What Exactly Is The Issue?

[semi-sentient]

No, it's not our offense. We have one of the most efficient offenses in the league, but defensively we're atrocious. We allowed the Sixers, one of the worst offensive teams in the league, to shoot 48% from the field and score over 100 points while only committing 10 turnovers. About the only thing we did well was prevent 2nd chance points which is generally a problem against athletic FC's.

[GAME TIME]

No, it's not our offense. We have one of the most efficient offenses in the league, but defensively we're atrocious. We allowed the Sixers, one of the worst offensive teams in the league, to shoot 48% from the field and score over 100 points while only committing 10 turnovers. About the only thing we did well was prevent 2nd chance points which is generally a problem against athletic FC's.

WRONG

It is our offense. Just no consistency and flow to the game. To many bad turnovers, not knowing to control the pace of the game, taking bad shots, bigs unable to score underneath. Bad offense translate into bad defense. Our bigs and our older players don't get back in transition because of turnovers, not moving the ball for the easy shot.... Stats don't mean squat... Howard down below controlling the paint, will always give us on a chance on defense, but with our older players, most of the time they are out of position because of bad offense and trying to get back on defense.

[KB24TBOTB]

We lack effort and urgency as a whole. Everyone on that team knows how important every game is now, we might not even make it into the damn playoffs but no one seems to care other then J-Hill. We'll have a good game and then follow it up with a terrible game with absolutely no effort what so ever. Our leadership has been awful and i just don't see the guys playing for one an other.

And oh ya, Kobe is a ball stopper. Dude gets the ball, holds and holds, and then takes a shot whether good or bad. He feels since he has Nash now he can shoot the ball every time he touches it....that's just really stupid. Him and Nash are the only ones who can create easy shots for others on this and now Kobe just simply refuses to do that. This game our ball movement was awful and that can be blamed on Kobe entirely.

[semi-sentient]

Bad offense translate into bad defense.

Not to this extent it doesn't. How many games have we lost this season when our offense looked fantastic but couldn't get stops on the other end?

Don't blame it on the offense when our defense has consistently sucked. Look at the Magic game from a few weeks ago. Our offense was fine, but we allowed them to come into our building and do whatever they wanted on offense. A few games later the Jazz came into Staples and lit us up in a game where we scored 110 points on 47% shooting (and >50% from downtown) while committing 14 turnovers.

How about that Nuggets game where we scored 114 on 49% shooting with 14 turnovers? We got blown out because as good as our offense was our defense was non-existent.

Last night we allowed a piss poor offensive team to again come into our building and look like a top-notch offense.

Offensively we've been fine for the most part. Yeah we do tend to turn the ball over but the biggest problem is what we do after we turn it over. We've got a bunch of slow-footed babies on our team that would rather stand around complaining that they didn't get a call instead of running back to prevent transition buckets and that's why we get scored on so frequently off of turnovers or when we miss a 3. We give up a ridiculous amount of 2nd chance point for a team that boasts so much size in the middle with Howard and Pau, and that's all about boxing out and grabbing the rebound instead of waiting for it to fall into their lap.

We don't need to have the best offense in the league to succeed, but we do need to figure out how to play defense as a team and play with a sense of urgency.

[Kilroy]

Listening to the analysis on ESPN this morning and I tend to agree with what Rambis had to say...

I personally think there's 2 problems. Pau and Dwight can't figure out how to play together consistently, and we don't have the personnel to run D'Antoni's system...

So given that, the logical answer seems to be to try to trade Pau for the right pieces... I don't think it's that easy.
IMO even if we traded Pau, we still have a post-up, half court focused team.
We got Dwight, Kobe, MWP who all like to post up even if we trade Pau.

Instead of running, we need Nash and our Defense to control the pace.

So yes, I think we need to trade Pau for a solid, non-superstar starting PF that can defend and score (Milsap would be my ideal, although that's probably a dream at this point), and maybe another athletic defensive minded perimeter player. We don't need any more pure scoring, I think if we slow the pace a bit, focus more on ball movement in the half court, more of our shots will fall.

And that means, D'Antoni is going to have to adapt to the players we have a little more. Even with a Pau trade, I still don't think we can be a fast-paced team.

[richboy]

Dwight and Pau can play together. They were looking great together in the Princeton. They would have been fine in the triangle. This offense does not need 2 big men. The biggest lie is that Mike D system was perfect for this team. His system is only working for Nash. Dwight is not involved in the offense. The PNR doesn't work with the lack of spacing. A few post ups a game for Dwight and Gasol is a joke. Really they both probably want away from Mike D.

[Kilroy]

Kobe has said and I agree with him... Pau is the key to this team. When Pau and Dwight are working together, just like when Pau and Bynum worked well together, this team is a very tough matchup for anyone. The problem is, those games have been very rare... In any system.

So Pau is the key, but unfortunately the key is broken. I get teased by a couple great games from him into believing in the Pau/Dwight concept... But it never seems to work from one game to the next.
And in that respect, it doesn't seem like a system issue... Because between D'Antoni's system, the Triangle, and the Princeton, you've pretty much covered the systems in the NBA, all are basically hybrids of the concepts in those... Utilization and Coaching differ, but there aren't any mystical differences out there from those.

It's hard for me to say Dwight and Pau were working in the Princeton. It was 5 games and Dwight was just coming back.
I think it's pretty clear the D'Antoni hiring was made specifically for Nash... Which I honestly don't have much of a problem with in theory...
Nash was pretty much a non-factor under Mike Brown, and historically, it wouldn't appear like he'd have that large a role in Phil's Triangle.
But, I think the anticipation was that getting Nash going wouldn't come at the expense of getting Dwight and Pau on the same page...

Pau and Bynum was often a question mark too though, even in the Triangle. So it wouldn't seem like too much of a stretch to say that maybe the FO has always viewed Pau as the odd-man-out for us, and is just waiting for a clear evaluation with Nash and Pau. I mean, they technically already traded Pau once.

The rumor is that Nash was adamant about playing with Pau as a criteria for coming here... But I believe the exact quote was "I didn't want them to trade away their front-court." Getting Dwight would seem to negate that concern...

So I think our core is Dwight/Nash/Kobe... And I don't see another Coaching move coming. I think all bets are off for the rest of the team.

[LA_Sports]

I think there are a variety of things wrong. The most concerning to me is inconstant effort and most of it stems from the coaching. The players don't seem that they are being put in places to win.

[kobe808lak]

Pau has been bad but Kobe refuses to sacrifice his shots. He also does not facilitate anything anymore and is trash on D.

[Kilroy]

Pau has been bad but Kobe refuses to sacrifice his shots. He also does not facilitate anything anymore and is trash on D.

Kobe's played better since Nash came back, but his D is awful... Definitely one of the issues. Not sure how to fix that one though, other than trying to get both a starting defensive PF as well as a more athletic starting SF in trade, with the hope that both will mask Kobe's and to a seemingly lesser extent, Nash's perimeter D issues.

[madmaxmedia]

A LOT of mileage in the starting 5, the only one not on the downside of his career has a balky back which has negated his number 1 strength (defense). I don't think resting him will help, I think he needs to play himself back into shape. (EDIT- that statement about starting 5 is obviously based on Metta as starter.)

I think the main issue is that this team simply is not as good as everyone made it out to be, at least until Dwight is playing like he was a couple of years ago. Even then, the team's ceiling is not as high as we thought. Once you add injuries to Pau and Steve Nash, it's not out of the question for this team to be 19-12 level at this point. Then throw in the disruption caused by a in-season coaching change, and even that goes out the window.

So maybe the Lakers aren't underperforming as much as we'd like to think they are.

Kobe had some good stuff in a radio interview today. He said the team has to recognize that it is really old, and has to come up with way to compensate. He also said the team has been playing a lot better the last 10 games or so, but due to the poor start every loss now is magnified. I think after a couple of weeks the team will be solidly above .500 for the rest of the season- not great, but there will be less drama after losses.

[Danny Darko]

Perhaps a plea for personnel change?

A New Year only marks the passing of more time. Following the Los Angeles Lakers' 103-99 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on New Year's Day, Kobe Bryant had a simple answer for what has been plaguing the 15-16 Lakers this season: their age. "'Cause we're old as s---," said the 34-year-old Bryant when asked why a lack of energy has been a problem for L.A. all season. "What do you want? We just got to figure out how to play when we don't have that energy. We got to change things up a little bit defensively. We got to figure out what we want to do offensively, figure out what we want to do on nights when we don't have those legs or have that energy." ... "You just saw an old damn team," Bryant continued. "I don't know how else to put it to you."

http://www.fannation.com/truth_and_rumors/view/359778-kobe-old-as-expletive-lakers-need-change?sct=uk_t2_a6&eref=fromSI

[madmaxmedia]

I don't think it's a plea for personnel change as much as understanding that the problem is not as simple as lack of effort, or needing time to gel, or whatever. On many nights the opposing time is going to be younger, faster, and have more energy, and the Lakers need to compensate in whatever ways they can for this.

One of these ways may involve personnel change. But hearing him on the radio this morning, he was emphasizing how they (the current team) needs to recognize this and figure out ways to compensate for its age.

[richboy]

It's hard for me to say Dwight and Pau were working in the Princeton. It was 5 games and Dwight was just coming back.
I think it's pretty clear the D'Antoni hiring was made specifically for Nash... Which I honestly don't have much of a problem with in theory...
Nash was pretty much a non-factor under Mike Brown, and historically, it wouldn't appear like he'd have that large a role in Phil's Triangle.
But, I think the anticipation was that getting Nash going wouldn't come at the expense of getting Dwight and Pau on the same page...

Pau and Bynum was often a question mark too though, even in the Triangle. So it wouldn't seem like too much of a stretch to say that maybe the FO has always viewed Pau as the odd-man-out for us, and is just waiting for a clear evaluation with Nash and Pau. I mean, they technically already traded Pau once.

The rumor is that Nash was adamant about playing with Pau as a criteria for coming here... But I believe the exact quote was "I didn't want them to trade away their front-court." Getting Dwight would seem to negate that concern...

So I think our core is Dwight/Nash/Kobe... And I don't see another Coaching move coming. I think all bets are off for the rest of the team.

It was working. Kobe's numbers were great. Dwight was getting 22 a game. Gasol was filling a box sheet with points and assist.

Bringing in Mike D for Steve Nash made no sense because they already had the orchestrator of his system. D'antoni pretty much came in and said can't do much until Nash is here. Which sounds like what was said in New York. Everything be great if we had Steve Nash. So what exactly does he do. Nash was still going to run lots of PNR. He even stated that he can call PNR anytime he wanted but early wanted to focus on running the Princeton.

Right now this organization is trying to play a style that they can't play. The Lakers do not have the speed to take quick shots. Can't get back on defense. Every team with speed is a problem. The game has to be slowed down with half court execution and close shots. We don't have great shooters but we have enough shooting to keep teams honest. We don't have any PG depth. The half court defense isn't that bad.

Names don't win games. We need a system that will get these 5 guys playing well together. That will allow them to play like the players they have become. I've haven't seen Dwight this uninvolved in the offense since his first couple years in the league. I can't imagine Gasol doing anything in this system. I'm wondering why Gasol hasn't demanded to be traded. Right now I'm wondering how these bigs suppose to be impact players in this offense. Now I think if they had a stretch 4 it would get the roll man more involved. The only potential stretch 4 doesn't play though. Teams would gladly give up Gasol for 3 or long 2 than anything in the paint. The organization needs to figure out something because they have decided to back Mike D and his system. Well go out and get some players that actually fit it. We had the perfect personnel for the Princeton and Triangle but they wanted this so make the trades and moves to make this work.

[JustAwesome]

I'm glad to see Lakers fans holding Kobe accountable. Not only is he a ball stopper, but he has become a 1 dimensional player. He has become solely a scorer. He doesn't create for others and he is a liability in defense. I am not saying he is the problem, but most people ignore that he is part of the problem simply because he is Kobe Bryant.

It's more socially acceptable for fans to point the fingers at the head coach and Gasol instead of Bryant.

[GeneralNash]

You cannot blame kobe for trying to bail the team out. gasol was 2-12 and Dwight was 1-7., and metta was 6-16.

Kobe is the last thing this team needs to be concerned about. Kobe and Nash are the only consistent players on this team. And if no one else contributes then kobe needs to take more shots.

[richboy]

Kobe defense should be a concern. It seems like every night a SG is having good games against him. When your struggling to defend Corey Brewer your in trouble.

[TyCobb]

The biggest concern is none of the players are on the same page and haven't been for quite some time. The players will perform better after the Front Office comes out of their slump.

[semi-sentient]

Kobe's played better since Nash came back, but his D is awful... Definitely one of the issues. Not sure how to fix that one though, other than trying to get both a starting defensive PF as well as a more athletic starting SF in trade, with the hope that both will mask Kobe's and to a seemingly lesser extent, Nash's perimeter D issues.

You know what's crazy? We have a defensive PF (Hill or even Metta) that can start in place of Pau as well as an athletic SF (Ebanks) that we can use to move Kobe back to his natural spot where he won't be as much of a liability on defense.

We have the pieces, we just need a coach with balls that can do the right thing and move Pau's ass to the bench.

Howard and Pau should be the only 2 players that play at the 5.

Hill and Metta should get most of the minutes at the 4, with Pau getting a few minutes here and there when Metta slides back to the 3.

Metta and Ebanks should get most of the minutes at the 3, with Kobe getting a few here and there when Metta is at the 4 and Ebanks is getting a breather.

Kobe and Meeks are the only two players that should get PT at SG, while Nash and Morris split time at PG.

[The Skyhook]

I have a feeling Mitch will push to trade Gasol before the deadline. It seems like a lot of people are concerned after last nights loss but for some reason I just brushed it off. I don't know if thats a good thing or its the fact that I'm just used to this happening throughout the season.