Post of the year. As for big men, depending how much you're looking to spend. OKC is a nice trade partner- Collison and Wilcox are options but both making 6+ mils a year. Wilcox expires after this season, Collison lasts for two more seasons after 08-09. Indiana could be looking to dump Jeff Foster. I don't see much else out there.
Yeah I'm worried because the additional pressure takes its toll on you. I want Kobe & Gasol fresh for the post season and not forced to play extra minutes every regular season game for our team to win. Kobe having to score 61 points to beat the Knicks is ridiculous. I'm more comfortable with Kobe giving us 25/7/7 per game with the rest of the team contributing for more balanced scoring. Neither Kobe or Gasol rested during the offseason because of the Olympics.
The Celtics are older and went just as deep in the post-season with long series. I don't think Stamina will cost us, Pau and Kobe played less minutes in the first half of the season, and we will blow out a good deal of teams before the playoffs.
I thnk the impact of "not resting" because of the Olympic games is a terrible choice of reasoning. If Kobe wasn't in the Olympic games, he would've exerted the same amount of energy in a rigorous workout routine. The guy doesn't stop working, he keeps his body in pristine condition. He is always in top shape. The Olympics have had little effect on him, imo. He looks just as good as ever, his legs look absolutely fine to me, too. I don't see any signs of him wearing down, breaking down, or declining. The guy lives for basketball, he would play year round if he could.
We haven't even hit the All-Star Break yet and the Lakers have had the luxury of playing a majority of their games at home. I know Kobe is a workaholic and an iron-man on the court, but it does catch up with you and it usually does during the post season.
All star break or not, we've passed the midway point of the season. That is what matters. The only thing that hurts during road trips is the time difference. The game of basketball is still the same. I don't see Kobe or Gasol wearing down, at all. They'll be just fine.
Kobe didn't play that many minutes in the Olympics, he had guys like Wade coming off the bench to rest him, if I remember correctly. Plus he didn't have to carry a huge load at all, with a team full of superstars. Olympics or not, every offseason he has a huge work load and works his ass off, I don't think it matters. I thought fatigue mattered last season, but watching the Celtics beat us last year changed my opinion. How many games did they play in the postseason, leading up into the Finals, compared to us? It didn't effect them at all. I would be worried, if, let's say, this was 2005 or 2006. But we have Gasol now. Last year, after acquiring him, we lost a total of 5 games in the regular season. I'm not gonna worry at all.
