I'm still a big Rivers fan after his stint with us. Dude took much less to stay with us and was a baller for us the playoffs before this year
24/7 small ball is garbage...only the Rockets would do something so extreme not even GS with their death lineup that would kill everybody would run it all game...it’s too taxing, especially over 82 games and the playoffs before the Covid shutdown, the team was already looking dead, and that was only about 14 games into this experiment a big should be our #1 priority this summer...we need to stop this nonsense don’t get some 6’8 dude who’s really a SF or PF, and think he can be our starting C...get somebody in here 6’10 or above that can really make his presence felt in the paint
we should learn from all these other teams who have really dominated the lakers in these playoffs with their non-small ball approaches.
Austin Rivers **** the bed during the Bubble but he has a point. Even an idiot would tell you playing small ball 24/7 is not susceptible
Yup... that’s how we kept getting killed at the end of every season. Nothing in the tank. Then you put a very physical Lebron, Ad, Howard, McGee to bang on all our small guys.... they straight got leaned on the entire series.
He is... some innovations may not work. He broke the league with no midrange. He may have overextended himself with the 24/7 small ball. I hated it when we lost Capela. He was a big who ran like a small. We had no pnr/no lob threat bailout for James. LA just camped.
It seems clear the roster this year was not championship-caliber, and definitely not championship-caliber with a Westbrook coming off injury and covid and no House. But it's just bizarre to me when people act like the Rockets intentionally wanted the smallest players possible. Whether Morey made specific mistakes in compromising height for other skills when it comes to particular players and overall roster construction is definitely another discussion, but one that needs specifics and nuance.
People would rather happily lose with a traditional lineup than lose making an effort. Westbrook can't play with another non shooter, we tried to do something so that he could function at his best, it didn't work. People are stupid acting as though Morey did this because he thinks it's the best way in general to win. The team was toast the second we made the Westbrook trade.
don't shoot the messenger of facts, just fwiw: After Lakers lost Game 1, in Game 2, 3 and 4 Howard and McGee played a combined 14 minutes, with Howard playing zero minutes. Same with Game 5, zero minutes for both, until garbage time when LAL cleared the bench.
This team was really toast the second they gave Paul 40+ million a year. That one decision set everything into motion.
Small ball only works when you have multiple players that can dribble, pass, shoot, and defend. The Rockets only have one player on the entire roster that can do all 4 things...Harden. It would have worked fine with a better roster. Most players on our roster can only do one or 2 of those things.
