Bynum's rebounding totals in the last five games...WTF! I dont care if you are facing off against Wilt the Stilt...you get more fucking rebounds than that. No excuses!
I think I mentioned this in another thread, or just talking on AIM with Moo, but I still don't think Andrew uses his jumping ability at all to get a rebound. Alot of times, I notice he just likes to stand tall and do his thing.
He doesn't really try that much defensively, nor does he try to get rebounds. I remember at times I'd see him standing flat footed and the ball would just sail right past him. All he did was reach up. If he would've jumped, he would've gotten it. KAJ needs to spank him.
I thought he played well against Duncan in the last game on both ends, but he didn't rise to the occassion last night against Howard. Last year he won that matchup and took Howard to school. What pisses me off is the comments he made last week acknowledging he's not playing well and wanting to get back to the level he was at last year. Talk is cheap. Maybe the Lakers would be best served demoting him to the bench and moving Odom back to the starting lineup. Last year Bynum excelled off the bench and it helped him gain confidence to finish games. Right now he's only giving us one good quarter on average and disappears the rest of the time.
Bynum on the bench is stupid, imo. Despite it's minimal impact, Bynum does change our defense. He is still a defensive presence in the post and opposing players need to be aware of him. Taking him out of the starting lineup would change that, would shatter his confidence he has going right now, and would piss him off. Not a smart move, imo. Offensively, Bynum has been money lately. When we feed him early and start the game out that way, we can control the tempo. We need to make a thorough effort to feed him all game long like that, not just to start the game and the 2nd half. As for his rebounding, yeah he needs to work on it, but if he can play good man D like he did on Duncan, than I don't care about his rebounding. I'd rather him have a impact on his man than on the boards. In the game against San Antonio, Drew was playing Duncan tight, which put him in horrible rebounding position. I've noticed that when teams run the pick and roll against us, a lot of the time Bynum gets stuck on the guard out on the perimeter, as well. Again, terrible rebounding position. You've also got to factor in Kobe grabbing some boards, and Gasol is no slouch on the boards, either. I don't mind the no rebounds if he is having a defensive impact on his man.
Rebounding is part of defense though. I like Bynum, and at 21 years of age, obviously he has tons of room to improve. But the way he's rebounding is just not cutting it, plain and simple. For a guy his size, he SHOULD be getting more than 3 rebounds a game. That's not acceptable, at all. He's just not trying out there, he doesn't want to bang/hustle to get the boards. JJ Redick outrebounded Bynum last night. Kobe has the same amount of rebounds in one game as Bynum has had in four.
Me and DW were talking about this after the Magic loss. It is somewhat disheartening seeing his pathetic rebounding efforts as of late, that's for sure. I think he's focusing way too much on offense right now, which is typical for a young player. He needs to get a stern talking-to to remind him that his role on this team isn't to be taking 14 shots a game. His role is to play defense and rebound. He was doing both of those rather well earlier in the year, and now it seems like he's taken a break on the boards, which we can't really have. He needs to be a force on the glass for us on both ends instead of focusing on getting his points. Those will come, but we need him to focus his attention on rebounding and defense.
