Yeah, this post is kinda big. Oh well.
@Blowfish:
Aside from Jamison ,Blake ,Nash,Kobe,Gasol and Artest. The Lakers are younger than you think,Dwight Howard and our Bench are pretty young,look it up.
We just signed a back up SG named Jodie Meeks ,which means less crazy playing time for Kobe.
Also acquired Chris Duhon [[pg]] and Earl Clark [[pf]] ,who are both young up and coming role players,couple this
with Devin Ebanks and Jordon Hill [[also pretty young ]] and we have a pretty suitable bench.
Really? The bench players? Who cares? As was already mentioned, it's about where the minutes go, not who's on the bench playing minimal time. And your "young up and coming" Chris Duhon, who is by all rights a very good backup point guard, will be 30 by the time the season starts anyways.
Jamison no matter what drops 20.PPG even in his declining age of his career he averages that ,he's just never been on a great Team.
The last time he actually averaged 20+ was the 2008-2009 season, though granted he's not horribly far off. He's 36 years old and only shot 40% from the field last year, which has been trending down for 2 solid years. His rebounds have been doing the same thing, which is his next most valuable contribution to scoring. Defensively, well, he was never a great defender before and has lost a step as well. But he'll come off the bench so his age and defense won't cause as many problems. Considering his age and imminently reduced role, I won't be surprised if he doesn't even average 10 points per game this year.
Either way the "youth" Thunder didn't necessarily win the championship did they? They were beaten by the third oldest Team in the League the Miami Heat. [[who just got older too , Ray Allen 36 & Rashad Lewis ,another over thirty out of shape bum]]
Age is more of a factor for starters that are asked to play big minutes. It's much less of a factor for role players who don't have to push themselves for as long. The Thunder were considered TOO young this past year. The point is they're young enough that they're still improving each year, and they still got through the 3 older championship teams of the west in the playoffs, all in the same year. Lebron, Wade, and Bosh are all around the prime of their careers. Their #4 guy, Chalmers, is still younger.
Steve Nash was 2nd in the NBA in Assist behind Rajon Rondo.
Assists might be the single easiest stat in all of basketball to keep at a high level. And he's always been one of the best shooters alive which isn't going anywhere. His offensive game should be totally fine, especially since he doesn't rely on speed as much. But he's still 38 years old, not nearly as quick as he used to be, and last I checked he'll have to play defense as well, which wasn't his strong suit even when he was younger and faster.
Kobe was 2nd in scoring.
He also posted his lowest shooting percentage since he was 19 years old. He's "only" going to be 34 this month but he's played the minutes of a 50 year old. His motor on defense wasn't what it used to be this past season. He's still smart and effective, but I definitely noticed a dip. Finally, his ego has gotten in the way the past couple years, and the Lakers no longer seem to have anyone capable of keeping it in check without Phil Jackson around. How many playoff games did he lose them singlehandedly when he decided he should be taking every single shot in the 4th quarter this past season? I seem to recall him even getting pissed off when Blake got a pass for a wide open 3 when down by 2 with 5 seconds left to the Thunder in the playoffs. Kobe might have been able to get the offensive rebound too, but he didn't try.
Gasol's worse games are dropping double doubles.
Err, I think you have that a bit backwards. He's always good for double digit points, but in these last playoffs he had just as many single digit rebounding games as double digit rebounding games. So for the playoffs, he posted a double double exactly 50% of the time. Worse games? Those aren't the double doubles. He was a little more consistent during the regular season, but still not like he was when he was younger. I recall the Lakers saying that he doesn't play as well when he's the third option, but that's exactly what he's going to be. Maybe a real point guard can help smooth things out.
Of the over 30's, Gasol seems like the least likely to be slowed down by age this year to me.
Ron Ron still can defend with the best of them.
I couldn't disagree more, since his lateral mobility is nothing like what it used to be. They showed numerous times in the playoffs where he was only good for about one hop sideways before he had to turn his hips to keep up. His ability to pursue and defend off the ball is still very good, and hasn't declined all that much at all, but his on ball defense has become average at best. He could chase Durant around with the best of them, and then get torched trying to defend a pick and roll. Scoring wise he was posting all time lows for him all over the place last year, both by percentages and totals.
As for the stuff about Bynum, I seem to recall him really showing up for I think every single one of their playoff games this year except the closeout game against the Thunder. Howard will be a major improvement over bad Bynum, but compared to good Bynum it's much more negligible. And good Bynum is what the Lakers got in these last playoffs.
Bottom line, the Lakers are a very good team and are definitely a serious contender to win the championship. I'm not as negative on the team as I might sound since I'm doing this argumentatively. But on the flip side, their starters won't be any younger than the Celtics were this last year. Actually, thanks to Rondo they're older.