LQOTD: Closed-Door Meeting What Happened?

Whatever was said in the team meeting seems to have worked; things are looking quite different of late. There have been disputed reports about what went on. What do you think happened?

LQOTD : What was said to whom and by whom at the closed door meeting?


Today's LQOTD is brought to you by Punk-101, who plays with people and calls it therapy.

F.U.

Everybody not named Bryant: Kob...man, you gotta move the rock. We better as a team that way.

Bryant: OK...that's what ya'll want?! Move your ***** then I'll hit you and make plays when I give it up! Deal [expletive]?!

D'Antoni: Uuummm...where's my meds for my hip?

established pecking order on the todem pole.....
Kobe to Dwight, this is where you are to me, get use to it

They probably called 'Jesus' for help and did a "Kumbaya" song in the process.

Last Three Games (averages)
Nash 15 pts, 4 ast, 2 reb
Kobe 16 pts, 13 ast, 9 reb
Dwight 16 pts, 1 ast, 9 reb
Clark 13 pts, 1 ast, 7 reb
MWP 12 pts, 1 ast, 6 reb
Pau 13 pts, 5 ast, 6 reb

^ the rebounding and passing has been terrific. That shows teamwork and effort. Thats exactly what we need

Everyone told Kobe:

Kobe said I've been in this league a long time and know what works. No offense, Dan.....but I have played under the best, Phil Jackson. So they turned down the lights, got peaceful and meditated.

The Rock wrote:^ the rebounding and passing has been terrific. That shows teamwork and effort. Thats exactly what we need

ALSO SHOWS IT'S A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SYSTEM BEING RUN, FIGURED OUT FROM KOBE AND NASH. Funny that Dan was quoted in today's Times from last night, "We don't have a system. We play basketball. The system is move the ball, play hard on defense, space the floor and who's open shoots. It's not a difficult thing."

Yeah.....with the roster Mitch put together for you.....actually maximizing it...... No crap, Sherlock Seriously, this must really be conflicting him. We are winning, it's effective and entertaining, and completely different than what he always wants to do. He's not the guy that figured it out.

From D'Antoni -"I'm sick of my system getting s*** on! Just do it!"
To D'Antoni- "shut up and sit in the corner."

From Kobe- "Alright you little pansies, so I shoot a lot. If you f***ers actually cut and move, I'll pass it to you!"
To Kobe- "Bull****! That's not what Smush said!"
From Kobe- "Just try it and see what happens!"
To Kobe- "We got our stat sheets ready!"

From Pau -"Waaah Waah Waaaaaaaaah"

From Nash- "C'mon guys, Let's just be friends. I want to win again..."
To Nash- "Shoot the ball you idiot!"
From Nash- "but I love you guys..."

From Dwight- "See? Right there, line seven: five shot attempts. FIVE! I'm the best Center in the game and... huh? What, Kobe? No, no... I'm uh... This is a print out from 2K..."
To Dwight- "Stop being a ***** and play some defense. You want the ball to score? Get the ball from the other end!"

From Metta - "aaaaaAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Blagangandefettttlaivengiavete!"
To Metta - "..."

therealdeal wrote:From D'Antoni -"I'm sick of my system getting s*** on! Just do it!"
To D'Antoni- "shut up and sit in the corner."

From Kobe- "Alright you little pansies, so I shoot a lot. If you f***ers actually cut and move, I'll pass it to you!"
To Kobe- "Bull****! That's not what Smush said!"
From Kobe- "Just try it and see what happens!"
To Kobe- "We got our stat sheets ready!"

From Pau -"Waaah Waah Waaaaaaaaah"

From Nash- "C'mon guys, Let's just be friends. I want to win again..."
To Nash- "Shoot the ball you idiot!"
From Nash- "but I love you guys..."

From Dwight- "See? Right there, line seven: five shot attempts. FIVE! I'm the best Center in the game and... huh? What, Kobe? No, no... I'm uh... This is a print out from 2K..."
To Dwight- "Stop being a ***** and play some defense. You want the ball to score? Get the ball from the other end!"

From Metta - "aaaaaAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Blagangandefettttlaivengiavete!"
To Metta - "..."

You forgot about Sacre dancing in the background.

realdeal

I think it was two things:

1. A respectfuly mutiny of D'Antoni's offensive system.
2. The chicken/egg argument here on CL of Kobe's shooting vs facilitating modes and teammates morale, movement without the ball and energy on defense.

Team to Kobe: "If you would pass, we'd move."
Kobe to team: "If you'd move, I'd pass."
(round and round and round and round and round......)
Team to Kobe: "Well fine then..."
Kobe to team: "Problems?"

MDA - "Alright guys, this is a new season."
Kobe - "..."
MDA - "My system isn't going to work so we're going to go with the Kobe System."
Kobe - "Alright...40 FGA here I..."
MDA - "Which means Kobe will the facilitator."
Kobe - "Fu..."
MDA - "Kobe - Different animal, same beast."
Kobe - "I see what you did there."
Everyone else: "WE'RE IN! "

D12 (Looking at stat sheet)....



Ebanks on the sidelines...



MWP not paying attention and thinking about gettin' after it in the club...



MDA choosing a different strategy of motivation....



Team doctors to Pau....



Pau's reaction to anything...



Earl Clark on his expanded role...



Kobe challenging anyone to come at him...



Sacre coming in late carrying all players bags...



Morris leaking out information on what Kobe said in the meeting....



Duhon's reaction to Blake coming back and wanting to make an impact...



Blake recovering on the sidelines from his injury....



Random reporter trying to steal some info from the meeting....



Steve Nash trying to find some words of wisdom for the team....



Meeks didn't attend the meeting and was outside doing this, when confronted had an attitude.....



Jamison didn't even want to attend, he just wanted to move on....



Jordan Hill couldn't make it to the meeting, but skyped in fresh out of surgery....

I don't know.... wouldn't speculate and care even less.....

What I've seen over the last 4 games is a different approach to offense and some actual team play (albeit sporadically) on defense. The offense has changed dramatically in how it's being initiated. I think after Miami pretty much blueprinted how to defend Nash at this point in his career it became obvious to most that if we were to slide into the playoffs it would have to be with a different approach to getting the ball moving. The pick and roll stuff has taken a back seat..... thankfully.

We're creating the havoc in the paint that Howard needs to get makable shots and freeing up offside shooters by using Kobe as the initiator from the wing. Innovative and effective so far.

On defense it appears that Howard is coaching the group out there. This might be a good thing because he's taken a lot of heat for the teams defense that should have been directed elsewhere..... a common thing in Laker land the last couple of years..... There were rotations (for the most part) and recognition of where to rotate..... something that should have been there 3 months ago but it's welcome nonetheless...

Doc... I like the Jamison one. Have to try that on people.

I'm guessing the team in general asked Kobe to pass more, shoot less. I'd also guess it was asked of Nash to shoot more, Dwight to focus on defense regardless of offense, Pau to just play his game and not worry about coming off the bench, and most important of all, 'Antoni was told to get out of the way with his offense and let the players run it out there. I would also think defense, talking on defense, helping eachother out there, playing it as a team, was discussed. It's pretty clear the offense is completely different since this meeting, and it's clear the defensive effort is so much better, and that the team is talking a lot more, and look a lot more together with all the high fives and such.

Not sure, but I assume there was a lot of inferring rather than finger pointing, discussions on moving without the ball (from Bryant), expecting the offense to get higher percentage shots (from everyone else not forcing shots), help on defense, etc.

And it's important to realize that how a team conducts itself on one end of the floor affects their play on the opposite end. For those that said the problem was not on the offensive end, but rather solely on the defensive end, it just doesn't work that way. When there's no movement on offense, odds are there won't be much defensively. When there's not much sharing of the ball on offense, there probably won't be much help on the defensive end. When team morale is low due to troubles on one end of the floor, it translates to the other end. Switching, trapping, doubling, helping on defense is as much about teamwork and rhythm as it is on the other end. We've still got a long way to go, but we certainly are seeing more energy on D and it's no coincidence that it seems to be initiated from what we're doing better offensively.

i like to think they played board games til they started feeling better

I think Nash was the catalyst for the change in philosophy. He seems to be the one guy who everybody genuinely likes and respects, especially Kobe.

kobe probably threatened lives and told dan tony that his system was crap

and sacre gave everyone high fives

trodgers wrote:Last Three Games (averages)
Nash 15 pts, 4 ast, 2 reb
Kobe 16 pts, 13 ast, 9 reb
Dwight 16 pts, 1 ast, 9 reb
Clark 13 pts, 1 ast, 7 reb
MWP 12 pts, 1 ast, 6 reb
Pau 13 pts, 5 ast, 6 reb

CarolinaLakerFan wrote:I think Nash was the catalyst for the change in philosophy. He seems to be the one guy who everybody genuinely likes and respects, especially Kobe.

Respectfully I would disagree and say Kobe becase he is the guy, not Nash, who has seen first hand and contributed with how to be successful with skilled post up big men. Nash had no history with that. But if the 2 of them are both laying awake at night (they both have said this) trying to figure out how to right the ship, when they start talking about this hybrid offense taking the best from Nash's and Kobe's past successful histories..... that Nash bought in. Hell it is WAY easier on both of them and way more effective and DIVERSE way to attack the other teams' defenses.

I think Kobe and the team discussed how they were going to run an offense that wasn't a "system" offense.

The triangle was gone and Mike Brown and his Princeton-Hybrid were dumped by management.

In an offense like the triangle, Kobe could focus on scoring. The triangle itself took care of the ball movement. D'Antoni's system wasn't working. Partially because the personnel doesn't fit the system and because D'Antoni didn't have a training camp to really implement it.

I think Kobe and the team decided to come up with a homebrew offense that I basically call "Lebronball for grownups". Like Lebronball, the offense primarily runs through Kobe. The difference is that this system is a lot smarter. Better man movement, screens on the ball, screens off the ball (usually Nash), post and pick plays for Kobe, backdoor plays for D12, and hockey assist plays where Kobe finds either Nash or Pau (Nash 5 assists and Pau 7 assists in the NOH game) who then make the final pass that leads to an assist.

Basically, what they came up with is something that is a lot easier to understand than trying to learn the triangle or learn the Princeton and yet more sophisticated and less predictable than Lebronball.

On a scale it would look like this.

0---------------------------------------------------------7----------------------------------------------10
Lebronball-------------------------------------Our current offense-----------------------------Triangle

The triangle, unlike our current system, required all 5 players to read the defense and make the right play. Whether it's passing, cutting, or shooting. Our current offense dumbs down the responsibilities. Howard only decides to cut and finish. Jamison and Clark decide to either shoot or cut & finish. MWP and Meeks mostly shoot and score. Pau and Nash are primarily hockey passers and shooters. Kobe is the only one who really decides whether to drive to the basket, shoot, pass, or cut & finish and he's the primary distributor. The offense always goes through him.

Defensively, they all decided that from now on, they would all get into each others face and hold each other accountable if they make a mistake on defense since they know that their coach doesn't know a damn thing about defense. Guys like D12 are used to coaches like SVG holding the players accountable for defensive mistakes. Kobe and crew probably told D12 to stop whining to the media about it and talk to them instead.