Last night’s game against the Utah Jazz wasn’t Andrew Bynum’s best offensive output of his career, but by no means did he have no effect on the game. Bynum’s statline read of 12 points (on just 5-13 from the field) and 9 rebounds. Where he did come up big yet again, however, was on the defensive end of the floor. He contributed five blocks including the most important defensive stop of the night, a block on Al Jefferson’s shot attempt near the end of overtime. Despite Kobe’s mindless gunning, Bynum is still finding ways to impact games on both ends of the court.

Early in the first quarter, the Jazz were sending a double-team to Bynum with whoever was guarding Derek Fisher. In the possession below, the action that Bynum takes is one of the first things they teach at a NBA Big Man Camp, turning away from the oncoming double-team. Now, while it may seem easy, majority of big men still struggle with the concept of the double-team and how to counteract it. Bynum continues to be at the top of the league in field goal percentage, coming in at 7th on the list among those with at least 50 post-up possessions at a rate of 46.4%, according to SST.

Bynum sets in position on the block, using his size to gain the advantage. As Jefferson tries to root Andrew out, Kobe passes the ball into Bynum (not a typo, it really happened) and Bynum begins to back Big Al down. The double comes from Fisher’s defender, Devin Harris, to Bynum’s left side. Something that Bynum has improved upon immensely is his feet work, more specifically, the depth in which he can set his feet. Notice after the double comes, Bynum has the notion to make a deep drop-step with his right foot, gaining leverage and position on Jefferson in order to get a great look for a left-hand hook.

In this next clip, we see Bynum’s relentlessness to gain position early in the offense, something that makes him so hard to guard. This action isn’t just an occasional occurence with Bynum, it’s a battle he tries to win each and every time down the court, knowing that if he uses his athleticism, he’ll gain the needed leverage. A slight pattern I’ve noticed over the past four games with the Lakers is when Kobe initiates the offense, Bynum not only gets better position but often gets the ball more frequently (We’ll check back in with that once there is a bigger sample size).

Notice in the video that as Bynum is running downcourt, he peers back to see where and who has the ball, as he sees its Kobe, he immediately goes into position for an early entry. In fact, Bynum this year is taking 54% of his shots within the first 10 seconds of the shot clock. This is indicative of Bynum getting early position and knowing what to do with the ball once he gets it.

In the third quarter, as both teams have remained fairly even throughout including points in the paint, Bynum made a move that is a perfect example why the Lakers front-office is so reluctant to trade him. As the ball enters half-court, Andrew sees the paint wide open. He almost seems to fake setting a side ball screen, when he drops his right foot and pins Jefferson on his back as he heads toward the rim to catch an oop from Fisher. The beauty of this move is that Bynum can see it at half-court, knows exactly when to drop his hip and pin Jefferson for an easy bucket.

Last night’s game is just another reason why the Lakers need to be in no rush to make drastic changes. Bynum he can still drastically impact games even when he’s not scoring. With Kobe playing at an MVP-level, the Lakers don’t need Dwight Howard to win the West this season. They just need Bynum to keep improving.