Steve Blake will be a good back up to D-Fish? WHAT!? START THIS GUY!

Ever since I saw Steve Blake play for the Clippers live, I've been so high on him. I argued that he ran a better offense than Baron Davis. Twice. I wanted the Clippers to trade Baron Davis for a good post player and hand over the reigns to Steve Blake. He's a great personality. Works hard even for the lottery bound Clippers, even as a back up PG. Yes it was a contract year, but Steve Blake has always been known as a good character guy and good professional.
Gut reactions to the signing:

He's a pass first guy and that will work well in the Laker offense:

• Fact. He is a pass first, almost to a fault. He barely looks at the basket and is always looking around to find open men. But he's so much more than that. He's a GOOD passer. If it wasn't for Kobe and Shannon Brown's hectic ability to grab errant lobs, a lot of those high low passes from Pau at the free throw line and Luke Walton from the 3 point line would have sailed out of bounds. Steve Blake throws a GREAT lob pass, in transition and in half court sets. Granted Shannon will probably leave for more money, Andrew Bynum is a good target to pass to on the lob.
  
• Steve Blake is a great pick and roll passer. And with his ability to knock down a jump shot, if teams cheat and go under the screen set most likely from Pau Gasol or Andrew Bynum, he'll make you pay for it. Granted most all pick and roll situations come from Kobe Bryant, this will probably rarely happen. But if Blake plays with the 2nd string players, depending on who else they sign, it adds more to the Laker offense arsenal.
  
• To sum it up, he makes the right pass, but in addition, that right pass is a GOOD pass in the receiver's comfort zone, making him able to finish the play correctly.

He's a good shooter.

• Fact. Albeit he's more of a spot up shooter. He can create his own shot but mainly off of screens but he's a good catch and shoot shooter, from 3 point line and midrange.
  

He's a good defender.

• Depends who you ask. He's a pesky defender but if an oversized point guard posts him up, he'll need help. He's got a small frame at 6'3 172 lbs (compared to Fisher 6'1 210 lbs). But he does have the ability to keep his man in front of him.
• However, he is a smart defender. He knows how to rotate on defense and isn't afraid (on the Clippers at least) to tell people quickly where they need to be on defense while the ball is in play. If he plays with Lamar, I have a feeling the other 3 guys on the floor at the time will always know where they're supposed to be as Lamar takes a lot of pride in team defense as well.
  

He's got a high basketball IQ.

• Fact. Refer to what I said about his passing.
  
• But also, he knows basketball situations. He knows how to use his fouls, knows how to foul to stop a fast break. Knows where his teammates are going to be and knows how to play basketball the right way.
  
• The way I see it, he's a poor man's Chauncey Billups playing for Larry Brown on the Pistons. Except he's playing for the rich Lakers and still took a pay cut due to their payroll to the Laker core.

Final argument. Look, Fisher did great this playoffs. He was the MVP of game 3 in the Finals. But you cannot, YOU ABSOLUTELY CANNOT, ignore the 82 game season. Fisher was a liability on defense and shot poorly compared to his last couple of years (38% FG, 34% 3pt). The argument for Fisher is that he's clutch. Ok, yeah, he's clutch. But do you need a clutch player who hits big shots for 82 games of the season when you have so many other weapons and are probably going to/should be winning games with a comfortable lead with the players the Lakers have? No.

However, during the playoffs, you will need clutch performers and Fisher is exactly that, which is why the Lakers should still keep him. He needs to be relegated to the bench so that he can save his legs for the playoffs. He needs to do what is best for the team as Lamar did in 2008 and was benched for yes, Vladamir Radmanovic. Later that season, Lamar was still benched in favor of yes, Luke Walton. Luke Walton later told Jackson he should be starting Trevor Ariza. Lamar did what his team asked him to do and it ended up in a championship. Fisher needs to do what Ron Artest did for the Lakers this season, took a pay cut to chase a ring and took a lesser role as not the number 1 option on offense but still performed. He did what his team asked him to do and it ended up in a championship.

As a Laker fan, and a Steve Blake fan, I'm so happy right now. I just feel that if they do sign Fisher and he starts, somewhere in the middle of the season, there will be talks of who should be starting at point guard. Why can't we just sidestep all of that and start Steve Blake at the end and have Fisher be the hero during the playoffs?

Regardless of what happens, here's to you, Steve Blake. I hope you get a championship ring and thank you taking less money.

Who says the Lakers can't play in this summer's free agency!?

(Photo from LA Times)
The Lakers have 3 point guards: Derek Fisher, Jordan Farmar, and Shannon Brown. Derek fisher is a free agent this summer. Jordan Farmar will be a restricted free agent, and Shannon Brown can opt out of his contract and look for work elsewhere, or sign a bigger contract. The rest of the team is pretty much set in stone barring any trade, injury, or Kobe not singing an extension (and playing in Italy!? No). But the Lakers have some questions about their PG future.

Question 1 Do they bring Fisher back at a fraction of his current $5 million a year for a couple more years?
Pros: He's a Laker veteran who knows what to do in Phil Jackson's triangle offense. He can hit clutch 3 pointers.
Cons: He's a liability on defense and his offense isn't that great this season either.
If I'm the Lakers: I don't think so. At least not as a starter. Fisher's been exposed his whole career on the defensive end but this season in particular, he's been getting beat very easily by other PGs. Plus, his offensive number have taken a hit as well.

Question 2: If he doesn't opt out of his contract (which he probably will, can't really bank on $2 million for one year and that's it... for an NBA player), Do the Lakers give the reigns to Shannon Brown?
Pros: He's a high flying dunk act but has been working on his jump shot and can hit a 3 pointer if given enough space. He's a good defender and is big (6'4" 210 lbs) and won't get posted up easily.
Cons: He still seems like a raw talent guy even though he's been in the league since 2006 (drafted 1 pick before Farmar, in fact).
If I'm the Lakers: Not the reigns. I'd keep him on the bench if I can't find a better starting PG. He's a scorer, not a distributor and in the triangle offense, he makes some bad decisions by taking off balance shots without first passing to Pau or Bynum in the post. First thing that comes to mind in comparisons is JR Smith-ish in that he's gonna shoot the ball.

Question 3: Do they give the reigns to the team to 2006 draft pick Jordan Farmar?
Pros: he's a push the ball up the court kinda guard, can create his own shot, and makes nice passes. He's been with the team for 4 years and knows the offense. He can keep up with the league's better PGs (compared to Fisher).
Cons: He's only started 2 games his entire career, both at the end of his rookie season. He's pretty small (6'2" 180 lbs).
If I'm the Lakers: This might be the best scenario. Jordan's got a good combination of speed and basketball IQ and looks to pass first as opposed to Shannon Brown who's more of a scorer/slasher. He's got a good shot including the 3 pointer.

Things to keep in mind:

• The Lakers pay roll drops from $91 million to around $77 million next year, which is still over the salary cap.
• The Lakers don't need an amazing PG who can drive and kick. This is a triangle offense team that needs their PGs to run a motion after the ball goes into the post. This is why Kobe and Lamar sometimes initiate the offense and the Lakers usually get the same result on their possession.
  
• Fisher would still be a viable option if his defense wasn't getting worse each season. What they need is a PG who can keep up with Chris Paul, Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, and Rajon Rondo.
  
• When the Lakers DO do a drive and kick kind of play, they have Kobe and Lamar (and Farmar) who can do that. Also, they run a mean pick n roll with Kobe and Pau as seen in last year's finals against the magic. You know, when they won the championship?
• Somewhat related: The Lakers have to make a not so dire decision on DJ Mbenga and Josh Powell (both getting less than $1 million this year).
• If those two don't return, they'll need to sign some bench players as Adam Morrison is for sure not coming back. Los Angeles may have to replace DJ, Powell, Morrison, the 3 PGs discussed above. But anyway...

Ideally, the Lakers would've gotten Kirk Hinrich in a another rip off type trade before the all star break (a deal was out there where the Lakers could have gotten him for Sasha and Morrison, wow.) So free agency moves aside, if the Lakers had to make a decision, there best move would be to start Farmar and have Shannon come off the bench.

Laker PG defense is suspect, as if you didn't know already

(Photo from YahooSports)
Well this sure is interesting. The defending champion Los Angeles Lakers have the second best record in the entire NBA. But after tonight's loss against the Mavericks, you have to second guess or at least take with a grain of salt, your pre season pick to repeat as champions or make the finals. Let's go through their significant losses and pick them apart a little bit:

The Losses

10/30/09 - loss to Dallas 94-80
Can you read into it? 2nd game with Ron Artest and no Pau Gasol, I'd give the Lakers a pass on this one but Marion did play good defense on Kobe that game.

11/13/09 - loss to Denver 105-79
Can you read into it? 2nd game of a back-to-back @ Denver, after handling the Suns at home. Still no Pau Gasol. But an 8 point 3rd quarter... unforgivable.

12/12/09 - loss to Utah 102-94
Can you read into it? 2nd game of a back-to-back @ Utah, after a 104-92 win over Minnesota at home. Full strength roster-wise. Just got out played. But they did beat them at home before the Minnesota game. Utah was better.

12/25/09 - loss to Cleveland 87-102
Can you read into it? Plenty of rest. Big stage. Cleveland was simply the better team.

12/28/09 - loss to Phoenix 103-118
Can you read into it? Ron Artest was out with a concussion. They were able to score but they weren't able to stop Phoenix from scoring.

1/12/10 - loss to San Antonio 85-105
Can you read into it? No Pau Gasol. No Kobe for the 4th quarter due to back spasms. That was pretty significant for this game.

1/21/10 loss to Cleveland 87-93
Can you read into it? Another game with plenty of rest. Full strength roster-wise. Tough call near the end of the game that could have been a 4-point swing when Artest was called for a foul that led to Varejao free throws when it could have gone the other way around. Still, Cleveland played great. LeBron played great. No Mo Williams.

2/5/10 loss to Denver 113-126
Can you read into it? Billups goes off with 9 3-pointers and 39 points. Lakers at full strength. Denver was the better team.

2/18/10 loss to Boston 87-86
Can you read into it? They kept it close and had a last second shot to win it, all with no Kobe. But they needed a last second shot from Kobe to win it in Boston a few weeks earlier.

2/24/10 loss to Dallas 96-101
Can you read into it? Full strength. Couldn't stop fouling a good free throw shooting team. Kept it close but took a bad 3 pointer with 25 seconds or so left. Dallas was without Caron Butler.

Records against these teams

Losing to:
Cleveland: 0-2
Denver: 0-2 (2 games remaining)
Tied with:
Dallas: 2-2
Boston: 1-1
San Antonio: 1-1 (2 games remaining)
Beating:
Utah: 2-1 (1 game remaining)
Phoenix: 2-1 (1 game remaining)

What do all of these teams have in common? All of them have PGs that torture the Lakers.
Let's take a look:

The Point Guards

Who they're currently losing to:
Denver's Chauncey Billups: 20/3/6 this season VS. 22.5/3/8 vs Lakers (39/4/8 and 6/2/8)
Cleveland's Mo Williams: 16/3/5 this season VS. 28/6/7 vs Lakers (1 game- 12/25/09)

Who they're currently tied with:
Boston's Rajon Rondo: 14/4/10 this season VS. 17.5/5/11.5 vs Lakers (14/5/11 in win, 21/5/12 in loss - both games could have gone either way)
San Antonio's Tony Parker: 17/2/6 this season VS. 21/2/7 vs Lakers (22/2/6 in win, 20/2/8 in loss)
Dallas' Jason Kidd: 10/5/9 this season VS. 4/5/9 vs Lakers (2/4/11 and 14/7/13 in wins, 0/4/5 and 11/7/11 in losses)

Who they're currently beating:
Utah's Deron Williams: 18/4/10 this season VS. 16/5/10 vs Lakers (21/4/11 in the win against LA, 11/9/10 and 17/2/8 in the losses)

Phoenix's Steve Nash: 17/3/11 this season VS. 14/1/9
(16/3/13 in the win against LA, 12/0/10 and 13/0/5 in the losses)

My conclusion: PG defense is important and a weakness for the Lakers (no I'm not going to act like I discovered Plutonium, everyone should know that PG defense is important). Everyone's ears are probably bleeding about bloggers and sports writers writing about how the Lakes were trying to trade for Kirk Hinrich from the Bulls to get a PG on ball defender to slow down the league's top PGs. Everyone knows Derek Fisher is turning 35 going on 36 in August and can't keep up with the league's top PGs. In fact, Derek Fisher is on the lower end of starting PGs when it comes to defense.

So why does he start? Because the Lakers run a triangle offense that doesn't require a drive and kick type PG and the Lakers have 7 footers to help on defense for guards that beat the Laker guards to the basket. Only these guards are All Star guards who know to pass the ball to whoever those 7 footers leave for a dunk or an open shot (as pictured above!). But are the Lakers back up PGs that much of an upgrade? Farmar who's good at driving to the basket and can make some nice passes and can create his own shot, but his defense needs work. Shannon Brown takes some bad shots on offense but his defense is better than Fisher's and Farmar's, but not by much.

Then again, that's pretty much the only hole the Lakers have (well, that and their hit or miss bench play). It's hard to say that a team with Kobe and Gasol with Andrew Bynum, Lamar Odom and past defensive player of the year and all star Ron Artest as your role players, will not make the finals. But Houston with Aaron Brooks and Denver with Chauncey Billups gave the Lakers trouble last year in the playoffs. Could Denver take the next step and dethrone them this year? We'll have to see how the next 2 games vs. Denver play out but you can almost guarantee that Billups is going to have an above average game when he plays the Lakers, as well as any other PG in the league.

(stats from Basketball Reference)