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[puglife]

yes yes yes. I understand the lakers are usually a contender year after year. this year they are not. I usually don't root against you guys...in fact, I've been rooting for a heat/lakers finals the past couple seasons since I'm a huge Lebron fan and I think it'd be an awesome series to watch, but this season is different. I feel we have a legitimate chance to sway Dwight to Houston if he can just be completely unhappy in LA and missing the playoffs would do exactly that.

let's go jazz!!!!

 

[darthska]

PugLife, this is the Lakers season thread. The Lakers thread is pro-Lakers, the Knicks thread is pro-Knicks, the Warriors thread is pro-Warriors, the Rockets thread is... well, I think it's nonexistent, but that's beside the point. You're a Rockets fan who likes Lebron and is cheering for the Jazz; whatever you have to say about those things belongs in threads other than this one.

 

[flyerthandelta]

Wish ppl would stop blaming the players, it starts n begin with Coach getting them prepared. D'Antoni still doesn't know to play both Dwight n Pau together

 

[licensed to ball]

Wish ppl would stop blaming the players, it starts n begin with Coach getting them prepared. D'Antoni still doesn't know to play both Dwight n Pau together

Trust me, I hate D'Antoni. A lot of it is his fault.
But blame has to go both ways.

No matter whose coaching, when pro basketball players have open shots...they gotta make them.
We haven't been making **** lately. It's not D'Antoni's fault we been building houses with bricks.

However, It is his fault what positions our players have been playing and how the minutes have been distributed. Its been ugly on both sides.

 

[$tacy]

can we put something on dwights hands so he can catch the ball 

 At least twice every game steve nash throws him one down low that just slips right threw his hands 

 

[puglife]

do some of you guys honestly think you would coach the team better than MDA?

 

[flyerthandelta]

^Im gonna act like you ain't just ask that, it's not about that even with Mike Brown last season we had a much better record, the fact D'Antoni is so *** stubborn and gun hold about his ways it rubs off on players if you can't play def there's no way your gonna win ball games. The idea of making shots come from good selection n good set up plays. Pau an Dwight need to beast in the paint feed them in the PAINT, Nash pick n roll Kobe can pretty much create his own shot what's so hard about this....

 

[flyerthandelta]

Wish ppl would stop blaming the players, it starts n begin with Coach getting them prepared. D'Antoni still doesn't know to play both Dwight n Pau together

Trust me, I hate D'Antoni. A lot of it is his fault.
But blame has to go both ways.

No matter whose coaching, when pro basketball players have open shots...they gotta make them.
We haven't been making **** lately. It's not D'Antoni's fault we been building houses with bricks.

However, It is his fault what positions our players have been playing and how the minutes have been distributed. Its been ugly on both sides.

I feel you it's just crazy that these guys all of a sudden don't play def or play to their strengths it's just odd

 

[Black Lotus]

Wish we coulda pulled out another miracle win last night 

 

[essential1]

Look, nothing can save this team except a new coach and youth. We need to get younger and more athletic and the Lakers have never done this really through the draft so we're going to have to wait one more year until everyone comes off the books but Dwight and we reload. The problem with that strat is getting role players to fill in the spots.

The league has gotten deeper from a role player standpoint and we have not been able to keep up in recent years. Let's hope that trend changes and we can start scouting some good role players for the future.

I'm sure Essential can break down a list of what will be available in 2014 and what we might be able to swing

QFT

We're almost always getting burned by those energy type of players i.e Jack, Brewer etc. We need to BE MORE athletic and younger not older. Too much veteran in a team is not a good thing. We need a good balance (look at the spurs). Also we need to have a new coach, I won't even know anymore if D'Antoni stays for next season.

2014 isn't a year you want to "reload" / have a lot of cap space.. I'll just say that. One year later 2015 is the year you want to have a lot of cap.


To be honest. We need to reshuffle the players for next year... I think Nash, Blake, Kobe, Meeks, Clark, Hill, Dwight should be safe in some form or fashion... Everyone else can get the heave ho.

I'd go the way of trying to break down some of our players into a couple of role players..

I want to keep Pau.... But if after a few weeks of trying to get his conditioning up, he keeps putting that half assed effort protecting the hoop, I'm done with keep waiting and hoping for things to change... It was embarrassing. (That statement doesn't absolve anyone of their piss-poor play last night)


We need perimeter defense, athleticism, and youth.

First guy I try to get is Corey Brewer..... You look for Dorell Wright or Brandon Rush as consolation prize..

I'd bring back Matt Barnes immediately..

And I'd try like hell to flip MWP or Pau into several role pieces..


Depth, athleticism, youth & perimeter defense.


We have the mini-MLE that we should definitely look to get one of the three guys I mentioned.. Then try to get a Matt Barnes on the vet min (which he always gets for some reason ), Then you look to take the players we have and split it for depth and youth. You'll lose talent, but we really need some youth.


Pau & Dwight is looking like it won't work.. In theory it should dominate. But I don't think it will... Can it work? Yes.. Will it is the question that is important.

 

[darthdeezy]

as a rockets fan, I'm praying everything goes to hell for you guys the rest of the season. if the jazz hadn't lost 12 of friggin 15, you guys would be solidly out of the playoffs right now and hopefully Dwight would realize that LA is not where he wants to be.

it should be an interesting last month of the regular season...things could easily go either way.

Im a fan of Hakeem.
For the record, Rudy's speech "never underestimate the heart of a champion" isnone of the corniest, cheesiest lines ever delivered.
Ef Texas.
Oh yeah, get out our thread.

 

[CHAOSE57]

Barnes and Brewer in this team? Sounds good. Play Nash some minutes with those two guys and it's gonna be fun. Oh how I wish

 

[essential1]

And you guys told me it would never happen..

MWP is crazy. He'd do it

In a move that would be so Metta World Peace, Metta World Peace is not ruling out the possibility of terminating his contract after the season against all logic, telling NBA.com he would consider the move in the summer if it meant he could remain with the Lakers longer. NBA.com
Read more at http://hoopshype.com/rumors.htm#LXmYZ4vDXmdtwkzJ.99

If we could cut his salary in half... I'm with it... A $7mil MWP is not worth it. But a $3.5 mil MWP who would NOT count as our mini-MLE signing??? I'm for it.


But I'd still look for Brewer and Barnes and add them on..

 

[licensed to ball]

If Metta actually did that...he'd be welcome to be a Laker until the day he retires.

Very World Peace-like indeed.

But it doesn't mean he'd be starting.

 

[akajae]

my thoughts on last nights game...

Lakers suck and David Lee is a @!#$% for that elbow.

I was hoping Dwight would come back strong after that

 

[essential1]

But it doesn't mean he'd be starting.

I think if we had a roster that was jammed pack at the PG, SG, SF we'd be way better off than having a twin towers type thing.


But I definitely agree... Metta is a role player now, not a starter.

 

[Johnny_Cakes]

[quote name="Th3RealF0lkBlu3s"]D'Antoni promised a Finals appearance during his first days as coach of the team. I'd love to hear what kind of explanation he'd give for things not going that way that won't pander to talking about injuries doing us in. It wasn't injuries that 6-12 (6-13 soon enough) record with our four best players playing together

Under MD, or the whole season?[/quote]

It was during an interview just after he was hired, he said it's his failure if the team doesn't reach the Finals.

 

[darthska]

No, no... 6-13 under MDA, or on the whole season?

 

[denni5themenace]

And you guys told me it would never happen..

MWP is crazy. He'd do it
If we could cut his salary in half... I'm with it... A $7mil MWP is not worth it. But a $3.5 mil MWP who would NOT count as our mini-MLE signing??? I'm for it.


But I'd still look for Brewer and Barnes and add them on..

good guy metta.

for as many boneheaded plays he's made, him playing hard, hustling, and actually caring far exceeds that IMO. if he signs for that much, i wouldnt mind him back at all.

 

[mosk33toe]

What you guys need to understand is no matter what our roster is(sans getting Lebron next year) we won't win with this coach.

He's made Dwight and Pau useless on this team, we are about to max out a guy who got up 8 shots yesterday?

We are throwing dirt on a player who just came off an amazing Olympic showing and can certainly play down low with the best if them.

Look guys, MDA hates Jordan Hill, doesn't play sacre, and has no ******g clue how to use Dwight and Pau. As a team that's known for its size MDA is a horrible fit.

Plain and simple, if the roster is similar to this next year and the coach is the same, I have no reason to believe we will be any better

 

[licensed to ball]

Odds of Kobe joining Metta and being generous enough to cut his contract in half to help the team? 50/50?

Spoiler

very troll like question, I know.

 

[pmatic]

An Open Letter to Kobe Bryant About His Defense

Dear Kobe Bryant,

In the middle of a playoff chase that has you clinging tenaciously to the no. 8 seed and yapping about how you have to take more control of the team’s defensive strategy, why are you doing this?





In the 71st game of your 17th season, in the midst of a “heated” playoff “race,” why are you still watching your own errant jump shot while your mark, Klay Thompson, beats you back in transition for an open 3-pointer? Thompson doesn’t exactly take off like Corey Brewer, either, and he still beats you down the floor by several steps.

Why is this still happening? It’s almost April, and Bryant and the Lakers still can’t figure out transition defense, or defense in general.

The Lakers have marginally improved on defense. They’re up to 18th in points allowed per possession and have been a hair better than league average over their last 10 games. But a game-by-game look shows little big-picture progress and a bunch of recent stingy games against the league’s worst offensive teams. The Lakers still don’t get back on defense and there's still minimal coordination when it comes to weakside help. The Lakers may lead the league in the percentage of defensive possessions that end with teammates shrugging and/or pointing at each other, though the Kings would give them a run.

This isn’t all on Bryant, obviously. Howard is slowly rediscovering his form, but he’s not even close to his disruptive peak. Pau Gasol is recovering from several knee and foot issues that have compromised his already compromised mobility. Steve Nash and Steve Blake simply cannot stay in front of quick point guards:





Antawn Jamison can’t guard anyone, at any position. Mike D’Antoni has concluded that stashing Jamison on small forwards is safer than having him guard power forwards, but when the Lakers went that route last night, the Warriors happily responded by giving the ball to Harrison Barnes and watching him torch Jamison.

Bryant, as the whole Internet (including this corner of it) has noted repeatedly, has been an irresponsible off-ball defender all season. He gambles out of scheme whenever he feels like it, often turning his back completely to his man, and several of Washington’s 11 3s during the Lakers’ home loss to the Wiz on Friday were the direct result of Bryant deciding he didn’t want to play team defense any longer. The Warriors last night exploited the Lakers’ indecisive, nonexistent weakside defense by running pick-and-rolls, including on this smart out-of-timeout pick-and-roll, with Klay Thompson as the lone weakside shooter:





In a typical NBA scheme, the help responsibility probably falls to Bryant here, though that can vary depending on the coach and the situation. Helping off Thompson with no other defender nearby is a risk, and perhaps Jamison, guarding Carl Landry on the block, should have improvised and tried to at least get in Festus Ezeli’s way. Only the Lakers know what the precise right answer here is, but “do nothing and let Ezeli make the only shot he’s capable of making” is the wrong one.

And here’s a killer combination of Blake being overmatched, Howard helping without much urgency, and zero defenders having Howard’s back on the weak side:





Ditto:





The Warriors are a very good offense, but sound NBA defenses just don’t yield this many easy baskets without even a hint of resistance. We can dig deep and pick nits about all the little things going on in Laker Land, but the story of this team today is the same as it has been all season: They have too many bad defensive players, and their good defenders (Howard, Metta World Peace) are not good enough right now to compensate. And though D’Antoni’s alleged inattention to defense has been overblown — the guy can talk defensive X's and O's like any other NBA coach — he has never exactly been Tom Thibodeau in terms of establishing a set of rules and getting his team to stick to them. All the mitigating circumstances come into play here — the early-season coaching change, the endless injuries — but the Lakers are still just a bad defensive team.

Which brings me to two thoughts:

1. If Bryant makes first or second-team All-Defense again this season, I’m officially ignoring this honor indefinitely when it comes to assessing a player’s status and career accomplishments. There will be no more “Player X has seven first-team All-Defense appearances” in this space as a way of justifying a man’s place in the NBA hierarchy. Bryant isn’t the first player coasting to undeserved All-Defense appearances based on reputation, but if he makes it again this season, it will be his most egregious appearance ever, and one of the most egregious in league history. It’s probably already time to start ignoring these honors, since Carlos Boozer received what I hope was an accidental vote last season, but Bryant’s selection would make it official.

Again, he’s a good defender when he wants to be, and he can still be a huge pain in the *** on the ball against top scorers. But playing top-notch on-ball defense on a few possessions per game does not qualify someone for an All-Defense honor, when all those other possessions of hideous off-ball defense exist.

Holding Bryant to his peak career standards on defense isn’t even fair. He’s aging, and the Lakers still rely on him to carry an enormous offensive burden — a responsibility Bryant himself chooses to augment by occasionally hogging the ball. And he’s had a fabulous offensive season. Repeat, L.A. fans popping those Kobe jerseys: fabulous. The Lakers need to buy him rest on defense, which is why World Peace has so often over the last three seasons defended the best opposing wing player, even if he’s at a quickness disadvantage in doing so. But there’s a difference between saving energy and behaving recklessly, and Bryant has crossed that line, stopping only to urinate on it this season.

2. Mr. Simmons hasn’t chimed in on this, but the current state of the Western Conference is one of the best-ever arguments in favor of his Entertaining As Hell Tournament for the no. 8 seed. The Lakers can’t get it together. Utah stinks and has zero shot of doing anything in the first round. Dallas has fought admirably to get back into the race, but that team is still scrambling for coherence in just about every sense, and probably isn’t much of a first-round threat, either.

Still, Dallas is outplaying both Utah and Los Angeles right now. Portland has hung around longer than expected, and has put together some solid recent wins in San Antonio, Chicago, and Atlanta. And then there’s the wild card: How would Minnesota and Kevin Love proceed if they knew they could still win their way to the no. 8 seed? Isn’t it feasible that a healthy Love–Nikola Pekovic–Ricky Rubio–Andrei Kirilenko core might make Minnesota the best team in this tournament? That core hasn't been healthy all season, and it obviously wouldn’t be in peak form by early next month. Pekovic and Kirilenko recently returned from nagging injuries, and Love, who might not play at all for the rest of this season, wasn’t nearly himself during his brief midseason return from his (first) broken hand.

But Rubio has rounded into form. He’s dishing his usual pile of tricky assists, getting to the line at a very encouraging rate, and swiping the ball from unsuspecting guards all over the league. The Wolves could at least make some noise in this imaginary tournament, and it certainly wouldn’t be too hard for them to outplay the crop of teams battling for that magical no. 8 spot.

The Lakers still have the advantage, given their one-game edge in the loss column over both Utah and Dallas. But that advantage is precarious now. The Lakers have already lost the head-to-head tiebreaker with Utah, and though they’re up 2-1 on Dallas, the two teams play in Los Angeles a week from today. A loss there evens the season series and puts the next tiebreaker — conference record — in play. The Lakers hold just a one-game edge on Dallas there.

Regardless: The Lakers aren’t doing anything in the playoffs unless they get their defense in order, and we’ve seen no evidence they can do that against good competition.

Link

NBA All-Defense First Team.

 

[essential1]

Odds of Kobe joining Metta and being generous enough to cut his contract in half to help the team? 50/50?

Spoiler

very troll like question, I know.

Kobe can't. He doesn't have a termination clause...


If Mitch & Jim say look, we want you to stay but we can't at this price tag..... 75%.. Unless someone wants to go $5mil on MWP, which is unlikely.

 

[MVP]

Don't think Bean is giving up a cent of the biggest payday of his career. Truthfully don't blame him.

 

[Johnny_Cakes]

No, no... 6-13 under MDA, or on the whole season?

Ah, I understand. Well, since Steve was out after playing 1.5 games in the beginning of the season, that would move the record under MDA to 5-9.