I was speaking with Lost One earlier about how to deal with Farmar and Sasha's slumps. My contention is that at least Sasha knows his role and simply has to work on his long range arsenal. Farmar to me is our worst bench player, the guy doesn't know how to dribble or defend... Or shoot. :[ I'd like to phase him out of the offense, and I recalled that we were forced to earlier on in the year when he got injured and Fish was our only true PG. So what would you do with the lineup? I came up with some stuff. Edit- Added Odom as a potential C for the bench in the second quote, made Shannon the backup 2 over Sasha, and added a note about Ariza's minutes. Just some quick ideas that occurred to me.
Phil isn't going to change anything this late in the year. I think the problem is they aren't on the floor with Odom anymore. Also, Phil leaves them in there with Gasol. They never look for him. He needs to flip Kobe/Gasol for the 2nd unit. Kobe will bark at Jordan.
I actually don't feel like Farmar is our worst bench player, however, I think he is clearly the most selfish and the most out of control player. Despite him being labeled a gym rat, I find him lazy. He hardly ever uses his speed on offense to get to the rim, instead he'd rather dribble the clock out and shoot a jumper. He never uses his speed on defense, fuck, he doesn't even try on defense. His ego is bigger than it should be, too. I think that is his main problem. He thinks he is better than he actually is. Remember last year when he would ignore Kobe's calls for the ball and swing the ball opposite of Kobe? What the fuck gives him that right to do that? He isn't a superstar, a star, a good role player, or anything. He is a young player with potential. Honestly, come draft time, I'd shop him around because I think he can be a decent player in an uptempo offense.
You mean he's wasting his talent? Yeah he has the tools he just doesn't seem to care and his decisions on the court are beyond frustrating. That is what makes him our worst player imo, the fact that he gets a decent amount of minutes off the bench and doesn't know what the hell to do. I want him benched a couple of games or seem him fight for minutes with Shannon.
I think having Luke in the second unit actually helps us. He can actually facilitate and actually run something that resembles a structured offense, instead of doing Jordan isos or just random shot jacking. Sasha has struggled this year, but at least he has a good attitude. Dude doesn't pout and think he's better than everyone else, like Jordan. I think Hogface needs an attitude adjustment, he thinks way too highly of himself. With that being said, when Bynum returns, we'll be fine. Either Bynum or Lamar will lead the second the unit, and everybody's game will benefit because of that, IMO
Ariza rarely plays more than 30 minutes a night, I think we could virtually eliminate Sasha's minutes at the two if we needed it in the playoffs. He had 36 minutes against the Nets yesterday, finally I guess. Ariza should be pretty fresh from barely playing sometimes at the start of the season. Lamar has played in 32 minutes a game this month, 36 MPG in February when he was used the most. We could give up some of his minutes at PF to Powell so that he can facilitate our bench more in the playoffs as well. Seems Phil already notices some of these things as well, thankfully.
I still want Sasha out there, for some reason. Farmar should not see any minutes at all, he is just terrible. I actually wouldn't mind moving Sasha to point guard, as crazy as it sounds, he can't possibly do any worse. When Bynum returns (whenever that may be), he'll help our bench. As crazy as it sounds, I'd rather move Trevor to the bench and start Walton. In the beginning of the season, our bench was basically Farmar-Sasha-Trevor-Lamar. Take two of the best players off the bench, of course they are going to struggle. I'm hoping Farmar-Sasha-Trevor-Drew (replace Farmar with Shannon Brown hopefully) can duplicate that success, or at least play to a point where they are not consistently giving up the lead every single night.
