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

[had pants]

KEVIN DING
‏@KevinDing
Ryan Kelly (hamstring tear) is out at least six weeks.

 

[darthska]

KEVIN DING
‏@KevinDing
Ryan Kelly (hamstring tear) is out at least six weeks.

I'm saying, though.

This just in: every 3rd floor usher is injured for the remainder of the season.

Ticket takers also.

 

[sea manup]

I wanted to go to a lakers game this year but I got carpal tunnel trying to order tickets online

 

[had pants]

I'm saying, though.

This just in: every 3rd floor usher is injured for the remainder of the season.

Ticket takers also.

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

 

[CP1708]

Yeesh. :x

I fear for Clarkson's life. He's like the last player we want to see learn on the job, now I just want him to learn not to die.

Oh no, Ed too.......



I want to trade Lin-Hill for anything.

Keep Davis and Clarkson healthy.

Let Randle and Kelly survive this year and grow for next.

Hope Boozer captains the ship as good as the dude on the Titanic.

And if I can find anything, at all, for Wes, I'll take it. ****, I'll take a 3rd rounder for him, I don't care at this point.

Sacre-Henry, eh, not sure how much longer they'll have before they get tossed. *shrugs*

 

[pmatic]

Should we note all the prospects the Lakers realistically had a chance at drafting are out with significant injuries?

Randle has a broken leg, Smart has a badly sprained ankle, Gordon broke a bone in his foot and Vonleh just returned from hernia surgery.

 

[CP1708]

So I see the Kobe is overrated thread got bumped.

Bomani gonna be just like the others, they gonna use this ONE game, (and then others like it later this year) to define Kobe's entire 20 year career. It's coming, this is only the start......

This is only the start. They ALL comin for him pretty soon.

I shoulda been a fortune teller.

 

[CP1708]

Should we note all the prospects the Lakers realistically had a chance at drafting are out with significant injuries?

Randle has a broken leg, Smart has a badly sprained ankle, Gordon broke a bone in his foot and Vonleh just returned from hernia surgery.

Exum?

 

[pmatic]

Don't think he was ever in play at #7.

 

[CP1708]

Don't think he was ever in play at #7.

We shouldn't have been at 7.

(you included Gordon, which is why I asked about Exum, but I get what you were sayin, just checkin, this sentence is getting really long now, bye..... )

 

[pmatic]

Ding:

Byron Scott's Overriding Faith in Kobe Bryant Has Lakers on Brink of Fracture

After Mike Brown and Mike D'Antoni, the Los Angeles Lakers needed a leader of men.

With his poised posture, authoritative calm and championship heritage, Byron Scott undoubtedly has leadership skills.

All that won't matter one bit, however, if Scott doesn't lead one man in particular.

Scott must lead Kobe Bryant if he wants the others to follow. Not just get along. Not just offer license and liberty. Lead.

And Scott's ledger on that front so far is as bad as the Lakers' one-win record under him, the worst 10-game start in franchise history.

A great relationship, which is what the longtime Byron-Kobe bond is supposed to be, isn't about the parties being agreeable. The beauty in it should be the honesty in questions and answers, one teaching the other what he doesn't even know he doesn't know…and smiles growing over both faces in appreciation for an undeniably greater growth.

That's how opposites attract and tough love works.

And in this case of a coach and a player, the former also must have clear authority over the latter.

Yet Scott trusts Bryant so much more than anyone else on this low-rent Lakers roster that it has become impossible for the others to feel properly respected. Of course, you don't coach everyone the same in this business, but you have to coach everyone in a way that feels equitable enough so that an actual team is built.

To Scott's credit, the Lakers' 136-115 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Sunday night has him contemplating going back to the drawing board for new methods—including publicly holding Carlos Boozer and Jordan Hill accountable for substandard defensive efforts.

Scott lit into the team at halftime about that lack of effort—and the Lakers proceeded to surrender 41 third-quarter points on 60.9 percent field-goal shooting. A 19-point halftime deficit swelled to humiliating proportions—36 points—by the end of the third.

Not exactly a message getting across.

These were the Warriors, a true powerhouse of an offense and legit title contenders—and the Lakers' schedule has been awfully tough. Yet as Bryant said after the game, "It gets to a point where you can't make excuses."

You have to make corrections to the flaws.

No massive talent upgrade is coming, though if 6'9" forward Quincy Miller fares well in a tryout this week, expect to see him replace Xavier Henry on the team. Miller, who turns 22 on Tuesday and has rare upside despite no sense of how to reach it after two years with the Denver Nuggets, would at least give the Lakers a little more youth and hope in Julius Randle's absence.

Injuries have thinned what Scott thought he'd have to work with—a second unit featuring Jeremy Lin, Nick Young, Ed Davis and Randle would've been quite credible—but the central issue is getting the guys on the same page with Bryant.

There is a fundamental problem with the template.

You want to build the team around Bryant's free rein on offense while he is encouraged to "rest"—Scott's own word—on defense, yet every other guy is being held to fantastic standards that must be met for the team to overachieve?

How is anyone besides Kobe ever going to think that's cool? Resentment is bound to build, especially when Bryant is so unabashed in competitive zeal that he described his view on his teammates' passivity Sunday night thus: "Can't just sit back and watch crime happen."

It might work every once in a while, as Bryant's shooting and scoring against single coverage has inspired his teams to compete harder and rally in games of the past—though certainly not Sunday night.

Boozer and Lin, two guys who believe deeply in Kobe, were left grumbling late Sunday night about the difficulty of finding offensive rhythm next to him.

It most definitely isn't easy to learn to play with him. As such, Scott must make that process easier, not harder.

For all that D'Antoni did wrong, his system of clean spacing and quick shooting did create some air of equality on the team. But like D'Antoni—and even like Rudy Tomjanovich, who memorably rushed Bryant back in for the final minutes of his first Lakers exhibition game to try to win it—Scott has fallen into the trap of not understanding that less Kobe can be more for all.

D'Antoni took every minute Bryant was willing to give until the Achilles tendon rupture (Bryant's minutes log leading up it: 47:37, 47:04, 42:32, 47:20, 41:06, 48:00, then 44:54 at the time of the rupture).

Not that anyone was eager to follow Dwight Howard in that 2013 Lakers first-round playoff series against the San Antonio Spurs, but establishing utter dependence on Bryant simply does not foster belief in the team as a whole.

Scott riding Bryant for so many sloppy extra minutes Nov. 4 against the visiting Phoenix Suns—he'd predetermined that the lack of games afterward meant Bryant could go longer—is not building a team. It reeks of desperation and undermines the rest of the players—besides endangering Bryant for the long haul of the season (and making him tired and making it less likely to win that game down the stretch anyway).

The whole thing, deep down, doesn't make Bryant happy either. He has learned most from the push and pull of Phil Jackson, the cross-denunciations from Tex Winter and the stubborn self-worth of Derek Fisher that his success doesn't come courtesy of yes men.

As the backlash questions from reporters about his shot-fest Sunday night continued, Bryant said: "It's tough, but the responsibility is on me. When things go good, it's us. When things go bad, it's me. That's the responsibility of being in this seat."

Bryant, who launched 34 shots and tallied 44 points against the Warriors, later added: "I'm more than willing to sit back. If you think I want to shoot as many times or be as aggressive at 36 years old, you're freakin' crazy."

In other words…

Byron, help me.

Even if Bryant still lusts to pile up points, even if management's one exception to this save-cap-space shell game was asking Bryant to earn his big money, it's the coach's job to build a real team with what pieces he has.

With the Lakers losing 131-103 with 3:30 left in the game Sunday night, a boy about 10 years old yelled out from under a black Lakers cap at Staples Center, "Put in Kobe!"

An understandable refrain, really, if the Lakers aren't going to be any good this season anyway. Heck, the majority of these teammates won't even be around for Bryant's farewell tour next season.

One guy here, though, might actually outlast Bryant…if he shows he can really coach.

Scott has earned Bryant's respect. Now he must do something with it.

Use it to build this team—a team that can indulge, overcome and, above all, include Kobe.

Link

 

[CP1708]

View media item 1265175

 

[essential1]

Scottie Pippen and Lamar Odom just got compared.. Scottie Pippen & Lamar Odom..

 

[goldmember]

:x

 

[denni5themenace]

View media item 1265175

is this some thin veiled shot at the ineptitude of lakers management?

how is this even news worthy. as stated in the article, the lakers already traded their 2010 pick to memphis for pau 2 years prior to that.

 

[kookcle]

View media item 1265175

is this some thin veiled shot at the ineptitude of lakers management?

how is this even news worthy. as stated in the article, the lakers already traded their 2010 pick to memphis for pau 2 years prior to that.

Pretty much.

We just won back to back. Mitch didnt care about the Draft that year

Of course Klay is playing well and we suck now this pops out of nowhere.

 

[CP1708]

View media item 1265175

is this some thin veiled shot at the ineptitude of lakers management?

how is this even news worthy. as stated in the article, the lakers already traded their 2010 pick to memphis for pau 2 years prior to that.

Is there somethin in y'all's water? You got that Saver conspiracy clock on me too?

We had #36, we could have pursued him there as he was a relatively unknown, he could deny workouts for other teams, etc.

And ignoring the draft simply because we won titles is part of why we are where we are right now.

Basically, I just want Klay in LA. Hence me praying for Dwight to choose GS. This draft note hurts is all.

 

[kookcle]

CP, read the article again

FIRST Round Guarantee = He comes out ( for that guaranteed contract $$$$)

We had NO first rounders. Everyone knew that 2 years before.

YES ...We had a 2nd rounder thats why he came back to school

 

[pmatic]

Nuggets win.

Plus one of Magic/Pistons will win. Maybe the Celtics pull an upset over the Suns too.

 

[denni5themenace]

View media item 1265175

Is there somethin in y'all's water? You got that Saver conspiracy clock on me too?

We had #36, we could have pursued him there as he was a relatively unknown, he could deny workouts for other teams, etc.

And ignoring the draft simply because we won titles is part of why we are where we are right now.

Basically, I just want Klay in LA. Hence me praying for Dwight to choose GS. This draft note hurts is all.

i'm with you in that i want klay in LA as well. i was also hoping dwight picked GS to land him, but this type of news is really nothing. we had the 36th pick but why would klay hold out for a guarantee to get picked in the 2nd - with no guaranteed contract on the line?

the article is just another pot shot to the lakers, which seems to be the flavor of the month.

 

[tay1]

i'm with you in that i want klay in LA as well. i was also hoping dwight picked GS to land him, but this type of news is really nothing. we had the 36th pick but why would klay hold out for a guarantee to get picked in the 2nd - with no guaranteed contract on the line?

the article is just another pot shot to the lakers, which seems to be the flavor of the week.

 

[darthska]

So I see the Kobe is overrated thread got bumped.

Bomani gonna be just like the others, they gonna use this ONE game, (and then others like it later this year) to define Kobe's entire 20 year career. It's coming, this is only the start......

This is only the start. They ALL comin for him pretty soon.

I shoulda been a fortune teller.

It's pretty easy to predict that people will isolate and then criticize...

... when you isolate games and then defend.

 

[jab step]

How does anyone believe that article?

1) The Lakers had no first round pick that year.

2) They had the 43rd pick from Memphis not the 38th.


Probably Abbott's sources.

 

[CP1708]

So I see the Kobe is overrated thread got bumped.

Bomani gonna be just like the others, they gonna use this ONE game, (and then others like it later this year) to define Kobe's entire 20 year career. It's coming, this is only the start......

This is only the start. They ALL comin for him pretty soon.

I shoulda been a fortune teller.

It's pretty easy to predict that people will isolate and then criticize...

... when you isolate games and then defend.

Games?

As in the 1,500 or so he's played as a Laker? Cuz I don't think you accussin me of onesie-twosies.

That suddenly sounds fruity somehow.

 

[bravelude]

hind sight articles are trash. kinda like how shaq said he would never play for another coach ever. blah blah. klay is happy, and so yeah that article is irrelevant.  it's not like he wants to leave.