The “Keep Lamar in L.A Fund”

I go by the name of Gils_Keloids on the Silver Screen and Roll forum (no official affiliation).

I just thought of a crazy idea that won’t harm anyone and combines two of my favorite things: Lakers Basketball and helping those in need.

I think it’s pretty easy to set up a donation account on Paypal.

This will be a great way to show Lamar your appreciation while also contributing to a good cause.

So here’s the deal: I will accept any and all donations to the Keep Lamar in LA Fund. If Lamar ends up signing with Los Angeles, I will donate all of the funds, every single penny, to the charity of his choice (I guess I can ask through his Twitter account, which is verified). If he doesn’t sign with LA, all of the money will still go to charity -I guess we can have a vote here or on SSR (or somewhere else if the SRR moderator doesn’t approve of this lame-brained idea).

How do you know all of the funds will go to charity? You will just have to trust me. I am blessed right now to have enough money that more is not going to make me any happier (It’s all mental). I also wouldn’t do something as douchey as taking funds that I have promised to give to charity. I will donate the funds within 30 days after his signing, and if Lamar is with the Lakers, the donation will be in his name, to the charity of his choice. If he doesn’t want to choose, we’ll decide with a vote here, just as we would if he signs elsewhere. I don’t anticipate that it should be too acrimonious to vote on a charity, but if it is, I’ll have final say as to which charity the money will go to (and it will be a credible one).

I wish I had thought of this earlier. Now I almost hope this drags on, so we can collect the most donations!

Who knows, it might only be $15 bucks, it might be thousands, but however big or little, it will all go to a deserving charity.

I wonder if Stern will find someway to ruin my fun, which will be for a great cause no matter where Lamar signs!

I’ll guess I’ll start and add $20 bucks to the pot. I’ll keep you updated on the size of the fund (UPDATE: I just tried to donate with my credit card, but it won’t let me unless I make a new account, Paypal also won’t let me donate to myself using Paypal. I’ll have to remember to add $20 to whatever we end up collecting.)

Who knows maybe someone in Miami will do the same, and we can compete, I can’t think of anything better!

The button is on the upper right sidebar.

Telecommuting Coach?

If you are a good Lakers fan, you should know by now that Phil Jackson is not traveling with the team as they go up north to face the Portland Trailblazers.  His foot is giving him trouble, in the form of plantar faciatis. In his stead, Kurt Rambis will be directing the Lakers’ efforts against Brandon Roy and his band of Laker killers.

Vic the Brick asked Phil last night after the game if he had any words of advice for Kurt in coaching tonight’s game. Phil replied, “Yes, and it’s none of your business.”

But why does Phil need to only give advice to Rambis? With today’s technology, couldn’t he just coach the Lakers from his couch in Santa Monica, or wherever it is he lives? Kurt Rambis would be his avatar as Phil text messaged or even called him with commands. Kurt could still rally the troops with select messages about their energy and execution. But with a phone call or text, Phil could direct the substitutions and timeout calls, and influence the Lakers overall strategy. They could put a big dummy to sit on that high throne he has. No one would notice. It’s not like he would do this every game, just a few games a year.

Lots of people telecommute to work. Why can’t Phil Jackson?

The MVP Award and Top Gun

Does this make Bynum "Goose"?

It’s looks like the MVP Award is all but engraved with Lebron James’ name on it.

But I’ve seen this movie before in the 80s. It was called Top Gun, Lebron James is Iceman, and Kobe Bryant is Maverick.

If you recall in Top Gun, Iceman wins the award at the Top Gun academy, but when they have to see real action, who do they rely on to save the day? Maverick.

In the same way, Lebron can have the MVP award. He racked up the most points in flight school.

But I’m going to face the fight with the best player in the NBA, not the most decorated. Kobe Bryant is the guy you’re going to count on in battle.

Raja Bell on What It’s Like to Guard Kobe

Nice Q&A with the Bobcats’ Raja Bell.

Good to see the respect and professionalism from Bell, considering the clothesline of 2006 and subsequent trash talk.

Random Thoughts as Playoffs Approach

• It’s hard for me to believe that Cleveland will not lose another home game to tie the record for the best home record all-time. That record is held by the 1986 Boston Celtics, who went 41-1. So, the Lakers have history on their side. The Cavs should falter at least one more time at home, I’m thinking it will be against San Antonio, Boston, or Detroit – hopefully, all three!
• Triple doubles are overrated. It all depends on the system. Did you know that Michael Jordan had 15 triple doubles in one season? That was before Phil Jackson and the triangle offense. The very next season, Phil’s first with the Bulls, MJ had one triple double.
• Wouldn’t it be great if the Lakers won the title this year without Andrew Bynum? I wouldn’t mind them winning with Drew, but it would be sweet vindication for last year’s team, instead of , “hey they added a great player!”
• Tony Parker has a Finals MVP
• I wonder what next year’s Lakers roster is going to look like …

Steroids in the NBA?

Reading the link from Truehoop on performance enhancing drugs, I was first surprised that David Stern’s hair looked blond in the photo, and then I was surprised by this line in the article: “…only three players – Matt Geiger, Don MacLean and Soumaila Samake – are known to have been suspended for an infraction since the NBA began its checking process for performance enhancers in 1999.”

What?

Matt Geiger,  Don Maclean, and Soumaila Samake?

My initial reaction was: Who is Soumaila Samake? Then quickly followed by: if these guys were taking performance enhancers, and we didn’t consider them to have freakish bodies or athletic abilities, then there have got to be players in the NBA taking performance enhancers,  including guys we would not have normally had any suspicion about.

I don’t believe for a second that the players police themselves since the testing is so lax, and I don’t believe that performance enhancers could not help in basketball. PEs don’t just put on muscle mass, they can increase recovery time from injuries, increase explosiveness, make you run faster, jump higher.  Hearing the argument that “they won’t help you shoot” in basketball is as laughable a statement as “they won’t help you hit” in baseball was. Right, it won’t help you shoot better, but you could get  your shot off quicker and jump higher on your shot!

Supplemental Defensive Statistics

Lakers

Wolves

Hornets at Lakers

Hornets at Lakers 2/20/09

New Defensive Statistics

With all of the hubbub over the “new” statistics of Moneyball being applied to basketball, I thought I would give a stab at keeping some of my own statistics during the Lakers game against the Warriors tonight.  I only kept stats for the Lakers’ defense and not the Warriors because, well, because I’m lazy. My secret hope is that I will inspire someone else to do this type of work, and maybe someday the NBA will adopt these “new” stats! I absolutely do not guarantee the accuracy of these stats (a few are pretty subjective, but then again, so are assists!)  but they’re interesting nonetheless.  The stats I chose to keep track of can be best described as “supplemental defensive statistics”, as they complement the standard stats. For example, contested shots would complement blocked shots, as blocks would not be counted in the contested shots total.

I guess the best place to start is with definitions:

• Contested rebounds – This is only measuring defensive contested rebounds, as I would assume that most offensive rebounds are contested. If a Warrior was in the vicinity of the Laker and/or the Laker got the rebound as a result of boxing out, I marked down a “contested rebound” for him.
• Missed rebound – Again, this only applies to times that the Warriors got an offensive rebound. I had to assign responsibility as to which Laker missed the rebound, either by not boxing out, or by losing control of the rebound.
• Contested shots – The amount of times a Laker made an aggressive attempt to block a shot, not counting actual blocks, regardless of the outcome of the shot. Forwards and centers will naturally have more of these due to their respective roles in the interior of the defense.
• Deflections – This was awarded anytime a Laker tipped the ball while on defense, yet the Warriors still kept possession. This would include times that a Laker tipped the ball out of bounds while on defense. Like blocks, actual steals are not counted as deflections.

Lakers at Warriors 2/18/2009

So, what’s interesting here?

As expected, Odom and Gasol contested the most shots at the forward and center position. Out of the perimeter players Farmar contested the most shots, but of course, this stat could also be a measure of how many times the player Farmar was defending shot.

Kobe and Ariza live up to our expectations as guys who get their hands on the basketball on the defensive side, as Kobe had 3 deflections to go along with his 3 steals, and Ariza had 2 deflections to go with his 2 steals.

Lamar missed only one defensive rebound, but Pau did allow the Warriors to take away three rebounds that should have been his.

What’s surprising (or not, to some astute observers) is that the veteran perimeter team of Kobe and Fisher combined for 8 missed rebounds on the defensive end! They didn’t frequently box out, and sometimes even failed to jump for the ball with a Warrior in the vicinity.  But Fisher fared much better than Kobe in the contested rebound category, which means that two of Kobe’s three defensive rebounds could have been easily picked up by another Laker player, but all three of Fisher’s defensive rebounds were a direct result of his aggresiveness to gain possession of the ball.

There’s a lot more to the interpretation of these stats I’m sure, – per minute, pace, matchups, and like I said, I was too lazy to keep track of the Warriors stats, so you can’t compare their same stats, but I thought this was a good start, and fun way to look at the defense! I’ll try to keep it up the rest of the season, but no promises.

What is Magenta?

Non-basketball related link for today:

Our minds make up the color pink.