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

I know this is preseason and the bench played the Utah starters the entire fourth quarter, but I'm hoping we win at least a game or two before preseason end. And someone teach Somogyi how to catch a basketball!

We'll win one. MWP predicted at least one win!

Pau has regressed so much. I'm not expecting a lot. However, he hasn't been decisive, been missing layups, and hasn't been great defensively.

fire billy mac

i dont care if its preseason...a win would be nice

I figured it out. Pau is a Green Lantern. When goes near yellow, he loses his powers. He looked great for Spain.

dwighthowardsdad wrote:Pau has regressed so much. I'm not expecting a lot. However, he hasn't been decisive, been missing layups, and hasn't been great defensively.

Pau's a little out of shape, he'll get his stuff straightened quickly enough. There's also a new offense for everyone to figure out, and the chemistry needs a little time to settle. For now though...it looks like he's dragging a little and when he gets tired his shot suffers.

We need to put Pau as the backup Center for the 2nd unit. I know this means he'll play 36-38 minutes but we have to do it to get him involvedw while also getting some production out of the 2nd unit. Right now Jamison is the only half decent offensive option in the 2nd unit thats it. If you put Jamison and Pau in the floor together as primary offensive options, a shooter like Meeks can shine. Either have Sacre/Pau as the PF/C or Hill/Pau, whatever it is. Bring Jamison off the bench as the 1st frontcourt sub around the 2/3 min mark of 1st and 3rd Q and have him play at stretch PF next to Dwight. Start of 2nd Q in comes Pau at C.

I have no doubt in my mind our starting 5 will outproduce any opponent's starting 5...but thats what we did last year and bench either gave up the lead or made the deficit larger. If you put Pau in the 2nd unit with the bench being productive, games will be over by the 5-6 min mark against teams that we're supposed to beat and he can just rest.

its really pissing me off the last couple of games Pau is just handing the post area to Sacre and floating in the perimeter...I understand thats what he'll be asked to do with Dwight in there but come the eff on man, when you're semi open you have to look to score instead of always looking to facilitate. I understand he wants to be unselfish but it plays into his passive nature sometimes.

Punk-101 wrote:I figured it out. Pau is a Green Lantern. When goes near yellow, he loses his powers. He looked great for Spain.

once hill is back and dwight as well everything will work itself out eventually. Pau will be fine...hes finally not on the chopping block so he'll be good once he and everyone else learns the offense and chemistry is good.

Pau is the last guy we have to worry about. We gotta focus on our backup guards. Meeks is aparantly looking good but hasnt been doing any scoring out there when he got mins. we dont even know who our backup pg is yet. blake duh on morris djo and glock are all competing for the spot and not one of them has stepped up to the plate when given mins. ebanks has looked solid and is scoring decently for our bench; he'll be fine as our backup 3 and can prob put up 8ppg for us when the rotation and minutes are set. hill will be fine too. jamison hasnt really shown up yet for our bench but i think once everyone is back and again rotations are set he'll get in the rhythm of things.

its the preseason and i understand that were playing our starting lineup for just the first quarter or 2 and then its 2nd and 3rd units to finish off the games but we cant have these 3rd quarter woes. its ridiculous the runs were giving up.

Meeks and Jamison have to step up there games offensively for our 2nd unit and should take advantage of the minutes their 2nd unit is getting during the preseason.

DHL wrote:fire billy mac

seriously, all jokes aside....Billy sucks @$$ and ruins the game for me every time. Very frustrating.

Trade him to the Hornets for Joel Meyers ...

Thing is Billy sounds too much like the majority of the others play by play announcers around the team : clueless .

plus he was acting like Lakers - Floppers was a real rivalry last season

If you want a real WMC, read this piece by Charley Rosen:

http://hoopshype.com/columns/rosen/l.a.-bound-for-disappointment

I actually think he brings up some important points. Yes, he brings up 2004, but that's one of his weaker points...and has little to do with the current team. Not all of his point are equally valid. But some do give me some serious pause.

He does talk about what happened when Nash teamed up with a back to the basket big (Shaq). He talks about how space eating big makes it hard for Nash run under the basket and find cutters. He talks about how the Princeton's backdoor cuts become difficult if you clog the paint. He talks about Howard's freethrows. He also points out that teams will choose defend and Nash/Howard PnRs by letting Nash shoot.

In the end, it always comes down to other teams betting that the Lakers can't shoot from the perimeter, and they will dare us to shoot.

And seeing the team in action so far...I am not sure how much better we really get by adding Dwight to the mix. At the very least, I think there is a bit of an adjustment period...

Howard is nothing like Shaq in terms of paint-clogging. He relies on put-backs, allyoops, screen/pick and rolls, and quick hooks. Has Rosen seen a Magic game in his life?

Exactly. Howard's game is far removed from an old Shaq in Phoenix.

And if they're daring Nash to shoot off of pick and rolls... okay I'm fine with that.

As for shooting, we were one of the worst 3 point shooting teams the year we beat Boston in 7, so I'm not overly concerned.

therealdeal wrote:Exactly. Howard's game is far removed from an old Shaq in Phoenix.

And if they're daring Nash to shoot off of pick and rolls... okay I'm fine with that.

Yeah, but how much is Nash willing to shoot? If the defense repeatedly goes under the screen, Nash won't want to shoot it everytime.

What makes Nash so good is not his shooting (which is great), it's that he still gets his roll man or another cutter an easy basket.

What bothers me about the Princeton is that this bread and butter play style that he is more effect in is going to be neutralized. You could see the starters struggling with it in the third quarter on Saturday.

When they are running...Nash is extemely effective, so is Kobe, but in the halfcourt set, it seemed like there was some confusion, and Pau was not on the same page either. I hope Pau practices a lot of elbow jumpers...he's going to be getting those all season.

Cuts need to be made already and we need to get down to the final 15.

Enough with the tinkering, we need to get a 9-10 man rotation going.

Nash/Blake
Kobe/Meeks
Metta/Ebanks
Pau/Jamison
Dwight/Hill

Sacre is a serviceable 3rd stringer. CDR can provide where Ebanks/Meeks do not off the bench. Clark maybe a backup PF. DJO can develop in the D-League.

Duhon/Morris are not even backup caliber. Goudelock is too small to play SG. The rest of the fodder are useless.

BTW why is Gasol tanking this pre-season? constantly getting schooled.

KB24 wrote:BTW why is Gasol tanking this pre-season? constantly getting schooled.

Looks out of shape...

kray28 wrote:Yeah, but how much is Nash willing to shoot? If the defense repeatedly goes under the screen, Nash won't want to shoot it everytime.

What makes Nash so good is not his shooting (which is great), it's that he still gets his roll man or another cutter an easy basket.

What bothers me about the Princeton is that this bread and butter play style that he is more effect in is going to be neutralized. You could see the starters struggling with it in the third quarter on Saturday.

When they are running...Nash is extemely effective, so is Kobe, but in the halfcourt set, it seemed like there was some confusion, and Pau was not on the same page either. I hope Pau practices a lot of elbow jumpers...he's going to be getting those all season.

Well he was willing to keep shooting against Utah even though he wasn't getting the shots to fall, I'm not really that worried about it. If Steve Nash in pick and rolls is getting wide open shots in the middle of the paint like he was vs. Utah we're going to win games. That's the least of my worries. There's a reason Nash is statistically the best pick and roll PG in the league and we're going to see that all season long.

What makes Nash so good is that he can do everything offensively. When the defense gives him a shot, he can hit the shot from basically anywhere and when the defense gievs him a pass (or doesn't sometimes) he'll find the open man and get him a good shot.


The team, including the bench, is getting bogged down in the Princeton a little and I have a feeling that the coaching staff is drilling into them to do it. They're trying to figure out the playbook and get some experience with some plays out there. But remember that Nash has full reign of the offense. He'll go back to what he's familiar with when the time comes and that's a healthy dose of pick and roll.

^ Which also means there have to be cuts. We need our main guys to get used to running the offense. No one really cases about guys #11-14. They usually come in for low minutes anyways.

We need our rotation to get tightened and set running the offense. Know where players are going to end up, and know the tendencies of each player. This is true defensively as well.

It will evolve during the regular season know doubt, but camp fodder need to go.

^^^ Agreed.

We need to part with the scrubs (Somoygi/Nelson/Aguilar/Morris)

Make decisions on the youngsters (Sacre/CDR/Glock/DJO)

And get rid of 1 of Blake/Duhon

^^^
Scrubs -> gone

Youngsters -> keep Sacre and CDR, cut Glock, send DJO to DLeague

Back up Points -> bye Duhon, Blake stays

Getting rid of Duhon may be hard because of his contract though. We could try a buyout, but I think Mitch may try a trade first.

Unfortunately, we're stuck with Morris too. Most overrated scrub we have.

Brown needs to check his glasses again, he isn't good.