And here’s the thing, it would be even worse if he weren’t such a great character guy, long time player and a 4 time champion. The fact that he’s all these things and the fanbase still hates him so much just goes to show how awful his play is since long time fans have to get past the “yeah he’s struggling now, but in the past he helped us out so much” factor.

The fact is, he’s almost without a doubt the worst starter in the league right now. I’m reasonably sure that even with his strong few games without Kobe, he still has the lowest PER of any starter in the league. His defense is atrocious and causes numerous guards to have career nights against the team. He doesn’t pass, he can’t shoot anymore and his defense is bad. The only positive he has going for him is that he flops his way to at least 2 undeserved fouls per game, which is nice I guess. Even though his numbers are pushing up against worst in the league territory, if possible he’s actually playing worse than the numbers indicate. It’s unbelievable how the national media isn’t destroying him over this, but Lakers fans who have seen almost 60 games of this have just had enough by now.

Oddly enough, they love Jim Halpert though. Seems unfair.

Why isn’t that Mavs rotation a bigger deal (yet)? Because Damp is underrated (and injured), Butler and Beaubois haven’t really been integrated into the offense yet, and so the Barea and Najera show is dragging the team down (the Mavs looked so much better with Haywood in the game last night). Plus, there’s the perception that the Mavs are “soft” & etc. But I agree, if they put it all together, that’s a scary, scary team.

BTW, right now, LA’s path to a championship? Portland, Dallas, Denver, Cleveland. That’s really tough.