The Lakers Problems In 2022

thomas1897 · Post #1 » by **thomas1897** » Fri Nov 26, 2021 2:58 pm

The present time the Lakers have not shown they can be a championship contender. To much hype is related the past but 2021-2022 season is very different. This team was assembled on the basis of past performances. The present has shown to many teams are better than the Lakers. Let's list them Atlantic Division: Brooklyn, Boston, New York and Philadelphia at full strength, Central Division: Atlanta, Midwest: Chicago & Milwaukee. The Western Conference Denver & Utah, Pacific Division: Clippers Golden State & Phoenix these are better teams now. Issues are simple the Lakers are collection yesterday. If there is anyone who can honestly state a different opinion and illustrate the Lakers are good team and can win consistently close games and dominate games from start to finish. Also the weaker teams have demonstrated resilience over the Lakers too. I would appreciate feed back which is accurate, concise and on point.

Landsberger · Post #2 » by **Landsberger** » Sat Nov 27, 2021 9:15 pm

This team, with health, will struggle to get into the playoffs and if it does will be a one and done candidate. The parts don't fit and the cupboard is bare.

My guess is that we won't see health either. Too many players with too many miles that need to play too many minutes.

thomas1897 · Post #3 » by **thomas1897** » Wed Dec 8, 2021 7:41 pm

Thanks the Laker Nation is being swindeled and misled. the media is also responsible for not being honest. This team is terrible and that is justified by the way they play. I am in agrreement with my colleague. I do not desire to be too descriptive about this team because it would not be professional to use vulgar words. These stars are getting paid and in some cases over paid. The opinion is simple if these stars cannot play at a contending level. Retire or play in another market and Rob Pelinka needs to reconsider how to build a team.

Post #4 » by **Kilroy** » Wed Dec 8, 2021 9:29 pm

The Biggest problem is AD at 27 is taking the same approach to the season as LeBron at (almost) 37... Coast through the season, avoid contact and injury and turn it up in the post season...
That's not him. He doesn't have a switch... He changes course like a container ship, and takes a month to warm up...

Lebron is what he is... He'll be there when we need him... IF it still matters... But both him and AD taking D nights off, isn't going to work on this team... As seen by the boston game where he engaged on D more...

I'm cool with Melo... He's got no interest in playing Defense for real, just looking like he's playing D, but he can be counted on for some Offense and isn't a bad fit.

Dwight has been awesome...

Westbrook though... Even on nights when it sort of works, like last night, it still isn't that great... I think for the money, there were a lot better options out there.

So AD playing like 10 years in the future AD, and Westbrook being a weird fit, are the biggest problems I see right now...

Post #5 » by **zimpy27** » Wed Dec 8, 2021 10:34 pm

- Lakers lost many lunchpail guys that would go out and compete every day of the season. I think it stands to reason to expect their RS campaign to suffer alone.
- On top of that, Lakers brought in Westbrook, Bazemore, Ariza, Nunn, Howard, Jordan, Bradley to add to THT as their new lunchpail guys. Pretty much all of these guys have either been injured or had long runs of poor scoring efficiency while not bringing the defensive effort that was expected.
- The scorers they brought in (Melo, Monk, Ellington) have over-performed and have earned more minutes.

The combination of this is an average defense and offense so far in the RS.

Optimism points:
Westbrook is improving
Davis, LeBron, Rondo are chilling in RS
Nunn and Ariza are back soon
Howard has beat out Jordan
Bazemore is cut and Ellington is shooting well
THT is working on defense and glue guy things
Reaves came from nowhere

I think this is a contending team if healthy as I think the players are going to be solid in the playoffs:
Westbrook, Ellington, LeBron, Ariza, Davis
Rondo, Nunn, Melo, Howard

I think Reaves, Monk and THT have the chance to make the team much better if they can improve and be consistent in playoffs.

thomas1897 · Post #6 » by **thomas1897** » Thu Dec 9, 2021 2:16 pm

To answer all of my colleagues for the Lakers this season is very straight forward and does this team have the chemistry. Are these players good enough to win?

thomas1897 · Post #7 » by **thomas1897** » Thu Dec 9, 2021 2:20 pm

To answer all of my colleagues for the Lakers this season is very straight forward and does this team have the chemistry. Are these players good enough to win? Please do not explain away why they are not winning; it is simple these players do not work well together. From past seasons and talent reputations it looks good on paper but it is not working.

Pythagoras · Post #8 » by **Pythagoras** » Fri Dec 10, 2021 9:55 pm

Read on Twitter

That’s THT and AB on the court with the big 3 and the spacing is trash. AB and THT are both getting close to 30 minutes a game. Vogel continues to run those two out there with the big 3 despite THT being a poor fit with them and AB being essentially a G League caliber player. I’m starting to find myself asking if Vogel really is any better than Fizdale?

TylersLakers · Post #9 » by **TylersLakers** » Sun Dec 12, 2021 5:51 am

If we remain status quo, I'm sure we'll finish with 44-48 wins and due to the lack of other good teams in the West, we'll finish as a 5 or 6 seed. Vogel is starting to finally see things that are clearly obvious and HAVE been clearly obvious since the beginning of the season. Getting Ariza back next week + Nunn in January will help. That SHOULD give us a rotation of:

Russ, Ellington, LeBron, Ariza, Davis with Nunn, Monk, THT, Melo, Howard off the bench. The only question on a nightly basis is who finishes next to LeBron/Russ/AD.

If we really want to start seeing some serious changes for the better and be a possible Championship contender, we'll trade the potential of THT while that thought is still out there for a veteran wing who's a rock solid closing line-up option.

Regardless of that though - This team is so hard to watch and so frustrating to watch personally for me because I know the alternative of what this team COULD have been. Instead ownership cheaped out, went name hunting and LeBron/AD/Pelinka made horrible decisions. I despise Westbrook, always have. I know he could have been replaced with KCP, Buddy Hield, Alex Caruso and a player like Cam Thomas with the 1st round pick we would've had at our disposal. Or KCP and the 1st could have been dished off for a player like Rubio. A team of Rubio, Hield, LeBron, Ariza, Davis with Caruso, THT, Monk, Melo and Howard off the bench is way easier on the eyes for me.

Regardless, what's done is done. If this team plays with more of a sense of urgency, Vogel makes better decisions, Russ continues to be aggressive and make smart decisions in the majority of games and we get Nunn/Ariza back - this team has the potential to be a team that can be fun and win a playoff series or two. But I don't trust Russ to make good decisions more often then not and I don't expect our buy-in to be there on a nightly basis. I think there's going to be a whole lot of "well, if we wouldn't have blown that lead vs ____ , we'd be on a 5 game winning streak right now." There's going to be a lot of that. In the end, it'll be a 5 or 6 seed, but considering LeBron's window is closing and we have no path to success after him - that's just not good enough.