Lakers Interested In Leandro Barbosa?

Helljumper wrote:I don't care if you want to call him a PG or a SG. I don't care if he can't facilitate. I don't care what his assist/TO ratio is. I'll take Barbosa over Blake in our rotation any day. Barbosa/Meeks > Blake / Meeks

therealdeal wrote:

Helljumper wrote:I don't care if you want to call him a PG or a SG. I don't care if he can't facilitate. I don't care what his assist/TO ratio is. I'll take Barbosa over Blake in our rotation any day. Barbosa/Meeks > Blake / Meeks

How can you not care about whether or not he can facilitate? That's the most important thing for a PG. Especially one off the bench.

Texas Lakers Fan wrote:

therealdeal wrote:

Helljumper wrote:I don't care if you want to call him a PG or a SG. I don't care if he can't facilitate. I don't care what his assist/TO ratio is. I'll take Barbosa over Blake in our rotation any day. Barbosa/Meeks > Blake / Meeks

How can you not care about whether or not he can facilitate? That's the most important thing for a PG. Especially one off the bench.

Because its not like Blake can facilitate either. He sucks.

therealdeal wrote:

Helljumper wrote:I don't care if you want to call him a PG or a SG. I don't care if he can't facilitate. I don't care what his assist/TO ratio is. I'll take Barbosa over Blake in our rotation any day. Barbosa/Meeks > Blake / Meeks

How can you not care about whether or not he can facilitate? That's the most important thing for a PG. Especially one off the bench.

therealdeal wrote:^ No need to get sarcastic at me.

We have a lot of guys on the bench that need to be set up or are better off being set up. My only point is that Blake is a willing passer and he does a MUCH better job of moving the ball than Barbosa. Barbosa wants to score on his own every possession and can't really move the ball well.

therealdeal wrote:^ No need to get sarcastic at me.

We have a lot of guys on the bench that need to be set up or are better off being set up. My only point is that Blake is a willing passer and he does a MUCH better job of moving the ball than Barbosa. Barbosa wants to score on his own every possession and can't really move the ball well.

kblo247 wrote:I think people are assuming the wrong guy gets cut from the rotation with Barbosa added.

Blake would still play, Meeks would still play ..... Ebanks won't because Kobe will be the backup SF like Pau is the backup C

Helljumper wrote:I don't disagree with that. If we had someone like Sessions as our back-up PG, I would never suggest trying to replace him with a streaky scoring guard because yeah, on paper our bench looks like it would operate better with a legit floor general (who at least has some skillset to score for himself) rather than a pure scorer. But Blake isn't really that great of a facilitator and he's not a threat to score at all. So I think for our bench, the drop-off in offense from Barbosa's ineptitude at passing would be more than made up for by his ability to score and create his own shot.

But at the end of the day, it would only be a marginal improvement and realistically I don't see us signing him (or any other guard). I usually hate when people say this because it's over-used so much, but this time I think it's true: Barbosa's just trying to use us for leverage. An earlier report said that talks with him quieted once we signed Meeks. That seems to indicate that Barbosa was our back-up plan if we didn't get Meeks because if we wanted them both, there would be no reason for talks to quiet down after the Meeks signing since we were probably only offering Barbosa the minimum to begin with.

therealdeal wrote:

Helljumper wrote:I don't disagree with that. If we had someone like Sessions as our back-up PG, I would never suggest trying to replace him with a streaky scoring guard because yeah, on paper our bench looks like it would operate better with a legit floor general (who at least has some skillset to score for himself) rather than a pure scorer. But Blake isn't really that great of a facilitator and he's not a threat to score at all. So I think for our bench, the drop-off in offense from Barbosa's ineptitude at passing would be more than made up for by his ability to score and create his own shot.

But at the end of the day, it would only be a marginal improvement and realistically I don't see us signing him (or any other guard). I usually hate when people say this because it's over-used so much, but this time I think it's true: Barbosa's just trying to use us for leverage. An earlier report said that talks with him quieted once we signed Meeks. That seems to indicate that Barbosa was our back-up plan if we didn't get Meeks because if we wanted them both, there would be no reason for talks to quiet down after the Meeks signing since we were probably only offering Barbosa the minimum to begin with.

Sessions would have been perfect, and I know he did an interview recently where he stated he's happy with his decision, but you've just got to know he's kicking himself. If he had opted in for his final season, he's playing for one of the greatest teams ever assembled in a perfect situation to learn and improve while still being an integral part of the team. Now instead of backing up Steve Nash for a Championship, he's backing up Kemba Walker for a team that will likely compete for the #1 draft pick. Some might say "how would he know we'd have a stacked team?". He left AFTER we signed Nash. I would have JUMPED at the opportunity to play with him and learn from him... anyway...

I agree with you also on the second point. I think the Lakers have pretty much told him he can come here for depth if he'd like, but we really wanted Meeks and we got him. Barbosa I think is searching for money and for a chance to play and I don't know that he finds it right now. Similar to Kenyon Martin.

Leandro Barbosa - G - Pacers Leandro Barbosa's contract discussions with the Lakers "cooled" after Los Angeles signed Jodie Meeks.
Just as we suspected. The Lakers used part of the mini-midlevel exception to sign Meeks, and the team wouldn't have done that if they weren't going to give him minutes. There just doesn't seem to be room on the Lakers roster for Barbosa despite the fact that he insists Steve Nash has been "recruiting him". Related: Lakers, Jodie Meeks
Source: Alex Kennedy on Twitter Sep 13 - 9:32 AM

LAKEROC wrote:I like Barbosa, and for the veterans minimum, you absolutely do it. He's a former sixth man of the year, who like Jamison, received his Sixth Man of the Year award playing with Steve Nash as the point guard of the offense. I think Barbosa could help the Lakers, especially from what I saw from him this summer. Now, obviously, if you gave me the choice, I would much prefer to have had Ramon Session accept his 4.5 million player option, and be our backup point guard(still pissed about this), but since this is actually a viable option, and makes the Lakers better in the back court, at the 1 and 2 position, I say make it happen.
Love to see the Lakers find a way of getting a defensive minded CHEAP backup small forward, by using the following players(Chris Duhon, Earl Clark, Andrew Goudelock, Darius Morris, Robert Sacre). I like Ebanks, but I don't want to rely on him as my second small forward off the bench. A player like a Harrison Barnes, would have been an absolute godsend here off the bench for the Lakers, but that's just not reality, unfortunately.
I would love in a perfect world(i.e. dream world) for the Lakers to get a blue chip small forward to backup Artest(i.e. Harrison Barnes, Micheal Kidd-Gilchrist) that would come CHEAP, and be an MASSIVE help to our bench, however IT ISN'T REALITY, and we have nothing that can allow this to come to fruition, which is quite sad. However, a blue chip small forward here(like these two-especially Barnes), would be a godsend. We also need help at backup point guard(thank you Ramon Sessions, for bailing on us), would also like to add a player who can be a stretch 4-5 for the bench, someone who has the game of Kenyon Martin defensively, but who conducts himself like a professional on and off the court and is a good mentor(like Etan Thomas). Can the Lakers incorporate a lobotomy into Kenyon's contract?

Helljumper wrote:I don't wanna go too far off-topic, but every once in a while I'm reminded of Sessions and I can't help but think that was the one blemish of our off-season. It really would've made so much sense for all parties for him to stay with us as a back-up. He would've provided us very good insurance in case of an injury to Nash. He would've been able to learn from Nash and likely be groomed to be our future starting PG (despite his failures in the playoffs, I still do think he has the potential to be a very good PG). He would've fit in perfectly with our bench unit (last year, his struggles seemed to be more with the half-court offense of the starters, not with his own abilities). He could've gotten the same amount of money he got from Charlotte (this was before the amnesty deadline, so I'm sure management would've signed off on giving Sessions $5 million if we could then amnesty Blake's $4 million).

It would have been a luxury to have him as a back-up, but it's a luxury that we easily could have had if he didn't make such a stupid decision.