Has a team's bench ever been more disrespected than the current Lakers?

GSP · Post #1 » by **GSP** » Thu Oct 1, 2020 3:59 am

Ppl keep criticizing their depth/bench but they have alot of solid contributors. They just dont have that fringe all star/6moy level guy but a bunch of guys have stepped up big for them depending on matchups/series whether its Rondo, Markieff, Caruso, Kuz, Dwight (starting now tho)

they had 31 tonight and theyve really been consistent basically all playoffs

TheNewEra · Post #2 » by **TheNewEra** » Thu Oct 1, 2020 4:47 am

Life blood of the 2nd unit seems to be Rondo and Caruso with Dwight now starting. The other guys don’t even play every game and Kuzma has been a complete non factor. AD and Lebron have just been dominate

GSP · Post #3 » by **GSP** » Thu Oct 1, 2020 4:51 am

TheNewEra wrote:Life blood of the 2nd unit seems to be Rondo and Caruso with Dwight now starting. The other guys don’t even play every game and Kuzma has been a complete non factor. AD and Lebron have just been dominate

Bron and Ad have been the best playoff performers but the others are playing off them very well specially on defense. Also disagree about Kuzma hes playing within the flow of the offense well. Cutting right, making good passes, defense has been inconsistent tho. Hes kind of been like Rick Fox for the 3peat Lakers

Dr Aki · Post #4 » by **Dr Aki** » Thu Oct 1, 2020 4:51 am

Kuzma had a couple of nice defensive possessions on Butler and a few pretty nice contested rebounds.

Not everything has to be about shooting

thebigbird · Post #5 » by **thebigbird** » Thu Oct 1, 2020 4:52 am

Markieff Morris was a huge acquisition for us. The depth is pretty decent. Rondo has been playing much better in the playoffs and that has been a huge boost to the second unit.

NoZoLakers · Post #6 » by **NoZoLakers** » Thu Oct 1, 2020 4:58 am

just a bunch of band aids....thats what the media had everyone thinking before season started

Optms · Post #7 » by **Optms** » Thu Oct 1, 2020 5:00 am

The FO keeps getting disrespected but all I have been seeing is quality from both Vogel and the Lakers supporting cast all playoffs. This is definitely a well built team. Quite the opposite of what everyone was saying about the team all year.

Sedale Threatt · Post #8 » by **Sedale Threatt** » Thu Oct 1, 2020 5:01 am

thebigbird wrote:Markieff Morris was a huge acquisition for us. The depth is pretty decent. Rondo has been playing much better in the playoffs and that has been a huge boost to the second unit.

Totally unexpected. And Rondo ... pretty sure you and I were the captains of his hater squad (with good reason) but he’s been an elite role player in the playoffs. Gonna gladly, GLADLY eat crow on that one if we finish this off.

TheNewEra · Post #9 » by **TheNewEra** » Thu Oct 1, 2020 5:05 am

Dr Aki wrote:Kuzma had a couple of nice defensive possessions on Butler and a few pretty nice contested rebounds.

Not everything has to be about shooting

The luxury of having off nights shooting and guys like MPJ being able to work him. Give it up he’s greatly underperformed for his expectations and role but it doesn’t matter since Caruso and Rondo picked up the slack.

I doubt Kuzma cares and he shouldn’t he can get a ring and get traded and play for a bigger role on his next team

Jkam31 · Post #10 » by **Jkam31** » Thu Oct 1, 2020 5:09 am

Have to bring them down to give lebron all credit

NCHeels2008 · Post #11 » by **NCHeels2008** » Thu Oct 1, 2020 5:11 am

TheNewEra wrote:
Dr Aki wrote:Kuzma had a couple of nice defensive possessions on Butler and a few pretty nice contested rebounds.

Not everything has to be about shooting

The luxury of having off nights shooting and guys like MPJ being able to work him. Give it up he’s greatly underperformed for his expectations and role but it doesn’t matter since Caruso and Rondo picked up the slack.

I doubt Kuzma cares and he shouldn’t he can get a ring and get traded and play for a bigger role on his next team

He's doing more than Shamet who you guys talked up incessantly and I'd rather have him than Trez or Lou when it comes to the playoffs, he takes nothing off the table and puts a little bit (or a lot if he's hot) on the table

Hello Brooklyn · Post #12 » by **Hello Brooklyn** » Thu Oct 1, 2020 5:11 am

I still think the bench sucks. LeBron and AD are just good enough for it not to matter.

And the other great regular season teams with comparable star power collapse. Not their fault obviously, but I don't view this as a very good team outside of an all time great duo.

4pointkiller · Post #13 » by **4pointkiller** » Thu Oct 1, 2020 5:15 am

The biggest reason why they are so solid is because they are high basketball IQ players.

For Lebron and AD, playing with high basketball IQ players is much more important than highly skilled players. All the bench guys have to do is make the shots they are good at. Lebron and AD can handle the bad possessions where someone has to just throw something up.

I think Kawhi noticed what Lebron has done with the Lakers and that's why specifically mentioned the Clippers lacking in basketball IQ.

LBC SoCal · Post #14 » by **LBC SoCal** » Thu Oct 1, 2020 5:15 am

Most teams especially in the WCF and ECF didn’t really use a deep rotation, people are harsh on the Laker while being blinded by bias on their own teams. Denver, Boston, Miami, each relying on their top 2 players with contributions from maybe 2 or 3 players from their supporting cast. Don’t tell me Boston has a world dominating bench? Denver played Murray practically every minute of each game lol. Him and Jokic were their whole team like Lebron/AD. Let’s be fair (disrespectful) across the board not just LA.

Sedale Threatt · Post #15 » by **Sedale Threatt** » Thu Oct 1, 2020 5:18 am

Hello Brooklyn wrote:I still think the bench sucks. LeBron and AD are just good enough for it not to matter.

And the other great regular season teams with comparable star power collapse. Not their fault obviously, but I don't view this as a very good team outside of an all time great duo.

It’s a weird, weird squad. Not sure we’ve ever had a supporting cast like this in the 34 years I’ve been watching this team.

We have 4-5 who can get you 10-20 on any given night, as opposed to guys you know aren’t going to give you squat, but will just as frequently go 2-10 and not do ****. The big swing in shooting tonight was par for the course.

The one area I will praise them is that we’re generally pretty solid to excellent on D, which is a huge part of our success. You can’t do that without a team effort.

But otherwise it can be very, very frustrating to watch. Fortunately, like Shaq’s FT shooting back in the day, the inconsistency hasn’t cost us like I was expecting it to. Yet.

Jellybeans · Post #16 » by **Jellybeans** » Thu Oct 1, 2020 5:19 am

But their bench sux :lol:

TheNewEra · Post #17 » by **TheNewEra** » Thu Oct 1, 2020 5:22 am

NCHeels2008 wrote:
TheNewEra wrote:
Dr Aki wrote:Kuzma had a couple of nice defensive possessions on Butler and a few pretty nice contested rebounds.

Not everything has to be about shooting

The luxury of having off nights shooting and guys like MPJ being able to work him. Give it up he’s greatly underperformed for his expectations and role but it doesn’t matter since Caruso and Rondo picked up the slack.

I doubt Kuzma cares and he shouldn’t he can get a ring and get traded and play for a bigger role on his next team

He's doing more than Shamet who you guys talked up incessantly and I'd rather have him than Trez or Lou when it comes to the playoffs, he takes nothing off the table and puts a little bit (or a lot if he's hot) on the table

Defensively all suspect but Vogel has done a masterful job adjusting and adapting. Vogel’s ability to adapt and bench guys or find the sweet spot in minutes for a players likely led to Ballmer firing Doc Rivers and I will forever be grateful for it.

As much as Kuzma was talked about by Laker fans he was suppose to be the third guy. No one watching these games would put him ahead of Rondo or Caruso as far as bench production. He has been inconsistent and it hasn’t mattered because Vogel hasn’t let it hurt the team or he would of had his minutes reduced or benched like Dwight and McGee in previous series.

Vogel did a great job having a system to fall back on and making adjustments so that guys who are cold don’t hurt the team

GSP · Post #18 » by **GSP** » Thu Oct 1, 2020 5:28 am

Jellybeans wrote:But their bench sux

No it doesnt. Our bench sucks. La doesnt have a Mavericks level bench but its still really solid

NoZoLakers · Post #19 » by **NoZoLakers** » Thu Oct 1, 2020 5:37 am

Hello Brooklyn wrote:I still think the bench sucks. LeBron and AD are just good enough for it not to matter.

And the other great regular season teams with comparable star power collapse. Not their fault obviously, but I don't view this as a very good team outside of an all time great duo.

you n your likes only care bout the flash (scoring) n none of the substance, rondo n caruso does alot of the little things that people dont care to pay attention to that leads to winning plays, while kcp/green are hitting enough 3s to keep the d honest n prevent opponents from packing the paint for james/ad to operate

Hello Brooklyn · Post #20 » by **Hello Brooklyn** » Thu Oct 1, 2020 5:40 am

NoZoLakers wrote:
Hello Brooklyn wrote:I still think the bench sucks. LeBron and AD are just good enough for it not to matter.

And the other great regular season teams with comparable star power collapse. Not their fault obviously, but I don't view this as a very good team outside of an all time great duo.
you n your likes only care bout the flash (scoring) n none of the substance, rondo n caruso does alot of the the little that people dont care to pay attention to that leads to winning plays while kcp/green are hitting enough 3s to keep the d honest n prevent opponents from packing the paint for james/ad to operate

Rondo is the only one who plays well and thats only in the playoffs too. Caruso sucks man. You think he would make the rotation for any of the other top teams?

Its not a good bench.

Danny Green been missing 3s all playoffs. Tonight he decided to show up. KCP is hit or miss.