Watch quite a lot of NBA but never seem to catch the lakers. What is it that makes them so bad this year? Did they spend so much on Howard that the salary cap means the depth is shite, or are they just not playing well together?
Where to start where to start.
Gasol, his knees are done and he has lingering injuries so he has lost a lot of his explosiveness and speed which is affecting offense and defence.
Gasol+ Howard - on offence they do a run a good pick and roll and Gasols inside passing for Howard is pretty good but when they are both on the floor the Lakers transition defence is horrible. I think its bottom 5 in the NBA when they are both on the floor so team are just pushing the ball up the floor quickly when both players are on the floor.
Nash - Great pg, great shooter, great passer, can run the offence but his defence has never been good so the Lakers are getting killed defensively by good guards. Kobe has been guarding the PGs recently but the extra effort it takes to guard a good PG means Kobe is getting worn out faster in games and his scoring and efficiency is down. When they play teams with a good guard combo and nash is forced to guard someone good they just get crushed
Kobe - as mentioned, is having to guard PGs since Nash cant guard anyone, its wearing him down so his scoring is down, fg % is down and he is still just throwing up shots without caring. Howard has been complaining in public that Kobe is taking too many shots and not putting the ball inside (to him) enough
The bench - Not got enough off the bench, so many poor role players. Even the 2 guys you would expect to be half decent, Jamison and Duhon have been bad so it means going with the starters for longer than they would like to. A few weeks ago they had Howard and Gasol injured for a few games and had to bring in guys from the D-league to start and sit on the bench and they had to rely on Kobe, nash and World Peace just trying to score as many as they could between them and forcing teams into shootouts. It didnt work out well for them.
Recently they have started with Earl Clark in place of Gasol to balance the 2nd unit and to break up the Gasol/Howard combo but Gasol quickly slammed the move and said he has never been a role player and didnt want to start now. He looks a pretty good favourite to be traded before the deadline. I imagine they try to trade him for a backup big guy and a defensive guard
Also imo I just dont think D'Antoni is a good coach, he had a great team for the 7 seconds or less offence in Pheonix that did really well and was great to watch. I dont think he can coaches any other style very well and he doesnt have the players that can run teams off the floor
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