Will Bynum be the difference?

coming back from the surgery is actually going to be a big factor because the C's Tony Allen was amazing had incredable potential but then screwed his knee up and has never had confidence to drive to the hoop

now maybee bynum has more mental confidence cause the problem that happened with tony allen was even after he made a full recovery he never psychologically felt confident with it

if bynum can avoid this problem and move gasol to his power forward positions

then the Lakers will be much better

I don't doubt that the Lakers will be better with Bynum, my argument is in how much better they will be.  With 3 bigs on the court together, the lane will get quite a bit more crowded.   Gasol won't spread the floor with his 15' range.  Odum isn't quick for a 3, more like plodding.  If the lane is full of bodies, Kobe won't have the space to get to the rim, doubling him will be alot easier.  And yes, a serious knee injury could slow or reverse the progress Bynum was making this year.  You have to be fearless to meet people at the rim and the collisions that result. 

Yes, the Lakers will be big, they were this year, I was truely concerned that they would be albe to play over the top of the Celtics this year.   And, no a 23 year old center isn't going to make the Lakers a top notch defensive team by himself.

Without Bynum, they were serviceable defensively. They have some capable perimeter defenders. Their interior defense really needed fortifying though and Bynum does that.

By not rushing him back last season, I think the Lakers have allowed Bynum time to regain his confidence slowly and naturally. We'll just have to wait and see.

Also, they can always work the bigs into a rotation if it doesn't work out with them all on the floor at the same time. Odom coming off the bench is a nice possibility as long as he doesn't have a problem with it. It may actually help him from disappearing when he is on the court and it further strengthens their strong bench.

Again - there is not a great chance that Lamar is even back next season. The Lakers were two wins from being the NBA championships and in one of those losses Leon Powe put up I believe 132 points in 24 seconds of play. Bynum will make those points tougher to get - could people still get them - of course! But Bynum is a long, aggressive big man - any body remember his first play in the league? The guy blocked Shaq, ran down the court, then scored on him (of course Shaq then got angry and began to dominate) but that is nto a soft introduction into the league.

The Lakers are no worse (without Bynum) than the 3rd best team in the league and are probably the second. They just need a few breaks to go there way and they will be right there again.

OK Karl, ready now too. I basically only post at work myself. I believe that the two balls in your court right now are A) you said that all Lakers fans can't give the C's credit to whcih I replied in Billy Pilgrim style, a page before you in saying that "The Celtics were better" and 2) the whole East's Big Men are much better than the West's Big Men.