Biggest disappointment for the playoffs (no show)

[Tommy Trojan]

I heard this topic on am 570 few days ago and I thought I would share it with you.

Well the title says it all, which currant Laker player disappointed you the most?

The answer might be a little surprise when almost everyone on the canons agreed to the same player.

Now let’s see:

Farmar- as bad as he played earlier in the playoffs the kid stepped up and I loved how he played for the finals.

Luke- Although Luke straggled like Farmar, he did have few good games just like Farmar.

Vlad Rad – Now about 30% of the callers said it was Vlad, he did not have a solid contribution, but after the Canons talked about it he did have a good game in couple of the games. And he also knocked down couple 3 pointers when we needed it.

Sasha – Well Sasha had his struggles but he also had few good games.

Ronny – Now this guy had no solid games. In fact the Canons brought up how Jackson had lost all hope with him and did not even want to play him up until the last game. This guy was the biggest disappointment in my opinion also. Phil was so upset with Ronny that he even went with Mihm ahead of Ronny at one point knowing Mihm has not played for ages. A lot of the callers agreed with the Canons and me.

Now what about you guys?

Thoughts

[dockingsched]

luke had a great 1st series. vlad was who is always is. sasha was solid compared to his season avgs. farmar had been struggling since the pau gasol trade. the one player that was just pure disappointment was ronny turiaf. other than getting the opposition into the penalty, guy was a no show and forced the phil to play mihm in the finals!

2 pts, 1.4 rbs, 38.9 fg%, 2.2 fouls per game in 9.8 min. awful.

[Tommy Trojan]

luke had a great 1st series. vlad was who is always is. sasha was solid compared to his season avgs. farmar had been struggling since the pau gasol trade. the one player that was just pure disappointment was ronny turiaf. other than getting the opposition into the penalty, guy was a no show and forced the phil to play mihm in the finals!

2 pts, 1.4 rbs, 38.9 fg%, 2.2 fouls per game in 9.8 min. awful.

cool so you also agree

[KB20]

As bad as Ronny played, he wasn't as bad as Vlad. He didn't play enough to severly impact the game. Vlad was beyond horrible. He just didn't care. Ronny at least made an effort. For every shot Vlad might hit, he'll turn the ball over, give up a basket, or give up a rebound. If you go back and watch the games, you can clearly see that there were several times when a ball would be headed Vlad's way while he would simply stand there and watch someone just snatch it from right in front/above him. It was sickening. It's a disgrace to the Lakers franchise that has had the likes of Magic, Kareem, Worthy, West, Kobe, etc. to have someone like Vlad.

[That Nicka]

I gotta go wit my boy Turiaf... He had a good season... I dunno what happened to him in the playoffs

6.6 ppg, 4 rpg, 1.4 bpg, 47%, 19 min

as a starter (21 games):
10.5 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 2 bpg, 51.6%, 28 min

I was really expecting more outta him

[PPAW4Life]

It has to be Phil Jackson's "coaching" job during the Finals.

His young team really needed some guidance and he didn't even talk to any of them during the time outs?

That's just not cool.

[c2asante]

The Lakers were my favorite team growing up and while they have had some really bad role players (remember Medvedenko, Madesen), and some really good role players(Fisher, Horry). The role players rarely are responsible for winning and losing. If you want to place the finals collapse on any ones shoulders it has to start with Phil Jackson being out coached and Kobe Bryant being outplayed.

Certainly without the greatness of Phil and Kobe they never even get there, but those two definitely did not perform to their potential in the finals, whereas people like Turiaf and Walton are overachieving scrubs who played at about their ability level. I understand this may be hard for die hard fans to accept but it is not meant to be a flame simply the truth.

[Kilroy]

Turiaf is a backup PF in the NBA... Nothing more, nothing less...

He isn't long enough to score over Centers or gaurd them. I think as things got more physical with bigger and bigger opponents, Turiaf suffered.

He needs to come off the bench at the 2 and be paid accordingly. If he want's a bigger paycheck, it'll have to come from a differen't org...

[hermes]

radman is who we thought he was!
is he who we thought he was! and we let him play the finals!
we knew he couldn't guard pierce! and we let him play!
is he who we thought he was!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=aYKIcnj1MJY

[Danny Darko]

hahah..

Yes rice-a-Ronny... he was bad in the playoff. Not really worried about it, though. He'll take a reasonable contract and be back and I'll be glad to have him. He's still learning.

Vlad did have good games, he was just not the right guy, nor could he be with that brain issue.

[Kilroy]

hahah..

Yes rice-a-Ronny... he was bad in the playoff. Not really worried about it, though. He'll take a reasonable contract and be back and I'll be glad to have him. He's still learning.

Vlad did have good games, he was just not the right guy, nor could he be with that brain issue.

Ha! I never thought of it that way before, but maybe when everybody's talking about Radman's "Stroke," they aren't talking about his shot at all...

[CITYOFANGELSX3]

Easily. Lamar Odom.

[creepystan]

I'm going to have to mirror PPAW4Lifes' comments.
I expected more from Phil in the finals. There was very little that he did to "adjust" the
triangle this series. I realize the Kelts packed in the middle quite a bit (triangle inhibitor) which
does'nt allow much passing in and out of the post, but c'mon guys, those 2 games at Boston
looked like the Lakes had no coaching preparation, and it was evident by game 2 that Luke/Vlad could not match up with anybody on the Kelts (Brian Scalabrine not included). By game 3 I was praying that Ariza would get at least 20mins and use all 6 fouls defending Pierce/Alllen.
Ronny I'll forgive. He did'nt match up very well in this series, but against the Spurs played,what I thought, was impressive D on Duncan...not easy to do,but at 25yrs old I'm pretty sure he's hit his
ceiling on offense. I've had my say on Sasha in another post and can't really forgive him
for acting like such a softy all playoffs long.
oh, and I'll try to cut down on the run-on sentences.

[Luxury]

No one could guard Pierce on our Laker squad, including Kobe. Phil told all the players guarding Pierce to force him towards the middle, but certain players would let him go the other way, and to make things worse we need to learn to defend penetration without fouling. Players on our team would also make meaningless switches without proper rotation, and this all contributes to the lack of preparation, coaching, and bball IQ of our players. But then again, we didn't have a summer camp with that full squad together. It's easier to adapt on offense than it is on defense, and it showed.

Kobe scored at will against the West, but was contained vs the Celtics. I love Kobe to death and give him props for carrying us to the Finals, but I have to put this one on him because he's the one person who I thought would come through no matter what in the Finals. I would like to see him pick his spots more precisely. For example, isolated on the high post vs Pierce and low post vs Ray, running through screens to get the ball in a catch-and-shoot position where he can do a headfake/jab step/rip/shoot for a better % shot, and most importantly to be become unpredictable by switching it up sometiemes. I don't know about you, but sometimes I can really tell when Kobe is going to pass from when he's going to shoot. Also, Kobe is good dribbler, but he has to use his full arsenal. In that series, Kobe must get a quiet but spread out 15 points for the first 3 quarters, then take over in the last, atleast then he would have a better rhythm going into the 4th.

On the defensive end, we got burned by pick-and-roll plays by PP and KG. Kobe and Gasol got owned pretty hard by this, and some blame must go to Phil. Odom is a better P&R defender, and he should have been on KG once they kept repetitively doing this. The 1 thing I noticed about Pierce is that he doesn't know how to change directions. He moves in one solid direction, so can someone please take a charge? I remember semi-sentiment suggesting on getting an assistant coach for defense, that's a pretty good idea.

Overall, I knew their basic plan was to stay home on shooters, force Pierce to the middle when he drives, make KG a jump shooter, and to have a body on Ray Allen at all times. We don't have a DPOY in the middle to rely on or head bangers like Posey and PJ Brown, but I hope we can make the right adjustments next year. I feel as if we have the personel to win it all, but we need to develope a defensive identity.

I know people must be mad for me putting a lot on Kobe, but the best player in the NBA has the highest (and sometimes irrational) expectations. It's sometimes good to have someone point out all the wrong things in order to get better, but I'm still glad we had the chance to win it all this year.

[dockingsched]

Easily. Lamar Odom.

his season numbers and playoff numbers are virtually identical. he struggled when matched up against kevin freakin garnett.

[SashAlex]

Radmanovic and Turiaf !