Re: Veterans

[opi@unesco.org]

Bob Miller wrote:

> And a veteran who's a winner. One great advantage the C's have had in
> the past is the continuity in tutelage from veteran winners to the
> young players. It's interesting to look at the Lakers this year: they
> added THREE veterans who have played an active role in winning
> championships (Harper, A.C., Salley).

I've always wanted to mention the following statistic. The Lakers ended
last year as one of the league's worst defensive teams, allowing .441
shooting in a low-scoring league (just a fraction better than the
bottom-feeding Celtics at .443). As we all know, this season the Lakers
have jumped up to the top three (presently #2 ahead of Portland and the
Spurs) in opposing FG% allowed (.407). The Celts, meanwhile, are tied for
the worst FG% in the league with Vancouver (.470) not counting last
night's 52% allowed against Minnesota.

Although the Lakers picked up three veterans (none younger than 35) over
the summer, the more striking thing about them is how few noticeable
changes they've actually made after all the talk of blowing up the team
(Getting Pippen or trading Rice etc.)

They basically have the same personnel.

Different coach, though. ;-)

Joe