looking forward to the most this season is the Bench Mob, now referred to as the Minute Men. The Minute Men lineup is: PG - Jordan Farmar SG - Sasha Vujacic SF - Trevor Ariza PF - Lamar Odom C - Mihm We only caught a glimpse of Vujaic last night, but he's going to fit right in with this speed lineup. The premise behind the minute men was for the Lakers to have a change of pace rotation off the bench. The starters are going to play more physical, grind out basketball, and the Minute Men are going to come in to protect or increase the leads. Farmar and Ariza have been creating chaos for opposing benched. They trap well, they put pressure on the ball, and Ariza covers a lot of space because of his size and athleticism. Sasha's pesky style is going to mesh well with those two and he should be the recipient of a lot of deflected passes where he can take it length of court or get the 3 on 1 fast breaks started. Lamar Odom fits right into this style of basketball. He's an automatic mis-match and he's making an effort to post more when a smaller defender is on him. He's clearly more comfortable with the second unit getting out and running the floor. Even the small forwards trying to defend him are getting beat in transition and Odom is getting into the paint to create offense. Chris Mihm is also playing well cleaning up the glass and creating second chance opportunities. With all the attention his teammates get slashing to the rim, Mihm is able to come from the weakside to clean up missed shots, or back tap the ball back out. It's been well noted, Jordan Farmar could have a breakout year this season. He's playing at a high level already and is taking advantage of his speed and hops to get to the rim instead of settle for the 3-ball. Last year almost half his shots were 3 pointers. This year the Lakers wanted him to drive in and draw contact, to which Farmar has delivered. Our bench was a big advantage for us last season, but I'm expecting even more success this season. I think our bench is going to put us over the top.
I couldn't agree with you more Shape; I've been following the last three games and your analysis is quite accurate. I've loved the way Farmar has stepped up by slashing more, Odom off the bench seems like a great decision, Bynum has been living up to the hype as well and puts himself in great position to receive lobs from his teammates. I still don't know about Mihm though, I haven't been able to catch all of his garbage-time/victory-cigar pre-season minutes. :]
Mihm has been doing great(for him). He says he is 100% for the first time in a long time and I believe him. He is playing with purpose rather than last year when he got PT in the playoffs and looked like a shell of his former self. Our 2nd unit could have a better point differential than the starters easily. You could easily make the case that our second unit has all starters if you traded them all to different teams. Our 2nd unit is gonna be embarrassing other teams second units!
Good points. Teams are lucky if they can go 8 deep, our team can arguably go 12 deep. Walton and Powell aren't your typical 3rd team scrubs.
He landed HARD on his hip...He was sitting on the bench afterwards and I was able to read his mouth when he talked to Viti...He said "My back is fine", so Im just gonna assume he has a square foot bruise on the side of his ass. Im wondering if Mbenga will be the backup for game one just due to how sore Mihm will probably still be...then again Mbenga got 4 fouls in 57 seconds last night..lol
HAHA, yeah I saw that Mbenga foul fest yesterday as well, I loved it. I'd probably be annoyed if it was the regular season though. :[
You guys really think that Mihm is a solid back up? I was watching him last night against Oklahoma, I thought that he was the weak link on the team. He looked horrible. A couple times he completely missed passes into the post from Farmar, and he missed some easy buckets in the paint. Maybe he had an off night, but he seemed very frustrated, and if I was a Laker fan I would have been pissed off at how he was playing.
I think he will be a solid backup barring injury. He is still acclimating himself back to NBA speed. All we need for him is some rebounds and a reasonable inside presence on the defensive side of the ball with the 2nd unit. He will improve as the season goes on.
^^Yeah that's probably true, as a back up he really won't have to do much of anything. But if he's in the game with a guy like Farmar who seems to be a gym rat that likes to push the tempo, I think he would have trouble keeping up.
He's solid for his role on the team. He's not a focal point on either end and does a decent job of rebounding and making open shots. He's an emotional guy and gets down on himself when he makes mistakes and that leads to more mistakes. But he's finally healthy after missing practically two seasons. If he can get back to the level he was playing at prior to injury I'll be comfortable with him as our backup.
Mihm has been okay in the offseason. Pretty inconsistent, but he has shown a lot more than he has in the past two years. Anyways, the bench is amazing this year. So quick and athletic. So fun to watch. They made the preseason amazing and exciting. Hopefully this will continue in the regular season.
I love our bench. Farmar has looked fantastic in the preseason, and I love the fact that he's attacking instead of settling for jumpers. I think he's definitely in for a breakout season and could maybe even make a run for the starting spot at some point, or if he does stay on the bench, he could make a run for 6thMOY.
