Laker troll here with Rambis question

[LakerZombie]

Nope not here to talk trash, not yet anyway the games on Friday lol

Curious despite the losing record, are wolves fans ready to give Rambis the axe? Or is it more the talent just isnt quite there or up to par yet with new coach and just getting everybody on same page?

Havent watched too many wolves games so i have no clue how they play under Rambis.

[Krapinsky]

I think Rambis will be a great coach. We need to give him a roster that makes sense and at least a few veterans to provide leadership before we fairly judge him.

[Whiz Kid]

Anybody ready to give Rambis the boot is crazy. We all knew this was a lost season from the beginning -- to be used to evaluate the players, install a new system and (frankly) lose a lot of games so we'd have a high draft choice this summer.

Obviously when you lose as much and as badly (152 pts!) as we have throughout much of the year, it's easy to get discouraged and question everything, inlcuding the coach's skills. But I think most engaged fans understand that it is not Rambis' job to win games this year...in fact it is partly his job to lose games. That said, it makes it extremely difficult to evaluate a coach. Basically, he hasn't been given the opportunity to prove his skills. As a result, I am not sold on his skills. Not his fault, but doesn't change the fact that we have no idea whether he'll be a good coach.

I'm definitely hoping for an improvement over the last 10 games of the season, so we can at least end on an upswing and go into the offseason with some positivity. I think that is important for a couple of reasons: (1) attracting free agents or S&T targets (which may already be futile), and (2) giving the guys a reason to work their butts off in the offseason. The young players need to commit themselves to getting stronger, faster, smarter, etc. in the offseason, and that is hard to do when you are depressed and feel like there is no hope. I'd hate to finish off the last 15 games of the year playing like we have for the last 3 weeks. So Rambis needs to do something to help make that happen. (Hopefully Kahn will let him, once we have the 2nd best spot in the lottery more or less locked up.)

[C.lupus]

GTFO Troll!

j/k


This season was about evaluating and devloping the young talent and was never really about winning so it's way too early to judge Rambis. That said, the one positive that stands out to me is Corey Brewer's growth as a player. I don't know how much Rambis had to do with that but it seems like he should get some credit at least. My major problem with his coaching thus far is his rotations and use of players. The overall lack of talent on this team, however, makes it pretty hard to field anything resembling competitive.

And you haven't missed much by not watching them this year. Should be a different ball game next year, though.

[LakerZombie]

I hear ya, that seems fair. Well im glad that fans arent ready to just blame the new coach.

I do agree though that this season wasnt going to anything than an extremely steep learning curve.

Toss in a couple high draft picks sprinkled in with some vets and next season could be a complete 180.

As a Laker fan while i cant root for the wolves im glad that Rambis finally has a chance to prove himself as a head coach. He's great with the players and as a player himself was the epitome of hustle.

I'm sure he'll get a warm welcome when hes announced on Friday, and then the game will start....lol

[Foye]

I'm not ready to give him the axe but these are points that worry me:

We've seen no improvement all season long (other than Corey Brewer - credit to Rambis, Kevin Love at times), his rotations are questionable (i know it's all about developing our players right now but his rotation is still bad), we play a system that does not benefit the strength's of our players, Jonny Flynn wasn't allowed to play pick & roll all season long although it's one of his huge strengths, players who clearly don't give a **** about the team and whether we're winning or not play to much minutes (it's you Sasha!!! )
It looks like Corey Brewer has become the teams go-to-scorer, Rambis wanted Kevin Love to guard Carmelo Anthony, Al Jefferson gets (way) to few shots at times even if he's hitting them at a high percentage, we don't know the word defense (Nobody has improved on that end of the court over the season. You might even say they have become worse).

Overall, we all knew it was going to be a tough season but nobody would've imagined that the team could play this bad at times. What is most questionable is the effort of the team. How can you lose 152- 114 when you're paid milliones of dollars? There is just no excuse.

[shrink]

If it makes you feel any better, I haven't heard any rumors from anyone about firing Rambis.

[Narf]

2 points of view here.
1) Brewer's turnaround was absolutely horrible to watch. He was a terrible, terrible shooter taking 17 shots a game. And now he looks a whole lot better. So for that fact alone, I'm willing to give him more time. Rambis said "Flynn's good at the pick-and-roll already, so we're going to make him do the things he's not good at this year so he learns it." OK, I like what you did with Brewer so here's your slack. You've earned it.

2) On the other hand, we have 2 sets of players with 2 sets of skills. Why doesn't he play the triangle with team A (Love, Sessions, Brewer, etc) and the classic pick-and-roll everyone else does it in the NBA with team B (Flynn, Jefferson, Gomes, etc). We could be running 2 completely different sets of offenses out there with different personnel and just wacking teams.

I'm happy to give him the benefit of the doubt, as I said, because I believe we are putting in the Triangle as a teaching tool more than a winning tool. And like I said, they've earned some slack with Brewer's turnaround IMO. But if we play that crappy next year, I'm going to have issues.

[Dewey]

Hard to know about Rambis since he does not have to be accountable for any measurement of success - this season. Likewise, the players are clearly FEELING less need to play hard nor be accountable as well, and that's gotten old too.

Make no mistake, we have a poor level of team talent and this years pick is going to have an unprecedented impact ... he better get it right.

[C.lupus]

But if we play that crappy next year, I'm going to have issues.

If we play this crappy next year, I'm going to have more than just issues. I'll probably give up on this franchise. Because, if we play this crappy next year, it means that 1. Rambis has not grown as a coach and (more importantly) 2. Kahn has completely failed in his offseason rebuild.

[LordBaldric]

If Rambis isn't trying to tank, I think he's an absolutely terrible coach. McHale would have squeezed out quite a few more wins out of these guys IMO.

Thus, I pray that a tank job is going on. I can't take 3 more years of this crap.