2014-15 Lakers Season Thread (21-61) KAT

[CP1708]

So Bruce Bowen, Chris Anderson, DeAndre Jordan, Ben Wallace, Deke Mutumbo, Kawhi Leonard, Ron Artest, Shane Battier, Raja Bell, etc needed to be a part of the offense to play "motivated" defense?

You really think that?

 

[darthska]

Those are some of the best defensive players in the last 15 years. They take pride in their role.

But even then, they also take pride in being the guy who gave the hockey assist or set up the game winning screen or, heaven forbid, got a designed basket every now and then.

Those are NBA players, btw. Even if I DIDN'T think that teammates need to feel involved on offense, I would trust those guys' opinion over mine.

 

[CP1708]

I truly, honestly, don't give a damn what Boozer or Lin need to feel. They're temps. Getting free paychecks just to help make sure we're terrible enough. Lin came with a pick, Boozer was cut by a contender.

And ironically, the coach we had that would have helped these guys feel like a part of the offense, was blamed for his defense, only the defense is worse now, with this piece of **** fraud *** coach "who made the Finals" cuz that's indicative of the type of coach he is.

But hey.

I wish Kobe didn't care about passin MJ so he could sit and watch these tards struggle to score 60 while givin up 105.

 

[mister friendly]

Yes players like to have the ball to feel more motivated

Think about how you feel when you play pick up Basketball and you don't get the ball

But with that said it's the NBA, if you can't make shots and finish, shut the *%#+ up.....If it's Pau Gasol yeah I'll listen but Lin and Boozer y'all are trash bin like players who don't play any defense

The Lakers are going to lose this year even if Kobe goes all Magic Johnson again, basically this season is just I'm here for the Kobe

 

[phuzzy badpheet]

I do not mean to infiltrate this sacred thread with my experiences or opinions in the effort to flame or troll, but what I must say that it is incredibly important to feel included as an athlete, in order to keep your spirits up, then wanting to contribute to winning efforts.

For some bigs, simply touching the ball on possessions, then throwing the pass that leads to a basket, can uplift morale, then spreading confidence and goodwill throughout the team. That big will set the next pick for you, work a bit harder at getting that board, have your back against the opposing team's thug, just by touching the ball, then feeling involved in the offense. 

If you have a pass first point man, letting him direct traffic, opening up the floor, allowing him to be a leader, gives him the juice he needs to go after the other team's floor leader, competing as to who will lead his team to the W. 

We've all seen it on the playgrounds, high school and in college, those of us who played there.

All it takes is for one guy to want to shoot it all day, in order to suck the life out of a team.

 

[darthska]

Yes players like to have the ball to feel more motivated

Think about how you feel when you play pick up Basketball and you don't get the ball

But with that said it's the NBA, if you can't make shots and finish, shut the *%#+ up.....If it's Pau Gasol yeah I'll listen but Lin and Boozer y'all are trash bin like players who don't play any defense

The Lakers are going to lose this year even if Kobe goes all Magic Johnson again, basically this season is just I'm here for the Kobe

You might listen if it's Pau, but they didn't in here. Because Pau has said things like that, and the response was exactly what you see above: "Man, I don't care about what a Pau has to say. "

And I've tried the rec league/playground comparison. Didn't work. It's gotten to the point where if I'm talking to someone about basketball and they argue AGAINST keeping everyone involved, I'll ask "You a Kobe fan?", and they usually are. It was like that w/ Iverson, too.

And yes, we're going to be terrible this year regardless of Kobe Johnson or Kobe Bryant, but that doesn't change the fact that team oriented offense yields better chemistry and makes for a stronger team than heroball.

 

[jab step]

Did you guys watch the game last night? Honestly. Criticizing Kobe's shot selection this season is one thing, but specifically citing last night is ridiculous.

Boozer got 13 shots. He made 3. On what team would Boozer be able to shoot 13 times. Jeremy looked lost last night. He constantly just looks for Kobe.

 

[CP1708]

Kobe was the leading assist guy until Price got a couple in the 4th too.

We need one of his no shots at all games where he passes passes passes so these pro athletes can "feel better about themselves".

 

[tay1]

Did you guys watch the game last night? Honestly. Criticizing Kobe's shot selection this season is one thing, but specifically citing last night is ridiculous.

Boozer got 13 shots. He made 3. On what team would Boozer be able to shoot 13 times. Jeremy looked lost last night. He constantly just looks for Kobe.

Yeah Lin taking 2 shots isnt a good look. I really thought he would add a lil something to the team.

 

[MVP]

Lin taking any shots is a bad look, he sucks.

 

[joecoolio66]

Lin should just do pull up half court shots because it has the same chance going in as if he were to shoot from 12 feet.

 

[champcruthik]

Jeremy Lin played like a beta last night. There's a time to defer and facilitate, Golden State wasn't it for most stretches.

 

[joecoolio66]

Look at what MDA did with Kent Bazemore and Earl Clark. They were scoring under his system. Now, they are bums. I'm pretty sure Mike would've had Lin more involved in the offense. Even garbage *** Wes Johnson was getting his buckets too under MDA. Scott is a joke.

 

[pmatic]

Tanking Is Good

In today’s NBA, we are told that tanking is bad. That it’s damaging to the product. That it’s an affront to fans and sponsors. Even players take offense to the mere suggestion that tanking is a “thing.”

In a vacuum, the point of sport is to win. Tanking teams clearly aren’t trying to win, and some might even say that those teams are actively trying to lose. Spin it however you like, of course; maybe those teams are making subtle efforts to avoid winning games, maybe they are making little effort to win games. Either way, these teams are ******** on the sacred spirit of competition, and therefore, tanking is bad. Or so we are told, anyway.

Not everyone feels this way, though.

Some fans are indifferent — mostly those that realize and understand that every single season, there are going to be teams that are awful. There’s nothing to be done about it, it just is. It’s simple math, really; for one team to be good, another team has to be bad. That’s the nature of competition. Should it matter, therefore, if the bad teams are bad on purpose or just bad because of ineptitude, bad luck or otherwise? The Milwaukee Bucks were trying to win games last year, they just failed miserably, ending up with a worse record than the Philadelphia 76ers, who by nearly all accounts were trying to lose games like it was going out of style. The results were the same despite the (presumed) intent.

The current NBA draft lottery system rewards bad teams with high draft picks. Naturally, teams that tank — excuse me, teams that allegedly tank — are simply working within the league’s operative framework to acquire high-value assets. They aren’t breaking any rules, they’re playing by them.

So that’s where things stand on tanking; you’re either against it or indifferent. Unless you’re me. I’m here to be the NBA’s version of Gordon Gekko.

Tanking, for lack of a better word, is good.

First and foremost, let’s establish one inexorable truth: Tanking is in the long-term interest of bad teams. Consider the aforementioned Sixers. Over the last two seasons, GM Sam Hinkie has gutted the team, spending three consecutive lottery picks on players who would miss all or most of their rookie seasons, trading relatively valuable rotation players for second-round picks, and avoiding roster additions that would improve the team as if they were some sort of incurable plague.

But what if Philadelphia had approached things with a different strategy?

Instead of drafting Nerlens Noel at No. 6 last year, what if they drafted Ben McLemore. And instead of drafting Joel Embiid at No. 3 and trading No. 10 pick Elfrid Payton for No. 12 pick Dario Saric, what if they kept Payton and drafted Aaron Gordon at No. 3. And instead of trading Spencer Hawes for some riff-raff and two second round picks, what if they had held kept him and used some of their ample cap space to retain him?

Yes, what if?

For starters, the 76ers would undoubtedly be a “better” basketball team — even if only slightly. Instead of a projected 15- or 18-win season, they’d probably be expected to win 20–23 games. (Yay, wins!) But what the anti-tanking lobby won’t acknowledge, what it can’t acknowledge, is that those extra wins would only serve to harm the franchise in the long run. The difference between winning 16 games and winning 20 games is meaningless in the short term — in any term, really. The team would still suck, the fans and sponsors would still be unhappy, and the playoff race would still over by the All-Star break.

Philly won 34 games during the 2012–13 season and didn’t come anywhere close to qualifying for the postseason. There wasn’t any viable way to give the 2013-14 team a reasonable shot at the postseason, either, so they reversed course. Instead of trying to be good “then,” they shifted their focus to being good “later.” That meant acquiring high-value assets in the form of high draft picks. And, everyone knows, the way to get high draft picks is to be a bad team. Tanking, undeniably, is acting in the long-term interests of the club.

The 2015-16 76ers, unless they trade any of their recent or upcoming picks, will boast a roster with five lottery picks in three years — in other words, the same type of nucleus that Oklahoma City built into one of the best teams in the league. To argue against tanking is to (indirectly) argue against responsible long-term planning.

Again, tanking is good.

Interestingly, tanking by bad teams is also good for mediocre teams. Where there was once a pseudo-competitive team on the schedule — or a league-average one, at worst — there is now a fairly easy win on the schedule. Tanking teams also ensure that there is one fewer team battling mediocre teams for a playoff spot. Does Atlanta or Charlotte make the playoffs in the East last year if Philadelphia, Boston, and Orlando weren’t punting the season? Maybe, maybe not, but that’s how it went down.

Bad teams tanking is good for the elite teams, too. When a team like the 76ers decides that they’d rather play for lottery picks, that means that they have no interest in pursuing players in free agency that could help them win now. The elite teams then gobble up the talented players they need with less overall competition for those players’ services. Similarly, as Philadelphia did with Hawes and Evan Turner, tanking teams generally look to trade away useful, not-franchise players — especially those on expiring contracts — to obtain future assets, and elite teams, if they have the cap room, are there to take advantage.

Players like Shaun Livingston, Spencer Hawes, Trevor Ariza, Pau Gasol, Vince Carter, and Paul Pierce all signed this offseason for roughly the league-average salary in order to join teams that have a good chance of winning 50 games or more this season. Meanwhile, Philadelphia has a payroll of just $38 million, leaving them with $25 million in cap space. Would Shaun Livingston sign for the Mid-Level Exception in Golden State if Philadelphia were offering him $8 million per season? Does Pau Gasol join Chicago for $7 million and change per season if Philadelphia gives him twice that much? If Philadelphia signs Livingston and Gasol, they surely get to 30+ wins instead of 15, but they still probably miss the playoffs and remain largely irrelevant. For Golden State and Chicago, however, Livingston and Gasol could mean the difference between losing in the second round of the playoffs and reaching the NBA Finals.

With teams sinking farther towards the bottom, the NBA also inevitably becomes more top-heavy, the byproduct of which is more competitive and entertaining playoff series. Did you enjoy five Game 7s in the first round of the playoffs last year? In a roundabout way, you can thank Philadelphia, Orlando, Boston, and all the other teams who decided losing was better for their long-term plans than winning.

The big elephant in the room in all of this are the legion of suffering fans of tanking teams. Nobody wants to pay to watch a losing team, and even fewer people want to watch games if they think the team is losing on purpose. But again, tanking is a long-term plan. Once the team builds around the high draft picks and starts to win again, the fans will come back.

Thunder fans — blue t-shirt lovin’ bunch that they are — don’t seem too upset that the team lost 75 percent of its games in 2008 and 2009. Clevelend fans — now that King James has returned — fans seem quite fine with the fact that their team was bad (and lucky) enough to land three No. 1 picks in a four-year span. The 2007 Celtics tanked aggressively. They used their high draft pick to land a superstar, followed by another superstar, and then sold out all 55 home games the following year (including playoffs) on their way to a title — and I didn’t hear anyone complaining.

You see, fans are actually smart enough to realize what’s going on.

Tanking might not be exciting. It might not make for good television. If your favorite team is doing it, it might make for a few unpleasant seasons. But the ends justify the means. Tanking is good.

Link

 

[sea manup]

jeremy lin has been on 3 nba teams and had stretches where he's the #1 option

he has never played any defense 

so no, not getting the ball enough is not the reason steph was able to waltz past him every time down the court. he's just trash

 

[bravelude]

Yeah Lin taking 2 shots isnt a good look. I really thought he would add a lil something to the team.

can‘t if kobe shoots like that. not everyones a robert horry. comes in cold and hits game winner like its nothing. lol

dude.was chillest cat on da block

 

[tay1]

can‘t if kobe shoots like that. not everyones a robert horry. comes in cold and hits game winner like its nothing. lol

dude.was chillest cat on da block

If Sacre put up 8 shots, I think Lin could've had more than 2.

 

[sea manup]

 

[noblekane]

I do not mean to infiltrate this sacred thread with my experiences or opinions in the effort to flame or troll, but what I must say that it is incredibly important to feel included as an athlete, in order to keep your spirits up, then wanting to contribute to winning efforts.

For some bigs, simply touching the ball on possessions, then throwing the pass that leads to a basket, can uplift morale, then spreading confidence and goodwill throughout the team. That big will set the next pick for you, work a bit harder at getting that board, have your back against the opposing team's thug, just by touching the ball, then feeling involved in the offense. 

If you have a pass first point man, letting him direct traffic, opening up the floor, allowing him to be a leader, gives him the juice he needs to go after the other team's floor leader, competing as to who will lead his team to the W. 

We've all seen it on the playgrounds, high school and in college, those of us who played there.

All it takes is for one guy to want to shoot it all day, in order to suck the life out of a team.

Not falling for it coach hubie. Even without the exclamation marks take that **** elsewhere

Lol still on that crusade i see

 

[mister friendly]

I don't get Coach Hubies obsession with Kobe, dudes been pulling the same &$@: for like 8 years under different screen names

 

[sea manup]

you should see him in the NBA pictures thread talking about how retro jordans from the 90s are just as good to play basketball in as modern kobes 

 

[CP1708]

Look at Kobe hinder the offense.

 

[licensed to ball]

Yeah apparently Kobe is also the reason Boozer got amnestied and no other team was interested.

He is also the reason the Rockets gave up on Lin to start a point guard that's not even capable of scoring the basketball.

That cancerous Kobe

 

[trueprada]

 

[senorroboto2k5]

Did you guys watch the game last night? Honestly. Criticizing Kobe's shot selection this season is one thing, but specifically citing last night is ridiculous.

Boozer got 13 shots. He made 3. On what team would Boozer be able to shoot 13 times. Jeremy looked lost last night. He constantly just looks for Kobe.

Boozer, Lin and Wes started 0-for-9. By the time one of them made a basket, the Lakers were down 19.

Kobe's ballhogging is definitely in :x territory, but it's not the reason why the rest of the team sucks.