With the NBA Basketball season just around the corner, we are providing season previews for all 30 teams to give you the betting edge. Follow the best NBA Basketball Handicappers as they analyze their teams in this 2009 season preview. Use our comprehensive and insider info to bet successfully on the NBA in our recommend sportsbooks. View the rest of our 2009 NBA Season Previews here.
Los Angeles Lakers 2008-2009 NBA Record: 65-17, 1st in Pacific Division
Los Angeles Lakers 2008-2009 ATS (Against The Spread): 42-39-1
Los Angeles Lakers Betting Trends & Betting Angles:
• OVER is 16-4 past 20 games at Golden State
• 7-1 SU and ATS past 8 games at Golden State
• OVER is 8-3 past 11 games on no rest
• 7-2 ATS past 9 trips to Phoenix
• OVER is 8-2 past 10 trips to Sacramento
• OVER is 12-4 past 16 at home to Kings
• 12-2 ATS past 14 games as underdog
Los Angeles Lakers 2009-2010 Preview & Prediction
There are Lakers insiders who swear that the team will absolutely fall apart if and when Jackson leaves. The timing of that is going to be incredibly important to the club over the coming months. Part of the issue rests with owner Jerry Buss and son Jim Buss. Neither even has an office in the team complex. And while Jim Buss is listed as a basketball personnel figure with the team, he spends little time at work. The rest of the league would love to laugh at such patter, but the Lakers haven’t really given them any time to do so over the past two seasons. Under Jackson, the Lakers remain one of the best organized, most structured, groups in the business. Somehow Jackson manages to do that while giving his players lots of freedom.
Los Angeles Lakers Coach: Phil Jackson (10th season)
Los Angeles Lakers Returning Players: Guards Shannon Brown, Kobe Bryant, Jordan Farmar, Derek Fisher, Sasha Vujacic; centers Andrew Bynum, DJ Mbenga; forwards Pau Gasol, Adam Morrison, Lamar Odom, Josh Powell, Luke Walton.
Los Angeles Lakers Key Additions: Forward Ron Artest (free agent).
Los Angeles Lakers Key Subtractions: Forward Trevor Ariza (signed with Rockets), guard Sun Yue (signed with Knicks).
2009-2010 Los Angeles Lakers Point Guards:
It’s no accident that the Lakers’ rise to the past two league championship series coincided with Derek Fisher’s return to the team after three year’s absence playing for Golden State and Utah.
Yes, Fisher is not your classic point guard. Yes, he gets broken down on defense and is not a great finisher at the basket. Yes, he’s another year older. Jackson relies on him heavily to get the team into irs triangle offense and to make things run smoothly. Jackson wisely kept Fisher’s minutes low during the regular season so that he would be primed for the playoffs. That worked famously in ’09 and should again for the coming schedule.
Shannon Brown emerged as a strong backup and was re-signed, and Jordan Farmar, while not a Jerry Buss favorite, remains a reasonably effective option as well. At this position in the triangle offense, it’s not all about athleticism. It’s about smarts and leadership, and Fisher possesses both in world-class amounts.
2009-2010 Los Angeles Lakers Off Guards:
Bryant finally fulfilled a goal of being the centerpiece of a championship team. He is the hardest-working, best-prepared athlete in the league. He also harbors a huge hunger for more. Like Jordan before him, Bryant’s not exactly loved by his teammates. But he has earned their immense respect.
His challenge this year will be incorporating Arrest, the character, into the team chemistry. It will be a test of Bryant’s leadership skills the way that Dennis Rodman tested Jordan’s with the Bulls from 1996-98.
Once again, Bryant can only hope to approach Jordan’s success.
In 2008, the team gave a nice raise to Bryant’s backup, Sasha Vujacic, who promptly tanked. He better show he’s worth it this season. His contract is something of a stone around the neck of an organization that pays the luxury tax because irs player contracts are so high.
2009-2010 Los Angeles Lakers Small Forwards:
Arrest was called out for taking some bad shots last season. He has a checkered past. But he is also respected as a physical player and intense competitor. He has long wanted to play in the Laker gold and is said to enjoy a relationship of strong mutual respect with Bryant. He will give the team the physical presence at small forward that the Lakers lacked when they tried to match up with Boston’s Paul Pierce in the 2008 championship series. Arrest also has some experience in the triangle offense from his early days in the league as a Chicago Bull.
Odom, another Arrest friend, will play some at his spot as well, when the Lakers want to go even larger.
Luke Walton makes the depth at this position excellent. He’s a glue player if there ever was one.
2009-2010 Los Angeles Lakers Power Forwards:
Ok, let’s deal with this once again. Laker legend Jerry West was not the Memphis Grizzlies GM when they traded Pau Gasol to the Lakers. Now West did hire and work with the people who made that trade, but he had no direct hand in it. Might it be possible that those people knew that West would be pleased by the trade? Yes, and throughout his 50 years in pro basketball people have always seemed to want to please West.
But he was not involved with either team when the trade was made in early ’08. It does say something, however, about Gasol’s special qualities if a player like Steve Nash is still whining about the trade in the summer of 2009.
That suggests just how good Gasol is and what match-up problems he makes for the rest of the NBA, whether he plays power forward or center.
He is one of the best players in the league, and he is backed up by Odom, another of pro basketball’s versatile and unique play- ers. No wonder Phil Jackson is motivated to return for yet another season.
2009-2010 Los Angeles Lakers Centers:
Every time Andrew Bynum swoops in for one of his follow-up dunks, or every rime he executes one of those moves that special coach Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has taught him, Lakers fans wet their pants.
And both times that he has been injured the past two seasons, they’ve gone into a deep depression. Bynum’s health is of key importance to the team. Odom’s presence as a sixth man helps cover for this issue, but Jackson and his staff are wondering how things would be if they had Bynum for the full and complete schedule.
The rest of the league would just as soon not know the answer to that.
| 2009-2010 Los Angeles Lakers Schedule | 2009-2010 Pacific Division Preview 2009-2010 Western Conference Preview | Los Angeles Lakers Sportsbooks |
Los Angeles Lakers 2009-2010 Season Predictions
We predict that the Los Angeles Lakers will finish 1st in the NBA Pacific Division .
Los Angeles Lakers Betting
Los Angeles Lakers NBA Championship Odds: -120
Los Angeles Lakers Eastern Conference Odds: +225
Los Angeles Lakers 2008-2009 Betting Stats
Los Angeles Lakers Straight Up: 65-17
Los Angeles Lakers ATS: 42-39-1
Los Angeles Lakers Home ATS: 20-21
Los Angeles Lakers Away ATS: 22-18-1
Los Angeles Lakers Record As Favorite: 59-15
Los Angeles Lakers Record As Dog: 6-2
Los Angeles Lakers Over/Under: 41-39-2
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