LAKERS LAKERS Thread

That smell is definitely coming from the NEWS/RUMORS/DISCUSSIONS page...

 

agreed
i was much more opposed to this when kobe hadn't yet announced his retirement and was hinting at possibly coming back
but now...
give kobe his due
not like he hasn't earned it
go to a game if you can and watch inarguably one of the greatest players ever
because in a couple years you'll be kicking yourself for not appreciating him
yes, he's lost a couple steps
but so had magic before his forced hiv retirement (and his comeback doesn't count)
at least we have a chance to watch this final act

besides, not like we'd be contending for a title right now anyway

 

They gave Magic big money once he was out with HIV to thank him for all he had done now that the team was going to have to rebuild without him.

 

lol
says the guy who just made his own thread with his name the title
hypocrite much :mirror:

 

you'll get no argument from me on this

 

Scott says Lakers were scared against Thunder, players disagree
by Dan Feldman | NBC NBA Talk — 5 hours ago

The Kobe Bryant–less Lakers got routed by Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and the Thunder yesterday, 118-78.

Why?

Lakers coach Byron Scott, via Time Warner Cable SportsNet:

"Kobe’s fearless. These guys looked like they were scared tonight or intimidated by Durant and Westbrook, for whatever reason. So, obviously the game got out of hand real quick and real early, and I thought those guys were just in attack mode from the start of the buzzer until the end. And our guys were on their heals all night long."​

Asked what he learned and how he can teach the young players, Scott again blamed his players:

"I don’t learn anything from it. The guys on the court have to learn from it. You know what I mean? They didn’t play well at all and really just got embarrassed by the way we played tonight. And like I told them, I said it was pathetic in every area. We didn’t come to compete. They just played harder than we did and like I said, it just looked like we were in awe of that team."​

D'Angelo Russell and Julius Randle disagreed, and it sounds as if Jordan Clarkson did, too.

per Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News:

Said Russell: “I can only speak for myself. I’m definitely not scared”

Said Randle: “We didn’t have energy. We didn’t play with energy. We didn’t play as a team. But we definitely weren’t scared.”

“It’s embarrassing,”Clarkson said. “I don’t know if I was scared. They just outcompeted us.”​

It’s impossible to know what’s in someone else’s mind, and it’s difficult even to guess. Scott should have more insight into the thinking of his players than I do, but I’m unconvinced he’s positioned to make that observation.

The Lakers played lousy – no question. But they’re a bad team and poorly coached. They can get blown out without being scared.

This public disagreement doesn’t point to the situation improving. To the contrary, it could worsen.

How long until the Lakers’ young players tire of Scott putting Kobe on a pedestal? How long until they tire of Scott blaming them without looking in the mirror?

And how long until management tires of Scott, period?

 

^ translation
scott: "kobe's good, everyone else sucks."

 

whiny bkitches
"merge the threads, don't merge the threads..."

 

Here's why the Lakers' offense sucks
by Drew Garrison | SB Nation — 3 hours ago

The Los Angeles Lakers are bad for a variety of reasons. They're giving up the second-most points in the NBA at 108.8 points per 100 possessions, per NBA.com, while scoring the second-least points (96.8). Both are serious issues, though it's the offensive system that most recently came under fire from D'Angelo Russell. A 40-point loss causes boiling frustration, and the locker room showed a glimpse of it after being called "scared."

But what are the Lakers doing on offense? The eye test doesn't show any particular system that keeps the team in rhythm, instead looking more like a muddled mix of draining isolation attempts, ineffective pick-and-roll sets and wasteful elbow touches that lead to contested shots. It's more than just Kobe Bryant chucking; they're a team that consistently struggles to generate easy scoring opportunities.

To begin painting the picture of what the Lakers' offense is, we'll start with looking at play type frequency, via NBA.com:



The Lakers lead the NBA in possessions used by pick-and-roll ball-handlers (21.8 percent of their offense), but are in the bottom-five in those same plays ending with the roll man. That's been a glaring issue watching them play, with their guards having a brutal time trying to feed their frontcourt partners once they take their screens. More often, the screening big man doesn't roll to the basket, instead lingering on the perimeter. The Lakers' inability to properly integrate a versatile pick-and-roll game has everything to do with personnel and strategy.

Defenders can easily help over the top to contest shots when the roll man isn't a factor:



The Lakers also lead the league in isolation possessions, tallying a total of 264 field-goal attempts in that category. Kobe Bryant (78) and Julius Randle (72) are the biggest culprits, and they're both struggling to convert on those attempts. Another strange bit is that, despite running the Princeton Offense which should rely on cutters, they're last in the league in attempts that fall into that category.

Making that detail even more of a glaring problem is the fact that they're most effective on offense when cutting to the basket (1.17 points per possession). Here's a full breakdown of their points per possession by play type:



The Lakers' (far and away) most used play type -- pick-and-roll ball-handler -- is one of their least effective sequences on offense. It's not just a matter of running pick-and-rolls, but designing ways to create space out of those sets. They lack rolling bigs to complement the ball-handlers, which is like trying to drive a car without gas. The offense is on fumes, and Byron Scott's sitting in the driver seat while the rest of the team tries to push that jalopy uphill.

Worse, the Lakers average .7 points per possession out of isolation, the lowest mark in the league. They're the absolute worst isolation team in the NBA, and while the eye test is a pretty good confirmation of said information, the numbers create the kind of transparency that can't be denied:



The Lakers are alone on their own island, jacking up isolation attempts at the highest rate in the league. The next-closest team in sheer volume is the New York Knicks, but they've been delivering at a very high rate. The Wizards lead the NBA in points per possession in isolation while also taking the lowest amount of attempts, the complete opposite of the Lakers.

Los Angeles also scores the second-least amount of points in the paint, putting in just 36.5 points per game in close while opponents score 45.1 in that area (third-worst). Here's how the Lakers' shot performance and distribution charts look through 27 games:



There's nothing good happening in the Lakers' offense. They're competent when cutting to the basket but never cut to the basket. They run pick-and-roll sets into the ground seemingly for the sake of running pick-and-rolls into the ground. They sit back and let isolation possessions clunk off the rim. The Lakers are bad because of personnel, inexperience and coaching. It's the basketball operations team's job to identify and address these issues as the season moves forward, and what they're heading into is a 12-win season and new franchise low.

How they proceed, and what they change, will be incredibly important in developing their young talent and creating a basketball environment free agents will be interested in being a part of. There's plenty of basketball to be played, but there's little reason to believe the Lakers are going to turn this embarrassing offense around any time soon.

The numbers provide all of the evidence needed to say, confidently, the Lakers are horrible on offense. The proof is in this terribly flavored pudding.