Lakers' Bench Mob stays on the bench

The Bench Mob got benched again in the second half of the Lakers' 101-98 overtime victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night.

[tHe-MaNg]

he Lakers' second unit didn't come close to their customary minutes as coach Phil Jackson decided it was better to put the game in the hands of the starters rather than risk a meltdown in the second half.
Ok we all know the Lakers bench sucks, so the question is what is L.A. Lakers going to do about it.I think we need to get rid of all of them with the exception of Brown he is really good

[Hawthorne Res]

get rid of Luke 'i'm only on the team because of my father' Walton

and trade Sasha for someone who can actually shoot

[Going to be a long night]

With the starters playing so many minutes yesterday, they're going to be tired vs the Rockets tonight. The bench better bring something to the table!

[zunchan]

It's easy to say their bench sucks... but are they actually given enough minutes and opportunity to get the flow of the game...? I doubt... Kobe, Artest, or Odom could be off target for the first 5-6 minutes of the game, and could fired up later. But bench? They have to make immediate impact, and that could be very difficult!

[joe]

but that's their job. To be productive during the limited time they get of playing time. Boston's bench does it. Cavs bench does it. Lakers' bench better get with it because they've been a complete disappointment so far.

zunchan wrote:

It's easy to say their bench sucks... but are they actually given enough minutes and opportunity to get the flow of the game...? I doubt... Kobe, Artest, or Odom could be off target for the first 5-6 minutes of the game, and could fired up later. But bench? They have to make immediate impact, and that could be very difficult!

[Lakers4Ever]

Our bench cannot hold leads,nor increase on them, and worse, they break the momentum created by the starting five. This also means the opposite which is they help create the momentum of the opposing team which sometimes are hard for our starting five to overcome. This could be disastrous later because this means the starters will be playing too many minutes,and will be spent come playoff time.
Please don't use the excuse that Lamar is now with the starters, because they should be evaluated on their own merit, with or without Lamar. Aren't they paid to play their roles no matter who plays with them or not?
Luke Walton, Sasha Vujacic, and Jordan Farmar have to go. They have been in this system too long to know what is expected of them, and after all this time they remain,stagnant or deteriorating. Powell has to learn to be a more consistent shooter, and provide more energy and spark of the bench ala Turiaf,Green,Rambis. We see that Brown is on his way and should greatly improve with more seasoning.Mbenga works hard and takes advantage of the few minutes given him. Morrison as a specialist/3 point shooter must take advantage of any minutes given him because he is gonna get time simply because the rest mob bench is not getting it done!

[Glen and Ruth]

They kept saying that Morrison was really improving this summer, but IF he never gets to play, how good is he going to be? He hasn't played yet.
I say, get rid of Vujacic, Luke, Benga (sp?), Powell, and Morrison....Keep Brown...He's very FAST, and they need him. Start Brown instead of Fisher. Fisher is getting up in age, and he's too short and slow.
Let's get someone who can really shoot and play defense!!

[UTOTMO]

Sasha and Farmar, you need to practice 500 shots a day using smaller basketball ring to get better.
Luke........tsk tsk tsk... I just don't know how you became NBA player. You don't even know how to shoot.

[joe]

Yes, Farmar, Walton and Sasha should be traded. But why would you trade Josh Powell. He's averaging 5.6 point per game on 61.9% shooting. He actually has a consistent 15 footer jump shot. I like Brown, he works hard and tries hard and that's all you can ask from your bench. Farmar? He's always complaining to reporters about his playing time and what he thinks would be best for the team. He needs to concentrate on improving his defense and his 35% FG perctage and let Phil Jackson do the coaching. Phil should give Adam Morrison some playing time. He'll probably average more than the 0.6 points per game sasha is giving us.
As for starting Brown over Fisher, I don't think you can undermine his role as a leader and keeping him in the starting line up is good for the rest of the team and it allows Shannon and Farmar to work harder. Although I would give Shannon more playing time. I'm really liking his 58.3% FG percentage and his athleticism. He just needs to work on his ball distribution and creating shots for his teammates.

Glen and Ruth wrote:

They kept saying that Morrison was really improving this summer, but IF he never gets to play, how good is he going to be? He hasn't played yet.
I say, get rid of Vujacic, Luke, Benga (sp?), Powell, and Morrison....Keep Brown...He's very FAST, and they need him. Start Brown instead of Fisher. Fisher is getting up in age, and he's too short and slow.
Let's get someone who can really shoot and play defense!!

[LakerFan888]

Ok, so everyone wants to get rid of Sasha, Farmar, and Luke, but how are we going to do it? No one is going to take on our bad contracts without sending back worse contracts in return. Farmar has a little bit of value since he's still in his rookie deal and might play better with a change of scenery, but you'd have to include another player to get the contracts to match up a little better. We might not see any changes until the trade deadline or after when some of the veterans might get bought out.

[joe]

You're right. The only player that other teams would be interested in is Farmar. I don't see anyone else wanted Sasha or Walton.

LakerFan888 wrote:

Ok, so everyone wants to get rid of Sasha, Farmar, and Luke, but how are we going to do it? No one is going to take on our bad contracts without sending back worse contracts in return. Farmar has a little bit of value since he's still in his rookie deal and might play better with a change of scenery, but you'd have to include another player to get the contracts to match up a little better. We might not see any changes until the trade deadline or after when some of the veterans might get bought out.