How would you get this team back on track?

kenshi1023 wrote:

Armani wrote:You guys do realize MDA signed a multi year contract, just like Brown? He'll be owed money for multiple years if he gets fired, too.

There has to be a buy out / early termination clause!!!!! Jimmy is not that dumb to get burned twice!!!!

This is what's been bugging me... how did Jim repeat the same mistake? We can't get rid of D'Antoni. Now, even if we rebuild, our youth won't learn defense... this seems like a lose lose.

Fire D'Antoni, hire PJ and spend 25 million on coaching.

purp n gold wrote:Fire D'Antoni, hire PJ and spend 25 million on coaching.

think a lil late for that now based on the rumors that PJ will get the FO job with the new King owners....so maybe ownership stakes and FO duties were part of PJ requirement afterall.

thisbjgz wrote:

JoelMyersScrotalSack wrote:

LakerFan1235 wrote:No, mitch isn't the problem. On paper this team looked great, and it just comes down to execution. Mitch's job is to get you the team that sounds like it would work best.

On paper Kobe/Nash/Howard/Pau looked great. The bench always looked like s*** and we all wanted to look past it. And seeing as how none of those guys except maybe Kobe have performed that well, you need depth to survive in this league. Mitch hasn't done a good job of addressing depth in years. That's on him

you gonna be kidding me if you think this is on Mitch..LMAO.

I disagree. He brought on Jamison who averaged 17 a game last year. Jordan Hill was great for us. Earl Clark has been great for us. back up point guard wasn't addressed, but he was probably thinking there has to be someone decent between morris, duhon, and blake. I just can't blame this on mitch.

I think D12 will stay as a Lakers. When can we trade Kobe ?

odom1year wrote:I think D12 will stay as a Lakers. When can we trade Kobe ?

Now that's just being silly. Kobe does need to accept a reduced role on this team, but we can't trade Kobe anyway, he has a no trade clause.

Demote D'Antoni to an assistant coach and hand the keys to Bickerstaff. I liked his five game stint where he just rolled the ball out and told them to play pick up ball. He sat on the bench all relaxed and looked like he was doing nothing. Reminded me a lot of Phil Jackson. Not saying this is the permanent solution, but really, could that be any worse than what we've seen so far?

Bickerstaff does not want to be a head coach.

put jim buss on an armoured ship bound for antarctica

trade dwight and pau for some young, fresh legs and shooters

fire dan tony

karacha wrote:Bickerstaff does not want to be a head coach.

We're not really asking him to "coach."

Well, then you don't need Bickerstaff. I'll do it for... let's see... how does 150K a year sound?

karacha wrote:Well, then you don't need Bickerstaff. I'll do it for... let's see... how does 150K a year sound?

You're right, if we're hiring a laissez-faire coach, it really could be anyone as long as the substitutions aren't bad. $150K? You got yourself a deal.

I can do decent substitutions. No worries.

honestly steve blake coming back will help a lot. it doesnt seem like it but i have a strong feeling whenever he comes back it'll help the team a lot. unfortunately we have this coach and his offense but it would help a guy like blake. and defensively hes easily our best PG outside of Nash and probably the best/smartest PG defender we have. his overall game and play type will help...idk whats taking him so long to come back though

Ariza3 wrote:honestly steve blake coming back will help a lot. it doesnt seem like it but i have a strong feeling whenever he comes back it'll help the team a lot. unfortunately we have this coach and his offense but it would help a guy like blake. and defensively hes easily our best PG outside of Nash and probably the best/smartest PG defender we have. his overall game and play type will help...idk whats taking him so long to come back though

Strong Kool-aid

1) Fire D'antoni
2) Trade Pau for pieces
3) Trade Howard and make sure you get picks
4) Trade Nash
5) Amnesty Kobe

Team will suck but you get out from under the massive under-performing contracts and give Kobe a chance to pick his team.

or just fire D'antoni

1. Time machine for Dr. Buss. Throw Mamba in too.
2. A beat down for Jerry Buss. Let Mitch work his magic.

http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=b2patl9
My other dream.

1) buy dantoni the book text winter wrote on the triangle, as a parting gift
2) trade pau for a couple pieces (west, augustin)
3) trade for young legs (webster, ariza, etc). we just need some semblance of athletes here
4) make jim publicly apologize to phil, prompting phil to return

I don't expect anything to be done this season. If it is, it is a massive overreaction by the FO. There is nothing available that could spark this team to a title run. This offseason will be the key. The team will hold a few trade assets that could net nice young players or picks.

Pau Gasol-$19,285,850 expiring
Metta World Peace-picks up player option for 2013/2014-$7,727,280 expiring
Steve Blake-$4,00,000 expiring
Chris Duhon-$3,750,000 non guaranteed expiring
Jordan Hill-$3,563,600 expiring

Not saying any/all should be traded. But in a league where owners are always trying to cut costs or outright salary dump hoping to become the next super team, these 5 assets could be instrumental in building a better product next year around Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash and Dwight Howard, but also the beginning of the overhaul for 2014 and beyond.

The mistake was the D'Antoni hire. Up until that point, the front office were hitting home runs.

If someone told me two year ago that the 2013 Lakers would have Kobe Bryant, Paul Gasol and...Dwight Howard, Steve Nash, Jordan Hill, Earl Clark, Antoine Jamison, and Jodie Meeks. I would call the front office brilliant.

This is no longer about needing to add talent (yes...even a wing player better than MWP should not be necessity on this team), teams have won Championships will lesser talent. The rosters that helped Kobe get his two Rings post-Shaq had less talent than this roster.

The problem is not talent. The problem is that the coach and his system are all wrong. When the coach is forcing players into a system...it works great for less talented players. But, for talent-laden rosters, unless the system plays to their natural basketball talents, its the wrong system and will do nothing but lessen the potential greatness of the player and the team. Plainly speaking, the superstars struggle and good players look very bad.

Even if the players were latching onto D'Antoni's offensive coaching style/system, Championships are usually won with defense. The Chicago Bulls dominated on defense just like the Miami Heat did last year. Their offense lives off their defense and it produces excellent results in the standings. Examples of the importance of defense are everywhere today. The Knicks would not be serious contenders if they hadn't started playing defense, same with the Clippers, Thunder, Heat, etc.

It all starts with defense and the Lakers have none.


How would I get this team back on track?

- Swallow your pride and fire D'Antoni immediately. Take the massive media hit and ridicule that will follow. Get a coach like Jerry Sloan who preaches defense, is a strict coach, and had success with old school PGs (Stockton) and will pick & roll you to death. Forget Phil, not happening.

- Do not even think for a second of trading Dwight Howard.

- Do not trade Pau Gasol unless you get a solid starter at your weakest position (wing/perimeter player to replace MWP AND a potential future PG for Nash to groom).

- Trade for a couple of shooters (even if they are one dimensional).

Dwight, Clark, Smith, Kobe, Nash...is an awesome starting five in the right system...because outside of Nash, that is one hell of a defensive lineup.

either hire a defensive coach or just fire Antoni and have the remaining assist. coach by committee. I wasn't on board with the idea when this team 1st started losing but dam it couldn't be any worse w/o Antoni. I mean Kobe/Nash are I guess smart enough to just wing it and play to their strength along with Pau/Dwight. Antoni is doing the same thing as Brown, forcing players to play a style thats not condusive to their strength, Brown same thing with the princeston and cutting/moving....come on we know these guys dont move/cut for crap. The only guys I have seen over the years who actually move well off ball was Ariza and most recently Barnes. Even under the tri most of our players just stood around and watched whenever Bynum or Kobe operated, only few instances a game do they move when Pau had it in the post.

^^^^

The system is obviously all wrong for the personnel but it's not just the system. If it was just the system and we still had superior talent, we would still be above .500. This team lacks talent also. Nash is closing in on 40 and is not even close to the player he was in his prime. He struggles sometimes just to lose his defender, let alone create anything for the team. Him and Kobe are liabilities on D. That's part of why our D is so bad.

Kobe is not even close to the dominant force he was in our 2-peat years. I'm talking on both ends. Howard is not the same beast he was in Orlando. And Gasol is being misused and checked out mentally a long time ago.

So while we look great on paper, the reality is these 4 stars all have issues which limit them from what they were at their peaks.

So another question is, do we even WANT this team to get back on track?

Would it be better for us to fall completely flat on our face, or, would it be better to slip in to the playoffs and get booted in the first round?

With the former, you may see drastic changes. With the latter, you might see an FO that says, ok, let's build on this next year and do nothing, or very little.