The Optimistic Thread! (TRD's FREEDOM THREAD!)

purp n gold · by **purp n gold** on Tue Oct 30, 2012 11:24 pm

432J wrote:/lock

Balance&Options24 · by **Balance&Options24** on Tue Oct 30, 2012 11:28 pm

Even if this team was to win 20 in a row I couldnt get too happy with Brown as our coach. That alone has always scared me about our team.

The Rock · by **The Rock** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 12:03 am

[url]http://www.nba.com/games/20121030/DALLAL/gameinfo.html?ls=iref:nbahpgt[0021200003]#nbaGIboxscore[/url]

- We out rebounded them 46-40
- We had more offensive rebounds than them (15-9)
- We didnt have too many turnovers (14-11)
- We lost the fastbreak battle 13-7 but thats not by much
- Points in the paint 56-46

It took MWP going 1 for 8 and Nash going for 3 for 9 along with 38% Free throw shooting to beat us. We'll be fine. We did the little things wrong but its correctable. Just by Nash being on the floor, Pau, Dwight and Kobe did extremely well on offense (outside of free throw shooting). Their shot opportunities improved compared to last year Which is HUGE. We just had trouble towards the end of the game...same happened in Miami. Just will take a litle bit of time to figure it out. Hope Mike Brown lets Eddie Jordan handle the offense and doesn't interfere

Finwë · by **Finwë** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 12:07 am

81-1 still possible

wcsoldier81 · by **wcsoldier81** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 5:40 am

bruddahmanmatt wrote:The NBA season is a marathon, not a sprint. Miami looked like a** for quite some time when their big three first came together in '10-'11.

true but Miami had the advantage of playing in the Leastern Conf in which it is much easier to make up ground in the standings than in the West...

We can't afford to lose too many games early if we want a good seed

trodgers · by **trodgers** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 5:52 am

Didn't watch. Not really feelin' the Lakers right now for some reason. That said, now that the 82-0 thoughts are removed from those last few minds where they still had existed, let's focus on the fact that we don't need to win 70 games to get a good playoff seed. This is going to take some time, so let's take it with a grain o' salt.

karacha · by **karacha** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 6:05 am

trodgers wrote:Didn't watch. Not really feelin' the Lakers right now for some reason.

You should watch, because you are at least going to feel for them. :man1:

XXIV · by **XXIV** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 8:13 am

Kobe was extremely effective, Dwight had a pretty good game offensively despite being "rusty," and we didn't have too many turnovers.

dwighthowardsdad · by **dwighthowardsdad** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 8:46 am

After my reaction after last nights game and listening to the postgame press conference with Dwight, Nash, & Brown, I'm going to give halt my criticism for now at least during the first 20 or so games. This is going to be a process.

However, Kobe shot extremely well, Dwight played relatively well considering his rust, and Pau played a good game. I'm confident this group will get it together...

therealdeal · by **therealdeal** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 9:33 am

There's SO MUCH room for improvement with the players and not the coach. Obviously the coaching issue is another topic, but the players themselves have a lot more to give.

Kobe didn't log a single assist. He shot AMAZINGLY well from the field for his standards, but he really wasn't all that aggressive. Nash is allowing the team to go through the Princeton pretty much every trip down so he's sacrificing himself at the moment. That'll change eventually. Dwight is still not close to his usual conditioning. Running the floor was difficult for him and he clearly wasn't as explosive as we're used to defensively. His timing is way off.

Metta isn't going to play that badly every game. That was a pretty awful game for him, but he'll come around.

The players don't look comfortable with the system yet and that leads to them not being confident in themselves. As time goes on they'll look great. Remember most of us weren't expecting them to start strong, but to hit their stride somewhere early next year like January or February.

dj vitus · by **dj vitus** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 9:37 am

trodgers wrote:Didn't watch. Not really feelin' the Lakers right now for some reason. That said, now that the 82-0 thoughts are removed from those last few minds where they still had existed, let's focus on the fact that we don't need to win 70 games to get a good playoff seed. This is going to take some time, so let's take it with a grain o' salt.

Yeah, if anyone wins 70, it's Miami. He'll, they'll probably win 75 and break 33 in a row or something ridiculous. OKC might even win 66. We might not even make the playoffs at this rate. Oh wait, wrong thread...

karacha · by **karacha** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 10:14 pm

Here's something good, although we're 0-2:

Kobe can still do it, scoring big, being passionate about the game and being efficient.

Dwight is incredible. His FT shooting was as good as it can be for Dwight. He dominated.

Metta had TOs, true, but he scored more and shot well.

Blake did quite well actually. Let's hope he can continue to contribute like this.

Gasol with 16/9/2. Good numbers and 50% shooting, (but somehow I wasn't impressed).

Meeks took one 3 and drilled it.

We scored some points this time. The offense was better. Definitely better. But defense is all about team work and communication and we have non right now, so we lost the game. Oh well. Slight improvement.

Brown's rotations still suck big time but that's for the WMC thread.

Scnottaken · by **Scnottaken** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 10:17 pm

Finwë wrote:81-1 still possible

80-2 here we come!

Finwë · by **Finwë** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 10:20 pm

Howard looked like a BEAST on O.
Kobe's freaking hurting, back-to-back, constant no calls, and he still found a way to score effectively.
Despite it all, I did see some improvement on offense from time to time. I think we are (VERY SLOWLY that is) moving in the right direction. Just need to get the other stuff (boards, defense, avoiding mental lapses) down as well.

lakersyunowin · by **lakersyunowin** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 10:34 pm

another loss closer to the firing of mike brown

JGC · by **JGC** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 10:38 pm

Well, if there was one positive thing to come out of this start to the season, it's that it makes the big dump I took earlier tonight look absolutely beautiful.

thkthebest · by **thkthebest** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 10:43 pm

In 06-07, Mavericks lost the first 4 games. They went 67-11 the rest of the season. (Ignore their postseason because this is the optimistic thread lol).

It's still the start of the season.

JoelMyersScrotalSack · by **JoelMyersScrotalSack** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 11:09 pm

thkthebest wrote:In 06-07, Mavericks lost the first 4 games. They went 67-11 the rest of the season. (Ignore their postseason because this is the optimistic thread lol).

It's still the start of the season.

They went 52-5 at one point, fricken crazy.

therealdeal · by **therealdeal** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 11:16 pm

I'm going to totally avoid the rest of this forum because I know I'm going to just get upset in other threads. I'm going to think of this thread as a nice little haven from sky falling.

First of all, the offense looked very good. The problems with the game were not on that end. It was great to see them go away from the Princeton from time to time and see them go to some easy pick and roll action. Turnovers are going to continue being a problem this early in the season, so it was nice to see the offense working well. At least while Nash was at the helm.

Second of all, the officiating in the 2nd half and more specifically the 3rd quarter was absolutely horrendous. It's the Portland disease. We're not allowed to have a nicely officiated game up there.

Third of all, Howard looked tremendous and he wasn't even in mid-season form. He's getting there though, so anyone who wants to try to say he's an average Center... Yeah. The man was a force offensively and his explosiveness isn't anywhere near what he's used to. Defensively he's still a step or two slow. He knows it though and you can see the wheels turning to get him back to normal. We're in good hands as long as he gets healthy and as long as he continues working hard.

Kobe looked good. He seems really rusty on ball handling though... He really hasn't done any of it so far this season and you could just tell he wasn't used to it. I think that's a problem. He doesn't need to be the primary ball handler, but he definitely needs to be more assertive in that aspect when Nash isn't around.

Pau looked really good. He had a tough match-up, but he worked hard. Blake also played pretty well.

Finwë · by **Finwë** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 11:23 pm

therealdeal wrote:Pau looked really good. He had a tough match-up, but he worked hard.

I thought he was our weakest link on defense, which is pretty terrible considering the level of D everyone was playing. I didn't feel like he worked hard at all, especially in the 2nd half.

BDG · by **BDG** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 11:26 pm

Dwight looked great. First game where he looked very close to being completely fluid offensively.

He's still got a bit to go to return to his old form, but he's getting there.

And if he can shoot FT's close to how he shot them tonight, it's going to be a HUGE bonus for us.

therealdeal · by **therealdeal** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 11:27 pm

Finwë wrote:
therealdeal wrote:Pau looked really good. He had a tough match-up, but he worked hard.

I thought he was our weakest link on defense, which is pretty terrible considering the level of D everyone was playing. I didn't feel like he worked hard at all, especially in the 2nd half.

LaMarcus Aldridge is one of the best PF scorers in the game. The man is a beast. Pau did alright against him considering he's not a great defender to begin with.

Just because he's not a good defender, doesn't mean he wasn't trying. Really the problem is that the system commands him to be able to more mobile laterally and he simply is not. He did pretty much as well as he could do.

Finwë · by **Finwë** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 11:34 pm

therealdeal wrote:
Finwë wrote:
therealdeal wrote:Pau looked really good. He had a tough match-up, but he worked hard.

I thought he was our weakest link on defense, which is pretty terrible considering the level of D everyone was playing. I didn't feel like he worked hard at all, especially in the 2nd half.

LaMarcus Aldridge is one of the best PF scorers in the game. The man is a beast. Pau did alright against him considering he's not a great defender to begin with.

Just because he's not a good defender, doesn't mean he wasn't trying. Really the problem is that the system commands him to be able to more mobile laterally and he simply is not. He did pretty much as well as he could do.

No doubt Aldridge is great, but my problem with Pau's defense wasn't particulary his 1 on 1 coverage of him (though it wasn't very good). It was most of all his P&R D (extremely awful, just pathetic), his inexistant help D + never boxing out.
It's not just that he isn't a good defender, he actually wasn't really trying. Time and time again he was caught in the middle not really covering anyone and not making an effort to cover his man / the cutter / the switch. Nothing exemplifies this as that Batum dunk, Pau's effort on that play was disgusting to watch.
IMO there's no defending his defensive outing. He wasn't bad on offense (though he should be better), but his D was atrocious, both because he isn't a good defender AND because he didn't try at all.

Tobias Funke · by **Tobias Funke** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 11:37 pm

I saw some improvements offensively. In time it'll be a nice mixed bag of Princeton, pick and roll, iso.....it'll be great to watch when they get it together and well worth the headaches from these early stages.

therealdeal · by **therealdeal** on Wed Oct 31, 2012 11:39 pm

I seriously watched a completely different game than you.

Pau showed on almost every screen which is what he's coached to do. The opposing player then passes to his man (not his fault) and someone else is supposed to rotate to cover for him. He is then supposed to rotate to that person's man.

Unfortunately, we weren't seeing the secondary rotation for much of the night. That left Gasol on an island. There was a stretch when someone WOULD rotate over and the defense looked great. But it was only for a possession or two and then the offense adjusted. That's not Pau's fault.

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