Mon, 29 Apr 2013 23:14:57 -0500 http://lakers.topbuzz.com/ Lakers TopBuzz http://lakers.topbuzz.com/images//themes/lakers/images/lakers-topbuzz.jpg http://lakers.topbuzz.com/ topbuzzsports@gmail.com http://lakers.topbuzz.com/a-609.html I want to start off by saying this is neither pro-Dwight article nor even an anti-Dwight post. It is an honest look at the ramifications of keeping him or letting him go. It is a look we as fans and more especially the FO needs to take, long and deep, before they decide what they would like to do. It’s a look that in light of this last season, they should have, evaluate and discuss, more than once, in an effort to start turning around what happened to this team in 2013 and hopefully make sure the near and mid future is not tainted by more mistakes added to those of the last few years. In the end, I will of course give my opinion for what it is worth. An opinion I actually have changed in just the last day. With the Lakers’ season mercifully at an end, now all eyes turn to the offseason and how does this team respond to the calamity that just enveloped them? Will some players stay and who if anyone will go? Then of course there is the big question, will Dwight Howard resign with the team after a season he himself termed a nightmare? But perhaps the question shouldn’t be, will Dwight resign with the Lakers but instead be inverted to: should the Lakers offer Dwight Howard that max contract? Prevailing opinion is that Howard will sign with the Lakers, simply because we can offer him the most money. Yet after a season where he never performed up to anyone’s expectations, there is a train of thought and logic that suggests perhaps it may be best for the Lakers to move in a different direction. When you think of max money contacts, it brings to the mind’s eye certain players, legends in fact: Magic Johnson, Jabbar, Moses Malone, Shaq, Hakeem, Kobe, Bird, Jordan, Lebron and others of that ilk. Yes all players with a flaw or two, but whose brilliance and mastery were so great they made you forget any deficiencies of mind or skill set that they may have had. They were so great, all you saw in the end was the greatness. They were max players who deserved max contracts. But when you put Howard’s name there, it’s like taking that word test, Which word does not belong? It is very obvious Howard is the word and the player who is out of his league when you think max player. Howard does bring a certain skill set we all know. He is a tremendous rebounder and defender. He is very athletic. He certainly is one of the best centers in ball today, probably the best. But when you throw up his flaws you see how he pales in comparison to the players conjured up by the term max player. He cannot shoot free throws. This not only makes him untenable to finish off games but hurts the team all game long. He continually commits stupid fouls. He turns the ball over at an alarming rate. He tends to pout and take plays and even games off if things are not going his way. His offense repertoire is very limited for man in the league so long. It is when you add and sum up all those flaws, you realize if players like Kobe, Kareem, Lebron and others are max players, then Howard has to be by logic and extrapolation something less than that. There is also another issue with Howard that goes beyond his game limitations. He seems to be devoid of the cool demeanor and killer instinct that goes with being a top notch player, a max player. In our debacle against San Antonio, while I never for a moment thought we could win the series, I was looking for the Kobeless Howard to step up, fight like cornered animal, show us why he is worth the money and the title max player. Yet again, he came up short. He didn’t have on transcendent game, not in one game of that series did he look a great player determined to step up against overwhelming odds and go down fighting and throwing his best game at his tormentors, like great players will do. Instead, at the end, meekly, he seemed to take the easy way out, getting a double technical and leaving in the third quarter of last Lakers game of the season with a grand total of seven points. The term max player didn’t cross my mind watching that, nor the series, nor his entire year here. That is the crux of the other Howard problem. Despite his formidable body of work over the years, in the end, it seems his signature move in the NBA is not rising to the occasion but falling back from it, hiding, slipping away; the antithesis of Kobe, a Bird, a Magic, a Jordan, a max player. Somewhere along the line, in the last few years, it seems LA and its fans somehow equated Dwight Howard as the centerpiece of a title, the sine qua non, the essential part that would ensure more rings. Yet nothing his career indicated that so much weight should ascribed to him, including the nine teams that have won titles in the years Howard has been in the league, all of whom didn’t have Dwight on their team. So how did Howard become such an indispensible part of a championship team when he never has been one in his nine years in pro ball? How did that theory take hold and gain such currency with the Lakers fans and front office? Why is HE, above all others, now so vital to us winning championships? This last season was an object lesson in what happens to a team when the front office places bad bets, when it misunderstands what is smart with what mysteriously becomes commonly accepted currency, such as signing a 38 year old to play point guard in an 82 game season on a team that was too old to begin with. Now Howard will never be mistaken for a 38 year old, but the cautionary tale still applies: Be careful who you throw that kind of money at. You better be sure he is exactly what you thought you were getting. He better be worth it. In the end, that begs the most important question of the offseason: Is Dwight Howard really worth it? Does he really bring such a strong promise of championships? Is a non max player really worth max money to this team? If we sign Howard this team automatically goes over 80 million dollars over the luxury tax. Now considering our TV contract, yes it can afford it. But there is another way to look at this too, two more questions to ask itself: First, is he really worth it? Is he going to bring us so very close to a title? Is he worth max money to keep? Second, if you don’t sign him, what else can you do with that money? Can you sign two terrific players with it, or three? Or one and many very good players? In other words, it may not be so difficult to imagine a scenario where in the end the Lakers would be better served, both financially and with on court performance to use such profligate spending in another direction, that it doesn’t have to be tied with a ball and chain to Dwight Howard. Mitch has made it clear he wants Howard back so I take him at his word. That will mean a max contract for a player who far less than max in ability or temperament. Will that be the correct move? The organization better hope, really, really hard that it is. Because if it’s not, then the damage will go on for longer than you can imagine. I can see Dwight Howard, if surrounded by two other really good players helping this team to some very good seasons. I can’t see him doing it alone, like a max player should. I can also see this team using the Howard money in a different direction and actually being better than if they kept him. That is essence, are the two sides to the question at hand. Which way do you go? Pay a non max player the max and hope you surround with enough good players to overcome his flaws, or go full bore in an entirely different direction. I do have to say, both from a business standpoint and the on court production ideal, there is something I find repugnant and untenable in signing such a flawed player to a contract I don’t think he really should have. It’s kind of like being blackmailed or held up at gunpoint. You feel you are being cheated or robbed or hoodwinked. Kobe wants the max? Sure. Magic? Give it up. Lebron? Hand it over, to all of them with a smile. You damn well know what you’re getting and are happy to get it: a winner, a killer, a GREAT, a max player. Possible titles. But with Howard? Really? Do you really want to invest that kind of money and the future of your team in him? Not so easy to hand that money over when you really think about him. There is a danger to get obsessed with doing everything and anything to keep one single player, especially a player who does not stand with the games best but has through desire and circumstance developed a patina that shines far brighter than his true worth. As we have seen this year, before you start to throw money at guys like we just did and apparently are willing to again with Howard, you better be sure your getting what you’re paying for or you will pay big time for what you get. Will Howard be worth that money or will it be just another error rushed into by the front office. It looks like it will end up being Dwight Howard who will have the final answer on that one, both in whether he accepts our offer and what he does after words, if he does. Just the other day, I agree with a friend of mine that we should sign Dwight Howard. I thought out of all the players on this team, he was the one guy you really wanted to keep. But the other night, Reggie Miller was asked in the waning moments of our game four loss to San Antonio a very interesting question: Would you sign Dwight to the max deal if you were the Lakers? He said he would not, because Dwight wasn’t worth it. That got me to thinking, hard. It also got me to change my mind as I turned over the ramifications, the pros and cons of keeping him…and letting him go. I have to admit, after what Miller said, after what I have seen this year, plus his career so far, what he brings to the team and what he doesn’t, in the end, if I owned the Lakers, Howard would never get that chance to resign with the Lakers. I think there might be, must be, a smarter, better way to spend that money, not just this year, but over time than on a player who has failed in so many ways, on so many days, as Howard has. Mon, 29 Apr 2013 23:14:57 -0500 http://lakers.topbuzz.com/a-608.html In last night’s game against Golden State, the iron body of Kobe Bryant finally did what all bodies do over time, bend and break to the ineluctable entropy of age and all that comes with it. To see Kobe’s season and very possibly his career end because of injury was as shocking as seeing a mid July snowstorm because it is something that just doesn’t happen, not an event you even consider nor plan for because years of experience tells you it just is a flat out impossibility. This sad event and the repercussions it has on this team, not just now, but for the future was the final result of a very strange gamble played by the Lakers’s FO in the offseason when they decided to throw the dice on making a team that was already too old to win a title even older. By keeping Pau, Metta and adding Nash and Jamison to the roster the Lakers picked up the dice and threw them in the most precarious game of craps a front office has decided to play in years with a major sports franchise of the stature of the Los Angeles Lakers. For this gamble to succeed, Team Geriatric had to somehow overcome two distinct problems: How does a team this old and unathletic possible shore up and Improve on the defensive deficiencies that eliminated them from the playoffs the last two years and how reliable will a team populated with so many older players hold up physically to the grind and torture test of the 82 game season? And in the big gamble that we took the answer to both questions was not the hoped for result. By mid season it was apparent that the gamble on defense, really more of an unrequited, impossible prayer than gamble would not come to pass. The defense was paying a price for double down on age and any attempt at achieving a championship style on that end of the court was extinguished for good. At that point the question became could this old team play offense good enough to salvage some type of season that didn’t end in abject humiliation? That answer came too. The injuries mounted faster than a triage unit at a war front. Pau, Metta, Nash and Kobe all suffered injuries that kept them out of games, effecting our performance and standings in season where every game was life and death in the razor thin playoff race we found ourselves engaged in. It is no coincidence that all these players are in their mid thirties or over and received a lion’s share of the playing time. It is also no coincidence that the one older player who was relatively injury free was Jamison, a player who got limited playing time. On a team that had no defense to fall back on, losing these players for stretches of the season which not only hurt game to game performance but was a stopper for developing team chemistry was catastrophic. When the Lakers put together this team it seemed a blithe thing, an exercise in hopes and dreams, a desperate gamble more than smart foresight. They gambled that somehow we could play representative defense and they gambled that Team Geriatric could navigate the full season without suffering from any substantive injuries. They lost both gambles and now here we are. The immediate concern of course is Kobe. You know he will work to rehabilitate his injury as hard as any athlete ever has in professional sports. It’s just his nature. If he were 22 or 26 or 28 or 32 one could bet he would overcome this injury and return as the same force of nature he always has been. But at 35 next year, one wonders not what Kobe will allow but what his body can still give. It is these kinds of injuries to athletes of just that age that spell the final turning point in many great athletic careers. The blame game will begin now. As I watched Kobe last night get physically pounded and mauled, first one leg then the other, I was wincing. My heart went out to this indefatigable, heroic warrior who never stopped battling no matter the pain or circumstance. You could almost see it coming. There he was, a 34 year old proud lion fighting like mad to keep his territory against his attackers who kept snapping and clawing at him, his body literally coming apart right in front of my eyes; yet nothing was done, no surcease asked by him nor offered to him. He fought like a beast, determined to keep his dominance, bloody, but giving it back in every measure in a war he not only fought, but welcomed with gusto and pride. Should D’Antoni given him more rest, not just last night, but all season long? Should he have had more faith in a team that actually played well in Kobe’s earlier absence? Should Kobe have asked for more rest all season long and should he have spelled himself in last night’s games as his body started falling apart? It is easy to cast blame now, on both men. But how does D’Antoni pull or spell a legend like Bryant when he so obviously wants to keep playing, when he insists all is fine and D’Antoni wants to win with his best player on the floor? And how can one blame Kobe when he, the ultimate warrior, the one who knows his body better than anyone else, tells the coach he can stay in the games, wants to stay in the games, keep playing the minutes; that he his fine? Blame comes after the fact. Both men wanted to win, to try making this team and its finish something better than what had transpired for most of the season. Can you blame them for wanting that? I’m sure many will, but if you ask Kobe, he will be the first to tell you that nobody is to blame for the fact that both he and his coach wanted him in games for all those minutes. Maybe in the individual case of Kobe Bryant and what happened last night, nobody really is to blame but Father Time. I won’t get into the blame game because I understand the mentality of both Kobe and D’Antoni: We are in it to win it and the rest be damned. In my view there is no blame for that attitude or the attempt to achieve it. You throw the dice. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. If one is to cast blame on the season and what happened last night, I would go way back to summer when for some inexplicable reason, the front office rejected reality and decided that more age was the answer to what ailed this team in the first place. They put the team in a position where old, very old players would log large minutes. The result was not all that surprising. They should have seen it coming. With Kobe’s injury the final denouement has been written on Team Geriatric in the most shocking, frightening and saddest of terms. It was chilling to see coming, it was ugly to watch and sad to take, especially with valiant effort of Kobe and this team to make the playoffs in the last week that for the first time all season really got ones blood pumping in the effort given. That sound you heard last night was not just the snap of Kobe’s Achilles, but the final role of the FO’s dice. That look of distress on Mitch’s face was not just the loss of his best player, the lion of the Lakers, but the long, exhausted stare of a man who knows what he has rolled on his final throw of the dice. That he has crapped out: snake eyes. You lose, Mitch. You lose, Jim. You lost, Jerry. You lost the season and you lost Kobe because you put him in a situation that forced the events of last night. A win at all cost game on a team that never had a chance to cruise through games or the season. Now we must hope the team can continue on, play with the same energy and enthusiasm it has shown in the last week. The end of Kobe’s season is not the end of the Lakers season. It will be interesting to see where they go from here, what they can make of this situation. Their leader and best player is gone, but they still have pride and talent, albeit aged, to make this ending and perhaps the playoffs at least an exciting finish far better than the desultory majority of the season we witnessed. When this season ends, whether it be next week or sometime in the playoffs, the FO will be forced to pick up the hot dice again and begin making new throws. Because that’s the situation now. This team will never compete for a title again. When it does, we will be watching and rooting and talking about a whole different group of players doing their thing. These new throws will begin to determine when and if the Lakers will someday be in championship contention again. Sat, 13 Apr 2013 13:01:13 -0500 http://lakers.topbuzz.com/a-605.html Reading the game day thread during and after the Dallas game, it was interesting to notice some of the very optimistic opinions of the team. Because the team is playing better now and on the heels of that road win, some comments really caught my eye. Two that come to mind were, “This team will be invincible by the end of the season,” and “We will win the title.” Of course after the Denver reality check, the see-saw continues again, this time on the downward slide, to despair. And so it goes in a very bad season. Up and down, hope then despair. And many fans hope we make the playoffs, thinking that this team’s talent will come to the fore and we will finally become what so many expected before the season started. But this Lakers fan doesn’t worry about making the playoffs. Nor did I really care about the win in Dallas or worry about the loss in Denver. Because long ago, it became apparent that it doesn’t matter if we make the playoffs or not. Either way, this team is not going to win a title or even come close to it. It doesn’t matter if we beat sub 500 Dallas or even if we had beaten Denver. Because to win an NBA title, you don’t go through Dallas or Denver. You go through Memphis, San Antonio, OKC to finally arrive at the real monster of the NBA, Miami. And they are not Dallas or Denver. None of them are. It doesn’t matter if we make the playoffs. Not this year, or next year. Because we can’t win the title this year or next year. We will never win another title in the Kobe Bryant era. Because time has passed him and this team by. It happens to every team and it’s happened to these Lakers. Kobe Bryant is still a great player. But he is not what he was. When we were winning titles, he was the best player in ball. He was that one insurmountable obstacle that other teams could not overcome; the edge we held over everyone. Now that edge is gone forever. Durant is better than Kobe and Lebron plays in a different league than Kobe. There are other players who are as good or better. After the last two seasons of playoff ejection, it was obvious this team had to be overhauled. And it was. But not the way it needed to be. After the last two seasons, we all discussed what needed to be done on LTB in dozens of threads and thousands of posts. And the vast majority of those posts said it correctly: We needed to get younger and more athletic, especially on defense, if we were going to take a step back up the ladder of contention. But oddly, for strange reasons known only to them, the FO ignored all the certain, immutable empirical data that screamed for youth and speed and decided to double down on age. Instead of shipping Metta and Pau for younger players or draft picks, we kept them. Instead of trading draft picks for younger players, we gave them away for Methuselah Steve Nash, who at 38 was so old one could call him Eve Ash, because that is all that is left of him. They backed that up by signing a 36 year old Antwan Jamison. That is not to say smarter moves would have brought us another title. Even with some spectacular moves, the fact remains, in all likelihood, the Lakers would have only been able to secure a holding pattern, like the Spurs have the last half decade. The Spurs have in essence, the same problem we have. Their transcendent star, Tim Duncan is no longer the best player in the game. So despite the workings of the best FO in the business, even they could not resurrect the championship days in San Antonio. They best they can do is hold their altitude with good teams, smart teams, fun teams, winning teams, but not teams good enough to win the title. But the Lakers FO couldn’t even manage that. By ignoring the problems that were so obvious, by deciding to add more age in the persons of Eve Ash and Jamison to a team already listing so badly because of age and lack of youth, speed and defense, they effectively put the final nail in Lakers coffin, even to the extent of ending any prospect of Kobe finishing out on representative teams like Duncan will. So we will not become a team that can come within shouting distance of a San Antonio, a Memphis, a Indiana. Nor will we even come within sight of an OKC or the iron fisted ruler of the NBA, the once and future champion Miami Heat. So it really doesn’t matter if we beat a Dallas or lose to Denver. And I don’t worry about it. Because time and mismanagement have ended the Kobe Bryant era with complete finality. So I don’t worry about whether we will make the playoffs, just to lose to one of the many better teams. In fact, in a normal year, I would root for them to lose so a much needed high draft pick would come. Because man, we really, really need it. I have done it before when I knew the remedy to what ailed us was young, good talent. But thanks to the FO, even this perk during a bad year is denied to us. So no, this Lakers fan doesn’t worry about whether we beat a Dallas or a Denver or make the playoffs. Why should I? The time for that is long gone. It doesn’t matter if we do or don’t. Our fate this year and for next season is written in stone and can’t be chiseled out no matter how many hopeful hammer strokes fans take at it, nor how many times Mitch and Buss assure us this team will reach its potential. Because next year, they will just be older. Their potential will never approximate what is needed to win a title. It couldn’t. It never could. Because the problems that needed to be addressed never were. So what potential does Mitch and Buss speak of or expect me or others to believe in? This is one Lakers fan who is not that blind. But I do worry. About something else. I worry about how the FO, despite two years of evidence that told them, and us, exactly what was wrong with this team, decided to forget all of that and become hypnotized and enamored with a 38 year old Eve Ash, a 36 year old Antawn Jamison and thought adding them to the team would solve the age, athleticism and defensive problems that caused us to crash against Dallas and OKC. When they looked at those films, looked at those so obvious flaws, how exactly did they see an older Metta, and older Pau and an ancient Eve Ash and Jamison correcting those very indelible problems? And I’m not talking about hindsight, I mean, at the time. How did they think this team was going to correct its perimeter defense, its post defense, its transition defense, its one-on-one defense? All the things that above all else, killed us the last two years? I’m still not sure how they thought that. And you know what, I have a feeling when they lie in bed at night now, Mitch and Buss wonder exactly how they bought into that too. But it’s too late now. We have too many old players, playing big minutes at important positions, tying up big money for us to do anything about it. The nails are in the coffin and lid is on so tight it can’t ever be removed. So now we have to play it out. A nothing year now, a nothing year coming. Just hoops, some moments of fun, but in the end, playing for nothing, not even a draft pick. And we won’t be able to think about championships till this team is gone. When Kobe, Pau, Metta, Jamison and Nash are history, along with their salaries. Then, and only then, can we even begin to start thinking about what the future may hold and harbor championship thoughts in the far recesses of our minds. And that is where this Lakers fan does have worries. With Dr. Buss now gone, with Jerry West more a memory for many fans and just a name to newer Lakers fans, what will the future bring? It is easy to say the lure of LA will take care of the franchise. That we will just sign some big name players and win titles again. But that is not necessarily the case. With the new bargaining agreement, it will be harder than ever to stockpile superstars on one team, an old Mitch stratagem and fall back method in lieu of good drafting and smart trades. With the final dissolution of this team, it will not only be the farewell to the Kobe era, but hello to a new one, without Dr. Buss and the leadership and smarts he provided. And what will be the result of Mitch and Jim Buss turned loose? Were the horrific, blind decisions of the last year, which Mitch and Buss so believed in and still, amazingly, try to believe in, be proven just a momentary aberration and madness? A short lived fever? Or is it the precursor to a more virulent, long-lasting strain of ineptitude that will constrain and contaminate important decisions and this team for years or decades to come? Don’t think it can’t happen. We have been lucky as Lakers fans. But all sports have hosts of teams that have never won a title, never even competed for one, as stark, silent testament to what a bad owner and front office can do to their team and even more sadly, their fans. I don’t worry about us making the playoffs, not this year, nor the next. Because our fate is already decided this year and the next. There aren’t going to be any more titles. But I have to admit, for the first time in my life as a Lakers fan, for the very first time, I do worry about what comes next, how bad it might get, and how long it may go on. At the end of Showtime and the Threepeat era, as sad as it was, the long range health and destiny of the team was never a concern for me. This is a first. And that worries me too. As an aside here, but also related to this post: It was interesting at half time of the Dallas game that every member of the panel said the Lakers made a mistake not trading Dwight. The other thing that couldn’t help capture my attention was during the game when Van Gundy pretty much said it is obvious that Kobe and Dwight don’t get along and one probably needs to go. Some strong words were spoken during that telecast. Are they right? We will see. But interesting stuff for sure. Tue, 26 Feb 2013 15:26:58 -0600 http://lakers.topbuzz.com/a-604.html PIC OF THE DAY - Goes to Kobe and Dwight who played last night like two players who are destined for greatness. Now that Kupchak has proclaimed that they will indeed be together for at least the next couple of years, will they settle down and start playing like brothers? JamFan aka Don Allen THE KOBE AND DWIGHT ERA BEGINS - Make no mistake about this. Kupchak has joined Kobe and Dwight at the hip, and they will make a playoff run this season. Dwight Howard will sign an extension next summer. Management will find a way to build a better compliment of players to surround them and make sure they are successful. The new era has begun. They will have to realize that they are in this thing together and they might as well bury the hatchet and become soul mates. The way they played against the Celtics just shows that all things are possible. CELTICS BOW OUT - The Lakers made quick work of the Boston Celtics with a 113 - 99 victory in the first game after the All Star break. With Kupchak procliaming that Howard is not going anywhere, the team pulled together and played with emotion and determination. Dwight Howard had 24 points and 12 rebounds while Earl Clark had 14 points and 16 rebounds. We won with Kobe scoring only 16 points on 15 shots. Metta chipped in 12 and Nash had 14 while hitting 6 of 7 shots. Off the bench, Jamison had 15 points and Blake had 10. This was the first game after the death of owner Dr Jerry Buss and there was a tribute to him before the game. The victory was a tribute to him during and after the game. Dr Buss would have loved to have seen how they played together last night. Maybe he did. FORMULA FOR HOW TO WIN - Last nights game against the Celtics must solidify in the minds of the Lakers just how they are going to continue to win and make a playoff run. WE HAD 7 PLAYERS IN DOUBLE FIGURES. Duh? That will get it done. We need Kobe to be both scorer and facilitator. We can't afford for him to chose one vs the other. He needs to continue to be more selective in his shooting and to trust his team mates more. When eveybody is involved in the offense, they suddently get more involved in the rest of the game. Suddenly defense and rebounding happens. Suddenly, team work happens. Suddenly, winning cures everything. The ice will break and these guys will start to play like brothers. TRADE DEADLINE LOOMS - With Dwight Howard proclaiming that Mitch Kupchak has told him that he definately will not be traded, and with Pau Gasol out with injury for an extended period of time, it is hard to get a handle on any trade rumor that might actually go down before the deadline on Thursday, February 21. There are players out there that the Lakers would probably like to have, but there are only a fews hours left to pull off a deal. With the passing of Jerry Buss, and with the family and the team in mourning, now is not the best environment for a big trade to go down anyway. Look for the Lakers to make only a minor deal, if anything. Thu, 14 Feb 2013 11:03:01 -0600 http://lakers.topbuzz.com/a-603.html Before the Laker’s game with Memphis tonight, the players had a meeting to air their grievances. That meeting was talked about on ESPN after the game. Among one of the issues brought up was Kobe Bryant asking Dwight Howard if he had a problem playing with him because Kobe takes so many shots. It is telling about just where this team is and how irreversible this situation is that Dwight didn’t really answer him. And that is just how low this team is now: Unable to get along, unable to even talk to each other in any kind of constructive way. Just mute desperation. When this travesty of a season is done, when this team is finally, mercifully broken up, and yes, in all probability our last year’s savior Howard becomes next year’s refuge fleeing the Lakers dysfunctional war zone as fast as possible, or traded before that happens, blame will fly around like vultures over a carcass. And there is much blame to go around. To Mitch and Jim Buss, for fooling themselves into thinking trading one good center for another and bringing in old, big names to a team that needed younger, faster players was the solution to our problems. To Mike D’Antoni for trying to fit players into his system, not the other way around. And on the players themselves, how don’t try to get along, don’t seem to even try to play as a team, nor show any fire or inclination to do so. They seem like a group that can’t wait to get his unholy roller coaster ride over as fast as possible and start their vacations. But there another person responsible for this excrement we call the 2012-2013 Los Angeles Lakers, and that is the legend called Kobe Bryant. When watching Howard look so beaten down already, so joyless, so mute and unable to even express himself, one looks a broken player. And one can’t help but think of two other more accomplished players who left here: Shaquille O’Neal and Andrew Bynum. All three had one thing in common: Kobe Bryant. The other thing they had in common was leaving LA. And it looks like Dwight Howard will soon share that journey. Andrew Bynum was traded, but does anyone doubt he would have taken the first ticket out of Kobe slavery as soon as free agency let him after this year? And who could blame him? And who could blame Dwight if he left? .And once again, not by coincidence, it is Kobe who seems to be having troubles with a teammate. He is always the other guy in the problem. Shaq, Drew, Dwight. And it seems, he has the most trouble with talented teammates. Once again, not a coincidence. Kobe Bryant, at 34, simply will not relinquish ANYTHING to ANYONE. He wants to play like he is 28 forever. He doesn’t get it. He doesn’t care who his teammates are, whether they go by the name of Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum or Dwight Howard. It wouldn’t matter if their names were Lebron James or Kevin Durant. Or Abdul Jabbar or Oscar Robertson. In Kobe’s world, even at 34, you accept scrapes and if you don’t, you end up broken, wanting to leave. Dwight Howard and those fans who viewed him as the savior are now finding out what it is like to play with the Mamba. Just like Drew did. And so is Steve Nash. One can only wonder what is running through their heads right now. Well, not really. You know what it is. How the hell did I get conned into coming here to play with Kobe? After tonight’s game, while being interviewed, Kobe looked like a beat dog. His eyes were lifeless, his voice soft and defeated. Gone was the arrogance, gone was the jutting jaw and the cocky smile. He looked small, diminished, quiet and alone. Because he is. No teammates to support him, nobody to have his back. Alone with an ego that even now, after all he has done, will not allow him to ever let this team, or any he is on, be a team. When he was 28, or 30, or 32, his wondrous, once in a lifetime talent was able to overcome that flaw in his personality and game. He was just that great. At 34, that is no longer the case. And as Kobe leaves the minds of the players who could help him most broken and bewildered, so too will he leave the team. Kobe at 34 still wants to have four Dennis Rodman’s around him. Just rebound and play defense and let me do the rest. But other players, who feel have something to offer besides being Dennis Rodmans, who view themselves as professional basketball players can only be destroyed by that philosophy of greed. They can’t survive and thrive in it. Kobe doesn’t have four Rodman’s around him and even he can’t force other players to be that no matter how much he wants it. So he breaks them, in mind and spirit, slowly like on some inexorable, crushing wheel. Yes, his diehard fans will counter with the same old tired arguments: He’s the best scorer. The other guys suck. He doesn’t trust them. But they don’t hold water and never did. They were just excuses so Kobe could run the NBA’s most elite and rare club with a singular membership, the club of me, Kobe Bryant. All these fans just keep running through players faster than Kobe does. Pau, an all star isn’t good enough. Drew, an all star wasn’t good enough. Nash isn’t good enough. Now Howard, their own personal Kobe savior before this season started isn’t good enough. And the list is longer than that and stretches back decades. Kobe didn’t trust his teammates after going to three straight finals. Because trusting them would have impinged on what he wanted to do- be Kobe Bryant. If you can’t trust teammates after three straight finals, winning two, when could you ever? The answer: Never. The truth is this: Nobody enjoys playing on a team with a 34 year old man who still thinks the team is only him. How many of his teammates have we heard allude to that problem: Bynum, Gasol, Metta, Howard and others over the years. Doesn’t that tell Kobe and his fans SOMETHING? But he and they still think he gets all the shots and all the glory and others should be happy. It doesn’t work that way. Not anymore, not at 34. I’m not blaming all of what has transpired this season on Kobe. But yeah, as our “leader” he sure takes a lion’s share of the credit. Yes, the problems are many, those I have enumerated on this post and others I haven’t. We know them all. But make no mistake; the broad shoulders of Kobe Bryant take a load of the blame for insisting on making the Lakers his personal, glory arena, even as that arena burns to the ground around him in a conflagration he helped create and ignite. Now at the age of 34, when he should be reaping the benefits and accolades of his achievements, Kobe Bryant is all alone. Now at this late date, when even someone as self-involved as Kobe is to the very core of his nature, when even someone like him must finally see what is going on, when he could actually make his teammates happier by extending a hand, by sacrificing some of his game, or a lot of it, he still stands fast like the wall of Jericho: Unassailable, unmoving, uncaring, taking himself and the team down with him. Even at this late date, he cannot subsume that massive ego, that destroyed him and the Lakers, enough to try salvage something of this lost season and himself. So it ends for Kobe Bean Bryant, really the only way it could. Because his ego would not let end any other way. It was an ending predicable years ago, as predictable as the rising and setting of the sun. The confidence is gone. The jutting jaw pulled back. Forever. Because he will never see another title, will never be the position to play for one or even dream about it. The swagger replaced by resignation and confusion. The brash voice now a small, quiet whisper. Nobody has his back. Nobody cares. Nobody wants to help. Not even his teammates. He is all alone with his ego in the dark. And that is a fitting way to end his last years. Because that is how he wanted to play it his whole career. Kobe, alone, vs the world. Thu, 24 Jan 2013 04:33:35 -0600 http://lakers.topbuzz.com/a-602.html Jamfan aka Don Allen THE BATTLE GOES TO CLIPPERS - A battle is something that goes on for one game, one playoff, or maybe one season. But a war is something that goes on for a long time. The Clippers are clearly winning the season battle so far and took the second game in the Battle for LA 107-102 despite a furious comeback attempt by Kobe Bryant that fell short. In the end, it was Kobe vs CP3. This time it was CP3 who prevailed. With 16 championships, the Lakers have clearly owned LA for over 5 decades. They have already won the war. But there is a new kid in town. And they are not going away. THE RIVALRY - After last nights game, the Clippers have the 2nd best record in th NBA at 26 - 8 and would be the 2nd seed in the playoffs. The Lakers are now 15 - 17 and wouldn't even be in the playoffs if they started today. Kobe said that fans expect the Clippers to blow them out. A couple of times it started to look that way as the Clippers built a couple of big leads as high as 18 only to have the Lakers fight back each and every time to make it a competitive game. The Rivalry will resume on 2/14 with a Laker home game, followed by a 4/7 Clipper home game. The rivalry continues. MAGIC JOHNSON GOES OFF...AGAIN - During halftime on the ESPN feed, Magic displayed a big smile and then started to slice and dice the Lakers organization into threads. He started to sound like a Clippers fan instead of a Laker Hall of Famer. He called the way the Lakers played "stupid." He did not call the players stupid. He was clearly talking about the coaching. The other commentators piled on as well. It was all about the Jim Buss decision to hire Mike D'Antoni instead of Phil Jackson when the team is clearly built to run PJ's system. But nobody ever said that Jim Buss knew anything about basketball. STEPHEN A SMITH GOES OFF - I was watching ESPN Friday morning and during an interview he went off on how great the Clippers are. "These dudes are legitimate." He went to say that the Clippers have to be in the conversation with the other top teams when talking about who will go deep in the playoffs and contend for the title. Then the shot heard round the world. He went on to say that the Clippers "the best show in the NBA, as far as I'm concerned, since Showtime." I assume that he is talking about the Showtime Lakers of the 80's. So, that is qute a statement. CLIPPERS STREAK - The Clippers surprised the NBA with the longest win streak of the year and the 3rd longest since 2000, only to falter and lose two road games while showing little of the team that dominated the NBA during the month of December. You could see it in their faces, the energy was gone, the fire had burned out. Maybe it was the post holiday blues. Now they start a new streak with 11 straight home wins that equals a franchise record. LAKERS TURNAROUND - The Lakers had begun to turn it around recently winning 5 in a row only to lose 2 of the last 3. Kobe has declared the Lakers old and slow. It definitely seems that way on defense. The offense is really a roster more designed to flourish using the triangle offense that Phil Jackson would have brought to the table. Instead, Jim Buss, forever the fool, brought in a coach who has never been successful with his teams on defense, was run out of town on his last job in NY, and has an offense more suitable for Oklahoma or Golden State. These teams are young and fast and shoot extremely well from the outside. The Lakers are none of these things. JIM BUSS IS THE PROBLEM - How long will it take for Laker fans to revolt and run Jim Buss out of town. Magic Johnson seems to have already started his revolt. Maybe the pending nuptials of Phil Jackson and Jeannie Buss will encourage the old man to rethink the power structure in the Lakers front office. There are smarter people all over the Laker organization than Jim Buss. His dad will be the last person to know. KOBE HAS BLAKE'S BACK - Kobe actually came to Blake Griffin's defense recently while reacting to all the talk about how frustrated teams have restarted what we saw so often last season.....really hard fouls. Earlier this season, the hard fouls had subsided, mostly because Blake wasn't always the focus of the offense since the Clippers have so many weapons and the scoring is more often than not spread around to so many players. Defenses had a lot of things to worry about and Blake wasn't always their biggest problem. Chris Paul, Jamal Crawford, and Matt Barnes has been giving opposing teams fits. Kobe said that Blake should "smack the F.......out of somebody." That's Matt Barnes job. When Matt is on the floor, I would be very careful about committing a flagrant foul on Griffin. Matt is not afraid and he might just come after you, so I would stay on the ground and out of the air. Fri, 04 Jan 2013 11:53:07 -0600 http://lakers.topbuzz.com/a-601.html With the quick firing of Mike Brown this, it goes to show you what can happen when high expectations are not met. But this was not the first time a Lakers Coach was fired quickly, for not achieving what was expected. Decades ago, a coach was summarily and unexpectedly fired from his perch as boss of the Lakers. A coach who had just two years previously, won the championship. That coach was Paul Westhead. And what happened to him speaks to circumstance, and how one event can start a chain of events that lead inexorably like falling dominos to literally change lives and history. What if I told you that one bike accident changed the lives of Jerry West, Dr. Buss, Pat Riley, Chick Hearn, Stu Lantz, Magic Johnson, Abdul-Jabbar and the destiny of the whole Lakers Showtime dynasty and even more so, the history of the Lakers itself. That if this accident didn’t happen, we may be watching the legendary broadcaster Pat Riley still calling Lakers’ games. That he would have never coached a single game? That a man named Jack McKinney might be as celebrated to Lakers fans as Riley is today? Or that the Lakers’ Showtime dynasty would never have been all that it was? Or that it may have been greater still than it ended up? All because of a bike accident. When one thinks of the Showtime, images pop into the mind’s eye for those who were lucky enough to witness that once in a lifetime juggernaut. And endless sea of fast breaks that would drown a team in minutes in blowout after blowout. Magic running it; Worthy or Nixon or Wilkes or Scott or Thompson or Mcadoo or Cooper finishing it. Kareem so regal and stoppable behind the sky hook. Michael Cooper dunking with the Coopaloop or shutting down the best scorers in the league with cerebral, impassioned, physical defense. Pat Riley coaching the machine with intelligence, verve, imagination and panache with his trademark slicked back hair and Armani suites disguising the blue collar pit bull basketball junkie he really was. Dancing Barry’s wild celebrations in the aisles of the Fabulous Forum every time out that the Laker’s overwhelmed opponents had to take to try stop the fast break blitz’s. Dr. Jerry Buss establishing himself as the best owner in team sports. The great Chick Hearn inventing the perfect phrases for what we saw on TV. It all seemed to come so easy. But that is just on the surface. In reality it was born hammered on a very hot crucible that could have burned it all down before it really started. As befitting a team sharing the stage with Hollywood, the true events were like those written in a movie script. It included such events as the young teams star player going from hero to reviled by fans to becoming the most beloved player in the teams’ history, Dr. Buss and a man’s best friend breaking a sacred promise to his sick head coach, a young championship winning head coach getting fired and a broadcaster leaving the booth to become the greatest head coach in Lakers’ history. This amazing, convoluted series of events that ended with Showtime started in twenty year old Magic’s rookie year, the 79-80 season. His first head coach was not Pat Riley. Nor Paul Westhead. It was a man named Jack McKinney. McKinney was tapped for the job by Jerry West to coach a marvelous collection of special athletes. He was a smart coach who quickly realized that in Magic and Norm Nixon, he had two players who could handle the ball at breakneck speed and make all the right passes. He instituted a system of pushing the ball at every chance, a system that would become known as Showtime and would reach its apogee under Pat Riley. This new system meshed perfectly with his players, as he knew it would, and they jumped off to a fast 10-4 start, getting better with each game. McKinney was a fitness nut and rode his bicycle as often as possible. And therein lay the first series of events that changed Lakers history and so many lives. Riding his bike to work, McKinney was involved in a horrific accident and received severe heads wounds. The damage was so bad, it was touch and go for a long while whether he would survive. To take his place, Paul Westhead, another proponent of the fast break and McKinney’s assistant and best friend was tapped to take the helm. Westhead had been the first hire of McKinney’s because of their close relationship and respect Jack had for Paul’s coaching acumen. He owed his position entirely to McKinney. Westhead cast about for an assistant and asked his friend Pat Riley to join the coaching staff. Amazingly, Riley, who would become one of greatest coaches in history was not involved in the coaching profession. Not in the pros, not in college. Not anywhere. What was he doing? Surprisingly, he was playing second banana to Chick Hearn on the Lakers broadcasts. Riley was reluctant to take the job. Hearn pushed him to do it. Riley finally relented when Hearn promised he could have his old broadcast job back when McKinney returned. Under Westhead, the team did not miss a beat and continued to tear up the league. When McKinney came out of his coma, Dr. Buss and Westhead visited him and Buss promised that the team and his job would be waiting for him when he recovered. Westhead promised to keep his seat warm and the team in good working order till his close friend would return to the helm. That year, the Lakers went on to beat the defending champion Sonics in the playoffs and upset Dr. J’s Sixer machine in the finals. The seminal moment being the game six clincher in Philly, when Abdul- Jabbar remained in LA with a leg injury and twenty year old rookie Magic Johnson had the greatest finals game in NBA history, playing all five positions, with heavy duty at the center, putting up forty two points, fifteen rebounds and seven assists in stealing the finals MVP award from an Abdul Jabbar who had dominated the Sixers and the series. After the season, the Magic carpet ride shifted into even a higher gear. The Lakers signed their young superstar to a record breaking twenty-five year twenty-five million dollar contract extension. A contract that would obviously run well past his playing days. It was also common knowledge that Magic and Dr. Buss had formed a close relationship that carried on off the court to include business interests and night clubbing together and spending hours in each other’s company. For Magic, it was the best of times. But this contract and his closeness to Buss would have a profound impact on the attitudes of some of the veteran players later on when things turned rotten for the young new comer and he expected and needed their help. The next year, McKinney was ready to return and redeem Dr. Buss’s and Paul Westhead's promise, but to his shock, hurt and dismay, Dr. Buss was no longer willing to honor it. Dr. Buss, reveling in the glory of the title and the performance of his young coach, told McKinney the job with the team McKinney had molded was no longer his to have, that it was Westhead’s job if he wanted it. McKinney felt betrayed by both men when Westhead, his best friend, decided to accept the job permanently. Just like that, McKinney was out and a life-long friendship flushed down the toilet. The bitterness inculcated in McKinney by the betrayal of both these men he trusted lasted for many years. It was only during an interview in 2006 that he had come to accept and get over the disappointment, admitting that as much as it hurt him at the time, in Westhead’s position, he too would have accepted the job even it meant destroying their friendship. The next year, the Lakers were favored to win the title. And why not? With so many great stars and Magic only expected to get better, who could beat them? And the season started out just as expected. The Lakers were better than ever and so was Magic who dramatically increased his scoring while still dishing the sugar to his teammates with typical genius and brio. Then disaster struck. In November, against Atlanta, Tom Burleson fell on Magic. Over the next few games, Magic’s knee began to make noises and pain ensued. Finally an X-ray showed torn cartilage. Magic, the young, incandescent, supremely gifted savior and everyone’s hero was out and scheduled for surgery and long rehab. Without Magic, the talented guard Norm Nixon took over the team. While not as good as they were with Magic, the team still was one of the best in the league and stayed atop the standings with the other top title contenders. But everyone was waiting for the return of the Magic to buttress the Lakers championship run. Magic missed 45 games but on February 20th, the Fabulous Forum was abuzz because Magic was finally back! The Lakers continued to win the last few weeks of the season, but things were not going smoothly. The team had adjusted to Magic’s absence and gears were thrown out of whack with his return. Norm Nixon, who had blossomed running the team in Magic’s absence, resented being returned to the role of supporting player. In the playoffs, they were scheduled to meet the Houston Rockets in the first round. Back then, this was a dreaded best of three and even worse, Houston’s center Moses Malone gave Abdul-Jabbar fits with his physicality and relentless board work. The Lakers won the first game at home, but Houston took the next in Texas. Back in LA, the nightmare scenario dropped like an atom bomb. Malone was unstoppable, Magic was aweful and the team couldn’t get in sync, and just that fast, the repeat was over and so was the season. The 81-82 season, with Magic healthy, once again started with high expectations. But inexplicably, Westhead who before and after his Lakers tenure would only run a high octane, fast break offenses put a stop on LA’s pedal to the metal style of play. He forced the team to walk the ball up the court and run the offense through Jabbar. While Jabbar loved this change, the rest of the Lakers’ thoroughbreds hated it. The Lakers got off to a 2-4 start but started to win more than they lost, but now instead of the usual blowouts, every game was a struggle, every win a torture test and their scoring plummeted. Tensions mounted as the players felt their talents were not being used to their fullest and team was not reaching its potential. In conversations with his teammates, Magic found strong support in the frustration he felt with the style of play. Except for Kareem, they told him Westhead had to go if things didn’t change. The media and fans began calling the team Slowtime. Magic and Westhead began to blame each other for the team’s problems and began to engage in a dance of death, each man blatantly disagreeing with each other and finally insulting each other during their talks in private. Magic approached Westhead and tried to tell him that the team was off course in their style of play. That he and the other players were unhappy with the new style that held them back from what they could do like no other team. Westhead didn’t want to hear it. He told Magic to get more rebounds. Magic retorted, “How can I get more when you have me playing thirty feet from the basket?" On November 18th, during a huddle against Utah, Magic asked for water. Westhead glared at him and said, “Earvin, shut up, get your ass in the huddle and pay attention.” “I am paying attention,” shot back Johnson. “You should be looking at me!” hissed Westhead. Magic held his tongue after that but the untenable situation had come to a head. After the game, Magic told reporters in the locker room that he could not play in LA any longer, that he had to leave. When the reporters asked him if he was serious, he replied, “Definitely.” Suddenly what was once looked like an unstoppable dynasty was falling apart in every way possible. The papers blared the headlines:” Magic wants out!”A choice had to be made between the star player and the coach and it was. The next day, Westhead, the usurper to McKinney’s job was fired and erstwhile broadcaster and Chick Hearn factotum Pat Riley was given the reins of power with assistant coach GM Jerry West to sit on the bench with him and watch over things. West and Buss called Magic into Buss’s office and told Magic he had handled things irresponsibly by taking his problems to the press. They informed him that they too had been disenchanted with Westhead’s Jabbar oriented Slowtime offense and they had decided to fire him, before Magic had spoken up. They told him that he should have come to them with any problems the team had with Westhead. But now that he had gone public, he would be forced to accept the blame by the fans and media because it looked like Magic had forced the Lakers to get rid of Westhead. And the blame fell on him like a rain of a summer storm. The LA newspapers and national media which before had loved the ebullient, smiling, loquacious, supremely talented Johnson, which hung on his every basketball exploit and post game interview turned on him as is their wont. Now the ultimate team player and star of the team was labeled a spoiled, selfish brat who decided when a coach could be fired. Magic knew he had only spoken what all the other players had told him and waited for his teammates to speak up to reporters. But it never happened. In a betrayal that hurt Magic just as McKinney had been hurt, his teammates were quiet as a church mouse in pew full of hungry cats. They let Magic twist in the wind and take the blame squarely alone. What did happen is certain veteran players harkened back to Magic’s unusual twenty-five year contract and close relationship with Dr. Buss and insinuated to reporters anonymously, "Does Magic’s lifelong contract make him more management than player? Does he now decide when a coach can be hired or fired? Does he decide who can make the team and also make decisions on who plays and how many minutes they get?" For Magic, it was threefold learning experience. He learned that if he had a problem with someone on the team, you keep it in house. And he also learned that when you are a young star, who suddenly arrives on a team of veterans and you overshadow them, when you are anointed by fans and media, when you are the sun that everything revolves around, if things go bad, don’t expect your teammates to have your back. They will let you take all the blame, just as you got the overweening credit when times were good. And he learned that a star of his magnitude has power he did not dream possible. That this power made it imperative that every word that escaped his mouth had to be carefully considered and weighed, least it have results and consequences he never once thought could happen. When the next game came in LA, Johnson received the fans full fury for his transgressions. The fans who had loved him so unconditionally for two plus years booed him loud and long when he was introduced. It was without question, the first time in his life when the home fans, his fans, in high school, college or the pros gave him anything but rousing cheers. As the boos resounded about the Forum, Magic set his mind in determination that he would win them all back. And of course he did. It did not take long for West to realize Riley had the goods and he quickly left his position on the bench as assistant head coach and returned to his GM office full time. Under Riley, the Lakers went back to the McKinney fast break system and Showtime was reborn, better than ever. The Lakers crushed the league and swept through the playoffs losing only two games in the finals in the entire playoffs, to the Sixers again, beating them in six games. That Lakers team was one of the most powerful NBA champions of all time. With winning comes forgiveness and their winning was obsene: Nine finals appearances in Magic’s twelve seasons. Five championships against the likes of Dr. J’s Sixers and Isiah’s Detroit Bad Boys. And most importantly of all, finally beating their long time torturers, the Boston Celtics, for the first time ever in the finals, twice, and ripping a dynasty away from Larry Bird and Beantown and placing it in LA and on Magic’s very wide shoulders while at the same time, breaking arch-rival Red Auerbach’s heart. In doing all this, orchestrating the most beautiful and deadly fast break in NBA history, with an almost prescient intelligence, an ever present smile, enthusiasm, consummate team play and an ability no player his size has shown before or since, Magic became forever, the most loved and celebrated player in Lakers history. Pat Riley went on to coach Showtime to its greatest victories, working in close collaboration with Magic and the other players to perfect McKinney’s dream of fast break machine that buried it opponents in an avalanche of points. A fast break team backed up by the unstoppable half court game of Abul-Jabbar and ferocious defensive mentality. Pat Riley, the man who may have languished forever in Chick’s huge shadow in the booth, became along with Phil Jackson, the most celebrated coach in Lakers history. He of course later went on to coach the Knicks and win yet another title as Miami’s head coach. Chick Hearn had to find another permanent broadcast partner, eventually opening the door for Stu Lantz. Paul Westhead, the man who along with Dr. Buss, reneged on his promise to McKinney went on to coach other pro and college teams, always emphasizing the fast break offense. At Loyola Marymount, his teams continually broke NCAA scoring records with their style of play. But he never approached that championship season he had in LA. Jack McKinney, the man who lost his job and was prevented by events beyond his control to fulfill his Lakers’ destiny, who was lied to and betrayed by Dr. Buss and his best friend, also went on to coach other teams. He won the NBA coach of the year leading the Indiana Pacers. But he never got his hands on a team as talented as the Lakers and he never was able to win a title. And out of all the men so integral to this story, his fate is the saddest. Because he didn’t get that chance that Westhead got and threw away through hubris and pride, or that Riley claimed with an iron fist and such passion and fire and determination. We will never know what Jack McKinney would have done. Perhaps he would have not achieved the heights of Riley. Perhaps he would have bombed out. Or maybe, he would have been even greater than Riley. And I’m sure McKinney spent many a restless, sleepless night, over the years, thinking about what might have been. And it all comes down to that innocent bike ride to work. All these men’s lives changed in that moment McKinney’s head collided with the pavement. If that had not happened, it could be McKinney who today is celebrated coach of the Showtime dynasty. If that accident wouldn’t have happened, Pat Riley may right now be still sitting in the booth, calling Lakers games, succeeding Chick Hearn as the legendary broadcaster Stu Lantz now is. And we may not even have heard of Stu Lantz. Without that accident, it is very possible Pat Riley, hall of fame coach and five time NBA head coaching champion, would never have coached a single game in his life. And what if Paul Westhead had not abandoned the fast break offense he so passionately believed in? It is possible he would be what Pat Riley is now? And that begs the question, why did a coach who lived his life for the fast break, turn his back on the greatest fast break team in history? Why did he decide to try turn it into a half court basketball team against the very philosophy he always believe in? Did he fall under the spell of the greatest half court player in history, Abdul-Jabbar? Did he, like some of the veteran players, resent the fame and close relationship the young, newly arrived star Magic had with Buss? Did he decide to show he was the reason why they won, that he could do it again by making Magic just another cog in a slow team instead of the catalyst for Showtime? Was it a combination of both reasons, or were there others? Either way, Showtime was born hard; of literal blood sacrifice, McKinney’s blood, stupid pride, a young star player’s mistakes, promises broken and betrayal. And one can’t help but wonder, if McKinney had skipped that fateful ride on that one day, what would be the history of the Lakers and all those now famous men involved in that incredibly special era and team be? Wed, 26 Dec 2012 15:48:51 -0600 http://lakers.topbuzz.com/a-598.html Lakers record in games where Kobe took 19 shots or more: 1-6 Lakers record in games where Kobe took 18 shots or less: 6-2 Lakers record in games where Howard took 11 shots or more: 6-3 Lakers record in games where Howard took 10 shots or less: 1-5 Lakers record in games where Gasol took 11 shots or more: 6-2 Lakers record in games where Gasol took 10 shots or less: 1-6 ------------------------------------- I realize that this is just a small sampling of 15 games but these facts reveal some fairly interesting trends. I see this as a carry over of the Kobe VS The Bigs debate from last year. Simply replace Bynum and Gasol with Howard and Gasol and you may see some startlingly similar results. It seems clear up to this point that the Lakers have played better and won more games when both Howard and Gasol are more involved in the offense and shooting more shots. Furthermore, in games where Kobe has taken more shots than his season average (18 shots per game), the Lakers have struggled mightily in the win/loss column. Anybody still supporting Kobe taking more shots? LOL. The Kobephiles seemed to be happy with Kobe shooting all those shots last season (a year where Kobe led the league in shot attempts per game by a wide margin), often at the expense of Gasol and Bynum. What about now that we've got a top 3 ranked NBA player in Howard? Shouldn't Howard command enough respect to get more scoring opportunities in the offense? Howard's in his playing prime now, he's developed into a proven 20 to 22+ point per game scorer over the last several years, and he's a career 57% shooter in field goal percentage, but he's averaging less than 18 points per game this year. Meanwhile, Kobe once again sits in the top 5 among all NBA players in shot attempts per game this season, and nobody else on "Kobe's team" is even in the top 50. D'Antoni offensive schemes are predicated on balanced scoring, so I think it's obvious what needs to be done, and it'll really be up to Nash to right the ship. Upon his return, unless Nash can consistently dictate the D'Antoni offense and distribute the ball in such as way as to keep Bryant's itchy trigger finger under control, while increasing the scoring opportunities for Gasol and Howard, I expect these above stated trends to continue.... I'm sure this is another thread that will be "popular" with the neg happy Kobephile crowd and the lakeshowsd hater crowd but facts are facts. Now neg away, philes. Neg away. LOL Thu, 29 Nov 2012 12:50:03 -0600 http://lakers.topbuzz.com/a-597.html In the aftermath of the Lakers loss to Memphis, there is considerable discussion going on about what is up with us. Bad coaching (now from TWO coaches), bad system, no Nash, Pau Gasol, Kobe, Howard, the bench? What ails this team so far in the early going (but getting a little beyond early). Well, one thing may have been a remark by Jerry West in this weeks Sports Illustrated reported by Dan Patrick. He asked West if the expectations for this team is too high. Wests verbatim answer: Way too high. The Lakers have names, and names don't win championships. When I look at this team, I see flaws. Well the vernerable West is echoing the same sentiments I did about this team months ago. My concerns were clear. You take a team that got unceremonously bounced from the playoffs, and bounced hard, and trade one very good center for another, in my view, not much gain if at all, then bring in old players, bad defenders to a team that already had old players and bad defenders, and Im not seeing the creation of the Super Team that was so touted by fans and media. And when you don't see an appreciable addition to a piss poor bench, well, exactly how much better is this team than the one that got bounced the last two years? As Mr. West said, I see a flawed team. And so far, under two coaches, thats exactly what they look like. It is interesting to see the blame game start to shift to the likely suspect, Pau Gasol. After all, who will blame Kobe or everyones savior Howard? So the finger of opprobrium will inexorably turn to our little flower. And play like a flower he has. But what did we expect? He has played like a flower for two years now. Did we think all of a sudden some strong, powerful man of steel would emerge for us this year? Pau is Pau. We know what he is. Pau was not expected to lead us this year any more than he has the last two. The FACT is, it is Howard who was supposed to lead us, to be the difference maker in Kobe getting his sixth, seventh, eighth, nineth and tenth rings. Just ask so many here who panted and begged for years to get Dwight here. Now its early yet, but as I said before, not that early anymore. And we can start to see the outlines of Dwights game. No, not the ESPN highlights where every time he got on the floor he was this amazing god you couldn't score on, or this man with the stamina of a deer and the heart of a lion who never had a bad game or never had a game where he didn't hustle. Now as we watch him every game, we see the real Howard, the mortal man, warts and all. And now, instead of playing in Orlando, he plays here, in Bynums exact shoes. And there is a certain difficult formula to doing that. Because on this team, the center will not always get all the looks and touches he may like. Kobe does love to shoot, especially near the end, as he did against Memphis in going 7 for 22. And like Drew, Howard is now learning that there is certain formula to playing with Kobe. And that formula says, Kobe does as Kobe wants and you have to live with it and learn to excel in other ways. Because there is no other way here. And so far, Howard has not really done it any better than Drew has. And while Drew had his own problems of his own making, aside from playing here, so does Howard, as we are learning first hand. He can't hit free throws to save his life, or this teams life. Contrary to popular belief and ESPN mythology, he does not run the floor like a deer on every play. He is not some unstoppable wall underneath as a plethora of players marching to the Lakers hoop has testified to all year. And like Stu Lantz, the long time NBA announcer and former long time player said tonight, he has never seen a player get stripped of the ball as much as Howard does. Not to offend any Howard patrons here or anybodies sensibilities, but maybe Dwight should watch some film of..um..well..Drew, to learn how to hold the ball up and not get it stripped. So far, Dwight Howard, now stripped (no pun intended) of his ESPN highlight invincibility veneer, looks so much more mortal here. Like his predecessor: A very good, flawed center. And unfortunatly, given what happened to us the last two years, he must be much more than that for us to become champions. He will have to approximate the mythological Howard of ESPN and so many Lakers fans fantasies for us to be champions. Because being a clone of Drew, not exactly like Drew, but in the end, so very similar because of his own flaws, will not be good enough for this team to overcome its other flaws. And now of course, the excuses start. The offense is not geared for him. Well, in what team with Kobe Bryant on it will it geared for the center? Did not Drew cry for more touches? Did not his proponents say the offense was sadly, not giving a man of this talents enough chances or plays run for him? The same cries from Howard proponents now are the same rehashed ones we heard for years from Drews. And like with Drew, the bottom line with Howard is this: He will only get so many plays run for him. Like Drew, he will have to learn how to function in this new Lakers team. And if he doesn't learn how to function much better than Drew did the last two years, on both sides of the floor, we can all forget about a ring. The year is young, but not so young any more. And we have a new coach. And we all await the return of Steve Nash to change this for the better, to wave his 38 year old magic wand and cure our ills. But in the end, our ultimate fate just may be a function of this reality: That on this team, Howard is really not much better than Drew, not nearly as good as we need. That our bench is still lacking way too much. That our defense is pretty much the same as it has been. That Kobe, Jamison, Metta, Nash and Pau are too old and faded to climb up that long hard mountain one last time, pulling the weight you have to. It could just be as Jerry West said. There are flaws. Too many flaws. But the season is young. So there is still hope. But just not quite as young as it was. Fri, 23 Nov 2012 23:01:38 -0600 http://lakers.topbuzz.com/a-596.html Of course the big news this last week was the Lakers firing of Mike Brown after the putative Super Team looked much less than super during its first few games. In today's Sports Illustrated, veteran NBA writer Chris Mannix wrote about the latest Lakers hi jinx of Brown's departure and what the effect the hiring of Mike D'Antonio could have on the team’s weaknesses and fortunes. It's an interesting read. From my own point of view, just looking at some to the topics he brought up and a bit more of my own: Can D'Antoni fix some of the more crucial flaws we have? Flaws that I felt were perhaps not addressed by the FO off season moves as strongly as they needed to be to insure us another title? Those being defense, three point shooting, age and the bench. That remains to be seen. And it may be that no coach can or could address those issues with the personnel given to him by the FO. It was interesting to note that even the FO now says the Princeton offense was not working. Also interesting to note that given our acquistion of Nash and Howard to go with Kobe and Pau, the Princeton offense was not an offense that played into our personnel. So the question persists, why did the Lakers take so much time and effort to go that route? Why did Coach Brown want to do it and more importantly, why did the FO sign off on it? Also interesting that last night on ESPN Kobe was asked if the team would have a problem getting rid of Brown's new offense and adopting to D'Antoni's new one. His answer: "No. We didn't even learn that one anyway." Which begs the question, Was that because it was so complicated or was it because the players really didn't believe in it or Coach Brown? Was it an indication that this train was peopled by passengers who had no interest in it's final destination nor any confidence in the ability or longevity of its conductor? Also interesting that the triangle under Phil Jackson would not have taken full advantage of our acquisition of Steve Nash, or second most important off season move after Howard. Mitch seems to indicate that had something to do with the decision not to rehire Jackson and instead go with D'Antoni, who certainly got the most from Nash and pick and roll back in their salad days in Phoenix. And there is some common sense and logic in that thinking. If you are going to give up so much for Nash, if he is going to be that important to the team, as apparently he is meant to be, why run an offense that relegates him to just another cog in a system offense? I mean since you got him, don't you have to maximize him and go full bore with him? Otherwise, what was the point of it? That is not to say D'Antoni was the best choice out of a world full of coaches. But perhaps he was a better choice than Brown or Phil given the construct of this team and what they intended when getting Nash. As I've said before, this team is better in its individual parts than its current abysmal record. And I do see better times and play ahead. I don't see how it can be otherwise. But I am also not so sure this is the Super Team it was claimed by the media and fans. It may be something more in-between when all is said and done: A good team that has too many flaws to achieve the greatness expected and predicted. With the change over to D'Antoni, the true season starts. Because how many coaches can get blamed or be fired before the FO has to start looking at the players on the floor for culpability. The next change, if it has to come, will be with those players on the floor, not the man behind the bench. In regards to this, in the article, a Western conference scout said they should move Pau if they can get a couple good (read younger, more athletic) players. And that is exactly the move I said a few weeks ago would happen if things keep going as they are. Pau would be the man to go, because he is the only one who can bring in a return that may yet rejuvenate this team if that is the prescription that is needed. You can only change coaches so often, but eventually it’s the guys on the floor, and chemistry, and synergy, and ability and yes, youth and young legs, that decide a team’s ultimate fate. And now, the article by Chris Mannix in this week’s Sports Illustrated: BROWNOUT Showing none of the verve of their Showtime forebears, the Lakers hired Mike D'Antoni, who inherits a team rife with stars-and questions By Chris Mannix Last Friday embattled Lakers coach Mike Brown arrived at the team's El Segundo, Calif., practice facility just before 9 a.m., ready to work. By 10, he was out of a job. Brown's firing was a knee-jerk reaction: What else can you call the dismissal of a coach who was trying to incorporate two new starters into one of the game's most complicated offensive systems, just five games into a season? But ownership, which, with a $100 million payroll and a pending bill for nearly $30 million in luxury taxes, wasn't willing to give Brown a chance to dig Los Angeles out of a 1-4 start. On Monday the Lakers hired Mike D'Antoni, 61, one of the NBA's elite offensive minds, who was handed the reins after negotiations with Phil Jackson broke down. L.A. will shell out $12 million over the next three years for D'Antoni-and eat the remaining $11 million on Brown's contract-because the team faced major problems in every facet of the game. OFFENSE Advocated for by Kobe Bryant in the off-season and installed by assistant Eddie Jordan-the architect of the read-and-react system that powered the Nets to the Finals in 2002 and '03-the Princeton offense was supposed to rejuvenate a team that slipped from sixth in the NBA in efficiency (111.0 points per 100 possessions) in 2010-11 to 10th (106.0) last season. Statistically, the Lakers' attack wasn't bad: After beating the Warriors 101-77 under interim coach Bernie Bickerstaff last Friday, L.A. ranked 10th in efficiency (105.2). But, says G.M. Mitch Kupchak, "I never thought we got to the point where the offense was flowing. You would see some flashes of it, but we never had a consistent flow throughout the course of a game. They either weren't getting it or it was going to take too long for them to get it, and we weren't willing to find out which of the two it was." In truth, the Lakers' personnel doesn't fit the Princeton system. Steve Nash won two MVP awards running mostly pick-and-roll in Phoenix. Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard are two of the most effective post-up players in the league. By emphasizing floor spacing, dribble handoffs and back-cuts, L.A. was ignoring its strengths. "We couldn't have contained Dwight and Pau if they'd just kept dumping it in to them," says an assistant from a Western Conference team that played the Lakers this season. "But they didn't. I was shocked." The D'Antoni Effect Even without a full training camp, D'Antoni's up-tempo attack-which has a steady diet of pick-and-rolls and allows Nash to freelance-should be easy to install. While the system will benefit Nash, adjustments must be made to enhance Bryant's role: In Phoenix and New York, D'Antoni's off-guard has been primarily a spot-up shooter. "His system in the past would have marginalized Kobe," says a Western Conference scout. "You will probably see more flex-cuts-basically running off baseline screens-for Kobe to get post isolations." DEFENSE Brown came to L.A. with a reputation as a defensive guru: In three of his five years in Cleveland, the Cavaliers finished in the top 10 in defensive efficiency. But the Lakers were porous under Brown; they finished 13th in efficiency last season and were 23rd this year before he was fired. "They had such poor floor balance," says the Western scout. "Because they were still learning the offense, the transition defense has been terrible. Before, they were very good at getting back and setting their defense. With their size and power they could load up and make you play from the perimeter." Again, personnel was a factor: Nash and Gasol are mediocre defenders, three-time Defensive Player of the Year Dwight Howard is recovering from off-season back surgery, and Bryant is only effective in spurts. "If Kobe is allowed to be physical, he's O.K.," says an Eastern Conference scout. "But he can't stay in front of the fast guys anymore." The D'Antoni Effect In the past D'Antoni has been criticized for not devoting enough practice time to D. In seven full seasons as a coach, his teams have never finished higher than 13th in defensive efficiency. While the improvements on offense will likely smooth the transition defense, the fact remains that even if D'Antoni hires a top defensive assistant-which as of Monday he hadn't-L.A.'s defensive deficiencies are due more to personnel than tactics. BENCH After finishing at the bottom of the league in second-unit scoring last season (20.5 points per game), the Lakers acquired veterans Antawn Jamison, Jodie Meeks and Chris Duhon-and Brown didn't trust any of them. In a win over the Pistons last week, Brown reinserted his starters after Detroit cut the lead to 24 points (24 points!) with less than nine minutes to go in the fourth quarter. At week's end L.A.'s reserves were averaging 20.7 points, second worst in the NBA. The D'Antoni Effect The new coach's system should squeeze more production out of the reserves, but he isn't a magician. At week's end Jamison was averaging just 8.0 points per 36 minutes (down from 18.7 last season), and Meeks was shooting 28.6%. Unless the Lakers move Gasol-"If they could get a decent starter and two reserves for Pau, they should do it," says an Eastern Conference executive-they are still going to lean heavily on their starters. Howard's ailing back and Bryant's slowing feet haven't helped L.A.'s overly generous defense. Coaching a championship team isn't easy-since 1996 only seven men have done it-and from Andrew Bynum's defiant behavior last season to the viral video of Bryant's icy glare at Brown late in a loss to Utah this season, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that L.A.'s star-studded roster wasn't buying into Brown. "The [players'] body language was terrible," says the Western Conference scout. "Watch them coming out of timeouts or setting up some of the new plays in the half-court. They didn't look like a team that trusted the system they were playing in." The D'Antoni Effect This is where D'Antoni will have an immediate impact. He has the complete confidence of Nash, who became a superstar when they joined forces on the Suns. Bryant grew up watching D'Antoni play in Italy and played under him in 2008 and '12, when D'Antoni was a U.S. Olympic assistant. D'Antoni is regarded as a players' coach, and his track record gives him instant credibility. That's important, because the clock is ticking. Jackson's triangle offense and championship experience would have improved the Lakers, but D'Antoni's fast-paced system could make them even better. Though if the players continue to perform-and, particularly, defend-as they did under Brown, there isn't a coach on the planet who can save L.A.'s season. Fri, 16 Nov 2012 14:26:45 -0600 http://lakers.topbuzz.com/a-595.html JamFan aka Don Allen Last Night after the Clipper telecast on ESPN, where the Clippers beat the Miami Heat 107-100, there was a roundtable discussion where Magic Johnson was commenting about his disappointment that the Lakers did not hire Phil Jackson as the head coach. He went on to say that he loves Dr Buss, but does not believe in Jim Buss. He repeated it twice for emphasis. He said that Jim Buss has now made two critical mistatkes. Magic didn't seem to think that Coach Brown was the right coach in the first place, and went on to say that D'Antoni was not the right coach for the Lakers either. Magic had also tweeted that the reason he hasn't tweeted in two days was because he was in mourning that the Lakers did not hire Jackson. Magic is not the only person to question the management skills of Jim Buss. Other commentators around the country are wondering if he is in over his head. He quickly hired Brown reportedly without consulting his star Kobe Bryant and many wondered why. Then 5 days into the season he fires Brown thereby giving him an 11 million dollar paid vacation. Then he hires D'Antoni over the greatest coach of all time. All of this leaves many wondering about the quality of the decisions that Jim Buss makes. Coach D'Antoni has never won anything and all you have to do is go and read everything that happened in New York where D'Antoni resigned after two disappointing seasons. When Magic speaks, people listen. Especially the Laker Nation. Unfortunately, Mike D'Antoni and Jim Buss are going to be under a microscope. If this coaching decision blows up in Jim's face, then what happens? Stay tuned. So Jim Buss hires Mike D'Antoni after reportedly telling Phil Jackson to let him know if he wants the job and to think about it over the weekend. The fans were surprised. The players were surprised. The sportswriters were surprised. Phil Jackson was surprised. But you know you have a small PR problem when the head coach you just hired is also surpirsed. Just yesterday, one of ESPN's top radio show announcers spent a lot of time trying to find out how many ways he could characterize what the Lakers did to Phil Jackson as "Slimy." However, as fans, it is time to just get over it. Wishing for PJ isn't going to change anything at this point. We need to move "Forward." At least D'Antoni's offense is a lot more fun to watch. That is if this current lineup can pull it off. The team is rallying around Mike, displaying an desire to embrace the run and gun offense. Kobe called Mike a feisty dude and an offensive genius. Kobe spent time with Mike during the Olympics and apparently developed a positive relationship. So why was there so much anxiety among the fans over this decision? They had available the most sucessful coach in the history of the NBA. A coach who has more championship rings than he has fingers to display them on. A coach that has a history of winning championships with the Lakers in LA. A coach who has a history of winning championships with your star, Kobe Bryant, and a dominant center. He is a coach that has proven time and time again that when he gets to the championship series, he can get the job done. A coach who is willing and able to take over the reigns of you franchise that seems to be in trouble and restore it to it's former glory. That coach is Phil Jackson. So, what do the Lakers do? They hire a coach that has never won a championship. They hire a coach that has never even made it to a championship game. They hire a coach whose system has proven that as you move further into the playoffs, it becomes less and less successful. They hire a coach who has never been able to get a team to play defense. They hire a coach that had success with Steve Nash when he was a lot younger than he is today. They hire a coach who is a run an gun guy, who will be running with a team that has 3 stars that are way past their prime. They hire a coach whose offense depends a lot on having players who can hit the 3, something this team hasn't been all that good at doing. They hired a coach who had to resign after two disappointing season as the head coach of the Knicks. Things didn't go well in New York. They took a gamble and hired an experiment. Jerry Buss, Jim Buss, and Mike Kupchak, were all reportedly on board saying that Mike D'Antoni was the right guy for this current lineup of players. It is a nice thought. But at a time when this franchise may only have Kobe and Steve Nash for a couple more years, and need to sign Dwight Howard to a long term deal, and need to win now, is this the time for an experiement? is this the time to be taking a gamble that this is going to work? Why would they do this? Some NBA commentators are starting to speculate that maybe it is all about money. They have to eat the remaining 11 million on Coach Brown's contract. Apparently, they are not paying D'Antoni very much, maybe only 4 Mil per year. So, the money they have to pay Brown and D'Antoni combined is less than what they would have to pay Phil Jackson. After all the money they have spent on the roster making it the biggest payroll in NBA histroy, and after the obscene luxury tax, is this the time to go cheap on an unproven coach??? With the signing of Phil Jackson, I was going to instantly move the Lakers way up on my Power Rankings. Now, it will a matter of the team having to prove it to me. With Phil Jackson, I know this team was going to compete for a championship. Now, we could see veteran players breaking down with injuries while trying to run a young man's offense. If Kobe, or Dwight, or Steve, or Pau are not there for the playoffs, our chances are diminished. Running the Triangle, the chances of all those players being there for the stretch run would have been greatly increased. I admit that I am tired of watching the Triangle offense. It isn't that exciting to watch anymore. On the other hand, Mike D'Antoni's run and gun style is fun to watch and a lot more entertaining. The only thing is that Mike D's system has won anything yet, and the Triangle has. This experiment might work......it might not. I hope it does. Mon, 12 Nov 2012 10:29:14 -0600 http://lakers.topbuzz.com/a-594.html When trumpets were mellow And every gal only had one fellow No need to remember when 'Cause everything old is new again Dancin' at church, Long Island jazzy parties Waiter bring us some more Baccardi We'll order now what they ordered then 'Cause everything old is new agian Get out your white suit, your tap shoes and tails Let's go backwards when forward fails And movie stars you thought were alone then Now are framed beside your bed Don't throw the pa-ast away You might need it some rainy day Dreams can come true again When everything old is new again Get out your white suit, your tap shoes and tails Put it on backwards when forward fails Better leave Greta Garbo alone Be a movie star on your own And do-on't throw the past away You might need it some other rainy day Dreams can come true again When everything old is new again When everything old i-is new-ew a-again I might fa-all in love wi-ith you again - Everything old is new again: lyrics by P Allen and C.B. Sager. Reports say that the old Lakers coach, Phil Jackson will meet with the Lakers today to see if he has the desire to become their new coach in the wake of Coach Browns sudden departure. I suspect very soon the news will break that the Zen Master has accepted the job. Like most powerful, accomplished men, Phil has a powerful, accomplished ego. It was obvious during and after the Dallas sweep he was somewhat surprised, shocked and dismayed to end his career on such a dismal note. I don’t think Phil anticipated or really accepted going out that way. I think he envisioned going out as he ended so many of seasons, on top, the champion of the basketball world. This team also contains someone who Phil has often stated is one of his favorite players: Dwight Howard. Howard’s mere presence here is a lure that Phil will find hard to resist. The Lakers could have gone in many directions. Taking a veteran coach of their pick, or even going with a young, well regarded assistant, of which there are many in the NBA, whose names may not be known to us, but are certainly known to Mitch and Jim Buss. That the Lakers are turning to Phil is no surprise. He was the savior twice in the last few decades. He is considered one of the greatest coaches in NBA history and the fact that he dates the daughter’s owner certainly does not hurt his resume and it does give a certain inside track to getting the job. And there is another reason for Phil’s return. When the present seems dismal, when forward fails, people tend to put their backwards on and hope a return to an earlier, successful time will make their dreams come true again. So with Phil’s return, the cycle comes complete. A new team, and redoux call to a coach, Phil Jackson to wave his magic wand and bring about what he has so often in his career: A return to the finals and championship parade. Indeed, for the Lakers, with their new team and new/old coach, everything old does seem new again. For the Lakers, it means a return and embrace of old familiar faces and the re institution of the triangle, or some bastardized form of it. And because in times of trouble and discord, people will quickly embrace an earlier, happier time, Phil will be welcomed and fans will fall in love with him again. Since we have had nothing but rainy days under Coach Brown, we now return to Phil Jackson, hoping to replicate sunnier skies. The question of course is, how old and how new is this team and coach? The Lakers are still a work in progress. Center Dwight Howard is playing terrific ball. But no more terrific than his predecessor. The bench still looks abysmal, just like the one that helped doom Phil his last year here. The defense looks as shaky as it did against Dallas and OKC. Our new point guard can’t get on the court because his old body is injured. And when he does finally return, will the old Steven Nash have enough left to help make this a new team, not just a copy of the old one? And so Phil returns. A fresh new start to a new team. That is the FO’s hope and our hope. And it has to be, because if it’s not, things will get ugly. So Phil is back and new questions about this team will be answered in the weeks and months ahead. Is this really new team, to be straightened out by our new/old coach, or really just another slightly changed iteration of the old team that lost to Dallas and OKC? A team that no coach can make new? And what of Phil? Is the new coach the Phil of old, who helped two Lakers teams turn things around and find their potential in championship banners, or is he just the old Phil who seemed so disconnected his last year, who needed Kobe to tell him to make defensive switches that seemed so obvious to Kobe and even fans? Is this the Phil with fire in his eyes and mind, who molded the Jordan Bulls and the Shaq and Kobe Lakers, or is he the ailing, physically and mentally enervated coach who purportedly asked the Lakers if he could only coach home games if he were to stay on as coach? And the answers to those questions will show us exactly what happens to your new/old team and our new/old coach. Right now for the Lakers, with the impending return of Jackson, everything old is new again. As to the question of whether it will be successful, that will be determined by if this team and coach are indeed something new, or really just something old trying to look new. Sat, 10 Nov 2012 14:10:28 -0600 http://lakers.topbuzz.com/a-593.html JamFan aka Don Allen The Lakers responded to Coach Brown's firing with their first blow out win of the season over the Warriors 101-97. This 24 point win at home featured 37 points by the bench while Dwight Howard only scored 6 points. It is amazing to watch the Lakers win playing as a team. In their first win over Detroit, Kobe only had 15 points. Overall, Coach Bickerstaff played the starters far fewer minutes than Coach Brown. Kobe did have quite a night with 27 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists, and 2 steals. Which brings us to the big elephant in the room, Phil Jackson. Their was already speculation that Phil was the leading candidate to once again become the Lakers head coach. Then in last nights game, the fans were cheering "We want Phil." Reports now say that the Lakers front office is also chanting "We want Phil." Sources say that they will be calling Phil again Saturday to see if he wants his old job back. It seems like the Lakers lineup is built to be a great triangle offense team, but their are problems with a bringing in Jackson at this point. The obvious thing is that the triangle isn't all that easy for everybody to learn. Coach Jackson likes to come in, have a great camp and preseason, and prepare his team for opening day. A mid season switch will be tricky. There are only a couple of players remaining that were here when Jackson ran the triangle the last time, so most of the players will be students. Also, Phil likes to have his own hand picked assistants to help him guide the team. They often run the practices while he watches from the sidelines. He likes to be the director without being the orchestrator. Will we see a wholesale removal and replacement of the entire coaching staff? Will we see the return of Derek Fisher as a player coach? Will we see Derek Fisher return as an assistant coach? Just thinking out loud. Coach Brown's tenure here was a strange event. Early on it was reported that Kobe was not consulted about his hiring. Many felt he was a nice guy but just not good enough to coach the Lakers. Kobe seemed miffed about the hiring at first but seemed to like playing for Brown. Kobe also doesn't appear to have been consulted about his firing either, and seemed to support Coach Brown after the fact. The Lakers, who already have the largest payroll, and a huge luxury tax, will reportedly eat the remaining 11 million on Browns contract. What a paid vacation he is going to have. Moreover, if they hire Phil, expect that to cost a ZenMillion more. I guess the Lakers have deep pockets. One early report says that the Lakers are also interested in signing Mike D'Antoni as their next head coach. Two problems with that arise. For one thing, Mike has not been a coach that has had much success coaching defense with any team. Unfortunately, that is a weakness the Lakers are already displaying on the court and you have to wonder if Coach D'Antoni is the answer for that problem. In the past, his stategy has been all about just ourscoring the opposing team. Also, Coach D'Antoni's fast paced, shoot first, think later, style of offense may not be well executed by a Laker lineup that has stuggled with the fast break. Once upon a time, Steve Nash was a master at running Mike's offense in Phoenix, but does he still have the legs at age 38 to lead that offense. Stay tuned because these reports have just hitting airwaves and we will know more as this situation developes. We will update you on TopBuzz Fri, 09 Nov 2012 12:48:19 -0600 http://lakers.topbuzz.com/a-592.html all the leaves are brown and the sky is grey I've been for a walk on a winter's day I'd be safe and warm if I was in L.A California Dreamin' on such a winter's day stopped into a church I passed along the way well, I got down on my knees and I began to pray you know the preacher likes the cold he knows I'm gonna stay California Dreamin' on such a winter's day - California Dreamin' -The Mommas and the Poppas With the Lakers loss tonight, the Super Team assembled during Mitch Kupchak’s genius off season falls to 1-4. It’s early in the year, so this is still a very small sample of games. Things could get a lot better, somewhat better, or in a nightmare scenario, not any better at all. On a team peopled with a Kobe Bryant, a Dwight Howard, a Pau Gasol, one certainly expects some improvement. But how much? In light of present, early events, would a decent year with a playoff loss now become a happy ending? No, not with the expectations of the dream Super Team heralded before the season. The fact is, this year is championship or bust. Anything less would be failure, and right now, currently, it’s nothing less than disaster. What will happen down the road? Who knows, though after five games one can’t help but notice some very alarming that are showing up with a frightening consistency. If this keeps up, or if something less than expectations continue to happen in the next few weeks and months ahead, what will happen? What would be the fallout and how far would it go? Where will the dominos fall? Because one thing is sure, dominos, and heads, will fall. In high pressure, heavy expectations world of big business or sports, when a paradigm that was forecast so strongly falls so far short, heads end up rolling. It’s just the nature of the business. This is supposed to be the California dream of a Super Team. A noble and good dream. One that would stand in the pantheon of Lakers and NBA greats. And Mitch Kupchak and Jim Buss sacrificed a lot to that dream. But as we all know, dreams can be funny things. They seem real at first when we have them, when we exist inside them, but as the dream goes on, we notice things. Things that are not right, things that tell us, it’s not real, but a dream. And dreams are very ethereal, ephemeral, unstable things. A pleasant dream that one is enjoying so very much can quickly turn into a nightmare that brings dread. And if the dream of the California Super Team goes bad, if it shifts from heaven to hell, there will be people made to pay a stiff price for all of us living a nightmare. The first head, or scape goat, if you will, to fall, will no doubt be Coach Brown. Regardless whether one thinks he’s a good coach, a lousy coach or something in between, he is one who’s head will roll under the lethal axe first. The reasons are simple. Mitch gave him the Super Team dream and said, “Go get that title guy.” And if he doesn’t get it, he’s gone. If at some point this season, Mitch decides Brown can’t get it, he’s gone. But when you examine this team, did Brown really get a dream Super Team? Not in my view. The major addition to this team was Dwight Howard. He was the savior, the guy who would bring the heart, hustle and game that his predecessor Andrew Bynum lacked. He would cure Bynum’s ills and also our defensive problems all at once. It’s what Mitch thought, it’s what so many fans thought. But tonight, once again, Howard had a very good game. A very Andrew Bynum type of game. He was also played to a standstill by Utah’s not so special centers. I don’t blame Howard for not making the huge impact over Drew that so many predicated and obviously Mitch expected. For one, Howard is not the man here any longer. Now he is part of the Kobe Lakers. Second, he now has to play with a very flawed team, just as Drew did. He has to share space and rebound with and against Pau Gasol, he has to play with a bench that stinks, he has to play with guys who can’t hit outside shots with any consistency, all things he did not have to contend with in Orlando. In other words, Mitch traded a very good center in Bynum, who had to deal with certain difficulties here, for another good center in Howard, who now has to face the same things Drew did. His defense also is not appreciably better than Drew’s. So in essence, so far, the Howard for Drew trade was a lateral one, not a large jump foreword that was the prerequisite for a Lakers championship run. One could almost say Dwight, right now, can be termed Andrew Howard. Second, Mitch did nothing to secure this team from the horrific bench play of the last few years. Yes, he let some middling players go, then replaced them with other middling players. Why would he expect some major change in production there? Did he sign any bench player that had any fan thinking, Oh man, this guy is really going to jump start the bench? The biggest name was Antwon Jamison, an old man whose best years are in the past. Was this the guy Mitch thought would turn a bare and bereft cupboard into shelves full of tasty food? And Jamison’s age brings up perhaps the most problematic issue his offseason failed to address: Age. On a team that was obviously long in the tooth and unathletic, he not only did not fix the issue, but doubled down on the problem. Instead of getting younger and more athletic, he actually made this team older with the additions of a fading Jamison and a bona fide relic named Steve Nash. Which begs a very logical question for any Lakers fan: How do you take a team that is too old and unathletic to win a championship, make it even older, and expect it to get even better than it was the last two years? That answer didn’t come to my mind back then, and after five games this year, I still don’t see that answer. Where Mitch should have been trying to move heaven and earth getting rid of old players like Metta, and even aging players like Pau or Blake with younger ones, instead he left that age on the team and added Jamison and Nash, and somehow thought it was a fix? And what did we give up for all this? Draft pick after draft pick. First round ones. Enough to start a rebuilding process for a team if you have a good front office. And what did Mitch do to buttress a defense that was so horrible for two years? He signed Howard. A good defensive move. One that you could expect to really help us improve over the last two years….. if our last center was Vlad Divac. But Drew was a pretty good defensive center. And just his size alone down in the blocks intimidated foes, even on the nights he didn’t want to play defense. So how much defensive improvement did he expect here? A ton? So much it would turn this team into a champion? And what else did Mitch do to improve this massive Achilles heel that ripped the life and championship hopes from this team the last two seasons? Well, he kept an old Metta, he kept Blake and he signed….um…those defensive stalwarts Anton Jamision and that renowned stopper, 38 year old Steve Nash. Given all that, are we that surprised the half court defense and the transition defense looks exactly like last years? And what if in a total melt down situation, this team doesn’t even make the playoffs? Just suppose, in some apocalyptic season, we were even a lottery team. What would we get for it? Nothing. Courtesy of Mitch Kupchaks wholesale give away of high draft picks to get old men and nothing players. Today, as watched the Utah game, as I saw Utah’s centers play Andrew Howard to a dead standstill, as I watched again our defense not defend the perimeter or the post, as I watched the same old sad bench get outplayed, for seemingly the millionth time in three years, as I watched the aging Kobe and Metta and Pau and Blake, I heard the Utah announcers say something interesting. They said, “This Lakers team may not be nearly as good as people thought.” Gee, why wouldn’t this team be as good as people thought? Our best improvement was barely an improvement over the last player at his position. We did nothing to fix the bench or defense and made an old team older. Why wouldn’t this team be as good as people thought? I have no idea. But in the end, it doesn’t matter what the media thought or the Lakers fans thought. What was paramount was what Mitch and Jim Buss thought. How they thought not improving the bench would help. How they thought trading one good center for another would give us that over -the -Miami -Heat -edge. How they thought doubling down on age, bringing in over the hill players like Jamison and a true fossil in Nash, and keeping old timers like Metta would somehow solve the age problem on this team. If this keeps up, the dominos will start to fall. Coach Brown will be the first. That is not speculation but fact. And it may not take much longer. He is the coach and he will answer for the Super Teams failure. For the simple fact that Mitch will not admit doubling down on age was an error, or that trading one good center for another was not some quantum leap forward. In the end, Mitch will not fire himself. He will not blame age, Kobe, Howard, Nash, Metta, Blake, Pau or the bench. In other words, he will not blame the team he put together to win a championship. His finger will turn inexorably to Coach Brown, rightly or wrongly. And Coach Brown will be the first domino to fall if this season continues to fail. And then what? What if Coach Brown is sacrificed for his shortcomings, real or perceived and a new person takes the helm? And what if under this new coach, things stay the same? What if the older guys look old, if the relics look like statues or keep getting hurt and Andrew Howard keeps manning the pivot with good play that is not much better than Bynum’s? What if the defense still sucks and bench is but a benign puff of breeze the other teams don’t even feel? What if we fail under the new coach? What if at the end of this year, the media and fans say: Boy were we wrong. But more important, what if at the end of the year, it becomes devastatingly clear Mitch was so totally wrong? Because what the media and fans think doesn’t matter a bit. What the GM thinks and does, matters in every regard. So what if the great California Lakers Super Team dream turns into a black, dark nightmare vision? One that we can’t wake up from, even if we change coaches and systems or even linups? What it turns into a never ending cold, bitter winters day, not a bountifully summer stroll? So if it does fall apart, how far should the dominos fall? Will they fall past Brown, up to Mitch? Will it also fall downwards to the team and its players? Will the team be fractured, melted down, broken up in total so that next year we won’t recognize it except for some of the few component parts that we know will remain, namely Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard? And what of the savior, Dwight Howard? If things collapse here and it gets ugly, dirty, nasty and mean. If the dream he signed on for, the sweet title run turns into a nightmare of losses and back biting and confusion? Will Dwight decide to re-up or will he decide to take his show to some environ less unstable and volatile? If these things happen, what should happen to the architects of all this? To Mitch Kupchak and Jim Buss? What should happen to the two men who traded away a kings ransoms worth of draft picks for nothing but faded names, distant memories and the dream of a Super Team that perhaps will prove to have only have been super six years ago? Will they fire themselves or would daddy do it to them? Would daddy Buss call them to the wood shed and say, What on earth did you do to my team? Our present? Our future? Would daddy cut the GM and his sons throat in some sacrifice of pride and penitence? Or will Jim Buss, that famous neer do well and man of leisure, a man in the comfy position of being the owners son be looking for his own brand of blood sacrifice to cleanse his own so very dirty hands off the Super Team disaster? Will he call Mitch up to his own office and give him that last one-way ride that almost all GM’s eventually take in the wake of a disaster? Would Jim perhaps even welcome that chance to replace the GM with a man of his own choosing, a creature of his own device, moving yet one more step from the massive shadow of his legendary father? Or in the end, if this all falls on its collective face, will Buss and Kupchak just blush, smile a little, look out upon the shambles of the now and the future and say, “Ooops”, as if they only spilled a glass of milk and keep drawing those huge salaries as though all is well? As though the California Dream was still alive? Will that small, uttered "ooops" be enough to make everyone forget? And should it? Coach Brown will go. Probably soon. The gears of our current failure are going to grind him out to that resolution. But the question is, when you are handed a dream called a Super Team, with all those expectations from fans, the media and front office, but wake up realizing you have been given Team Geriatric, how much are you to blame and could anyone win a title with it? That’s a question that the next Lakers coach will have to try answer. But if things don’t turn around under his successor, if we don’t go to into the new coaches dream and encounter something more pleasant In the new collective slumber, how far should the dominos fall and more importantly, how far will they when we all wake up for the final reckoning? Thu, 08 Nov 2012 03:21:53 -0600 http://lakers.topbuzz.com/a-591.html There are two things Lakers fans are going to learn this year: One is the all seeing sports microscope, the other is about who is the man on a team and what it can do for his game when he is, and against his game when he’s not. Both these things will play into our team this year involving our New Treasure, Dwight Howard. The guy so many assured us would solve all our problems, including our Drew problem, which as we all know, to hear so many tell, was the cause of our playoff disappointments of late. And the sports microscope works like this: When a player is on YOUR team, you see him every night. You see the good games he has, the nice plays he makes. And you also see the other side, game after game. The rebounds he misses, when a player drives past him for a layup, when he doesn’t make the right pass or declines to run the floor hard to stop a fast break. And when Andrew Bynum manned the pivot, we put him under that large electron microscope that magnified EVERY play. While on the east coast, Dwight Howard played outside our microscope. So all we knew were the stories. He was relentless, hustled on every play, was the exact opposite of what Drew’s detractors said Drew was. In other words, he was the anti-Drew, the answer to all our problems, especially on defense. They were the stories Drew haters and Howard fans bought lock, stock and barrel in their endless cacophony to swap Drew for a New Treasure that would bring us to the Promised Land. And now he’s here, the New Treasure. And now he’s also under the big microscope, the same one Drew played under. Because instead of just tales and legends, we get to see him, game after game, play after play. And after three games, the one thing that sticks out is our center position, with Dwight, looks so amazingly Drew like. Last night’s game was just another example of the other two. Howard, like Drew, certainly has talent. It is obvious. He makes good plays, like Drew. But now, under the microscope, the rest of him is there to see too. And what we have seen is well….Drew like. Howard has not shut down the middle, making it a black hole, as was advertised. Players still drive to the basket. Howard has not run the floor like a tireless deer, stopping opponent’s transition game. He is not scoring 25 or more a game. And last night, against a team that is not manned by Wilt Chamberlain in the post, he had a meager 13 points and 8 rebounds and was the main culprit as to why the Clippers had a 20-5 second chance point’s edge. Now we all know what would have happened with Drew had that been his game. The big microscope would have been fired up and the criticisms leveled en masse. And deservedly so. But with Howard, I heard this: Well he was in foul trouble, and, Well, nobody passed him the rock. And I would say, as Drew’s critics did, whose fault was it that he was in foul trouble? And nobody passed him the rock??? Hmmm…..that sounds vaguely familiar. Nobody passed him the rock? Where have I heard that before? Ohhh, yeah, now I remember, I heard that about a 100 times in the last three years about Drew!! That’s where it was! And to those who said it, who used those excuses, I would say, Welcome to Drewhood. It took three games under the big microscope for Howard’s defenders to sound, well….exactly like Drew’s defenders!! Imagine it! See how things change when the a player is no longer just a story, some tale to be told from across the country. Some Chimera, some legend that you don’t get to see and evaluate every single play? Now Howard is here, and looking very Drew like, he begins to reap Drew like excuses for failings from the very fans who attacked Drew for the same things. And that is the function of being under the big microscope. Now Howard is not some magical thing who never has a bad game or makes bad plays, who always runs the floor and is the defensive stopper you can’t broach or puncture. Now, like Drew, he’s a real player, warts and all. And on a night when 25 points and 17 rebounds would have done us well, he didn’t come close to giving what we needed, or what the magical Howard’s fans said he would have given, in lieu of Drew. Instead we got the real Howard, just a man, just a good center, like Drew. The second thing to remember is that unlike in Orlando, Howard is no longer the main man here. Like Drew, he won’t get the rock like he did in Orlando. Now he is just a part of the Kobe machine, and like Drew, he will have to find his way in that complex device. And it’s not gonna be the same. Now Howard will have all the offensive limitations placed on him that Drew did. Because for good or bad, that’s the name of the game here In LA. So here it is, now Drew will be under Philly’s big microscope; those fans will no doubt give Drew just as hard a look as we did, and the New Treasure, Howard will now be under ours. And if Howard continues to be so very Drew like, you can bet his adherents will join Drewhood in bringing up all the same excuses and frustrations Drew’s adherents did for years. So far, Howard looks so very much like Drew. Just smaller and not as good on the free throw line. But then, it’s only been three games, a very small scientific sample to be sure, so we will have plenty more time to slice Howard up, game after game, play after play, put him on the glass slide, turn on the power and magnify his game under our scope that never misses a thing. Maybe we will see more eventually, than we did looking at Drew, or maybe not. That will be seen as the year goes on. But for now, I would like to welcome the New Treasure Dwight, to the Lakers, not the Magic anymore, not to tales and stories, but now to performance we get to see, to his new situation, and to his burgeoning Drewhood. And I would be remiss not to welcome his fans, those who are already saying things like, Oh, he was in foul trouble, or, Oh they didn’t pass him the rock, or, Oh, his back hurts, Welcome friends, to Drewhood, just on the other side of the same coin. See it’s not so hard to make excuses after all, is it? When it’s your guy. Sat, 03 Nov 2012 16:40:42 -0500 http://lakers.topbuzz.com/a-590.html JamFan aka Don Allen PIC OF THE DAY - While most of the rest of the Lakers took the night off, Kobe scored 40 of the Lakers 95 points. Hit hit 14 of 23 shots and all 10 of his free throws. He also had 6 rebounds and two steals. BATTLE FOR LA - The opening salvo in the Battle of LA went to the Clippers 105-95. For the Lakers it was a story of to much Kobe and not enough team. Coach Brown played four of his starters 38 minutes or more and would have played Dwight Howard more except for foul trouble. Kobe went for 40 points in 43 minutes but his team didn't follow. If the Lakers are going to try and use this strategy for the rest of the season they are going to lose a lot more than they should. But what are they going to do? The Clipper bench had another monster game outscoring the Laker's bench 46 -16. The Clippers bench scored 49 on opening night. Overall, the Clippers had 7 players score 8 points or more. Jamal Crawford led the way with 21 points for the Clippers, and Chris Paul had 18 points, 15 assists, 6 rebounds, and 3 steals. Even if Steve Nash plays, the Lakers do not have the answer for CP3 and Eric Bledsoe at the point guard position. GAME 1 - PLAYER MATCHUPS CENTER - ADVANTAGE LAKERS - Dwight Howard won this battle last night but had subpar game for him. He finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds while DeAndre Jordan had only 4 points and 5 rebounds. Both player sat our with foul trouble and were not decisive in the game. POWER FORWARD - NO ADVANTAGE - Both power forwards played well with Blake having 15 points, and 8 rebounds, while Pau went for 10 points and 14 rebounds. SHOOTING GUARD - ADVANTAGE LAKERS - Kobe went for 40 points in 43 minutes while Jamal Crawford had 21 points off the bench for the Clippers. Kobe's heroic effort couldn't bring the Lakers a win because the rest of the team didn't perform. SMALL FORWARD - ADVANTAGE CLIPPERS - Caron Butler had a nice shooting night hitting 5 of 7 shots in route to 14 points. Metta on the other had hit only 3 of 10 shots and went 1 of 7 from the 3 for 8 points. POINT GUARD - ADVANTAGE CLIPPERS - This battle wasn't even close as the combination of Chris Paul and Eric Bledsoe dominated the Laker point guards. Having Steve Nash available would have helped but he is just not fast enough to contain either one of the Clippers PG's. THE BENCH - ADVANTAGE CLIPPERS - The Clipper bench ourscored the Lakers bench 46 - 16. Enough said. SEASON ADVANTAGE - CLIPPERS - The Clippers have now beaten the Lakers once in the preseason, and in their opening game of the regular season. TiIME TO PANIC YET? - The Lakers have started the season 0 - 3 for the first time since 1978. When asked about this Kobe "jokingly" asked everybody to just shut up. With tens of thousands of Laker fans still blacked out, and maybe watching Clippers games instead, this is going to be public relations nightmare until the Lakers start to win again. THE TEAM - The Lakers have a starting lineup that is equal to the best in the NBA. They traded away Andrew Bynum to get Dwight Howard and signed Steve Nash and Antawn Jamison as free agents. Jodie Meeks, Jordan Hill, and Devin Ebanks could be dangerous weapons off the bench. Let's hope that after we have a few games with everybody available, that the chemistry starts to develope and the team starts to win. So far the bench hasn't provided much. The right pieces are in place, and the bench is going to eventually be better than advertised, they just need a few more games to get their rythym going. And our bigs need to stop any kind of penetration in the lane. Our interior defense needs to improve. HACK-A-HOWARD - In the first game we are already starting to see a strategy of just fouling Dwight if he is close to the basket instead of letting him score. Teams are doing this consistantly against the Clippers DeAndre Jordan. Jordan and Howard both share the same deficiency in hitting free throws. Last season the Clippers literally couldn't play Jordan late in the 4th quarter. The Lakers might be faced with the same dilemma. Dwight only hit 3 of 14 free throws in game 1. To show how the tactic can backfire, Howard hit most of his free throws in game 2. COACHING CONTROVERCY - In our Forum you are already starting to hear the drum beat of fans wondering if Coach Mike Brown is the right guy to coach this team. If the Lakers underperform, the media and sportwriters will be next. It seems a little early for this but the expectations are high and the Lakers haven't won a game yet. How long will they stay with the Princeton offense if they don't start to click. Kobe can change the offense all by himself if he gets fed up with the results. The coach can go along for the ride.....or not. Mon, 17 Sep 2012 01:36:40 -0500 http://lakers.topbuzz.com/a-589.html After a very interesting off season, the most fecund and energetic I can remember, the Lakers are poised to regain a spot at the top of the rankings and reclaim the NBA title. The whole league and its fans no doubt bracing for an athletic and ratings Armageddon, the Los Angeles Lakers vs the defending champions Miami Heat. Kobe vs Lebron. Old legend vs new. Winner take all. Could it really get more spellbinding, more exciting, more energizing than that? For the last series comparable, you would have to travel back in time 30 years to the Magic-Bird historic finals confrontations. While Lakers fans rejoice in the moves of the front office and some fans of other teams no doubt viewing our off season as an NBA/Stern conspiracy to get Kobe and highly rated Lakers back into the finals. I have never bought into any of those silly conspiracy theories. The league survives and thrives over the long run no matter who the strong teams are in a particular year. No man as smart and in tune with reality as Stern would risk the very league and jail time to do something that is totally unnecessary. But regardless of how certain fans feel this came about, the maneuvering of the Lakers FO or the dark, unfathomable strings pulled by Stern, the bottom line is this season is more anticipated by Lakers fans than any in recent memory. In one summer, the whole dynamic of our team and its hopes seems to have changed from a fading has been to new and powerful championship favorite. The last time this happened, this kind of ultra powerful, fundamental change occurred was when we signed Karl Malone and Gary Payton. This too was the last time the words Lakers super team was thrown around by so many fans and the media. And that is why I am excited….with caution. I will never forget that day years ago when we made those signings that “guaranteed” us a super team and another ring. I was in my office. A close friend, co-worker and fellow Lakers fan, Ken, came charging in like a bull that broke from its pen. Ken is as large man, and I never have seen him move so fast. I knew something was up. Something big. And it was. He exploded in a grin and gave me the news. “Randy,” he exclaimed, "the Lakers just signed Payton and Malone. Do you know what this means? We have the championship in the bag.” We all had heard rumors of this happening, so I had thought about it for some time before the actual event. I sat quietly, saying nothing. Ken said, “Man, aren’t you happy about this?” I replied, “Ken, if Malone and Payton were five years younger, I would jump through the ceiling. But while we are getting Malone and Payton, it’s not the real Malone and Payton. Just shadows of what they were. Let's see what happens.” For a while, in mid season, as they ripped off win after win, it looked like a super team had indeed been created out of the vials and vats and potions created in the front office room of alchemy by the wizards of the Lakers FO. Yet in the end, the gold it seemed the FO had made turned back to lead. Fool’s gold it was and no magic or tricks could belie that fact. And that year, the super team failed. Due to the age and declining play of Payton, Shaq and Malone, the injuries to the aging Malone, and the great play of the much younger more cohesive Pistons, the Lakers ended up losing in the finals. No matter how hard the wizards of LA’s front office tried, they could not turn back the hands of time. That team was an object lesson in how the years can turn a once great player and a supposed super team, into something less than expected. And once again, years later, the wizards of the Lakers Empire retreated to their lairs and room of magic and experimentation, pulled out their potions and recipes to try turn what was going bad, good again. And when they returned from their arts, their labors, we indeed have seen the results of their efforts. Once again, it has been proclaimed that our wizards have changed lead to gold, leading us to the Promised Land. I read and hear about the new Lakers super team. How the title is already theirs. Am I excited about the additions of Jamison, Nash and others? Yes, how could I not be? And as a Drew supporter, I can’t deny I wanted him to remain. But he is gone. I understand the very mutable laws of the NBA and their rosters. Things change. Drew is gone. Dwight is here and I am ready to let Drew go and embrace Dwight. He is a Laker, Drew is not. And that is the reality I accept and go with. I hope Dwight brings everything to this team his adherents’ say he will. I am behind him 100 percent. But once again, my excitement is tempered with caution. If Kobe, Pau, Jamison and Nash were five years younger, I would not only be jumping through the ceiling, but already waiting for the inevitable coronation and victory parade. But they are not. They all can still play, at least up to last season, but none of them is what they were. And history shows, sometimes old players can be less than what is needed, no matter their illustrious names and past god like deeds on the field of battle. Will this team be better than last year’s team? Unless Nash and/or Kobe completely capitulate to age, or Dwight’s back renders him another case of a great athlete rendered hors de combat by injury, I can’t see any way it won’t be. And I am very excited to see what this new super team can do, as separate players and in synergy as a team. More excited than I can remember in a long, long time. So I wait, with strong yet also cautious optimism, with high but also slightly tempered expectations. I know the great names on the jerseys, but am aware of their age. I know the mountains we they will have to climb, Mt. San Antonio, Mt. OKC. Mt. Miami. It’s going be an arduous trip, one that will tax every skill they have left. And I will be hoping and rooting like mad that this super team has just a bit more in it than our last super team that was just a few vital, precious years short of invincibility and the title it was given to it in August but could not achieve in July. That the gold will stay as shiny as it looks now and not tarnish, then blacken and revert to what we feared so much after last season. Tue, 14 Aug 2012 16:07:24 -0500 http://lakers.topbuzz.com/a-588.html Until the recent trade that sent Christian Eyenga, Josh McRoberts, and Andrew Bynum packing for new cities and saw the Lakers receive Dwight Howard, Earl Clark, and Chris Duhon in return, it had been assumed up to this point that Steve Blake would be the most likely candidate serve as the primary backup for Steve Nash at the point guard spot next season. However, with the acquisition of Duhon, the point guard rotation (particularly the bench role) now looks a little bit more unclear for the Lakers. Obviously Steve Nash is our clear cut starter and I shouldn't have to explain why. Even at 38 years old, Nash remained one of the most statistically efficient and productive point guards in the NBA last season. There are big expectations for him and for the team in general next season, however those expectations have to be tempered by the acceptance that at his age, Nash will not realistically play much more than 30 minutes per game (he played approximately 31 minutes per contest last season). That leaves a minimum of 15 to 18 minutes per game available for whoever will serve as the Lakers' primary backup point guard next season. Those are significant minutes, and the purpose of this thread is to discuss, debate, and surmise which of our available backup points guards will take on those critical bench role minutes. Let us examine our options: Steve Blake, 6'3", 172 lbs., 9 years pro, 32 years old (33 next February) http://hoopshype.com/players/steve_blake.htm http://www.nba.com/playerfile/steve_blake/ We're all familiar with Blake and we've had a good chance to analyze his game after 2 years with our squad. We also fully understand his limitations as a player. Over the last two seasons, I was not terribly impressed by Blake's efficiency in shooting the basketball, and I was disappointed in his lack of ability to penetrate into the paint and finish around the rim. Offensively, Blake had a few good games here and there, but he was far too inefficient for my liking, particularly with his 3-point shooting, which was approximately 33% last season. His last 2 seasons with the Lakers were far from his best seasons as a pro, and I don't know if we should realistically expect anything much better from Blake next season. We'll have to wait and see. To his credit, Blake was terrific in the 1st round of the playoffs VS Denver, but like so many other Laker players, including Kobe, Bynum, Gasol, and Sessions, Blake was terribly inefficient in the 2nd round VS OKC. He is a fierce competitor though and I do appreciate his work ethic and ability to keep himself in top condition physically. Chris Duhon, 6'1" 190 lbs., 8 years pro, turns 30 years old on August 31st: http://hoopshype.com/players/chris_duhon.htm http://www.nba.com/playerfile/chris_duhon/ Now this guy has all the tools to quickly become our next best option after Steve Nash goes to the bench to rest. I've followed Duhon's career and he can definitely play the game, but he also has some major flaws and limitations as well. I think he's a more natural playmaker than Blake and he's also developed into a solid outside shooter. My biggest concerns are with his conditioning issues, which say to me that he has a questionable work ethic, and that's a BIG time negative. Let's be honest, Duhon was generally NOT very impressive in Orlando, and perhaps he got caught up in all the Drama surrounding the Dwightmare over the last few seasons, but I definitely like his skillset. He shot a terrific 42% from the 3-point line last season for Orlando, which is almost a full 10% better than Steve Blake! And while his field goal percentage was only 41%, that was also better than Blake. I'm a big fan of efficiency, so these are major pluses in my eyes when considering who should be our backup PG. Still, I know that Blake keeps himself in better condition and perhaps works harder than Duhon, so it's a tough call. Defensively is where poor conditioning can especially affect a player, and we really can't afford another defensive liability at the point guard position. If Duhon comes into next season in good shape, I think he may have the slight edge over Steve Blake because in my opinion; Duhon is marginally superior to Blake in terms of basketball skills, smarts, and talent. Darius Morris, 6'4", 190 lbs., 1 year pro, 21 years old http://hoopshype.com/players/darius_morris.htm http://www.nba.com/playerfile/darius_morris/ Listing Morris here is little more than a formality. Though he does have terrific size for a point guard, he's still very much a project and a largely unproven player in most ways. After Blake went down with an injury last season, then Rookie Morris showed us that he just wasn't ready for the NBA game. Things just seemed to be moving too fast for him and his lack of jump shooting ability really hurt him. In truth, veterans like Blake, Duhon, and Nash have way too much experience and basketball savvy when compared to Morris, and that'll be the main reason why Morris likely ends up riding the pine for virtually all of next season. Since the Lakers are not a young, rebuilding team, Coach Brown probably isn't going to risk trying to rapidly develop Morris into a significant rotation player unless Morris comes into next season looking 5 or 10 times better than he did last season. Morris would just have to be killing Nash, Duhon, and Blake in practice every day in order to prove that he's ready for major backup point guard minutes in the league. It's not impossible, but it certainly doesn't seem likely. So what do you say, LTB? Who should be our backup point guard and get those critical 15 to 20 minutes per game behind Steve Nash? My answer right now? It's Blake's job until somebody takes it from him. While Blake has been largely a disappointment to me, he's established himself as the Lakers' backup over the last two years and he's probably one of the best conditioned players on the team. I think Duhon obviously has the best chance to take those backup PG minutes from Blake, especially if Duhon comes into next season in top shape. But with Duhon, that's a BIG 'if'. As for Morris, he'll get another season to learn from one of the greatest playmakers and players in NBA history, and if he takes those lessons to heart, maybe in a few years young Morris could be the guy who is starting for the Lakers after veterans like Gasol, Bryant, Nash, Blake, and Duhon are retired. Tue, 14 Aug 2012 14:35:01 -0500 http://lakers.topbuzz.com/a-587.html JanFan aka Don Allen Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall building with a single bound......look up, up in the sky, its a bird, its a plane, no its......Superman. And he is now a Laker. It makes you wonder if Dwight Howard will eventually get a new moniker now that he is in LA. But he got his moniker from appearing in the NBA Slam Dunk Contest donning a Superman cape for his final winning dunk. How about DH...Designated Hitter. This trade might be as simple as the Lakers being able to trade the 2nd best center in the NBA for the best center in quite some time. They were dealing with a team who had their backs up against the wall. Even though there were rumors earlier this weak that the Lakers might be losing Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol, they managed to pull off this trade and keep Pau in the process. The lakers also get Chris Dujon and Earl Clark while AB ends up in Philly. In the process, the Lakers send out Josh McRoberts and Christian Eyenga. This could make the Lakers the team to beat in the West, and set up a NBA Championship game against the Miami Heat next year. Can you imagine the ratings for that game? At the Lakers press conference, the highlight reel was Dwight Howard doing his impersonation of Kobe Bryant. This guy is going to be a hit in LA> Dwight Howard was the leading vote getter in the All Star balloting last season. So, he is extremely popular around the league. But he does bring some baggage with critics who say he brought in a lot of his own personal drama to Orlando, and did not treat that franchise well. He put them into a bad position by demanding a trade, changing his mind more than once, and severely limiting the teams he would accept being traded to. This is all about the fact that he is a free agent next summer. Will Dwight Howard commit to signing a long term deal with the Lakers? And if he does commit, will he change his mind later? If he does become a free agent next summer and bolts to some other franchise, this trade will be a bust for the Lakers. Moreover, Dwight is rehabbing from surgery on a herniated disc and has recently stated that he should be ready for the beginning of the season. Other reports are skeptical, and say he could be out until January. The worst case scenario is that he is never the same as he used to be. That would put his pending free agency next summer up in the air. On the other hand, Dwight Howard makes his summer home in LA. He gets to play with Kobe, Steve Nash, and Pau Gasol. This team will compete for a championship for several years to come. With the bright lights of Hollywood, a home in Beverly Hills, and the opportunity to play in the biggest media market in the world, this might be to great of a situation to pass on next year. Especially if the team does well this year. On paper, on a statistical basis, the Lakers traded up only slightly. Andrew Bynum, finally healthy, had his best season this year. He went for 18.7ppg with 12rpg and 2 blocks, while hitting 56% from the field. His EFF rating was 23.5. On the other hand, Dwight Howard went for 20.6ppg with 14.5rpg and 2.2 blocks while shooting 58% from the field. Dwight's EFF rating was 26.5. He also had more offensive rebounds. In fact, he was slightly better in every statistical category. With the addition of Dwight Howard, the lakers now have former All Stars at every position. Tons of playoff experience at every position. The best center in the league. The best shooting guard in the league. The best closer in the league. And a future hall of fame point guard to run the show. Showtime is going to be back in a big way this season. Fri, 10 Aug 2012 10:16:47 -0500 http://lakers.topbuzz.com/a-586.html With the Olympics underway and new version of the Dream Team fighting for its own place in history, there has been much talk about the original 92 Dream Team. This has in part been prompted by Kobe Bryant’s contention that the new version could have beaten the progenitor of all the teams that followed. But what is forgotten today, especially by a younger generation of fans not yet born or too young to remember the events of 92 is the fact that the 92 team never faced the monster teams it was designed to deal with. To understand why this happened we need to look at world events that transpired between 1988 and 1992. Before 92, the USA had dominated men’s basketball, including with what many call the original Dream Team, without the name, the 1960 team that featured eventual NBA hall of famers Jerry Lucas, Jerry West and Oscar Robertson among others. This team ran through the Olympics with an average winning margin of 42.4 points and the closest game they played was decided by 24 points. The only Olympics the USA failed to win the gold medal in was the Munich games of 72 where the USA, leading by a point was forced to replay the final few seconds three times by the referees until the Soviet Union put in the winning basket. The team was so upset by this gift to their opponents, they declined their silver medals which still are in the possession of the International Olympic committee. But by 1988 things had changed. The Soviet block countries had learned the game and had a huge pool of young, athletic, experience players to stock their teams. The old Soviet Union was comprised of many countries such as Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia, Ukraine and Russia. The players from all these countries, ostensible part of the Soviet Union, like separate states are all part of the USA, all played for the team representing the Soviet Union. And the same held true for the communist country called Yugoslavia, composed of many separate states such as Croatia, Bosnia, Albania and Serbia. All these countries are now separate entities, but back then they all were part of the USSR or Yugoslavia. These counties had no pro ball so the members of these teams never left the programs. They were in essence like professionals. They played with their national teams till they got old and were replaced. This accrual of talent, and the symmetry they developed by playing together all the time, all year long combined with better coaching began to produce two powerhouse teams: the Soviets and the Yugoslavs. And in 1988, it all became a confluence that threw a shock into USA basketball the likes of which was thought to be impossibility. That year, on a team stocked with such college luminaries as Mitch Richmond, Danny Manning, David Robinson, Dan Majerle and Charles Barkely we didn’t win the gold, didn’t even take the silver. And this time our loss was no gift given by referees. The USA was soundly defeated and outplayed and had to settle for the bronze as they watched the Soviet Union defeat Yugoslavia for the gold. The Soviet team featured such players as Arvidas Sabonis and Sarinas Marciulionis. Sabonis was not the old, fat player we remember who hobbled about on destroyed knees. This young Sabonis was fast, athletic, a master passer and scorer who had a great basketball mind. Back then, many GM’s here thought not only was he the best center in the all of basketball but perhaps the best player, period. The team was stocked with great players who never had a chance to display their wares in the NBA because by the time old Communist block players finally got permission to play in the NBA, they were too old and retired. Yugoslavia was also stocked with terrific hoopsters such as Stojko Vrankovic, Drazen Petrovic, Dino Radja and Vlade Divac, Toni Kukoc among others. After the stunning loss of 88, USA basket knew we needed a change to complete with these European Dream Teams. So they petitioned the International Olympic committee to allow pro players into the games saying that in essence, our college kids were facing professional players who never graduated college, never moved on in life but played their whole basketball lives year round on the same teams. The committee ended up agreeing with this assessment and so was born the original US Dream Team. A Dream Team specifically built to take on its Dream Team Soviet block counterparts. And so basketball fans the world over sat and waited for the titanic battle to come in 1992. A full on court war reckoning between our Dream Team and those of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. How much better could it get? But as often happens in life, world events ended up making mince meat of the best laid plans and expectations. For between 1988 and 1992, the Soviet Communist block fell apart and all those countries that were under the communist yoke and supplied their Dream Teams with that superb talent became the separate nations they were before being subsumed by the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. So instead of having these two super teams in the 92 games to take on the Dream Team, they had fractured into many smaller, far less talented teams representing many different nations. And so the real Dream, of seeing the USA pros take on our tormentors came to an abrupt, surprising end. As a human being, I remember the joy and happiness I felt for all those millions of people who had finally overthrown totalitarian forced rule and found freedom for their own nations. It was a one of the seminal turning points in world history. My mother’s country, Latvia, which she fled after Soviet occupation was one of those newly freed countries, so it had a personal resonance with me. But as a rabit basketball fan, fully aware of magnitude of facing those European teams in those great games to come, I have to admit there was disappointment thinking of those epic clashes that would never happen in 92. Instead of facing those two basketball machines, instead of finding a real challenge with dangerous, veteran foes who were deep, smart, talented and knew how to play together with perfection from years of competing together, our own Dream team was relegated to blowing out a succession of weak teams that had no chance to even compete in what was really a boring exhibition. How much a letdown can you get after waiting for years to see a massive, climatic battle with hated opponents? And so, while the Dream Team is considered the greatest of all time, they never got the chance at revenge, to test their metal against the juggernauts that was its very purpose to play because those teams simply did not exist anymore. Would we have won? Yes, I think we would have. As great and synergistic as the two Soviet block giants were, how could you not pick our team? But man, what I wouldn’t have given to see those three teams go at it on the stage that was all set up for them to do it on. I still think of what we missed. Basketball fans are the poorer for it. Who knows what we all missed, what we may be talking about today when we discuss that special American team of 1992? One final thought: Do you think the members of our Dream Team were disappointed they never got to test their mettle against the two teams they were built to face? Well, looking at that roster, you guys know that answer as well as I do. They had to have felt even more loss than the millions of basketball fans did in never going up against the very powerhouses they were designed to overcome. Sun, 05 Aug 2012 01:49:16 -0500 http://lakers.topbuzz.com/a-585.html With the Laker’s acquisition of Steve Nash, the NBA world was set on its collective ear. Suddenly ESPN and sporting media was singing the Lakers’ praises and asking: Are they the team to beat next year? On the surface, it looks good. Finally we have a real point guard. Not just any point guard, but a hall of fame all time great poinit guard. Surely this can only be a good thing, a salubrious step in the right direction after two failed seasons of disappointment. We struck a bargain, made a deal, gave up a lot, but the price was well worth it. Right? Well maybe. Or it may end up being a last dying, desperation move that will not bring us a title and help set back if not totally destroy any chance to rebuild quickly for the next few years. We have made the deal, it is signed in blood. But is the light at the end of the dark two year tunnel or pact with the Devil that brings a price and final resolution that we can’t even begin to tally up? As many of you know, in literature and film, a deal with the Devil ostensibly looks good, bringing one his or her hearts desires and life’s wishes. One signs such a deal in blood and awaits a new, better life. But in the end, you have to give the Devil his due and when the bill comes, all the good that seemed to come pales and fades away to a new, horrific awakening. We gave up one hell of a lot for Nash. Two number ones and two number twos. We get a great player in return, but not a 26 year old Nash. He is a 38 year old facsimile of the player who dominated the league for the last decade. What will this old Nash bring? Passing like we have not seen since Magic Johnson prowled the old Forum. Floor leadership in the extreme. A deadly outside shot. All things desperately needed here. And on the minus side? He is 38. That is old for any player. And for the first time in his career, he will be playing with another man who is used to dominating the ball: Kobe Bryant. Nash can only be at his best if he is given total reign to give what his aging body has left. If it ends up a split between Kobe and Nash, the things Nash does so well will be watered down, attenuated and obviated to a degree. If on this Steve Nash team, Kobe Bryant is determined at age 34 to get his average of 28 points a game, the Steve Nash we see will not be the Steve Nash we really need. If Kobe longs to hold the ball, dribbling forever as is his wont, if he decides to ignore what Nash can do for the offense, too many times, in order to show he can score on double teams or break down the heart of defenses geared to stop him, then Nash will too often become just another spectator to the whim and will of Bryant. This all will be predicated on what Kobe decides to do. Nash will enable Andrew Bynum, another year older and hopefully even more improved, to receive the ball like he never has before. This should help Drew immensely. In fact, Nash should not only help Drew, but all the players, including Kobe get good, smart, easier baskets, if once again, he is allowed to do it to his fullest extent. Nash will be a defensive liability. That also is a given. That is why it is vital for him to be allowed to do what he does best, run a team as he sees fit. Because we are getting him for his offense acumen only. In the end, I have to ask myself, was the Nash deal the right move? I guess if we are trying hard to milk another ring out of the Kobe Bryant era, the answer is yes. If we want to build for the future, then unequivocally no. So then the equation becomes, will Nash enable us to win a title? For me, the answer, sadly, inexorably is no. Now the core of our team, the balance of power lies with two stars whose ages are 34 and 38. And I ask myself, does this match up with teams like OKC and Miami, whose seminal stars are so much younger? The answer again: No. Are the Lakers improved? Yes. But do I honestly believe a 34 and a 38 year old star will lead us past these two teams? I don’t really see how. It is just a function of great stars in their primes and others long past theirs. When one looks at this team and the FO, some facts really stand out. In the last year, this team has traded FOUR number one picks and two number twos away. When you step back and think about this, it boggles the mind. You can literally rebuild an entire team with that many draft picks. Yet the Lakers give them away like cheap candy on Halloween. How long can a franchise do this before it comes back to bite them hard? And what have we gotten for this largesse to other teams futures? A 38 year old Steve Nash. What other team has mortgaged so much for so little. How does Miami, Boston and San Antonio keep replacing and building parts without throwing away so many draft picks for so little return? What does this say about the Jerry Buss, his son and Mitch Kupchak? And what did we get for the number one pick for Ramon Sessions? Nothing. Now some here were for that deal, others not. I don’t recall seeing Sessions play so I had no strong opinion on it. In other words, he never did anything if I did watch him play to make me take notice. But the fact that so many teams let him move on, in a point guard driven league did alarm me. And it should have alarmed the Lakers FO. But it matters not whether anyone here was for his acquisition or not. Because we don’t make the deals. And we don’t have endless game film to evaluate him, like Mitch and the FO did. It doesn’t matter if fans here were wrong about him. But it matter very much when people like Mitch, who gets paid millions, and our scouts who also get paid plenty are wrong. To the tune of a number one pick we gave away. Those kinds of mistakes are killers. If you wonder why our talent cupboard is so bereft of young talent after Kobe, Drew and Pau, look no further than our front office and our draft. One could say that giving up all these picks is incidental, since we don’t draft well anyway. But what does this fact say about our FO? We can’t draft well. And we give up tons of draft picks for little return. What kind of front office fails in both regards? You know, looking back on this team, it was truly fortunate that we got Pau handed to us on a silver platter. Imagine if Memphis had not given him to us. Where would Mitch and FO have gotten that player Kobe so badly needed to take us over the top? Would we have won any titles, or even gotten to any finals? As you watch this FO stumble about so badly, both in trading picks like there is no tomorrow (and because of the trades there won't be one) and abysmal drafting, you suspect it would have ended very badly here without Memphis kind help at that crucial moment. And so here we are. In two years, we have given up four number one picks and two number twos and essentially have a 38 year old Steve Nash to show for it. I wonder how acceptable OKC or SA or Miami or Boston or other franchises would find this if it was all their own brains trust could accomplish? Somehow, I don’t think they would find it acceptable at all. Anyway, the deeds are done , the draft picks gone and the Nash deal is made. Our draft future is as dry as the Sahara desert. Future drafts and the acquisition of young talent will be the purview of other teams. We will be stuck watching who they take for their new futures as ours grows older by the year. If this trade does not work out, if the gamble on a 34 year old Kobe and 38 year old Nash fizzles and dries out like a leaf in the late autumn heat, falling to the earth to make way for new buds sprouting in Miami and OKC, then the Devils price will be paid in full and the true terms and meaning of a Faustian bargain will be forced upon us for years to come along with many bitter tears for signing that paper in blood. Mon, 09 Jul 2012 04:08:34 -0500 http://lakers.topbuzz.com/a-584.html Steve Nash is now a Los Angeles Laker. That means that for the 2nd time in Kobe Bryant’s storied career, he will be pairing up in the backcourt with a future hall of fame point guard. The first time was in 2004 when Kobe played alongside legendary point guard Gary Payton. They formed one half of one of the most hyped and ultimately most disappointing Big 4 combos in NBA history. Still, despite the failure of the 2004 Lakers Big 4, this remains an exciting time for Laker fans because on paper the Lakers will now have arguably the best backcourt in the NBA, and at the very least it’ll be the best age 34 and up backcourt in league history. That being said, will this pairing of two veteran former league MVPs and future Hall of Fame guards fare any better than the Gary Payton and Kobe Bryant experiment did in 2004? The answer to the above question will depend almost entirely on Kobe. One could argue that one of the reasons why Kobe Bryant and Gary Payton did not win a ring together was because Kobe proved largely unwilling to change his game in order to better compliment Payton. Kobe was a headstrong 24-year-old player back in those days and while he did reduce his scoring average by several points per game, there was little else about his game that Kobe tried to change in order to better compliment Payton. Kobe certainly didn’t seem totally willing to defer full control of the offense to Payton’s experienced and adept hands. Now one could say that the triangle offense dictated how Kobe played the game in 2004, but the triangle doesn’t justify the selfish Hero Ball act that caused Kobe and the Lakers to flame out in such epic fashion in the 2004 NBA Finals. It was clear back then that Kobe was not gonna let Shaq win another Finals MVP, Kobe was gonna do whatever the hell he wanted to do on the court, and guys like Gary Payton didn’t have the balls, the strength of character, or the willpower to take control of the offense and get Kobe in check. Now we move forward to present day. Kobe’s won 2 more championship rings since that ill-fated season, so common knowledge would cause one to assume that Kobe’s learned a thing or two since 2004. Yet just last season we saw the ball CONSTANTLY die in Kobe Bryant’s hands in the 4th period throughout the regular season and playoffs. And largely due to the gradual decline of his basketball abilities, Kobe’s patented version of Hero Ball repeatedly failed to deliver victory when he was most needed in the clutch VS the OKC Thunder. Now with Steve Nash on the Lakers, the team’s dynamic will change like never before in Kobe Bryant’s career. Coach Phil Jackson is long gone and the Lakers no longer operate within the slow, methodical confines of the Triangle Offense, which was such a huge safety net for Kobe to do his Michael Jordan impression for most of his career. Mike Brown coaching the Lakers gives us the freedom to run a more uptempo, run and gun, fast breaking style of offense, which is the only type of game where a legend like Steve Nash can thrive. Guys like Bynum and Gasol will have to get their @sses out of the weight room (not a problem for Gasol) and on to the track to run wind sprints, improving their foot speed and stamina. Most importantly of all, if the Lakers hope to seriously contend for a championship next season, Kobe is going to have to find a way to change his game in order to better compliment Steve Nash. Kobe CANNOT constantly have the ball in his hands throughout the critical late game situation of the playoffs. Kobe cannot constantly succumb to the temptation to play Hero Ball in those defining 4th quarter moments. The ball needs to be in Nash’s trusty hands, and Kobe needs to either serve as a decoy or find a way to get his @ss wide open so Steve Nash can serve up wide open looks for Kobe to ice the game. Unless Kobe can find a way to trust his new teammate Nash in such a way that we don’t almost always revert back to “Kobe-ball” in the 4th quarter, you can expect teams like OKC or Miami to send the Lakers home early once again next post-season. Thu, 05 Jul 2012 12:48:38 -0500 http://lakers.topbuzz.com/a-583.html In the year 410 AD, the Gothic King Alaric laid siege to what was left of the western capital of the once mighty Roman Empire. A former ally of Rome, Alaric wanted land to settle his men, grain, gold and silver paid in tribute to him. The Roman Emperor Honorius refused these demands. Alaric decided to attack the city and succeeded in entering it through subterfuge. For two days his men sacked, burned and pillaged the city that had epitomized total Roman dominance and control over the western world for centuries. Although the final end of the Western Roman Empire is accepted as 476 AD, it was the sack of Rome by the Goths in 410 that signaled the real end to the greatness that had been Rome. An era had passed and mighty nation that had once been unstoppable against all its foes for centuries was finally brought to its knees and eventually eradicated into stories for the history books. One can’t help but wonder what the Roman’s who had ruled so long, for generations, thought as they looked down the Palatine hill to the hords of barbarians they knew would eventually enter their city. What thoughts must have crossed their minds as they knew their civilization, their dominance, their history, their accomplishments were at an end, their way of life over, forever. And in 2012, the Lakers, once the unstoppable rulers of the NBA who crushed all in their path for the second year in a row finds them beaten; sieged, attacked and sacked by the Oklahoma Thunder. On the heels of last year’s loss to Dallas, it cannot be dismissed as one time event, a blip on the radar of Lakers control, but a pattern of defeat that spells the passing of an era. And one must wonder, after years of iron fisted control of our enemies and the NBA landscape, with the barbarians pillaging burning and sacking our city, what is going through the mind of Jerry Buss, his son and Mitch Kupchak as the watch the Lakers Empire fall? This year, for the first time, none of the great powers in the east or west made the finals. Those formally great teams-Dallas, LA, San Antonio, Boston-with their great but aging leaders-Nowitskie, Kobe, Duncan, Ginobilli, Allen, Garnett, Peirce-all find themselves defeated, on the outside, looking in as two younger, stronger teams led by new, fresher stars-Durant, James, Westbrook, Wade, Harding, Bosh- complete head to head for supremacy of the league. This year, truly, it was the passing of the torch from one era of basketball to another different era. And if you are running the front office of the Lakers, the most important question that can be asked is: What is a Lakers GM to do? With the sack of Rome, Imperial power was broken forever. Rome was never able to reconstitute itself and revive past glories. It became but a memory of itself, tales to be told in words and books of what once was. And for the Lakers, as they face the new reality, they must decide what is best, wisest course of action to take in light of the events of last year and this year. There are two distinct and different paths they can take. The can try to engineer a revanchist strategy, attempt to rebuild and reconfigure around Kobe Bryant, try to trade this guy for that guy, that guy for this guy and hope to build, quickly, a team that can compete with Miami and OKC. This is what San Antonio has tried to do around Tim Duncan and Ginobilli for the last five years with varying degrees of success. This year, after many false starts, it seemed they had finally built a super team to compete. And in actuality, I suspect they did. But the problem is, they still ran into another super team, OKC, that had younger, better superstars. And there is a lesson in that failure. No matter how much you successfully reconfigure (something that may not happen for us even as well as SA did it) you can’t make up that crucial difference when your superstar (s) is on a downward spiral and the other teams super stars are rising. Back when Rome was at the height of her powers, so strong it was impervious to any foe, the young, ascending general Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great) told the old, ailing general and Dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla, “The people worship the rising sun over the setting sun.” His message was clear. Pompey was right. They do. And in the field of athletic endeavor, the sports gods will eventually worship the rising stars over the setting ones. So the Lakers can attempt to do what San Antonio has tried so hard to do the last five years. Somehow reconfigure this Lakers team, with its limited assets for trade and tons of money committed to Kobe in attempt to somehow become better than Miami and OKC. All in the window of the few years left to Kobe, even as his abilities continue to wan while Durant, Wesbrook, Harding, Ibaka only gets better. If this seems a virtual impossibility to you, then you understand why I eschew that venue as tantamount to hopeless fantasy. It is why I advocate the GM of the Lakers to take the different, harder in the short term but wiser in the long term route. That route entails completely blowing up this team, populating it with inferior cheap players, bottoming out, getting in the draft lottery and awaiting the departure, one way or another of Kobe. We would trade all the old veterans: Pau, Metta, Blake, Barnes for any and all draft picks we can get. We would replace these players with nobodies for the minimum salary. We would bottom out as a team and miss the playoffs. But we would ensure getting the type of high draft picks we need to start the rebuilding process in the climb back to championship contention. The only players I would keep, barring the event that we got some amazing trade value for them that we would insane not to take, are Drew, Goudelock and perhaps Ebanks. Now of course, if we did this there is a high likely hood the Kobe would not find this acceptable and demand a trade. At that point, I would accommodate him. To say it coldly but bluntly, the faster Kobe leaves and takes his salary with him, the faster the rebuilding process can start. If Kobe decides he wants to play out his years here, even with a depleted team, fine, let him finish up as a Laker. I have no problem with it. But if he decides he must go, then let it happen. With my plan, there is the obvious downside: two or more bad years of ball. Yes, it will be hard to watch. But the upside is apparent too, for those who are patient. We will get draft picks from the trades. We will stock pile them. On top of that, we will enter the lottery where we can have the chance to get players who someday can be the future Durants, or Lebrons, or Wades, or Westbrooks. That is where you find and get those types of players. At the top of the draft. Finally, if Kobe leaves immediately you can trade him for high draft picks. Or for a great player. If Kobe stays, when he leaves, you can use his salary to bring in a top quality free agent or several very good players. If the FO is smart, if they do their homework, within three to five years, the Lakers should have enough exceptional talent to go with Drew that they should be able to seriously complete for titles again. Not only will our team be populated by bright, young, athletic stars, but those of Miami and OKC will find themselves aging, with much tread worn off those tires that are so new right now. In my view, if LA makes trades in a futile attempt to return to the old Lakers Empire, to try win another ring with the aging Bryant, then we will be spinning our wheels, wasting time and opportunity to make this unpleasant process go as quickly as possible. And that would be a big mistake that will draw this process out much longer than it should. In the end, each of must decide what they think is the best path for the future. If you honestly think somehow the aging Bryant can lead a reconfigured team over Durant and Lebron’s teams, then you would go with method one, the one San Antonio has tried. If you think trying that is really reaching for the impossible dream, then you would opt for the second method, the one I choose. Each of us has our own thoughts on whether this team can still win a title. Since I don’t see any way a reconfigured Lakers team led by a 34 or older Bryant in the future will win a title, there really is only one option I think is the smart one. Unlike the Roman Empire, in sports, teams go on. They are not completely eradicated from the earth even when they are beaten. The Lakers are not gone like the Roman Empire, just not what they were. But like Rome back in 410, they are at a crossroads in their history. The question becomes, which is the smartest, best way to return to the former years of glory? Which is it that you think? How would you approach this crossroads? What path would you take? I have also put a poll on the top of the page for those who wish to vote. Fri, 15 Jun 2012 15:51:59 -0500 http://lakers.topbuzz.com/a-582.html Now that the Lakers quest for a 17th NBA title has been aborted by the Oklahoma Thunder the pain sets in. Pain for the fans, the players and the organization. Pain from season and team that did not really seem to jell or mesh into a cohesive unit with a true identity and efficient method of playing the game all year. In life, pain can bring change. Your report card is not good, your parents make you study harder. You are not executing at your job, the boss intervenes to find a solution. You have problems with your spouse or significant other; a split may be the required change. Pain can bring change. And so it is in sport too. After a second year in row of failing against a better team, it is sure that change is in order. Losing once in the playoffs is happenstance; losing twice is a pattern with a message. And you don’t need a Rosetta stone to decipher the message we got twice now. This loss signals the end of an era. The great championship runs and finals appearances of the Kobe-Gasol teams. While it pains to see it happen, one must also be realistic in appreciating the incredible accomplishments and glory that team brought us. Three straight finals appearances and consecutive championships. How many teams in any basketball organization have this on their resume? We witnessed a special greatness here. It was one hell of an era. One that every other team in the NBA would kill to have. But that has ended. And with the pain of that loss, there must be change. How much and what kind will be up to the FO and the circumstances that will permit change. There are some things that jump out at me from watching this team closely all year. Moves that must be made by the team and FO as a whole and by players as individuals if we are to reconfigure the team and make a real attempt at returning to the upper echelon. What must be done to successfully execute a revanchist strategy? In looking at our stars, change will have to happen. Kobe must make some changes. He must accept that at 33, next year 34, he cannot give into his ego and try to dominate a defense on his own in every big game of every big series. Like so many greats before him, he must understand and make some alterations to his mindset and game in order for any team he is on to play more efficient ball. And for him to play more effective ball. Tim Duncan is a pure object lesson in how to do this. Duncan, who was as skilled and proud and Kobe ever was back in his day. And he was the driving force equal to Kobe when Duncan was in his prime. And in that position, he led his team to four championships. But as age encroached, this all time great player made changes. He did not insist on forcing his deteriorating skills and slowing body on his team or the opponents in an effort to play as he did when young. He made the smart moves to maximize what he can still do as effectively as possible and to blend those still considerable talents into a team concept more than ever. And after years of reconfiguring the team with Duncan’s help, the Spurs this year look like they could be the best team in basketball. It is a testament to Duncan the man and the player, that he did not fight the changes, but embraces them. Just as Abdul Jabbar did decades ago on the Lakers with a payoff of two more rings. Make no mistake. Duncan still leads that team. He is still its heart and soul, just a different way. And I have no doubt, at this late stage of his career, with the sacrifice he has willingly made, if he wins yet another ring, he will cherish it as much, perhaps more than any of his others. It is to Duncan and others like Jabbar that Kobe must draw lessons from now, not Michael Jordan. Kobe must learn, now, fast, this next year, that he can still have a great effect on the game, on his team, on the opponents, even if he is not the guy who always puts up the most shots. Just his presence alone, like Duncan’s, puts so much pressure on the other team. Now, like Duncan, he needs to understand and learn how to use that fact in a different, more effective way. Andrew Bynum must change too. He must continue to improve in all areas, most especially consistency. From the effort side, he can learn too, from Kobe and all the other greats. Drew has made terrific strides, but at 24 he still has many more to go for him to follow in the Lakers tradition of exceptional players. He is supposed to get the German procedure done on his knee this offseason. If that works, if he can even more resemble the explosive, faster more athletic Drew of the pre-injury times, that will be a huge boon for us. The rest of it will fall on Drew as to what he wants, how good does he wish to become? The third star is Pau Gasol. I hate to give up on a guy that big and talented. But pain brings change, and this I think is the time to say goodbye to him, while we can still get good value for him. He is beginning to slip and his relationship with Kobe does not seem to be optimal anymore. And we no longer an elite team even with him. There is an axiom that says, It is better to get rid of a player one year too early than one year too late. And I am not even sure this would be a year early anymore. This team needs to get younger, faster and more athletic. Not stay older and slower. It is always a crap shoot when you divest yourself of a player of Pau’s measure, but what do we gain by keeping him? Another playoff loss next year? If we can make substantial change and keep Pau, I am for it. But reality suggests Pau will need to be moved for us to start getting some new blood here that we will need to build around in order to become better in the long run. As for the ancillary players, I would single out Barnes as a guy to go. His outside shooting is abysmal. Too many missed open shots that he received courtesy of Pau and Drew. Those misses just kill us. His defense is not exceptional. He would be a good role player on many teams, but on a team that tries to go low post, that draws so much defensive attention inside, he lack of shooting acumen is a severe liability. Ramon Sessions is a tough call. He really stunk up much of the Thunder series. He is young, but at 26 not so young as to have all the holes in his game he still does. He should be better than he is. He is a fast break guard who plays on a team that does not fast break. He is not an exceptional passer or scorer. He rarely influences a game the way you want a point guard to do. His defense is non-existent. On the other side of the coin, he seems to be the best point guard we have in a bare cupboard. So the question is, do we sign him for a long term deal for good money? Will it work out or become another financial and on the court albatross like Luke Walton? As for the young players, I think the biggest change would be for the very impressive Goudelock to get big minutes, providing he continues to improve and show what he did this year. His disappearance from Coach Brown’s rotation will forever remain a mystery to me. I like Hill. He brings energy, rebounding, defense and some close scoring effectiveness. He is a player I would have no qualms about signing. I am not going to go over every player. We all know them, the good, the bad and the ugly. We all have our thoughts on which should stay and which we would like to leave. But it is imperative the bench, and the bench scoring be improved dramatically. In tonight’s loss, they were outscored 35-5.That is a travesty and recipe for failure. One we have seen all year. Against a team like the Thunder, it is suicide. As a unit, a synergetic organism, in a macro view, this team must become much more effective in many areas. Outside shooting, cutting to the basket, moving without the ball, spacing, and passing. When you look at a team like the Spurs or some others, then compare it to ours, the difference hits you in the face. This team seem unable to just run basic pick and rolls to get Pau the ball in the open or close to the basket. How often do teams front Drew yet we can’t even reverse the ball to take advantage of this? If certain players can’t make those changes, if the coach or system proves dilatory, then they must all be weeded out and disposed of as time allows better replacements to be acquired. Finally, watching Kobe Bryant tonight, he turned back the hands of time, as older athletes will do from time to time. For the first time, he shot with efficiency. He showed the game of the 26 year old Bryant. 42 points on jumpers, drives and dunks. But even this dial back on time didn’t prove enough. First Bryant was engaged in a shootout with Durant. Then it was Kobe vs Durant and Westbrook. Then Kobe vs Durant, Westbrook and Harden. The three stars were like a hammer, scythe and chainsaw, pounding, cutting and sawing the Lakers down with a welter of jump shots and fast breaks. In the days of yore, our opponents would wilt under such a great Bryant assault, but today, against a younger, faster, more athletic team, with its own stars providing an antidote the poison Kobe laid on the Thunder, it didn’t happen. Didn’t come close to happening. And so do results. And this occurrence tonight shows just how much help the Lakers need, how much younger faster and more potent they need to become. How much this pain needs to bring about needed change. Unlike the last few years, when the players took care of business, now much of burden falls on the FO. It is a time for change and they must be the instigators of it. Finances will play a part in what they can do, but so will smarts, so will good basketball thinking and evaluation. Mitch and company will really have to earn those big paychecks now. And as for the outlook? Well, sometimes rebuilding goes surprising well and painless, bringing in nice results, sometimes it drags on for years, and lol, in the worst case scenarios, decades. But for us Lakers fans, have some hope. We have always risen again. It is the Lakers trademark. And once again, like the Duncan is something where Kobe can glean an individual message, perhaps the Spurs, contenders again with the aging big man can give us hope as a team. I wrote them off a couple years ago. Duncan too old, Ginobelli too injury prone. But with a constant effort to retool, to rejigger the individual and team concept in a new direction, to bring in different, better ancillary players to buttress a new system they moved to, with a steady plan and execution of it, they may now have the best team in basketball. And if the Lakers players like Drew an Kobe can do what is necessary, if the FO can get a vision and put a plan In place, and yes, with some luck, just as SA has had, who knows what we may see in year , or two? With pain, you sometimes get change. Sometimes change is a good antidote to pain. A bad report card can be followed by better study habits and better grades. A talk with the boss can improve work understanding and performance. A bad relationship can lead to freedom and a better life. And so can it be with a team that suffers the pain of playoff loses. It can be the impetus of change that brings something new and improved in a later, different iteration. With pain comes change. And change will now come. But that does not dim the memories of what this iteration of the Lakers team accomplished, what it brought all of us, nor should change make us afraid of what will come down that distant horizon. Lakers history tells us, eventually, if we are a little patient, it will be something good. Mon, 21 May 2012 23:51:57 -0500 http://lakers.topbuzz.com/a-581.html Going into the third game of the LA –Thunder series, it was imperative we draw blood and draw it in the amounts that would spell victory. No team has ever come back from a 0-3 deficit in a best of seven series so this game was literally win or die. And win we did, coming through with a 99-96 nail biter that kept your season and playoff hopes alive. After a blowout loss in game one and that monumental heartbreaker in game two, it was nice to see them walking off the court with blood on their faces for a change. The game was decided on the free throw line, where LA marched to the charity stripe an amazing 42 times, making an even more incredible 41 shots. Also heavily involved in the Lakers victory was limiting the Thunders offense to below 40 percent shooting. This was a testament to the type of defense played by the Lakers against so profligate an offensive team. Even the assist total, never our mĂ©tier was in our favor by a 20-13 margin. In watching the three games so far, there is some good and some bad. One thing we knew coming in that was reinforced in the first lopsided game is that we cannot play at the Thunders pace and compete, let alone win. That first game showed what a younger, more athletic, faster team will do to us if we let them bend us to their will. One the good side, in the last two games, the Lakers have indeed slowed the pace down and been able to get a defensive grip, at least enough to take the Thunder out of that frenetic pace they would prefer. One game played at their pace, two at ours. Score a plus for us. One the other side of this same coin, while we know we can’t beat them at our game, it is also become apparent that they can it at our pace and go toe to toe with us. The beat us in the second game and almost pulled it off again tonight. After the game, their coach was asked about the pace of the game. His response: “We can play it that way. We are a very good defensive team. We can win either way.”And two close, low scoring games what the teams split show he is right. This predicates two things: We must play these games at our pace, never theirs, and if we do play at our pace, it gives us a chance to win, but will not guarantee it. Which does point out the difficulty of winning this series. Because even if we play all the games our way, it does not mean we will win all of them. That being said, if we play them all our way, it does give us a chance to win them all, something that can’t happen at the Thunder’s preferred pace. And they know it. The other pattern that is developing that is a bit alarming is that they are making Kobe shoot a lot of shots to get his points. That cost us dearly in the first two games and almost did again in this last game. If this is going to be the model for the rest of the series, then one suspects before it is played out, it will again cost the Lakers another game or even two along the way. So as I look to tonight’s fast turnaround game, what will I look for to give me hope we can come back and battle on even terms in this series? First off, don’t expect the team to get to the line 42 times. That won’t happen. So the Lakers will need to manufacture offense from the offense itself, and not rely on that many trips to the foul line. But even more important will be this: We have played the game at our pace for two consecutive games. There is no doubt the Thunder will try to speed things up a bit. And one suspects tonight they will make a concerted effort to do it. Can we keep this slow pace up? Can we enforce it for the rest of the series? We will have to in order to entertain any chance. So watch and see if we can pull the trick off again. If we can, a pattern is being laid. One that won’t guarantee we win, but one that will give us a chance to. And lastly, our two top scorers, Kobe and Drew have to become more effective in shooting percentage. Most especially Kobe since it is apparent he is going to take the lion’s share of the shots. If the Thunder keep holding him to 9 of 25 shooting nights, it then becomes a game of Russian roulette where eventually we will pull the trigger on a full chamber and the Thunder will get that third win. This game of roulette needs to stop, and soon, because if it catches up to us again, that’s all she wrote. We finally drew blood. Finally got in a punch to the head. For the first time, made them feel the bitter sting of losing. Give them pause, make them think about making adjustments. But after three games, we have one only once, that by 3 points. It tells you just how close these wins will be for us. They can play our game and keep it close, even win. So even though we know what we have to do, the questions are, can we follow the formula three more times and even if we do, can we do it just a bit better than they can? So watch those crucial patterns. Can we slow it down, grind it out for another game? And can Kobe and the team find ways to get him up to a better shooting percentage? If the answer tonight to both those questions is yes, perhaps we will draw blood yet once more and head back to Oklahoma…..and try do it all over again. Sat, 19 May 2012 03:20:39 -0500