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Everyone talking about firing MB, including myself, but the Laker Defense will have to improve first before they will see a win and being a defensive coach MB has to find a way to do that.

We are talking about a current losing streak of 0 and 13 if you count last year playoffs until now.

three glaring issues.

1. turnovers.

- killing the lakers, too many easy buckets and can't blame the defense for it.

2. less than 100% howard.

- his lateral movement and explosion are not there yet, people are sending guys to him like if he's 100% and its costing them.

3. effort.

- its not there. don't see the hustle. i think some of that has to do with #1, and how disheartening it is.

dockingsched wrote:three glaring issues.

1. turnovers.

- killing the lakers, too many easy buckets and can't blame the defense for it.

2. less than 100% howard.

- his lateral movement and explosion are not there yet, people are sending guys to him like if he's 100% and its costing them.

3. effort.

- its not there. don't see the hustle. i think some of that has to do with #1, and how disheartening it is.

100% this I agree with. The lack of effort on that end of the court can be attributed to the players being frustrated (you can see it). I still believe we will get it together. But we definitely need to get it together on that end of the court.

Yeah, it's been brutal. But I think the lack of cohesion and fluidity on offense has really translated itself on the defensive end as well. Guys just seem really confused on the court.

only one I saw with consistency was Blake. not taking anything away from Blake but that's how bad they have been on D.

How can a team not give effort when they have a hall of fame PG in likely his last years desperately looking for a championship and another future HOFer at the peak of his prowess looking to prove himself?

I expected them to come out like Boston in 2008 but these guys are playing like they just returned from a repeat championship.

Sure it's easy to point at the defense, but whats truly killing us is the turnovers leading to easy offense for the opposition. If we don't turn it over 20+ times each game we could possibly be 2-0. Let guys figure out what they are supposed to be doing on offense(the bench especially), then we have much fewer turnovers and in turn the defense will look better due to fewer easy transition opportunities.

I just think because of the injuries and the missed practices by key players. Mike Brown and Eddie Jordan are spending to much time trying to teach the guys the offense in practice and not focusing on getting the guys to work as a cohesive unit on the defensive end. Fans and media focus to much on onball defensive prowess in todays game but in reality with the emergence of the PG position and with the newer rules where you cant put your hands on these perimeter players and also every team runs pick n roll offense about 70% of the time its almost impossible to stop penetration in todays game. To be a great defensive team you have to be a cohesive unit as a team. Its not just about sending people to Dwight or Gasol. Its about helping the helper . Helping Nash when he gets beat. I have more of an issue with our Pick n Roll defense , it seems teams are gonna keep Nash and Gasol in pick n roll's and try to attack Gasol even more than they have in the past. I believe in this team still and believe we will turn this around. In the end fellas regardless of how you personally feel about Mike Brown, were at a point at this time that a coaching change would be a bad thing during the season. So we need to focus on buying into his defensive system.

dockingsched wrote:three glaring issues.

1. turnovers.

- killing the lakers, too many easy buckets and can't blame the defense for it.

2. less than 100% howard.

- his lateral movement and explosion are not there yet, people are sending guys to him like if he's 100% and its costing them.

3. effort.

- its not there. don't see the hustle. i think some of that has to do with #1, and how disheartening it is.

This is exactly what I was thinking.

a lot of people say the defense is a problem (which it is), but there's more to that imo. most teams feed off energy from either their defense or offense when things arent going well (eg. the celtics feed off their defense), and the laker players on the team have traditionally been offense-first guys save for maybe dwight, hence that's why a poorly executed offensive system is leading to some lack of energy on defense, just something to consider..

if you're going to blame the defense, then pau gasol is getting torn a new arsehole every game

Metta just gave up 27 to Batum as well, so its not like anyone else is covering themselves in glory here.

leeprettyp wrote:

dockingsched wrote:three glaring issues.

1. turnovers.

- killing the lakers, too many easy buckets and can't blame the defense for it.

3. effort.

- its not there. don't see the hustle. i think some of that has to do with #1, and how disheartening it is.

100% this I agree with. The lack of effort on that end of the court can be attributed to the players being frustrated (you can see it). I still believe we will get it together. But we definitely need to get it together on that end of the court.

I agree with this too, but I'd add that I think it's not just frustration, it's also fatigue... And it's more than just the turnovers, it's the whole lack of offensive flow...

When the offense isn't flowing well, you're working harder and expending more energy. Which is frustrating, but it's also tiring, especially for a bunch of old guys like we have.

I also agree with the comment about Dwight not being 100% yet... He's clearly not reacting quickly on defense, which is hurting guys like Pau who are relying on the help coming.

Pau is Pau... He's not going to meet force with force and body up guys. He's going to slow them down and funnel them into Dwight. That's the beauty of having complimentary bigs down low.

But if Dwight isn't quite there yet, the whole thing breaks down.

The same is true for MWP... He's not going to be staying in front of quicker 3s... He's going to get beat from time to time... When he does, all he can do is point them toward Dwight. But if Dwight is flat-footed, a quick pullup J is going to do us in every time.

DEFENSE is definitely our #1 problem right now with turnovers being a close second. I agree with some of the posts above mentioned the two being tied together.

The problem is we just can't seem to get any stops. We play reasonable defense only to have them find an open man with 6 seconds left on the shot clock and opponents are making those shots at an alarming rate so far this year.

Our transition offense blows because Pau's foot speed is well... sloth-like!

Pau and Blake for J-Smith and Devin Harris? (ya ya I know.. just thinking out loud.. )

Admittedly I'm concerned but so far this year we've only lost one game we were supposed to win and that was Tues night against Dallas. It felt to me like Dwight and Nash played very nervous that night and I expect that to improve dramatically with a little time.

Last night's game in Portland was awful scheduling and I'm pretty sure most in here didn't feel too good about it going in. If we lose Friday I'll be concerned. Even then there might be some sort of reasonable excuse should Nash not play. If Nash can't go I expect Blake and whoever else to get simply destroyed by CP3 and Bledsoe. We have no way to slow those two guys down.

fwiw I wouldn't be surprised if we're 10 and 10 after 20 games and then go on a bit of a run leading us to have a 25-15 record after 40 games.

The real problem is that in Blake, Nash, MWP and Kobe, we have 4 big minute, perimeter players with no lateral quickness anymore...
It's not just Nash or Blake, it's Kobe and MWP too.

Man D is going to be trouble for us all season with the exception of maybe the 4 and 5. We are going to have to get better at team D. A whole lot better...

Howard's back must be really stiff, because he just is not the same guy right now. There were points where he seemed like he couldn't stand straight, looked about as bad as Ron Artest (meaning the year he was injured).

Transition D is killing us, which accounts for the offense, which accounts for everyone being on a different page...but to be honest: what did we expect? They were awful in game 1, had no practice time and flew to Portland at 3 am. We need practices, we need real game experience, we need to actually learn the offense, the defense, and then we need to actually have time to prepare for teams. Mike Brown has been saying they don't even look at the other teams until ONE day before the season starts!

It's gonna be a painful process, they could use the confidence of a win to settle things down, but IMO we need to learn the offense before we really start utilizing our personelle. Once all the guys have it down, then Nash can do his thing and not actually be reduced to a defensive sinkhole.

As the old mod Bynum said about the young AB17: just add minutes.

Gasol and Howard are really not in game shape now. Offensively they are ok, but defensively they are getting killed.

Unless those two get better soon, we are going to be in deep trouble.

dockingsched wrote:three glaring issues.

1. turnovers.

- killing the lakers, too many easy buckets and can't blame the defense for it.

2. less than 100% howard.

- his lateral movement and explosion are not there yet, people are sending guys to him like if he's 100% and its costing them.

3. effort.

- its not there. don't see the hustle. i think some of that has to do with #1, and how disheartening it is.

This. Plus PLAYER ROTATION.
We have a big FOUR. We should keep at least two of them in the game all the time. Also, Nash and Kobe should not be on the bench at the same time. I hate our line up when we are playing Pau plus 4 bench players. Our starters are playing heavy minutes to no avail.

Mass Rig wrote:Gasol and Howard are really not in game shape now. Offensively they are ok, but defensively they are getting killed.

Unless those two get better soon, we are going to be in deep trouble.

If Gasol not in game shape now, he is never gonna be in game shape. Dude just played in the Olympics, should be primed or gased out. He looks limp and soft out there at times.