D.J. Mbenga: The Lakers' MVB

Christmas cannot come too early for the Lakers this year.  That’s the latest timetable for Pau Gasol’s return to the team according to Phil Jackson.

Gasol’s hamstring injury, which had been a day-to-day then a week-to-week issue, has just turned into a month-to-month wait and see.

Hamstrings can have a very complicated healing process, and Gasol’s is one of the more peculiar.  

Having played all the way through the 2007-2008 NBA season and full playoff run, then in the 2008 Olympics, followed by the 2008-2009 NBA season, and full playoff run and then this summer in the European Championship, Gasol’s injury is no doubt complicated by fatigue.

He hasn’t been able to string two consecutive workouts together where the muscle didn’t tighten up on him the next day and limit his movement.

The fact that Mitch Kupchak was able to re-sign Lamar Odom this summer may prove to be the MVS, the Most Valuable Signing of this NBA season.  

Odom has jumped into Gasol’s No. 4 spot, and the Lakers have forged on without hardly missing a beat.

But almost as huge as re-signing Odom was re-signing D. J. Mbenga, a Phil Jackson favorite.  Mbenga, a limited reserve last season, has become an everyday player with the injury to Gasol.

His play on the court has so improved that one might call him the Lakers'  MVB, Most Valuable Big.

That’s not to say that he is better than Andrew Bynum or Lamar Odom, but there are few starting centers in the league who can play better defense.  

Bynum and Odom are superior to Mbenga offensively, but at the defensive end no one is as imposing except for Dwight Howard and Shaquille O’Neal.  Mbenga certainly holds his own in the post with anyone.

But what makes him especially valuable is his ability this year to play lights out defense without fouling out.  Last year, if Mbenga played for six minutes, he would pick up four fouls.  

This year, he is more than likely to go twice that long and pick up four blocked shots and a half dozen or so rebounds.  In fact, Mbenga filled in for Andrew Bynum, who had a strained elbow, against Memphis and New Orleans.  In 30 minutes, he picked up 12 and 13 rebounds respectively along with four blocked shots in each game.

Those were two games that the Lakers were supposed to win.  But with both Gasol and Bynum out, the Lakers were just as likely to lose.  Mbenga gave them the defense to not only win those games but to do it in blowout fashion.

With Gasol out until Christmas or maybe even longer, the Lakers may not win against some of the other NBA powerhouses, but they need to make certain that they win against teams they are supposed to beat.  Mbenga gives the Lakers that opportunity.

An Additional Note: Watching the Cleveland-Orlando game tonight, I spied Coby Karl, the son of Nuggets coach, George Karl, on the Cavalier bench.  Coby was a Staples Center favorite when he was with the Lakers.  It’s good to see him back in the NBA, and I hope he gets more playing time.