The Lakers first and second teams as of Sunday, according to the OC Register's Lakers blog:
Phil Jackson's first team: Andrew Bynum, Luke Walton, Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom, Smush Parker. The second team was: Ronny Turiaf, Brian Cook, Vladimir Radmanovic, Maurice Evans and Jordan Farmar.The other spots go to injured players: Kwame Brown, Chris Mihm, Sasha Vujacic, Shammond Williams, and Aaron McKie.
I'm actually pretty excited about that first squad. Bynum is raw, but being the opening day center is exactly how you start getting polished. Other than him, Smush is probably the weak link, and I look forward to Jordan Farmar stealing his minutes.
Maybe once Kwame or Mihm gets back they can sub so that either the center or the point guard is a rookie, but try to minimize the times when both are.
I feel Luke over Vlad is a big win, except for one thing- teams are scared of Vlad's shooting. It's convenient that Vlad's a little injured, because I think the goal is to get Luke as much playing time as possible, without revealing to the rest of the league that he's better than Vlad is. This could be one of those things I'll change my mind about, like with Rafael Furcal this year for the Dodgers.
Ronny Turiaf is not your ideal backup center, but he'll do. I know
everybody loves comparing him to Udonis Haslem, but I think he's
actually got a higher ceiling. Yes, that's hometown bias as its
finest.
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