2008-09 Championship Dreams: Our Team Needs Work
Posted by: mambamonk87 on Oct 22, 2008 - 04:29 AM
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The Lakers are an enigma of sorts. We, as an organization, have traditionally ebbed and flowed through the seasons, experiencing a fair share of ups and downs.The notorious Showtime legacy was followed by the Van Exel/Jones era. A period of mediocrity and playoff exits. Soon after, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant ushered in a three-peat that ultimately met its demise through enlarged egos and conflicting personalities. The Laker mini-dynasty was followed by a rebuilding period, including one missed playoff year and two first round exits, amidst trade talks and a lack of offseason productivity.
In a very similar fashion to the Spurs' supposed "odd numbered year championship" tradition, you might say that we're due for another few years of championship contention.
However, watching the Lakers struggle through 2004-2007 has had its effect on my fragile mind. I am no longer the Laker fan I once was; innocent and hopeful, optimistic and inspired. Years of painful experimentation with the likes of Smush Parker, Brian Cook, and the incomparable Kwame Brown have taught me to never again simply hope for the best. I don't assume that Phil Jackson has all the answers. I don't assume that Kobe Bryant will pull through and win a championship for us on his own. And I won't simply assume that this year is the Lakers' year.
I want to stay grounded so that if the Lakers fall, I don't fall too far down. And I advise the rest of you to do the same. It can be downright ignorant to advocate blind devotion to the team, whilst we cover our eyes to our faults and assume it'll all work out in the end. Didn't game 4 and game 6 of last year teach us anything?
Our team needed work. Our team needs work. Present tense.
Therefore, I've decided to annually post a "Laker Preseason Nitpicking Session", where I'll throw all of my pessimistic views to the mercy of this forum, in the hopes that as we watch our Lakers progress through the regular season, all of their faults will be addressed and accounted for, and our minds will be set at ease when July rolls about; we'll know that the championship trophy is ours for the taking, and that we truly deserve it.
So here goes nothing (in no particular order):
1) Bynum and Pau: Coexistence
Despite the intriguing idea of having two seven footers plug the paint, their coexistence has run into a few problems. I think a lot of us expected Pau and Drew to simply play a basketball version of volleyball. A few problems come to mind right off the bat:
Short passes with a lot of congestion requires a lot of skill and chemistry between the two. Pau's been acting very unselfishly and has been searching for different ways to find Andrew, but I think we Lakers know too well how 'unselfishness' can be a problem. Think Lamar Odom. Unselfish to a fault. There's a chemistry in knowing who's going to take the shot, and I hope Pau and Drew can work that out. If not, our turnover rates (extremely high this preseason) may prove to be a major factor in our downfall.
Offensive 3 seconds. I feel we'll be hearing that call a lot more. If either Gasol or Bynum is indecisive during a possession, we might start racking up the turnovers
Rotations. Having two seven footers in the paint is great, but with a great passing team, having two seven footers run from the wing to the top of the key and back may slow down our defensive rotations. The only advantage we have here is that Bynum and Gasol shrink the passing lanes.
2) Defense
It's Showtime in LA again. Alley-oops to Bynum. Dunks from Pau. Lamar with Magic-inspired passes. Kobe being Kobe. Farmar and Ariza looking like Van Exel and Eddie Jones of the 90s. Our offensive options are staggering, but that's obviously not our biggest concern this year.
For some strange reason, Phil Jackson and his coaching staff advocate a full court, trapping defense. While that's all well and good when you're down 20 points at halftime, why're we implementing this type of D throughout the game? If one of them were to split the defense and get the ball down the court, that leads to a fast break. Fast breaks tip the momentum in their favor. When the momentum tips in their favor, well, you get Game 4 of the 2008 NBA Finals all over again. For Laker fans watching the past few seasons, I know we've had losses that dig deep under our skin, because there are times when the Lakers just can't seem to hold a lead.
Get a stop. How? Exertion. Energy. That's the key component. When you need a stop, you work hard as hell, be it man-to-man or with aggressive double-teams, and you use all of your strength, speed, and energy to create a stop. You sprint down the court every possession. Athleticism and sheer willpower come into play. Let's face it. We're not the most athletic team in the NBA. That's why teams like the Blazers, Warriors (when they had Davis), and Kings (when they had Artest) gave us so much trouble. Without that athleticism, our Lakers need to rely on team chemistry and hustle to create turnovers and contest shots. Do our Lakers have it? Or does it come and go with our offense?
So far, I don't like the answer. If I had a nickel for every time an opposing team took an open shot, I'd have enough money to afford courtside tickets at the Staples Center. Our team needs to be pushed to help each other on defense. Vlad, Walton, and Odom are going to be beat off the dribble a lot. Someone's got to make a sacrifice and run out to the shooter. I'll name a player who's guilty of not doing this: Mr. Kobe Bryant. Ariza's one of the few players that we can honestly vouch for. He's a hustle player, through and through, and we see it on the court. Vujacic is another; although he plays too much defense with his hands. And Bynum, our supposed savior in the paint, hasn't regained his timing. Besides, he's not the Marcus Camby of Denver. He's not supposed to be lax in the offense and then turn it up on the defense. He's expected to hustle on both sides of the court, and then in between, sprint up and down the length of the court. That will take its toll on you; it doesn't matter how young you are.
Our team needs to gel on the defensive end. The Lakers full court trapping defense requires every player on the court to rotate quickly and get into passing lanes. In a half court set, we need not only quick rotations, but a willingness to pick up another players' slack. That's something that I envied of Boston. If Rondo was beaten off the dribble, Garnett came out of the post to contest the perimeter shot; and you can say the same for any two Celtics players. That's the value of veteran experience; they know that defense is played with five people.
3) Bynum
Like I said, much is to be expected of our young prodigy. His stretch of play last season before he went down with an injury made Laker fans believe again, and for better or worse, garnered plenty of bandwagoners who've bought his #17 jersey.
A few things need to be acknowledged before we pass judgment on the kid.
First, Bynum didn't draw the kind of attention that he gets now. More importantly, Kobe drew that attention away. Bynum was the beneficiary of beautiful passing by our Lakers squad. Now that Bynum's a headline on ESPN.com, you'd have to expect scouting reports to factor him in.
Second, so much is expected of this kid that every little mistake he makes is going to be criticized, unjustifiably. He's expected to anchor our defense by replacing the supposedly 'soft' Gasol as center. He's expected to grab rebounds after trying to alter shots and prevent penetration. Then he's expected to run back down the court and be on the receiving end of an alley-oop from Kobe. If you don't think that's true, then read up on all the Bynum extension talk. Phil Jackson has publicly stated that all he wants from Bynum is an effort on the defensive end, but 17 million doesn't pay for a Dikembe Mutombo; that's some Kareem or Olajuwon money right there.
Lastly, his knee may become an issue. He's already mentioned that his knee was swelling up a bit during the preseason games. I don't want to elaborate too much on this because it's too early to tell, but for a seven foot, heavy set center like Bynum, you definitely don't want your knees to be a liability.
4) Logjam at Several Positions
Point guards in the rotation: Derek Fisher and Jordan Farmar
Shooting guards: Kobe Bryant and Sasha Vujacic
After that, it gets a little hazy.
Small forward: I'm going to assume Vlad's going to start. First off, let's remember how spastic this guy can be. There are days when he looks like Peja, and there are days when he looks like Cook. Enough said. Luke Walton and Trevor Ariza bring different types of styles into this position, but Trevor Ariza seems to have Luke beat in virtually every category; defense, shooting (Ariza's been showing off a nice jumper), slashing, finishing. Luke's shown that he's starting to develop Kwame-syndrome (he's dropped how many passes this preseason?). However, Luke's 3 point shooting has improved, and Phil Jackson seems to have a special place in his heart for him.
PJ has mentioned playing Luke in a guard position as well, and that really concerns me. I truly dislike any hybrid type of player. The epitome of how a hybrid, or 'versatile' for you optimists, player can be detrimental to a team is Lamar Odom. Hate on me for hating on him, but his 'versatility' only causes headaches for the coaching staff. A decent small forward, a competent power forward when matched up against less athletic PFs, a possible point forward to draw out a defensive minded PF from the paint; the list goes on, but that only causes headaches when all you want is a consistent rotation where players play with the same other four players day in and day out. That's how you develop chemistry, and hybrid players always seem to be a crutch in team chemistry. Other examples of 'difficult to place' players include Larry Hughes (combo guards are a mess) and Kwame Brown. To shed some insight on my Odom "hating", this is why I'm always for trading Odom in return for some traditional small forward.
Power Forward
Gasol is starting. Odom is not. That's what we presume. If that's true, then Odom will play over Josh Powell. Reasons why this may be bad? Powell is a natural power forward. He shoots the 15 footer, fights for rebounds, and is actually starting to show signs of being an enforcer type of player. My only concern with having Odom here is the potentially confusing changes of ballhandlers between him and Farmar, although so far in the preseason, they've coexisted quite well. Not really a problem here.
Center
Chris Mihm is a good backup center. That's all we can really say about him. He's been a headache for the past four years; we watched him get all those double-doubles before he went down with his injury. When he returned to the lineup last year, we all hoped to see some glimpses of the Chris Mihm of old. Instead, there was simply confusion about why PJ was throwing a player who hadn't played in years into the Finals. Either way, the only concern at the center position is injuries. Chris is an injury prone player. He's got the resume. We don't know about Bynum yet. But with a possible liability here, it seems that Powell may play a few minutes at center as well, and as we all saw with Ronny Turiaf, it doesn't work. A PF needs to play at PF.
5) Phil Jackson
I know it may seem perplexing to throw PJ, a Hall of Fame caliber coach, into the spotlight. But there are times when Phil Jackson seems to be thinking about the future when he should be thinking about the here and now. I sure hope this year is different; this should be the year that Phil Jackson was thinking about last year, where the Lakers will begin a long run at title contention for years to come. By the way, his mind games don't always work. They've debilitated a defenseless Kwame Brown, who was subjugated to boos from his own home crowd. He lit no fires underneath our frontcourt during the Finals. His mind games have recently drawn scoffs from Pau and Bynum, who seem a little bit too intelligent to be so easily manipulated. And I still wonder how Kobe and Phil get along. Those are two massive egos.
Phil is also presented with the dubious task of taking all these puzzle pieces that seemingly don't fit and constructing a championship caliber team. I don't envy that job at all. There's so much experimentation that needs to be done, one preseason isn't nearly enough to figure out all the kinks and cogs of our newly updated Laker system. It's up to Phil Jackson to create a steady rotation. I think there's potential for a full 11-12 man rotation within our roster, and I have an inkling that Phil does too (he mentioned reducing minutes for a lot of Laker starters, namely Kobe and Fisher).
All in all, the Lakers are the team to beat this year. With a deep team boasting an array of talents that no other team can match, the Lakers are primed to make a run at the title. But that can only happen if they can find a sense of urgency, as Derek Fisher said, and understand the immediacy of their situation.
They need to work hard to flush out the kinks, because it damn sure won't happen on it's own. And because the time to win is now.
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