Lakers need to upgrade their point guard. Fisher and Farmar have the lowest PER in the league. Literally. I'm not making things up. They are the two worst point guards in the league. Ya Fisher is clutch, but he wouldn't have to be clutch if he could get in front of his man. PG penetration is the Lakers weakness. I don't know why they don't start Shannon Brown at the point. He is at least quick and strong enough to prevent opposing PG's from putting up hall of fame stats.
Vujacic/Farmar and Morrison will be traded for Kirk Heinrich. Mark my words. But I'd prefer Devin Harris.
I see your point regarding Fisher/Farmar, to be sure. But as far as the offense is concerned the PG in the system should be a game manager, nothing more. A player with the ability to make open jump shots, a transition 3 here and there, facilitate Kobe and the bigs and stay out of the way. You mentioned earlier that you would prefer Devin Harris as PG for the Lakers, and I understand where you're coming from but, and follow me here, Harris is too good of a PG to play for the Lakers. And ultimately his talent would either be wasted, as the PG in the Lakers' triangle should be "seen and not heard" so to speak, or his presence would throw off the whole chemistry the team is working with right now.
As well, I see your point regarding starting Shannon at the point, but in all reality he's a better 2 guard. And with his athletic ability, slasher style of play and ability to play off the ball, his skills too, would be minimized and ultimately wasted at the PG position. Not to mention that he lacks the ball handling ability and passing skills to be an effective facilitator (at least in a starting role) in the Lakers' version of the triangle.
As for the comment you made about the Lakers' biggest weakness being centered around opposing PG penetration, I couldn't agree more. To see a team with three 7 footers (if you're going to count Mbenga, which I like to do because saying your team has 3 7'ers always sounds better) and incredible defensive players like Artest and slightly better than average defensive players like Odom allow so much dribble penetration into the lane resulting in either drive/kick scenarios or PGs finishing in the lane is an absolute joke. But all I have to say to that is: When has defense ever really been a realistic part of the Lakers gameplan? It pisses me off at times, but the Lakers are an offensive team. They have been since the Showtime era and continue to be today. The only time their lack of denfense (Esp. PG penetration) matters, is when they shoot lower than 45-50% from the field and aren't hitting their freethrows; which does happen, but thankfully, not all that often and usually never over a long enough stretch to where an opposing team could take enough advantage of it to take the Lakers in a 7 game series. And as a fellow Laker fan I'm sure you realize and agree: Winning playoff series' and ultimately more rings is all that matters!
Go, Lakers!
