Josh Howard, amnesty this non-dribbling, non-shooting, non-finishing clown Metta

Lets Go Lakers wrote:

lakersfever wrote:Trevor Ariza

I miss Ariza and what he brought to our team. Perfect role player.

Ariza was shooting lights out from beyond the arc especially in the playoff that year when we won it all in '09. Metta has been a real thorn on our side. Sure his defense is "good" but Ebanks + help from Howard should be good enough to contain most elite sf. Also, missed shots lead to fast break opportunities.

i think we need to bench metta, his shooting is really terrible and when he tries to drive into the lane, he looks so unbalanced and clumsy, only good thing about him is his defense.

Metta, No Question

I think you should use Metta the way Phil did with LO. Bring Metta off the bench with the second unit and then finish games with him next to the starters.

Everybody by now has noticed the offense and how it sticks when it gets to Metta. He seems to like to take the offense onto himself and be the goto guy. So put him with the 2nd unit along with Toine at the 4 and Hill at the 5. Blake ain't a playmaker, but is more of a streaky shooter. Put Blake and Meeks on the perimeter ready to hoist away. Let Ron-Ron create for others. Make that 2nd unit more of a slow down mechanical version of the offense. This way, they control the game and the score while the starters get a breather. You don't want a speed team out there cause if shots don't fall and you're playing that pace, our 2nd unit will give up a lead rather rapidly and that means the starters will have to come back into the game much sooner.

The starters should bring in Ebanks to fill in for Ron. Unlike Ron, he's playing with 4 HOFs and will know it. Ebanks will do the athletic stuff that Nash needs. When Dwight gets back to his normal self. You'll have athletes in the post and on the wing in Dwight and Ebanks that Pau, Nash and Kobe can find. Ebanks has shown in the preseason that he's about getting to the rim and slashing to get there. But when its not open, he's comfortable taking perimeter shot and he should be wide open for most of his attempts. Play the speed game with the starters cause we have bigs that can get up and down the court. Let the 2nd unit slow it down and concentrate more on getting defensive stops and controlling the clock.

Ron-Ron is an attention [Swearing is not permitted at Clublakers. You must edit this post prior to submitting.]....he gets to be one and no one will complain about it, if they move him to the 2nd unit. Our 1st unit has the option of slowing it down, but they should be the speed guys that try to blitz teams to start the game.

And for god sakes, run the Princeton in practice till it becomes 2nd nature and guys are comfortable with it. Then and only then, break it out during an actual game. Till then, let Nash control the pace. Give him the right pieces that he can work with. Move Artest to the bench and bring in an athletic wing that won't allow the ball to stick.

Lets Go Lakers wrote:

Lakerjones wrote:How about the question becomes, who should backup MWP at the SF? Jamison or Ebanks? I mean how can you be seriously advocating Ebanks starting when the coach did not even play him last night? Do you really think he's going to start him? He started him for a week or so last season and then he sat him on the bench for a couple months, never to play again. And you think he's going to make him a starter again?

Not going to happen. And I wouldn't even want it to happen. I would however like Brown to actually play Ebanks SOME time. He should be the backup SF. Develop him. Jamison hasn't played the position in ages and doesn't look too capable of it.

I could care less what Brown thinks. I have my own opinion on who i think is the best starting line up. And maybe it saids volumes about Brown because he DIDN'T play Ebanks yesterday? And not in a good way?

^^ Fair enough. It's your poll and thread and you're absolutely entitled to your opinion. And I don't disagree about not caring what Brown thinks and that Brown's insistence on playing Jamison at backup SF instead of Devin is a mistake. I totally agree on that. To me though, I'm just not that worried about MWP at this point. He's in the best shape he's been in for a long time, and I feel like he should be in the majority of his time with the starters as opposed to the bench. We'll need his defense sooner than later.

To me Devin is a good fit as a bench player to develop. As shown last year and even this preseason (granted, he was out of position at the starting 2), I don't think he's got enough experience and savvy to be a starter. You've got to go with your vets. I wish Brown would actually develop him by giving him minutes at his correct position. But now he's putting Jamison in that slot even though he doesn't fit there. Like realdeal said, if Brown just went with the obvious and put Devin at the backup SF, and Jamison at the backup PF we'd be in business.

I guess my main feeling is that we have more glaring issues than our SF spot right now and my concern is more there. The coaching is a mess right now and our guys look confused on both ends of the floor.

Vasashi17 wrote:I think you should use Metta the way Phil did with LO. Bring Metta off the bench with the second unit and then finish games with him next to the starters.

Everybody by now has noticed the offense and how it sticks when it gets to Metta. He seems to like to take the offense onto himself and be the goto guy. So put him with the 2nd unit along with Toine at the 4 and Hill at the 5. Blake ain't a playmaker, but is more of a streaky shooter. Put Blake and Meeks on the perimeter ready to hoist away. Let Ron-Ron create for others. Make that 2nd unit more of a slow down mechanical version of the offense. This way, they control the game and the score while the starters get a breather. You don't want a speed team out there cause if shots don't fall and you're playing that pace, our 2nd unit will give up a lead rather rapidly and that means the starters will have to come back into the game much sooner.

The starters should bring in Ebanks to fill in for Ron. Unlike Ron, he's playing with 4 HOFs and will know it. Ebanks will do the athletic stuff that Nash needs. When Dwight gets back to his normal self. You'll have athletes in the post and on the wing in Dwight and Ebanks that Pau, Nash and Kobe can find. Ebanks has shown in the preseason that he's about getting to the rim and slashing to get there. But when its not open, he's comfortable taking perimeter shot and he should be wide open for most of his attempts. Play the speed game with the starters cause we have bigs that can get up and down the court. Let the 2nd unit slow it down and concentrate more on getting defensive stops and controlling the clock.

Ron-Ron is an attention [Swearing is not permitted at Clublakers. You must edit this post prior to submitting.]....he gets to be one and no one will complain about it, if they move him to the 2nd unit. Our 1st unit has the option of slowing it down, but they should be the speed guys that try to blitz teams to start the game.

And for god sakes, run the Princeton in practice till it becomes 2nd nature and guys are comfortable with it. Then and only then, break it out during an actual game. Till then, let Nash control the pace. Give him the right pieces that he can work with. Move Artest to the bench and bring in an athletic wing that won't allow the ball to stick.

Very good points. And i do think that if you give Metta consistent touches, he can provide good offense in stretches. And coming off the bench will give him that opportunity. He can be the play maker for the second unit and set guys up. And a grind it out offense will slow the pace down and make it harder for the opposition's 2nd unit to take a big lead on us.