Bynum: Crucial piece or crucial mistake?

[Havoc]

Who else is watching the Lakers vs. Suns game? Bynum is holding his own, and as much as it pains me to say it, he's doing it very well against Stoudemire, and whoever else they place on him. Is he the dominant center that the Lakers are looking for?

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/boxscore;_ylt=As9MFsUFbKdXSDwpkSPs_qq8vLYF?gid=2006103113


He went 7-11 for FG, 4-5 for FT, and had 9 rebounds, 18 points, and 5 assists. I don't know about the other Laker fans, but I'm not complaining here. Solid game for his first time ever starting.

 

[cranrab]

Who else is watching the Lakers vs. Suns game? Bynum is holding his own, and as much as it pains me to say it, he's doing it very well against Stoudemire, and whoever else they place on him. Is he the dominant center that the Lakers are looking for?

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/boxscore;_ylt=As9MFsUFbKdXSDwpkSPs_qq8vLYF?gid=2006103113


He went 7-11 for FG, 4-5 for FT, and had 9 rebounds, 18 points, and 5 assists. I don't know about the other Laker fans, but I'm not complaining here. Solid game for his first time ever starting.

andrew bynum had a good showing tonight.

but i take the performance with a grain of salt, because he was playing against kurt thomas and boris diaw most of the night.

i'd like to get a look at him against some centers closer to his size.

 

[xfactor]

He looks a lot better than he did to start off last year but that goes with gaining more confidence being a 2nd year player.

But like cranrab said, I'd like to see what he does against bigger C's.

 

[Havoc]

andrew bynum had a good showing tonight.

but i take the performance with a grain of salt, because he was playing against kurt thomas and boris diaw most of the night.

i'd like to get a look at him against some centers closer to his size.

What other centers are there that are close to his size? (7 ft 280 lb.)

I know that he's lacking in experience (which is why I was disappointed in his performance against Amare), but he's clearly got potential to be an important part of his team (at least important enough to get rid of that annoying Chris Mihm) to the point where he can start over Kwame Brown (STONE HANDS!).

 

[cranrab]

What other centers are there that are close to his size? (7 ft 280 lb.)

they don't have to be identical, just in the same ballpark.

as encouraging as the performance against phoenix was, you had to know it was skewed with more FGAs and rebounds due to phoenix' style of play.

andrew bynum had a more sobering performance against golden state, logging only 10 minutes, as he benched himself with 4 PFs and going 1-4 FGAs.

we should have an answer after this weekend when they finish the home-home series against seattle.

 

[cranrab]

Bynum

tobe has to be the happiest player on the team that andrew bynum is playing the way he is...

andrew bynum is doing what big men should: working his way to the front of the rim, and letting fakers passers like luke walton and jordan farmar do what they should: get him the ball for high percentage shots.

tobe is having a field day (assist wise) against the teams who aren't doing any early season scouting or video. the last three teams don't seem to understand that tobe's knee is bothering him. whether it's pain or lack of mobility is unclear. but he's not penetrating, nor has he displayed any explosive athleticism to date.

tobe allows the soft doubles to come, and then dishes to andrew bynum for easy shots. the upside to andrew bynum is that he moves well without the ball, can catch a pass (unlike kwame brown), and can finish with authority around the rim (unlike chris mihm). a C like that has GOT to put a smile on tobe's face, because it complements tobe's euro trash version of the drive and dish play so well.

and for those who don't know basketball very well, let me translate that. throughout tobe's career, tobe's "penetration" has been formulaic: jump in the air and desperately look for help. that worked VERY well when the help was shaquille o'neal, who could gather any garbage pass tobe threw, and then bring the rim down with a thundering dunk.

what happened to the "penetration" skills when tobe didn't have a HOF C to pass to? 'nuff said.

now that there appears to be a C who can clean up tobe's mess, we should see a return to the mid-air idiotics and getting trapped underneath the backboard with no where to go...

 

[xfactor]

I gotta agree with your assessment on Bynum. We saw him tonight and he's got a lot of potential. The guy is a lot stronger than I thought and moves well for a big guy (although he is 19). He's more of an asset than Kwame Brown is already because of his hands and his confidence (two things Kwame doesnt have)

The kid is still years away from being an impact player as he's playing right now on raw talent with limited basketball IQ. But once he gets rid of the highschool basketball tendencies he could be a 20-10 guy easy.

 

[Havoc]

I gotta agree with your assessment on Bynum. We saw him tonight and he's got a lot of potential. The guy is a lot stronger than I thought and moves well for a big guy (although he is 19). He's more of an asset than Kwame Brown is already because of his hands and his confidence (two things Kwame doesnt have)

The kid is still years away from being an impact player as he's playing right now on raw talent with limited basketball IQ. But once he gets rid of the highschool basketball tendencies he could be a 20-10 guy easy.

Yeah, pretty much. I think it's fair to say that the Laker's last game against Portland just didn't go as well, although it was the same way last year. Bynum didn't really have a good game; he didn't reach his average ppg, which would explain the 11-point loss (he had two points and far more fouls).

Pretty decent production from everyone else. I'm expecting the Lakers to take this one back against Detroit. It'll be interesting to see how they (Pistons) perform with someone else in Wallace's spot.