Wednesday, May 01, 2013
OT: NBA Monthly Thread - May 2013
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posted 3 weeks ago by Athletic Supporter gangnam style to basketball, nba, off-topic
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1224 comment(s)
I estimate only 10-12 Primates care about straight NBA players, but with our own thread, we won’t detract from what this site is really about: gay NBA players and craft beer.
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< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 >They are a little over twenty games in and have gone through a coaching change and basically played the entire season without the guy that was supposed to make the team gel (granted, Nash won't solve the defensive issues)...I wouldn't write them off yet. I wouldn't at all be surprised to see them turn it around and still get the fifth seed.
Also saw the video of him looking pretty spry in his pregame workouts. It seems like he is far along in his recovery. Does anyone know what is holding him back?
There were lots of people who hedged (not to this degree, but hedged nonetheless) with the caveat that they would really struggle defensively and may not be a top team if Dwight was not fully healthy. Well, he's far from fully healthy, really struggling defensively, and they are without two other star players that no one anticipated missing extended time.
Even as an unambiguous non Laker fan, I do not share Hombre's fatalism.
By the way, what are you doing grousing about the Lakers tonight. Shouldn't you be having a celebratory Fresca or something?
As berg noted, there was some hedging. As a fan, I was very excited. As an observer, I said in preseason that health, age, depth, defense and coaching issues certainly made it fairly simple to visualize a scenario such that this team didn't work. Serious problems exist in all those areas, and the Lakers are at present a lottery-caliber team.
That strikes me as being a rather foolish overreaction. I might just try to find an actual NBA caliber PG somewhere first and see if that helps. Delonte West was mentioned earlier and there are probably other options out there somewhere.
The defense is beginning to worry me, however. I don't want them reverting to a team who tries to outscore other teams (you know what I mean). The past few games the D has not been good (one of you smart guys check the metrics).
Finally, if you haven't read Kobe's comments on Melo (how he spoke with him last year), you should. I really like Kobe. He's one focused S.O.B.
Nice.
At this point, it's about health and adjustments. There's nothing else to do. You can't be hiring a third coach and be paying the coaching position $20 million for something to implement a third system in three months. Panic flailing won't help you swim.
Kobe's personality is like his offensive game. He's utterly relentless in everything he does. That probably makes him an intolerable human being to hang out with, but it certainly makes him one heck of a ballplayer.
OTOH, I think MDA should have sat Kobe down, taken the thumping, and maybe had him in better shape for tonight. Assuming that it will take 46 wins to get the 8th seed (and the average the last three full seasons in the West is actually 48), the Lakers need to go 37-21 the rest of the way. They actually kind of need to beat the Wizards tonight--and I would not bet on it happening.
As to the Knicks, I remain skeptical, but they are certainly better than I thought. I mentioned on another blog that I expected the Lakers to really get their asses kicked last night, with Anthony looking to really stick it to D'Antoni.
And yes, firing D'Antoni would be dumb. See if Nash and Gasol can actually come back, try to get another PG, and then see how things look with Howard. Cross the blow-it-up-this-is-a-disaster-for-sure-now bridge if you actually get to it. Not quite there yet. The 2003 team, thin, old in places on the bench and missing Shaq early, started 11-19 but won 50 and made it to the conference semis before getting waxed by Duncan and Co.
Me neither. The Wiz have been doing a little better lately; surprised Miami, won in NO. I don't see the Lakers as favorites to win the game. Toss-up IMO.
A few years ago, I figured D12 and 11 guys from the YMCA would be a .500 team. I know he's coming back from the disc issue, but has that injury notably affected his defense?
Yeah--and his explosiveness around the rim. Zach Lowe broke it down in the piece I linked yesterday. Howard is still a hell of a player, but for the Lakers as constructed to work, he needs to be DWIGHT HOWARD, not Dwight Howard. In preseason, I said that the winning formula for the team was to be Top 3 in O and Howard's greatness on D to get them about 10th on that end. They are, obviously, not close in either area at the moment.
Also, he needs a PG and floorspacers to make it easier to get his offense maximized; he is not a multi-move-back-to-the-hoop artist like some other great centers. Jameer Nelson has not been anything special the last 2-3 years, but he is far, far better than Duhon. And the Lakers 3PT shooting, while better than it has been for many reasons, is still not that good and goes up and down. Howard of course played with Duhon in ORL, but Ryan Anderson and some other guys who could 3 were there as well.
Yes, it's talked about in the Lowe article linked in post 238. He's less mobile than he used to be.
It doesn't help that Jamison and Hill are both really poor defenders as well. Even with his slump on offense, the Lakers miss Gasol badly because he's a much better defender than those guys.
With Duhon the problem is that he's better than Morris and they don't really have anyone else right now with Nash and Blake out (and Blake isn't any good either). Duhon is doing as much as Duhon can(over 60% TS and an above average WP48). Duhon would probably be fine about 10 minutes a game, but he's been playing over 30 lately.
I said toss-up, but the Lakers have won 2 road games, and while I am 99% sure that Kobe will play, since that's how he is, he was having back spasms last night. Basically, any team capable of beating Miami even if it is a 1-out-of-20 thing, is not really an underdog in a meaningful way on their own floor against the Lakers as they are today.
I feel the same was about the Knicks. Better than I thought, but not nearly as good as their WPct. When Carmelo Anthony, Jason Kidd, and Ray Felton are collectively shooting 45% from the 3 point line (combined 33% last year, 34% career), well, I'll remain somewhat skeptical for the time being. That said, I think they may be forcing their way into the "Who gets to lose to Miami in the Eastern Conference Finals?" conversation, thereby replacing Indiana alongside Boston, Chicago (pending Rose's return), and maybe Atlanta. (Sorry, Brooklyn, I don't see it, given Williams being less than elite and their defense being same)
What odds (seriously) would you give me in a bet of Knicks wins this season vs. Lakers wins this season. I still think I like the Lakers in that bet - maybe not quite even odds, but close.
Not seeing it. The Lakers need to go 41-18 to win 50. The Knicks need to go 33-27.
But I pretty much agree with you about Miami, the East etc. I am not convinced that any regular-season issues that Miami has this season will be particuarly meaningful when the playoffs come around.
If the Knicks go .500 for the rest of the year the Lakers would need to go 39-20 (.661) to have a better record.
I may be WAAAAAY off base, but something like this is roughly what I expect going forward. Maybe Lakers 39-20 vs. Knicks 34-26 or something like that. Only a few games to swing from there for the lakers to end up ahead. Maybe 3-to-2 or 2-to-1?
I meant to mention that "bet" is assuming Nash comes back in the next month or so.
well, every sixers game these days is kind of ugly, but with jrue holiday out of the lineup and the team in indiana, this game could be ugly even by sixers standards.
A Mt. Dew with a shot of Midori in it for you... (that's what I'm drinking)
I think the Rockets G situation is a little bizarre. Yes, Harden is a better player than Lin, but I'm not sure they're handling the having two ball dominant G situation correctly. I'm fairly certain that Harden is a superior spot-up/any kind of shooter to Lin. I'm also fairly certain that Lin is a better passer than Harden. Why not have Lin have the ball in his hands and have Harden be the one working off the ball? Or, even if you don't want to do that, the entire world knows Lin is better with the ball in his hands so why not make an effort to stagger their minutes?
Besides, Sessions wasn't a problem for LAL for most of the regular season (when he was on the team) - it was late / in the playoffs when he wasn't effective.
That said... not sure that he'd be a great fit for them, with the lack of outside shooting and defense.
In spite of those things, he would have been a decent backup for Nash, since he can run PnR--but they couldn't really afford him. I would certainly rather have him right now than Duhon.
One problem the Lakers have has is being out of sync with personnel/coaching, between the veto and the decision to can Brown. The other problems are that the new bench guys (Jamison, Meeks, Hill) are very limited and were brought in based on how they fit around the core. Finally, Kupchak didn't do anything about the 1 and the 3; all of that has been exposed by the issues with the core.
At this point, Nash is basically Bilbo Baggins to the Lakers' troop of angry dwarves--the whole mission depends on him.
Bruce Jenkins, for the San Francisco Chronicle:
This is exactly the same thing as saying "Stern, who is Jewish, has no real feel for Christmas." I don't know if that's okay.
A similar but OK sentence: "Walmart, who are ungrateful, soulless m0therfuckers, have no real feel for Thanksgiving in the first place."
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