At the start of the season, the Lakers were looking at then unproven Andrew Bynum, Chris Mihm, Ronny Turiaf, Brian Cook, Kwame Brown, Vladimir Radmanovic and Lamar Odom as their front line. Young turks, but nobody bet on them because of their lack of collective physicality. Odom could be the only proven commodity in the bunch at that time.
Then the season went on: Mihm got injured and has not played since December last year, Cook was then dealt to the Orlando Magic with Mo Evans for forward Trevor Ariza, Bynum further developed and blossomed under Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kwame Brown was traded to the Memphis Grizzles for Pau Gasol in light of Bynum's injury.
Thanks to injuries, the improved lineup of Gasol, Odom, Bynum, Mihm, Turiaf, Radmanovic and Ariza has been reduced to less than 50% of capacity. That's why DJ Mbenga and Ira Newble were signed from the free agent pool.
But imagine if they all recovered and played in the playoffs? The Lakers would be a big scary team. Frontline-wise, Phoenix, San Antonio and Detroit could be the only teams to match up with the Lakers.
Tags: Lakers
LinkWithin
Their whole front line is hurt. They lose Bynum and then Gasol. They are lucky they have won 4 out of 8 games without Gasol because Turiaf is a great athlete but he is to small and MBanga is just big.
ReplyDelete