Preseason Observations/Overreactions

[picc]

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)

It'll get better. Once the guys not used to spotting up (Nash/Kobe) get used to it, they'll be deadly for us. The good thing is that its a great problem to have, Kobe and Nash being "too" open.

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.

I'm very concerned with Mike Brown. OKC lost the finals this year in large part due to Brooks' inept coaching decisions. A bad coach can screw you out of a series...

[picc]

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.

I don't think the Princeton is a bad offense, I just think its personnel specific. If you have all similarly talented players with no dominant ones, or your frontcourt possesses the most passing acumen, I think its a great offense to run.

For us, we have players that excel at specific offensive options. Dwight in the post, drawing fouls and kicking out. Kobe isolating. Nash running the PnR.

Pau is a great PnR big because of his size and passing skill, but is it really better for him to have the ball in the high post, when we have better facilitating options that aren't young and spry enough to make those strong cuts through the defense and finish at the rim? The Princeton would work a lot better for this team if our guys were 6 years younger, but our starters are guys who at this point are more effective at executing a more methodical form of offense.

I think the Princeton would be good to run with say, Pau and a unit composed of mostly our bench players. But its an awful waste of our starting units strongest talents IMO.

I have no doubt we'll get better at it as the season goes along....but then again, I also think as the season goes along we're going to see a lot more of the starters abandoning those sets and going with their bread and butter, as we often used to abandon the triangle in the Phil days. But even moreso with this.

[picc]

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.

I don't have a huge problem with the bench, they are what they are. My only issue is how good a job MB will do integrating them with the starters, where they could play to their fullest potential.

And he very well may. These are just preseason musings, everything remains to be seen.

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.

Yeah, I don't like Dwight at the high post either. He's best used off the ball if he's not in a direct postup, because as we saw, Dwights man is very hesitant to leave him! He opens the lane up for other players with the ball, and Pau is a better passer anyway, so if anyone's going to be facilitating from the elbow, it should be him.

[picc]

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.

Definitely. Hopefully its just preseason kinks but Nash has been very under-utilized in the games so far.

In what world should Ron Artest be handling the ball more than Nash?! I still can't believe how consistently i've been seeing that. Is this real life? U wot m8?

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

Pretty much agree with everything. I wasn't trying to sound doom and gloomy, i'm aware its preseason and things are still developing. There's a lot of good to be taken away, these were just some things I noticed that i'm hoping continue or improve.

[picc]

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.

Definitely on all. Good stuff. On Kobe I would say he's still Kobe and can revert, but its good to know that he'll probably have more energy at the end of the games this year because of the lightened load. That'll help to improve his closing.

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

Cosign all 100%.

[picc]

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.

See you in the finals.

[SportsandTacos]

very impressed with metta. kobe is going to benefit exponentially from nash. i really like the way our d looks with metta and kobe on the on the perimeter and gasol and d12 in the low block. there was a play during the most recent sacramento game where cousins had the ball on the low block and got doubled by gasol and d12. that is going to be DEVASTATING whenever it happens. nash, jameson, and meeks still are trying to find their fit. sacre has looked really good, he definitely makes the team