WMC 12/13: Mercy kill. (0-4)

wcsoldier81 wrote:-Hill was too much trigger happy for my taste ... just preseason but I hope it's not going to be a trend this season ...

yea that was my major critique for him tonight as well. waaaayyyyy too many outside J's

I might be overreacting but I have a BAD feeling about Brown. I hope they fire him because I see him costing the Lakers a championship!!!!...lol I hope Dwight goes to management and get him fired!

Realistic Roster (only people deserving to make the team)

Nash / ??? / DJO
Kobe / Meeks / ???
MWP / CD-R / Ebanks
Pau / Jamison / Clark
Howard / Hill / Sacre

The fact of the matter is we need a back up PG that can score the rock, and a defensive 4 that can spell Gasol so Hill can spell Howard. I say we should go after K-Mart and Barbosa. I'm willing to let go of Blake AND Duhon to get Barbosa, and K-Mart is simply the better player at the 4 between he and Jamison. Our roster would look like this:

Nash / Barbosa / DJO
Kobe / Meeks / CD-R
MWP / Jamison / Ebanks
Pau / K-Mart/ Clark
Howard / Hill / Sacre

can barbosa run the point tho? ehhhh

fksteveblake wrote:can barbosa run the point tho? ehhhh

Yeah, better than Blake or Duhon. The key ingredient we need off the bench at the 1 and 2 positions is scoring ability. Nash is going to play 30-33 minutes per night. He can handle the passing duties.

The back up needs to be a change of pace scorer. What was demonstrated tonight was that though the Lakers have improved the talent on the bench, they still need someone to initiate SCORING off the bench in the back court. The main reason our bench gets reamed so often is because we have lacked scoring punch from the backcourt to take the pressure off of our more defensive minded front court reserves.

When we had Lamar Odom with Shannon Brown, Lamar handled the ball and initiated the scoring with his aggressiveness, and Shannon slashed to the basket. The Machine was supposed to be the shooter on the perimeter. I see Meeks as a better Vujacic, and Jamison can provide the scoring punch that Odom did, but he doesn't have Odom's handle...which means we need an aggressive offensive 1 to initiate penetration against defensive pressure. Enter Barbosa. One man's opinion...FWIW.

so more of a scoring point...hrm yea maybe. i guess i'm just not completely sold on the idea of the fit with meeks and jamison and the other benchies.

but i whole-heartedly agree with you that anyone should take barbosa over duhon/blake no matter what if there's a chance, and figure out the rest later.

wcsoldier81 wrote:I don't like Jamison at the 3 ... he will be more owned defensively than at the PF position ... and he is a good stretch PF next to D12

Meh

Mike Trudell‏@LakersReporter
This group of Blake, Jamison & Hill will anchor the 2nd unit, w/Meeks & Ebanks battling for minutes. Gasol/Howard will usually be on w/'em.

What the hell? Why would you bring in Meeks if you aren't going to play him.

There was no SG last season and Brown sits Ebanks, we have a really good backup SG and now Brown wants to play Ebanks there. What am I missing here?

Jamison's biggest advantage is his ability to take on 4's, 3's can keep up with him and he's not as effective.

Leave it to Mike Brown... he'll find a way to eff it up

That is just stupid. I've defended Mike in the past, but I can't defend him here. That is just a retarded move if he chooses to have Meeks battle with Ebanks for minutes. Blake is garbage why shouldn't he battle for minutes with Ebanks?

How in the world did we get 0-35'ed?

24K GOLD wrote:How in the world did we get 0-35'ed?

Best back up point guards in the league

I have no idea why Brown played Jamison at the 3 and Ebanks at the 2?? I guess he didn't want to play Hill at the 5 since he's going to be playing Howard or Gasol with them. But I thought we brought Meeks in to relieve Kobe not to be fighting for minutes with Ebanks. I don't like playing Ebanks at the 2, he's not a good 3 point shooter. He did the same with Barnes last season. And Jamison is a reliability at the 3 defensively. Playing him as a stretch 4 will space the floor a lot better.

We still don't have guys on our bench who can create offense for themselves or others (except Jamison). Blake/Meeks/Ebanks/Hill all need to be playing with starters to be effective. This worries me since it means more minutes for some of our starters if Brown cant manage the rotation correctly (which I'm not too confident he will). Watching the Clippers bench the other day, they were able to compete with Denver's [i]starters[/]. That's why I thought bringing in a guy like Barbosa would have helped.

I know it's just preseason but this is Mike Brown we're talking here. There's a reason for concern.

I wanted Mike Brown fired the day he was hired.

I actually thought Blake looked good. He was pretty decisive and ran the second unit like he should have. Some of his passes weren't great, but that'll improve with chemistry. I liked what I saw from him.

As for the Brown quote... I'll be pissed if he doesn't play Meeks. We brought him here for a reason didn't we? If Ebanks plays the 2, I think that's a mistake. I know we're undersized with the full bench unit of Hill/Jamison, but we're misusing our players if Ebanks is at the 2.

I remember reading somewhere where Brown was so enamored with Hill's play that he said "I'm going to have to find ways to play him". I guess the way to play him is booting Meeks out of the 2nd unit.

I just want MB to get the stupid out of his system during the pre-season. Thats really one of the few concerns I have with this team.

Tobias Funke wrote:I just want MB to get the stupid out of his system during the pre-season. Thats really one of the few concerns I have with this team.

wishful thinking

wcsoldier81 wrote:I don't like Jamison at the 3 ... he will be more owned defensively than at the PF position ... and he is a good stretch PF next to D12

Meh

Mike Trudell‏@LakersReporter
This group of Blake, Jamison & Hill will anchor the 2nd unit, w/Meeks & Ebanks battling for minutes. Gasol/Howard will usually be on w/'em.

WTF I'll be really pissed if that's how it goes. Brown's logic is so messed up. Last season? Let Ebanks ride the bench while we have no back up 2 guard. This season? We bring in a nice back up 2 for Kobe but Brown makes him fight for minutes with Ebanks, all the while we let Gasol exhaust himself.

Come January, we're going to be on here scratching our heads about Potato's brilliant rotations and expert game management skills.

We have a Grade AAA starting lineup and a C coach. I do think he brought in two quality assistants in Jordan and Bickerstaff, hopefully they will work mitigate the "stupid".

Meeks is a professional. He makes threes in a routine sort of way. He needs to be utilized, not be competing for minutes with Ebanks.

As for MB, TWC channel had some footage of Dwight meeting management when he came to LA. There was a scene where MB was joking with management, with nothing but nervous jokes over losing his job. I think he knows that he's close to being ousted.

I don't get why he's trying to play Jamison at SF when he hasn't played that position in years. He's 37 and can't keep up with other 3's defensively. That's not what we brought him here for.

Mike already getting on my nerves.

It's almost like he's intentionally trying to make stupid rotations by playing guys out of position.

I'll give Brown a pass for playing guys out of position since I think he was more or less auditioning the 11th, 12th and 13th man on the team. Apparently most of them are not NBA caliber obviously.

Now if he does weird things like this during the regular season, then we can worry, but with Bernie Bickerstaff and Eddie Jordan on the bench I'm not as concerned since they give our coaching staff a degree of credibility.

fksteveblake wrote:so more of a scoring point...hrm yea maybe. i guess i'm just not completely sold on the idea of the fit with meeks and jamison and the other benchies.

but i whole-heartedly agree with you that anyone should take barbosa over duhon/blake no matter what if there's a chance, and figure out the rest later.

Exactly! Comparing the 3 PGs that would be competing for back-up PG -if we signed Leandro Barbosa-:

Stats from Last Season:

Blake [32 years old] 23.3 mpg, 37% FG, 33% 3P, 77% FT, 5.2 PPG, 3.3 APG

Duhon [30 years old] 19.5 MPG, 41% FG, 42% 3P, 81% FT, 3.8 PPG, 2.4 APG

Barbosa [29 years old] 20.9 MPG, 42% FG, 38% 3P, 81% FT, 10.7 PPG, 1.4 APG

Considering that we need SCORING PUNCH off the bench, and considering that outside shooting is another very important aspect of need from our bench, Barbosa offers us a LARGE upgrade over what we currently have. He's also the youngest and freshest of the 3 players. No brainer to me.

nthydro wrote:That's why I thought bringing in a guy like Barbosa would have helped.

It still can, my brother. Leandro Barbosa is still available, and has already stated that he is willing to sign with the Lakers for the minimum to compete for a championship. Maybe we should all sign a petition.

Based off of this game, I have a feeling one of my biggest complaints throughout the season is going to be Mike Brown's rotations.

Sure, it's just one game, but even last year he made stupid decisions that flew in the face of common sense (not playing Goudelock, using Blake as our primary back-up 2, etc.) so I wouldn't be surprised if he actually does play Jamison at the 3 and gives Blake/Duhon the backcourt or something like that.

^^^ Screwing up the rotations is one thing, but if that dude trots out the double PG look this season, with the personnel we have, I hope Kenyon Martin's crazed stalker lady comes out of nowhere and slaps that man in the face.

fksteveblake wrote:

Tobias Funke wrote:I just want MB to get the stupid out of his system during the pre-season. Thats really one of the few concerns I have with this team.

wishful thinking

+10 Wow it's starting again already with his insanity at the backup 2. Way to make the new guy....Meeks they paid for feel right at home.