John Ireland's blog from Hawaii

Chillbongo wrote:maybe it was his opinion that Bynum hadn't improved. But if he's watching the guy play and doesn't seem overly impressed, I'm pretty disappointed.

I'll wait to see him play before I'm convinced, but to hear him say Mihm looks the e best is pretty shocking. Hopefully Bynum has more to show.

Why shocking? I've always felt comfortable with the ball in Mihm's hands because he's actually pretty good in the post. Kwame? No comment there.

I love Ireland the radio show and reporter, but he's not a talent scout by any stretch of the imagination. But I can understand why Ireland made that comment, Bynum just doesn't have enough Bball time in his whole life. He played HIGH SCHOOL ball, and basically sat on the bench for the past 2 years. He would have benefitted tremendously if the Lakers would have sent him to the NBDL, too late now.

If you really think about it, Bynum has not seen, first hand, how to play the center position and have not learned all the little tricks from veterans (besides Kareem's coaching). Bynum needs to figure out a little move that he can specialize in, he needs to master it before he can start mixing in different moves. I'm hoping that first little move would be the quick jump hook...if he can knock that down consistently, then he will be able to add all kinds of drop step and running hooks. With his new body, I'm hoping Bynum can hold the block position down low. Because last season, the defenders quickly figured out that Bynum is useless when you push him far off the block, so they bodies AB up and pushed him off the block like a rag doll. I'm hoping AB gets stronger (which he did) and finally uses his body to hold that low spot. Because Bynum near the basket (3 -5 feet) is devastating with his long reach.

JSM wrote:I wonder how long this up tempo experiment will last. My guess is that it is deemed a failure by the end of pre-season.

That sounds like enough time to figure out we don't have the personnel to run with.

Satan wrote:

JSM wrote:I wonder how long this up tempo experiment will last. My guess is that it is deemed a failure by the end of pre-season.

That sounds like enough time to figure out we don't have the personnel to run with.

thats exactly right...

first of all we lack athleticism and speed to run
second is that our PG is not an open-court point guard
third is that in order to run you need good pressure defense and excellent rebounding and the Lakers have neither...

And I remember a recent interview where they emphasized ball control.