I don't like Mondays... except when they include Laker practice vids!
Perhaps if the Boomtown Rats had peaked during the dawn of a certain purple and gold blog, they would have developed a different outlook on the day after Sunday. Of course, Luke Walton is an actual Laker and he's feeling down today. But who can blame the guy, after learning he'll miss at least two weeks with sesamoiditis, a foot malady that will keep him in a walking boot instead a uni? He addressed the media today after practice.
Luke Walton: Download luke_walton_1.5.09.mp3
And now, below the jump, some talking picture boxes...
We're not quite at the "midterm" point yet, but that won't stop Pau Gasol from handing out a grade to the Lakers' metaphorical student body. It's one for the fridge. A straight A. From here, it's all about refraining from putting too much pressure on themselves, but just maintaining this momentum and continuing to improve. They'll get a chance to do both tomorrow night against the Hornets, a team Gasol labels "dangerous."
Sasha Vujacic talks about his increased comfort level on the court these days. That his ease comes during a period of upped PT is no coincidence. By his own admission, The Face has a tendency to force the action during limited minutes, both in an effort to "make something happen" and prove the need to keep him on the floor. As we saw every year until 2008's breakout, that approach typically (and ironically) leads to bad misses and more time on the pine. Even aware of this cause/effect relationship, it's been a hard habit for Vujacic to break.
There's also some amusing stuff about Sasha's tonsillitis- He doesn't seem geeked on even removing them, much less BK's proposal to keep then in a jar post-surgery- and his chippiness last night with Steve Blake, Sergio Rodriguez and Rudy Fernandez. For a guy physically pained to talk, Sasha didn't mind getting his yap on Sunday night, although he does wish to formally protest the tech he was assessed. As I told him later, he should threaten to breathe on the league officials and get them sick if they don't agree to rescind it.
AK
Mamba - good to have you back! I miss those roll calls of yours!
Gameday Laker Fam! Even though I'll be watching online tonight I'm excited and ready for my Laker fix. A little worried though - past two seasons in January there have been injuries, and I'm hoping we don't see any this year at all. Well - apart from who is already injured.
Let's hope we come out with a lot of energy and aggressive D!
GO LAKERS!!
Posted by: longtimelakerlover | January 06, 2009 at 09:37 AM
On the issue of AB17's scoring opportunities, I find myself siding with Blitz on this one. As long as most of Bynum's minutes are with the starting unit, Kobe and Pau will get the majority of touches by design. And why not? Kobe and Pau are the most dependable and most consistent players in the lineup.
When Bynum is fouled, he rarely finishes for the three point play. When he goes to the line, he's not a consistent free-throw shooter. On defense, he plays scared because he doesn't want to pick up quick fouls and doesn't yet know how to avoid them. Despite all the individualized and personalized coaching, Bynum's play is surprisingly tentatitve.
Bynum's energy level is also surprisingly low for a young man. He doesn't hustle from one end of the floor to the other. He plays like that big fat new contract has some kind of entitlement clause to it.
None of this is to say Bynum is not a player of ability or potential. We all know he has both. But are the Lakers getting his best? The answer is no. Until Bynum is ready to give it unconditionally, his minutes and opportunities will be limited.
Posted by: Rick Friedman | January 06, 2009 at 09:42 AM
Blitz,
1st I'm impressed because you post more than anyone else.
on with the show.
----------------
"It is my understanding that Kobe went for jumpers because the Celtics denied him access to the rim."
Kobe in the finals wanted to penetrate first but ran into defenders and was forced into tightly contested double teamed jumpers.
---------------------
So. You've just agreed with my interpretation what
the Celtics did to Kobe in the Finals. You could have
just said I agree instead of posting a mini-novel.
You wrote: Plus by playing within the triangle offense he was able to break down the "Celtic defense" without too much trouble as last year when the Lakers relied on his penetration (and the Celtics really made that very hard to do).
my response: As you tend to do ... you're only focused
on the offensive end and don't pay attention to defense.
[ Did you ever respond to the post of the article by
Randy Hill? ] Bynum made a huge difference.
1. He didn't get into early foul trouble.
2. He protected the rim.
3. Gasol was able to play PF against KG.
4. Our bigs played well and we won the game. Which
is what I said in the beginning.
You wrote this: I won't mind Bynum or Lamar scoring 8 or 6 points as long as OTHER people step up. Is it going to be Sasha, is it going to be Trevor, maybe instead Kobe and Pau will pick up the slack who knows. But scoring wise as long as someone else picks up like Daniel Gibson did in Game 6 of the 2007 ECF against Detroit I won't mind those. And yes I do expect Bynum to stay out of foul trouble against Sheed since Sheed is the starting Center for the Pistons while Amir Johnsons is back at PF.
My response: Do you believe that we can win a
championship if the trio of Gasol, Bynuml, Odom
don't play well? You've written another book instead
of addressing the heart of the matter. The Lakers did
not make it out of the first round for 3 years. [ Yes, we
didn't make the playoffs one year. ] We ran the
triangle offense. We had a lot of the same players.
Why? The C position is the lynchpin of the defense.
The PF is appropriate to the conversation because
PF & C are often the same person. The Celtics have a
fabulous *DEFENSIVE* minded PF in KG. They got
reasonable play out of Perkins and their defense
allowed them to win two 7 game series & they
manhandled the Lakers in 6. Everyone on the Lakers
is preaching defense and you're preaching offense.
Is there some reason why I should listen to you
instead of Phil or Kobe or Randy Hill or any number of
other basketball pundits?
-----------------------------
"Actually, I fess up when Trevor isn't
playing well. Like responding to your comment about
40%."
I think you said fuss up so please correct me if I"m wrong.
----------------------------------
If I wrote fuss it's a typo.
you wrote: Like the 2006-2007 Dallas Mavericks. Before you can say "oh they don't play defense". They did back then and was 4th in the league at 92.8 ppg and choked against the Golden State Warriors who did not even play defense.
my response: And everyone and their mother said that
Dirk was soft. Take a quick trip thru the roster of the
2006-2007 team and name one player who's hard/an
assassin.
you wrote: The more they find out their flaws the sooner they can fix it so that they can become better players. Cook never "got it" when people criticized his defense. All he did was loose weight. Neither did Kareem Rush. They make a mistake they have to realize their mistake and work through it, not simply pamper them and say "oh it's ok". They are to find out what they did wrong and fix it. Otherwise teams will merely watch the film and KNOW where to attack them. If this was pre-season I wouldn't be this nor even this was the beginning. But this is nearing the All-Star Game break which is considered the middle and while players have improved some like Jordan has not (before his injury). And they do deserve criticisms whether it be up high as PJ/Kobe to down to the bench to Sun/Mbenga. We may be winning true but we have to realize our flaws and minimize them in time for the playoffs so they don't bite us back.
My response: Here's the thing. It's actually not your JOB
to point out their flaws. It's actually not your JOB to run
the team. It is my recollection that you have advocated
a number of trades instead of actually letting the young
players grow. I seem to recall some long painful
conversations about this. Farmar is a name that springs
to mind.... You could just as easily replace that name
with Trevor or Sasha. You have shown a complete
lack of patience with the young players because you
want to win NOW. Feel free to go back and check
some of your posts. I am not one to whitewash
anybody's mistakes. I do acknowledge that everyone
is human and that they do make mistakes. I try to look
take the longview instead of seeking instant gratification
today. If your arguments had been based upon that
viewpoint we wouldn't have had the long painful
discussions that we keep having.
you wrote: I don't harp on Trevor contrary to what you think unless you are overrating him. I do the same when people overrated Kobe to Michael Jordan status or Shaq to Wilt Chamberlain/Bill Russell and especially Dirk Nowtizki to Larry Bird. Jordan deserves criticisms because he wants to play one way while the coaching staff says play like the 1st unit and all his response is "This isn't what I learned at UCLA/Taft High school". If he played more like a point guard then I wouldn't be that hard on him. And Eric M. and Laker Tom find it disturbing when I criticize Andrew Bynum. Even you criticized him for not boxing out (for once I thought you were a little too hard on that). I just think his energy level and focus isn't there while they give an excuse that his knee is causing it when Bynum himself said it didn't. I only criticized only 2 players really and that is Jordan and Bynum and they were fair criticism.
My response: You're more than welcome to believe
that I am overrating Trevor. Unfortunately, you haven't
paid attention to what the coaches said based on your
interpretations of stats. [ ref. this past summer. ]
Maybe you should go tell Phil & Mitch that they're
overrating Trevor too.
The coaching staff has *NOT* asked Jordan to play like
the first unit. They have actually said 3 things to him.
1. uptempo is good.
2. the first unit is "pedantic"
3. you're getting careless with the ball. run sets.
Jordan's response to this was to seek his coach out and
ask for clarification. He did *NOT* say: Phil must have
bumped his *&^%$ head as did Lamar. He vented. He
asked for clarification. Then he did what the coach
asked him to do. Then he hurt his knee. This was the
"malcontent" conversation if you recall.
re: Jordan as a pg. I believe it was *YOU* who argued
that the triangle offense doesn't need a true pg. That
was part of your argument for Lamar in the starting 5.
He could be a point-forward. So picking on Jordan
because he's not playing more like a traditional pg
seems like you're just looking for an excuse to say
something bad about him.
Thanks for the well wishes on my travels. I APPRECIATE
that.
Posted by: hobbitmage | January 06, 2009 at 09:43 AM
mamba24 - That article talks about what I identified as Boston's weakness in early December. At that time, the one glaring ugly stat for them was turnovers per game. They were near the bottom - maybe 3rd or 4th worst. The reason I pointed it out was b/c the Lakers were 2nd at the time in creating turnovers. So, I was looking at that as a key in their match-up. Rather than focusing on trying to solve the Boston defense, the way to beat them is attacking their vulnerable offense. Now, Boston leads the league in creating turnovers. Their weakness has become exposed. Yet, they're too proud to cite it as a flaw. Instead, they've continued to harp on the refs and other things beyond their control.
Posted by: lakers_sth | January 06, 2009 at 09:45 AM
Mamba24, lol @ the celtics song. but what? no roll call for a big game day?
i'm kinda in the "AB will eventually get around 20 ppg" camp. LakerTom is right that there are multiple camps that believe Bynum can or can't return to form or think that last year (really for just one month) was a fluke. a lot of Celtics fans will tell you this is fact, lol!
eventually, i see kobe and pau giving up some of their shots, and willingly, because Bynum's FG% will be the highest on the team, not to mention other stats, like rebounding and block shots. therefore, he should get more touches, and minutes. not to mention, a guy like Bynum can score without touches, by simply putting back missed shots or from the foul line (in over the penalty situations).
and also, it's not guaranteed that Odom or Ariza will be resigned. i think Odom walking is a likely scenario, thus more minutes and touches available all around.
Posted by: leonardbast | January 06, 2009 at 09:52 AM
Mamba24 - The Way We Are, OMG!!! Haha, I truly laughed.
Posted by: dave m | January 06, 2009 at 09:32 AM
Did you know that KG has that on his IPOD? LOL!
What's that I smell, No not Teen Spirit. Smells like a new Dynasty is baking in
The oven and is about to rise
Posted by: Mamba24 | January 06, 2009 at 09:54 AM
dave m,
I don't know. I honestly don't know.
Paul Davis is a good player. An occasional starter who is 6' 11" whom they pay practically nothing.
They dump him and pick up Samb who never plays BUT is 7 foot.
It makes no sense. Especially since Camby, Kaman, and Jordan are all already 7 feet tall +.
They obviously don't need that 1 inch increase in length. It makes no sense.
Go Clippers!
GO LAKERS!
Posted by: Jon K. | January 06, 2009 at 10:57 AM
Mamba24 - maybe you should revamp "I Think We're Alone Now (atop the rankings)", haha. Now DON'T tell me Garnett has Tommy James on his IPOD!!
Jon - hey, remember when you queried who could potentially be a new coach for them? I got a brainstorm - Ron Harper? Last I heard he didn't get an assist. coach position this year... spent five seasons with the Clips as a hi-fly act... and think was fun it would be to have him across the hall from his old Lakers buddies?
lakers_sth - i agree with you... what i was trying to get at (in my unconciously cryptic way) was that they had a crappy start and then got a head of steam after chauncey arrived. i'm also surprised that they've historically had such slow starts to their seasons... the silky sullivans of baskeball maybe? except that they usually fizzle at the end as well, haha.
Posted by: dave m | January 06, 2009 at 02:05 PM