Stranger Things in Laker land

[lazybatman]

For me the main problem is not team composition but Team Approach. Like you said, Harrell's abilities is not being fully utilized.
I like Seth Curry, I was bitter with Kawhi bec they could have swooped in and and got this guy instead of waiting on Leonard but hell, the Lakers have TWO of the most accurate 3pt shooters IN THE LEAGUE and they are combining for 3 attempts per game. Someone from the GB said that the Lakers made a fatal mistake of selecting Matthews instead of Ellington, my thoughts were, you are freaking crazy if you think Wayne would get into a nice shooting rhythm and get his usual 6 3pt attempts/game with the Lakers.
When I heard they are getting Tresz and Dennis, My first reaction was GREAT. Lebron was whining about the ultra short off season, now he has TWO very PROLIFIC SCORERS who can provide points while him and AD coast for the first 30 games.
AD made it clear he didn't want to bang bodies inside and face huge centers, Vogel said fine, I want you to take MORE 3's, What does AD do? he is taking LESS 3's and instead he takes a ton of 16 footers making him decrease his TS% from 61% to 57.5%.
The 36 yr old Lebron worked very hard in the playoffs, had a very short offseason and after getting 2 prolific new teammates is now taking 27 FG attempts, his HIGHEST the last ELEVEN YEARS. I used to whined when Kobe take so many shots but the excuse was his teammates are not accurate shooters. Well. 4 of this teammates are hitting above 36% from 3, INCLUDING Kuzma and Wes, while Harrell is hitting 65.3 TS% and AD still decent at 57.5%.
I know the counter argument is, well the Lakers have improved their ORTG, from placing 11th and now they are at 8th. But their ORTG has only improved by .6 pts, now currently by 112.6 and most of is bec of IMPROVED 3PT SHOOTING of 38.4% as compared to UNDER 35% last season. and OH btw their team assists are down too....
If Lebron maintains his high quality of play all the way and this team will it all, then yes, I am all for it but quite frankly, I am worried esp hearing that his NAGGING ANKLE SPRAIN is still BOTHERING him.
0 games missed, taking more shots, he is 36 years old and 50 games to go, Pops is a believer of load management, so do I, along with other people. It's cummulative, the wear and tear on everyone's body is real, some can manage better and you can't beat father time..eventually. That's when Ben Simmons comes in...

Yeah.. We don't create enough 3s. That was my gripe WITH vogel last year as well. Used to be different with a younger Lebron, when he used to look up and just drive and kick all the time. Old man's smarter but he ain't got the same motor anymore. Vogel's gotta design plays to spread the ball around to the flurry of great shooters we have. KCP got just 2 shots yesterday.. That's just not good enough for our best shooter. All of these guys - KCP, Caruso, Kuz, THT, Wes, Morris, etc should be getting 3-5 shots per game.

I'm not worried about AD/Bron's commitment levels right now. I trust them to turn it up when the time comes. Bron's FGA is 18.7 mate, which is the least in the last 4 years, but it is still hight for the 20% reduction in minutes for him. He's just taking a lot more catch and shoot 3 now I think. No biggie..

Not getting the best out of Trez on offense, and not getting Wes fully integrated, as he could be huge when we're going up against the top small forward superstars - KD, Kawhi, PG13, Butler, Giannis, etc in the playoffs. If we can't even give them minutes, let alone calling plays to help them, then we might as well part ways, no?

[tamaraw08]

For me the main problem is not team composition but Team Approach. Like you said, Harrell's abilities is not being fully utilized.
I like Seth Curry, I was bitter with Kawhi bec they could have swooped in and and got this guy instead of waiting on Leonard but hell, the Lakers have TWO of the most accurate 3pt shooters IN THE LEAGUE and they are combining for 3 attempts per game. Someone from the GB said that the Lakers made a fatal mistake of selecting Matthews instead of Ellington, my thoughts were, you are freaking crazy if you think Wayne would get into a nice shooting rhythm and get his usual 6 3pt attempts/game with the Lakers.
When I heard they are getting Tresz and Dennis, My first reaction was GREAT. Lebron was whining about the ultra short off season, now he has TWO very PROLIFIC SCORERS who can provide points while him and AD coast for the first 30 games.
AD made it clear he didn't want to bang bodies inside and face huge centers, Vogel said fine, I want you to take MORE 3's, What does AD do? he is taking LESS 3's and instead he takes a ton of 16 footers making him decrease his TS% from 61% to 57.5%.
The 36 yr old Lebron worked very hard in the playoffs, had a very short offseason and after getting 2 prolific new teammates is now taking 27 FG attempts, his HIGHEST the last ELEVEN YEARS. I used to whined when Kobe take so many shots but the excuse was his teammates are not accurate shooters. Well. 4 of this teammates are hitting above 36% from 3, INCLUDING Kuzma and Wes, while Harrell is hitting 65.3 TS% and AD still decent at 57.5%.
I know the counter argument is, well the Lakers have improved their ORTG, from placing 11th and now they are at 8th. But their ORTG has only improved by .6 pts, now currently by 112.6 and most of is bec of IMPROVED 3PT SHOOTING of 38.4% as compared to UNDER 35% last season. and OH btw their team assists are down too....
If Lebron maintains his high quality of play all the way and this team will it all, then yes, I am all for it but quite frankly, I am worried esp hearing that his NAGGING ANKLE SPRAIN is still BOTHERING him.
0 games missed, taking more shots, he is 36 years old and 50 games to go, Pops is a believer of load management, so do I, along with other people. It's cummulative, the wear and tear on everyone's body is real, some can manage better and you can't beat father time..eventually. That's when Ben Simmons comes in...

Yeah.. We don't create enough 3s. That was my gripe WITH vogel last year as well. Used to be different with a younger Lebron, when he used to look up and just drive and kick all the time. Old man's smarter but he ain't got the same motor anymore. Vogel's gotta design plays to spread the ball around to the flurry of great shooters we have. KCP got just 2 shots yesterday.. That's just not good enough for our best shooter. All of these guys - KCP, Caruso, Kuz, THT, Wes, Morris, etc should be getting 3-5 shots per game.

I'm not worried about AD/Bron's commitment levels right now. I trust them to turn it up when the time comes. Bron's FGA is 18.7 mate, which is the least in the last 4 years, but it is still hight for the 20% reduction in minutes for him. He's just taking a lot more catch and shoot 3 now I think. No biggie..

Not getting the best out of Trez on offense, and not getting Wes fully integrated, as he could be huge when we're going up against the top small forward superstars - KD, Kawhi, PG13, Butler, Giannis, etc in the playoffs. If we can't even give them minutes, let alone calling plays to help them, then we might as well part ways, no?

I wanted Ty Lue when they were looking for a head coach bec he seems to have figured it out in Cleveland, in terms of offensive schemes esp esp after they still ranked 5th in ORTG AFTER Kyrie got traded to Boston but he's not a great defensive coach, so we don't know what might have happened last playoffs bec surely, this team wouldn't be as good on defense under him.
It's not just creating 3pt shooting opportunities, but getting high % baskets off simple sets. Schroder gave a simple down screen for AD which lead to an easy layup late vs the Sixers but I VERY RARELY see those. The Boston game the whole 2nd half, I didn't see a lot of schemes which lead to easy baskets. AD and Lebron took most of their shots from beyond 16 feet, esp AD.
I don't care if it's triple post offense or Flex offense or down screens or a UCLA cut etc, this team has huge bodies like Marc and Harrell to provide solid picks, Kuzma used to dive and cut for layups, Last year, Danny Green and Caruso would also give screens down low....

[lazybatman]

I wanted Ty Lue when they were looking for a head coach bec he seems to have figured it out in Cleveland, in terms of offensive schemes esp esp after they still ranked 5th in ORTG AFTER Kyrie got traded to Boston but he's not a great defensive coach, so we don't know what might have happened last playoffs bec surely, this team wouldn't be as good on defense under him.
It's not just creating 3pt shooting opportunities, but getting high % baskets off simple sets. Schroder gave a simple down screen for AD which lead to an easy layup late vs the Sixers but I VERY RARELY see those. The Boston game the whole 2nd half, I didn't see a lot of schemes which lead to easy baskets. AD and Lebron took most of their shots from beyond 16 feet, esp AD.
I don't care if it's triple post offense or Flex offense or down screens or a UCLA cut etc, this team has huge bodies like Marc and Harrell to provide solid picks, Kuzma used to dive and cut for layups, Last year, Danny Green and Caruso would also give screens down low....

Yeah.. Ty was no better. Same conversations used to go on in Cavs forums then. Lebron's was a few years younger, faster and jumped a bit higher. And he could do that to any offense. Not consistently the case anymore.

I thought that Cavs side had better pure shooting in Korver and Channing Frye, but for what it's worth, this team is a whole lot better than that Cavs team.. Even the 2016-17 Cavs with Kyrie. The difference on defense is light years, cos the Cavs were playing Kyrie, Love, Frye, Korver big minutes, and Lebron didn't play a lick of defense for those 4 years in the regular season. The best defenders on that team were JR & Tristan Thompson, which tells you all you need to know.

[Ball so hard]

Schröder has been struggling with his shot. I always thought his shooting from last season was somewhat of an anomaly. However, his defense has been exceptional. I had no idea he was this good on defense.

[tamaraw08]

Schröder has been struggling with his shot. I always thought his shooting from last season was somewhat of an anomaly. However, his defense has been exceptional. I had no idea he was this good on defense.

Yeah, I had concerns with his 3pt shooting last season too, also with Marc Gasol and not both are struggling from there. But I agree, his defense and hustle have been really good, someone posted a couple of months ago that he's a bad defender, now I think he's a sour OKC fan.
He is no Rajon Rondo in terms for court vision and passing accuracy but he's a willing passer, also takes 28% of his shots from 0-3 feet so he's attacking the basket unlike some PGs. For comparison Lonzo Ball is taking just 15% of his shots from under 3 feet while takes 60% from beyond 24 feet.

[lazybatman]

Schröder has been struggling with his shot. I always thought his shooting from last season was somewhat of an anomaly. However, his defense has been exceptional. I had no idea he was this good on defense.

Yeah, I had concerns with his 3pt shooting last season too, also with Marc Gasol and not both are struggling from there. But I agree, his defense and hustle have been really good, someone posted a couple of months ago that he's a bad defender, now I think he's a sour OKC fan.
He is no Rajon Rondo in terms for court vision and passing accuracy but he's a willing passer, also takes 28% of his shots from 0-3 feet so he's attacking the basket unlike some PGs. For comparison Lonzo Ball is taking just 15% of his shots from under 3 feet while takes 60% from beyond 24 feet.

Random fact -

Dennis Schröder’s defense this season:

Stephen Curry: 0-9 FG, 1 TO
John Wall: 0-5 FG, 7 TO’s
Luka Doncic: 0-4 FG, 1 TO
DeMar DeRozan: 1-5 FG
D’Angelo Russell: 1-3 FG, 5 TO’s
Trae Young: 1-4 FG, 2 TO’s
Jamal Murray: 1-3 FG, 3 TO’s
James Harden: 1-3 FG, 1 TO's

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