Kobe at the 3 next year?

[DocHolliday]

This article is primarily about the Lakers coming to terms with the Chinese guard Sun Yue, but look at the last line of the article. What are the Lakers thinking?

Why would they do this? This doesn't make any sense to me. Just because Odom isn't the best three they consider taking Kobe out of the position he's played his whole career? I don't agree with that all.

LOS ANGELES (AP)—The Los Angeles Lakers agreed to terms with guard Sun Yue, who is playing for China and will face Kobe Bryant and the U.S. men’s team Sunday in the Beijing Olympics.

Lakers spokesman John Black declined Saturday to discuss details of the terms and said it could be some time before a contract is signed.
“It could be weeks, it could be days,” he said.

The 6-foot-9, 212-pound Sun was the Lakers’ second-round draft pick last year. He played with the Aoshen club in Beijing and with the Chinese national team before the Olympics.
Sun has played mostly point guard in China but Black wouldn’t specify his role with the Lakers, saying it was a coaching decision. Derek Fisher and Jordan Farmar were the top two point guards when the Lakers lost to Boston in the NBA finals.


The Lakers are considering moving Bryant to small forward and making frontcourt player Lamar Odom a guard.

 

[Vlade4GM]

Kobe has played the 3 many times over his career and done very well at that position, some would even argue he's done better there in the triangle. The lakers ran rotations with sasha at the 2 and Kobe at the 3 many times successfully last year. And even if the lakers do indeed intend to do this next year, it really wouldn't make much difference, it just means they're making Lamar more of a ball handler and have Kobe play off the ball more which he does very well also.

 

[chrisnu]

They could try Lamar as a guard on offense, but he lacks the quickness to guard most 3's, let alone shooting guards. I also think that he lacks the jump shot necessary to be a shooting guard. If the Lakers don't sign another big man, Gasol is likely going to get a lot of playing time at center, and Lamar would slide over to power forward.

 

[AriesMar27]

if they had only agreed to take thomas they wouldnt be having this problem... odom at sg makes no sense on offense and defense.... teams will not put their sg on odom... maybe houston.... he cant take a sg off the dribble, i doubt he could do it to a sf... what made him so good at pf was the fact that he was much quicker than every pf in the league except maybe for josh smith....

dribble penetration will be insane if he is asked to defend a sg... it works really well in videogames(ive done it) but not in real life...

 

[SacKings7]

They could try Lamar as a guard on offense, but he lacks the quickness to guard most 3's, let alone shooting guards. I also think that he lacks the jump shot necessary to be a shooting guard. If the Lakers don't sign another big man, Gasol is likely going to get a lot of playing time at center, and Lamar would slide over to power forward.

Yeah, but that'll only be for a few minutes a game. Bynum should be returning.

 

[chrisnu]

Yeah, but that'll only be for a few minutes a game. Bynum should be returning.

That's true, but I don't think that Bynum will be playing 40 minutes per game. Probably closer to 32-36 minutes. Gasol could play 20-24 minutes at power forward, and the rest of his minutes at center, and Odom could take the rest of the minutes at power forward. They have enough small forwards to use the rest of those minutes, that's for sure...

 

[hrdboild]

I don't think Sun Yue is a good enough ball handler to play PG in the NBA. Not without a lot of work anyway. But I don't see how that effects Kobe at all because he's not going to be a starter regardless. If he gets consistent minutes at all, it'll be as a SG off the bench in more of a setup role with a spotup shooter like Fisher at the point.

The trouble with a guy like Odom is that he doesn't fit a typical position so any mismatches he creates on offense are potentially counteracted by mismatches on defense. He certainly isn't undersized for a forward, and he's strong enough to guard PFs. The only real problem is keeping up with quicker SFs. Kobe's always going to be taking the better wing player though and moving him to the SG position doesn't solve anything so I don't know what they're talking about. The Lakers are only an elite team with Gasol at PF and Bynum at C. Moving Gasol over to C and Odom to PF negates their biggest advantage, which is the size of their front-line.

 

[Kings Faithful]

Does anyone else think its stupid that a team with absolutely no cap space every off season manages to build a core of players with so much talent they don't even know what to do with it? I don't understand.

 

[est.1999]

well jerry west helped "give" gasol to the lakers when they had no cap last year. And now this year they havent added anything so I don't know what you're trying to say faithful

 

[Vlade4GM]

well jerry west helped "give" gasol to the lakers when they had no cap last year. And now this year they havent added anything so I don't know what you're trying to say faithful

West wasn't the Griz's GM when the trade went down.

 

[est.1999]

Obviously. But with connects with both teams we all know that he set that trade up

 

[Capt. Factorial]

Obviously. But with connects with both teams we all know that he set that trade up

I certainly hope you're not a prosecutor.

 

[est.1999]

where have you people been? Seriously if you don't think that a lopsided trade of that magnitude happened without wests help I don't know where you've been. Even the laker radio guys(the looses cannons) tend to believe this

 

[Freakout]

where have you people been? Seriously if you don't think that a lopsided trade of that magnitude happened without wests help I don't know where you've been. Even the laker radio guys(the looses cannons) tend to believe this

Looks like the Kings followed LA's lead when they gave Artest away.

 

[Gargamel]

Looks like the Kings followed LA's lead when they gave Artest away.

They followed Memphis' lead.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

where have you people been? Seriously if you don't think that a lopsided trade of that magnitude happened without wests help I don't know where you've been.

Lopsided trades happen. West was RETIRED from the Grizz front office when the trade went down. So, basically, here's the scenario:

Grizz Front Office Guy #1: We've got to trade Pau Gasol. He's not happy in Memphis and we don't really have the cash flow to pay him what he's worth.
GFOG#2: What do you propose we do?
GFOG#1: Well, we should find a team that's got an expiring contract or two, trade him there and take the expirings back along with young talent and draft picks, of course.
GFOG#2: All right, I'll start hitting the phones and see what kind of interest there is and what packages we can come up with.
GFOG#3: Oh, hey, Jerry West is on the line!
GFOG#1: Didn't he use to work for us?
GFOG#3: West says we shouldn't try to get fair market value for Gasol, we should just ship him to the Lakers for a crappy package.
GFOG#1: Didn't he use to work for the Lakers?
GFOG#2: Well, gee, if Jerry West, NBA Hall Of Famer and former Grizzlies employee says we should mortgage our future for the benefit of his other former team, who are we to argue? He's so dreamy!
GFOG#3: Yes, we should flush this team down the toilet for our Dreamboat!
All In Unison: Heeeee's sooooo dreeeeeamy!

Even the laker radio guys(the looses cannons) tend to believe this

Oh, well, if the "loose cannon" radio analysts are going to jump to conclusions based on circumstantial evidence, I guess I'd better fall in line!

Seriously? The best support you've got for your conspiracy theory is the rantings of "loose cannon" radio analysts?

 

[SacKings7]

where have you people been? Seriously if you don't think that a lopsided trade of that magnitude happened without wests help I don't know where you've been. Even the laker radio guys(the looses cannons) tend to believe this

That's ridiculous. This isn't the first lopsided trade in NBA history. For some reason, these trades happen. I guess Memphis were really high on Crittenton that's all. If he turns out to be a great player, then people will probably be praising Memphis for doing that trade.