O.K. now that I've got your attention,did anyone happen to notice our lineup in the vast majority of the two overtimes in our win against Orlando Monday? Gary, Bones, Mase, Rashard, & Vin. Where's the beef folks; or more precisely, who's playing the #5 position in this "small" lineup? The answer, of course, is nobody. I think it says a lot about the state of our bigmen when Nate chooses to forgo ALL of them at money time. While CB,the second coming of Bill Russell did play a bit, Longshot, JJ, OO, & (as usual) Antonio Who vey were on the bench. Why? The soft underbelly that is our center position needs to develop some six pack abs pretty soon,or it's gonna be a long season.

Now there're a variety of responses to this. Calvin has been playing on a bad wheel, & as a perennial back up ,needs to garner experience as a starter to make his presence felt against the premier big men in the league. James looks to be in better shape than previously, but still seems to have questionable all-around skills -- enough so that it's unlikely he'll ever be a big minutes guy in the NBA. Put him in to irritate guys like Shaq with hard fouls, but don't expect him to contribute much at crunch time. Coupled with Long, the Lakers should come away from playing us this year with more ACTUAL bruises than the bruised egos they had last year. Then there's our resident "energy" guy, OO. What the hell's happened to him? Did Nate feel sorry for Antonio, & figure that was the only guy he could spare to keep Harvey company down at the end of the bench?

At any rate, if these guys were brought in to play defense, block shots, & rebound as I keep reading in the forums, what's happening? You're not gonna win many games with 29 rebounds, as we had Saturday against the decrepit Jazz. But it's more than that. No weakside help, frequent breakdowns in communication, similar lapses in boxing out, poor straight up defense, & overall a weak presence in the paint cry out to other teams that this is a lightweight group of guys. It's nothing I hope that can't be cured by physical healing & good coaching. But right now there's an expressway to the hole that goes virtually unhindered through the paint for opposing players. It's really pretty embarrassing.

And on offense, altough I see improvement over last year, the key word is still POTENTIAL. You can't expect Lewis to carry us on his back every night as he did Monday. With 5 guys getting all the minutes, you knew they were gonna be dragging against Miami. We need to develop a longer rotation along with a presence in the paint to stop us from resorting to the same tendencies that killed us last year & before. A thinned down Baker STILL forces up ill advised fade away turn arounds with a hand in his face & only makes about 30% of them. He needs to let the game come to him -- keep sinking those wide open jump shots & crash the boards for offensive rebounds.Convince teamates that he WILL pass the ball if closely guarded on the block, so keep moving. Mase is showing a surprising touch from the outside to go with his high wire act, but still needs to play more under control & spot the open man. Rashard still plays like a shooting guard despite his heighth, but hey (!), it could be a lot worse. And Gary seems to be adjusting to the idea that his days of being able to take over a game are numbered. But just as McGrady going 1 on 5 at the end of regulation in Orlando allowed us to get into overtime, GP sometimes forgets he has other options than dribbling.

But none of these problems are insurmountable (save possibly Vin). The real change has to come in the middle. Otherwise teams can play tight man taking away our strength, which is outside jumpshooting, & force our big men to become involved offensively -- something they haven't been able to do so far. Defensively it's the same problem area. As long as we allow teams to get good looks down low, extra chances from myriad offensive rebounds, & repeated trips to the charity stripe from cheap fouls -- it's gonna be a long season. We're lucky to be 2-3 now. For this team to get much above .500 we need better production from our big men on both ends of the court.

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