The Los Angeles Lakers had a busy offseason this past summer, but yet there is one problem they have yet to address. According to NBA.com, the Lakers still have a weak bench.
The Lakers received a 'C' as apparently, acquisitions of Jodie Meeks and Antawn Jamison have done little to improve the team's bench.
Now, after watching plenty of Laker games last season, Meeks and Jamison are absolute improvements to the bench that featured Steve Blake running the offense. His statistics improved in '12 that 2011 as he became more efficient from three, but every time Blake took a shot it seemed like he barely put enough on it.
Meeks is not a super improvement from Blake, but he does provide agility in the backcourt as the Lakers will have Steve Nash and Kobe Bryant on the floor most of the time.
He can help give Kobe breathers and hopefully help the Lakers stay in the game.
Jamison, however, will provide a scoring target for the bench players who have had trouble scoring in the past. Jordan Hill can make a difference only if he plays the way he did in the playoffs.
But then the question becomes, if Jamison attracts a double-team, then who else is going to score?
Hopefully the Lakers combo of Nash, Howard and Kobe can put enough points on the board so that they can at least rest 2 minutes of a quarter to catch a breather without watching the lead disappear. Not to mention Pau Gasol looked great in the Olympics and Metta World Peace should handle business on defense.
Laker fans would probably tell you, "Who needs a bench when you have that trio!?"
For the rest of their grades, the Lakers received an A for Backcourt, an A- for Frontcourt, a B for Defense and Coach. Somehow that evaluation wound up as an overall "A" grade for their summer assessment, which seems fairly generous considering the grades they received in each category.
