Re: Lakers 09 draft day? This is why Wayne works for you guys. He's a better athlete then originally thought, and an excellent shooter, especially off screens, which would work wonders with Gasol and Bynum. Ellington would be an excellent back-up to Kobe. And he also has championship experience.
Re: Lakers 09 draft day? If Shape is right about losing Brown, we definitely need an atheltic wing player to back up Kobe. Sasha will just eat up money, if we're lucky he'll improve a little on that ugly flat shot of his.
Re: Lakers 09 draft day? I don't we'll lose Brown, TBH. He was talking about coming back next year. I think he'll be patient. The Lakers are really the 1st team he's been on that has given him a chance. I think he knows that Sasha's spot in the rotation is definitely up for grabs during training camp. If he can have a full off-season and pre-season to learn the triangle, he can easily steal Kobe's backup minutes.
Re: Lakers 09 draft day? He needs to run around screens set and Kobe can make him shots. He can be successful in the Lakers system
Re: Lakers 09 draft day? I hope you're right and I hope SB3 is thinking long term about his career. The opportunity to learn from Kobe Bryant will be huge for his career and I'm sure he can make up the money with various endorsement deals in LA. He's already bounced around the league and playing with the talent on the Lakers roster makes him look better than he actually is. I wouldn't be surprised if he goes for the quick money, but I hope Brown & his agent see the long term benefits of taking less and staying with the Lakers. BasX - The Lakers don't really run an offense to suit Ellington's skillset. He'd be better in Larry Brown's system or a motion offense. The Lakers need a scorer who can take his defender off the dribble to force a double team and then make the high percentage play once the defense reacts. Jermaine Taylor sounds intriguing if he can learn to play without dominating the ball... Positives: Big-time scorer Excellent, NBA frame Strong Good athlete Good shooter, with NBA 3-point range Good rebounder for a guard Solid ball handler Solid midrange game Negatives: Undersized for his position Lackluster defender Totally dominates the ball Summary: Apr 14 Update: Of all the players at the PIT, Taylor was the only one with any real first-round buzz. He is an athletic scorer who excels as a shooter and can also slash to the basket. Some scouts have been trying to call him the next Rodney Stuckey or George Hill, but he isn't nearly the ball handler or playmaker that those guys are. What he has going for him is his NBA body, good athleticism and terrific jump shot. He dominated games in Portsmouth, but considering it was against NBDL talent, I'm not sure how far it will get him. Calling him a potential first-round pick is a bit of stretch, but Taylor should get lots of workouts with a chance to work his way up draft boards. Feb 27 Update: A sleeper to keep watch on as the draft camps begin, Taylor is averaging 26 points and shooting 40 percent from 3-point territory. He's undersized for his position and may be a small fish in a big pond, but the kid can score. The senior just dropped 45 points on Rice and is averaging 30 points in his past four games
Re: Lakers 09 draft day? I don't think any team is going to throw big bucks at Shannon. I like him, but what has he proven? He's played well in limited minutes, but look at his career as a whole. He didn't do anything in Cleveland or Chicago, and was pretty much an afterthought in Charlotte. He only blossomed when he came here, again, for limited minutes. Given the current economy, I highly doubt teams will be throwing 3 million a year type of deals at him. It doesn't make sense. I think 1.5 or 2 mill a year will get it done. I don't see any team willing to give that much money to a relatively unproven player, who has failed (probably not the best word choice, but that's all I can think of right now) in 3 out of 4 locations.
Yo huevon, I edited your first post a little and stickied the thread so we can talk about the draft. Hope that's cool?
Chad Ford still has the Lakers selecting Darren Collison (PG from UCLA). He's a terrible fit and not even worth considering. In the 2nd Round he has the Lakers drafting Josh Heytvelt (6'11, Gonzaga) and Dante Cunningham (F, Villanova). I really like the Heytvelt selection if he's still around when we use our Bobcats 2nd round pick. He has size, can shoot, pass and has a little nasty streak in him. Cunningham is a good player too but he disappears from game to game and I doubt whoever we select late in the 2nd round actually makes our team anyways. A few other guys I like: DeMarre Carroll Jeff Pendergraph Victor Claver (Spain)
Shape what's wrong with Collison? I thought he was good at UCLA and better than Jordan? I heard he can D up as well.
He's too small. I didn't see much improvement from him at UCLA. Last night Jeff Capel was on the radio talking about Blake Griffin (he coached Griffin at Oklahoma) and potential players who could be drafted out of the Big 12. He said watch out for DeMarre Carroll. He can do a lot of things on the court, defend the ball, has a good bounce to his game, and a strong work ethic. He compared his high energy to Renaldo Balkman, which is exactly what we need off the bench at the wing position.
29. Lakers/Jordan Farmar select ... Sam Young, SF, Pittsburgh "Phil Jackson likes long, strong, athletic players and that's Sam," guard Jordan Farmar says. "He can shoot from long range or take it to the basket. Plus, he played for Jamie Dixon, a protégé of Ben Howland, my coach at UCLA. So he cares about defense." Sam Says: "I'm figuring to go between 15 and 25, but i'd love to be in LA with Kobe. Wow, that would be a dream."
How about Calathes for the Bobcats pick? we can stash him while he develops in Europe for a year or two and when Fisher's contract expires bring him over
To be honest I'm not too familiar with his game. I know he signed a deal to play in Greece so we could stash him overseas. Is he worth investing in or are the Lakers better off drafting a player who can learn on the sidelines, play some DLeague ball and play a few minutes this year? Or are the Lakers better off trading the pick?
Mitch better be busy. I'm starting to get worried we won't package the 1st rounder with Ego Ears to ship his ass out.
There's hundreds of rumors out there and not anything involving the Lakers. Actually I heard one today from our UPS delivery guy. He said on the radio they mentioned a swap of Odom for Kidd. I told him that doesn't make any sense and he agreed. Usually when we don't hear any Laker rumors a trade comes out of nowhere. So don't lose faith in Mitch getting something done. I'm hearing Shaq could be a Cav tomorrow.
Hm, interesting. So you haven't heard anything about the Lakers, eh? What about your insider buddies? All I want this offseason is to resign Trev/LO/Shannon and get Ego Ears off the roster. Anything else would be a plus.
