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With offseason movement settling down the time is ripe to assess hopes and fears on the team makeup. Shared below you will find some of my thoughts. Feel free to share your feedback and or personal views of the team.

Areas of concern.
To end on a positive note I will start with those aspects for growth – outlined in no particular order.

1. Lack of player continuity.
We return 5 players from last season’s roster; plausibly on most nights LeBron and McGee are the sole returning starters from 2018/2019.

2. Coaching Staff. As reported some of the assistance coaches were not of Frank Vogel’s choosing. The lack of trust in Vogel to select a staff may open itself to strife between the ranks.

3. Front Office Inexperience. I’m not questioning Rob’s intelligence, but I fear his lack of experience will prove costly in developing and executing on a future roadmap and handling challenges through the season.

4. Player Catering. Noticeably a number of NBA GMs have succumbed to their star players’ whims in hopes to retain them. Understandably player comfort should be considered, but I question the lengths to satisfy their individual desires. To that end I sense Rob may be trying too hard to appease LeBron and AD by acquiring selected coaches or players. & as Terry Rozier so freely publicized on ESPN, the Celtics pampering Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward was at the center of much last season’s team dysfunction. I recognize that two teams and situations may not be a match, but there are parallels.

5. Point Guard. No true starting point guard; the carousel of Rondo, Caruso, Cook, and Bradley are bench players on most rosters.


Areas of strength – in no particular order.
1. Anthony Davis. Does more need to be said? His gifts both on offense and defense makeup for many team shortcomings.

2. LeBron James. A season of rest on a body that has travelled the most playoff miles in NBA history may come as a blessing. While in senior citizen territory for professional athletes, he is still revered as one of the most difficult players to guard.

3. AD & LBJ pairing. Likely the opponents defense will focus primarily on the dynamic duo, opening wide lanes for others on the court. Most teams including contenders, will not have someone to can match up w/ AD.

4. Danny Green. Green’s maturity, intelligence and technical skills both offensively and defensively may earn dividends through the season and hopefully into the playoffs.

5. Frank Vogel & Lionel Hollins. Should the marriage between Vogel and his assistants prove to be fruitful, in particular Lionel Hollins, I’m confident that the Lakers will have a well-balanced team and an above average defense.

tv24lakers wrote:With offseason movement settling down the time is ripe to assess hopes and fears on the team makeup. Shared below you will find some of my thoughts. Feel free to share your feedback and or personal views of the team.

Areas of concern.




2. Coaching Staff. As reported some of the assistance coaches were not of Frank Vogel’s choosing. The lack of trust in Vogel to select a staff may open itself to strife between the ranks.



5. Frank Vogel & Lionel Hollins. Should the marriage between Vogel and his assistants prove to be fruitful, in particular Lionel Hollins, I’m confident that the Lakers will have a well-balanced team and an above average defense.

There's going to be pros and cons regarding letting your HC pick his assistants and vise versa. Luke hired most of his Arizona buddies and it was a concern for me too but yes, there was a level of comfortability which made his tenure here decent IMO esp defensively. I believe Myers of GSW also picked the assistants for Kerr with of of course some input of Kerr esp when they hired Luke. But yes, my concern is Kidd possibly backstabbing Vogel so he can get the HC position.

No, I don't think Vogel is a bad coach but I just can't help thinking what the heck happened with him in Orlando.
I understand the talent level was low but I felt he should have left his imprint as a great defensive coach regardless of talent.
Before he came, Magic ranked 16th in defensive rating under Skiles with Oladipo, Fournier,Vucevic,Tobias Harris and Payton as main players.
Frank came in 2016 loses Oladipo but have a more matured Gordon,Ibaka,Ross and Biyombo with the same core, ranked 22nd in Defensive rating.
2017, Vogel's team ranked 18th in DRTG with the same core with the more matured Vucevic and Gordon.
Frank get's fired and Orlando wins 42 games with the team ranking 8TH BEST IN DRTG. with the same core.
Per his press conference, he said he learned his lesson, that he understand the game has changed, that he's more into analytics etc etc etc so hopefully he is wiser now.

tamaraw08 wrote:There's going to be pros and cons regarding letting your HC pick his assistants and vise versa. Luke hired most of his Arizona buddies and it was a concern for me too but yes, there was a level of comfortability which made his tenure here decent IMO esp defensively. I believe Myers of GSW also picked the assistants for Kerr with of of course some input of Kerr esp when they hired Luke. But yes, my concern is Kidd possibly backstabbing Vogel so he can get the HC position.

No, I don't think Vogel is a bad coach but I just can't help thinking what the heck happened with him in Orlando.
I understand the talent level was low but I felt he should have left his imprint as a great defensive coach regardless of talent.
Before he came, Magic ranked 16th in defensive rating under Skiles with Oladipo, Fournier,Vucevic,Tobias Harris and Payton as main players.
Frank came in 2016 loses Oladipo but have a more matured Gordon,Ibaka,Ross and Biyombo with the same core, ranked 22nd in Defensive rating.
2017, Vogel's team ranked 18th in DRTG with the same core with the more matured Vucevic and Gordon.
Frank get's fired and Orlando wins 42 games with the team ranking 8TH BEST IN DRTG. with the same core.
Per his press conference, he said he learned his lesson, that he understand the game has changed, that he's more into analytics etc etc etc so hopefully he is wiser now.

If I'm not mistaken Kerr had no coaching experience prior to leading the Warriors; at least not in the college or NBA ranks. Given Kerr's lack of experience it's not completely unreasonable for the FO to assist with the staffing decisions.

Clearly the coaches recognize this opportunity offers a shot at redemption and spring board for other opportunities. I don't question their ability to be civil and professional with one another...I remain hopeful that their wisdom and experience manifests into an amazing run for the team.

I have some trust in our coaching staff, on paper it looks way better that last year.

Both Vogel and Hollins are experienced coaches with some successful seasons under their belt. Kidd won't need to orchestrate the team's offense and defense by himself, he can concentrate on specific areas and learn paralelly from someone w/ more experience - which I think is the right path for him. I strongly believe it will be beneficial for him and his career. He also has 5 years' of head coaching experience, and in the first 2 years in BKN he didn't look bad… Even if he cannot live up to the expectations he is still an assistant, he won't do much harm.

Handy coached Lebron in the Cavs and Kawhi in the Raptors, so he has seen some successful playoff runs - that can also help. That's already a well established 4 man coaching staff. Not sure if we sign anyone else or just keep Miles Simon as our 4th assistant.

..... are emotions.

I hope LeBron turns up his regular season defense a bit compared to last year’s joke, and that he makes it his business to shut down Kawhi personally in each meeting with the Clippers. If this team plays team defense... Rings. He is a badass defender when he wants to be.

I fear that he’ll idle it too much on defense causing winnable games to become dog fights instead of restful garbage time. This creates bad habits instead of good one, injuries instead of health. This matters going into the playoffs.

The season will be determined by his defense.

I'm scared of getting off to a slow start. We need Lebron and AD to be healthy and fresh come postseason and that means scheduled load management throughout the season. That could be a really hard task if we have to play catchup like last season.

Shot creation outside of LeBron and minutes to veterans that don't deserve it (Rondo, McGee) over players that do (Caruso, Bradley, Cousins on a smaller scale).

I still feel like this team needs another guy who can create who's a better defender than Rondo. Chris Paul on a minimum would be amazing.

Also, Kuzma is a key. If he improves his shot and continues to develop and we get an 80% DeMarcus Cousins, we're going to be a force.

I'm scared I'll miss an opportunity to clown ClipsFanSince1776, after we sweep the series with them...