Past Lakers Teams Floor Spacing

[mo2thewillyo]

Has questions about past Lakers teams and how the offense functioned.

1) Jabbar/Worthy

Did Kareem tend to do his skyhooks from the high and/or low post? Did he tend to postup from the left or the right side? How did Worth coexist with Kareem since he was a post up player too? Did Worthy do pick and roll with magic instead or come of screens? Did Kareem and Worthy take turns posting up? Also I was wondering how Michael Thompson's style of play fit in.

2) Gasol/Bynum

Same as previous question. Just wondered how they coexisted. Did one guy operate on one side of floor while other was other side. I think Gasol spent more time in the high post area doing pick and roll with Kobe on one side of floor away from Bynum. Overall, I think Bynum posted up more than Pau. Also, wonder how Odom fit in with these guys when all three were on the floor together.

3) Bryant/Van Exel/Eddie Jones

3 isolation players. I think Van Exel was more top of the key. Did Kobe and Eddie tend to stay on certain wings.. one guy left and one guy right? I don't think Eddie Jones was much of a spot up shooter while wearing purple and gold. Think he shot 3-pointers more when he left LA.


4) 02 Lakers (Horry/Fisher/Fox/Shaw/George)

I know the 3-Peat Lakers of the early 2000's were about dumping the ball into Shaq and having shooters on the 3 point line. Did these guys spot up in certain areas more often than not. I know there is top of key, left wing, right wing, left baseline, right baseline. I think Shaw preferred Shaw the most for kicking the ball out to him for 3.

[Slava]

Gasol/Bynum did not play much together at all. Phil used to stagger their usage around Odom's most of the time and Bynum was more often than not hurt to make things hard for Phil to decide his line ups.

The repeat team in 2009-10 had Gasol/LO/Ariza(Artest)/Kobe/Fisher in heavy usage with Shannon Brown/Sasha/Farmar and Vladimir Radmanovic adding spacing.

[Dr Aki]

don't forget josh powell

[Jajwanda]

1- The rules were different regarding zone defense pre Kobe-Pau titles so keep that in mind. Worthy was high post usually, Thompson had a midrange and Kareem moved around quite a bit.

2- Gasol and Bynum played plenty of minutes together. There's a video describing how the Lakers used the triangle against Boston in game 1 of the Finals and it works well. There's constant movement to provide spacing, but primarily Kobe was in the two man game with Pau, with Bynum on the other side. You don't always need to have everything wide open and clear to pressure a defense. The key was that Fisher, Artest were hitting their shots.

As much a P and R and spread the floor ball have taken over, post up teams often times do just fine with two or three guys in the paint.

3- You are right on number 3. That's what I remember mainly. It was very inefficient basketball.

4- This followed a loose version of the triangle in year 1 where Kobe would create a shot from anywhere and Shaq would kick out to shooters who would move it around. Eventually the team went with Horry at the 4, bringing Kobe into the high post more often with Shaq in the low. The spacing was strong until Payton in 2004 who outside of post-ups in the high and mid post was just at odds with the triangle. The other problem was that with all these shooters, you really only had to concentrate on two threats and then a shooter afterwards (Especially after the team's depth left or retired in Harper, Rice etc and guys like Fox just couldn't drive anymore). That was a major part of why Detroit and SA in consecutive years were able to beat two primary threats. Compare that to say the 96-98 Bulls who had two stars that were supported by guys that could beat you in different ways other than shooting. It's the same way in San Antonio. Ginobli, Green, Parker, and Diaw can do a number of things which doesn't' let you play crowd the paint and then run out at the three-point shooter basketball.

If the purpose of your post is to get an idea of next season and what will happen, the Lakers will likely go with a two-man game in a pseudo-triangle. It won't be the cuts of the triangle but it will likely have action between Kobe in the high post, a PF in the mid-range face up and a C. It's worked before (Kobe-Gasol-Bynum and Kobe-Gasol-Howard towards Kobe's injury). They key next year will be to play post up basketball or regulate the P and R to the side. Say if they draft Julius Randle and bring back Pau, Pau will move around the high and low post, with Randle cutting from the midrange with two shooters in the other two spots.

[DEEP3CL]

Since nobody answered the Showtime era I will.

First off there was no set side Kareem or Big Game would take, Magic usually called the set and directed Cap or Big Game where he wanted them.

Magic ran more pick and roll or as Chick use to say " Give and Go", with Kareem. When Cap was out the games the Lakers would post Worthy more and almost iso his side since he was so explosive with his first step and spin moves he would use to beat his man.

When Cap and Worthy was on the floor together, the Lakers would put Worthy on Cap's strong side since he was such a good passer from the post. Worthy would often cut back door and get drop off passes from Cap for easy buckets.


Kareem could post high but preferred the left low block to use his right handed hook swinging to the left of the key. If he posted on the right block he'd get his right hand hook off going towards the baseline, but he could also come with his left hand towards the middle of the key.