"Tweaking up" the roster according to one Laker legend

[tugs]

West Embarrassed By Lakers' Antics, Says Team Needs To Get More Athletic

West was asked what the Lakers need to do to get back into contention and he summed it up succinctly:

“First of all they need athletes. This is the least athletic Laker team as I’ve seen in a long time. … I think [Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum] have to be used differently. Putting Pau Gasol and having him guard Dirk Nowitzki, there was no way that was going to happen. There’s just no way.”

More on the story.

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/213590/West_Embarrassed_By_Lakers_Antics_Says_Team_Needs_To_Get_More_Athletic

Seems one of the All Time Greats is already seeing the cracks on this team. I know financial factors will make the transition harder for the management but West is right. Since Day 1 of the off season most of us are waiting for a move that will solve the bench problems and a solution on the PG slot. We got what we wanted in the made acquisitions in Barnes, Blake and re-signing Shannon Brown but we all know what happened there.

Thoughts on how the management can tackle this?


*I don't see any post related to this one but if there is already one, feel free to lock this up.

[BosssPlaya]

Good to see J West giving his thoughts on the current Laker situation. Doesnt necessarily mean we have to rebuild. We just have to make a few trades thats all. The core of Gasol/Bynum/Kobe & LO is too good to break up, did Laker fans forget that core just won Back-to-Back titles ?!? I just think the Lakers need a MAJOR upgrade at PG. They also need to upgrade the bench.

Bench From Last Year/This Year
Farmar / Blake
Brown / Brown
Vujacic / ??Trey Johnson??
Morrison / Barnes
Walton / Walton
Odom / Odom
Powell / J. Smith (hardly played)
DJ Mbenga / Ratliff (hardly played)
*not to mention Bynum would sometimes come off the bench as well*


Lakers got Black and Barnes last offseason, I thought that was a huge upgrade over Morrison and Farmar, but at the same time we didnt upgrade the players we let go. We late DJ Mbenga go and got Theo Ratliff to replace him and he played maybe 48 minuts all season long. We let Vujacic go for pretty much a useless player in Joe Smith as a fincial move. We let Josh Powell go and didnt get a player who was an upgrade over him. Some might laugh, but those role players made nice contribion when they were out there. DJ would foul most of the time, but atleast he would try to block shots (which he did well) and rebound the ball, and was an extra big body to have. Josh Powell was a good role player also, he would come in.. defend, rebound and had a smooth midrange jumper. Vujacic would mess up on the offence at times, but was a quick, fiesty defender who came in, gave Kobe a nice rest, got under the opponents skin, and had a jump shot. Not to mention the chemistry the players had together.

I don’t think the Lakers need to rebuild, especially when they can compete a good 3-4 years with this core. They just need to add the right pieces around this core to make it work. If Gasol and Bynum are having trouble being on the floor at the same time, thats another issue they have to look at and take into consideration. The Lakers have almost $91 mill in the books next season, so it seems like they’re going to have to do it through trade, unless Dr. Buss digs deeper into his pocket than he already has.

[tlifeset]

Here's the deal ... they don't necessarily have to rebuild but they have to change their philosophy, and with that comes inevitable changes in personnel. The triangle is over and with its exit comes a new opportunity to reinvigorate this team. Lost in all this hoopla is a simple fact--this is one of the best passing teams that understands spacing and features big men at all 3 front court positions with good hands and good closing moves. In short, I think we've been selling this team short by not featuring a dribble drive, pass-first PG who can dominate the ball and be a facilitator. Most of the time the offense features either Kobe or Odom bringing the ball up. I, for one, am looking forward to a PG who can create shots for Kobe and the rest of the gang.

People can sit here and talk about wanting Dwight Howard but I'm not sure if that's really what we need. I would rather they focused on prying away a Brandon Jennings or Ricky Rubio type who can create and use Blake and possibly Walton's deal to maybe go after more athleticism.

[Kilroy]

This is from West's interview on Dan Patrick...

I listened to it all and he doesn't really say we need to rebuild. He says we need to add athleticism and youth to our Kobe, Pau, LO, Bynum core.

He says we need a coaching shakeup... But then again, he was never a real big fan of Phil Jackson either.

He says we still have a solid core but we got very old and very slow.

He says he's a fan of the Lakers but he's not an employee so he doesn't really have an opinion on the talent or moves and wouldn't make suggestions on Coaching improvements.

He said that he was disappointed in how the Lakers played and how they acted in game 4.

So basically, he said nothing we didn't already know.

The interview left me with the feeling that West is still very conflicted about the Lakers... On one hand he sees himself as a lifetime Laker, on the other he might feel a little disrespected. He alluded to good times and bad times with the Org and I think he's not that happy about how his time here ended. But he's too classy to come right out and say it.

[Slava]

He also said that not many Lakers players have much value around the league. The question is since he still feels so passionate about the Lakers, now that Phil is gone would he like to accept a consultant's role in the front office?

[ALL HAIL]

Magic Johnson is the best Laker ever. Jerry West has always been the mosst important.

Jerry West is the reason I'm a Laker fan. If it weren't for him, the Lakers would be stuck in mediocrity.

I have little to no faith in our future beyond Kobe mostly because Jerry West is not in charge anymore. If he were in charge, after acquiring Gasol three years ago, this team would have not only been winning rings, but DOMINANT as well.

He has made mistakes in the past and isn't always right, but he's spot on about our current state, and quite frankly, he's been right about the state of our franchise (winning or not winning) fo rsome time now.

[kobe808lak]

Abandon the triangle, get a decent PG with quickness and good handles. Kobe has never played with a distributing PG that can make plays for others. How much easier would that make his life.

[Kalidogg24]

Mr. Logo speaking the truth.
Basically keeping our core is smart money.
Getting more athletic is a must NO DOUBT.


Personally I would like to go after players like Jamal Crawford, J.R Smith, Thaddeus Young, Mike Redd, Andrei Kirilenko, Nick Young, Ray Allen (LoL) , Big Baby (LoL) , Nene, Ronny Turiaf and Carl Landry.

LoL's on Ray and Baby but dead serious, if we get a chance to get them , DO IT MITCH!

Magic Johnson is the best Laker ever. Jerry West has always been the mosst important.
KOBE BRYANT BEING THE MOST GIFTED AND ATHLETIC

Added Fix and See my Sig homie.

[ALL HAIL]

Mr. Logo speaking the truth.
Basically keeping our core is smart money.
Getting more athletic is a must NO DOUBT.


Personally I would like to go after players like Jamal Crawford, J.R Smith, Thaddeus Young, Mike Redd, Andrei Kirilenko, Nick Young, Ray Allen (LoL) , Big Baby (LoL) , Nene, Ronny Turiaf and Carl Landry.

LoL's on Ray and Baby but dead serious, if we get a chance to get them , DO IT MITCH!

Magic Johnson is the best Laker ever. Jerry West has always been the mosst important.
KOBE BRYANT BEING THE MOST GIFTED AND ATHLETIC

Added Fix and See my Sig homie.

Kobe most athletic ... I'll give you that

Kobe most gifted ... I say no but it depends on what you mean by gifted.

Gifted, to me, means having innate basketball talent.

By that definition, Magic wins.

Regardless though, Jerry West is by far the most important. He's responsible for ten or so Laker championships.

The man isn't perfect, but he's a genius as far as I'm concerned.

[Edrees]

If you watch the dallas series, and replace our bench with a bunch of shooters on the level of Korver, Peja, we would have probably won that series. I think we need real shooters more than anything.

[Kalidogg24]

Kobe most athletic ... I'll give you that

Kobe most gifted ... I say no but it depends on what you mean by gifted.

Gifted, to me, means having innate basketball talent.

By that definition, Magic wins.

Just in case I get blasted as not being a true Magic fan or being too young as alot of peeps in RGM has tried to toss at me in the past.
Magic is the only reason why I feel in love with the game of basketball.
Everyday after school I would come home and throw in that "Always Showtime Magic Johnson" VHS tape narrated by Danny Glover.
The day he was forced to retire I was in the 4th grade depressed as hell.

To me Magic's entire basketball body of work defines "Laker basketball".

By saying Kobe is more gifted I said that due to his talent being more raw.
I know scoring is his bread and butter but from all of Kobe's basketball body of work thus far,
it seemed that in all of those inhuman offensive occurrences it was just too effortless.
Hence me bringing up the term of being more "GIFTED".

On terms of all around "GREATNESS" I think Magic wins that battle.
Except maybe on the defensive end where Kobe might have the slight edge minus these past two seasons.

[Sedale Threatt]

He also said that not many Lakers players have much value around the league.

That's why it's going to be difficult to pull off a significant facelift. The few assets we do have all have major asterisks -- old, huge contracts, injury prone, etc.

It is extremely difficult to rebuild on the fly. Looking at basketball history, the only teams I can think of that did it successfully were the old Celtics, the Showtime Lakers, the Bulls and the Spurs.

And all of those teams were fortunate to have a couple of key cornerstones around which they could build -- young Russell, young Magic, young Duncan and Michael Jordan. Plus, a ton of luck was involved.

Hell, now that I think about it, we pretty much did it too, going from Shaq to Gasol. So rebuilding a third time is probably going to be too much to ask.

[dockingsched]

lakers in my opinion have two movable assets, odom and bynum. pau gasol is too expensive to make sense for anyone else.

[Sedale Threatt]

That's probably true, but even Bynum, even though he was relatively healthy this year, I'd have zero confidence trying to build around him if I was an NBA GM. Even if he made it through the next three or four years unscathed, I'd still be constantly worried about the other shoe dropping, especially with what has been acknowledged by multiple medical sources about his frame being fundamentally unsound for hoops.

[joe.linnen]

Thaddeus Young
Nick Young
Andrei Kirilenko ($17.8)
Carl Landry ($3)
Carlos Arroyo(notes) ($1.2)
Carmelo Anthony ($17.1)— Player Option
Caron Butler ($10.6)
Dan Gadzuric(notes) ($7.2)
David West ($8.3)—Player Option
Eddy Curry(notes) ($11.2)
Glen Davis ($3.3)
Greg Oden(notes) ($6.8)—Qualifying Offer
Jamal Crawford(notes) ($10.1)
Jason Richardson(notes) ($14.4)
Jeff Green(notes) ($4.5)— Qualifying Offer
Joel Pryzbilla ($7.2)
JR Smith ($6)
Kendrick Perkins ($4.4)
Kenyon Martin ($17.2)
Marko Jaric(notes) ($7.6)
Michael Redd(notes) ($18.3)
Mike Dunleavy ($10.6)
Nazr Mohammad ($6.9)
Predrag Stojakovic ($15.3)
Rodney Stuckey(notes) ($2.8)— Qualifying Offer
Samuel Dalembert(notes) ($12.2)
Sasha Vujacic(notes) ($5.4)
Shane Battier ($7.3)
Shannon Brown(notes) ($2.2)—Player Option
Tayshaun Prince ($11.2)
TJ Ford(notes) ($8.5)
Troy Murphy(notes) ($12.0)
Tyson Chandler(notes) ($12.8)
Vince Carter(notes) ($17.3)—Team Option
Wilson Chandler(notes) ($2.1)— Qualifying Offer
Yao Ming(notes) ($17.7)
Zach Randolph ($17.3)


SF:Artest/Barnes
PF:Gasol/Odom
C:Bynum/Mohammad or Oden or Pryzbilla
SG:Bryant/Smith or Crawford
PG:Felton/???

I want Oden, Smith and Felton. I also know its impossible to get all 3 but can we have two of the 3

[dockingsched]

That's probably true, but even Bynum, even though he was relatively healthy this year, I'd have zero confidence trying to build around him if I was an NBA GM. Even if he made it through the next three or four years unscathed, I'd still be constantly worried about the other shoe dropping, especially with what has been acknowledged by multiple medical sources about his frame being fundamentally unsound for hoops.

i think that's a risk many gm's are willing to take. if it wasn't for those injury concerns, not a single team in the league would have a prayer of acquiring him via trade.

[tugs]

My bad, the title was misleading. Edited it already but it still doesn't sound right.

A great point was raised regarding the changing of the philosophy and setting a different offensive style for this current roster (if a major change in the line up is unlikely). I still believe an upgrade on the PG position, a player who can create for himself and others and take some pressure of Kobe, can make the biggest difference. Screw the triangle, this team has proven their defensive capabilities, let them run. The only problem here is if they can sustain a high level of performance each and every game. With this, our bench can be more loose and can adjust better offensively than messing up a designed play. A D'Antoni-Nelson type of offense can fit even with these aging bodies. If changes in the line up is inevitable this off season, call me crazy, let Shannon groom into the starting 5 as the starting PG and activate Ebanks and Caracter. Looking for youth and athleticism? There you go, they have it, Phil isn't just making the most out of the opportunities.

I hate to see Phil leave like this, but a coaching change might be the key to rejuvenate this franchise.

[barrettcg]

Getting a better point guard should be the number one priority I think so I agree with you guds. However getting a coach with an offensive philosophy like D'Antoni or Nelson would be horrible I think. I like what the bulls did this year by getting the absolute best defensive coach in the NBA period. I think that the emergence of D. Rose and Tom at the helm are the major reasons that the bulls are relevant again. If we can get a defensive minded coach it would be the best thing for this team. If we were to actually run the triangle I think we would have been fun but over the past two or three season we have only really run the triangle maybe and I mean probably not even half of the offensive possessions. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying that we should continue to run the triangle but we do need more offensive movement I saw wayyyy too many ISO's and stagnant ball movement which led to hard offensive possessions and way to many jump shots from a team that isn't the best jump shooting team. To end this ramble..... Too many missed jump shots lead to quick transisions and fast breaks for the other teams end of story.

Oh yeah and Ebanks need to get some PT next season. Character looked slow when I watched him but he also looked hungry to play so I am excited to see them get a chance next season. I have always hated how phil doesn't give Rooks PT unless it is garbage time.

[kevin_405]

Time to get Fisher and Artest out of the starting rotation..
They slow down our offense way too much..

We are kind of stuck with Blake, so may be we should just put him in the starting lineup, If barnes returns then barnes get the SF spot over Artest or may be use odom as a starter..

[tugs]

Getting a better point guard should be the number one priority I think so I agree with you guds. However getting a coach with an offensive philosophy like D'Antoni or Nelson would be horrible I think. I like what the bulls did this year by getting the absolute best defensive coach in the NBA period. I think that the emergence of D. Rose and Tom at the helm are the major reasons that the bulls are relevant again. If we can get a defensive minded coach it would be the best thing for this team. If we were to actually run the triangle I think we would have been fun but over the past two or three season we have only really run the triangle maybe and I mean probably not even half of the offensive possessions. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying that we should continue to run the triangle but we do need more offensive movement I saw wayyyy too many ISO's and stagnant ball movement which led to hard offensive possessions and way to many jump shots from a team that isn't the best jump shooting team. To end this ramble..... Too many missed jump shots lead to quick transisions and fast breaks for the other teams end of story.

Oh yeah and Ebanks need to get some PT next season. Character looked slow when I watched him but he also looked hungry to play so I am excited to see them get a chance next season. I have always hated how phil doesn't give Rooks PT unless it is garbage time.

Now I'm reconsidering Mike Brown for the head coaching position. When Phil leaves, I see Shaw replacing him. Mitch and Kobe talks highly of Shaw during one of the interviews, though they weren't "obviously" endorsing him.

I said let Shannon be the point? I'd rather see Trey run the offense. But hey, Brown showed some flashes that he can be a PG.

If changes in the roster is impossible, exploring different line up combinations and rotations may be the next best thing.