giri said:
Lakers want to bring bynum off the bench, he pouts and plays shit getting nancy over not starting. Lakers want to play through pau because he's smarter and better passer, drew whines and pouts about not getting touches so doesn't play on the other end. On a defending champion team struggling at the time, he makes a fantastic comment "Why do i force the shot when i'm double teamed? i don't see the ball much between kobe and pau, so when i get it, i'm taking a shot". Bynum specifically re-scheduled his surgery for later so he could go to the soccer world cup or what ever it was, it was his decision. The list goes on. Do you know what sof mentally means? Lack of competetive drive, lack of wanting to play as part of the team, lack of wanting to rehab 100% and become stronger and better, not giving up on one end because you haven't got it going on the other. Yeah, that all SCREAMS future corner stone. Where do i sign up, and where are the car flags kept?
Bynum never whined about coming off the bench. Where are you getting this from. When this 1st came about, Lamar was the one who complained at first and then accepted it. The plan was always to put Pau at PF because Pau plays like a PF, not a center.
When Bynum came off the bench to start this season (coming back from injury) he made zero complaints and even said he should come off the bench until Phil's thinks it's time.
As for touches, almost always when Bynum complained about touches, he almost never singles himself out. He often says something like "the ball needs to go inside more, whether it's Pau or me, we have an advantage there." Numerous times when he's complained, he's said Pau should get more touches too.
Bynum has improved every season in the league. He doesn't lack a competitive drive. He also played the entire playoffs hurt. How is that soft?
Soft is Vince Carter, who gets a hangnail and asks to be out for a few weeks. Soft is not wanting to take contact. Soft is being too mentally weak to handle the pressure, not scoring 20 points in the NBA Finals on a bum leg. Bynum has never "given up" on one end because the other isn't going.
Which is funny, because that was a criticism of Lamar (if he didn't rebound early, he'd stink) and Pau being soft, which he proved the naysayers wrong.
Labeling Bynum soft makes no sense. He played his heart out last playoffs on one leg.
You're right, Bynum re-scheduled to go to the World Cup. He's was 22 and deserved to go to such an event with his friends. I was 22 once too, so I understand. He asked Phil and Mitch about it
first which you neglect to mention. The doctor then re-scheduled later which is why he took as long as it did.
Arguing the defense of one person, by a team metric, is extremely flawed. Guess what, most second units ARE better defenders than the starters. Thats why i don't bother arguing with you on this, it's pointless. For every defensive lapse hibbert has, bynum has one also, you were trying to say he's a good Defensive C, other than his height, he's regularly out of position, as much as hibbert, and bring not much else.
You realize Bynum is black and Pau is white, right? I'm not sure you do. Pau is the one who is often out of position.
You're argument about the defense is wrong. Here are starting Cs whose defense is better when on the court: Chandler, Bynum, Perkins (Boston), Bogut, Duncan, Horford, Gortat (Phx).
All of those Cs are considered defensive (with Bynum being argued here). So Hibbert and Lopez are just unfortunate flukes? The only defensive minded C that didn't fit the bill was Noah and Dwight and that was only because Asik actually seems to be an excellent defensive C and Gortat filled in most of the year for Dwight plus he plays some 90% of non-garbage time (and in both cases the defensive numbers while not as good are still actually good.
Johan Petro plays the minutes behind Lopez. Your argument is that he's a great defensive player? Or is it the other bench players, like Farmar, Vujacic, Outlaw, Morrow, graham? Not enough lols.
Behind Hibbert is Jeff Foster or Sam Jones. Again, these guys are great at D?
Lopez... Thats a whole different argument. That whole team has problems, but to deny his offensive talent would be unjust. That teams is shit on D, has an overall lack of talent, and he has played like a zombie all year.
I've already given his efficiency on offense a pass and mentioned his skill is there. But his defense is atrocious. Forget the rest of the team. Dude moves laterally as slow as a snail. He gets spun around all the time on post-ups.
You argued chandler with someone else, but chandler anchors a defense, bynum is a role player in it. There's a huge difference, but i wouldn't expect someone who uses team stats for player arguments to understand that.
Bynum anchors the Lakers defense. Even Phil has said as much. the entire defense is geared towards shuffling the players into him at certain angles. The Lakers play a different defense when he's out of the game until the AS break (also something the coaching staff admits, but was pretty obvious). Now the defense is about the same because he plays with the bench more often, though the "anchor" has a different role when he's out (often this is Lamar). When Bynum is in we funnel to him, when Lamar and Pau are in Lamar is plays a zone waller as I call it (his job is to zone on his own by blocking angles to the basket).
That's not to say Chandler isn't more important to his team's defense because he is, due to the other players. Lakers have Artest and Lamar who are better on defense than anyone Chandler has.
Fisher-Bryant-Artest-Odom-Gasol - 103
Fisher-Bryant-Artest-Odom-Bynum 90
To deny his impact would be like staring at the sun and saying it's dark outside. There are no bench players there to claim. That's real impact. And it's the same each of these past 3 seasons with the same other 4 players.
here's what confuses me. Pau and Bynum play on the same team. Pau is an average defender. Everyone knows this. Now, he's elite on offense when he gets the chance to score, but on defense he's average. His length is his main asset, but he gets backed down, often is missing in space, and doesn't protect the rim very well. Bynum plays on the same team. YOU CAN SEE THE DIFFERENCE IN AN AVERAGE DEFENDER VERSUS BYNUM. The distinction is as clear as day.
If Hibbert or Lopez are better than Bynum, I'd have to assume that you also think they're better than Pau (since Pau is obviously worse at defense than Bynum and you said Bynum sucks). But there's no way you actually believe that because Pau is obviously a top tier big, which actually leads me to believe you have no idea what you're talking about at all when it comes to Bynum.
I'm sorry, but if you truly think Hibbert is better than Drew, either time to let go of the hate or reassess how you watch basketball.
