Pharzeone wrote:

nixluva wrote:Spike should know that the Lakers have won titles with less than the best defense, but stellar offense. It's not likely that with better players that we'll be a bad defensive team again. MDA never had a bad defensive team in PHX, just not a great one. No one could get the team we had to be a good defensive team which is why we have cleaned house.

I disagree about that. Cooper was a great individual defender and you had guys on the bench like Jordan and Rambis whose only purpose was to play defense. That's all they were counted on doing. Besides Kareem and Magic actually played good defense at their positions. Magic ranked in the top 10 for point guards in steals and rebounds. Kareem ranked in the top for centers with 2 blocks per game. The biggest difference is post defense. The Lakers as a whole were top in block shots and post defense in the league. Which is the opposite of for D'Antoni's Suns teams. He is more concern about perimeter defense than post defense. The opposite holds true for Riley.

If you are looking for a team to compare D'Antoni's Suns to you should try Doug Moe's Nuggets. D'Antoni has said he learned a lot from Moe actually while he was with the Nuggets organization. Moe's Nuggets made it to the playoffs with tremendous offense on a regular basis but the Lakers normally shut down their offense in the playoffs.

Could not agree with you more
well said

LA showtime team had great defenders like Cooper and HOF Kareem Jabaar
the guards were not bad as Magic J was above avg defender

The current LA Kobe and Gasol team won with D
if anyone wants to fool themselves about that forget it

Gasol and Kobe are great NBA Defenders even more so in playoffs
& I dont even like either one of them as a knickman fan !