Preseason Observations/Overreactions

[picc]

Just some randoms. Want to know what you guys think.

1. The princeton offense is not ideal for this team. Princeton works best when the best playmakers are in the frontcourt, so the offense is run through them. The old Sacramento Kings ran this, and who were their best passers? Divac and Webber. Voila, it was a thing of beauty.

Pau is a great passer for his position, and Dwight is decent, but our best playmakers are by far Kobe and Nash. Any offense that takes the ball out of their hands to begin the offensive set is a mistake.

A lot of our turnovers are coming from the C/PF getting the ball in the high post immediately to start a possession, and holding on to it while our slow perimeter players trudge around. We don't have the speed on the perimeter to make those hard cuts to the basket to take full advantage of the high post passing, so our guys just stand there waiting for someone to get open. And usually it amounts to them just handing the ball off to a guard with 10 seconds knocked off the clock. We could have just done that at the start!

We're making the offense more difficult than it has to be, for name's sake. PnR with Kobe or Nash, or throw the ball in to a post-up. All this high post princeton "motion" stuff is rendering some of our biggest strengths useless. We have the best PnR guard and the best PnR big in the league - run it til they stop it!

2. Kobe and Dwight are the best players on the team. I think we all knew that though.

3. Steve Nash has to shoot more. I don't know if he's just pacing himself because its preseason but its not good when Steve Blake is looking like the more aggressive offensive player.

Nash has to make a conscious effort to shoot more, and we have to make a better effort to get him in scoring positions. That means posting our guys up where they can draw doubles to the paint, not putting them on the elbow and waiting for cuts that don't come. It means setting more picks for him and forcing the defense to react.

There's no reason Ron Artest should be doing more dribbling in the halfcourt than Nash. It seems we're somehow putting the ball in the hands of everyone but the MVP point guard shooting/passing dynamo? Very strange. And on the other side, Nash has to start looking for daylight and firing away when he does have the ball. Much rather he shoot it than MWP, no?

4. Somewhen, somewhere, Devin Ebanks became a baller. This bench more than anything needs a guy who can come out and create his own shot, and it seems Devin is getting there. I think he needs to play some major minutes this year just so come playoff time, he's gotten comfortable with his reps enough to perform under pressure. Can't bench him in the season and expect him to produce when it counts. Throw him into the fire, he can run on the break, shoot from distance, and finish in the paint. He does it enough we'll have another asset come postseason.

5. Kobe is being much more careful with his shot selection. Its preseason so it remains to be seen if it continues but he seems content to know that if he gives up the ball his teammates will be able to do something with it. I like this a lot.

6. Dwight is a game-changer on defense. We already knew this but it bears more mention. There's no comparison between he and Bynum, its like night and day. And this is him rusty and nervous.

7. Pau post-up, Dwight post-up, Kobe PnR, Nash PnR. All offense should begin with one of those. Pick one and run it until they stop it. The only reason to diversify offense is if you don't have dominant individual players. We do.

8. MB needs to be more creative with his lineups. The bench will look much better integrated with the starters. If anything is this teams undoing it will be him. I know its preseason, just a random.

9. Nash is no great defender....but he's better than Sessions or Fish were. Talk about a curveball.

All in all, we have a bevy of talent and will be unbelievable when we gel properly. Once this team gets running its going to a thing of beauty.

Go Lakers.

[Dr Aki]

1. semi-agree - the princeton looks disjointed for all the reasons you mentioned, but the princeton has potential, the secondary plays aren't being run very efficiently right now, it just seems as if the only player that's used to screening is nash out there on the perimeter, kobe and metta have to step up the beef on their screens

2. yes they are, but nash should've been up there as well

3. nash needs to take more control, he'd be more prominent if he was able to balance the floor with more shooting. more screens freeing nash up to gain a step on his defender would allow nash to get into the lane from the weak side.

4. i don't agree with ebanks, he's still a beggar's ariza to me, but i agree with you that he's never going to get better without proper burn, can't create diamonds without pressure. still wished we landed grant hill though

5. kobe's still a bit too ball hoggy for me, especially when kobe's running the middle on the fast break and nash is free on the wing, his decision making isn't as good as nash, that's quite obviously not debatable thus far...

6. agree, day and night

7. agree, having too many options is too many cooks spoiling the broth. i just want them to execute

8. i hate the all bench lineups too

9. nash has spent his entire life in the pick and roll, no doubt that translated somehow into better positioning

[endless]

If anything, it's Mike Brown. Lakers have all the tools they need to be the dominate force in the NBA. He's already pushing our starters to max min. against other team's scrub players. He needs to mix up the lineup more. I don't think our bench is the problem when you've 5 star players that you can mix and match.

[ChuckTaylors310]

I wish Kobe's catch & shoot/spot up game was better. Now he's playing with others who demand attention so he'll get a lot of open looks but he's not great at hitting the wide open 3 (i want him to be more like paul pierce in that regard)

Jamison needs to step it up. Hasn't looked good out there, reminds me a lot of Troy Murphy, whereas we signed him to stretch the floor but he doesn't want to make a basket. But my gut tells me this won't be a problem because during the season he'll play with the starters and he'll make those plays (hopefully)

With all of the high-low passing Gasol is giving to Dwight I hope this doesnt make him passive during the season bc we'll need him to attack too

Bench needs work, but once we infuse them with a couple of our starters we should be fine

[iamworthy]

1. I honestly dont know or understand the Princeton offense enough to say what offense the lakers should or shouldn't be running. Last night was the first game Ive watched all preseason and Ill just say I thought the offensive movement was pretty good. Alot better than last year. It seemed as though everyone moved with a purpose. Once the spacing gets ironed out I think the finished product is going to be awesome. Picc, I dont think you are giving the Princeton offense a chance to succeed. We just ran if for the first time as a full unit last night. Even the times they ran the PnR the spacing was bad. Its just going to take time, Im not ready to give up on the Princeton offense. The Steve Nash PnR is going to be there to fall on.

2. Agree.

3.Ive been on the Steve Nash needs to shoot more for a while.

4. Havent watched E.Banks enough to give an assessment.

5. With this team there is really no reason not to expect kobe to play more within himself this year. Like I said, I only watched last nights game but if thats any indication of what he's been doing thus far in the pre-season then he looks comfortable as hell playing off the ball. He's currently shooting 50% from 2pt and 40% from 3pt.

6. Agree

7. Again, Im willing to give the Princeton a chance. I liked the D.Howard at the elbow play and have the guards rub off of him. Its triangle...ish.

8.I dont even think MB has begun to play his true rotation. Im sure he has a plan in mind. So im not going to comment on his rotation until the season starts. Kinda pointless during pre-season. I will say this, In the regular season I hope he keeps 2 of the big 4 on the floor at all times. I would put Kobe with Pau, and D12 with Nash

9. no comment.

[Soulsphere]

I think the Lakers roster is great the way it is. Though it would be nice to still have Shannon Brown around shooting the 3 which he got better the last year he was with the Lakers and he also had the athleticism the the Lakers lack on the wing.

I think people are over reacting a bit on the second unit. I hope Brown is just playing the squads separately only during the pre-season.

I understand the lakers starting with our big 5 unit. But eventually when all our starting 5 isn't on the 2 squads will look like this......
Nash, Meeks, Ebanks, Jamison, Howard
It's a great unit where Nash can just play PnR all day and have Meeks shooting 3s.

Other unit will be...
Blake, Bryant, World Peace, Gasol, Hill
Bryant can continue dominating the ball like he always has.

I should state again...these are the units when all 5 starters arent on.

if you look at the heat....the reason that makes everything work is because they have lebron basically on all the time. and when he isn't on, wade and bosh are on together. at the end of the day, if meeks, jamison, blake and world peace hits their outside/perimeter shots when nash, bryant, gasol and howard create opportunities for them....the lakers will win it all.

[hermes]

we can't win a dang game! lets blow the team up and start over!

[Imadogg]

I agree with just about all of the first post, good stuff. I thought the offense looked a lot better last game than the games without Dwight, I just really didn't like how often Dwight caught the ball at the high/post elbow and from there had to make a move or pass... Pau is fine for that but not Dwight. I do agree that we should try to PnR as much as we can until everyone passes out... come on.

During the season there better never eeeever be a time when the bench is out there without one of our main 4. Meeks should only be out there with either Nash, Kobe, Dwight. He's useless otherwise cuz he needs those open shots. Jamison would be best next to Dwight, Hill/Sacre with Pau. Combos like that. We should have one of our 4 out there at all times I feel.

[dockingsched]

last yr there were 20 lineups that played at least 30 minutes together for LA and every single one of them had at least one of kobe/gasol/bynum. 18 of those 20 had at least two starters (sessions/fisher, MWP, kobe/gasol/bynum). the other two with just one starter were with bynum.


i wouldn't worry at all about brown going with a 5 man bench unit.

[Kilroy]

Endless is an algorithm buried in the fabric of the internet... When certain data-points align, it triggers the "Endless Algorithm" to generate the standard "It's Mike Brown's fault" output...

Just ignore it. We have a call in to Tech Support...

[So Gutta]

we can't win a dang game! lets blow the team up and start over!

[Mass Rig]

I agree with the OP. There is absolutely no point that justifies Nash not running the PnR every freaking single time. When I see him cutting off the ball I see the biggest waste of basketball talent ever. This tiny little white dude trying to set blind screens on guys that are twice his size. Hilarious, dangerous and completely useless.

It reminds me of Phil forcing two of the best PnR guys in the history of the NBA (Payton and Malone) to play the triangle. We know how that went.

[Thethirdguy]

I have been having a hard time catching all the games but heres what Ive noticed:

- Nash still seems to be feeling everything out. Hes had moments where he looks like himself and moments where it seems he defers too much and not quite sure what to do. Im not worried about Nash though, he's one smartest players in the game, he'll figure out how to be as effective as possibe in this system in time.

- MWP, I think, is trying to do too much. He's been playing great, don't get me wrong, but it seems like he is trying to prove that he belongs with these guys (kobe, nash, howard and gasol) and has passed on a few easy scoring opportunities to try to get his. With Meta, as long as his heads in the game, I don't mind.

-Pau, I gave up on trying to figure out Pau. I just hope he can figure out how to be effective without relying mostly on his perimeter game. He's obviously not used to playing with a good PG yet, he needs to catch the damn ball!!

-Kobe is still Kobe. He seems to have picked up a couple things from having Nash by his side though; he's been making some fancy passes/assists. I love it

-I havent been able to catch all the games, so I could be wrong here, but Blake seems to have improved from having Nash around as well. It looks like hes seeing the floor better and some of t he passes hes made, I wouldn't have expected from him.

-I dont think that you can really accurately judge the bench at this point. Jamison looks like he should be a solid backup. Other than that, theres still people trying to make the team and prove themselves. Im not stressing on the bench at all, at least untill the final cuts are made and theres a few games with a somewhat steady rotation.

I think that it's far too early to start picking out all the negatives though. These guys obviously arent used to playing together at this point. A lot of the turnovers and fumbled passes that weve been seeing will go away and everyone will start to figure out their roles. This team is going to be a work in progress this year and its only preseason! Overall, I like what Ive seen so far. People stress too much

[laduane1]

It is nice to get the players there time and there shots. This team needs a few wins just to get into one rythem, they seem to be trying there own thing. Need 4 quarters, not 2 or 3.

[VTi]

the last game had a lot of good moments, but also a lot of sloppy misstakes. The bench has been weak and we can't expect everybody healthy all the time so its time to step up and get some W even if its preseason!

[Asianiac_24]

1. I agree that the ball should go through our guards a lot more, especially Nash. But since its only preseason, and the Princeton offense is a lethal offensive system when ran correctly, I think we are just trying to slowly implement it and get used to it until it is second nature.

2. Obviously.

3. Hell yes. The only times MWP should be touching the ball is when we have a mismatch for a post-up opportunity for MWP, or when one of our stars is double teamed and left open for the 3. Nash should be having the ball a lot more. We are just wasting Nash's talents if we are just going to use him as a triangle type PG. Have the ball go through him and let him create for everyone else.

4. He has shown flashes, but I still want to see more. He definitely has more potential than our other youngsters though, especially Morris who I think just flat out sucks.

5. I tend to agree, but Kobe still reverts back to himself when the game is close and near the end. We shouldn't be playing Kobe hero ball no matter what the clock and score says. I like what I've seen so far though, and Kobe's 3 point shooting seems to have improved from last season.

6. Can't agree more. I thought our offense is better too, as Dwight isn't a black hole with the ball and our ball movement is a lot more fluid.

7. I'd say have Nash call out whatever play he chooses to run. Princeton, post up, whatever. He has lead some of the best offensive teams the league has ever seen, so I'd trust his judgement. Nash needs the ball A LOT more.

8. This still remains to be seen.

[CelticsRise]

I am not here to troll but and also agree that I am not LAL fan but I think Nash is NOT looking good addition for Lakers. I still think Sessions would have been better this season.

I am big fan of Nash but he is way past his prime, he is liability on D and does not look good so far at all. Anyway will see.

[StarneyBinston]

I am not here to troll but and also agree that I am not LAL fan but I think Nash is NOT looking good addition for Lakers. I still think Sessions would have been better this season.

I am big fan of Nash but he is way past his prime, he is liability on D and does not look good so far at all. Anyway will see.

I feel/hope that what we have seen from Nah so far is not what the regular season will look like. Kobe playing along Nash isn't the greatest idea for me since they both like to handle the ball a lot and need it to be effective. Although it sounds unrealistic, I kinda hope that Nash and Kobe will not see the majority of their minutes together and we will be able to run different lineups that can be dangerous in various ways (Nash/Kobe -Dwight/Pau PnR, Kobe focused offense with Dwight and Pau down low, some of the youth [Meeks, Ebanks, Dwight] with Nash for a more running game, etc.).

Defensively, if Nash is not a Westbrook or Paul stopper, he also didn't appear as that huge a liability as I've heard or as I thought he'd be. I don't think he's gonna be worse than Sessions or Fisher, so that's an automatic upgrade (which doesn't say much, that's true...).

Anyways, I can't wait to see a game with actual rotation to be able to gauge what this team can do.

[tugs]

this accurate?



going back:

1. Agreed. with the best PnR combo in Dwight and Nash and Kobe and Pau not far behind, Princeton is a waste of energy to implement.

2. Reminiscent of the old Diesel and Fro combo. this ones scarier with Kobe's maturity and Dwight's athleticism and explosiveness.

3. Hopefully he's just pacing himself. He does need to shoot more. don't care if he takes a ton of those stop and pop three's of his.

Regarding MWP, I think he's proving he did improve during the offseason. no doubt he did and it was evident during the first few games. he just needs to settle down and realize if it's on or off. acknowledge if you're not in the groove and let your superstar team mates carry the offensive load and focus on being the beast defender that he is.

4. Devin needs to play more. sounds weird but cut Kobe's time to give Devin more burn. pair him up with Nash and Dwight while Pau and Kobe rest.

"why not Metta?"

Kobe can get his anytime. Metta is like a diesel that needs to heat up first before it can be utilized at full potential. anytime Metta needs rest, then put in Kobe.

5. Trust has always been the issue with Kobe. now he has team mates that he's sure that will go into battle with him. Hope he keeps this up.

6.

7.

8. MB playing a unit of 5 bench players is beyond me. Somehow, I think it's safe to say that he should have a concrete line up and rotations in mind going into the season and testing it. he may still be doing try outs for the bench. Just make sure that the key players will still have a lot in the tank during the important periods of the season: post All Star and Playoffs.

9. Hopefully he is.

may I just add:

- Jamison needs to show up.
- Meeks I think is getting his touch back.
- Hopefully Hill will be 100% when he returns.
- Give the young bloods some burn vs the Clips (Morris, Goudelock, DJO) and see if they fare well against a very good team and finally assess if we really are stuck with Blake and Duhon at back up PG

[picc]

1. semi-agree - the princeton looks disjointed for all the reasons you mentioned, but the princeton has potential, the secondary plays aren't being run very efficiently right now, it just seems as if the only player that's used to screening is nash out there on the perimeter, kobe and metta have to step up the beef on their screens

2. yes they are, but nash should've been up there as well

3. nash needs to take more control, he'd be more prominent if he was able to balance the floor with more shooting. more screens freeing nash up to gain a step on his defender would allow nash to get into the lane from the weak side.

4. i don't agree with ebanks, he's still a beggar's ariza to me, but i agree with you that he's never going to get better without proper burn, can't create diamonds without pressure. still wished we landed grant hill though

5. kobe's still a bit too ball hoggy for me, especially when kobe's running the middle on the fast break and nash is free on the wing, his decision making isn't as good as nash, that's quite obviously not debatable thus far...

6. agree, day and night

7. agree, having too many options is too many cooks spoiling the broth. i just want them to execute

8. i hate the all bench lineups too

9. nash has spent his entire life in the pick and roll, no doubt that translated somehow into better positioning

No issue with most. Just to clarify I didn't mean Ebanks has turned a corner, just that he's showing flashes of potential I didn't see last year. With the right grooming we could turn him into a weapon by the end of the season, but we're not going to get it sitting him at the end of the bench. I think with Barnes gone and CDR cut, he's going to get a lot of burn though. Unless Jamison starts taking the SF minutes of course.