GT 1/15/14: LA Lakers @ Phoenix Suns 6 PM

[milesfides]

Look at who he is passing to. I am a realist and realize that Marshall is a solid backup PG at best. But outside of Nick Young and Pau Gasol, it is a roster full of d-league players or 12th men.

Ah, get out of here. Steve Blake and Jordan Farmar were leading the same guys to a competitive record.

And you could say the same thing about the Suns roster yet they are 22-16.

I'm not putting all that on Kendall Marshall, no, the coaches, players, the entire organization is responsible for this slide.

But Kendall Marshall's inaction on the court and loud mouth off it are a disgrace to competitive sports, the purple and gold, and the Lakers nation. I don't care how new he is as a Laker; once he puts on that uniform, I expect him to wear it as a badge of honor.

Hey, he was unemployed and no team wanted him, so it's not surprising that he has a me-first mentality. On the other hand, Matt Barnes has been given the short stick his entire career, played with us for peanuts, yet he was willing to die for his teammates.

But everybody is entitled to his own opinion, all of us are backseat GM's on this site. People can rationalize or excuse Kendall Marshall's comments, and happily accept his attitude. If I were a GM? That kind of tone and comments coming from my point guard - I would cut that off before it becomes a cancer.

Nick Young isn't a perfect player, but his attitude, his respect for the P&G, his taking a paycut to play for a team and a city he loves? Yeah, I'm going to roll with guys like that.

Kendall Marshall? He's sullying the purple and gold.

Can't wait till Steve Blake and Farmar come back.

[Kilroy]

Not sure if I'd take anything that happened to 'Swaggy P' as any greater message about what's wrong with the Lakers...

Kobe got Clothes-lined in that same building and there wasn't a Laker within 15' of him after... That was way more troubling to me than this, but I didn't read a whole lot of "Lakers are doomed!" posts the next day...

What are you talking about? Need a refresher?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V8ZukXsWmk

First of all, Kobe DID NOT react, he didn't escalate the situation, he got up smiled, and brushed his shoulder, and second, EVERY SINGLE LAKER moved to Kobe's defense. Watch the video. But there was no scrum because all of Raja Bell's teammates quickly walked away - I guess every D'Antoni team is trained to run away. And lastly, it was Game 5 of the playoffs - if there ever were a situation in which players should hold a firm line and not intervene, it would be Game 5 of the playoffs. And yet there was Lamar Odom confronting Raja, thank goodness for Kwame who pushed Lamar away. No, that was the proper conduct of everybody involved really, except for a punkass move by Raja that David Stern called "unmanly" - best retaliation ever.

That video is the worst evidence ever... Arguably the best player in the league gets his head taken off by some scrub defensive specialist, and his 'warrior' team mates amble over like they're on the beach...

I agree that Kobe's response was probably the best response he could have had at the time... But part of me still wanted an old-school, everyone on the floor dust up as a result, and a Laker team on a mission after...

And Kobe's still on the team and on the bench, given what he did in that video, do you think HE would have been calling for the Lakers to clear the seats and attack the suns for getting in Young's face.

This is an 'All-Scrub' team that's been decimated by injuries, in an abomination year for the Lakers...

Right....so what makes sense, trying to play for each other and salvage some semblance of pride, or being the entire league's bitch? That sit right with you?

Winning is everything... Kicking people's asses isn't going to win us games...
We simply do NOT have the talent on this team to win games...
So we will be the leagues' bitch no matter how much 'back' our guys have of each other.

Reading something into frustrations boiling over during all this, is like trying to impart greater social importance to a rock.

Uh, except in the past 12 hours Lakers commentators, sportswriters, and even players themselves have been exposing the whole feel-good butt buddy sham of this year's Lakers.

If you listen closely, they aren't talking about Young getting fouled or people not sticking up for him... They're really talking about how much this team sucks. They're trying to use the Young incident as an example... Which is asinine to me because I've seen similar situations all the time.

Make no mistake, Young is frustrated because this team can't buy a win... Not about Marshall not kicking Len's ass... Which would have been super amazing anyway...

Marshall is the new guy... I doubt they even know each other that well...
And essentially our only PG... He has no business getting tossed defending Young's honor.
If he had, I know 90% of the posters here as well as the media would have been calling it a stupid move and him an idiot.

Like it or not... I don't... This isn't the same league as it was 5-10 years ago... These things happen all the time without a whole lot of team intervention.

And yet there were four Suns coming to Len, a 7-foot rookie from Ukraine who has played in fewer games in a Suns uniform than Marshall in a Lakers uniform.

So this has nothing to do with Marshall not knowing Nick Young well enough, this has everything to do with having his teammate's back, regardless of his personal relationship with him.

And again, misconstruing the situation as one in which intervention = ejection is a thinly veiled excuse for cowardice. Not sure why you're making the same ludicrous claim as Kendall Marshall.

None of the Suns who came to the scene were looking to throw down. They were intervening. Protecting their teammate.

All this while Nick Young's head was almost taken off mid-air by a guy who is twice his size, and quickly surrounded by opponents.

And yet there was Marshall, at the three-point line, not even attempting to take one step to help his teammate.

And yet there was Marshall in the locker room, after a 4-16 performance and getting abused on defense, the 11th loss in 12 games as a Laker, attacking Nick Young through twitter.

Y'all can rationalize that all you want, but no way I would want such a punk on my team, let alone the point guard, the floor general, the leader. But then again, I guess he's perfect for this tissue-soft, prideless D'Antoni basketball culture of taking easy, long range shots, from behind the line or behind a keyboard.

I'm not even sure you know what you wanted Marshall to actually do to prove he's not a punk?
This is a freaking NBA "fight" for crying out loud... Best he could have done is run up and grab a guy... Chances are that would have lead to an all-out brawl and him being ejected... His role would have lasted no more than a second or 2 and he'd have been done for the night, maybe a couple of nights, and if I know Mitch, maybe for good as a Laker...

And frankly, I'm not sure I'd care too much if Nick freaking Young didn't want to play with me anymore...

[Mamba Mentality]

I really don't have the time nor the desire to write a lengthy post at the moment. But I will say that miles hit the whole Nick Young/Kendall Marshall thing right on the head. Excellent post dude.

[BEazy]

So is this season worse than last year? Poll anybody? haha

[DEEP3CL]

Well we know who the bitches are on this team now. And anybody backing Marshall is brain dead basically.