Sooo, John Hollinger Predicts...

In fairness, he did say that he expects us to reach the WCF. He just thinks that we won't be an impressive regular season team. Mostly because we are not a team that forces TO's and get easy baskets like OKC or San Antonio did last season. Our style is more suitable for postseason success when the game slows down.

While I can understand his reasoning, I just don't agree with it. Forced TO's or no forced TO's, we have 4 potential HOFers on the floor. I don't care what style a team plays, that's tough to beat.

I think it's silly anyway. If you look at all the champions since 2000 there hasn't really been a strong correlation between forcing turnovers and winning games. Most of those teams won a lot of regular season games and many weren't great at forcing turnovers.

Rooscooter wrote:A NBA partner's employee stirring up the pot before the season starts..... and most of you fell for it....

These guys at ESPN plan this crap.... the Lakers are the most liked and most hated at the same time..... so more people care about a "controversial" article about them.... see the dots here?.... they end at a pot of $$$ for the NBA Partner... These guys and the ones at TNT are not journalists or even "reporters" any longer because the bulk of their companies earnings for the next 9 months is directly tied to hyping the NBA and they share in the profits.....

As for what this clown said......I'd say the Lakers improved their roster quite a bit this offseason..... maybe more than anyone. Denver lost over 30 points a game and replace that with 14 or so. For a team that needs to score to win (no A.I. isn't going to make them a walk it up defensive team) that's a huge hit. SA didn't get any better and OKC is the same team that folded against Miami so we need to prove ourselves but if we play injury free for the most part we will be better than SA and Denver for sure....

The desire to write up something purely for eyeballs is entirely overblown. In the long run, they know the best way to get eyeballs and KEEP eyeballs is by being accurate first and foremost and interesting/engaging second. Notice that when trade rumors come out, everyone waits for ESPN to report it before exhaling. They don't pick up a Bleacher Report article and use it as gospel.

I'm not sure if you read the article but he didn't bag on our offseason moves. If anything, he praised them! The two main reasons he gave for why we might finish 4th in the regular season is:

- Health/Injuries
- Age
- Chemistry

Regarding health/injuries, this is a legitimate concern. I mean we're coming in to the season WITH injury issues to KEY players. Even you said "IF" we stay injury free and if we're concerned about injuries 3 weeks before the season starts then there are definite question marks.

Regarding age, he said that because we have older players, he is assuming that we will play Kobe and Nash closer to the low 30s in minutes. With that being said then, that means more of the bench and in those two areas our depth is not good. Better than last season sure, but more Meeks and Blake isn't a recipe for success. I think there is validity to that. What makes us potent is having Bryant and Nash on the floor. If we're playing Kobe LESS than we played last year (in the regular season) then that will have a negative impact year over year at the SG position.

Lastly, chemistry. Now, there are unknowns. His point about Nash and Bryant figuring out how to play together, I think they will work that out over the first weeks. I'm not TOO concerned about it, but I'm not entirely not worried about it either. I want to see it first. But I think chemistry is the least of our worries. I think the worst case scenario is that it takes a long time to figure out but I think we will have it figured out by playoff time.

I'm curious ... I haven't seen anyone accuse Hollinger of being a moron or whatever, regarding his comments on our postseason success. He basically said we have age and injury concerns and we'll deal with those concerns during the regular season, to make sure we don't have to deal with them come playoff time where we will be "terrifying". What's wrong with that? I think that is spot on. Not sure I agree with 4th seed, but 3rd seed is a very real possibility even though on paper we should be the 1 seed.

I'm kind of surprised people care so much about our regular season seeding. What difference does it make? This team is built for the postseason, it is not built for an 82 game regular season.

Actually, we tend to wait for Woj, not ESPN.

Magic Skywalker wrote:Actually, we tend to wait for Woj, not ESPN.

Well, I'm not saying ONLY ESPN. I'm saying ESPN is one of the several sources (Woj included) that if they're reporting a trade then only then do they feel confident it is accurate. I don't see the same level of confidence in say, a Bleacher Report or RealGM article. If you look back at some of the trade rumor threads, you will see a multitude of comments saying that if it is only on RealGM or BleacherReport or whatever, then until it hits the mainstream media (sites like Yahoo/ESPN/etc) then there is no credibility to it.

I have never seen someone question the validity of a trade confirmation report from ESPN because ESPN only writes things to stir up drama.

JGC wrote:they know the best way to get eyeballs and KEEP eyeballs is by being accurate first and foremost and interesting/engaging second.

I stopped here...... When you have (3) 24 hour networks blathering crap 72 hours a day your bound to be "accurate" at some point.....

Rooscooter wrote:

JGC wrote:they know the best way to get eyeballs and KEEP eyeballs is by being accurate first and foremost and interesting/engaging second.

I stopped here...... When you have (3) 24 hour networks blathering crap 72 hours a day your bound to be "accurate" at some point.....

That made me laugh.....

Alcindor wrote:Take his calculator away and Hollinger has absolutely nothing to say about basketball.

I think it is up now. Can someone post a link? Also post the Clippers? Thanks in advance.

So no one gives a crap about Hollinger's prediction on the Lakers? Or did it come out a while back and it's old news? Or it's not out yet? What's the deal?

http://www.clublakers.com/lakers-discussion/sooo-john-hollinger-predicts-t135974-25.html?hilit=hollinger

The Search function works wonders on this site.

^^ It was already posted here in a link. He said they would finish fourth in the regular season in the West. From what I saw last night I'd say that might even be generous. They looked shockingly bad. I didn't put much credence in it as I figured we'd end up in 2nd at the end of the season, but now I don't feel so certain. The coaching has really given me pause, not to mention the absolute lack of PG depth.

Doc Brown wrote:http://www.clublakers.com/lakers-discussion/sooo-john-hollinger-predicts-t135974-25.html?hilit=hollinger

The Search function works wonders on this site.

Thank you sir.

Lakerjones wrote:^^ It was already posted here in a link. He said they would finish fourth in the regular season in the West. From what I saw last night I'd say that might even be generous. They looked shockingly bad. I didn't put much credence in it as I figured we'd end up in 2nd at the end of the season, but now I don't feel so certain. The coaching has really given me pause, not to mention the absolute lack of PG depth.

I only caught a glimpse of the first preseason game and nothing else since i don't have TWC but I really wouldn't put any stock into them no matter how bad they look. These games just mean nothing. Now if this happens into the regular season, it's a different story.

Lakerjones wrote:^^ It was already posted here in a link. He said they would finish fourth in the regular season in the West. From what I saw last night I'd say that might even be generous. They looked shockingly bad. I didn't put much credence in it as I figured we'd end up in 2nd at the end of the season, but now I don't feel so certain. The coaching has really given me pause, not to mention the absolute lack of PG depth.

So you're telling me that it's generous to say a team with Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Dwight Howard, and Steve Nash will finish fourth in the conference? Really? Sure they've looked poor and subpar, but it's freaking pre-season. The games are meaningless. Dwight isn't even playing and Nash, Kobe, and Gasol are clearly in cruise control mode as they should during exhibition season. Once the regular season starts they'll be fine.

Lakerjones wrote:^^ It was already posted here in a link. He said they would finish fourth in the regular season in the West. From what I saw last night I'd say that might even be generous. They looked shockingly bad. I didn't put much credence in it as I figured we'd end up in 2nd at the end of the season, but now I don't feel so certain. The coaching has really given me pause, not to mention the absolute lack of PG depth.

If the Lakers are 20-13 after 33 games, Mike Brown will be out faster then a snow cone in the desert.

Lakerjones wrote:^^ It was already posted here in a link. He said they would finish fourth in the regular season in the West. From what I saw last night I'd say that might even be generous. They looked shockingly bad. I didn't put much credence in it as I figured we'd end up in 2nd at the end of the season, but now I don't feel so certain. The coaching has really given me pause, not to mention the absolute lack of PG depth.

Hilarous.

Lakerjones wrote:^^ It was already posted here in a link. He said they would finish fourth in the regular season in the West. From what I saw last night I'd say that might even be generous. They looked shockingly bad. I didn't put much credence in it as I figured we'd end up in 2nd at the end of the season, but now I don't feel so certain. The coaching has really given me pause, not to mention the absolute lack of PG depth.

Ok, I'm not sure about 4th being generous. But it's a real possibility.

And you're right, the bench looks horrendous despite being an improvement over last year. I mean, I guess a D is better than an F, right? Haha. I think if we had another capable PG off the bench, that would really fix the bench.

Either way, we still have the starters and the only we could possibly finish 4th is because we have to rest the starters even if that means losing regular season games.

Lakerjones wrote:^^ It was already posted here in a link. He said they would finish fourth in the regular season in the West. From what I saw last night I'd say that might even be generous. They looked shockingly bad. I didn't put much credence in it as I figured we'd end up in 2nd at the end of the season, but now I don't feel so certain. The coaching has really given me pause, not to mention the absolute lack of PG depth.

Not sure if serious. Phil's best teams would lose repeatedly in the preseason. Our players generally don't care much, and the coach will always experiment with different lineups, playing guys that won't even make the team. That's all normal, and is not in any way, shape or form linked with the regular season winning %. I remember some really good teams having absolutely embarrassing preseason records. They ended up winning over 65% or even over 70% of their regular season games.
I mean, we're playing without Dwight, and last night we didn't even have Pau or Hill. Those are our best bigs. We're starting rookie Sacre, a 3rd string center in this league, and playing guys like Morris, Somogyi etc etc. Do you think this will happen in the regular season?

Yeah LJ, I'm sorry but it's not that bad. Our bench isn't set, we're missing 2 of our top 4 bigs (last night 3) and we're a brand new team.

It's just pre-season. I'll be more concerned if the bench doesn't exist once the season starts. But right now our bench sucks because a)rotations and b)the presence of some awful camp fodder.

karacha wrote:

Lakerjones wrote:^^ It was already posted here in a link. He said they would finish fourth in the regular season in the West. From what I saw last night I'd say that might even be generous. They looked shockingly bad. I didn't put much credence in it as I figured we'd end up in 2nd at the end of the season, but now I don't feel so certain. The coaching has really given me pause, not to mention the absolute lack of PG depth.

Not sure if serious. Phil's best teams would lose repeatedly in the preseason. Our players generally don't care much, and the coach will always experiment with different lineups, playing guys that won't even make the team. That's all normal, and is not in any way, shape or form linked with the regular season winning %. I remember some really good teams having absolutely embarrassing preseason records. They ended up winning over 65% or even over 70% of their regular season games.
I mean, we're playing without Dwight, and last night we didn't even have Pau or Hill. Those are our best bigs. We're starting rookie Sacre, a 3rd string center in this league, and playing guys like Morris, Somogyi etc etc. Do you think this will happen in the regular season?

But Phil didn't play any of his key players at all. It was the bench for 48 mins.

Not saying our 0-4 record means anything, but, can't compare to Phil's time.

See last season: Kobe is 34.

Preseason wrist injury. WHO CARES ABOUT PRESEASON. JUST STAY HEALTHY.

I'm not really comparing it, I am simply saying that many great teams in the past had horrible preseason records because no one actually cared much about winning those games. Coaches only want to see who will get minutes and who won't and that's pretty much it. I've seen competitive superstars who would miss a layup and laugh afterwards in preseason. Guys are just trying stuff, sometimes they use moves that just can't work in a given situation, but they use the time to practice them anyway. What else is there to be done except that and working on your stamina?

Let's just wait until November to make that call.

I'm venting obviously. But anyone who watched last night's game can't feel too good about what you saw. I don't care who was out. The fact is that Kobe, Nash and MWP and our sixth man Jamison played the entire first quarter and only managed to score 15 points. What I'm saying is we look like garbage right now. I'm not blaming the players - I don't see any organization whatsoever on the offensive side of things. Were those Princeton sets? Didn't look like it. Just looked like nonsense to me. Meanwhile what is Brown doing playing Nash and Kobe for a full quarter straight? What the hell is that? In a preseason game? He wore Nash out to the point that he was throwing 2 or three errant passes in a row. When was the last time you saw Nash do that? He's gonna run this guy into the ground. Meanwhile Blake looked like pure trash out there.

Barbosa apparently signed with Those Guys. We better do something to fix the backup PG situation and fast. Likewise, I'm hoping Brown gets the hook before we get too deep into the season. This guy is just horrid.

After watching last night's game I seriously don't care any longer about the fact that DirecTV and TWC won't resolve things until the season. I don't need to see any more of that crap.

Lakerjones wrote:I'm venting obviously. But anyone who watched last night's game can't feel too good about what you saw. I don't care who was out....

You really should.