even playoffs... you can tell Phil Jackson has what it takes to outcoach D'Antoni. Odom has a blast.. Kobe... now if Bynum didnt get injured he would put up huge stats in a series too.. Lakers threw big players inside and it actually challenged the Suns... with Bynum who can put up 20/10... Lakers can and will beat the Suns, if D'Antoni coached the way he does.
No one can tellt his early in the year what will be, no not even you. The lakers have something to prove and are playing like it, that is very well. The same is true of the celtics. The mavs, suns and spurs know that what they have to prove can only happen in the post season, so they are not playing at as high a level. We shall see in the postseason. As far as NBA coaching, most overrated job in sports. Mor than any other sport its the players not the coach. All the "great" coaches have had top 20 talent, go figure. PJ has had so much talent(even top 10 all time) to work with, who knows what he would do with a lesser team. Pop has only had David Robinson and Tim Duncan, lets see what he can do with the Bobcats talent. Suddenly Doc Rivers is a good coach with KG Ray and Allen added to the team. Sure basketball coaching matters, but talent is clearly more important. Many on this board think the suns have the best talent, but realistically only amare is a blue chip go to guy, and he has serious flaws in his(defensive) game. How many teams out there would start Raja at the '2' guard, he's probably not even top 15 in the NBA at that position. the only suns starters that would start for most NBA teams are amare, Nash and Marion, and Marion wouldnt play PF for most teams. Everyone forgets the "suns effect", everybody has career years here. Some of you guys think the stats are comparable to what these guys would do on other teams. I am a long term suns fan, and I love watching these guys play, but the talent on this team is not as good or deep as some people think.
lakers suns
c bynum amare edge suns, but not a big one(like kwame)
PF odom marion even
sf walton hill edge suns
sg kobe Raja big edge lakers
PG fisher Nash big edge suns
bench
radmonovich barbosa
ariza diaw
farmar skinner
turiaf banks
kwame (pike, DJ, marks)
vujacic
When I look at these rosters, the suns have a slight edge on the starters, but its clear the lakers bench is better than the suns bench, offensively AND defensively, and not by a little. The addition of ariza really helps the lakers match up defensively with swing players and adds speed. farmar is just worlds better than the suns backup PG comittee. Depth at the 4, 5 potitions is way better for the lakers. And then there is kobe who has adjusted his game to help the team, who would have thought he would do that. The lakers should be very good, the talent is there, PJ probably gets more credit than he deserves for that. That is a talented, deep roster, and farmar is one of the best backup PG's in the league right now.
As usual in the NBA one injury can change everything, and now is not the time to be peaking as a team as the suns know all too well. We shall see come the postseason.
