Anyone miss Jordan Farmar?

[shobe_81]

This bench is ok defensively, but their offense is so bad to watch.

Blake doesn't even know how to run a traditional PG position.
- He doesn't take the man off dribble and lay it up.
- He doesn't have a simple floater.
- He doesn't know how to run a fast-break and pull-up for a jump-shot.
- He doesn't have a go-to move.

Shannon, besides dunking and shooting the occasional open 3pointer is really bad. Holds the ball, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble.....

Jordan Farmar was a spark for the offense, even though he wouldn't defer to the bigs/Kobe at times, neither do the bench players now.

I think that's one of the biggest difference from last years bench and this years. Besides the addition of Barnes, there isn't anything to speak good.

We know what Odom brings but I miss Farmar

[That Nicka]

yes, he is way better than Steve Blake, which I didnt even think was possible

[stunnar0b]

in a nutshell i do too, i probably wouldnt feel that way if he could just hit his threes. Who knows maybe yesturday was a turning point for him. I guess from what i saw in the warm-ups he just needs to put up acouple of shots before the game, i wish it was as easy as that.

[Wavy Q]

I miss him about as much as you can miss any mediocre bench player. But he's unfortunately, better than Steve Blake has been

[The Laker Kid]

Nope. Farmar sucked. I prefer Blake all day, anyday.

[dockingsched]

i don't think i could take a farmar/brown backcourt, bad for my heart.

[Pablo Escobar]

I miss winning games

[Slava]

With Farmar, the 2nd unit had an identity, they played a faster pace and they were run and gun. It also helped that the machine would sometimes shoot like he's on crack but right now our 2nd unit is a bunch of players and not the bench mob it once was.

[slifersd]

A lot of the blame for the struggles of the second unit has to fall on the coaching. Blake is a guard that can make the point guard plays but he is never allowed to do that because we play so slowly. Our second unit is very athletic, so let them run! Blake can make the right passes and Brown is a great fast break finisher. Let's stop this whole "we need to slow down the pace because we need to slow down the pace" crap and let the players play!

[semi-sentient]

woah woah woah... Steve Blake doesn't have a pull-up 3?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCaLjttPxVk[/youtube]

Anyway, yeah, he's been kind of horrible. I was one of the few people that wanted to keep Farmar, if for no other reason than it might have landed us something much better at point if he was packaged along with Sasha.

[Cavemold]

i don't think i could take a farmar/brown backcourt, bad for my heart.

[JohnMcCartney]

i never understood why so many people wanted farmar gone... he always gave us a good scoring spark off the bench. he had the kobe mindset too. oh well he's not here anymore...

[shobe_81]

i never understood why so many people wanted farmar gone... he always gave us a good scoring spark off the bench. he had the kobe mindset too. oh well he's not here anymore...

I myself was one of the proponents of getting rid of Farmar because I thought he didn't play within the offense and would play flat-footed defense. Before the Blake signing, I thought Blake would bring PG mentality, make the right entry passes to the bigs, shoot the open 3's, and play tough-nosed defense. Besides his defense, he has been really bad. Maybe its the triangle learning curve but even shooting wise he's bad.

Although Farmar wasn't much of a great player, I don't think Phil game him the chance of getting into a starter role. As someone else mentioned, he gave the bench an identity.

A lot of the blame for the struggles of the second unit has to fall on the coaching. Blake is a guard that can make the point guard plays but he is never allowed to do that because we play so slowly. Our second unit is very athletic, so let them run! Blake can make the right passes and Brown is a great fast break finisher. Let's stop this whole "we need to slow down the pace because we need to slow down the pace" crap and let the players play!

I disagree. The bench becomes really bad when they try to run up and down. They just create silly turnovers and go too early in the clock. Their fastbreak type play is one of the biggest reason why the starters always end up coming back the last 7 minutes of the 4th quarter after giving up a 15pt
lead.

woah woah woah... Steve Blake doesn't have a pull-up 3?

Opps, brain fart! I meant to write pull-up for a jump-shot like at the top of the free-throw circle on a 3-on-1/2 fast break.

[Edrees]

It's not blake's fault shannon brown dribbles for 22 seconds then passes to blake for a contested fade-away three point shot. Brown used to defer to farmar but for one reason or another he completely ignores blake most of the time until the very end of the shot clock. I blame shannon dribbling too much for our bench woes.

[LApwnd]

It's not blake's fault shannon brown dribbles for 22 seconds then passes to blake for a contested fade-away three point shot. Brown used to defer to farmar but for one reason or another he completely ignores blake most of the time until the very end of the shot clock. I blame shannon dribbling too much for our bench woes.

agree 100%, for whatever reason the 2nd unit ALWAYS gives Brown the ball to initate offense or to get something done and all he does is dribble out the clock like the idiot that he is, I do NOT understand why Blake and Odom do not faciliate/intiate the offense....Brown should only get the back if he's wide open for a shot otherwise something DUMB is going to occur.

[dockingsched]

It's not blake's fault shannon brown dribbles for 22 seconds then passes to blake for a contested fade-away three point shot. Brown used to defer to farmar but for one reason or another he completely ignores blake most of the time until the very end of the shot clock. I blame shannon dribbling too much for our bench woes.

spot on. im of the opinion most of the bench's scoring woes are cause brown is such a ball stopper with terrible decision making and shot selection.

[stunnar0b]

i don't think i could take a farmar/brown backcourt, bad for my heart.

oh man so true, anyways we or some of us blame browns struggle last year was because he was competing with farmar for shots, now whats his excuse. this guy is nothing more then a d league r another smush parker case with more athleticism

[AlexBarrera1]

It's not blake's fault shannon brown dribbles for 22 seconds then passes to blake for a contested fade-away three point shot. Brown used to defer to farmar but for one reason or another he completely ignores blake most of the time until the very end of the shot clock. I blame shannon dribbling too much for our bench woes.

Seriously. I remember the first thing that coaches told me growing up as a guard was to never dribble after a catch unless you have your mind set on going somewhere. Shannon dribbles as soon as he catches the ball and it's evident that he doesn't know what he's gonna do with it, and when he does it's usually a horrible off the dribble jumper.

[That Nicka]

he had the kobe mindset too.

that was not a good thing.

[ALL HAIL]

Farmar is a better, more talented player, but for this system, Blake is better.

However, as a backup to Fish, we probably need more of a "spark" player ... Blake is not that.

As a starter, Blake would be ideal ... as long as he had a backup who could provide an offensive punch.

Unfortunately, I can't wrap my mind around a Fisher-Blake PG platoon for the next few years. Blake is better as a starter and Fisher is probably best as an assistant coach.

What is the best way to deal with Fisher going forward?

Popular thought is that Fisher should come off the bench, but I question whether he'd be effective in that role (backing up a PG like Blake).