Tuesday, July 8 Payton signing may mean another L.A. final -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Fred Carter Special to ESPN.com Gary Payton's signing by the Lakers is a tremendous move. In one fell swoop they've made themselves the favorite for next year's championship and added another Hall of Famer to Los Angeles' illustrous basketball history. All while improving their team exponentially. The Lakers are my favorites to win next year's championship for a few reasons. One, the addition of Payton will allow the Lakers to better withstand injuries to the Big two of Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal. Before his addition, if one or both of these players went down the Lakers were at a serious disadvantage as evidenced by their play without the big fella at the beginning of last season. Payton gives them a player who is able to step up and shoulder the brunt of the offensive and defensive load if Kobe and Shaq go out. Payton's signing may lead to another final in L.A.'s future. Secondly, the Lakers needed an upgrade at the point guard position. Not to deride Derek Fisher's abilities, but last year he didn't give the Lakers what they needed. He didn't do a very good job of taking advantage of pick and rolls and open looks and he was abused defensively at times. The Lakers now have the luxury of bringing Fisher off the bench. Fisher has been through the championship wars and knows what it takes to win and that's invaluable off the bench. This won't be a huge adjustment for Fisher because he hasn't been playing a lot of minutes anyway and Payton is a better player. It's easy for a player to sit behind a guy who he knows is better. And Fisher knows Payton is definitely better. Third, the Lakers have acquired a great defensive player who will help them where they were sorely lacking last season... on the defensive front. As much as they needed a third scorer they needed another defender almost as badly. There's a reason they call Payton the Glove and even though he may not be as great a defender as he was in his youth he is still better than most. And having Shaq in the lane to funnel people to will only make him a more effective defender. It isn't going to be all peaches and cream for Payton and the Lakers though. Learning the triangle will be the hardest part of this puzzle for Payton and the Lakers. Payton is used to being able to roam wherever he wants offensively. He won't be able to do that anymore because the triangle is a very rigid offensive system. It relies on players being in certain places at certain times and making decisions based on those positions. It will take Payton a while to learn the triangle but his basketball IQ is so high that I doubt it will be a major problem. Whatever he needs to learn, he'll learn in training camp. Also, the Lakers still need a power forward to complete this team. There are some good ones on the free agent market and Karl Malone reportedly expressed an interest to play for the Lakers if Payton signed. The addition of a player like Karl Malone to this lineup would almost ensure that we'll be watching the finals in sunny Los Angeles next year. After hearing this news, the most unhappy people in California right now maybe the the Sacramento Kings.
my man fred carter! we need more laker propaganda like this to let people realize how good the lakers are actually going to be. payton won't have a problem learning the triangle offense. he's been in the league long enough and has studied how to defend it for many years, so i'm sure he's already very familiar with it. payton is going vastly improve our perimeter defense and he will prevent the lakers from getting killed on the pick and rolls. payton and kobe at the top is going to be very fun to watch. i'd like to see them both voted to the 1st team all defense.
haha. both of them making 1st all defensive team probably wont happen. Kobe alone making it was a stretch. with Payton, the Lakers probably won't be last in defensive field goal percentage next season
