WOW Kobe made Gasol, Bynum, LO, Artest, Ariza champions...HOW?

[longtime lurker]

Those teams fit perfectly around Bryant.

Also, Phil Jackson really helped a lot too.

Good non biased way to look at it.

[tpols]

of course Kobe made life easier on them though...they played in perfect roles next to an alpha like Kobe. Odom is the perfect 3rd do it all option and Gasol (in his prime) was easily the best 2nd option in the league
..

Youre right, they defintely arent bums especially in that system.

As standalone players, Odom is a fringe all star type.. hes not really highly motivated, seems to coast on his own off his own talents. Pau is a top 5 super skilled PF but he lacks ability to put a team on his shoulders and is vulnerable to getting punked.

It's the combination of styles under great coaching that made them succeed.


It couldve been Z-Bo/Odom, West/Odom, Amare/Odom, Bosh/Odom, Aldridge/Odom, etc. When you stack two offensively skilled all star big men next to Kobe and let them feed off the triangle and the extra offensive rebounding opportunities you're going to see a team thats tough to beat.


Best fit out of those imo is Z-Bo/Odom.. cant even imagine how much that guy would feast on the boards with the defense sucked out to the perimeter and single coverage everytime. He'd be a legit like 18-19/13 player and Lakers would dominate boards even more. And his legacy would skyrocket.

[Yao Ming's Foot]

Odom wasn't a fringe all star. He was Michael Beasley for the Heat.

[HorryIsMyMVP]

It is more a testament to the triangle and Phil Jackson's coaching. What did Kobe do with Mike Brown? Has Kobe ever won a ring with out Phil Jackson? The answer is no. Kobe is one of the players on a list of bums that Phil got the most out of.

[scott0326]

Trevor Ariza has actually been fantastic this year..

[Myth]

Best fit out of those imo is Z-Bo/Odom.. cant even imagine how much that guy would feast on the boards with the defense sucked out to the perimeter and single coverage everytime. He'd be a legit like 18-19/13 player and Lakers would dominate boards even more. And his legacy would skyrocket.

I disagree. Z-Bo struggles way too much on defense, even compared to Pau. Pau's length on defense was very vital.

[Genaro]

What shocks me the most is the 2008 run to the finals. That in my opinion is Kobe's peak.
The starting 5 had Fisher - Kobe - Radmanovic - Odom - Pau
The bench was really bad.Vujacic was the best reserve . Farmar wasn't balling as today, Luke I don't have to explain and the bigman off the bench was Ronnie fcking Turiaf
Ariza and Bynum were hurt and Shannon wasn't in LA yet.

[Nash]

Wasn't Lakers one of the more stacked teams before all the superstar teams were created in the summer of 2010?

[Heavincent]

Wasn't Lakers one of the more stacked teams before all the superstar teams were created in the summer of 2010?

Not really, no. Celtics, Nuggets, and Suns were all capable of beating the Lakers. It was a level playing field.

It's kind of hard for me to call a team with only one superstar "stacked", although I guess the definition of stacked differs depending on who you ask.

[The-Legend-24]

And on the other end, you have Lebron, who needed a god damn all star team to win.

[Nash]

Not really, no. Celtics, Nuggets, and Suns were all capable of beating the Lakers. It was a level playing field.

It's kind of hard for me to call a team with only one superstar "stacked", although I guess the definition of stacked differs depending on who you ask.

Yeah, obviously behind Celtics. But they still had Kobe and Gasol, two legit superstars with Odom, Artest and Bynum the 2nd time as big support. At that time there wasn't that many teams who could line up with two legit stars.

[moe94]

Not really, no. Celtics, Nuggets, and Suns were all capable of beating the Lakers. It was a level playing field.

It's kind of hard for me to call a team with only one superstar "stacked", although I guess the definition of stacked differs depending on who you ask.

Gasol was a better second option than anyone else had and it's not even close.

[TheMarkMadsen]

Yeah, obviously behind Celtics. But they still had Kobe and Gasol, two legit superstars with Odom, Artest and Bynum the 2nd time as big support. At that time there wasn't that many teams who could line up with two legit stars.

[Nash]

Sorry, I meant stars.

[Heavincent]

But they still had Kobe and Gasol, two legit superstars

You have an extremely broad definition of the word superstar if you consider Gasol to be one.