Lakers Thread

[SkinsandTerps]

I say cut Meeks today and get someone from the minor league.

He was terrible.

[ABQCOWBOY]

Originally Posted by RoyTheHammer

You never know.. as shallow as their depth is, you better pray Nash stays healthy. It could certainly happen that Nash and Blake are somehow hurt for the playoffs. I don't know if you look the trade route at that point or just go ahead and bring in The Answer. haha.

Anything could happen of course but I doubt both PGs would be injured, as was the case last night. I mean, for all we know it could be Duncan injured but hopefully that's not the case. Hopefully, both teams are good to go and we see some good basketball.

[SkinsandTerps]

Problem is the Lakers would have to overspend to trade for a PG at this point. They have no trade leverage.

They are forced to make sure that Nash is the guy.

Lakers are terrible on draft day, and have been for quite some time.
No depth in their coaching staff to develop players in recent years on top of it does not help the cause.

[ABQCOWBOY]

Originally Posted by SkinsandTerps

Problem is the Lakers would have to overspend to trade for a PG at this point. They have no trade leverage.

They are forced to make sure that Nash is the guy.

Lakers are terrible on draft day, and have been for quite some time.
No depth in their coaching staff to develop players in recent years on top of it does not help the cause.

I don't think that the Lakers are terrible at drafting talent. I think it's more a question of how the Lakers view the draft. They don't keep picks. They use them to leverage trades. Because the Lakers are almost always good, they are always drafting at the end of the draft. They are not going to get the chance to draft anybody who can impact their team. As example, here are the last 10 years of drafts for the Lakers:


2002 1 27 Chris Jefferies (traded to Toronto)
2003 1 24 Brian Cook
2003 2 32 Luke Walton
2004 1 27 Sasha Vujačić
2004 2 56 Marcus Douthit
2005 1 10 Andrew Bynum
2005 2 Ronny Turiaf
2005 2 39 Von Wafer
2006 1 26 Jordan Farmar
2006 2 51 Cheikh Samb
2007 1 19 Javaris Crittenton
2007 2 40 Sun Yue
2008 2 58 Joe Crawford
2009 1 29 Toney Douglas
2009 2 42 Patrick Beverley (Developmental)
2009 2 59 Chinemelu Elonu
2010 2 43 Devin Ebanks
2010 2 58 Derrick Caracter (Developmental)
2011 2 41 Darius Morris (Developmental)
2011 2 46 Andrew Goudelock (Developmental)
2011 2 56 Chukwudiebere Maduabum (Developmental)
2011 2 58 Ater Majok (Developmental)
2012 2 60 Robert Sacre (Developmental)

All the guys highlighted are still in the league. The last few guys on this list are playing in developmental leagues and most of the rest of these guys have signed to play over seas. Mostly because of the NBA lockout. I don't think that it's accurate to say that the Lakers have not drafted well. In fact, i think they are very good at evaluating talent, especially when you consider that they have not had a 1st round pick since 2009 and that they have only had 7 first round picks since 2002 with the highest of those picks being #10 in 2005 (Andrew Bynum). If you look at where they have picked, it's at the bottom overwhelmingly.

It is not that they have not drafted well so much as it is a case of drafting talent that can not break into the starting lineup. I think that's a different thing.

JMO of course.

[jterrell]

Originally Posted by ABQCOWBOY

Perhaps, but the Lakers are also not going to have to play with no PG either. These teams will see each other in the Playoffs. Will be interesting to see them both again.

Good effort by both teams.

The Lakers are not a very good team right now. They have to simply try to become one. Adding a coach with no training camp to install a system is hardly the recommended path to title town.

Talking playoff match ups is goofy at this point.

The Lakers have a lot of coveted pieces but they do not have a team yet.

Of their "stars" only Howard can play defense. And Howard is such a terrible foul shooter they get to relieve hack-a-shaq if they keep him in late in close games.


D'antoni reigned over one of the worst periods of basketball in Knicks history. He had Carmelo and Stoudemire there but couldn't get either to play any defense whatsoever.

Nash will give you offensive firepower but his defensive liabilities are growing by the day and always existed. He can NOT guard Tony Parker AT ALL.

[ABQCOWBOY]

Originally Posted by jterrell

The Lakers are not a very good team right now. They have to simply try to become one. Adding a coach with no training camp to install a system is hardly the recommended path to title town.

Talking playoff match ups is goofy at this point.

The Lakers have a lot of coveted pieces but they do not have a team yet.

Of their "stars" only Howard can play defense. And Howard is such a terrible foul shooter they get to relieve hack-a-shaq if they keep him in late in close games.


D'antoni reigned over one of the worst periods of basketball in Knicks history. He had Carmelo and Stoudemire there but couldn't get either to play any defense whatsoever.

Nash will give you offensive firepower but his defensive liabilities are growing by the day and always existed. He can NOT guard Tony Parker AT ALL.

Lakers will make the playoffs. Of that, I don't really have much doubt. Will they win a championship? That is a better question IMO.

I am very confident that they will make the playoffs.

[jterrell]

Originally Posted by ABQCOWBOY

Lakers will make the playoffs. Of that, I don't really have much doubt. Will they win a championship? That is a better question IMO.

I am very confident that they will make the playoffs.

And then they have a 1 in 7 shot of facing the Spurs in round 1.
The Lakers are very likely to make the playoffs but a serious injury or two and that outlook changes rapidly. Of projected playoff teams they have absolutely the worst depth.

Their focus is simply on a building a cohesive team within D'Antoni's system.

When I was laughing at guys like Jodie Meeks in the off-season Lakers fans were selling them as great back up pieces. When this Princeton system was gonna rock the world I pointed out just how terrible it fit for the team.

I think I have built up a reasonable amount of unbiased and truthful basketball knowledge where it regards the Lakers (who were my team as a kid).

My advice for Lakers fan: Start enjoying actual basketball and pay attention to the x 's and o's not just glaring at the star-studded lineup. It is a painful lesson Knicks fans experienced under D'Antoni.

[Cowboys&LakersFan]

Great offensive performance, but defense sucks and needs to improve.

Also @ the crowd booing the team after not getting tacos.

[Yeagermeister]

Originally Posted by Cowboys&LakersFan

Great offensive performance, but defense sucks and needs to improve.

Also @ the crowd booing the team after not getting tacos.

I can't blame them

[Cowboys&LakersFan]

Congrats Kareem. Up next is the Black Mamba.

[SkinsandTerps]

I understand your point ABQ...but you are also making mine.

The biggest draft day thing they did recently, was trading for Kobe and letting Vlade go to the Hornets. That was quite a while ago.

But hell, they looked great last night. They are re-motivated it seems. I hope they can keep that focus...throughout the playoffs. And like you I have no doubt they will make the playoffs. The 3 biggests stars aren't even at 100%.

I have to give a little praise to Bickerstaff and D'Antoni...they are doing what the team should have been doing. You got Howard for a reason, you have Kobe and some aggressive players...spread them out and force the D to pick their poison.

119 points last night...without the offense completely installed ? 10 steals ? Kobe with 11 dimes ? Playing D at all was my concern with D'Antoni, but with Dan D'Antoni and Bickerstaff on the bench also...I am worried much less about their D. (I do wish they still had Barnes though).

[Cowboys&LakersFan]

Who wears sunglasses at a basketball game?

Anyways I didn't catch the game, but it looks like this team clearly has no issues scoring the basketball. Kobe had a triple double last night and props to him, but defensively is where improvement needs to be made.

[ABQCOWBOY]

Originally Posted by jterrell

And then they have a 1 in 7 shot of facing the Spurs in round 1.
The Lakers are very likely to make the playoffs but a serious injury or two and that outlook changes rapidly. Of projected playoff teams they have absolutely the worst depth.

Their focus is simply on a building a cohesive team within D'Antoni's system.

When I was laughing at guys like Jodie Meeks in the off-season Lakers fans were selling them as great back up pieces. When this Princeton system was gonna rock the world I pointed out just how terrible it fit for the team.

I think I have built up a reasonable amount of unbiased and truthful basketball knowledge where it regards the Lakers (who were my team as a kid).

My advice for Lakers fan: Start enjoying actual basketball and pay attention to the x 's and o's not just glaring at the star-studded lineup. It is a painful lesson Knicks fans experienced under D'Antoni.

That can be said for almost any team in the NBA. I do not agree that Meeks is terrible, as you persist. I mean, he only plays maybe 10 minutes a game. He averages just over 3 pts a game, and a Reb. per game. I would not say that this is terrible production. I don't agree with your opinion there.

I did not love the Princeton Offense but then again, most Laker Fans that I know didn't so to say that you were telling everybody this or that does not hold much water for me.

I know a little bit about Basketball myself. I am paying attention and what I see is that we are now 2nd in our Division and moving up. We are getting better and folks better hope that we do sustain injury because if we don't, we are going to be a tough out.

[ABQCOWBOY]

Originally Posted by SkinsandTerps

I understand your point ABQ...but you are also making mine.

The biggest draft day thing they did recently, was trading for Kobe and letting Vlade go to the Hornets. That was quite a while ago.

But hell, they looked great last night. They are re-motivated it seems. I hope they can keep that focus...throughout the playoffs. And like you I have no doubt they will make the playoffs. The 3 biggests stars aren't even at 100%.

I have to give a little praise to Bickerstaff and D'Antoni...they are doing what the team should have been doing. You got Howard for a reason, you have Kobe and some aggressive players...spread them out and force the D to pick their poison.

[View Full Quote]119 points last night...without the offense completely installed ? 10 steals ? Kobe with 11 dimes ? Playing D at all was my concern with D'Antoni, but with Dan D'Antoni and Bickerstaff on the bench also...I am worried much less about their D. (I do wish they still had Barnes though).

I don't kid myself. I know that we are an older team and I know that D'Antoni is not a defensive coach. I know that if we have our starters playing significant time the entire season, we are going to be in trouble. However, and especially in light of what I'm seeing in Philly with Bynum, the moves the Lakers made this off season are looking pretty good.

I am hopeful we can put a good season together and build on that in the next few seasons. If we don't do that, then it is what it is and we will be in good shape cap wise after this year but I am hopeful that we see a good season out of them. I do hope we see San Antonio in the playoffs. That, IMO, would be a good matchup to watch if both teams arrive healthy.

[Cowboys&LakersFan]

Originally Posted by ABQCOWBOY

I don't kid myself. I know that we are an older team and I know that D'Antoni is not a defensive coach. I know that if we have our starters playing significant time the entire season, we are going to be in trouble. However, and especially in light of what I'm seeing in Philly with Bynum, the moves the Lakers made this off season are looking pretty good.

I am hopeful we can put a good season together and build on that in the next few seasons. If we don't do that, then it is what it is and we will be in good shape cap wise after this year but I am hopeful that we see a good season out of them. I do hope we see San Antonio in the playoffs. That, IMO, would be a good matchup to watch if both teams arrive healthy.

Good season? The Lakers better win the championship or it's a complete and utter failure. We're not the Clippers. The Lakers have championship expectations every single season essentially and this season is no different. When you make the kind of moves the Lakers made in the offseason in getting Dwight Howard and Steve Nash then you should have championship aspirations. Kobe and Nash have probably two seasons left of playing NBA basketball which means the sense of urgency must be there.