I know it's just one game and does not a season make. But Mike Brown has one job that he has to accomplish fairly soon or he will get axed. He has to fully integrate Nash and Howard into the Laker offense and get the PnR run effectively and efficiently. I was shocked at the lack of offensive cohesion and lack of Nash playmaking in last night's season opener. The ball has to be put in Nash's hands and Mike Brown has got to let him run the PnR with the two bigs up top. If he doesn't do that, he's basically wasting the Nash signing and the Dwight trade. If they aren't going to run a substantial amount of PnR, then you turn Dwight into a halfcourt player (defense) because he is going to get doubled and hacked to death on post-ups, which because of his poor FT shooting, will water down the efficiency of the offense, and you basically turn Nash into a big nothing since he's not much of a defender. I'm going to cut Brown some slack. It is only the first game. But if he wants to keep his job, he'd better make Nash the primary playmaker on that team. If he doesn't, he'll get fired.
Seeing Dwight miss a few point blank little jump hooks and around 10 free throws must have made Browns stomach churn.
If y'all are into sports betting, I would recommend betting against the Lakers early on in the season. The discrepancy between their perceived level vs. reality will be at its highest now and eventually close up as they build chemistry. They were a 8.5 point favorite against the Mavs. I made like $300 last night.
Lakers have a serious case of 'identity' problem. Whose team is it?? They have four players who can be, or at one time were, the 'apha dog' on another team. Now they run together in a pack acting so polite to one another that no one wants to take over for fearing they might be 'stepping on each other's toe!' The best way to solve this dilema: break them up into two with timely subs! Start the five together to avoid damaging their egos, and then sub out Kobe and Pau. Let Nash runs PnR with D12 and then sub them out for Kobe and Pau, since they have chemistry already. This is a clear case of 'too much of something good can be bad for you.' Five apha dogs running around like five headless chickens! Until someone steps up to be 'the dog,' Lakers will struggle!
Didn't see the game last night. Like many, when I heard Eddie Jordan was hired to implement the Princeton offense with Steve Nash as PG, I laughed. That was a nutty move. I'm sure the thinking behind it was Brown needed an assistant to take control of the offense. They will definitely dump the Princeton offense soon. Nash MUST dominate the ball, control things and average 10+ assists for them to be at their best. My question is can Kobe handle that. Because of his ego, their next step may be Kobe dominating the ball and tossing up 25 shots/game for a while. That won't work either. At some point during the season, they will give the keys to Nash which will cause Howard and Pau to explode. Can Kobe adjust his game and let Nash drive the car the rest of the season for the good of the team? Another problem for the Lakers is their bench. That may end up being their fatal weakness. IMO, there is a 99% chance Steve Blake won't finish the season as the backup to Nash. It will be impossible for them to advance far with those 2 as the PG rotation.
What they should do is let Kobe comes off the bench. He can take as many shots as he wants playing with the bench. Problem is the won't because of Kobe's ego.
Major identity crisis - too many scorers and only 1 ball. Actually think the D'Antoni system would work well there.
He was. Huge mistake by Mitch Kupcakes. Not because he's the master at running the Princeton though, but because he's adaptable to almost any offensive set. You saw this potentially with Yao. He doesn't really NEED to run the corner sets to be successful, its just his preference if he has the team for it. The main issue I see is spacing on the floor. The Lakers are almost TOO big for their own good, and dont have great cutting wings other than Kobe. -Gasol running the high post would be amazing to see with Kobe. -Nash/Howard Pick and Roll would also be a winning combination. -1 in/4 out with Howard & co. would also be a winning combination. -Kobe iso basketball.... eh... maybe good for a buzzer beater, but not winning Ball for 48 minutes. However, right now you see a team with these 4 different offensive identities. The parts just dont seem to fit. Just like with the first year of Miami's big 3 experiment... its not going to work until the Lakers buy into creating a system that revolves around their best player, and all the other players become complementary pieces. That player has to be Dwight Howard. The 1 in/4 out system seems to be the best set for him, with a sprinkle of P&R. They need to spread the floor, move the ball side to side, feed the post, draw the double team, and get wide open 3's from Kobe, Nash, Metta, Jamison. That's winning basketball for this team. They DO NOT have the spacing they need for the princeton offense IMO. I love Gasol, but in this case if I was Kupcakes, I would be shopping the heck out of him, and would have never hired Eddie Jordan if I knew Howard was going to be a Laker prior. I dont think he knew before, and thats why the Jordan hire happened. I think he really wanted to run the Princeton through Gasol/Kobe which would have made sense then to JUST HIRE ADELMAN LAST YEAR to begin with. Unfortunately for the rest of the NBA, they will figure it out, and Howard will end up being the centerpiece moving forward eventually. It might take a season or two, but after some time they will figure it out, and play championship basketball unfortunately.
Uhhh you guys are exagerrating - 4th Q execution was horrible. But that was expected for a new team - Dwight, Gasol and Kobe all shot an incredibly high % from the field, thanks to Nash's presence. Just by Nash being on the floor opened up so many easier opportunities for those 3, imagine what they can do if they click on offense? - 12/31 from the free throw line, you're not gonna win games shooting that % from the charity stripe - Sure Brown is not a good offensive coach but Princeton is the right idea hes promoting
Don't agree on the 1in/4out. Howard can't shoot the freebies that he's gonna get by posting up in the spread. Makes them much more inefficient. Especially with him throwing the ball out to Kobe and Artest for the 3s. Neither one of those guys is a marksman from 3. IMO, the best set is PnR teams to death....just like what our Rox should be doing this season. They should be bringing up Dwight for one pick, letting Nash do his thing, and then if the shot doesn't come off that, circle back and run Gasol up high with Nash. They should make Kobe play off the ball and spread the floor on the weakside. That way when Nash and the bigs collapse the D, they are throwing it out to a wide open or cutting Kobe. The most effective 1in/4lineup the Lakers could have would be with Dwight on the bench, Pau running the pivot and Jamison in spreading the floor. Until Dwight can start knocking down the freebies at 70% or so.
That would be a dream job for D'Antoni. Mike Brown confirming Charlie Rosen's 22nd best coach in the NBA ranking, Rosen said he was overrated and Brown may prove it this year. Never thougth much of Eddie Jordan as a coach ever since he said you can't front Yao, it doesn't work.
nice knee-jerk reactions. It's going to take a little bit of time for the new players to gel together. They've got a 2nd year coach and a retooled roster. By mid-season the Lakers will be destroying opponents left and right. Probably the best team i've ever seen on paper. Any judgments based on the 1st game are ridiculous in my opinion. the Lakers will be in the finals this year.
In a perfect world for the Lakers, Nash would do PnR with Gasol to death; Kobe would wait for the kick out dish; Howard would be there to put back any misses. But fortunately, it's not the perfect world. Kobe and Howard will never agree to do that. And that's fine with me. Anything that makes the Lakers suck is fine with me.
Despite what we all might think, this team is probably one of the most difficult ones to coach. You have at least 4 big humongous egos: Kobe, Dwight, Artest & Gasol and trying to control them is going to be tough. However, it shouldn't be a big problem if he weren't such a p***y. I'm convinced Lebron runned the show in Cleveland and Brown has trouble getting guys to respect him. Bynum didn't, Kobe and Pau showed signs they didn't. Now this first game was terrible and the Howard better get his act together because that foul could've easily been an automatic ejection. Coming down sprinting and throwing this big arms down like that. We're probably going to see a lot of frustration this year in LA unless Brown is in control and can keep those ego's in check. Tougher task than it might seem.
