To give context to the situation, and information to anyone who has decided to live their lives under a rock for last 5 months, the Lakers brought together a super team of 4 future Hall of Famers, with the longtime Lakers Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant, and adding on to the duo with Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash and Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard. Everyone and their dog in LA immediately believed that this team would destroy everyone in their path and start off as one of the greatest to ever grace the planet. However, things like that rarely ever turn out the way they seem in the NBA. The Lakers have hobbled out to a 8-9 start with losses to sub .500 teams such as Sacramento (who has a total of 4 wins, one of which is against the Lakers), Dallas, Portland, Indiana, and finally Orlando, Dwight's previous team, in a 113-103 stinker of a game. Now, remember, Steve Nash is out with a fracture of his shin bone, but 3 future HOF should be enough, right? With arguably the second best player ever in the NBA, arguably the best center since Shaq in his prime, and with one of the best shooting power forwards, the Lakers have very much underachieved.
Even with all this underachievement and none of the 3 playing to the best of their abilities, with the possible exception of Kobe Bryant, the Lakers and and their coach Mike D'Antoni are not focusing on their real problem of cohesiveness and team ball but are more focused on blaming each other for the current state of their team.
Kobe is too worried about making nicknames for future HOF guards (Steve Nash is now "Gatsby" after the main character from the book "The Great Gatsby") and Pau Gasol's big boy pants (which sound like a new form of adult diapers that the Gasol brothers are now advertising for) to understand that his hero ball may earn him a lot of points, but takes away from the opportunities for other players who shoot and make a better percentage of their shots. Dwight
Howard is off in LaLa land (oh the irony!) and believes that the loss against his former team and the recent loses to other teams have been because the Lakers haven't been working hard enough when Howard has become the second iteration of Shaq (great rebounder/player and future HOFer) but can't make half his free throws even if a gun was pointed to his head (squirt gun of course!).
Pau Gasol is, well, I haven't been exactly sure where Pau Gasol is and what he does. Other than his removal from the entire fourth quarter of the Grizzlies game for the sole reason of Mike D'Antoni wanting to win, Pau Gasol has been almost non-existent. He only fits in well with Dwight Howard out and many of Mike D'Antoni's offensive schemes put Gasol in a role that does not favor his strengths.
The Lakers have been known to play this game before and its is not all that surprising. However, as an NBA fan, not taking responsibility and blaming the shortcomings on someone else is somewhat of a disappointment. Although my fandom as a Thunder fan make it almost necessary to hate the Lakers and Ron Artest (Can't call a violent man peaceful. Just can't), I know I wasn't the only fan of NBA basketball to be excited about what this team could do and if they could really challenge the Thunder for the Western Conference Championship this year. However, until the Lakers get back Steve Nash and unless the Lakers begin to build some sort of chemistry between now and April, this iteration of the Showtime Lakers will show like a D-list horror movie which still uses stop-motion animation.
(Credit: Joe Gill)
(Credit: ESPN)
by far most used Lakers lineup with Darius Morris is performing negatively. they miss Nash but they also miss Steve Blake. His biggest minute lineup (2nd most used) was doing great.
ReplyDeleteFind someone other than Darius Morris to start.
Crow