"If I was a free agent, and I played for the Lakers we're going to the Western conference finals."
The above quote was made by Patrick Beverly last season when the Lakers were suffering in the standings. Everyone initially believed that his comment was just more outrageous bravado that Beverly has become known to spout out randomly, so he was not taken seriously. Since then the Los Angeles Lakers have acquired Beverly's services, and now he has to show and prove.
Furthermore, when asked recently how he would help the Los Angeles Lakers Beverly made the following statement, "No disrespect to Lebron but the Lakers need a leader. No one is holding him accountable when he isn't where he should be. I will do it because I do not care about scoring or anything else. I just want to win." Lebron James has just been signed to a two year $97.1M extension which is more than Beverly has made his entire career, yet he envisions himself as the new leader. There is already trouble in Lakerville.
In addition, Patrick Beverly has just been paired with Russell Westbrook a former adversary. Westbrook has also been recorded saying the following, " Patrick Beverly has you guys fooled. He does not play strong defense at all. I just dropped 47 points on him just like that." Since Beverly's new teammates consider him a pseudo defensive stopper with very limited offensive ability, his acquisition seems very counter productive for the Lakers.
Meaning this, Patrick Beverly averaged 9.2 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 4.6 apg, and he shot 41 from the field last season. Aside from a slight decrease in rebounds per game, Beverly's numbers are an improvement on his career stats, yet they are still @ss. Ad this with Russell Westbrook's subpar production last season and the Lakers have a potential "hot mess". There is no way that Patrick Beverly is a "come up" over Malik Monk. His defense is not good enough to make up for his offensive deficiencies. As the picture states, the Laker backcourt is now "All- Doo Doo" caliber.
If Laker fans take into account that Russell Westbrook doesn't particularly like Patrick Beverly, and that Lebron James' leadership ability has been questioned by someone that has won nothing on any level, then they have reasons for concern. In the real world, players that have never won a thing, rarely if ever (NEVER) start to win on the highest level because of their efforts. Bottom line, winning will not happen just because Patrick Beverly says it will, and the Laker WILL NOT make the playoffs once again.
* True player value can be calculated "ojectively" by using each players actual production, while also taking into account championships and personal accomplishments. For more information about the Player Valuation Numeric click the link below.
No comments:
Post a Comment