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in the past people have always lambasted mitch for not improving the team in the offseason, letting it age, not making moves etc.. and last summer he did try and reload w/ barnes and blake... and ratliff, etc... trade farmar and sasha... but i don't know...

this year it was like we had a entirely new team in the playoffs because bynum hasnt been healthy in the playoffs, and walton, sasha, and farmar (people who were critical in the last playoff runs) were not playing for us.

looking back. do you guys think it would have been better to keep that championship team intact and then blow it up when we went out like this? versus trading away all those pieces after a championship ring and hoping a new squad could take us back there again.

say what you want about farmar, sasha, walton, etc but those dudes had triangle and playoff experience as well as team chemistry... something that barnes and blake have not developed with the team yet.. and something that was difficult to find with bynum and pao in the line-up.

futhermore... that second line-up we had in years past could run and wear an opposing team out whereas our second line-up this year was nearly identical to our first... we didn't have as many options to switch it up with line-ups and what not.

Didn't read all of it, but Sasha and Farmar weren't stopping the penetration either.

Yes. To be honest, we did not expect Blake to be such a disappointment, and we never expected Theo and Matt's injuries, which completely took out Theo and took Matt out of his rhythm.

Even with this, the biggest factor for our demise was Gasol, though.

To add on to what I said, we have such a stacked Starting lineup (and 6th M), that our bench had to take a hit. When your second most important starter doesn't show up, there you go...

The biggest factor of our demise was our prior success, imo.

Gasol was huge disappointment, but he was not the reason for us losing. We had game 1 and game 3 in our hands and gave away those games. Horrible execution late in games and terrible perimeter defense is why we lost.

Short memory. Everytime the bench went in last year they would blow a 25 point lead. Bench blew much of that 27 pt lead against boston in the finals. I think the difference was the starters. Bench was..probably overall, equal to last year's bench (if you factor in skill and chemistry/understanding of the triangle)

i'm sure we missed Sasha and Farmar. lack of triangle flow hurt a bit and Sasha's irritating D would have been an asset vs the mavs perimeter shooting. to be sure, though, it was on the starters that we played that badly, not the bench

G=K wrote:Didn't read all of it, but Sasha and Farmar weren't stopping the penetration either.

they had 'chemistry' although, something that can't be taught.........Sasha would have been a great matchup vs Dallas.....see the Suns series last year

JCAL_24 wrote:Gasol was huge disappointment, but he was not the reason for us losing. We had game 1 and game 3 in our hands and gave away those games. Horrible execution late in games and terrible perimeter defense is why we lost.

THIS!


...and good call on the irony WWJP!

and o yea, even tho we don't wanna really admit it "Phil' and his rotations were the main reason we lost game1

Like I said I'm big on locker room chemistry. I think letting Trevor, Shasha, Farmar, Powell, and Mbengga leave took a little hit on the team's chemistry.

but pure playing wise speaking, Mitch made all the right and logical moves the past two off seasons.

For whatever reason, Steve Blake became non-existent. Complete and utter BS.

The point with the bench is that had the Lakers at least assembled a group that played excellent defense they would have been fine, but they didn't.

A lot of what Kreuk said was on point, but circumstantial more than anything. Sasha's inconsistency cost him his place here . And Jordan just never accepted or liked his role. Those are just the facts. Mitch made moves based on the perception defense more than anything would keep us contending.

The second part to this is that in the last 2 years we lost more bench talent while not changing our starters. Like chefy said losing the guys we lost over that time ripped at our chemistry a lot.

But we lost and struggled in these playoffs because we were too inconsistent on defense and couldn't execute on offense with the precision we had in the past.

Chemistry isn't something that most fans will understand. Artest was a sexier pickup than the Ariza departure. However, I think Ariza was a much better fit with the team.

When building a team, I prefer better fits than better players.

also... the parallels to our first 3-peat team are pretty uncanny... this would have been our 4th trip to the finals... if we didnt lose on the first trip obviously last year would have been our three peat. so look at the 4th finals run... we reload with payton and malone... start off the season on a rampage... people get injured. struggle in the opening rounds. barely make it past the t-wolves (remember k. rush's heroics?) and 5-game sweep by the pistons... so same thing this year... we re-load... and run into a brick wall (the mavs). but this time it isn't kobe and shaq... but brown and pao... maybe kobe... and really i think this team was just tired/ spent... they were looking for excuses like last time and we just weren't playing good basketball at all.

the mavs killed us. i dont think we would have made it past the thunder IMHO... and DEF would have struggled against the bulls or heat.

Da Don wrote:

G=K wrote:Didn't read all of it, but Sasha and Farmar weren't stopping the penetration either.

they had 'chemistry' although, something that can't be taught.........Sasha would have been a great matchup vs Dallas.....see the Suns series last year

oh you mean when Dragic was raping him all over the place and nearly cost us a gm with his stupid elbow to Dragic face?

JustAwesome wrote:Chemistry isn't something that most fans will understand. Artest was a sexier pickup than the Ariza departure. However, I think Ariza was a much better fit with the team.

When building a team, I prefer better fits than better players.

Ariza wouldn't have held PIerce in check in 2010 like Artest did, Ariza just got hot with his 3's in 09, w/o it he really wasn't that big of a defensive impact, Melo was beasting on him, it was Kobe who had to Check Melo with the added injury that slowed down Melo, we might have lost to Den had Melo not gotten hurt and or Ariza continued to check Melo.

So Gutta wrote:For whatever reason, Steve Blake became non-existent. Complete and utter BS.

Dude just recovered from chicken pox, can't blame him for that. he lost like 100 lbs