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Lakers: Chris Kaman
D'Antoni: Open competition alongside Gasol
September, 30, 2013
Sep 30
4:06
PM PT
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Perhaps partly because Dwight Howard is out of the picture, perhaps partly because Pau Gasol is far healthier than last season (OK, mostly because Howard is out of the picture), Los Angeles Lakers head coach Mike D'Antoni has made an about-face from his initial coaching instincts when counting on Gasol's services.
Remember when Gasol was benched late in games last season? Or relegated to sixth man status? Or positioned on the perimeter when he was on the court and encouraged to attempt the most 3-pointers of his 12-year career?
Not the case anymore. Just three days into training camp, D'Antoni has already named two definitive starters while Kobe Bryant is out: Gasol at center and Steve Nash, his longtime pupil, running the point. And expectations are high for the former four-time All-Star in the middle.
"When your knees hurt, it’s not easy to play," D'Antoni said after practice Monday, referring to the 33 games Gasol missed a year ago because of chronic pain in his knees. "I think he feels better and when he feels good, I think he’s going to be great. Keep your fingers crossed because hopefully he’ll have his best year ever. He’s still young enough, he’s only 33."
D'Antoni wasn't finished with the praise yet.
"I think he has at least five more good years, real good years, in him," D'Antoni said.
With Gasol's role firmly entrenched, D'Antoni is turning his sights to a five-man group of Jordan Hill, Chris Kaman, Wesley Johnson, Shawne Williams and rookie Ryan Kelly, to a lesser extent, to determine who will be his partner in the Lakers' starting frontcourt.
It's a diverse crowd. Kaman is the biggest of the bunch at 7-foot, 265 pounds, but he brings with him the ability to consistently hit the from the midrange. Hill is known as an energizing garbage man who plays defense and works the boards, but he spent the offseason working on his outside shot. Williams and Kelly are strictly stretch fours. Johnson is more of a slashing wing who, like Hill, has worked to improve his outside shot to become more appealing in D'Antoni's system.
"Pau can play with anybody," D'Antoni said. "He makes anybody look good with his passing, so, you can play him with Jordan who is more of a runner and slasher, or you can play Kaman who is more of a catch-and-shoot kind of guy, so they’ll all blend in real well together."
D'Antoni said he would prefer to find a full-time starter at power forward by the Lakers' opening night against the Los Angeles Clippers on Oct. 29, rather than shuffle the starting lineup as the season goes on based on matchups.
"I would rather teams have to match up with us," D'Antoni said. "(The) team that we put out there should be our strongest team and we’ll figure that out. It could happen, but I would like to have everybody know their role and feel comfortable in it. Not some days start, some days not. It might happen, but I don’t know."
It's hard to read the tea leaves to handicap the power forward race based on D'Antoni's comments so far.
On one hand, D'Antoni has stressed the need for defense coming out of the position, so Hill could be considered to have the advantage, yet D'Antoni said Hill has been, "Little rusty, little tired like everybody, but good."
The coach has complimented Kaman's versatility in terms of being interchangeable when being on the court together with Gasol, however Kaman starting means that seldom used second-year player Robert Sacre would become the team's back-up center, which would be a major leap from the bench role he played last season.
Johnson has a lot of upside, but very little experience at the position. Williams had success playing under D'Antoni in New York, but was out of the league altogether last season. Kelly hasn't even been able to practice with the team yet during training camp as he continues to work out on the anti-gravity treadmill while recovering from foot problems.
"At this point, we're still determining what the lineups will be," Kaman said. "We've had three practices and everybody is kind of jumping the gun a little bit. Let things happen and see how that goes. Who knows what the lineup is going to be? Who knows if we go small, big? It just depends on the teams and the day and how coach is feeling about certain things."
No matter who wins the starting job, D'Antoni is hoping the pool of players can make up for the absence felt from Howard's departure.
"These guys have other strengths," D'Antoni said. "Dwight is a very good player, obviously, and we would play a certain way. This way we’ll play a little bit more wide open, a little bit different but that remains to be seen. The biggest thing on the defensive end, we just got to collectively do the job."
Remember when Gasol was benched late in games last season? Or relegated to sixth man status? Or positioned on the perimeter when he was on the court and encouraged to attempt the most 3-pointers of his 12-year career?
Not the case anymore. Just three days into training camp, D'Antoni has already named two definitive starters while Kobe Bryant is out: Gasol at center and Steve Nash, his longtime pupil, running the point. And expectations are high for the former four-time All-Star in the middle.
"When your knees hurt, it’s not easy to play," D'Antoni said after practice Monday, referring to the 33 games Gasol missed a year ago because of chronic pain in his knees. "I think he feels better and when he feels good, I think he’s going to be great. Keep your fingers crossed because hopefully he’ll have his best year ever. He’s still young enough, he’s only 33."
D'Antoni wasn't finished with the praise yet.
"I think he has at least five more good years, real good years, in him," D'Antoni said.
With Gasol's role firmly entrenched, D'Antoni is turning his sights to a five-man group of Jordan Hill, Chris Kaman, Wesley Johnson, Shawne Williams and rookie Ryan Kelly, to a lesser extent, to determine who will be his partner in the Lakers' starting frontcourt.
It's a diverse crowd. Kaman is the biggest of the bunch at 7-foot, 265 pounds, but he brings with him the ability to consistently hit the from the midrange. Hill is known as an energizing garbage man who plays defense and works the boards, but he spent the offseason working on his outside shot. Williams and Kelly are strictly stretch fours. Johnson is more of a slashing wing who, like Hill, has worked to improve his outside shot to become more appealing in D'Antoni's system.
"Pau can play with anybody," D'Antoni said. "He makes anybody look good with his passing, so, you can play him with Jordan who is more of a runner and slasher, or you can play Kaman who is more of a catch-and-shoot kind of guy, so they’ll all blend in real well together."
D'Antoni said he would prefer to find a full-time starter at power forward by the Lakers' opening night against the Los Angeles Clippers on Oct. 29, rather than shuffle the starting lineup as the season goes on based on matchups.
"I would rather teams have to match up with us," D'Antoni said. "(The) team that we put out there should be our strongest team and we’ll figure that out. It could happen, but I would like to have everybody know their role and feel comfortable in it. Not some days start, some days not. It might happen, but I don’t know."
It's hard to read the tea leaves to handicap the power forward race based on D'Antoni's comments so far.
On one hand, D'Antoni has stressed the need for defense coming out of the position, so Hill could be considered to have the advantage, yet D'Antoni said Hill has been, "Little rusty, little tired like everybody, but good."
The coach has complimented Kaman's versatility in terms of being interchangeable when being on the court together with Gasol, however Kaman starting means that seldom used second-year player Robert Sacre would become the team's back-up center, which would be a major leap from the bench role he played last season.
Johnson has a lot of upside, but very little experience at the position. Williams had success playing under D'Antoni in New York, but was out of the league altogether last season. Kelly hasn't even been able to practice with the team yet during training camp as he continues to work out on the anti-gravity treadmill while recovering from foot problems.
"At this point, we're still determining what the lineups will be," Kaman said. "We've had three practices and everybody is kind of jumping the gun a little bit. Let things happen and see how that goes. Who knows what the lineup is going to be? Who knows if we go small, big? It just depends on the teams and the day and how coach is feeling about certain things."
No matter who wins the starting job, D'Antoni is hoping the pool of players can make up for the absence felt from Howard's departure.
"These guys have other strengths," D'Antoni said. "Dwight is a very good player, obviously, and we would play a certain way. This way we’ll play a little bit more wide open, a little bit different but that remains to be seen. The biggest thing on the defensive end, we just got to collectively do the job."
Countdown to camp: 10 reasons to care
September, 23, 2013
Sep 23
8:00
PM PT
When we last left the Los Angeles Lakers, a painful season was mercifully being put to an end at the hands of the San Antonio Spurs.
But the past is the past. A new season is right around the corner. Hope springs eternal, right?
A lot has changed in Laker Land in the five months between the Spurs series, which ended in a 21-point loss to complete the sweep on April 28, and when training camp opens up Saturday. Most notably, the will-he-or-won’t-he game the team played with Dwight Howard ended with the Lakers stranded on the dance floor as Howard made his Texas two-step to the Houston Rockets. Beyond that, L.A. said goodbye to key contributors Metta World Peace, Antawn Jamison and Earl Clark, and hello to a handful of hopeful replacements in Chris Kaman, Nick Young, Jordan Farmar and Wesley Johnson.
With that said, it’s time to count down to training camp. Let's take a look at the 10 storylines to keep in mind as the Lakers open up the 2013-14 season.
1. How will Kobe Bryant open up the “last chapter” of his storied career?
Seemingly whenever Bryant’s Achilles tear was brought up this offseason, one would point to Bryant’s age (35), his amount of career minutes logged (54,000 and counting between the regular season and playoffs) and other players to be decimated by the same injury (Chauncey Billups, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Elton Brand, etc.) to analyze Bryant’s chances of returning to form, but then couch all that with a statement along the lines of, “But I wouldn’t bet against him.” The speculation will end soon enough. Beyond the perfunctory questions of when Bryant will actually return to the lineup and how much playing time he’ll receive, there’s the more meta cloud of mystery as to what type of approach Bryant will take once he is back. Did all this time away from the game change him? Will he still be the player with individual iron will who demands his teammates to follow, or will he be more willing to meet them halfway? If the Lakers struggle, as ESPN.com’s NBA panel suggested, how will Bryant respond to potentially playing on a noncontending team for the first time in nearly a decade? After tapping into the fountain of youth for his “Vino” resurgence the past couple of seasons, does he have anything left for an encore? It’s sure to be fascinating.
2. What will a full training camp do for Mike D’Antoni?
"This year we should start off finding and solving some problems in October and in September when you watch guys play and [find out] what's their tendencies, and then you formulate your ideas and you try to get it going by November," D'Antoni told ESPN 710 in August. There were excuses built in from the start of D’Antoni’s tenure with the team last year, from the disadvantage of taking over a team that was 1-4 in the regular season following an 0-8 preseason to a roster that included a starting point guard with a broken leg (Steve Nash), a backup point guard with a lingering abdominal strain (Steve Blake) and a starting center still rehabbing a major back injury (Howard). Not to mention D’Antoni was coming off knee replacement surgery of his own when he took the gig and facing the fallout of being the guy the franchise chose over Phil Jackson. He’ll go into this season with a roster that better fits his style of play, a clean 0-0 record and more manageable expectations from a fan base that is no longer thinking championship or bust.
3. Who will make the team?
The Lakers have 11 guaranteed contracts for next season in Bryant, Nash, Blake, Young, Kaman, Farmar, Johnson, Pau Gasol, Jodie Meeks, Robert Sacre and Jordan Hill. They have also signed Shawne Williams, Elias Harris, Marcus Landry, Xavier Henry and Ryan Kelly as camp invitees. How many out of those five will make the team? The most who can make it is four, as the maximum number of players allowed on an NBA roster is 15. The Lakers will indeed likely open the season with a 15-man roster according to a team source, with several of those players on partially guaranteed deals that become fully vetted only if they stick around the team later in the season. Williams already has a partially guaranteed deal, according to a league source, so you figure he would put the roster at 12 (D’Antoni recently raved about him in an interview with Time Warner Cable SportsNet). And Elias Harris also has a partially guaranteed deal, according to the L.A. Times, so let's say he's No. 13. From there, who out of Kelly, Landry and Henry will be the odd man out when it comes to cut day?
4. Who wins the backup point guard job?
Yes, Blake will turn 33 this season, while Farmar will only be turning 27. And yes, Farmar has proved to be a championship-caliber player in L.A., helping to capture two rings before leaving as a free agent in the summer of 2010, but let’s not diminish what Blake is capable of. The 11-year veteran was at his best when the Lakers needed him the most last season, averaging 12.6 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.0 assists while shooting 40.7 percent from 3 during eight games in the month of April when L.A. made its playoff push. There could be plenty of time for both of them if D’Antoni is committed to cutting down on Nash’s minutes, but on nights when Nash receives a lot of burn, either Farmar or Blake will find himself riding the pine.
5. How long before the next Phil Jackson rumor pops up?
As long as Phil Jackson doesn’t have a job with another NBA team, his presence will continue to swirl around the Lakers like a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon. His name was already linked to the failed Seattle ownership group, the Brooklyn Nets, Toronto Raptors, Orlando Magic and Detroit Pistons in the past year, but none of that has quieted the calls by fans for him to return to the Lakers in some capacity (and consulting on a scripted television series about the team for Showtime won’t be enough). With the Jeanie Buss-Jim Buss relationship continuing to be played out in the public eye, it’s doubtful we’ve heard the last of Jackson when it comes to the team he coached to five championships.
6. Can Kurt Rambis get these guys to play defense?
In a move that is still somewhat puzzling considering D’Antoni’s natural motivation to remove himself from Jackson comparisons, Rambis was brought in as an assistant coach this offseason. While D’Antoni hasn’t made any delineations as to which one of his aides will responsible for what next season, Rambis’ defensive mind will surely be explored to help the Lakers start to find a way to get stops. The Lakers were tied with Brooklyn for 18th in the league in defensive efficiency last season, allowing opponents to score 103.6 points per 100 possessions. In a word: dreadful. Now, without the services of two former defensive player of the year award winners in Howard and World Peace, the Lakers will try to figure out a way to improve in that all-important end of the court.
7. What does Pau Gasol have left?
After he turned in a masterpiece of a Game 7 in the 2010 NBA Finals with 19 points, 18 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks, it’s been pretty much all downhill for Gasol. In the 2011 season he fizzled in the playoffs as Jackson’s “Last Stand” season went up in smoke. In the 2012 season, he was demoted in the pecking order as Mike Brown tried to develop a system around Andrew Bynum. And last season, D’Antoni felt compelled to go through Howard rather than Gasol to appease the impending free agent, not to mention that the Spaniard’s health was an issue during the entire campaign. With Bynum and Howard out of the picture and Gasol's body supposedly in good shape after he took the summer off from international competition for the first time in a long time, can he return to the form that made him a four-time All-Star and two-time champion, or will the 2013-14 season be a continuation of his rapid descent?
8. Will history be made?
Bryant enters the season with 31,617 career points, placing him fourth on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. The next name ahead of him? None other than Michael Jordan, sitting 675 points away with 32,292 career points. If Bryant can maintain his 25.5 points per game career average, it will take him somewhere in the neighborhood of 27 games to catch MJ. Nash enters the season with 10,249 career assists, putting him fourth on the all-time list. He is just 85 assists away from Mark Jackson for third. If he can distribute dimes at his 8.5 per game career rate, it will take him a mere 10 games to move up the ranks.
9. Will there be a Howard hangover?
By most estimations, having Howard in Houston will help clear the chemistry in the Lakers' locker room and allow the team to start fresh with a much-needed attitude adjustment. But what happens if the Rockets soar to the top of the Western Conference standings and L.A. is left with a roster devoid of rim protectors? The prevailing sentiment from Laker Nation after Howard skipped town was “good riddance,” but will regret creep up if a healthy Howard has an MVP-type season for Houston? Will everything that went down with Howard haunt the franchise in the way that the vetoed Chris Paul trade still lingers around the Lakers? Or will Howard wear out his welcome with the Rockets in the same fashion he did with the Lakers and the Orlando Magic?
10. How will those new jerseys look?
Being a fan isn’t just about analyzing the rotation and cheering for what the players do on the court, it’s about having an opinion on how they look while they’re doing it, too. It’s not all serious stuff. Paul Lukas of Uni Watch recently ranked the Lakers’ jerseys as the No. 2 best kit in the league, just behind their rival Boston Celtics. It’s tough to mess with a classic look like that, but the Lakers are giving it a try, introducing a black alternative “Hollywood Nights” uniform as well as a white, short-sleeved jersey. If that wasn’t enough new wardrobe possibilities, the NBA is considering allowing players from the Miami Heat and Brooklyn Nets to put nicknames on the back of their jerseys, which could lead to a “Black Mamba” No. 24 uniform down the road.
But the past is the past. A new season is right around the corner. Hope springs eternal, right?
A lot has changed in Laker Land in the five months between the Spurs series, which ended in a 21-point loss to complete the sweep on April 28, and when training camp opens up Saturday. Most notably, the will-he-or-won’t-he game the team played with Dwight Howard ended with the Lakers stranded on the dance floor as Howard made his Texas two-step to the Houston Rockets. Beyond that, L.A. said goodbye to key contributors Metta World Peace, Antawn Jamison and Earl Clark, and hello to a handful of hopeful replacements in Chris Kaman, Nick Young, Jordan Farmar and Wesley Johnson.
With that said, it’s time to count down to training camp. Let's take a look at the 10 storylines to keep in mind as the Lakers open up the 2013-14 season.
[+] Enlarge
Jayne Kamin-Oncea/USA TODAY SportsThe Lakers hope to see less of this. But how will Kobe rebound?
Seemingly whenever Bryant’s Achilles tear was brought up this offseason, one would point to Bryant’s age (35), his amount of career minutes logged (54,000 and counting between the regular season and playoffs) and other players to be decimated by the same injury (Chauncey Billups, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Elton Brand, etc.) to analyze Bryant’s chances of returning to form, but then couch all that with a statement along the lines of, “But I wouldn’t bet against him.” The speculation will end soon enough. Beyond the perfunctory questions of when Bryant will actually return to the lineup and how much playing time he’ll receive, there’s the more meta cloud of mystery as to what type of approach Bryant will take once he is back. Did all this time away from the game change him? Will he still be the player with individual iron will who demands his teammates to follow, or will he be more willing to meet them halfway? If the Lakers struggle, as ESPN.com’s NBA panel suggested, how will Bryant respond to potentially playing on a noncontending team for the first time in nearly a decade? After tapping into the fountain of youth for his “Vino” resurgence the past couple of seasons, does he have anything left for an encore? It’s sure to be fascinating.
2. What will a full training camp do for Mike D’Antoni?
"This year we should start off finding and solving some problems in October and in September when you watch guys play and [find out] what's their tendencies, and then you formulate your ideas and you try to get it going by November," D'Antoni told ESPN 710 in August. There were excuses built in from the start of D’Antoni’s tenure with the team last year, from the disadvantage of taking over a team that was 1-4 in the regular season following an 0-8 preseason to a roster that included a starting point guard with a broken leg (Steve Nash), a backup point guard with a lingering abdominal strain (Steve Blake) and a starting center still rehabbing a major back injury (Howard). Not to mention D’Antoni was coming off knee replacement surgery of his own when he took the gig and facing the fallout of being the guy the franchise chose over Phil Jackson. He’ll go into this season with a roster that better fits his style of play, a clean 0-0 record and more manageable expectations from a fan base that is no longer thinking championship or bust.
3. Who will make the team?
The Lakers have 11 guaranteed contracts for next season in Bryant, Nash, Blake, Young, Kaman, Farmar, Johnson, Pau Gasol, Jodie Meeks, Robert Sacre and Jordan Hill. They have also signed Shawne Williams, Elias Harris, Marcus Landry, Xavier Henry and Ryan Kelly as camp invitees. How many out of those five will make the team? The most who can make it is four, as the maximum number of players allowed on an NBA roster is 15. The Lakers will indeed likely open the season with a 15-man roster according to a team source, with several of those players on partially guaranteed deals that become fully vetted only if they stick around the team later in the season. Williams already has a partially guaranteed deal, according to a league source, so you figure he would put the roster at 12 (D’Antoni recently raved about him in an interview with Time Warner Cable SportsNet). And Elias Harris also has a partially guaranteed deal, according to the L.A. Times, so let's say he's No. 13. From there, who out of Kelly, Landry and Henry will be the odd man out when it comes to cut day?
[+] Enlarge
Richard Mackson/USA TODAY SportsThe Lakers had an 0-8 preseason and were 1-4 before Mike D'Antoni took over. A full offseason eliminates that excuse.
Yes, Blake will turn 33 this season, while Farmar will only be turning 27. And yes, Farmar has proved to be a championship-caliber player in L.A., helping to capture two rings before leaving as a free agent in the summer of 2010, but let’s not diminish what Blake is capable of. The 11-year veteran was at his best when the Lakers needed him the most last season, averaging 12.6 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.0 assists while shooting 40.7 percent from 3 during eight games in the month of April when L.A. made its playoff push. There could be plenty of time for both of them if D’Antoni is committed to cutting down on Nash’s minutes, but on nights when Nash receives a lot of burn, either Farmar or Blake will find himself riding the pine.
5. How long before the next Phil Jackson rumor pops up?
As long as Phil Jackson doesn’t have a job with another NBA team, his presence will continue to swirl around the Lakers like a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon. His name was already linked to the failed Seattle ownership group, the Brooklyn Nets, Toronto Raptors, Orlando Magic and Detroit Pistons in the past year, but none of that has quieted the calls by fans for him to return to the Lakers in some capacity (and consulting on a scripted television series about the team for Showtime won’t be enough). With the Jeanie Buss-Jim Buss relationship continuing to be played out in the public eye, it’s doubtful we’ve heard the last of Jackson when it comes to the team he coached to five championships.
6. Can Kurt Rambis get these guys to play defense?
In a move that is still somewhat puzzling considering D’Antoni’s natural motivation to remove himself from Jackson comparisons, Rambis was brought in as an assistant coach this offseason. While D’Antoni hasn’t made any delineations as to which one of his aides will responsible for what next season, Rambis’ defensive mind will surely be explored to help the Lakers start to find a way to get stops. The Lakers were tied with Brooklyn for 18th in the league in defensive efficiency last season, allowing opponents to score 103.6 points per 100 possessions. In a word: dreadful. Now, without the services of two former defensive player of the year award winners in Howard and World Peace, the Lakers will try to figure out a way to improve in that all-important end of the court.
7. What does Pau Gasol have left?
After he turned in a masterpiece of a Game 7 in the 2010 NBA Finals with 19 points, 18 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks, it’s been pretty much all downhill for Gasol. In the 2011 season he fizzled in the playoffs as Jackson’s “Last Stand” season went up in smoke. In the 2012 season, he was demoted in the pecking order as Mike Brown tried to develop a system around Andrew Bynum. And last season, D’Antoni felt compelled to go through Howard rather than Gasol to appease the impending free agent, not to mention that the Spaniard’s health was an issue during the entire campaign. With Bynum and Howard out of the picture and Gasol's body supposedly in good shape after he took the summer off from international competition for the first time in a long time, can he return to the form that made him a four-time All-Star and two-time champion, or will the 2013-14 season be a continuation of his rapid descent?
More on the Lakers
For more news, notes and analysis of the Lakers, check out the Lakers Index. Blog
Bryant enters the season with 31,617 career points, placing him fourth on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. The next name ahead of him? None other than Michael Jordan, sitting 675 points away with 32,292 career points. If Bryant can maintain his 25.5 points per game career average, it will take him somewhere in the neighborhood of 27 games to catch MJ. Nash enters the season with 10,249 career assists, putting him fourth on the all-time list. He is just 85 assists away from Mark Jackson for third. If he can distribute dimes at his 8.5 per game career rate, it will take him a mere 10 games to move up the ranks.
9. Will there be a Howard hangover?
By most estimations, having Howard in Houston will help clear the chemistry in the Lakers' locker room and allow the team to start fresh with a much-needed attitude adjustment. But what happens if the Rockets soar to the top of the Western Conference standings and L.A. is left with a roster devoid of rim protectors? The prevailing sentiment from Laker Nation after Howard skipped town was “good riddance,” but will regret creep up if a healthy Howard has an MVP-type season for Houston? Will everything that went down with Howard haunt the franchise in the way that the vetoed Chris Paul trade still lingers around the Lakers? Or will Howard wear out his welcome with the Rockets in the same fashion he did with the Lakers and the Orlando Magic?
10. How will those new jerseys look?
Being a fan isn’t just about analyzing the rotation and cheering for what the players do on the court, it’s about having an opinion on how they look while they’re doing it, too. It’s not all serious stuff. Paul Lukas of Uni Watch recently ranked the Lakers’ jerseys as the No. 2 best kit in the league, just behind their rival Boston Celtics. It’s tough to mess with a classic look like that, but the Lakers are giving it a try, introducing a black alternative “Hollywood Nights” uniform as well as a white, short-sleeved jersey. If that wasn’t enough new wardrobe possibilities, the NBA is considering allowing players from the Miami Heat and Brooklyn Nets to put nicknames on the back of their jerseys, which could lead to a “Black Mamba” No. 24 uniform down the road.
Bring the fun back
September, 16, 2013
Sep 16
4:03
PM PT
Pretty much any fan of the Los Angeles Lakers will tell you that the last three seasons haven’t been very fun, with the 2012-13 season falling much closer to painful than joyful on the experience scale.
“We were stacked and it was an epic failure,” said Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist and Lakers super fan, Flea, in a recent podcast with LandOLakers.com. “For me, it was the most disappointing Lakers season of all time and not even close to any other season.”
From the embarrassing ending to Phil Jackson’s final campaign, to the uninspiring Mike Brown era (L.A. topped 100 points just 24 times in the 71 regular-season games he coached), to the utter disaster of last season, the return on investment of time, money and emotion spent by Lakers fans has not resulted in any sort of payoff.
I know what that life’s all about, having grown up as a Philadelphia sports fan. Losing and frustration and disappointment come with the territory.
If I went into every season with a championship-or-bust mentality as a fan, I would have given up watching sports a long time ago and probably would be really into cooking shows and have some random additional skill, like being able to play the piano.
But, I kept watching and I keep watching. And even though there’s been only one Philadelphia championship in my lifetime (the 2008 Phillies) and I have that Jerry West in me where I hate to lose more than I love to win, I have conditioned myself to still be able to find enjoyment as a fan in a season, even if there is no ring at the end.
Now, the Lakers have 16 championships in their history, compared to just five for the three major pro sports teams in Philly (three for the 76ers, two for the Phillies and zero Super Bowl wins for the Eagles … I’m not an ice hockey guy). So that fact alone might naturally lower my expectations. But is being a Lakers fan all about rooting for rings and nothing else?
What if those expectations were removed? What if you forgot about the history for a second and, instead of focusing solely on the team’s quest for No. 17 or Kobe Bryant’s fight for No. 6, you took in each game for what it is? What if a loss in January wasn’t a referendum on how the team could potentially perform in June, but rather something the team could learn from in February?
Take my Eagles, for instance. Have you seen them under Chip Kelly? I came into this season thinking that an 8-8 record would be pretty much their ceiling after a dreadful 4-12 mark last season. Two weeks into it and they’re 1-1, so that’s right in step with my instincts. But there is nothing mediocre or ho-hum about how they got to 1-1. If I wanted to view everything in the specter of their Super Bowl chances, then I could focus on how they almost let a 26-point lead disappear against Washington and how they were 7.5-point favorites at Lincoln Financial Field in Week 2 and lost to San Diego.
But if I forget about Lombardi for a second, I can appreciate what’s going on here. Back-to-back 30-point games? Last season, the Eagles scored 30 or more in just one game all season -- a 38-33 loss to the Dallas Cowboys. LeSean McCoy putting up 184 running yards in Week 1, Michael Vick collecting 428 passing yards in Week 2 and DeSean Jackson hauling in 297 receiving yards over two games? This is silly stuff. And wildly entertaining. And all I could ask for as a fan.
So, how about it, Lakers fans? What if Mike D’Antoni gets these guys to reach the 110-115 points per game that he promised at his introductory news conference? What if there is chemistry and growth and a few upsets along the way -- both from the Lakers beating a team or two that are better than them and falling to a few inferior opponents?
The knee-jerk reaction from some of you I’m sure will be, “Well, we had ‘Showtime’ already AND we won.” And you’d be right on both counts. But even though this season’s Lakers will be wearing the same purple and gold uniforms as those teams from the 1980s, everything else has changed in the NBA they’ll be competing in. You can still honor the past without making it an unrealistic standard you hold the present to. Plus, it’s all about context. Comparing this aging Bryant/Steve Nash/Pau Gasol-led team to Magic Johnson/Kareem Abdul-Jabbar/James Worthy in their prime isn’t a fair fight. But comparing it to the squad that had an injured, unhappy Dwight Howard on it last season? Or to the team that slogged up and down the court under Brown? It would have to be better than that, right?
I called up Paul Coro, who covers the Phoenix Suns for the Arizona Republic and got on the beat one month after D’Antoni got the job as head coach of the Suns. How did Phoenix fans accept the 7 Seconds or Less era?
“When he took over the team, [there] was kind of free rein because there wasn’t any expectations,” Coro said. “Everything about it was great. They were winning beyond anybody’s imagination. They were doing it in a way that was innovative and thoroughly entertaining. It just blew people away how much fun it was. Immediately, they had big crowds -- sellouts early in the season. I think they ended up starting a sellout streak that carried on for a few years. It was nothing for them to be up in the 110-120 [point range].”
Albeit the Suns have never won it all, having lost to the Chicago Bulls in the 1993 Finals and to the Boston Celtics in 1976, so you could say that they never knew what it was like to root for a championship team like L.A. The point is, though, that those D'Antoni Suns teams were worth it for the fans. They were memorable. They were thrilling. They were fun.
A healthy Bryant, Nash and Gasol, with additional playmaking from guys like Nick Young, Jordan Farmar, Wes Johnson and Steve Blake, plus Jordan Hill and Chris Kaman playing big down low and Jodie Meeks and Ryan Kelly or Shawne Williams spreading the floor outside can be fun, too.
I'm excited about watching the next Eagles game. Do I think this will be the best season ever for the Birds? Nope. But they could surprise me. It's a nice feeling.
Wouldn't it be nice to feel that way about the Lakers again?
“We were stacked and it was an epic failure,” said Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist and Lakers super fan, Flea, in a recent podcast with LandOLakers.com. “For me, it was the most disappointing Lakers season of all time and not even close to any other season.”
Greg Smith/USA TODAY SportsA Lakers team led by a healthy Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Steve Nash should be fun to watch.
I know what that life’s all about, having grown up as a Philadelphia sports fan. Losing and frustration and disappointment come with the territory.
If I went into every season with a championship-or-bust mentality as a fan, I would have given up watching sports a long time ago and probably would be really into cooking shows and have some random additional skill, like being able to play the piano.
But, I kept watching and I keep watching. And even though there’s been only one Philadelphia championship in my lifetime (the 2008 Phillies) and I have that Jerry West in me where I hate to lose more than I love to win, I have conditioned myself to still be able to find enjoyment as a fan in a season, even if there is no ring at the end.
Now, the Lakers have 16 championships in their history, compared to just five for the three major pro sports teams in Philly (three for the 76ers, two for the Phillies and zero Super Bowl wins for the Eagles … I’m not an ice hockey guy). So that fact alone might naturally lower my expectations. But is being a Lakers fan all about rooting for rings and nothing else?
What if those expectations were removed? What if you forgot about the history for a second and, instead of focusing solely on the team’s quest for No. 17 or Kobe Bryant’s fight for No. 6, you took in each game for what it is? What if a loss in January wasn’t a referendum on how the team could potentially perform in June, but rather something the team could learn from in February?
Take my Eagles, for instance. Have you seen them under Chip Kelly? I came into this season thinking that an 8-8 record would be pretty much their ceiling after a dreadful 4-12 mark last season. Two weeks into it and they’re 1-1, so that’s right in step with my instincts. But there is nothing mediocre or ho-hum about how they got to 1-1. If I wanted to view everything in the specter of their Super Bowl chances, then I could focus on how they almost let a 26-point lead disappear against Washington and how they were 7.5-point favorites at Lincoln Financial Field in Week 2 and lost to San Diego.
But if I forget about Lombardi for a second, I can appreciate what’s going on here. Back-to-back 30-point games? Last season, the Eagles scored 30 or more in just one game all season -- a 38-33 loss to the Dallas Cowboys. LeSean McCoy putting up 184 running yards in Week 1, Michael Vick collecting 428 passing yards in Week 2 and DeSean Jackson hauling in 297 receiving yards over two games? This is silly stuff. And wildly entertaining. And all I could ask for as a fan.
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The knee-jerk reaction from some of you I’m sure will be, “Well, we had ‘Showtime’ already AND we won.” And you’d be right on both counts. But even though this season’s Lakers will be wearing the same purple and gold uniforms as those teams from the 1980s, everything else has changed in the NBA they’ll be competing in. You can still honor the past without making it an unrealistic standard you hold the present to. Plus, it’s all about context. Comparing this aging Bryant/Steve Nash/Pau Gasol-led team to Magic Johnson/Kareem Abdul-Jabbar/James Worthy in their prime isn’t a fair fight. But comparing it to the squad that had an injured, unhappy Dwight Howard on it last season? Or to the team that slogged up and down the court under Brown? It would have to be better than that, right?
I called up Paul Coro, who covers the Phoenix Suns for the Arizona Republic and got on the beat one month after D’Antoni got the job as head coach of the Suns. How did Phoenix fans accept the 7 Seconds or Less era?
“When he took over the team, [there] was kind of free rein because there wasn’t any expectations,” Coro said. “Everything about it was great. They were winning beyond anybody’s imagination. They were doing it in a way that was innovative and thoroughly entertaining. It just blew people away how much fun it was. Immediately, they had big crowds -- sellouts early in the season. I think they ended up starting a sellout streak that carried on for a few years. It was nothing for them to be up in the 110-120 [point range].”
Albeit the Suns have never won it all, having lost to the Chicago Bulls in the 1993 Finals and to the Boston Celtics in 1976, so you could say that they never knew what it was like to root for a championship team like L.A. The point is, though, that those D'Antoni Suns teams were worth it for the fans. They were memorable. They were thrilling. They were fun.
A healthy Bryant, Nash and Gasol, with additional playmaking from guys like Nick Young, Jordan Farmar, Wes Johnson and Steve Blake, plus Jordan Hill and Chris Kaman playing big down low and Jodie Meeks and Ryan Kelly or Shawne Williams spreading the floor outside can be fun, too.
I'm excited about watching the next Eagles game. Do I think this will be the best season ever for the Birds? Nope. But they could surprise me. It's a nice feeling.
Wouldn't it be nice to feel that way about the Lakers again?
Jordan Hill's summer assignment
August, 12, 2013
Aug 12
3:20
PM PT
Jordan Hill missed nearly two-thirds of the Los Angeles Lakers' 2012-13 season, 53 games to be exact, mostly because of his back and hip. But Hill also was absent from other games when the 6-foot-10, 235-pound energy force simply wasn’t given a chance.
While Hill was unable to go for a significant portion of the schedule because of a herniated disk in his lower back and surgery on his left hip, what about those three consecutive games in December when he didn’t play even though he was perfectly healthy?
This hardly received the same attention as when coach Mike D’Antoni didn’t play Antawn Jamison for seven straight games later in the season and Jamison spoke up about it. Hill, who would tie Steve Nash for the unofficial but all-important Most Supportive Teammate award, kept quiet.
When the season was over, however, Hill asked D’Antoni -- who coached the player in New York before the No. 8 pick was shipped out of town just months into his rookie season -- what he needed to do to stay on the floor next season.
“He talked about what I need to work on for this coming summer,” Hill told ESPNLosAngeles.com. “My jump shot -- he definitely wanted me to work on my outside jumper.”
The experiment to turn Pau Gasol into an outside-oriented big man blew up in D’Antoni’s face last season. But in Hill, who has played eight fewer seasons in the league than Gasol, the coach found a much more malleable subject.
“That’s mostly what I’ve been focusing on this whole summer, not so much the post work because I know I can go down to the block and easily get an offensive rebound and putback,” said Hill, who ranked sixth in the NBA last season in rebounds per 36 minutes (among players who played 25 games or more), according to BasketballReference.com. “We got Pau Gasol that can focus on the paint and we got Chris Kaman that can focus on the block. So I just want to be a stretch 4. Just try to spread the floor a little bit, just show a little range. I’ve been working on it the whole summer, trying to focus on that, on my 3-ball. It got a lot better. I’m just ready to put it all together and showcase it.”
Hill, who shot 61.8 percent inside of 5 feet last season en route to a career-high 6.7 points per game average, did not fare as well the farther away from the basket he went. According to NBA.com Stats Cube, Hill shot 35.7 percent from 5-9 feet last season and 30.8 percent from 15-19 feet. And he missed the only two 3-point shots he attempted (in fact, he’s 0-for-9 on 3s for his career). However, there was signs of promise. He shot 50 percent from 10-14 feet and 42.9 percent from 20-24 feet, but the opportunities were limited (fewer than 10 attempts during the season from each of those spots).
Hill has traded Mikan drills around the basket for ballhandling exercises meant to help him develop a one-dribble, pull-up jumper. He's also practiced the footwork required for pick-and-rolls. Not just playing the part of the man setting the screen and diving toward the hoop, but also flaring out in pick-and-pop scenarios, and even working on curling off the pick as a screen-recipient rather than a screen-setter.
"I’m just trying to do a variety of stuff that will help me spread the floor and get great shots," Hill said.
The location of Hill’s offseason home is helping his outside improvement. It just so happens that Hill spends his summers in Atlanta, the same place as teammate Jodie Meeks. The sharpshooting Meeks, who was third on the Lakers last season with 122 made 3s (behind Metta World Peace’s 141 and Kobe Bryant’s 132), doesn’t necessarily coach Hill’s shot, but he does motivate Hill.
“Jodie’s not him telling me I need to follow through, but we always have competition shooting,” Hill said. “He’s definitely going to win a lot, but I’ve definitely won a couple. So when I do competition shooting with him and I win, I get the confidence that, ‘OK, my shot’s falling now. I can shoot better now.’”
The key to survival is adaptation. Hill is trying not only to carve out a niche within D’Antoni’s system but also to expand his game in hopes of extending his career.
“Now, in my head, it’s just like, ‘Man, I just got to try to keep my body healthy,’” said Hill, who has appeared in only 187 of a possible 312 games in his four-year career.
After returning for a brief stint in the playoffs less than four months after undergoing hip surgery that was supposed to sideline him for six months, Hill said he feels 100 percent as he tries to teach his body new tricks on offense.
"I feel great," Hill said. "I feel good on [the hip]. I’m walking around with no pain. I’m jumping, I’m strong. I’m doing spin moves. I’m doing everything right now that involves my hip, and no problems."
Nor does Hill have any problem recognizing the true value he brings to the Lakers. No level of offensive ascension that Hill achieves will cause him to sacrifice his dedication to defense. It remains the priority.
“Oh man,” Hill said, between two audible sighs, when asked what went wrong with the Lakers’ shoddy pick-and-roll defense in 2012-13.
For Hill, the first step in neutralizing the opponent is recognizing where the biggest threat lies. The crop of point guards controlling the ball in today’s NBA might be the best collection of talent the league has ever seen at that position. Meanwhile, you can count the number of game-changing centers playing today on one hand. It is the responsibility of the big men to help their guards.
While Hill was unable to go for a significant portion of the schedule because of a herniated disk in his lower back and surgery on his left hip, what about those three consecutive games in December when he didn’t play even though he was perfectly healthy?
This hardly received the same attention as when coach Mike D’Antoni didn’t play Antawn Jamison for seven straight games later in the season and Jamison spoke up about it. Hill, who would tie Steve Nash for the unofficial but all-important Most Supportive Teammate award, kept quiet.
When the season was over, however, Hill asked D’Antoni -- who coached the player in New York before the No. 8 pick was shipped out of town just months into his rookie season -- what he needed to do to stay on the floor next season.
“He talked about what I need to work on for this coming summer,” Hill told ESPNLosAngeles.com. “My jump shot -- he definitely wanted me to work on my outside jumper.”
The experiment to turn Pau Gasol into an outside-oriented big man blew up in D’Antoni’s face last season. But in Hill, who has played eight fewer seasons in the league than Gasol, the coach found a much more malleable subject.
“That’s mostly what I’ve been focusing on this whole summer, not so much the post work because I know I can go down to the block and easily get an offensive rebound and putback,” said Hill, who ranked sixth in the NBA last season in rebounds per 36 minutes (among players who played 25 games or more), according to BasketballReference.com. “We got Pau Gasol that can focus on the paint and we got Chris Kaman that can focus on the block. So I just want to be a stretch 4. Just try to spread the floor a little bit, just show a little range. I’ve been working on it the whole summer, trying to focus on that, on my 3-ball. It got a lot better. I’m just ready to put it all together and showcase it.”
Hill, who shot 61.8 percent inside of 5 feet last season en route to a career-high 6.7 points per game average, did not fare as well the farther away from the basket he went. According to NBA.com Stats Cube, Hill shot 35.7 percent from 5-9 feet last season and 30.8 percent from 15-19 feet. And he missed the only two 3-point shots he attempted (in fact, he’s 0-for-9 on 3s for his career). However, there was signs of promise. He shot 50 percent from 10-14 feet and 42.9 percent from 20-24 feet, but the opportunities were limited (fewer than 10 attempts during the season from each of those spots).
Hill has traded Mikan drills around the basket for ballhandling exercises meant to help him develop a one-dribble, pull-up jumper. He's also practiced the footwork required for pick-and-rolls. Not just playing the part of the man setting the screen and diving toward the hoop, but also flaring out in pick-and-pop scenarios, and even working on curling off the pick as a screen-recipient rather than a screen-setter.
"I’m just trying to do a variety of stuff that will help me spread the floor and get great shots," Hill said.
The location of Hill’s offseason home is helping his outside improvement. It just so happens that Hill spends his summers in Atlanta, the same place as teammate Jodie Meeks. The sharpshooting Meeks, who was third on the Lakers last season with 122 made 3s (behind Metta World Peace’s 141 and Kobe Bryant’s 132), doesn’t necessarily coach Hill’s shot, but he does motivate Hill.
“Jodie’s not him telling me I need to follow through, but we always have competition shooting,” Hill said. “He’s definitely going to win a lot, but I’ve definitely won a couple. So when I do competition shooting with him and I win, I get the confidence that, ‘OK, my shot’s falling now. I can shoot better now.’”
The key to survival is adaptation. Hill is trying not only to carve out a niche within D’Antoni’s system but also to expand his game in hopes of extending his career.
“Now, in my head, it’s just like, ‘Man, I just got to try to keep my body healthy,’” said Hill, who has appeared in only 187 of a possible 312 games in his four-year career.
After returning for a brief stint in the playoffs less than four months after undergoing hip surgery that was supposed to sideline him for six months, Hill said he feels 100 percent as he tries to teach his body new tricks on offense.
"I feel great," Hill said. "I feel good on [the hip]. I’m walking around with no pain. I’m jumping, I’m strong. I’m doing spin moves. I’m doing everything right now that involves my hip, and no problems."
Nor does Hill have any problem recognizing the true value he brings to the Lakers. No level of offensive ascension that Hill achieves will cause him to sacrifice his dedication to defense. It remains the priority.
“Oh man,” Hill said, between two audible sighs, when asked what went wrong with the Lakers’ shoddy pick-and-roll defense in 2012-13.
For Hill, the first step in neutralizing the opponent is recognizing where the biggest threat lies. The crop of point guards controlling the ball in today’s NBA might be the best collection of talent the league has ever seen at that position. Meanwhile, you can count the number of game-changing centers playing today on one hand. It is the responsibility of the big men to help their guards.
Dwight's departure could mean Pau's resurgence
August, 5, 2013
Aug 5
2:09
PM PT
Noah Graham/NBAE/Getty ImagesWith room to operate down low, Pau Gasol could be poised for a productive season.The Los Angeles Lakers’ pitch to try to convince Dwight Howard to stay started long before billboards sprung up around L.A.
Some six months before the billboards appeared, in positioning Howard as the franchise's future, the Lakers put Pau Gasol in the past, and often, on the bench.
“We did have a free-agent market last year we had to be aware of, and you make certain arguments based on the future,” Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni told ESPNLosAngeles.com. “Whether they’re right or wrong, that’s the reality of it, and we went that way, but it was never meant to be a slight to (Gasol) or never meant to be that he was the cause of our problems.”
While health certainly had something to do with it -- Gasol’s knees, feet and head (a concussion) caused him to miss 33 games last season -- Gasol was aware of the ground shifting beneath him as the Lakers gravitated towards Howard.
“It was at times frustrating because of the reality of that specific situation,” Gasol told ESPNLosAngeles.com in a phone interview from Barcelona. “Obviously the franchise wanted Dwight to stay and everyone, or a lot of people, tried to make him comfortable and please him at times.”
Now, with Howard out of the picture, the Lakers’ Plan B is to go back to Plan A and make Gasol the team’s primary option down low.
“There was just a lot of factors last year that won’t come up this year,” D’Antoni said. “I even told (Gasol), you make decisions based a lot of times on the future that probably, if you were just doing the competitive, basketball thing, the decision would have been something else.”
The decision going forward, at least for next season (with Gasol in the last year of his contract and the Lakers set to pay him $19.3 million), is to go back to orbiting around the four-time All-Star.
“I expect him to have the best year he’s ever had coming up,” D’Antoni recently told ESPN LA 710 radio.
Whether that’s just lip service or not may be up to Gasol.
“I’m excited about next season,” said Gasol, who is still recovering from the procedures he underwent in May to alleviate tendinosis in both of his knees. “I’m going to work really hard to get myself in the best shape that I can and hopefully my body will react well. The main thing is if I can start healthy and stay healthy. And the rest, with my skill set and the team that we have, everything will happen well. But, it’s just a matter of being healthy and wanting it and working hard. I’m committed to having a great year and I hope our team, we have a great year together. So, great expectations for next season individually and also collectively.”
He’ll have the starting point guard, Steve Nash, on his side to help those expectations from going the way of Dickens’ Pip.
“I thought the games that Pau and I played together where Dwight didn’t play, I thought we really played well together and the offense really flowed,” Nash told ESPNLosAngeles.com. “So, I’m not concerned about that. That’s going to be great.”
Despite the Lakers being swept out of the playoffs to end last season, Gasol was playing his best basketball of the season at the finish. Gasol shot 50 percent or better from the floor in eight of the Lakers’ last 11 games in the regular season (L.A. went 9-2), and he registered three triple-doubles in a six-game span from April 12-26, becoming the first NBA big man to do so since Chris Webber had three in five games in Feb. 2005, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
“To me, it worked well when we started playing a little more inside-out instead of outside-in,” Gasol said. “One, we slowed the game down a little bit adjusting more to our personnel and our roster and then when there was better ball movement, whether if it was through the post or through the elbow or pick-and-rolls, when there was better ball movement we played better and our defense was better. We had better defensive balance, and things worked out better, so it is something we need to keep in mind.”
D’Antoni said next season he plans to go through Gasol down low, to give him opportunities at the elbow where he’s “devastating” and to have him run pick-and-rolls where Gasol can either receive the pass for his own scoring play or be positioned to make the next pass -- ideally, either a kickout or a lob -- to find an open teammate.
The coach also thinks that Gasol and newly acquired center Chris Kaman will be a natural fit together in the starting lineup.
“I just see them kind of blending in together pretty easily,” D’Antoni said. “A lot easier than it was last year (with Howard), let’s put it that way.”
Now, after three coaches in the past three seasons and after being bumped in the pecking order for both Howard and Andrew Bynum, Gasol will take up the task of reminding everyone that he can be more than just one of the game's most skilled big men.
"You don’t get to be one of the best by just being talented or skilled," Gasol said. "There’s certain things you also need to do in the game defensively, being physical and decisive out there. Being a presence. Those things are also very important. Talent and skill don’t mean that much if you don’t play as hard as you can or you don’t do other things because there are a lot of talented players in the league.
"To be one of the best, that’s actually what I’m going to work for again."
Lakers will revisit defense with Rambis
July, 30, 2013
Jul 30
10:33
AM PT
Can an NBA team lose two players who had been honored as the league's top defenders and, in the process, become a better defensive unit?
That’s what the Los Angeles Lakers are trying to find out.
Gone is their best rim protector in Dwight Howard, off to Houston. Gone, too, is their best perimeter stopper in Metta World Peace, off to New York.
Now the Lakers will find out if less is more.
Not that L.A.’s defense was any good with the services of the three-time defensive player of the year in Howard and one-time DPOY winner in World Peace, anyway. The Lakers were tied with Brooklyn for 18th in the league in defensive efficiency, allowing opponents to score 103.6 points per 100 possessions. Even with Howard patrolling the paint, L.A. ranked 22nd in the league in opponents’ field goal percentage inside of five feet, according to NBA.com Stats Cube (59.8 percent), and even with World Peace’s notoriously quick left hand, the Lakers were 26th in steals per game, generating just 7.0 a night.
“Their defense never really gave them a chance to win,” newly hired Lakers assistant coach Kurt Rambis told ESPNLosAngeles.com. “It was very erratic at best. In a lot of ways, when you bring in a lot of players from a lot of different systems, it takes awhile to get everybody connected and on the same page, how you have to defend a myriad of offensive NBA sets and you have to defend talented offensive people, it takes all five guys. They’ve got to be connected, and they’ve got to make the correct decisions at the correct time, and for the Lakers last year, it was clear that they just never really got connected on that end of the floor.
“You could see throughout most of their games, guys would turn their palms up to the sky, and it was like, ‘Is that my responsibility? Is that your responsibility? Who was supposed to do what?’ So, we’ve got to do a much better job of getting them so they can cover each others’ backs at that end of the floor.”
The reason that Rambis is back with the Lakers is not only because the team lost its two most talented defenders in Howard and World Peace, but because it lost its two most defensive-minded assistant coaches in Chuck Person, whose contract was not renewed, and Steve Clifford, who became the head coach in Charlotte.
Rambis, who assumed a defensive coordinator-type role in the final two seasons of his last run with the Lakers when Phil Jackson was head coach, said that Mike D’Antoni isn’t giving him the same label.
“(D’Antoni) said that all assistant coaches will be involved in all areas in our initial conversation,” Rambis explained. “Not that we have etched everything in stone, but to come back as a defensive coordinator, you can talk to Mike about whether there’s going to be any sort of designation on that. By my understanding, there isn’t going to be, but he just kind of wants all of the gaps to be covered so everybody is responsible for working with players and being involved in practices and being involved with games. But to have myself associated with the defense, that means that area is going to be covered.”
The Lakers have had a precipitous decline on the defensive end. After they held the Boston Celtics to just 79 points on 40.8 percent shooting in their Game 7 win in the 2010 Finals, their last three playoff appearances have ended in ugly fashion. First the Dallas Mavericks shot a blistering 46.2 percent on 3-pointers during a four-game sweep in 2011, amid Andrew Bynum decrying the team’s “trust issues” on the defensive end. Then the Oklahoma City Thunder scored 100 or more in three of their four wins against L.A. in their 2012 second-round series. Finally, in last season's first-round sweep by San Antonio, the Spurs shot a combined 53.0 percent from the floor in Games 2-4 after figuring out the Lakers' D that held them to just 37.6 percent shooting in Game 1 of the series.
“They never got connected defensively,” Rambis said of the 2012-13 season.
That’s what the Los Angeles Lakers are trying to find out.
Gone is their best rim protector in Dwight Howard, off to Houston. Gone, too, is their best perimeter stopper in Metta World Peace, off to New York.
Now the Lakers will find out if less is more.
Not that L.A.’s defense was any good with the services of the three-time defensive player of the year in Howard and one-time DPOY winner in World Peace, anyway. The Lakers were tied with Brooklyn for 18th in the league in defensive efficiency, allowing opponents to score 103.6 points per 100 possessions. Even with Howard patrolling the paint, L.A. ranked 22nd in the league in opponents’ field goal percentage inside of five feet, according to NBA.com Stats Cube (59.8 percent), and even with World Peace’s notoriously quick left hand, the Lakers were 26th in steals per game, generating just 7.0 a night.
“Their defense never really gave them a chance to win,” newly hired Lakers assistant coach Kurt Rambis told ESPNLosAngeles.com. “It was very erratic at best. In a lot of ways, when you bring in a lot of players from a lot of different systems, it takes awhile to get everybody connected and on the same page, how you have to defend a myriad of offensive NBA sets and you have to defend talented offensive people, it takes all five guys. They’ve got to be connected, and they’ve got to make the correct decisions at the correct time, and for the Lakers last year, it was clear that they just never really got connected on that end of the floor.
“You could see throughout most of their games, guys would turn their palms up to the sky, and it was like, ‘Is that my responsibility? Is that your responsibility? Who was supposed to do what?’ So, we’ve got to do a much better job of getting them so they can cover each others’ backs at that end of the floor.”
The reason that Rambis is back with the Lakers is not only because the team lost its two most talented defenders in Howard and World Peace, but because it lost its two most defensive-minded assistant coaches in Chuck Person, whose contract was not renewed, and Steve Clifford, who became the head coach in Charlotte.
Rambis, who assumed a defensive coordinator-type role in the final two seasons of his last run with the Lakers when Phil Jackson was head coach, said that Mike D’Antoni isn’t giving him the same label.
“(D’Antoni) said that all assistant coaches will be involved in all areas in our initial conversation,” Rambis explained. “Not that we have etched everything in stone, but to come back as a defensive coordinator, you can talk to Mike about whether there’s going to be any sort of designation on that. By my understanding, there isn’t going to be, but he just kind of wants all of the gaps to be covered so everybody is responsible for working with players and being involved in practices and being involved with games. But to have myself associated with the defense, that means that area is going to be covered.”
The Lakers have had a precipitous decline on the defensive end. After they held the Boston Celtics to just 79 points on 40.8 percent shooting in their Game 7 win in the 2010 Finals, their last three playoff appearances have ended in ugly fashion. First the Dallas Mavericks shot a blistering 46.2 percent on 3-pointers during a four-game sweep in 2011, amid Andrew Bynum decrying the team’s “trust issues” on the defensive end. Then the Oklahoma City Thunder scored 100 or more in three of their four wins against L.A. in their 2012 second-round series. Finally, in last season's first-round sweep by San Antonio, the Spurs shot a combined 53.0 percent from the floor in Games 2-4 after figuring out the Lakers' D that held them to just 37.6 percent shooting in Game 1 of the series.
“They never got connected defensively,” Rambis said of the 2012-13 season.
5-on-5: Lakers the West's big wild card?
July, 25, 2013
Jul 25
8:14
AM PT
By ESPN.com
ESPNLosAngeles.com
ESPNLosAngeles.com
The regular season is a few months away, but the Western Conference picture already looks much different after a big and busy offseason. Kevin Pelton ranked the top 15 teams as of today. Now our panel breaks down the good and the bad out West heading into next season.
Full story »
Full story »
New Los Angeles Lakers center Chris Kaman joined the "Max & Marcellus Show" on Thursday on ESPNLA 710 for an interview. Kaman talked about his expectations this season playing with the Lakers and what he can bring to the team. He also talked about the rivalry between the Lakers and Clippers, and his relationship with Kobe Bryant.
Click to listen to the full interview.
Click to listen to the full interview.
Mike D'Antoni and the expectations game
July, 18, 2013
Jul 18
1:41
PM PT
Ironically, it was Phil Jackson who may have best summed up Mike D’Antoni’s first season as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.
“Mike hasn’t had a chance in L.A., he really hasn’t,” Jackson said back in May while appearing as a guest on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," after audience members booed the mention of D'Antoni's name.
And that was before Dwight Howard left for Houston, making it clear on his way out the door that he would have preferred Jackson over D’Antoni as the Lakers' head coach.
D’Antoni has been maligned by some Lakers faithful for the team's disappointing 2012-13 season, and perceived by many to be at least partially responsible for Howard's departure. And although he replaced Mike Brown five games into last season, plenty of Lakers fans feel he actually replaced Jackson, since the 11-time champion had interviewed for the job before D’Antoni did back in November, and seemed to have landed it until a notorious late-night call from Lakers management informed him otherwise.
But grumbling aside, D'Antoni remains in the job, and has the backing of the front office heading into the 2013-14 season. Executive vice president Jim Buss and general manager Mitch Kupchak believe that the coach’s flexibility in the second half of last season was a key factor in the team finishing 28-12 and want to give him a full training camp and a healthy roster in 2013-14 in order to show what he can do.
Several times last season, D’Antoni paraphrased Winston Churchill in describing his approach to the Lakers' ups and downs, “When you're going through hell, you put your head down and keep going, and that's what we're going to do.”
The pressure of a $100 million payroll that was built to be a contender and was struggling just to play .500 ball was persistent and intense. The Lakers are hoping that Howard’s departure will perhaps act as a sort of pressure release valve heading into the upcoming season.
“Expectations should be lower and I think that will ease the pressure on him,” said a source familiar with the Lakers front office’s thinking.
“I think every year's fun,” D’Antoni recently told Fox Sports when asked how grateful he was to have a traditional offseason to prepare his team. “Coaching's fun, so I'm not complaining the other way, but this is a lot better. Some of the best times are training camp and getting your ideas in how you'd like them.”
None of Churchill's grim determination there.
Late last season D’Antoni told ESPNLosAngeles.com, “We're not running anything that I would normally run,” but the moves the Lakers have made since Howard left for Houston have been more in step with the system for which D’Antoni is known.
“Mike hasn’t had a chance in L.A., he really hasn’t,” Jackson said back in May while appearing as a guest on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," after audience members booed the mention of D'Antoni's name.
[+] Enlarge
Stephen Dunn/Getty ImagesMike D'Antoni will get a full training camp and season -- and even a roster more to his liking -- to show what he can do for the Lakers.
D’Antoni has been maligned by some Lakers faithful for the team's disappointing 2012-13 season, and perceived by many to be at least partially responsible for Howard's departure. And although he replaced Mike Brown five games into last season, plenty of Lakers fans feel he actually replaced Jackson, since the 11-time champion had interviewed for the job before D’Antoni did back in November, and seemed to have landed it until a notorious late-night call from Lakers management informed him otherwise.
But grumbling aside, D'Antoni remains in the job, and has the backing of the front office heading into the 2013-14 season. Executive vice president Jim Buss and general manager Mitch Kupchak believe that the coach’s flexibility in the second half of last season was a key factor in the team finishing 28-12 and want to give him a full training camp and a healthy roster in 2013-14 in order to show what he can do.
Several times last season, D’Antoni paraphrased Winston Churchill in describing his approach to the Lakers' ups and downs, “When you're going through hell, you put your head down and keep going, and that's what we're going to do.”
The pressure of a $100 million payroll that was built to be a contender and was struggling just to play .500 ball was persistent and intense. The Lakers are hoping that Howard’s departure will perhaps act as a sort of pressure release valve heading into the upcoming season.
“Expectations should be lower and I think that will ease the pressure on him,” said a source familiar with the Lakers front office’s thinking.
“I think every year's fun,” D’Antoni recently told Fox Sports when asked how grateful he was to have a traditional offseason to prepare his team. “Coaching's fun, so I'm not complaining the other way, but this is a lot better. Some of the best times are training camp and getting your ideas in how you'd like them.”
None of Churchill's grim determination there.
Late last season D’Antoni told ESPNLosAngeles.com, “We're not running anything that I would normally run,” but the moves the Lakers have made since Howard left for Houston have been more in step with the system for which D’Antoni is known.
Kaman never thought he'd be back in L.A.
July, 16, 2013
Jul 16
7:26
PM PT
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- After spending the first eight years of his career in L.A. after the Los Angeles Clippers drafted him in 2003, Chris Kaman never thought his path would lead him back to the City of Angels.
"I'm excited for another opportunity back in L.A.," Kaman said Tuesday at his introductory news conference with the Los Angeles Lakers. "I never thought it was possible. I just never thought I would be back here."
How sure was Kaman, who spent the past two seasons in New Orleans and Dallas, that his life was done in L.A.?
"A week and a half, literally, before I decided to make my decision to come [to L.A.] I closed on my house in Manhattan Beach that I had had for like five years," Kaman said with a groan.
Just like the Lakers never expected Dwight Howard to bolt after only one season when they acquired him, Kaman figured his days in Los Angeles were a thing of the past. The Clippers had moved on with DeAndre Jordan in the middle. The Lakers had just the mini midlevel exception, worth about $3.2 million, available to try to lure a non-veteran-minimum-type free agent. And the Lakers were offering only a one-year deal, looking to keep their books open to make a major splash in the summer of 2014.
Much like Howard took a paycut to go to Houston, Kaman chose not to hold out for more money because L.A. felt right.
"Sometimes players are not fitting in the best situations all the time and it didn't work the way that I anticipated," Kaman said of his one-year stint with the Dallas Mavericks, playing alongside his German national team comrade, Dirk Nowitzki. "Coming into this year, I wanted to make sure that I had a good fit where I would go."
While there's a Howard-sized void in the Lakers' roster where Kaman can slide right in, it remains to be seen whether he will start at center with Pau Gasol at power forward, or be the first big man off the bench backing up Gasol and Jordan Hill.
"It doesn’t matter to me," Kaman said of a potential substitute role. "I'm here to do a job and, whatever it is, I'll do it."
Kaman averaged a modest 10.5 points, 5.6 rebounds and 0.8 blocks last season, but it's the way Kaman scored that had the Lakers interested. He can play the pick-and-pop game, evidenced by his 51 percent mark from midrange last season (16-23 feet from the hoop), which ranked seventh among players who played in at least 40 games.
"I'm excited for another opportunity back in L.A.," Kaman said Tuesday at his introductory news conference with the Los Angeles Lakers. "I never thought it was possible. I just never thought I would be back here."
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Noah Graham/NBAE/Getty ImagesChris Kaman said instead of holding out for more money, a return to Los Angeles felt right.
"A week and a half, literally, before I decided to make my decision to come [to L.A.] I closed on my house in Manhattan Beach that I had had for like five years," Kaman said with a groan.
Just like the Lakers never expected Dwight Howard to bolt after only one season when they acquired him, Kaman figured his days in Los Angeles were a thing of the past. The Clippers had moved on with DeAndre Jordan in the middle. The Lakers had just the mini midlevel exception, worth about $3.2 million, available to try to lure a non-veteran-minimum-type free agent. And the Lakers were offering only a one-year deal, looking to keep their books open to make a major splash in the summer of 2014.
Much like Howard took a paycut to go to Houston, Kaman chose not to hold out for more money because L.A. felt right.
"Sometimes players are not fitting in the best situations all the time and it didn't work the way that I anticipated," Kaman said of his one-year stint with the Dallas Mavericks, playing alongside his German national team comrade, Dirk Nowitzki. "Coming into this year, I wanted to make sure that I had a good fit where I would go."
While there's a Howard-sized void in the Lakers' roster where Kaman can slide right in, it remains to be seen whether he will start at center with Pau Gasol at power forward, or be the first big man off the bench backing up Gasol and Jordan Hill.
"It doesn’t matter to me," Kaman said of a potential substitute role. "I'm here to do a job and, whatever it is, I'll do it."
Kaman averaged a modest 10.5 points, 5.6 rebounds and 0.8 blocks last season, but it's the way Kaman scored that had the Lakers interested. He can play the pick-and-pop game, evidenced by his 51 percent mark from midrange last season (16-23 feet from the hoop), which ranked seventh among players who played in at least 40 games.
Lakers add interior bargain in Kaman
July, 8, 2013
Jul 8
5:14
PM PT
According to sources, the Los Angeles Lakers have agreed to a one-year deal with free agent center Chris Kaman.
With Dwight Howard’s controversial departure to the Houston Rockets leaving a gaping hole in the middle, the Lakers signed arguably the best available big man within their price range of the mini midlevel exception (just less than $3.2 million), according to ESPN.com’s Ramona Shelburne.
The Lakers can now only use the veteran’s minimum -- worth approximately $1.2 million, depending on how many years of experience the player has in the league -- to fill out the rest of their roster.
Kaman’s one-year deal fits perfectly with the Lakers’ goal to not have any players under contract heading into the 2014-15 season (they’ll only have Steve Nash on the books), thus allowing them to have the requisite cap space to sign a superstar or two from the star-studded free-agent class of 2014.
It’s unclear whether Kaman, 31, was brought in to start or not, but he’ll most likely come off the bench behind Pau Gasol and Jordan Hill and split his time alongside both big men. Similar to last season (20.7 minutes), he’ll likely average between 15 and 20 minutes per game.
As a member of the Dallas Mavericks last season, Kaman averaged 10.5 points, 5.6 rebounds and 0.8 blocks, while shooting 50.7 percent from the floor and 78.8 percent from the free throw line (52.9 true shooting percentage). He spent the first eight seasons of his career with the Los Angeles Clippers and spent the 2011-12 season with New Orleans after he was part of the trade that sent Chris Paul to L.A.
The nimble big man has an effective post game from the left block and is one of the NBA’s premier midrange jump shooters (he shot 51 percent from 16-23 feet last season), ranking seventh among players who played in at least 40 games.
Despite being an ambidextrous finisher, Kaman shoots below average at the rim for a center (64.3 percent) and attempts less than 30 percent of his shots there.
He’ll provide Kobe Bryant and Nash with a legitimate threat out of pick-and-pops -- Kaman ranked 20th in points per play as the screener in pick-and-rolls -- as well as a dangerous spot-up option on the weak side if Bryant or Gasol is posting up on the strong-side block.
While Kaman has the size (he’s 7-foot) and strength (265 pounds) to be an intimidating presence defensively, the Mavericks actually allowed more points per 100 possessions with him on the floor (104.8) than when he was on the bench (103.6).
His help-side defense can often be slow and he has a difficult time containing the ball or rotating back to his man in pick-and-roll situations.
Kaman is a solid defensive rebounder, though, posting an above-average defensive rebounding rate last season (21.8), and will provide the Lakers with good post defense because of his girth and ability to properly contest shots.
At just less than $3.2 million for one year, Kaman is clearly a bargain. Though Kaman’s on the wrong side of 30, most 7-footers with his skill would command multiyear deals and slightly more money per year on the open market.
The Lakers still have to address their lack of size and length on the wings, but they can take solace in the fact that their offseason goal of adding frontcourt depth for cheap has now been satisfied.
Stats used in this post are from ESPN.com, NBA.com/Stats, MySynergySports.com, HoopData.com and Basketball-Reference.com.
Lakers at Hornets: What to watch
April, 9, 2012
4/09/12
9:44
AM PT
With nine games left before the playoffs begin, the best case scenario would be a Laker squad steadily clicking on all cylinders, a well-oiled machine ready for a utilize a tough stretch of foes (the Nuggets, Thunder and the Spurs... three times!) as a dress rehearsal before the second season. On the other side of the coin, the Lakers may not be currently mired in the worst case scenario, but they're certainly closer to that end of the spectrum.
Back-to-back losses to the Rockets and Suns have come on the heels of middling wins over foes like the Nets, Hornets and Warriors. (twice!) A once-stout defense, along with a collective focus, has slipped badly. Kobe Bryant missed a game with a lingering shin injury, and Pau Gasol, Ramon Sessions, and Metta World Peace (among others) are nursing ailments. Steve Blake appears to have forgotten how to play basketball. Andrew Bynum's obsession with cultivating a persona as the NBA's edgiest player is currently prioritized ahead of helping his team.
There's a lot on the Lakers' plate to address in just under three weeks, and the clock is ticking. Thus, the Hornets need to be treated with the utmost respect and focus (particularly since they're suddenly healthy again). For more info on the Hornets, we called upon Michael McNamara from the True Hoop network's Hornets247 blog. Below are his responses to a few questions, plus a pair of thoughts from yours truly.
Land O' Lakers: 1) How has Eric Gordon looked upon returning and in what ways does he change what the Hornets can do?
Michael McNamara: You could tell that Gordon was feeling his way around in the first half of his first game back, but over the last six quarters he has been dynamic. He gives the Hornets a guy who can create for himself in the half court and finish at the rim in the open court. More than anything, he allows the other players on the Hornets to fall into their complementary roles, as opposed to trying to do too much.
(AK's note: If Kobe remains out, I'm assuming Devin Ebanks did enough things well in his place to continue holding down the fort. If that's the case, he'll be matched up against his first 20+ point threat since game 4 against the Knicks. Ebanks was admittedly a little overwhelmed by Carmelo Anthony, which immediately led to getting pulled from the starting lineup. Soon enough he was yanked from the rotation altogether. As I've expressed on a few occasions throughout the seasons, I think Mike Brown overreacted, and in the process robbed himself of a potentially useful asset. But that's also the past and can't be changed. What's important is that Ebanks makes the most of an opportunity, along with a challenge in front of him. Even working his way into game shape, Gordon is a talented player and a potentially tough cover. Ebanks will need to be on his toes.)
Back-to-back losses to the Rockets and Suns have come on the heels of middling wins over foes like the Nets, Hornets and Warriors. (twice!) A once-stout defense, along with a collective focus, has slipped badly. Kobe Bryant missed a game with a lingering shin injury, and Pau Gasol, Ramon Sessions, and Metta World Peace (among others) are nursing ailments. Steve Blake appears to have forgotten how to play basketball. Andrew Bynum's obsession with cultivating a persona as the NBA's edgiest player is currently prioritized ahead of helping his team.
Derick E. Hingle/US Presswire
Gordon's a legitimately tough assignment for any defender.
Gordon's a legitimately tough assignment for any defender.
Land O' Lakers: 1) How has Eric Gordon looked upon returning and in what ways does he change what the Hornets can do?
Michael McNamara: You could tell that Gordon was feeling his way around in the first half of his first game back, but over the last six quarters he has been dynamic. He gives the Hornets a guy who can create for himself in the half court and finish at the rim in the open court. More than anything, he allows the other players on the Hornets to fall into their complementary roles, as opposed to trying to do too much.
(AK's note: If Kobe remains out, I'm assuming Devin Ebanks did enough things well in his place to continue holding down the fort. If that's the case, he'll be matched up against his first 20+ point threat since game 4 against the Knicks. Ebanks was admittedly a little overwhelmed by Carmelo Anthony, which immediately led to getting pulled from the starting lineup. Soon enough he was yanked from the rotation altogether. As I've expressed on a few occasions throughout the seasons, I think Mike Brown overreacted, and in the process robbed himself of a potentially useful asset. But that's also the past and can't be changed. What's important is that Ebanks makes the most of an opportunity, along with a challenge in front of him. Even working his way into game shape, Gordon is a talented player and a potentially tough cover. Ebanks will need to be on his toes.)
Lakers vs. Hornets: What to watch with Hornets 247
March, 30, 2012
3/30/12
6:01
PM PT
After being swept up in Sessions-mania and allowing imaginations to envision a deep playoff run, Lakers fans have been slapped hard by the events of this week. Outworked in last Sunday's home loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. Outclassed in Thursday's home loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. And sandwiched in between, a middling Golden State Warriors squad turned what should have been a blowout into a dogfight, while Andrew Bynum was banished to the bench and watched with seemingly mild interest. On and off the court, there have been reasons for concern, and the days left to address issues are dwindling.
Obviously, success over a 13-38 Western Conference cellar dweller signals absolutely nada in terms of problems being solved. But it would at least provide a sense of normalcy and calm, even fully aware of the victory's relative insignificance. Bad vibes beget even more bad vibes, and the Lakers can't afford to even tiptoe further down that path.
For the scoop on the Hornets, we tracked down Michael McNamara of the True Hoop network's Hornets247 blog. Below are his responses to a few questions, plus a thought of my own.
Land O' Lakers: As of this writing, the Hornets are missing Trevor Ariza (ankle), Gustavo Ayon (birth of child), Jarrett Jack (ankle) and Chris Kaman (illness). In what ways would these players' absences be felt on Saturday if they're still not able to go?
Michael McNamara: And don't forget Eric Gordon and Emeka Okafor, who are arguably the two best players on the roster. The losses of Ariza and Jack are felt the most, as those two are the leaders of the team and the coaches on the floor. Earlier this season, when Kaman and Okafor were in the starting lineup together, the Hornets dominated almost every team they played on the boards, but that is no longer the case with Carl Landry and Jason Smith forced to start up front.
As crazy as it sounds, a Hornets team with a full roster would give the Lakers a fight in this game, but are playing with a bunch of backups and D-Leaguers at this point. Essentially, the Hornets starting lineup is on the bench, and yet they keep competing night in and night out.
Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images
Eric Gordon is one among many prominent Hornets who spends too much time in street clothes.
Eric Gordon is one among many prominent Hornets who spends too much time in street clothes.
Obviously, success over a 13-38 Western Conference cellar dweller signals absolutely nada in terms of problems being solved. But it would at least provide a sense of normalcy and calm, even fully aware of the victory's relative insignificance. Bad vibes beget even more bad vibes, and the Lakers can't afford to even tiptoe further down that path.
For the scoop on the Hornets, we tracked down Michael McNamara of the True Hoop network's Hornets247 blog. Below are his responses to a few questions, plus a thought of my own.
Land O' Lakers: As of this writing, the Hornets are missing Trevor Ariza (ankle), Gustavo Ayon (birth of child), Jarrett Jack (ankle) and Chris Kaman (illness). In what ways would these players' absences be felt on Saturday if they're still not able to go?
Michael McNamara: And don't forget Eric Gordon and Emeka Okafor, who are arguably the two best players on the roster. The losses of Ariza and Jack are felt the most, as those two are the leaders of the team and the coaches on the floor. Earlier this season, when Kaman and Okafor were in the starting lineup together, the Hornets dominated almost every team they played on the boards, but that is no longer the case with Carl Landry and Jason Smith forced to start up front.
As crazy as it sounds, a Hornets team with a full roster would give the Lakers a fight in this game, but are playing with a bunch of backups and D-Leaguers at this point. Essentially, the Hornets starting lineup is on the bench, and yet they keep competing night in and night out.
What to watch: Lakers at Hornets with Hornets24/7
March, 14, 2012
3/14/12
9:45
AM PT
In theory, a matchup against the 10-win New Orleans Hornets shouldn't be much of a challenge. The Hornets no longer have Chris Paul (as you may have heard) have lost Eric Gordon for most of the season, are missing Emeka Okafor, and could be without Carl Landry as well. While that leaves a few decent players, they sorely lack any high end talent. In short, New Orleans is awful, evidenced by a 73-71 loss to Charlotte Monday night.
Then again, as a road team the Lakers are a very poor 8-14, even with Tuesday's hard fought double OT win in Memphis. They lost last week in Detroit and Washington, and barely scraped by a Minnesota team missing Kevin Love.
Layne Murdoch/NBAE via Getty Images
A red hot Andrew Bynum will try to wrestle away an upset bid from New Orleans Wednesday.
A red hot Andrew Bynum will try to wrestle away an upset bid from New Orleans Wednesday.
1. Not exactly game related, but a couple months later, Eric Gordon has been hurt all year and is unsigned, Al-Farouq Aminu has a PER of 9.1, and even after the Ricky Rubio injury, the Minnesota pick won't be as good as many thought. What do Hornets fans think of the CP3 transaction now?
For the most part Hornets Nation is remaining optimistic about it. Doubts have certainly started creeping in thanks to Eric Gordon's knee, and there's skepticism about resigning him too, but that's a near certainty since he's restricted. Honestly it will be a few more seasons before we can truly grade the deal fairly, and I think a lot of Hornets fans know that.
2. Gustavo Ayon! Not exactly a household name, but explain his impact for the Hornets, and how he could influence Wednesday's game.
Pau quiet early, loud late as Spain beats Germany
September, 7, 2011
9/07/11
12:25
PM PT
Through the first two quarters of Spain's 77-68 victory over Germany in Round 2 of the European championships Wednesday, observers of Pau Gasol (paugathologists) might have felt a little top-of-the-brow sweat forming. Gasol, who missed Spain's last game against Turkey because of a bad left ankle, was held scoreless. Zip. Nada. Nothing, as all four of his field goals missed the mark. Meanwhile, led by Dirk Nowitzki, the very same Dirk Nowitzki who thoroughly outplayed Gasol in last spring's playoffs, and his upstart German teammates were down only three points to the defending champs at the break.
Uh oh! Pau is injured! He's psyched out! The German is toying with his gray matter!
Not so much, actually. First, while Gasol was sluggish early and was a non-factor scoring, Nowitzki wasn't much better, missing seven of his nine hoists in the first half. Gasol did nice work on Dirk, aggressively getting into the German's floor space to take away some of his options. Whether in the post or higher on the floor, Pau was far more successful getting a hand in the face of the Finals MVP than he was against Dallas in the postseason. (That Dirk wasn't hitting jumpers like it was a video game helped, too.) Matched up against Chris Kaman at center, Gasol occasionally lost contact with him in transition, but engaged in the requisite pushing and shoving on the block and generally held his ground (though overall, our friend Dave Miller would have hated how much time Pau spent with his arms dangling by his hips at the defensive end).
After the break, any concerns about Gasol's health (or susceptibility to mind control) quickly dissipated.
PETRAS MALUKAS/AFP/Getty Images
Wednesday in Lithuania, Pau Gasol's Spanish side squeaked past Dirk and his German cohorts.
Wednesday in Lithuania, Pau Gasol's Spanish side squeaked past Dirk and his German cohorts.
Not so much, actually. First, while Gasol was sluggish early and was a non-factor scoring, Nowitzki wasn't much better, missing seven of his nine hoists in the first half. Gasol did nice work on Dirk, aggressively getting into the German's floor space to take away some of his options. Whether in the post or higher on the floor, Pau was far more successful getting a hand in the face of the Finals MVP than he was against Dallas in the postseason. (That Dirk wasn't hitting jumpers like it was a video game helped, too.) Matched up against Chris Kaman at center, Gasol occasionally lost contact with him in transition, but engaged in the requisite pushing and shoving on the block and generally held his ground (though overall, our friend Dave Miller would have hated how much time Pau spent with his arms dangling by his hips at the defensive end).
After the break, any concerns about Gasol's health (or susceptibility to mind control) quickly dissipated.
- D'Antoni: Open competition alongside Gasol
- Kobe feels good, return uncertain
| Adande - Gasol says he'll deliver at center for Lakers
- Nash open to Lakers conserving his minutes
- Lakers bring in former UCLA center Gadzuric
- Odom's arraignment for August DUI postponed
- Lakers GM has no timetable for Kobe return
- Odom talks about 'dark time' in rant vs. dad
- Jeanie Buss book: D'Antoni hire 'a betrayal'
- Magic Johnson starts program for at-risk kids
- World Peace certain Lakers will reach Finals
- Buss on Lakers: 'You don't dwell on the past'
TEAM LEADERS
| POINTS | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Kobe Bryant
|
|||||||||||
| OTHER LEADERS | ||||||||||||
| Rebounds | P. Gasol | 8.6 | ||||||||||
| Assists | S. Nash | 6.7 | ||||||||||
| Steals | K. Bryant | 1.4 | ||||||||||
| Blocks | P. Gasol | 1.2 | ||||||||||
LAKERS TWEETS-
- mcten Dave McMenamin
Nick Young on Kobe: "I've been talking a little trash to him to get back out there"
6 minutes ago
- mcten Dave McMenamin
- Lakers Los Angeles Lakers
Gasol: “I thought I was going to be a little more limited too.” Encouraged by what he’s been able, only been running on the court for 3 wks.
15 minutes ago
- Lakers Los Angeles Lakers
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RT @LakersReporter: D’Antoni said @kobebryant continues to have no timetable as he rehabs; he did a bit of set-shooting (non jumping) today.
21 minutes ago
- Lakers Los Angeles Lakers
- mcten Dave McMenamin
D'Antoni said Kobe did some set shooting today w/o jumping. Still no timetable for return
23 minutes ago
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- Lakers Los Angeles Lakers
D’Antoni: “Pau is way ahead from where I thought he’d be coming off injury.” Hasn’t gone full out but looking good in the scrimmages.
24 minutes ago
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CP3-Redick-Dudley-Griffin-Jordan on Blue team. Collison-Crawford-Barnes-Mullens-Hollins on White team for scrimmage.
42 minutes ago
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“@waitfordusk: @VeniceMase I grew up across the street from the house Teena Marie grew up in.” Hilarious. What was her big song?
49 minutes ago
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Clippers Training Camp at UCSD. @ Rimac Arena http://t.co/2YTYwiJ91m
50 minutes ago
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@Buster_ESPN Mattingly must beat the #Braves to keep his job. How does that make sense? #AnyTeamCanLose3Of5
51 minutes ago
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Clippers running a scrimmage at the end of practice. "Let's go guys! Let's pick up the pace!" Doc keeps yelling.
54 minutes ago
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RT @jonweisman: Vin Scully hints at retirement after 2014 season #dodgers http://t.co/uUjpq3T63m #SayItAintSo
about an hour ago
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RT @DodgersNation: Not surprising that Ryu is starting Game 3-good to know Nolasco would start Gm 4 over Volquez. #BadFeelingAboutRicky
about an hour ago
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RT @billplunkettocr: Andre Ethier on field for #Dodgers workout. But then so is Matt Kemp. Kemp is the one on crutches.
about an hour ago
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Who's the most famous person that went to your high school? I'm near the top of the list at #MaumeeHighSchool
about an hour ago
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This is the origin of how Mychal Thompson got the nickname "Sweet Bells." I think he hates this… http://t.co/JFVYM9ZFKV
about an hour ago
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“@CoryHink: @VeniceMase The bigger story is Matt Latos scored himself a stunner. Wow!” I noticed. #Good2BeMatt
about 2 hours ago
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What is wrong with sports in America. Mrs. Latos sez it's not even safe with #Pirates fans. http://t.co/posYtyvVnW #SteelCityShame
about 2 hours ago
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“@comicone999: @VeniceMase the reds huh? Whatever John has must be catching” Picking the winner of 1 playoff game. #NotScience
about 3 hours ago
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Shawne Williams on D'Antoni: "He's just been doing a lot of defense. That's the most shocking thing" http://t.co/e9EE0yt6nu
about 3 hours ago
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27 more days. #LakersTipOff http://t.co/4VUXoGJJrO
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