SB Nation communities are supposed to be like internet sports bars, but even within a "sports bar", you still have options. If you want privacy, one-to-one conversation, and the opportunity to engage in specific debate about a single topic, you grab a booth. If you want to shoot the shit with friends and strangers alike, you take a seat at the bar. "At The Bar" is your one-stop shop for all the daily randomness that makes SSR such a joy. If you want to discuss something specific, you'll have nice, quiet "booths" in which to have focused conversations. But if you just want to kick back and enjoy the company of friends and strangers, with a little sports and current events on the side, then saunter on up and grab a seat.

Please do not rec this post.

Number 5: Kevin Love.

Coming in at number five is Kevin Love. Kevin love has being playing phenomenally well this year.

With a PER of 25.87 he is not only efficient but a rebounding machine.

With statistics eye popping statistics that are grandiose enough to attract the causal viewer, Kevin Love is posting 25ppg, to go along with 13 boards while shooting 89% from the stripe and nearly forty percent from long range.

What hinders Love from rising any further on this list is the win column, while I don't exactly agree with best player from the best team always winning the award. The amount of losses are too much to just cast aside right now.

via www.inquisitr.com

Number 4: Chris Paul.

Next on the list is Chris Paul.

Chris has been stellar both on and off the court. On the court he is posting 19 ppg, 9 assist a game and 2.5 half steals per contest. Nothing to far from his career numbers but coupled with his leadership I say its safe ot say he is having a MVP season.

Not to mention the majority of Chris Paul's points have been in clutch situations when his team desperately needing a bucket. Chris isn't piling it up when it comes to scoring or rebounding but he doesn't have to his job is to set up his teammates. He is doing his job to near perfection from my view point.

His PER average is 27.82 while leading the Clippers to a 13-6 record that is good enough for a 2 seed in the Western Conference.

Unless Chris starts piling on more stats he has pretty much ascended as far as he can go because the rest of the field are putting out pretty heavy stat lines.

via sports.cbsimg.net

via images.askmen.com

Number 3 : Lebron James.

Now we have Lebron James. HIs position on this list will be refuted by many of you and for good reason. However I have some points I have to make that supercede the ESPN media mind control system.

First things first we will give credit where it is due. His PER is 33.39! No that isn't a typo, he's playing out of his mind. He's dropping 29 points a night while pulling down 8 boards which really isn't much considering he is 6'8 260 lbs. What is impressive is that he's handing out 7 dimes a game.

There's a couple of things PER doesn't take into consideration. First thing is the amount of help that you have. A player with least help has to play longer and shoot the ball more which effects his PER. A player with least help will get less assist due to blown offensive assignments which would also effect his PER.

I think its safe to say that Lebron has the most help in the league.

He has and needs the closer in Wade who is posting 20 points a game, 5 assist , 4 rebounds and 2 steals. Wade also has a PER of 23.51.

In addition to a solid bench Lebron has Chris Bosh who adds another 20ppg. 8rpg and 1 block.

To Lebron's credit he's shooting above 50% again but so is evey other 6'8 260 pounder.

The main deciding factor outside of all of that was Lebron's play when his team needed him most. He seems to break down again and again when the pressure is on. The PER doesn;t hold one accountable for that. NBA fans on another hand do.

via www.djbobbytrends.com

Number 2 Kevin Durant.

Kevin Durant's typical numbers are down, However the wins are up. What else is up is Russell Westbrook's production.

Its risen so much on some nights where the consensus that Durant is by far the better player is sometimes challenged.

Durant is dropping 26ppg, along with 8 boards and 1 block and 1 steal a game.

He has a 26.54 PER and shooting 50% from the field while averaging a decent 35% from the three point line.

What has Durant so high on the list is his teams record thus far. At 17-4 Durant has his team sitting atop the Western Conference. With the older teams starting to gel now we will see how long that last.

Why isn't Durant number one? To be quite honest in a 66 game season and as athletic as OKC is they would be able to maintain without Durant come playoffs.

via api.ning.com

Derek Rose and Kobe Bryant.

I know you guys are like wait a minute a tie!

I'm sorry I just couldn't bring myself to choose between the two.

While Rose has lead the Chicago Bulls to a better record, Kobe has been keeping the Lakers afloat pretty much singled handily. I use that phrase loosely considering that that hand is attached to a wrist with damaged ligaments.

Rose has also been impressive with a 24.30 PER posting 21ppg, 7 assist, 4 rebounds and 1 steal a game.

Kobe's numbers are a surprise to everyone considering he is battling yet another injury to his shooting hand with the damaged wrist. After last year's early exit many wrote Kobe off as being washed up.

To their dismay Kobe has not only been breaking franchise records left and right, he is currently having a significantly better year then last year leading the league in scoring with 30 points a game, 5 rebounds and 6 assist a game. His PER is 26.58. If the he can get some type of consistent help where he doesn;t have to shoot some much to stay in games expect a increase in the PER stat.

Both players have proven that they have to play their best every night for their teams to be competitive.

Due to the Lakers not being able to maintain a lead to save their lives,Kobe ets the slight advantage at this juncture seeing that he is posting more minutes then players far younger then him this year.

Also for the first time in a long time the Laker's are significantly better when Kobe takes more shots which points to one thing he needs help.

Rose had a couple hiccups in the clutch but I still consider him a clutch player because unlike Lebron James, Rose's short comings is not something that hasbeen happening his whole career.

Rose's has a edge when it comes to shot selection due to his athleticsm he can get to the paint when ever he see's fit.

Both players are having a fantastic year and while it clear that their teams need them the most. Its almost certain that the Media will chose the sexiest story or the player on the team with the most wins.

I'm looking foward to see what list's you guys come up with.

It is wrong to judge a book when the book is only half written. It's unfair to measure a man's performance when outside events are responsible for his failures. It's foolish to throw away a history of strong work on the basis of one short period of failure. All of these statements can be used to explain why it's not a good idea to condemn Mitch Kupchak for failing to put together a roster that meets the high standards of the illustrious Los Angeles Lakers franchise. None of these statements can prevent us from doing so anyways.

The Los Angeles Lakers are not a very good team. They will (probably) make the playoffs. They may win a playoff series. Anything else would have to be considered a surprise. For a team that has one of the best cores in the league in Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, that's not good enough, which is a perfect description of everything surrounding those three guys. Not good enough. In fact, not even close to good enough. Outside the Big Three, the Lakers probably have the worst 4-15 roster in the league. And sadly, despite all those mitigating statements explained above, the blame for it has to be at the feet of one Mitch Kupchak.

Continue reading this post »

The Los Angeles Lakers are in Boston and eager for a road win, at least we hope they are. With another off day before the big showdown tomorrow against the Celtics, the Lakers are surely running through some offensive sets and fine-tuning some plays. The short travel between Philly and Boston should benefit the Lakers, and they should be somewhat fresh and rested for tomorrow's TNT clash.

One Laker, well ex-Laker, player who probably didn't get much rest is Derrick Caracter. Caracter was waived yesterday by the Lakers, and it seems the reason was monetary. What's that, you're not buying that? We tracked down Caracter and asked him for his thoughts:

"Chaovalkhaohfeaa, Im aakdaGULP, lakers, fanx" - DC while struggling through syrup laden 'cakes.

After that, I was able to track down another source who said that contracts not waived by the 10th would have become fully guaranteed. Good move, Lakers. So that leaves the Lakers with 14 out of 15 roster spots filled. Where does that take us? Sessions? Arenas? J.R Smith? Nope, apparently the other big "story" was Rondo for Pau.

Things just keep getting better and better.

↓ Much more after the jump ↓

Continue reading this post »

via www.insidesocal.com

The Lakers are struggling to say the least. This is no surprise to anyone if they have been keeping up with basketball. However the reason for their struggles is finally coming to the fore front.

For years when the Lakers lost it was blamed on Kobe by default. Cast off as another night that Kobe decided to go one on five.

For the first time analyst are finally doing their job, and they've come to the conclusion that the Lakers are actually more sucessful this year when Kobe is aggressive. To go further in detail this season Kobe has to score on a average of 35 points a game for the Lakers to even be competitive.

That is insane!

Yes it is insane that Kobe is doing it at his age with such a injury as a damaged ligament in his shooting wrist. What is even more insane is that he has to do it at all!

Kobe plays with arguably the second best center in the game next to Howard and the games most skilled power forward. Just one problem they are LAZY!

When the game is going their way they can be complete beasts! When the calls aren't going their way and they feel they are not getting enough touches they disappear altogether.

Especially Pau Gasol!

To support my claim I will go to the stats. In the Lakers first loss against the Chicago Bulls, Gasol a power forward and I used the term "power" very loosely had a disheartening 8 rebounds, a very pedestrian 14 points to his credit he did have 3 blocks. However Gasol has to put up better numbers playing along side Bynum down low between the two of them they should dominant every game on the boards.

In the second lost of the season Gasol had 15 points and 9 rebounds, these are numbers that are acceptable for a solid small forward or a bench player not a perennial all-star.

Then to make matter worse Dwight Howard doubled both Gasol's and Bynum's productions by himself in the Laker's loss to Orlando.

Gasol is averaging 13 attempts this year which matches his career attempts so its not like he is used to having more touches he is just doing less now with his touches then he used to.

Bynum is averaging 12 touches a game, for his career he is only used to getting 7. So what is his complaint. Kobe's assist are up this year also and would be even higher if players would convert wide open shots.

So why is Kobe taking more shots then both combined? Because they fail to get proper position and they fail to get offensive rebounds. If you take away Kobe's ungodly 14 rebounds against Minnesota. The Lakers would of have had the same amount of total rebounds as Minnesota's offensive rebounds.

What the Laker's will get with the acquisition of Dwight Howard is hard work, athleticism, and toughness. Also Howard is a true big man in every sense of the word. He plays tough defense and rebounds every game. Not when he feels like it.

Howard averages 20 points and 15 rebounds with 2 blocks a game. He only gets one more touch a game then Gasol and Bynum gets, so how is it that he averages more points by such a significant margin. It's simple, he is averaging 4 offensive rebounds a game. Unlike Gasol and Bynum when Howard gets a offensive rebound one or two things are guaranteed to happen. He will either score or get fouled.

This trade is a no brainer for the Laker's. They should try to trade for Howard and retain one of their big's. but if they can't get rid of both of them the upside to having Howard is way better than the down side without him.

via www.insidesocal.com

SB Nation communities are supposed to be like internet sports bars, but even within a "sports bar", you still have options. If you want privacy, one-to-one conversation, and the opportunity to engage in specific debate about a single topic, you grab a booth. If you want to shoot the shit with friends and strangers alike, you take a seat at the bar. "At The Bar" is your one-stop shop for all the daily randomness that makes SSR such a joy. If you want to discuss something specific, you'll have nice, quiet "booths" in which to have focused conversations. But if you just want to kick back and enjoy the company of friends and strangers, with a little sports and current events on the side, then saunter on up and grab a seat.

Please do not rec this post.

The Lakers played four games since last week's edition of Lakers Trends and while the results were mixed (going 2-2), the trends have been somewhat positive. They kicked off the week with a thrashing of the Charlotte Bobcats; followed that with an impressive road win in Denver; and then proceeded to lose two winnable games in the final minutes against the Utah Jazz and Philadelphia 76ers. Obviously, losing their last two games, especially when victory was within reach with 5 minutes to play, puts a damper on the week. However, the underlying improvements were present and the general direction of this team was positive, even if the movement wasn't of a significant magnitude. Who knows, maybe I am grasping at straws, but lately there hasn't been much positive news in Lakerland (unless you are in charge of updating Kobe's name on the various milestones list) so any sign of hope is worth clinging to at this point. That is what we have this week, hope.

Check out this week's trend update below the jump...

Continue reading this post »