you do realize they ran the triangle right? Every player that has started out in that system as a non feature player as struggled in it. Every single one of them. And Malone and Payton were on their last legs and Malone was in no condition to play in the Finals but he did anyways. His foot injuries were so bad he retired, not some diddly ankle injury or knee tightness. He was basically a 6 foot 9 stiff running around in the Finals
Nash's defensive deficiencies are really exaggerated. He's not a great defender, but he's just as good as Fisher/Sessions/Blake/whatever. PG defense isn't that important because the rules have made it that any quick or competent ballhandlers can get wherever they want anyway. The most important defense is interior defense, and the Lakers (allegedly) just landed the best interior defender in the league, and it's not even debatable. The Lakers never had great perimeter defense either in the threepeat or after, but they were able to be a very good defensive team by funneling to the interior where Shaq or BYnum was waiting, and I assume they'll continue that strategy here. So that's not the issue. The problem really comes down to an identity. Kobe wants to be the guy, and that was the crux of the whole Kobe/Shaq thing. At the same time, Kobe is probably the worst option besides Artest in the starting lineup now. The Lakers are like a mini Olympic team now and we see how bad Kobe is in the Olympics when he doesn't get to dominate the ball-- he basically shoots it whenever he touches it and never gets in rhythm. This is what happened in that debacle in 2004 where the Lakers should have easily beaten the Pistons, but Kobe just had to be the Finals MVP and didn't defer. Now he's much slower and less of a threat than he was then, but his attitude hasn't changed. He also has a much less motivating coach now. So those are the big question marks as far as I'm concerned.
The Lakers are going to run the Princeton offense this year, which is basically the same thing as the triangle. This is not ideal for a player like Nash, but it's what Kobe is familiar with. Malone and Payton were coming off seasons very similar to what Nash and Gasol did last year. The projections going into the season was that this was a "superteam" that would steamroll the league; that didn't exactly happen but they did get to the Finals and should have won. The competition is better now.
They're not gonna run the princeton EVERY single time down the floor you do realize that right? THe team has speed and mobility now with Kobe, Nash and Howard they're gonna run a little bit. When Bynum was round they had a system and they ran the triangle, when the game got close they ran the triangle, it was like 60% of the plays but not every time down the floor. THe team is more mobile now, they're gonna up the tempo. THey were dead last in Fastbreak points, its gonna go up now And lol at you expecting old ass Malone and Payton to keep up the production as ROLE players in a NEW system. Very unrealistic. Typical though. You mad?
^ Bro, you brought up a whopping playoff 5 games since 2009. It's like bringing up 5 bad shooting games of MJ's Finals career. It happens. So what?
Um its the freaking playoffs, every game counts. Its not like some 82 NBA gm season and he chooses 1 or 2 games, every game in every series is important, theres plenty of evidence to show he's backed off the pedal when his guys have got it going and he has strictly focused on D
What remains to be seen is if Nash is a gimmick PG who needs to be in a running offense to thrive, or if he can adjust to a structured offense. At the very worst, he's a still a very good PG and one of the best shooters in the league, but he may not be the best fit for a team when he doesn't control the ball 90% of the time. This is basically what happened when Payton went to the Lakers in '04. He was coming off a very solid season where he averaged 20/8 but was lost in the structured half-court triangle. Now maybe Brown will adjust and play more uptempo with Howard & Nash, but honestly, I don't think the Lakers have the horses to really work that (for one thing, Nash isn't capable of playing at that intensity for long periods of time anymore, and Kobe and Gasol aren't exactly spring chickens). Where the Lakers could really thrive is in the pick/roll with Gasol/Howard and Nash, and that can be done in the half-court set. Now defenses will adjust by packing the paint, so it'll be contingent on the Lakers picking up some shooters. Howard has always relied on having three point shooters spotting up around him, and right now the Lakers only have one guy who can shoot in Nash. Kobe is just garbage these days. Am I mad? No, I think this will make for some awesome rivalries. It's extremely annoying that the Lakers keep getting gift-wrapped superstars for lesser players, but any long time followers of the game know that they are the darling franchise of the NBA and that appeasing them is good for the league (since half of all NBA fans are casual Laker followers). Laker fans are really easy to spot because in general they are really ignorant about the game, not because they are stupider than other fans but because there are so many of them that the odds of one being just a casual fan is much higher than for other teams. You are a good example, since you weren't even aware what kind of offense the Lakers were going to run this year.
To add, the other reason this trade is so perfect is that Howard has become the biggest diva in NBA history so he went to the ideal franchise for that. I was bummed when Nash joined because he's such a good character guy and it would be hard to root against him, but now the Lakers have regained that natural hate-ability that makes them so worth watching. I assume that's what the league had in mind all along. Ideally, the Lakers get to the Finals, lose, and Howard bolts to Dallas the next year. It'll be like 2004 all over again.
I no longer hate LerBon, but I still hate Wade. Even so, I'm rooting for the Heat if Dwight really goes to LA. Fark Dwight.
Yeah, preseason and one game but I'm just curious if you still think this offense is going to work. Like I said, Nash & Howard thrive in a system that is based on having shooters (you can't run a successful pick & roll without shooters). The Lakers, as currently constructed, have very few shooters. I'm still not convinced they have a realistic counter to teams that zone them up or just double off Artest. I assume they'll improve as they get more familiar with each other, but the elephant in the room is that they have glaring personnel issues despite having four legitimate stars and the biggest payroll in the league.
The Heat have a massive head start in team chemistry: two years. Their core players are also much, much younger and much more athletic. I'd pick the heat 4-1 if it happens. But I don't think it will happen. Mike Brown is a bad joke.
Lakers bench is a tragedy. 2/3 of their starting lineup is logging heavy mileage. Either they take it easy in the regular season and start as a low seed in the playoffs to have fresh legs for then.... ...or they spend a lot of energy trying to get their chemistry together and a high seed for the playoffs but then they risk running on fumes during the playoffs. Unless they shore up their bench, I dont see them getting past a younger and fresher OKC. Yes, I realize that Harden is not there anymore, but apparently they didn't really need Harden against the Lakers during last year's playoffs. Maynor is coming back from injury (he was fantastic for them during the playoffs 2 years ago). Martin will provide outside shooting to complement Durant's and Westbrook's penetration. However, more importantly, I dont see anyone on the Lakers team stopping Westbrook and Durant. Heat are even better than they were last year.
Yeah, preseason and five games but I'm just curious if you still think this offense is going to work. Like I said, Nash & Howard thrive in a system that is based on having shooters (you can't run a successful pick & roll without shooters). The Lakers, as currently constructed, have very few shooters. I'm still not convinced they have a realistic counter to teams that zone them up or just double off Artest. I assume they'll improve as they get more familiar with each other, but the elephant in the room is that they have glaring personnel issues despite having four legitimate stars and the biggest payroll in the league.
Brown is being used as a scapegoat for the Lakers' problems, which I and others have illustrated above. The Lakers are not well-structured. Both Nash & Howard are players that depend on shooters to space the floor. Without shooters, teams are free to clog the paint, which eliminates the pick & roll. When the Laker offense ends with a 15-18 foot jumper by anyone on the floor, it is failing, especially when the guy ending up with that shot is Artest or Gasol. Furthermore, the Lakers have a glaring lack of athleticism. They are getting overwhelmed whenever more athletic teams (aka every team in the league) push the pace. This isn't exactly surprising since they have the oldest roster in the league. Casual fans like GreatOne1978 only see the big names and don't look at how the pieces fit together. Like I said earlier, this is similar to the 2004 team which had its own weaknesses-- however, it is actually worse because that team at least had two players (Kobe & Shaq) in their (relative) primes, wheras this one only has one and he's not even allowed to be "the man" because of an aging diva who demands the ball.
No, their problem is defense. Outside of the Jazz game, their offense has been fine and should be winning games. But their defense is ATROCIOUS. That primarily stems from the lack of the athleticism on the perimeter, and Dwight not fully recovered physically. Once Dwight is back 100% physically, he should erase a lot of the Lakers' defensive deficiencies. That's why I think the Lakers will be fine. They will score enough. But they need to shut down defensive team, which is why they brought Dwight here. And he isn't living up to that billing. The one game they played well defensively, they won handily. Offense usually requires chemistry and continuity. Defense is primarily effort and discipline. Lakers lack the latter 2 right now.
You can look at the stats and say the offense is fine, but that wouldn't be accurate. The shooting numbers look good because the Lakers are getting to the line a lot and the league doesn't factor in shooting fouls as shots (even though they take up possessions); hence the low #shots and respectable FG%. However, because their FT% is so atrocious due to Dwight, they are actually not efficient on these shooting fouls. In other words, they'd be better off getting more shots and sacrificing their FG% a bit. Furthermore, they are among the worst teams in the league in protecting the ball (also contributing to the low volume of shots) and that is leading to easy points for the other team-- bad offense showing up as bad defense. And they have the bad combination of no shooters and no athleticism, meaning that when they take a jumper it is often leading to an easy score on the other end as the other team gets into transition against guys who can't get back in time-- another example of bad offense showing up as bad defense. The one game they won was against what is probably the worst team in the NBA having massive chemistry issues at the moment.
Their offense will improve with team simply b/c they're so talented. Look at the Heat a few years ago. They didn't have the shooters then, and the team wasn't perfectly constructed around James/Wade, but they still went to the Finals. Why? They were dominant defensively. The Lakers don't have all the perfect pieces, but they have 4 elite offensive players. That's more than enough. They need to be DOMINANT defensively, and that's what they thought when they traded for Dwight. And right now, Dwight himself is playing like a mediocre defensive player. Guards are penetrating at will into the paint on the Lakers.
