428 replies to this topic

[Majesty]

D’Antoni said that Blake was about “2-3 weeks” away from returning after undergoing abdominal surgery in early December. Having Blake available will certainly cut into Nash’s minutes.

Unfortunately until he is able to get back on the floor the team will have to make do with the personnel they have.

One of the main reasons Blake’s return is so important(other than the fact he's an upgrade from Morris and Duhon in nearly every facet) is the impact it will have on Nash’s minutes because of it. He played 31 minutes on Wednesday in Denver, which was on the heels of a 40-minute game against the Knicks on Christmas. Even for a player with the conditioning of Nash, that’s brutal for a 38-year-old.

So, 2 to 3 more weeks and Blake will be back.

Edited by Majesty, December 27, 2012 - 03:09 PM.

[TKainZero]

So, 2 to 3 more weeks and Blake will be back.

I wonder if the lakers are waiting until Blake comes back before making any roster moves

[Gotrings?]

So, 2 to 3 more weeks and Blake will be back.

If it is 3 weeks, we are going to go 9 more games without him. I remember under Bernie, there were times in which Kobe played the point.

[Majesty]

So he COULD be back by the Clippers game at earliest, but chances are that's a no go.

Bigger chance he could be back for the Nuggets rematch or the Rockets game.

PROBABLY will be back for the first San Antonio game, should definitely be back by the OKC rematch.

Those are a stretch of games we absolutely HAVE to win!!

We got Denver, Houston, San Antonio, OKC

Two of those three teams are right there with us in standings, we need to win the majority of those.

[Disaster in Paradise]

Hopefully soon.

Nash needs more rest.

[Hollywood]

Blake back is not going to help

[Majesty]

Blake back is not going to help

Blake would play D'antoni's system better than Morris and Duhon can. it's the little things. Unless you want Nash playing 40 minutes a night you'd better hope you're wrong about that.

But the thing is, D'antoni feels the way about Blake backing up Nash, as he felt about Nash starting.

Blake in his mind has been the "perfect" backup for Nash in this system for years and he basically has gotten his wish, he gets to play Steve Nash again and he gets to have Blake backing him up. What he's always wanted.

So he obviously sees something in Blake when it comes to this system and honestly when I look at Blake when he played in a similar system or style or layout he always did well as a backup.

Much better than Duhon or Morris have been able to do, so we'll see.

I look back to his first game as a Laker. That's the Blake that D'antoni is expecting, and he won't be relegated away from that style like he was in the triangle. In this offense he'll be doing what we did in his first game as a Laker. When blake was in we ran pick and rolls and let Blake facilitate and find people off them, Shannon Brown was the beneficiary of it. But this time around it will be Meeks.

Whenever we ran pick and roll in the triangle with Blake it was always effective whether he was using the screen to facilitate or he was moving off ball from the screen to receive the wide open pass.

That's why it worked.

In this system Blake will be getting to do what he's best at so I think he'll be fine.

It's just about seeing where his stamina and timing is upon his return.

Edited by Majesty, December 27, 2012 - 06:21 PM.

[Majesty]

I'll put what I said about Blake before when it came to how he'd help us in a PnR system here

Offense we'll be running this year plus the fact he'll only have to play one role backup PG and the fact we'll be playing pick n roll a lot more I think he'll benefit a lot from it. He should play well this year. He played well the year we got him but he got very sick and was NOT ready to come back but Phil decided to play him over Trey Johnson when he looked pale and sickly recovering from the chicken pox and as an adult it's a lot worse. This year he seemed to be finding a good groove but got that rib injury. He still had some solid games afterwards and bailed us out against some tough teams including helping majorly in that first round series against Denver. He'll be fine this year coming off the bench for us, especially because we won't be looking at him to be the focal scorer on the bench either. He's much better as a role player off that bench but last year we were looking at him to be the main scorer on it unfortunately.

Never gonna forget his first game as a Laker




But more importantly he wasn't THE GUY on that bench. He hit two timely threes before that one, and he found Shannon when he drew a double team driving to the basket for his three. But notice Blake's threes were off of Pick and Roll situations when Barnes would step out and set the screen for him to go off of. That is where he is most effective, on the draw and dish or the PnR stop and pop three. And he's good at finding people wide open when he'd go inside. The problem is, last year we didn't really have anyone that could do that consistently except Barnes, and he was on and off. This year that won't be an issue.

Meeks will be the guy he finds this time.

He'll get a lot more looks like that cause Jamison will be running the bench squad and Meeks will be counted on to score more often, so Blake will be out there keeping them honest as well while using the P&R on occasion and he IS a good passer so I'm sure he'll find Meeks and jamison a lot too. We could actually run a Blake, Brown, Kobe 1, 2, 3 lineup at that time too, which we couldn't really do this year because of our lack of depth.
Such as being unable to really do consistently what we were able to do in the video above, those Blake to Brown three point shots, imagine that with a shooter like Jodie Meeks.... yeah

If we run a lineup of Blake, Meeks, Kobe at the 1, 2, 3 expect to see more of that on those occasions.

This game was also a game Blake was able to be and actually play like what he was... a PnR point guard! We'll be running more of a similar offense with a focus on PnR when the time calls for it so I think Blake will do fine this year.

This post amazingly is still VERY relevant all you have to do is replace Jamison with Metta and the same point is made.

Blake helps us more than Duhon or Morris could, especially in a PnR heavy offense. He has done well out of that his whole career.

[Japago]

D'antoni has been wanting Blake for years, back to the Blazer days.

And the thing is, Ramon was able to step in during the middle of the season but Blake got the key minutes down the stretch of the season and in the playoffs.

And perhaps you should wait till you see Blake in D'antoni's system first. Because I think he's perfect for it. But we shall see, but I won't assume the worst till I see it.

One thing I do know though is that Duhon is completely lost now and isn't even trying to play defense, and Morris is still not ready to be anything more than waiting for the offense to come to him via a pass from Kobe or Nash. asking him to be the initiator is just going to be painful X_X

Yeah, we'll see. I've seen the same lost look on Blake since he's been here. He's been a joke since he's been here. There's a difference between wanting somebody that long ago and now. He hadn't been awful for years when D'Antoni wanted him.

[Hollywood]

Blake is not a permanent solution at the 1

[muncher]

man I MISS that laker team lol!

[Majesty]

Yeah, we'll see. I've seen the same lost look on Blake since he's been here. He's been a joke since he's been here. There's a difference between wanting somebody that long ago and now. He hadn't been awful for years when D'Antoni wanted him.

He hasn't played in a PnR heavy system since then either. I quoted one of my explanations from a long time back which is still relevant right now. In a heavy PnR offense, Blake will do fine, especially since we won't be looking at him to be the main scorer off our bench which we had to. Not only did he have to be our main scorer off the bench last year but he also had to play 2 positions because of the lack of depth.

His role and responsibility in THAT regard has been lowered and he'd be asked to play the PnR point guard he's been his entire career till he got to us. Which isn't a stretch to ask of him and he wasn't looking bad either.

I remember when he had to be looked at as our primary bench player, and would frown if he hit 3/4 shots 2/3 from three and got 3 assists.

Think they'd frown on it now?

[Japago]

He hasn't played in a PnR heavy system since then either. I quoted one of my explanations from a long time back which is still relevant right now. In a heavy PnR offense, Blake will do fine, especially since we won't be looking at him to be the main scorer off our bench which we had to. Not only did he have to be our main scorer off the bench last year but he also had to play 2 positions because of the lack of depth.

His role and responsibility in THAT regard has been lowered and he'd be asked to play the PnR point guard he's been his entire career till he got to us. Which isn't a stretch to ask of him and he wasn't looking bad either.

I remember when he had to be looked at as our primary bench player, and would frown if he hit 3/4 shots 2/3 from three and got 3 assists.

Think they'd frown on it now?

He's not a good driver or a good shooter though, so I don't know how much the PnR would benefit him.

Seeing as how this team is more reliant on the PG now, he'd have an even bigger responsibility that he had before. He's still be relied upon to contribute big time with the bench. The Lakers still aren't exactly deep.

[bigfetz]

2-3 weeks will probably mean a month. Even if he i back doesn't mean he's in shape let alone basketball shape. I dont expect him back till February at earliest.

Then by the time he's healthy and back to form he will be playing his mediocre style of basketball.

[Game]

honestly almost forgot blake was on this team

[ツ]

blake s

He hasn't played in a PnR heavy system since then either. I quoted one of my explanations from a long time back which is still relevant right now. In a heavy PnR offense, Blake will do fine, especially since we won't be looking at him to be the main scorer off our bench which we had to. Not only did he have to be our main scorer off the bench last year but he also had to play 2 positions because of the lack of depth.

His role and responsibility in THAT regard has been lowered and he'd be asked to play the PnR point guard he's been his entire career till he got to us. Which isn't a stretch to ask of him and he wasn't looking bad either.

I remember when he had to be looked at as our primary bench player, and would frown if he hit 3/4 shots 2/3 from three and got 3 assists.

Think they'd frown on it now?

blake won't be any better, there's not much you can expect from him. but at least he's better than duhon and morris at the point.

[Majesty]

He's not a good driver or a good shooter though, so I don't know how much the PnR would benefit him.

Seeing as how this team is more reliant on the PG now, he'd have an even bigger responsibility that he had before. He's still be relied upon to contribute big time with the bench. The Lakers still aren't exactly deep.

Thing is he was THE guy on the bench and was relegated to have to play two separate positions. He won't have as much responsibility as he had to have last year. Having Metta and Meeks on the bench right now makes his job a lot easier.

So his responsibility goes to what it always should have been.

Be a back up point guard. Facilitate among the wing, make good decisions on the drive and dish, use screens effectively and play PnR.

That's all stuff he's been asked to do his entire career and he plays it well as well as moving off the ball.

That's why D'antoni wanted him so bad.

[hotpocket]

That's why D'antoni wanted him so bad.

Did he really say that?

It's hard to imagine anyone really hankering for Blake.

[ツ]

Did he really say that?

It's hard to imagine anyone really hankering for Blake.

in his first press conference mike said

[Gotrings?]

Did he really say that?

It's hard to imagine anyone really hankering for Blake.

Yup. He said it in his introductory press conference. He said he wanted ever since he was in Phoenix.