MWPeace Discussion: amnesty? (pg. 203)

Another chance for World Peace
Back in shape, Los Angeles Lakers forward anticipating increased opportunities

Updated: October 16, 2012, 10:58 AM ET; By J.A. Adande | ESPN.com

A slimmed-down Metta World Peace is looking to get his swagger back on the offensive end.
At the moment, MWP stands for Math Word Problem, as Metta World Peace is working through the type of exercise you used to see on elementary school tests.

"If [Kobe's] not going to average 100, then there's going to be points out there, right?" World Peace says. "If he scores 30 a night, that's 70 points left."

World Peace has done the calculations. More important, he's put in the perspiration, logging the requisite work to shed what he says is 20 pounds. The math part is much easier: Subtract Kobe Bryant's points from the 100 or so the Lakers will average, then divide the rest among the remaining rotation players.

"There's points out there," World Peace says, and he intends to get his share of them.

With Bryant missing the Lakers' second preseason game and Dwight Howard sitting out both, one of the only things to take away from these exhibitions is that World Peace appears to be a legitimate threat. Defending the Lakers won't be as simple as abandoning World Peace to focus on everyone else.

"This is not just about the rock stars," World Peace says. "We have other players that are really good. I am coming to the game with a guitar during the regular season. Every game, I'll have a guitar."

Once a scorer, always a scorer's mentality, and World Peace is a guy who averaged 20 points as recently as five years ago. But the same amount of touches won't always be there, especially while playing with Bryant, the league leader in usage rate for two of World Peace's three seasons in Los Angeles. Even with one of the best distributors in the league, Steve Nash, on board, there's Howard to command the ball down low, in addition to Pau Gasol. So it's easy to overlook World Peace when thinking about the Lakers' offensive options.

"How are they going to forget about me?" World Peace counters. "That's impossible. They try to. People purposely try to forget about me. But that's impossible. It's just impossible."

Only because he makes it impossible. If he didn't feel the need to stand out, Ron Artest wouldn't have changed his name to Metta World Peace. His yearning for attention wouldn't manifest itself in every way from auctioning his 2010 championship ring for charity, or cracking an elbow to the dome of James Harden. On the court, that translates into him wanting the ball and shooting the ball.

The problem was his shots were often one of the worst outcomes for the Lakers' offense, as his overall shooting percentage dropped to a career-low 39.4 percent in 2011-12. It reached the point that even layups became dicey propositions.

World Peace blamed his conditioning, which included an admittedly excessive amount of margaritas during last year's lockout.

"That first step, that extra step, the push-off and then finishing … I couldn't do it," he says. "I couldn't do it. And then a couple of years ago, my back was hurting, so I wasn't able to work hard in the summer, which is like my bread and butter, the summertime. This summer I was able to work hard."

And sometimes bad makes for better. I thought of that principle the other day while listening to the latest album from World Peace's Queensbridge homeboy, Nas. A nasty divorce and hefty child support payments left Nas wounded, raw and hungry, and that edge created the artistic triumph "Life is Good."

The NBA version of heartbreak is losing early in the playoffs. Bryant said that in the locker room immediately after the Lakers' second-round exit in Oklahoma City it was World Peace who spoke up about the need to turn that pain into hard work. Then World Peace followed through in the summer, even while leaving a Twitter trail of adventures in Las Vegas and Vancouver.

HOLLINGER'S PLAYER PROFILES

Check out Hollinger's player scouting reports and '12-13 stat projections for the Lakers' roster. Player Profiles

He also ate right. At an only-in-L.A.-moment Thursday night, World Peace (in a room that included Wayne Gretzky, Matt Kemp, Janet Jackson and Michael Jackson's children) was explaining his diet philosophy to David Arquette.

"You have to feed your liver," World Peace said to a captivated Arquette.

Feeding your liver means lots of grapefruit, and chopping up and eating whole cloves of garlic. Doesn't sound very tasty, but the results are great: World Peace says he weighs about 250 pounds, and he is visibly leaner than last year.

You can see the impact on the court. In the Lakers' preseason game against the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday, he made 12 of 24 shots. He's getting past his man and scoring at the rim with both hands.

He might get more chances than you think. The first day the media got a chance to watch assistant coach Eddie Jordan implement the offense with the five starters, there was a noticeable amount of action involving Gasol and World Peace -- with Bryant standing far away from the ball on the other side. "This is an equal-opportunity offense, so Metta's going to get some looks and some touches," Lakers coach Mike Brown says. "We have some things where we'll be able to post up a guy like Metta, post up a guy like Kobe."

Or as World Peace put it, "It's going to be looks. When you're in shape … looks."

That's the way the equation works out in Metta Math.

http://espn.go.com/nba/preview2012/story/_/id/8496730/nba-whole-new-look-los-angeles-lakers-metta-world-peace

He looks great right now, and while I wouldn't expect him to keep it up at this level, as the 'forgotten' guy in our starting lineup he might be able to have some serious impact this season. The physical shape he is in is fantastic, it's made him better on offense than he's looked in years, and his defense will most likely be as fierce as always.

Haven't been paying much attention to Pre-season, but has MWP looked that good? If so that's great.

Texas Lakers Fan wrote:Haven't been paying much attention to Pre-season, but has MWP looked that good? If so that's great.

Yes, he has, he's probably been our most consistent player so far, but it's only 3 games in I hope he can keep it up.

Yeah I don't expect him to have a FG% of 50 from the field let alone from deep, but his shot does look a LOT smoother. The release is much nicer, the flow is there.

I expect him to do great things this season. I'd love to see him back on an All-Defensive team and not worry about scoring his points.

Weezy wrote:

Texas Lakers Fan wrote:Haven't been paying much attention to Pre-season, but has MWP looked that good? If so that's great.

Yes, he has, he's probably been our most consistent player so far, but it's only 3 games in I hope he can keep it up.

Great to hear. Hopefully he keeps it up. If he does it's really hard to imagine anyone beating us in a seven game series.

Texas Lakers Fan wrote:Haven't been paying much attention to Pre-season, but has MWP looked that good? If so that's great.

Let's just say he kind of looked like the best player on the team.


His "fast break" layups still suck though.

karacha wrote:

Texas Lakers Fan wrote:Haven't been paying much attention to Pre-season, but has MWP looked that good? If so that's great.

Let's just say he kind of looked like the best player on the team.

His "fast break" layups still suck though.

That's because he dunks them now.

Ron is really one of the big bright spots on this team for me right now, I am really happy that he's coming in like this.

Just great to see.

karacha wrote:

Texas Lakers Fan wrote:Haven't been paying much attention to Pre-season, but has MWP looked that good? If so that's great.

Let's just say he kind of looked like the best player on the team.


His "fast break" layups still suck though.

At least this time he misses because he's pushing 1 on 3. Before he'd be 1 on 1, 2 on 1, or 1 on 0 and he'd struggle on the break.

Ron Ron getting a late night work out in

Keep it up Ron, thanks for the picture share JSM

In full disclosure I didnt get to watch the last game, but glancing at the box score, these are the offensive play that I hope Ron comes to avoid this season. When you're built like he is (and apparently close to as mobile as ever), no need to bail out your defender by shooting long jumpers unless your feeling it.

^ The last game was easily the worst he's played so far this pre-season. He made poor decisions, took poor shots, and made zero adjustments. He was of course good defensively, but offensively he looked way more like "start-of-the-2012-season" Ron.

I think he felt like he had to pick up some slack with Pau out and it hurt the team. But he'll be fine. Nash played pretty awful too, so there's not too much of a story there.

I think his 3 point shooting and outside shooting is gonna be extremely shaky...Im ok with that as long as he plays D and hustles, deflects balls and plays with intensity like he did in 2009/2010 season

He does a lot of things now. He plays defense, his rebounding is better then before, not just because he jumps higher (he does but his vertical still sucks; he was never a big leaper), but because he's more mobile. He forces steals, and while his outside shot is very average, most people would not exactly dare him to shoot, because he actually can hit some threes, especially from the corner. His passing is underrated too.

I really think he's going to have an excellent season.

“@LakersReporter: Quick injury update: @MettaWorldPeace dislocated the middle finger on his shooting hand; he popped it back in himself & is OK.”

I'm really liking what I'm seeing from MWP. He looks skinnier, fitter, and faster than last year. He ran around last year like his feet were bothering him, like he was using all thighs and no calves to run. He looks like he's running more naturally now. His shooting motion is much smoother. He's been active on defense. He looks really good.

His back was bothering him actually.

Ron eating almonds out of the Stanley Cup....

http://thefakeespn.lockerdome.com/media/101692313

Will anyone in the NBA see more open 3 point shots than Ron this season? I think he's really going to make the league pay this year on both sides of the ball. His shot looks a lot better. He's so much quicker and he's still strong as an ox, even after shedding the weight. It's nice to see him hungry for another title run and focused. Hopefully he'll keep his eye on the prize, he's admitted that sometimes he has a hard time getting psyched up for the lesser matchups. I think having Dwight patrolling the paint and energizing the team will certainly help in that regard.

I was thinking about his interview the other night when John Ireland asked him who is the better defender Dwight or himself.

He answered, and it looked like he was really kind of shocked by the question at first. He's always thought of himself as the best defender in the league, and here's a guy that has the biggest defensive impact in the league on his team. Where does that leave him?

I'm thinking he's going to have to really balance himself here. He's going to have so many opportunities to shine because he's the lesser of all the evils, but he's also going to have to learn to remain humble. His answer to the question was "Dwight is a terrific defender and he's the defensive leader of the team."

He didn't say "I'm the best defender," but he didn't not say it either. I'm thinking he's going to have to balance that confidence with a measure of humility so that he can play within the offense and within himself. I think he's going to do that and be a terrific spark. Multiple times this year on national tv you'll hear "The Lakers don't have a Big Four, they've got a Big FIVE".