Lakers Bench

[zeketaylor]

San Antonio, Houston, Utah, New Orleans, Portland, Phoenix and maybe even Denver could all beat LA in the playoffs and I wouldn't be surprised at all. I would not make any of those teams favored over LA, but all could beat them without surprise. Denver with AI I would say would have no shot, but they are much, much better with Billups than they were with Iverson. The West is up for grabs this year.

The East will win the title though. Boston, Detroit and Cleveland could all beat any West team.

ok...i like that your comments are stimulating debate, but lemme ask u this...

how is denver better without iverson, and a tuffer playoff team, yet d etroit is a contender that can beat the lakers?

I dont even necessarily agree that the lakers are the team to beat, like the others in the thread....But detroit is good why?They are worse since the chauncy trade, and i dont see it being a matter of improving chemistry once iverson gels with them....he was a bad acquisition....it wont ever fit.

And your mention of phnx? they are terrible. Nash is no longer even close to the best pg in the league, they start grant hill for god sakes, and shaq makes any team worse that he is on....they are WORSE THAN DETROIT IS. This thread was originally about the laker bench, and I find it appropo to mention i think the lakers second team could place 2 starters on the suns starting 5.

 

[OTK]

ok...i like that your comments are stimulating debate, but lemme ask u this...

how is denver better without iverson, and a tuffer playoff team, yet d etroit is a contender that can beat the lakers?

I dont even necessarily agree that the lakers are the team to beat, like the others in the thread....But detroit is good why?They are worse since the chauncy trade, and i dont see it being a matter of improving chemistry once iverson gels with them....he was a bad acquisition....it wont ever fit.

And your mention of phnx? they are terrible. Nash is no longer even close to the best pg in the league, they start grant hill for god sakes, and shaq makes any team worse that he is on....they are WORSE THAN DETROIT IS. This thread was originally about the laker bench, and I find it appropo to mention i think the lakers second team could place 2 starters on the suns starting 5.

- I agree it was a bad trade and Detroit is worse off with AI on the team rather than Billups. You will never hear me say otherwise. I was against the trade right when I heard it and was upset because I have Detroit futures. With that said they still have a team that can win the title, they just aren't as good as they could have been.

- Phoenix is a good team. They are not a dominant team and I would definitely have them as dogs to almost any other playoff team in the West, BUT they certainly could compete with the Lakers and possibly beat them in a series. I was simply naming teams that COULD win in a series, not teams that likely would. Phoenix would probably have the worst shot of the teams I listed, but still have a shot. I disagree about Shaq too. He can still make an impact and I would take him on my team any day. He's no Howard, Duncan or Garnett, but he's still a big body in the middle that can really play well at times.