[timzerofive]

Cast your vote. But we all know Kobe should win this.

[ward]

I don't like the lakers,

I like my shitty warriors!

12 straight years no playoffs!!

[huchung]

I love my Lakers, but cant stand Kobe. He shoots too much, and gets his teammates out of rythm. Looking strictly at numbers, Lebron is doing way better than Kobe; 48%Fg vs 45%Fg, 7Reb vs. 5.3Reb, 6.6A vs 4.3A, 31.4ppg vs 35.4ppg. How many times have you heard someone say "Kobe makes his teammates better." (Made me chuckle typing that up). Lebron makes his teammates better; just look at Drew Gooden.

[Squawks]

Huchung, you are the first Lakers fan I've seen who expresses animosity towards Kobe!

[yu]

So Drew Gooden wasn't a good player to begin with? Kobe has been amazing this year; he does shoot a lot, but I think without Kobe shooting/scoring as much as he does, the Lakers wouldn't be in the playoffs. Lakers are playing very well before the start of the post-season. Look at Lamar Odom, better yet, look at Kwame Brown. He started off slow, yes, but he is now playing to his potential which he did not do in Washington. I'm not going to take anything away from Kobe, he's an amazing player. I do think, however, that LeBron deserves the MVP. Can't take anything away from the other players either: Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, Elton Brand, Chauncy Billups. They are all great players having arguably their best season. On that note, GO WIZARDS!

[huchung]

Originally Posted by Squawks

Huchung, you are the first Lakers fan I've seen who expresses animosity towards Kobe!

You should come up to LA, 30% of the people here still have animosity towards Kobe 'Mamba' Bryant. It was a little over 60% a couple years back when Shaq was traded to Miami. Since then, people have moved back into Kobe's corner because of a)81 pts, b)shaq no longer plays here. I go to about 3-5 games a year, and have noticed that people dont criticize him as much as they did last year, or even at the beginning of the season. I guess thats what scoring 81 pts on a the defensive Juggernaut Raptors will do for your image.

Originally Posted by YuBimmer

So Drew Gooden wasn't a good player to begin with? Kobe has been amazing this year; he does shoot a lot, but I think without Kobe shooting/scoring as much as he does, the Lakers wouldn't be in the playoffs.

I take that back, Drew is a decent player; good for 4th, maybe 3rd, option. I was a huge fan of his and thought he could've been a Tim Duncan type player (Gooden is a VERY fundamentally sound player, a la Tim Duncan) when he came out of KU. He has developed into a solid player, but not a superstar as I hoped.
As for MVP, IMO, it goes to the player that elevate his game as well as his teammates game. Kobe has certainly elevated his game to another level with the scoring, but hasnt done anything to make his teammates better. This article in the LA Times sums up my argument against Kobe and for Nash. I think Lebron does what Nash does AND scores. Lebron's had an incredible year and he makes his teammates better. If the MVP award goes to the best individual player, then it should be Kobe.

[NaTuReB0Y]

First round exit..............nah........

[timzerofive]

People are jumping back on the Kobe bandwagon because Lakers are winning again and made the playoff. Either way, he's always been a great player who has admirable skills, this year he has willed himself to become the best player in the league. I think the best player in the league deserves the MVP award.

In terms of Kobe shooting too much, if you watch the games and look at his shots in context to the game, he doesn't take more than 1 to 2 unecessary/force shots. Most of the time when Kobe shoots, you see this... they take the ball up the court, point tries to run the triangle, cannot get the ball to an open man, or the center cannot establish a good post position to setup the triangle. They run the shot clock down to under 9 second, cannot get a shot off, ditch it to Kobe and let him work. He gets most of his shot this way so it's not really him hogging the ball, but he's the go to guy when they cannot sucessfully run the offense. Why is he so scary? Because when the other team plays great defense, rotates well and shuts down Laker's set offense play, they then have to deal with Kobe who can do just about anything to score.

Does he make other players better? Perhaps not as obvious as Steve Nash does, but Smuch Parker is having a career year (have you even heard of him before this year), so is Kwame Brown (biggest flop in draft, or is he), and when's the last time you saw a team has one player getting tripple-double and another player scoring 50+ in the same game? He doesn't lead the same style some other players does, but he is leading this Laker team to its potential.

Lebron is a great player, but he lacks one major aspect to become a MVP, he got no defense! You can't only play half of the game, you have to play the entire court. Lebron will deserve the MVP when he becomes a defensive threat.

Jordan was called a ballhog up and down the court going for his 6 rings, but no one will deny today that he is perhaps the greatest. I think Kobe will reach his league pretty soon.

[cpcollin]

Kobe is a little bitch

[ryanmangos]

you have to admit kobe has skills...one of the best players talent wise in the NBA. being the laker fan that i am i see he has his ups and downs. its great what he can do in isolations, but he doesnt bring anything to the team. he takes more than 1 or 2 unforced shots as a matter of fact he takes a lot of really difficult shots, he just makes it look easy at times. its true that they run plays, but they also give up on those plays a little early. kwame brown is doing good of late because mihm is out. now when mihm is back and kwame can keep it up then woohoo for him. what happend to hot shot brian cook. turiaf reminds me of a young brian grant when he was with portland. lakers are a pretty young team and have alot of room to grow. if they are able to get to the playoffs on kobes back alone IN THE WEST where there is alot of good teams, then imagine how good they will become when more players get involved with kobe. the lakers live and die by kobe. i do admit tho lakers do need some more consistent players, then again maybe they are consistent because of kobe. i say pick up garnett and we'll see how far the lakers can go with 2 allstars again. (4 was just too many >.<)

[ward]

Originally Posted by cpcollin

Kobe is a little bitch

killing me, so damn funny

[Hunter399]

Kobe is a stuck up ball hog


I wish Tmac wasent hurt....oh well....

[timzerofive]

Originally Posted by ryanmangos

you have to admit kobe has skills...one of the best players talent wise in the NBA. being the laker fan that i am i see he has his ups and downs. its great what he can do in isolations, but he doesnt bring anything to the team. he takes more than 1 or 2 unforced shots as a matter of fact he takes a lot of really difficult shots, he just makes it look easy at times. its true that they run plays, but they also give up on those plays a little early. kwame brown is doing good of late because mihm is out. now when mihm is back and kwame can keep it up then woohoo for him. what happend to hot shot brian cook. turiaf reminds me of a young brian grant when he was with portland. lakers are a pretty young team and have alot of room to grow. if they are able to get to the playoffs on kobes back alone IN THE WEST where there is alot of good teams, then imagine how good they will become when more players get involved with kobe. the lakers live and die by kobe. i do admit tho lakers do need some more consistent players, then again maybe they are consistent because of kobe. i say pick up garnett and we'll see how far the lakers can go with 2 allstars again. (4 was just too many >.<)

If they can develope Bynum well enough, and Kwame keeps it up, they might be a title contender in about 2 years. They should bring back DFish though.

[huchung]

We dont need those guys to develope as long as we can bring in a true point, ie, Nash/Kidd/C Paul/Billups to play the "ScottyPippen/KobeBryant" sidekick role. Kobe gets the ball 30% of the time to get his attempts, and this sidekick will distribute the ball evenly, a la Nash, the rest of the time. I know Lamar is suppose to play that role, but hes much more effective on the block or at the top of the key. He has shown recently that he is capable of playing that role....


ps.co-worker just walked in and asked what that is hangnig out her skirt....i told him that was a grade a peice of ass...who is she?

[timzerofive]

Naw, don't really need a "true pg", Jordan never had one. They had shooters (Armstrong, Harper, Kerr...). They need kwame and bynum to establish a good inside presence for post games. Triangle starts with the center getting a high post. The triangle never made much sense or impact when shaq was around was the fact that if they get the ball inside to shaq while he's posting, then he might as well just turn around and score. The next few years will be fun to watch to say the least.

... I've been getting people messaging me left and right out of the blue asking who that girl is

[ryanmangos]

well lamar is starting to fill the pippen role...a bit better than pippen himself...so as long as he can accept that fact we are good there...and the triangle does need a big man...so if they got kg then they have a quick agile bigman who can post up...and lakers always lacked big game PG. i loved dfish and his game...he knew where he stood and accepted his role. lakers can become a title contenders IF they can come together and thier big men step up.

[huchung]

Jordan had Pippen...not a true pg, but he brought the ball up most of the time, initiated the triangle, and create a lot of open looks for the shooters and inside guys. So Pip's as close to the point as you can get. The triangle they used for shaq-kobe combo is a different version than they are using for the kobe-lamar combo. This one is more similar to the one used with the bulls to give Michael the most area to work with. Shaq's triangle was used to spread out the shooters as much as possible to give him the inside. Pip's main goal during the Bull's run was to get everyone in rythm, so when Mike passed them the ball, they could hit it. Players need rythm, its hard to find a player who can drain a shot when they havent touched the ball almost the entire game. Thats why Scotty was so good. With this team, theres no need for an inside presence like the Shaq squad. Their attack is now from the perimeter, rather than the paint. They create inside opportunity (driving lanes) inside by drawing the defense to the perimeter. (Shaq's team created open shots for shooters by pulling defenders in). The squad now need rebounders and shot blockers, and occasional score from the bigs inside. Thats why you dont need Kwame/Bynum to get 25 pts inside, but they have to play solid defense and rebound. With that said, you now need a guy to orchestrate the Pippen role of getting other players invovled. Kobe can get his shots, but the role players need help. Sasha/Smush/Luke/Cook needs to be setup on the perimeter, Kwame/Mihm need to be setup down low. The reason why theyve played so well recently is because Lamar has been able to get his teammates open looks(back to back triple doubles).

[huchung]

Originally Posted by ryanmangos

well lamar is starting to fill the pippen role...a bit better than pippen himself...so as long as he can accept that fact we are good there...and the triangle does need a big man...so if they got kg then they have a quick agile bigman who can post up...and lakers always lacked big game PG. i loved dfish and his game...he knew where he stood and accepted his role. lakers can become a title contenders IF they can come together and thier big men step up.

I didnt mean to say a POSITIONAL point guard, but you know, a player whose role is to setup other peoples offense and manage the game like Scotty. Thats what REAL points are suppose to do, but there has been too many "hybrid" points (1+2 combo), (ie, AI, Areanas, Wade, Gordon, Smush) that the term "Point Guard" (in my mind) has to do more with their game than size. I consider Lamar a "point guard" even though he's 6-9 and positioned at SF/PF. So...Point Forward?

[timzerofive]

Point foward is the word, pippen was it, lamar is developing into that role. Pippen didn't really "distribute" the ball per say (as Steve Nash would), all he did was bring the ball up the court and initiates the offense. Players like Nash and Kidd are real distributors or ball, but they're a mere generic version of what Magic and Stockton used to be. They both come pretty close to the legends, but they still lack that little bit of oomph. They need a bit of swagger and attitudes like Magic did, where he was able to take over a ball game completely all by himself. But back to the topic of the current Lakers, the reason why they must have an inside presence is very simple, look at the bulls team when Rodman joined them in 95-96, 72 wins. They need kwame to be the next rodman.

[ryanmangos]

i agree with the positional PG...there are different types of of PG's...hell boris diaw is a positional fwd he has so much versatility...i do agree with alot of what you said hu...with cook out there they would have a nice shooter, i personally want the lakers to get a big man that has the ability to score consistently, for the fact that they will draw the defense like shaq did...leaving cook to shoot lights out or for kobe to just move w/o the ball and get easy baskets...i believe one of the reasons they brought lamar was to take the ball up too since he did that with the clippers...turiaf has the ability to be a monster on boards, kwame is cleaning up pretty well, mihm has the ability to be a major defensive presence IF he can stay out of foul trouble...walton is ur blue collar guy who does what is needed noquestions asked and is also fundementally strong.

well the ooomp ur talkin about tim is what i think gave birth to the hybrid PG's hu was talkin about. a guard who distributes but can score at will also.