Jodie Meeks Discussion: Defensive Liability

Well he has to earn a spot here and so far CDR is out playing him. I agree that a more solid foundation in our bench rotation would give him more confidence, but hey man CDR can't out shine you every trip out.

I think Meeks would thrive next to Dwight Howard because he can provide that spacing, but so far he's had to play with the scrubs and there hasn't been enough room for him to get his shot of consistently. Put him out there with Nash and Howard and I think things open up nicely for him.

He hasn't looked bad by the way if you watch the games. He's a good defender and the effort is there. But CDR is doing those things too and he's shooting/scoring better.

^Agreed. He's rebounding, hustling, defending but his shot just hasn't fallen, yet. It will, though. Once he continues to get used to the offense and know where to get his shots from, he'll be fine.

Apparently he battled with Kobe today in practice.

He lost badly. But the good news is he's battling.

Battling with Kobe will only get him better.

I think Meeks is looking to get setup, and is asked to do a little bit more creating a la Kobe/Shannon Brown.

He's not that type of player, neither is Jamison.

With a decent PG, these guys can excel on the open floor and create space. The problem with our bench right now is that it does not have a facilitor or a player who can create on their own, a leader. Jamison, Hill, Meeks, Ebanks thrive well playing with our starters, but on a unit consisting of those players, they will struggle to put up points.

CDR has some better abilities about creating his own shot, which makes him look better off the bench, but I think we all know Meeks is more capable.

So back to the original problem...backup PG.

I think Meeks will really shine when he sees minutes with Dwight. He should see a good amount of those with the amount of minutes Dwight usually plays. Glad to see Kobe testing him in practice.. Hopefully it works like it did with Ariza.

therealdeal wrote:Apparently he battled with Kobe today in practice.

He lost badly. But the good news is he's battling.

OK now I have to go search for that tweet or info about practice, or if you have a link handy please throw it out here. HA I hope it's not to the point of hating Kobe for being tooo rough on him.

LTLakerFan wrote:

therealdeal wrote:Apparently he battled with Kobe today in practice.

He lost badly. But the good news is he's battling.

OK now I have to go search for that tweet or info about practice, or if you have a link handy please throw it out here. HA I hope it's not to the point of hating Kobe for being tooo rough on him.

I get most of my info from Mike Trudell's twitter feed.

Teams to close practice: Nash, Kobe, MWP, Jamison & Sacre (purple) vs Blake, Meeks, Ebanks, Gasol & Howard (white). White up 9-4.

The smalls, once down 9-1, came all the way back to tie at 16 (final score) on Jamison's corner 3. Kobe had 6 straight down the stretch.

White had a tough time getting Pau/ Dwight the rock in OT, & Kobe drained 2 J's before making the game-sealing steal. Smalls win.

All you hear about Kobe in practice is true; his hate of losing & will pushes his team. Nash a key helper today. Meeks competed w/Bryant.

There's more, but this was specific to Kobe/Meeks. Here's the link: https://twitter.com/LakersReporter

Kobe coming true in the clutch.

Also, here's the link to the scrimmage video: http://www.nba.com/lakers/video/121015s ... highlights

nice shooting in the 4th. mike brown has got to get the 2nd unit offense to cater to Meeks 3's and Jamison. not this pass around the perimeter and everyone create for themselves. we need a pg who can penetrate and kick out to Meeks for 3.

hope Mitch has one more move bc the bench problems have nothing to do with Jordan hill being out and everything to do with terrible PGs. Barbosa would be nice

4-6 3pt fg for Meeks, looked comfortable out there to finish off the game

4-6 beyond the arch, a real three point specialist !

Dude really started heating up at the end of the game. He and Kobe may have been the only bright spots.

His stroke looked like a consistent one. If Blake is going to be the back up PG, he will need to create enough attention to throw him a few open looks during games. I think Meeks will be a great pick up. You can see it in his body language.

He hasn't been great, but I think he will come around in time. We can't expect the world of a bench player, but I think he will at least start to hit open shots with some consistency at some point. I mean, every single shooter we bring in can't suddenly forget how to shoot right? Right?

at least jodie had a pretty good night. 4-6 from three is nice

I've kept saying throughout the early pre-season that this guy needs to get the ball in rhythm. This partially hasn't happened because we haven't been putting him on the floor with decent lineups.

Tonight he finally started receiving the ball in rhythm and (surprise, surprise) started knocking down his shots.

This is why I want the rotation shortened up soon -- guys need to get into a rhythm with their new teammates before the season starts.

He said after the game that he needs some minutes to get in a rhythm offensively. Hopefully Brown takes the hint.

Yeah, if there's been one player whose play has been most affected by Brown's "mix and match" pre-season sub pattern it's been Meeks.

Hopefully Brown stops screwing around and figures out that Meeks is Kobe's backup -- no questions about it.

exactly ^^

mike brown is an idiot. i read that he said ebanks is gonna be kobe's backup

meeks should be his backup and cdr should be mettas backup

therealdeal wrote:He said after the game that he needs some minutes to get in a rhythm offensively. Hopefully Brown takes the hint.

Yep. I really can't wait to see the rotations fill out. I'm pretty excited to see how they handle the Sacre, DJO, and CDR situations along with putting Ebanks and Meeks in their defined roles.

BDG wrote:Yeah, if there's been one player whose play has been most affected by Brown's "mix and match" pre-season sub pattern it's been Meeks.

Hopefully Brown stops screwing around and figures out that Meeks is Kobe's backup -- no questions about it.

HA!!!

Once Meeks sees some minutes with more of the starters when Dwight returns, I think his role will increase greatly.. When he's able to get good shots he knocks them down, he's not a volume scorer.

Meeks just needs more playing time to figure out his spots and get into a rhythm, like all shooters.

Problem is, it's players like Blake and Duhon who will be the ones getting the ball to him.

Again, I see a lot of Michael Redd in Meeks. Quick release, agile (when Redd was healthy), and decent defense. Once he's set and in rhythm, it's Money Meeks.