83 replies to this topic

[Hollywood]

Metta and pau?

[LakersChamps243]

They should have hired McMillan the minute they hired D'Antoni. I also don't get why D'Antoni kept the same clowns with the exception of Steve Clifford that Mike Brown had working under him. Big Mistake. Players don't have chemistry and coaches don't have chemistry.

[Majesty]

They should have hired McMillan the minute they hired D'Antoni. I also don't get why D'Antoni kept the same clowns with the exception of Steve Clifford that Mike Brown had working under him. Big Mistake. Players don't have chemistry and coaches don't have chemistry.

Steve Clifford and Bernie staying I liked.

Just pony up and pay Nate McMillan already and who knows...

[TheOriginalCZM]

D'Antoni: Who needs defense when you have offense.

[Majesty]

Just pony up and pay Nate McMillan already and who knows...

Nate isn't gonna make Jamison, Gasol, or Nash better defensively. At the very least at least Nash is trying to play better defense. Gasol and Jamison...eh....

[BasketballIQ]

People want Chris Paul trade reversed and Phil hired. I want defense.

[Real Deal]

1) Start Jordan Hill.

2) Trade Gasol for a defensive-minded player, or a decent offensive threat that can at least play defense better than 50% of the league.

3) Sign Delonte West after waiving one or two of our young players.

4) Since we basically have to keep D'Antoni, ask Kurt Rambis if he'll come in and help with our defensive woes.

5) Change the offense, slow the game down. Play combos of the "four out, one in" for Dwight, while installing triangle properties for Kobe. P&R mixed in for our bigs + Nash. Tell Nash to play off the ball more, instead of becoming useless every now and then.

Meanwhile, D'Antoni needs to sit the players down in the locker room, grab a marker, and write down projected minutes for every player, and also, set rotations for particular situations.

Stop shooting threes. Stop giving Ron Artest 10+ shots in a game. Force the penetrating guard to the baseline, not the paint. Come up and defend your man on the screen, no switches and no giving up open jumpers...you have a defensive anchor, so use him.

Also, if we're dealing Gasol (or if he's going to spend his time outside of the block, no matter what), then post Kobe up on the opposite side of Howard. Dwight doesn't have to have his back to the basket to be effective, so if a bit of room is needed, it's fine.

This team is old. They need to play like they are...not necessarily regarding effectiveness, but pace and strategy-wise. That is how teams like the dirt-old Dallas Mavericks beat the Miami Heat, and why a super-young Oklahoma City team loses to an older Miami Heat squad.

[Bjork]

1) Start Jordan Hill.

2) Trade Gasol for a defensive-minded player, or a decent offensive threat that can at least play defense better than 50% of the league.

3) Sign Delonte West after waiving one or two of our young players.

4) Since we basically have to keep D'Antoni, ask Kurt Rambis if he'll come in and help with our defensive woes.

5) Change the offense, slow the game down. Play combos of the "four out, one in" for Dwight, while installing triangle properties for Kobe. P&R mixed in for our bigs + Nash. Tell Nash to play off the ball more, instead of becoming useless every now and then.

Meanwhile, D'Antoni needs to sit the players down in the locker room, grab a marker, and write down projected minutes for every player, and also, set rotations for particular situations.

Stop shooting threes. Stop giving Ron Artest 10+ shots in a game. Force the penetrating guard to the baseline, not the paint. Come up and defend your man on the screen, no switches and no giving up open jumpers...you have a defensive anchor, so use him.

Also, if we're dealing Gasol (or if he's going to spend his time outside of the block, no matter what), then post Kobe up on the opposite side of Howard. Dwight doesn't have to have his back to the basket to be effective, so if a bit of room is needed, it's fine.

This team is old. They need to play like they are...not necessarily regarding effectiveness, but pace and strategy-wise. That is how teams like the dirt-old Dallas Mavericks beat the Miami Heat, and why a super-young Oklahoma City team loses to an older Miami Heat squad.

Geez RD you really should be the coach of our team

RD, amazing post on all accounts, wow. Out of giving likes away as usual seemingly (unfortunately), but my complete applause.

[Majesty]

1) Start Jordan Hill.

2) Trade Gasol for a defensive-minded player, or a decent offensive threat that can at least play defense better than 50% of the league.

3) Sign Delonte West after waiving one or two of our young players.

4) Since we basically have to keep D'Antoni, ask Kurt Rambis if he'll come in and help with our defensive woes.

5) Change the offense, slow the game down. Play combos of the "four out, one in" for Dwight, while installing triangle properties for Kobe. P&R mixed in for our bigs + Nash. Tell Nash to play off the ball more, instead of becoming useless every now and then.

Meanwhile, D'Antoni needs to sit the players down in the locker room, grab a marker, and write down projected minutes for every player, and also, set rotations for particular situations.

Stop shooting threes. Stop giving Ron Artest 10+ shots in a game. Force the penetrating guard to the baseline, not the paint. Come up and defend your man on the screen, no switches and no giving up open jumpers...you have a defensive anchor, so use him.

Also, if we're dealing Gasol (or if he's going to spend his time outside of the block, no matter what), then post Kobe up on the opposite side of Howard. Dwight doesn't have to have his back to the basket to be effective, so if a bit of room is needed, it's fine.

This team is old. They need to play like they are...not necessarily regarding effectiveness, but pace and strategy-wise. That is how teams like the dirt-old Dallas Mavericks beat the Miami Heat, and why a super-young Oklahoma City team loses to an older Miami Heat squad.

Did you send this to Artest? He shows these kinds of things to his team mates.

[Real Deal]

Thanks guys...but really, it's not THAT hard to figure out. You have two superstars. Cater the game around the two superstars. Stop trying to force adjustments on them, all for Steve Nash, who is smart enough to adjust himself.

I mean, is Steve Nash really that bad of a player...that he can't do anything BUT run his own uptempo offense?

Miami runs with LeBron, Wade and Bosh. They didn't go out and give the ball to Chalmers, telling the big three to adjust to him. The best player on that team is LeBron, and the team is BUILT for him. Wade (when healthy) is the #2 guy, as he should be. Bosh is #3.

People keep saying that Kobe needs to facilitate more, but he can't facilitate when there are four guys depending on his ISO as they stand around like gargoyles...one of them (Steve Nash) being a 50/40/90 shooter AND one of the greatest shooting PG's in the history of the game, yet he's just waiting for the ball to be back in his hands for playmaking BECAUSE that's "the plan."

There's a five-time NBA champion and top ten greatest player on this roster, who is having arguably his best season ever (individually). There's also a defensive anchor who carried his team to the NBA Finals, something Nash has never done...and he's still young, averaging around his career numbers. USE THEM. Build this team around them. Play to their strengths. Ironically, they are also two of the three best defensive players we have.

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Defensively, we have two liabilities in our five...three major liabilities on the team (among who should be contributing, so I'm not counting guys like Duhon, Morris, Clark, Ebanks, etc). Because of that, you funnel offensive threats to the paint or the baseline. Given that Howard is not 100%, instead of running them into the paint, you wrap them baseline, which cuts off an entire side of the court and makes them dribble back out, fall into a trap, OR toss up a shot (at a bad angle) over Howard's contest.

Every game I see, I'm just scratching my head.

[Majesty]

Thanks guys...but really, it's not THAT hard to figure out. You have two superstars. Cater the game around the two superstars. Stop trying to force adjustments on them, all for Steve Nash, who is smart enough to adjust himself.

I mean, is Steve Nash really that bad of a player...that he can't do anything BUT run his own uptempo offense?

Miami runs with LeBron, Wade and Bosh. They didn't go out and give the ball to Chalmers, telling the big three to adjust to him. The best player on that team is LeBron, and the team is BUILT for him. Wade (when healthy) is the #2 guy, as he should be. Bosh is #3.

People keep saying that Kobe needs to facilitate more, but he can't facilitate when there are four guys depending on his ISO as they stand around like gargoyles...one of them (Steve Nash) being a 50/40/90 shooter AND one of the greatest shooting PG's in the history of the game, yet he's just waiting for the ball to be back in his hands for playmaking BECAUSE that's "the plan."

There's a five-time NBA champion and top ten greatest player on this roster, who is having arguably his best season ever (individually). There's also a defensive anchor who carried his team to the NBA Finals, something Nash has never done...and he's still young, averaging around his career numbers. USE THEM. Build this team around them. Play to their strengths. Ironically, they are also two of the three best defensive players we have.

----------

Defensively, we have two liabilities in our five...three major liabilities on the team (among who should be contributing, so I'm not counting guys like Duhon, Morris, Clark, Ebanks, etc). Because of that, you funnel offensive threats to the paint or the baseline. Given that Howard is not 100%, instead of running them into the paint, you wrap them baseline, which cuts off an entire side of the court and makes them dribble back out, fall into a trap, OR toss up a shot (at a bad angle) over Howard's contest.

Every game I see, I'm just scratching my head.

I am seeing Nash play off the ball more often in the last few games really. Had a couple of wide open three attempts.

I'm liking seeing that more as I'm also seeing Nash start to attack more. A lot of nash's hesitance seem to have a lot to do with sometimes whether the pick and roll is ran correctly. If he keeps it when one of the bigs screws up the pick and rolls he gets trapped.

Fortunately I am actually seeing Nash attack a little more aggressively.

Like you said at the beginning of the season.

You said Nash was going to struggle initially because he is not used to having players on his team that actually feed him for shots that he can actually play off of.

And it's very apparent. Lately though the last two games he seems to be being more aggressive and willing to play off Kobe a little more. Those Kobe to nash wide open threes are something I always jump for.

[Real Deal]

I am seeing Nash play off the ball more often in the last few games really. Had a couple of wide open three attempts.

I'm liking seeing that more as I'm also seeing Nash start to attack more. A lot of nash's hesitance seem to have a lot to do with sometimes whether the pick and roll is ran correctly. If he keeps it when one of the bigs screws up the pick and rolls he gets trapped.

Fortunately I am actually seeing Nash attack a little more aggressively.

Like you said at the beginning of the season.

You said Nash was going to struggle initially because he is not used to having players on his team that actually feed him for shots that he can actually play off of.

And it's very apparent. Lately though the last two games he seems to be being more aggressive and willing to play off Kobe a little more. Those Kobe to nash wide open threes are something I always jump for.

Thing is, he's going to have to dedicate that adjustment to each game he plays, instead of randomly going to it every 3-4 games...or it won't matter much.

It's like D'Antoni wanting to post Howard up and force the ball down low for two plays...then basically ask him to move out of the paint for no apparent reason. Having Artest do something with the ball down low once or twice...then being restricted to spotting up the rest of the way through. Asking Kobe to facilitate, but then having Nash get him the ball with five on the shot clock. Admitting that Gasol needs to get down into the paint...but then he shoots more long jumpers and threes.

A particular strategy doesn't need to be ditched if it doesn't work for 2-3 minutes. D'Antoni adjusts more than any coach we've had since the early-to-mid 90's, when Magic Johnson was out there on the sidelines trying to make something happen.

All of the adjustments, and then forcing this ridiculous system on Kobe and Howard...it's ruining what they can give us as the lone superstars on this squad. You would think D'Antoni saw how Nash struggled in Phoenix last season...not so much getting his team to win games (because that wasn't going to happen, they simply sucked), but how he couldn't get to the rim as well, couldn't make the same passes he used to make, was reluctant to shoot the ball, and he wore down so damn much in limited minutes of play, his defense was horrible.

Guess not.

[Alpha Four]

Whatever happened to hiring Nate Mc'Millian?

[Projekt]

Wow majesty blaming players instead of the [expletive]ty coach. id tell you to hop off his D, BUT HE DOESNT HAVE ANY

He's blaming the players because he's watching the games. While D'Antoni does suck at coaching (or not coaching) defense, he isn't the sole reason this team can't play defense. These players relax on that end of the floor and play a matador defense. You can create the greatest defensive strategy but you still need the players to execute it.

[Majesty]

He's blaming the players because he's watching the games. While D'Antoni does suck at coaching (or not coaching) defense, he isn't the sole reason this team can't play defense. These players relax on that end of the floor and play a matador defense. You can create the greatest defensive strategy but you still need the players to execute it.

It's easy to tell who keyboard GM's are as opposed to people that understand games Thanks

[KarlCalaguas12]

I agree with Majesty said. You need a defensive coach and players who are willing to play defense. The problem with this Lakers team is that the coach doesn't teach a lot of defense and the players are too lazy to play any defense. Even during Phil Jackson run, the Lakers players weren't exactly playing great defense.

In conclusion, the Lakers need a defensive coordinator and players who love and know how to play defense.

[Notorious Arab]

Did you send this to Artest? He shows these kinds of things to his team mates.

Can u elaborate on this?

[Majesty]

Can u elaborate on this?

Artest has said that he'd like fans to be "experts" sometimes when talking about the Lakers issues and one time even asked fans on twitter and facebook to send their suggestions to him and he'd show them to his team mates. But only the intelligent suggestions