The Lakers have a pretty good team

[Black Adam]

God you are the biggest Laker homer I have ever seen.

LOL you never met jefe on the CBS boards, i see...

 

[Retroram52]

Sting, I don't the majority of the fans here are predicting play-offs. I know the consensus is that we can reasonably and optimistically achieve between 30 and maybe 40 wins if everything goes positively. Some are overly optimistic but you'll have that in any crowd.

 

[trojanfan12]

I'm not trolling here, but the Lakers will be bottom feeders in the West next year. Not because they are HORRIBLE, but mainly because of how good the West is. In the East they'd probably sneak in one of the last two playoff spots, but that's not the case.

Randle and Clarkson are both very talented, but you can't expect to make the playoffs with two rookies carrying significant roles. We don't know how good Kobe will be yet, but if he's close to his old self then they could realistically win 35-40 games, but his supporting cast just isn't good enough to surpass that.

Lin and Young are both boarderline starters and a team with both of them starting aren't going anywhere... that's just the truth. The pieces aren't there, but they did draft really well even though I hate to admit it.

I agree with much of this. I think the Lakers have a chance to be like last years Suns and surprise many by winning more games than most expect them to. Like last years Suns, I expect that they will also miss the playoffs. They have some young, athletic players who, if they develop and learn from the older players (Kobe, Boozer, Nash), can make a little noise.

Much of this, of course, will depend on Kobe and how much he has left in the tank. I think the team ends up right around .500. Good enough for a playoff spot in the eastern conference, but as you point out, this ain't the eastern conference.

I doubt Young will start. While he can play small forward, he is a shooting guard. I expect he will be the Lakers 6th man and will spell Kobe and whoever starts at small forward. If Young is starting, that's a bad thing for the Lakers. Not because he can't play, but because it means Kobe is hurt or there's a problem at small forward.

Lin may not start either. If Nash is at all healthy, he will likely start, although I expect that Lin will likely play as many or more minutes than Nash.

 

[HizzleRocker]

I actually am predicting an 8 seed, with an easy early first round exit. Still better than last year. I am actually most excited to see what rookie Clarkson can do. Have really liked what I've seen so far.

 

[Malibu]

I dont see the Lakers sniffing the playoffs at all. Alot of young guys and some very old guys. Few years away yet.

 

[OutlawImmortal]

Lin may not start either. If Nash is at all healthy, he will likely start, although I expect that Lin will likely play as many or more minutes than Nash.

I wouldn't count Lin out either, he may improve under the tutelage of Scott and Nash. His defense is suspect, so we get no improvement from him on the defensive side of the court but Lin seems eager to improve and I doubt he will reject the same help that was offered to Dwight. Not saying he's going to be great, but similar to Dee Gordon in the MLB, I won't count out the possibility of improvement.

I agree with everything you posted, Young is best used as a 6th man/supersub type player.

 

[trojanfan12]

I wouldn't count Lin out either, he may improve under the tutelage of Scott and Nash. His defense is suspect, so we get no improvement from him on the defensive side of the court but Lin seems eager to improve and I doubt he will reject the same help that was offered to Dwight. Not saying he's going to be great, but similar to Dee Gordon in the MLB, I won't count out the possibility of improvement.

I agree with everything you posted, Young is best used as a 6th man/supersub type player.

I liked what Lin had to say in his presser. He's not looking to re-create "Linsanity", he just wants to play basketball and improve his game. From the way he talks, it sounds like he will not only be willing to learn from guys like Byron, Nash and Kobe, he will likely seek them out.


He's never going to be a "lockdown defender", but I think that Byron can turn him into a solid team defender.

He's a Harvard guy, so unlike the "Dwightmare", he's actually smart enough to know how much he doesn't know. Dwight thought he already "had it all figured out".

 

[DJ Fieri]

Hey look, another Cavs fan pops up outta nowhere. What was your screen name when you were a Heat fan?

He never was a Heat fan. He was a Cavs fan over at FN.

 

[DJ Fieri]

So last year we had a starting lineup of:

Sacre
Johnson
Kelly
Meeks
Marshall

and we got 27 wins. Does anyone think:

Hill
Randle
Young
Kobe
Lin

won't get at LEAST another 15 wins?

Except Sacre and Kelly didn't start all 82 games.

 

[DJ Fieri]

Neither did Marshall.

 

[Shaqdaddy11]

You put a team out with Sacre and Marshall as a starter in even just a few games and your season is lost already.

I very much doubt we'll have to enlist any D-Leagers to start for us this year.

 

[trojanfan12]

You put a team out with Sacre and Marshall as a starter in even just a few games and your season is lost already.

I very much doubt we'll have to enlist any D-Leagers to start for us this year.

That should improve the team all by itself.

 

[Shaqdaddy11]

The problem the team had last year is that we had below-average role players as starters. While I like X, Wesley Johnson and Marshall, no way should they realistically be getting any more than 15 min a game.

This year we have guys like Lin, Boozer and Kobe who can take the pressure off those guys