Lakers VS Raptors Game #5 - LOSS - 2-3

[Mirjalovic]

Randle always the one who bring incremental improvement over his career in the Lakers and i hope people respect what Randle brings on the table. If not, i hope teams like Spurs will appreciate him better. Randle is one of most disrespected player in the league.

[Spens1]

we played very well in the first half but were rubbish in the 2nd. We fell away badly in that 3rd which cost us the game.

I wish Ingram would find some kind of consistency i really do because this is getting ridiculous. He played so well against Washington and now again, pretty poor.

Lonzo's offense is pretty bad but at least he does other things.

Also not a soul on this team could shoot a 3pter tonight which really was worse. that's the most tragic thing.

[Ball so hard]

Blaming the coach is so silly to me. The best coach in the world can't make this team good. It's too young and not talented enough. Talent has more impact on a teams success in basketball than on any other team sport I can think of.

The fact is, this team is a bunch of role players and two young prospects you hope one day will turn into All NBA players.

I suspect that you are responding to my post above so i'll respond.

Yet praising the coach when the team plays well is allowed. The pendulum clearly swings in one direction. I honestly expected this response from you and others. Luke is so adored by many--he's simply immune to criticism through the eyes of many. Probably more so than any other fan base, our fan base is very niche-like in who they support. For the Lonzo supporters, there is no such thing as fair criticism, let alone criticism; For Clarkson, Randle, Luke and others the same apply. Very few on this forum is capable of giving an unbiased opinion. Once it becomes apparent (some try to hide it) who certain Posters support, their posting patterns become very predictable. To go on a tangent - this is exactly what we're seeing in our politics today. On one side you have the "he can do nothing wrong crowd"; on the other you have the "he can do nothing right crowd".

"The best coach in the world can't make this team good." - This is a strawman. It would be hard to find a single person on this forum who thinks that Popovich or any other great coach can make this team "good". I take it that "good" means at a minimum playoff bound and possibly much more. Do I think that a better coach could get more out of this team? The answer is pretty obvious.

[Spanish_Laker]

1-3 record at home is unacceptable, sorry. Trash team, trash coach.

[Landsberger]

While i'm disappointed about this loss, i'm more annoyed by what I saw late in the game. This was a winnable game, but I think poor coaching contributed greatly to our loss.

Through 5 games so far, one thing is consistent - Luke's inconsistent rotations.

There were so many head scratching moves from the coaching staff this game:
Subbing out the bench unit that was playing well
Randomly giving playing time to Ennis; playing Ennis far longer than he should've been in the game
Platoon-like substitutions with about 3+ minutes to play
Running plays through Nance in the post during crunch time
Turning Lopez into a 7 foot jump shooter
Overplaying Kuzma

Much of the above has been consistent from the preseason through the first 5 games. The two biggest arguments in favor of Luke at this moment are, his ability to connect with players and having a "futuristic mindset" with regard to the modern NBA. I might be jumping the gun here so to speak, but I haven't seen anything thus far that suggests that he'll be a quality coach. One can usually tell very early on which young coach has the potential to be special. Stevens, Spoelstra, and Kidd comes to mind. People knew these guys would be good as early as their first season.

Luke still has time to turn things around. However, i'm very skeptical for now. I think he's a mediocre coach until proven otherwise.

you can never over play kuzma lol

Actually I think his difference in shooting from 3 is do to not being in NBA shape. Not that he's out of shape but playing every couple of days in different cities is a type of "in shape" that it takes time to achieve. Wall just said that he's in NBA shape for the first time in his career.

His outside shots are all "leg short"; meaning that he's not elevating. He was tired in the 4th yesterday. He was resting on the defensive end when he could. It's all part of the maturation curve. Overall, he's doing fantastic. He's had the best first 5 games of any of our recent youngsters IMHO.

[Landsberger]

Blaming the coach is so silly to me. The best coach in the world can't make this team good. It's too young and not talented enough. Talent has more impact on a teams success in basketball than on any other team sport I can think of.

The fact is, this team is a bunch of role players and two young prospects you hope one day will turn into All NBA players.

I agree and disagree. I agree that you can't blame our record on Luke. He's got serious roster limitations and no floor leader. He's got basically a "new" roster as well. He's also got a lot of players that don't match his system.

This is where I will disagree. The system has to bend to the players you have. The ball movement system that GS runs isn't going to work with a guy like Ball who is a passer first and foremost. When your PG can hit 35' 3's it opens the floor. That's why I don't see anyone really being able to emulate their success. They have a unique group. We don't have the shooters (nobody does) and we have a 20ppg. big who is best in a more traditional set. This system needs to move toward the talents of the players a little.

I will also continue to be puzzled by the lineup changes from game to game.... half to half. A young team who has issues playing defense needs consistency and if a bad 6 minutes means you don't play the rest of the game then how does a player grow? I'd much rather see a 8-9 man rotation that sticks together for a 5 game stretch and then adjustments are made.

All of this said, this team is 2-3 which isn't that bad considering all of the new we have on this roster. Hell, right now our most consistent and efficient scorer (arguably) is a rookie who's not even starting. I'll take that.