Little early to be drinking hooch dont ya think?
How are Walton and Rush better than Odom, Payton, Fox, and Grant?
I do think Brand and Kobe would be a good combination tho.
Just because they are younger they are better than Fox & Grant. Fox was "extremely" impressive last year and will even be more so as he ages another year. Grant couldn't even put up decent numbers in the height challenged east....just wait until a steady diet of Duncan, KG, Brand, KMart, Yao, Webber, Zach, etc.
Odom had one good season in Miami...mostly as a pf in the height challenged east. Now he is back in the same neighborhood that earned him drug warnings & suspensions. Even if Kobe stays he may not be the 2nd best player on the roster.
And Payton has shown that he can regularly be beat off the dribble by over half the point guards in the NBA. Another year older, another year slower. And his outside shooting has never been his strong point.
Walton & Rush showed more ball smarts and athleticism than anyone on the Lakers roster not named Kobe last season in the playoffs. Take a deep hard look at your future westkoast.
Fox barely even played last year. There is this thing, not sure if you heard of it, but its called an injury. He played a whopping 20 minutes in the playoffs and at less than 100%.
You are drinking hooch. So much so you are swirving off topic like its a highway in Texas. What does what Brian Grant did in the east have anything to do with being better than Rush or Walton? Did they put up great numbers against the East? You cannot argue Grant is a better defender and rebounded than both of them. He is also much more expierenced and is a bigger body.
Again, Payton being beat off the dribble by Parker and Chauncey has little to do with Rush and Walton being better than he is, who again are not good defenders themselves. Rush had one real good game and a few ok ones, Walton had 1 good game and one decent one, that was it. Payton's strong point is creating off the dribble and playing screen/roll play after play. The triangle offense was not an offense his style of game was suited for, no PJ no triangle. Once the hooch wears off you will realize some of the things i am saying.
Odom, even in the red and blue, was a much better player than Rush or Walton have been so far. Again, you are commenting on what he did in a uniform you barely ever saw him play in, save 4 times a year. His numbers in MIA, which you said was his only good year, are pretty much exactly the same as they were when he was in LA, not sure what you are talking about.
Walton did show ball smarts, he is a very intelligent player but his game is still incomplete because hes doesnt have enough years under his belt. Maybe you were watching a different Rush than I was because I didnt see more ball smarts than Shaq, Payton, or Malone. Anyone who watches Laker basketball more than the playoffs will tell you Rush is one of the dumbest players on the Laker squad when it comes to on-court inteligence. How can you even talk when the only time you saw Luke and Rush play were in limited minutes comming off the bench?