State of The Lakers & Full Acceptance

[LAKERLAW]

Before the season I posted a poll:

Lose & get top 5

Win, not make playoffs & not get top 5

The responses to the poll before the season started was astonishing. People were actually arguing that the Lakers roster is far superior than last year and the team had a legitimate shot at making the playoffs. It was comical to read the attacks on how Scott was a far better coach & that Lin/Kobe/Young trio along with Boozer will keep this team competitive.

Now that the season has progressed and I checked on that poll post, the numbers have swayed. Now posters see the light, mainly because the light was switched in front of the very eyes. Now the numbers lean towards option (A) - TANK.

Like it or not, this is a bad roster, with a bad "leader" (Kobe) - and a coach who is arguably the worst coach in the NBA. I'm accusing Scott of being awful NOT because of his current record, i'm making the determination because he doesn't have a single creative offensive concept, the defense is historically bad, he has no clue how to manage minutes, and I disagree with many of his rotations and combinations.

This is the way, the only way, to look at this season:

1) Acquired Randle via draft
2) Clarkson; Kelly; Davis - development of young guys
3) Hopefully inflate Hill's number & swap him for a 1st later this year
4) TANK - acquire a top 5 pick

If all this happens you go into next season w/:

1) Randle
2) Top 5 lotto pick + 1st Rnd Hou pick + Hopefully whatever comes from a Hill trade
3) Some young pieces (hopefully we keep Davis)
4) Cap space enough to sign a heavy max player and some parts
5) 1 yr left on Kobe's deal

AND YES, I SAID IT: TRADE JORDAN HILL. Hill is having a very good year, but the fact is, his rebounding numbers are inflated bc there (a) there is no system (b) the Lakers miss an awful lot of shots.

If Hill had any actual offensive responsibilities other than: Get under the basket and rebound Kobe's missed shots - he would not be putting up the numbers. Lets also not forget, the guy has a serious injury record and with the minutes and stress he's putting on his body it's not a matter of if he will get injured but when.

I only hope the Lakers keep dropping games even though their schedule will ease up a bit. Sure it hurst as a fan, a die hard fan....but this is what rebuilding is all about.

[DEEP3CL]

A lot of this is refutable. Let me start with Scott.....

It's so easy for guys to always say Byron's a bad coach, so since we're going to use the term let's go further into detail of what exemplifies "bad coach". You say the reason is because he hasn't conceived an offensive concept.

I say to those who actually believe that....watch tape over and over. I can tell you exactly the offense Scott is running, and it's not the Princeton like many thought he would install. The Lakers are running a flex offense, one that is suppose to function off ball movement and operating from the elbows and short corners.

The problem is this offense is too simple but it's a fail safe offense to help contain Lin's penchant for turnovers and careless ball handling. The other part is that it's too simple for Kobe and it's the reason we see him hijacking the ball on any set that is called.

Early in the preseason I saw Scott using elements of the Triangle and Princeton, but once he saw Lin's inability to function as an at least average lead guard he scraped it. The Flex is the easiest thing to install on the fly and doesn't take super intelligent players to run it.

But for guys to say Scott is bad it's a blatant and kinda idiotic thing to say. Has anyone here ever coached any level of ball ? It's easy to "arm chair" coach....because you feel you have all the answers and are never wrong.

The Players....

It's 3 positions that always make a team go, and it the one's that make up the base root of a championship team. That's lead guard, center and the 2/3 spot. We lack in all 3 weather some here want to face it or not. LAKERLAW pointed out that Kobe was a "bad leader"....well maybe at this point of his career he is.

But as he also point out the roster is bad, but from a standpoint of it doesn't mesh. Nobody's games fit the other. Like when we was competing from 08-11, the guys games meshed. LO's went with Pau's, Pau's went with Bynum's, Bynum's went with Kobe....LO with Kobe, Kobe with Pau, and guys like D-Fish, Farmar, Sasha, Trevor even Shannon Brown's blended with our core play makers.

This roster, nobody fits all the way around like our competing teams did and this is the reason for the inconsistent play on both sides of the ball. IQ is paramount and again our competing teams had it, this one is full of low IQ guys which again leads to breakdowns and inconsistency.

I've came to the conclusion on that after 10 games because it was evident to see by that time. Now as far as moving forward and developing guys. Only 3 guys are worth investing long term time in, that's Julius, J.Clarkson and Ed. Guys need to let the fascination with Kelly go, the guys body is failing him on even the simplest of injury. He's out 6 weeks now which is far longer than you should even be out with a hamstring situation.

LAKERLAW also pointed out flipping Hill for a 1st rounder ?......Yo man I don't care how inflated his numbers are no team is giving up a first for him unless they're completely ignorant. Now Hill can be flipped for a developing piece and a 2nd that a team has no need for but maybe we do. That's more in the realm of reality than waiting for a teams GM to freeze up and go "tard" all of a sudden.

In closing thinking back to the beginning of the year at camp, I too shared the thought of this team was much better than what we had last year. And in terms of looking at it on paper it made very much sense to think so. I was always worried about our front court because the 5 spot was weak no matter if guys thought Hill could do the job or not. Also the optimism was valid because we thought we'd be running an offense that was more ball control such as the Princeton when run correctly. Secondly anyone with a high ball IQ thought our attack would be two prong....inside out and not reliant on 3's such as with MDA's system.

But you can't fault guys for thinking that, with Julius in the fold we thought his minutes would increase as the season went on. No one had the thought of that getting flushed on opening night. And Julius was one that was going to help.

Going forward it's going to hard as hell to land in the top 5, just as I preached last season it would be hard as hell to hope we was finishing top 4 like many thought could happen. Look back at the draft it's only two players actually playing meaningful minutes anyway....Wiggins and Parker. This draft is full of bigs and wingers, but after the top 3 the rest of the draft is dead water. But the fact is we'll win some games and if it comes to the point of the season where we need to hang in a certain spot then we'll see if the FO has the guts to tell Scott to sit Kobe, cause that's the only way we lock in that top 5.

Funny thing is people keep hollering "top 5...top 5....top 5", this draft is really only a top 3 as far as players that will have an impact on Day 1. That's Okafor, Towns and Stanley Johnson. Hopefully I'm wrong and it fills out as the NCAA season goes on. But I'm good as far as the Lakers rebuild, it's just frustrating as hell to see them lose games but you're sitting there and seeing where the game could've been won or lost. Frustrating man....

[Danny Darko]

Very much agree with Deep. I still think Scott is a better coach that Pringles.
I also thought our roster would be improved, but again we are injured as hell.
Hill has a trade blocker, though he might want to move. I would trade if anything good was available.
I do think the draft will fill out either due to the Vonleh style hype or maybe legitimately

I am on team 5 or down for Towns

[Dr Aki]

i was down for just missing the playoffs, but lucking into a top 3 pick

[dAdo dA dEvil]

Injuries ruined us in the first place.

Before the season starts we have a line up that is better than our line up last year and with that line up I am optimistic that we can reach the playoffs but few weeks / days before the opening night, and even as the season went on, injuries occurred to the players that we thought could help the team.

Young who we expect will help Kobe on the scoring load is out from the beginning.

Nash who is projected to start and is expected to serve as a mentor to the younger guys is out for the entire season and is nowhere to be found even for that mentorship role.

Randle who is expected to be a bright spot and our number 7th pick went down on the opening night and most likely is out for the rest of the season.

Even Kelly and X are insignificant right now because of injuries.

I can also say that Lin and Boozer were not playing up to our expectations. Yes there were nights that Lin has a good game but we want more consistency. We can all say that Kobe shoots too much, but with our current line up who else would you like to shoot? Kobe needs help and at this point I can say that it's up to the FO to make a move. At this team's current situation, I say we live and die with Kobe shooting the ball unless Lin and Boozer steps up big time. Or maybe change the rotation? Make Davis start and play him more. Maybe gamble on playing Clarkson instead of putting him in D-League. We have exception for our injured players I hope we sign someone who can shoot and play D.

Making it to the playoffs is now officially a looooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnngggg shot but I still root for us to win every game.

[TylersLakers]

I root for us to win, but the losses are suddenly becoming less painful knowing that it would probably be better for us.

[dipstick]

I was also optimistic at the start of the year, and still pretty much am that the team is better than their record. However, having said that, I know that this team will has an almost 0 chance of making the playoffs after the bad start. I am also rooting for a top 5 pick even if we don't get an immediate impact player at 4&5 just so we can get assets in as early as possible.

However, I am also not that optimistic that we will be in the bottom 5. We haven't met the worst of the East yet and we are barely in the bottom. Looking at the schedule, I wouldn't even be surprised if we go over .500 over the next 10 games.

Best way to improve right now is to hopefully build-up Lin, Hill and even Young to get younger players or picks. At the same time, we should continue to develop Clarkson and Davis, who we can hopefully keep after this year. After that, just pray that the lottery Gods smile on us and give us a top 3 pick like they always do with the Cavs.

[Michael Lucky]

The injuries haven't been detrimental to the team this year, since they are happening to guys that weren't even expected to get heavy minutes (kelly, and henry). They aren't the type of guys that are going to make any sort of difference to our record. We just lack talent, plain and simple.

[pimpim]

The injuries haven't been detrimental to the team this year, since they are happening to guys that weren't even expected to get heavy minutes (kelly, and henry). They aren't the type of guys that are going to make any sort of difference to our record. We just lack talent, plain and simple.

This. Kelly and Henry are DNPs on other teams, if they make the bench at all.

You've had what I would consider to be three notable injuries - Nash, Randle and Young. Nash, even without the latest setback, is 40 years old and would have still been restricted by the prior damage to his back. Randle is a rookie and, as DEEPC3L noted, almost no rookies are doing anything notable thus far - Randle would have to have been the exception to the rule, which I don't think is fair to just assume. Young is a career below-average player, having reached league average PER just once in his entire career, but I do accept that he offers the Lakers' current squad something.

On the whole, I think the Lakers squad - even at full strength - is a bottom three squad in the West. Thus, I think the Lakers are likely to finish about where they should - bottom three in the West, probably 13th - ahead of Utah and Minnesota. Given how poor Denver have been this year, the few wins the injured players might have added could have leapfrogged the Lakers above Denver, but not much further. I'm really not sure how some of you guys are saying that playoffs were ever a possibility, I mean who in the top eight currently has a worse squad than the Lakers? That's without even considering the late surge the Thunder are likely to make.

It's unfortunate that the East sucks so hard, because it'd be cool to see what you guys did with a high lottery pick.

[baki]

Spoiler:

A lot of this is refutable. Let me start with Scott.....

It's so easy for guys to always say Byron's a bad coach, so since we're going to use the term let's go further into detail of what exemplifies "bad coach". You say the reason is because he hasn't conceived an offensive concept.

I say to those who actually believe that....watch tape over and over. I can tell you exactly the offense Scott is running, and it's not the Princeton like many thought he would install. The Lakers are running a flex offense, one that is suppose to function off ball movement and operating from the elbows and short corners.

The problem is this offense is too simple but it's a fail safe offense to help contain Lin's penchant for turnovers and careless ball handling. The other part is that it's too simple for Kobe and it's the reason we see him hijacking the ball on any set that is called.

Early in the preseason I saw Scott using elements of the Triangle and Princeton, but once he saw Lin's inability to function as an at least average lead guard he scraped it. The Flex is the easiest thing to install on the fly and doesn't take super intelligent players to run it.

But for guys to say Scott is bad it's a blatant and kinda idiotic thing to say. Has anyone here ever coached any level of ball ? It's easy to "arm chair" coach....because you feel you have all the answers and are never wrong.

The Players....

It's 3 positions that always make a team go, and it the one's that make up the base root of a championship team. That's lead guard, center and the 2/3 spot. We lack in all 3 weather some here want to face it or not. LAKERLAW pointed out that Kobe was a "bad leader"....well maybe at this point of his career he is.

But as he also point out the roster is bad, but from a standpoint of it doesn't mesh. Nobody's games fit the other. Like when we was competing from 08-11, the guys games meshed. LO's went with Pau's, Pau's went with Bynum's, Bynum's went with Kobe....LO with Kobe, Kobe with Pau, and guys like D-Fish, Farmar, Sasha, Trevor even Shannon Brown's blended with our core play makers.

This roster, nobody fits all the way around like our competing teams did and this is the reason for the inconsistent play on both sides of the ball. IQ is paramount and again our competing teams had it, this one is full of low IQ guys which again leads to breakdowns and inconsistency.

I've came to the conclusion on that after 10 games because it was evident to see by that time. Now as far as moving forward and developing guys. Only 3 guys are worth investing long term time in, that's Julius, J.Clarkson and Ed. Guys need to let the fascination with Kelly go, the guys body is failing him on even the simplest of injury. He's out 6 weeks now which is far longer than you should even be out with a hamstring situation.

LAKERLAW also pointed out flipping Hill for a 1st rounder ?......Yo man I don't care how inflated his numbers are no team is giving up a first for him unless they're completely ignorant. Now Hill can be flipped for a developing piece and a 2nd that a team has no need for but maybe we do. That's more in the realm of reality than waiting for a teams GM to freeze up and go "tard" all of a sudden.

In closing thinking back to the beginning of the year at camp, I too shared the thought of this team was much better than what we had last year. And in terms of looking at it on paper it made very much sense to think so. I was always worried about our front court because the 5 spot was weak no matter if guys thought Hill could do the job or not. Also the optimism was valid because we thought we'd be running an offense that was more ball control such as the Princeton when run correctly. Secondly anyone with a high ball IQ thought our attack would be two prong....inside out and not reliant on 3's such as with MDA's system.

But you can't fault guys for thinking that, with Julius in the fold we thought his minutes would increase as the season went on. No one had the thought of that getting flushed on opening night. And Julius was one that was going to help.

Going forward it's going to hard as hell to land in the top 5, just as I preached last season it would be hard as hell to hope we was finishing top 4 like many thought could happen. Look back at the draft it's only two players actually playing meaningful minutes anyway....Wiggins and Parker. This draft is full of bigs and wingers, but after the top 3 the rest of the draft is dead water. But the fact is we'll win some games and if it comes to the point of the season where we need to hang in a certain spot then we'll see if the FO has the guts to tell Scott to sit Kobe, cause that's the only way we lock in that top 5.

Funny thing is people keep hollering "top 5...top 5....top 5", this draft is really only a top 3 as far as players that will have an impact on Day 1. That's Okafor, Towns and Stanley Johnson. Hopefully I'm wrong and it fills out as the NCAA season goes on. But I'm good as far as the Lakers rebuild, it's just frustrating as hell to see them lose games but you're sitting there and seeing where the game could've been won or lost. Frustrating man....

So in other words, Lin's the problem.

OK got it.

Stop derailing. If you cannot discuss anything beyond blame game, DO NOT post on the Lakers forum, this is your final warning. Anything beyond this will result in a suspension and board ban.

Warning Issued
Slava

[Laker_Kid]

the Lakers dont deserve this mediocrity. we really dont. its a shame for Kobe's career to end with a team like this.

Sent from my LG-D802 using RealGM Forums mobile app

[Danny Darko]

Best way to improve right now is to hopefully build-up Lin, Hill and even Young to get younger players or picks. At the same time, we should continue to develop Clarkson and Davis, who we can hopefully keep after this year. After that, just pray that cheating-ass commissioner smiles on us and give us a top 3 pick like they always do with the Cavs.

Fixed in light of Cleveland and "For basketball reasons"

[Kilroy]

A lot of this is refutable. Let me start with Scott.....

It's so easy for guys to always say Byron's a bad coach, so since we're going to use the term let's go further into detail of what exemplifies "bad coach". You say the reason is because he hasn't conceived an offensive concept.

I say to those who actually believe that....watch tape over and over. I can tell you exactly the offense Scott is running, and it's not the Princeton like many thought he would install. The Lakers are running a flex offense, one that is suppose to function off ball movement and operating from the elbows and short corners.

The problem is this offense is too simple but it's a fail safe offense to help contain Lin's penchant for turnovers and careless ball handling. The other part is that it's too simple for Kobe and it's the reason we see him hijacking the ball on any set that is called.

Early in the preseason I saw Scott using elements of the Triangle and Princeton, but once he saw Lin's inability to function as an at least average lead guard he scraped it. The Flex is the easiest thing to install on the fly and doesn't take super intelligent players to run it.

But for guys to say Scott is bad it's a blatant and kinda idiotic thing to say. Has anyone here ever coached any level of ball ? It's easy to "arm chair" coach....because you feel you have all the answers and are never wrong.

The Players....

It's 3 positions that always make a team go, and it the one's that make up the base root of a championship team. That's lead guard, center and the 2/3 spot. We lack in all 3 weather some here want to face it or not. LAKERLAW pointed out that Kobe was a "bad leader"....well maybe at this point of his career he is.

But as he also point out the roster is bad, but from a standpoint of it doesn't mesh. Nobody's games fit the other. Like when we was competing from 08-11, the guys games meshed. LO's went with Pau's, Pau's went with Bynum's, Bynum's went with Kobe....LO with Kobe, Kobe with Pau, and guys like D-Fish, Farmar, Sasha, Trevor even Shannon Brown's blended with our core play makers.

This roster, nobody fits all the way around like our competing teams did and this is the reason for the inconsistent play on both sides of the ball. IQ is paramount and again our competing teams had it, this one is full of low IQ guys which again leads to breakdowns and inconsistency.

I've came to the conclusion on that after 10 games because it was evident to see by that time. Now as far as moving forward and developing guys. Only 3 guys are worth investing long term time in, that's Julius, J.Clarkson and Ed. Guys need to let the fascination with Kelly go, the guys body is failing him on even the simplest of injury. He's out 6 weeks now which is far longer than you should even be out with a hamstring situation.

LAKERLAW also pointed out flipping Hill for a 1st rounder ?......Yo man I don't care how inflated his numbers are no team is giving up a first for him unless they're completely ignorant. Now Hill can be flipped for a developing piece and a 2nd that a team has no need for but maybe we do. That's more in the realm of reality than waiting for a teams GM to freeze up and go "tard" all of a sudden.

In closing thinking back to the beginning of the year at camp, I too shared the thought of this team was much better than what we had last year. And in terms of looking at it on paper it made very much sense to think so. I was always worried about our front court because the 5 spot was weak no matter if guys thought Hill could do the job or not. Also the optimism was valid because we thought we'd be running an offense that was more ball control such as the Princeton when run correctly. Secondly anyone with a high ball IQ thought our attack would be two prong....inside out and not reliant on 3's such as with MDA's system.

But you can't fault guys for thinking that, with Julius in the fold we thought his minutes would increase as the season went on. No one had the thought of that getting flushed on opening night. And Julius was one that was going to help.

Going forward it's going to hard as hell to land in the top 5, just as I preached last season it would be hard as hell to hope we was finishing top 4 like many thought could happen. Look back at the draft it's only two players actually playing meaningful minutes anyway....Wiggins and Parker. This draft is full of bigs and wingers, but after the top 3 the rest of the draft is dead water. But the fact is we'll win some games and if it comes to the point of the season where we need to hang in a certain spot then we'll see if the FO has the guts to tell Scott to sit Kobe, cause that's the only way we lock in that top 5.

Funny thing is people keep hollering "top 5...top 5....top 5", this draft is really only a top 3 as far as players that will have an impact on Day 1. That's Okafor, Towns and Stanley Johnson. Hopefully I'm wrong and it fills out as the NCAA season goes on. But I'm good as far as the Lakers rebuild, it's just frustrating as hell to see them lose games but you're sitting there and seeing where the game could've been won or lost. Frustrating man....

So in other words, Lin's the problem.

OK got it.

At some point you guys have got to face the fact that Lin is the starting PG on a team that is losing badly... He's at LEAST a big part of the problem...

You can't point fingers at Kobe in Scott without also pointing fingers at Lin.

[DEEP3CL]

ROFL @ baki........him quoting me is comical at best. Lin gets no pass just like Kobe or Scott doesn't seem to be getting one. Like Kilroy said, guys or his legion of fans have to realize he's the starting point on this team and it's losing games in part because of his inconsistent play.

If you're going to quote me, man up and come with facts on why I would be wrong. It's funny because out of all that I posted all baki could come up with is that I'm blaming this squarely on Lin ? WFT....did he not read and comprehend any of the post at all ?

Hell I don't think I was all that off when 8 guys And 1 the post. I mentioned Lin in one paragraph on his inability to run an offense. You know what baki.........DEAL WITH IT man, he's not all that good but just to help you feel better we had problems waaayyyyyyy before Lin got here.

Let me sort this out for you clearly baki.....

We haven't drafted well in like the last 7 years or more until this past draft....

We've made questionable agreements with trades that pretty much depleted our chances to use our number 1's.....

We haven't even developed anyone since Bynum....

And you think us long time fans here don't know what our problems are ? Stop building up this passive-aggressive defense mantra with Lin. Most of us here are fully aware of it and quite frankly I wouldn't be surprised if most just looked at Lin and say to themselves,....." oh well we're just stuck with him for this year only".

[ChokeFasncists]

For me there're only two possibilities: Scott is an all time bad coach, or he's got orders to tank. Why else would he not try to fix the all time bad D? This team scores fine, doesn't need another scorer in the starting lineup.

[Vae Victus]

Trying to be unbiased about Lin (ah who am i kidding, I'm a huge Lin fan). If Scott (who i think is a bottom 5 coach in the L) did try to truly implement the Princeton and scrapped it due to Lin's sub par early play. I feel that a big reason why Lin was so ineffective is due to the piss poor passing, player movement, and idiocy of the roster in general.

We see Lin make the elbow pass and then head off to the corner to create spacing and cut at opportune moments, THAT is the Priceton's initiator. The problem is either eventually Kobe hijacks it does his own thing, or our big at the elbow looks like a moron since they can't shoot with a hand in their face, have **** dribble drive ability, and lack awareness/IQ to find cutters. The big at the elbow MUST have triple threat capability or else its pretty much pointless to initiate from there. If we had a CWebb or BGriffin then sure it'll work like a charm since those guys are awesome triple threats from the elbow who can shoot, score, or find the open man when defenses send help or dominate 1v1.

Thusly Lin in the corner does jack ****, since our bigs at the elbow get bogged down not making the right pass or having to pass to Kobe for him to iso beat the clock. At least when Kobe gets it at the elbow on the initial pass he IS a credible triple threat thus opening up the defense a bit and given enough time to explore options (which sadly he just decides to chunk a good chunk of the time). Sadly our bigs in general are pretty damn one dimensional in that they can only shoot open jumpshots with only Davis who can provide credible deep post threat. Therefore Scott plugs em at the elbow and hopes for the best (IE Kobe and Lin draw enough attention that the bigs get their favorite mid range shots).

So to Deep for you to say due to Lin's suckitude we had to change over to a simpler flex offense to let him get going, I feel thats a total disservice to him as the Princeton is simply a (Please Use More Appropriate Word) offense to run with the roster we have currently. If we had Gasol (instead of Boozer and maybe Hill depending if we want to give him a Nick Young type contract) and kept the rest of the roster similar, we'd be a helluva lot better off since Gasol is an excellent passer and he'll likely operate from mid post instead of the elbow. Thus giving us at least 2 elements of the triple threat (passing, close in shooting/post offense, just no dribble penetration) instead of the flaming hot zero we have from the elbow from Booze, Hill, Sacre, and Davis. Honestly i think they really had high hopes of Randle filling that elbow spot and being that triple threat we needed, whether he succeeded there or not would be the question, but goddamn it's likely better than the **** we're seeing now.

So we had to adapt a bit to our personal and let Lin free lance a bit and give him some screens up top to free him up. His play has picked up a bit, sadly still inconsistent as hell, but at least the offense has some semblance of threat now when Lin gets to attack, unlike the stagnant crap we had before. Does the boy need to clean up his handle and make less stupid passes, absolutely, but with no Nash and Price as backup, all we can do is try to pump up Lin's confidence and try to get him to improve on his flaws.

Honestly our offense should be two simple things. Princeton O with Kobe as the initiator at the elbow, but everyone needs to **** cut hard and find openings so Kobe doesn't just say **** and chuck. Lin gets a HARD double screen up top with one of our jump shooting bigs and the SG (be it Kobe or Young). Let the defense play a guessing game, is Lin gonna go all the way? Who's popping the big or wing? Who's rolling the big or wing? The 3 just find a place to spot up at the 3pt line and be primary option just in case the defense collapses inside HARD, our other big gets to spot up at the baseline or pins his man in deep post waiting for a dump off/O board. Mix and match pieces as necessary, have Kobe or Young be the ball handler in these situations as well, give the D a bunch of different looks. Since we have no true post players we need to just go super basic fast pace attack. With luck we can build up some trade values by playing at high pace and hopefully get some stuff back. And yes i hope we resign Lin at the end of the season to a reasonable contract and not trade him off.

In all honesty the only reason im watching games this year is because of Lin. Last year i stopped bother after Kobe got hurt and we started losing bad. This year, with no Lin and even Kobe healthy and chucking like he is, i just wouldn't bother as its just ugly.

Edit: A coupla posts got added while i was typing up mine. Hey Deep just so you know, the tone of your post does actually seem like you were giving Lin an extra helping of blame. Pointing out his flaws in handling and decision making thus scrapping the Princeton for the flex, could (just running a hypothetical not saying you were in case that wasnt your intent) be an accusation of mainly Lin screwing up the whole team. That's whats making posters like me and Baki jump in to chime at how unfair that seems (him making a short pithy comment, me trying to actually analyze why things went wrong) if that were the case.

Lin also simply needs to man up, last game is another example of wtf. Had an awesome 1st quarter, good 1st half, and then **** disappeared in the 2nd half. I wished he was more selfish since he's actually a very capable shot maker.

And please, as im sure some people might be questioning my laker fanhood. I was around for amazing years we had Tierrible Brown and Chunks Atkins (personally i liked Mihm quite a bit despite the fandom's at the time pretty big hate boner on him), at least we had a prime Kobe to keep us entertained during those dark years.

[LAKERLAW]

@ Deep's point(s):

Deep: "The Lakers are running a flex offense, one that is suppose to function off ball movement and operating from the elbows and short corners."

The Lakers are wishing they ran a true flex offense, which is a very brain-dead, high-schoolish scheme to begin with. To compound problems our version of the "Flex" is Boozer at the elbow corner while guys aimlessly rotate without any purpose. Once enough time is waisted (and assuming Boozer hasn't tuned the ball over or bricked a jumper) Kobe will position himself at a high-post area and the flex turns into the KOBE.

The reason why this problem exists: THE KOBE OFFENSE is bc of Scott. Byron goes through great lengths to defend, promote and assure everyone that Kobe's offensive shenanigans are essential. In fact, during one game he walked over to Kobe and told them to "Jack'em up" - he was mic'ed. The tone from Scott is unequivocal: 'This is Kobe's world, we're just living in it" - when a coach has that mindset, he's failed.

Such evidence can also be corroborated by the ludicrous minutes this boneheaded coach is playing Kobe. He has every reason to sit KB but he doesn't: age, miles, fatigue, defensive lapses, offensive highjacking - but Scott defends Kobe..over and over and over again. If you don't see this is a problem, then YOU have a problem.

"Lin is the problem" - Sure Lin isn't a top tier PG, but we aren't helping the guy succeed...at all. You're never going to get Linsanity out of Lin again, but at the very least you have to scheme for him. You have to create a system which is predicated on spacing so you're PG can have room to operate. I cannot count the immense amount of times two players ran to set a single screen for him, or when 4 players were on the strong side of the court. Lin is a player who needs space, he operates best in open space. It's not a coincidence that Lin had his best run under MDA and praised MDA as an offensive genius - SPACING is not a difficult concept, or some magical voodoo that is mystical beyond comprehension - no, on the contrary: spacing is elementary, its basic, yet its something we don't have. We can't even run a simple pick and roll most of the time.

Eeryone including Stevie Wonder, can see Kobe destroys any chance of Lin showcasing his talents. Kobe takes the little space Lin creates and clogs any daylight so Lin is forced to pass Kobe the ball, usually in a high-post area. Everyone sees this but Scott - and he plays Lin & Kobe together. Recently Byron decided to join the two at the hip - they now rest at the same time. Let Lin get some run without Kobe, let him run an open floor offense with space with Scott's boy-band crush.

Players: The players are what they are and the numbers speak for themselves. The Lakers are historically bad on defense, its pathetic to watch. They don't have any creativity on offense...I thought they would finish last in the West before the season, I thought Byron was the worst coach they could have hired and my thinking hasn't changed. Sure The lakers need to finish in the bottom 2 to be assured a top 5 pick, but thats not the way one should look at it. The lower your record the higher the chance you have of finishing closer to the #1 overall pick; and the Lakers have ZERO shot at making the playoffs....Z E R O...so why not root and hope for increasing your probability of getting a top pick.?

I guess you can root for wins, thats another way to go about it - essentially the few wins they'll get will all be pointless if they don't get a 5 lotto pick....

[Vae Victus]

Hmm i'm watching some videos of the princeton and flex offenses. I'm actually not quite sure what we're running anymore. I thought the whole high post action was the princeton, but it seems like it's the flex offense initiator, but then the subsequent cuts and movements are different now that i'm rewatching some Lakers vids of this year.

I'm kinda confused now at what we're supposed to be running.

Oh well, regardless our offense is also an incoherant mess and Lakerlaw's views are pretty similar to my own. Although i personally feel that Kobe can co-exist with Lin (Kobe actually sets screens for Lin!), even though ideally when one sits the other should be playing since they're our two best creators on the team.

[ChokeFasncists]

Lin was playing great in the first half last game. Then he kinda remembered, oh, I need to get Kobe the ball! Then he didn't do much afterwards.

I thought besides Okafor, Towns and Stanley Johnson, there's Mudiay?

[Slava]

There's about 5 centers in next year's draft that would all improve the Lakers down the road. If we can snag a first round pick for anyone but Randle, we should do it at all costs.