JAMIE SWEET’S ‘5 THINGS
Lakers’ Post Game Reports & Analysis
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Jamie Sweet wrote a new post
Read MoreUntil the Lakers can figure out how to play defense nothing else matters. One could choose to quibble over this or that but it truly does not matter. When you give up 50+% shooting from everywhere, allow the other team to just dominate you in the paint with no resistance, and in general play without energy you will lose the game. Every time. That, Lakerholics, is exactly what happened today.
- Compete. Written that word too much this season. Lakers did not show up ready to compete which is inexcusable on multiple levels. From the coaches to the Gatorade person, show up with some kind of intention that you will be competing. Play with energy, focus and intent to win. Showing up is not enough, I don’t care what the resume’ has on it. Lazy 35 foot shots, often quite early ion the shot clock, are not a recipe for a success and certainly not a comeback. Our screen roll coverages are a joke right now. Compete boys or just pack it up and save us all the drama.
- Three point game is not our strength. Hasn’t really been all season long. Not sure what Rob was thinking this summer but it’s obvious it isn’t working in terms of “improving” the offense. Our offense stinks. We don’t get the specialists shots which begs the question why we play them at all? If you’re not going to get Wayne going from the outside why are we playing him at all? At least when we had Wes you could argue he had a presence on defense. No, the three ball is not the weapon the Lakers need to focus on right now. Frankly, the offensive end isn’t where the largest issues lie, either.
- Too many donuts. Sometimes I really do wonder what this team works on between games. If it’s defense I don’t see it translating on the court. If it’s specific shots we don’t see them executed on the floor. Ariza, in his 17th season, ought to know where he can make a shot from. Donut. Dwight played 11 minutes…donut. Also couldn’t defend the paint against a stream of Miami players. Reaves is a rookie and has had an uneven distribution of minutes but also brought a donut to work.
- LeBron continued his 25+ point streak!!! Congrats on your Spirit award, Mr. James. We need more on defense at this point. Especially when you play center which isn’t really working anymore.
- A late push? Cute. Seen it this season and it’s Fool’s Gold. We’re mediocre, at best, and simply not good enough to rely on a few minutes of “Wow…we’re getting our asses kicked tonight…again. Time to play hard guys!!!” every few games. Had they played like that all game literally everything would have been different. They didn’t. Show up consistently. Play hard consistently. Don’t worry about streaks, stats, or the record books. Be better.
Getting AD back will help a little but we have a lot of issues. Westbrook’s fit, a lack of players with anything resembling defensive acumen or pedigree, and a general lack of competitive spirit from the tip. Late rallies should be needed every so often not once a week. We can’t even reliably beat bad teams, which has been the biggest issue, in all honesty. Had we shown an ability to beat inferior teams and come up short against top teams that would be one thing. We play down to everyone, get up for no one and spend a lot of time preaching patience. Well, we’re coming up on 2/3’s of the way through the season. Patience and time are ever-dwindling luxuries.
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I’m not so certain Frank is the sole reason for a lot these struggles LT. I am a fan of the Vogel defense and have long questioned the Vogel offense. Wish we would have brought in a keener mind on offense when Kidd left. We didn’t. Don’t know if Frank picked or Rob picked Fizzy but he’s here and there aren’t a lot of good mid-season replacements.
I don’t think I like many of the re-read names out there floating around. I’d just as soon see someone who hasn’t coached at the NBA level or someone LeBron and AD trust to get it done. So far the team seems to still back Frank, at least when a microphone is in their face and a question has been posed.
If we come back from this roadie a couple games under .500 it’s Fizdale or Rambis. Hard to see them going outside the organization at this point and, in all honesty…I prefer Kurt who at least has been a part of both a championship culture and the Lakers for longer than Dave has. Also, Dave has never once impressed me as a coach. Neither has Kurt but it would seem those are the in-house candidates.
In terms of this summer…I dunno. I fear Luke Walton 2.0 or MDA 2.0. Too green and too old, respectively and MDA doesn’t feel like he’ll be back ever. Another obstacle not talked about yet is money. We hired the cheapest coach we could find and he turned around and won a banner. So it’s hard for me to imagine the Lakers shelling out top dollar for a coach these days, especially after how business was handled in the summer.
I will say that it’s hard for me to see Frank coaching past this season here. It’s my hope that Jeannie really cleans house: goodbye Rob, Frank and hello new brain trust. Promote some of the better scouting guys into bigger roles, they obviously do a solid job. Really conduct a coaching search and when you find the guy pay him right. Stop cheaping out on literally every facet of your team.
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I can’t remember a more disappointing, frustrating, or dysfunctional Lakers’ season than this one. In the end, I blame Frank Vogel for the travesty this season has become.
I understand the arguments about how the front office should also be held responsible for putting together a roster that ultimately became unbalanced partly due to poor construction and partly due to untimely injuries.
But in the end, I’ve always believed the buck stops with the coach. who deserves the credit when the win and the blame when they lose. Coaches for me have always been the difference makers. The difference between winning or losing.
Coaches are more than just play callers or guys who just roll the ball out for superstar players. They’re who builds the chemistry, camaraderie, and culture of winning on championship teams. It’s their job to coach around the roster issues, injuries, and other obstacles life throws in the way of winning.
Frank Vogel wasted half of this season playing lineups that made little sense in terms of spacing on offense or rim protection on defense. His starting lineups led the team to starting every game behind. His prioritizing of analytics disasters like DeAndre Jordan and now Avery Bradley continue to prevent this team from developing consistent good starting lineups and rotations.
There is little a coach can do to damage his teams’ chances of winning more than playing the wrong players at the wrong times. Bradley and Ariza have about the same justification for starting as DeAndre Jordan did. Not only has Frank consistently chosen the wrong players to play but he’s then grouped them together with other players who don’t complement each other. The end result are lineups that are not capable of playing good offense or defense. Lineups like Russ, Bradley, LeBron, Ariza, and Howard lineups that started the last three games.
Frankly, I doubt the Lakers will fire Vogel just as I doubt Vogel will give in and bench Bradley, no matter how poorly he plays or how many times he allows the man he is defending to turn the corner and get into the paint. Vogel is toast in my book and as long as he coaches, the Lakers have zero chance of winning another championship. There’s nothing positive or good to say about lame duck coaches. Waiting until summer is stupid. Vogel has shown already he is not the solution going forward. Better to fire him now even if it means going with a temporary head coach. Hell, give the ball to Phil Handy. I bet he would at least play the right guys.
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I’m also not saying Frank Vogel is the only problem we have right now or the only reason we need change.
What I’m saying is that it’s the coach’s job to deal with the rosters, injuries, Covid, matchups, stars, shadow GM’s, and somehow craft together a way to overcome and win.
Some of it is strategies and systems but honestly most of it is about the art of building lineups and rotations that work, create synergy, and energize the players to play their best. It’s about figuring out what are the right combinations to start and the right rotations.
That’s where Frank has totally failed. He has wasted so many opportunities starting DeAndre Jordan, Avery Bradley, Talen Horton-Tucker, Dwight Howard, or Trevor Ariza and taken so long to finally learn none of them are the right solutions to start. And every personnel decision made seems to favor defense at the expense of offense.
Eye test or analytics, Vogel’s lineups and rotations have been unacceptably bad. His job as coach was to figure this out and frankly, he’s failed to perform his job.
I, for one, have never subscribed to the fire him now or later proponents. Vogel is not the right coach for this team right now. Once that’s decided, fire him regardless of who you have to replace him. No lame duck stuff.
Instead, get serious about LeBron James career. Talk to Mike D’Antoni. Run an extensive coaching search. Lakers head coach is best job in the world. Hire a temp coach for now – Phil Handy? – if you have to, but don’t leave Vogel running things. That’s like just giving up.
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No disagreement from me. I have always been 50/50 on Frank. Very much appreciate what he’s been able to do with what he’s been given, this season included.
I think the real issue is the gravity of specific personalities. If Frank has input on roster construction (and I think he has minimal at best, that it goes Rob, LBJ/AD/Frank) he needs to do a better job advocating for kind of players he needs to do his job well.
As you said, and I’ve said, and everyone has been saying: we don’t run an offense. But we did have an elite defense when we had the personnel to run it. That was the biggest difference between this season and last. Bubble year was a perfect blend of all of the ingredients: vets who could still play at a high level, shooters who could defend, and LBJ/AD playing at a high level consistently throughout the year. Last year, with not much AD or LBJ, we still had an elite defense that got us into the playoffs and then AD and LBJ just weren’t there.
We over-corrected that issue, too much I would say, and now we have old guys who can’t do anything at all, young guys who aren’t ready, and AD and LBJ not both playing at a high level. LeBron is simply not enough. Even Russ and LeBron isn’t enough because Russ is the guy we need to scheme and cover for a bit on D. With AD out and nobody stepping into a good role defensively we’re sunk. The Lakers under Vogel have never, ever been about the offense just the D. The offense is named LeBron James.
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Thanks Buba. Nothing pisses me off more than when pro athletes half-ass their way through large chunks of a game and then turn it on in the final frame. it’s infuriating and insulting. On the podcast with TJ he made a ton of great points about the work ethic, or lack thereof. I’m sure they put in time, but with the intent being….what? I can’t see it and it’s not translating onto the basketball court.
Anyhow, hoping AD’s return eases some of the defensive issues. Not sure what the rest of the season holds in store for us fans but it’s hard to see it getting much worse so hopefully brighter days are ahead.
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Jamie Sweet wrote a new post
Read MoreIt was certainly more of a contest than one might have expected. But, given the Lakers’ struggles against young teams this season, the win was more than enough. Solid contributions from across the board, LeBron’s 25+ ppg streak continued, and for one night more things went right than went wrong.
- Westbrook bounces back from benching. You don’t play at the level Russ has without being able to turn the page on a bad game. Or two. Or…well, you catch my drift. The fit might not be the best. A mid-season trade seems all but impossible (to me, anyway) and so there remains but one thing to do: figure out how to make it work the best that it can. We’ve seen it in glimpses but it hasn’t found a “sustain” feature, yet. Maybe the long road trip can be the lab where that happens, away from the home crowd pressure, away LA, and among the team we would all like to see play better.
- Ariza better on defense, still looking for his shot. I thought this was Trevor’s best game of the season. He was able to better execute our game plan on D which is essential for making this team work. He also took the open shots that came his way, most of them just didn’t go in. That’s OK, for now, after not playing for almost the entire season his legs aren’t where they need to be. Seeing him execute the defensive game plan better is a step in the right direction and something we need more of. Playing with LeBron a lot helps his +/-.
- LeBron keeps playing at a high level. For my part I’d prefer if LeBron keep it to 5 3 PT FGA/game. Unless he’s hot we really shouldn’t see too many 30+ foot shots or early shot clock threes. The corner three he hit off a pass was a great example of the kind of three point shots I think we want LeBron and our specialists shooting more of. LeBron has a 16 game streak of 25+ points going currently and he kept that up against the Magic last night as they couldn’t contain him. Especially in the second half when we went back to him at the 5. There are definitely some teams/match ups that I think Dwight is the better option for. Back-to-backs, as well, I think would be a situation where I would like to see LBJ at the 5 in half closing scenarios. Against teams that are either unsure about their low post identity or don’t have a strong presence in the paint it’s OK. The biggest issue with LeBron at the five is a lack of a rim deterrent and rebounding. Figure out how to balance that out, or when to play Dwight, and this should work better.
- Carmelo’s road game shows up. It’s been a season long issue. Not only just with Melo, although his home/road splits are fairly dramatic, but with the whole Laker bench. They show up at Crypto, not so much on the road. Carmelo showed us some vintage basketball and then got hot from three, as well, to the tune of 23 points. While the rest of the bench didn’t have quite the same impact (only Monk and Johnson managed to score 10+ points) they all did their part to help bring him the win. I’ll add that it looks to me like Reaves is hitting a bit of a rookie wall as both his defense and outside shot have leveled off a lot lately. THT had his traditional low-impact game after a big one and Johnson continues to play at a steady level off the bench which is great to see since that is where his role would be should he stick past the 10-day.
- Better defense is a must. We still have to be a lot better on that end of the floor. We simply lack the firepower, especially without AD, to just outscore teams. Sending the young Magic to the line 29 times and letting them score in the paint like they did just can’t continue to happen. Against one of the worst teams in the Association we eked out a win. We won’t be so fortunate against even mediocre teams, like we saw in Indy. Against top teams we’ll get blown out. So something has to happen. If we can outscore teams with LeBron at the five every single games than that could be the answer but the problem is we don’t. We sieve paint points and rebounds while not creating quality shots of our own. So, if we’re going forward with James at the five he, too, has to adjust his game to operate closer to the rim and not further from it. We need to see us not miss the backdoor cut…repeatedly…like we did last night. Above all we need to find it within ourselves to play a higher quality of defense. If not this is done and it’s done now. There will be no late season surge or player we get back that alters that identity. If the guys playing now can’t figure it out it’s likely we’ll see an entirely new team in training camp. Again. For the third season. After winning a title…using defense.
Next up is a very early game against the Miami. Never a good combo. But the Lakers won’t have to leave the state of Florida so maybe they can get they can get acclimated to the EST vibe and come out with some intensity. Miami has powered it’s way to 3rd in the EC among a slew of injuries to key players. Sound familiar? However, that team takes the defensive end a lot more seriously and there is no question that Spo has the team’s attention. So, we’ll see. I don’t have high hopes we can win, to be honest, but if we can get some good play off the bench and James and Westbrook can be as efficient as they were against the Magic we have a shot. I suppose that’s the best this version of the Lakers can muster right now.
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Good fiver, Jamie.
1. Russ bounce back. Good to see Russ taking the right path and being positive rather than pouting. We need that. Sustainability seems to be our most consistent problem. We just cannot seem to sustain good fortune and good play. Russ needs to show in the big games coming up. That will be the key to the rest of the season.
2. Good game from Trevor. Team high +20 plus/minus even though he only scored 5 points. While I was happy to see Ariza play well, he’s not going to be the solution we need at 6′ 8″. We still need to add a stretch four or five who can impact our defense. Stanley should start over Trevor.
3. LeBron pacing himself and shooting lots of threes is fine with me. James knows his body and game and obviously feels adding more 3-point shooting is going to make him more versatile and save him energy rather than having to attack the paint every time. Sometimes, your ability to hit from deep is the only spacing you need to get to the rim. I still strongly want the Lakers to trade for Myles Turner.
4. Great to see Melo hitting shots on the road. I love both his midrange and 3-point shooting. Making an effort on defense is also been positive. Just need to keep his minutes down so his energy is up.
5. Playing elite defense is the key to the rest of this season. We both agree upon that. We need AD and Nunn back ASAP. And we need to make a trade for one more starter with size who can 3&D. Get healthy and add one more legitimate starter and we will have a puncher’s shot at winning a championship.
Some big games coming up. Miami on Sunday, Nets on Tuesday, and 76ers on Thursday. I’m hoping we can somehow pull off a couple of wins in these three games. Will be tough but we have to step up to the plate sometime soon if we’re going to pull off a comeback for this miserable season. Why not now?
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Jamie Sweet wrote a new post
Read MoreIt’s funny because I didn’t even realize they had taken Russ out. I watched the same poor execution on both ends I had been watching all game. Guys got blown by, the defense is just so slow to react. Guys couldn’t hit shots, late game offensive execution being a season long issue at this point. All of that is to say, Frank taking Russ out didn’t matter. Nothing improved, we stayed the same: mediocre. At best.
- Ariza has been awful. In his 11 games this season Trevor has been anything but the small-ball savior some had hoped he would be. For myself I was always more than a little dubious that a 36 year old with multiple injuries over the last couple of seasons was to be counted on for much of anything. This has sadly been the case. He’s shooting a career worst 37.1% from the floor, a decent 37.9% from three (but takes only 2.6/game) and his intangible impact has been borderline non-existent. Last night he dropped a donut albeit in only 15 minutes so it’s hard to pin the loss on his meager contribution. This is the problem you begin to have when over 1/3 of your roster is over 33: slow, slow slow. Slow and methodical can work in the playoffs but not so much in the regular season. If we’re going to start Trevor and he’s going to soak up this many minutes from Monk and even Reaves we need more.
- Play Dwight more. Give the man 20 mpg to work with. Don’t keep it match up based, or at least give him a little more leash to to run with. Dwight, who had been effective keeping a lid on Sabonis early although not at stopping the flow of paint points scored on us, played fewer minutes than Ariza. But if we drop Ariza from the rotation, play LBJ at the 4 and bring Monk back into the starting 5 I think that makes more sense on almost every level except for the “I dunno, can TA play better with even more minutes?” level. Dwight is also currently tied with Nate Thurmond at 14,464 rebounds for 10th on the All Time list. Small ball works with LeBron and shooters sometimes, it’ll work better with AD on the floor. In order to give our defense the best shot it can have we need a guy who knows to defend the paint better and let him loose. When AD returns his role can go back to something like this, which makes sense. But we both need to save some wear and tear on LeBron and up our presence on D.
- Awful from three. I’m sure Frank will say something about “the law of averages” or that he “liked the shots they just didn’t go down” but this is a common theme with the Lakers now. Poor three point shooting, and more importantly, not finding ways to get the guys we brought in to do that quality shots. Honestly it would have been a lot worse save for Westbrook’s uncharacteristic good night from beyond the arc (he went 4-6, the rest of the team went 7-28). I don’t expect this to change mid-season, post-season or next season. Frank is not the coach for a volume three point shooting team. We need to figure out how to be the dominant paint scoring team and be better at keeping a lid on the other team’s three point shooters. That’s the only solution that makes sense to me at this point.
- Defensive stopper. I think we need the best perimeter defender we can find. We need someone who can excel at being the point of attack and it’s not anyone currently on the roster. No offense to any current Laker but they all, to a man, routinely get blown by, give up play to a dominant hand, and get lost on screens and switches. Nobody except undrafted rookie Austin Reaves is able to consistently draw charges, nobody at all is fighting through screens and it often looks like we’re not talking on defense. This is on Vogel and the team leaders.
- Nowhere to go but awwww F#$% that. This is what we are right now. We need AD back and playing at a high level on both ends. I think we need to trade THT (and if we can include him w/o him playing minute 1 this season) Nunn for a defensive ace and I don’t care what else they bring to the table. We need to stop guard penetration into the paint and we need to stop the layup line at the rim after the game has started. I think we have the scoring, even if we lose THT, in-house to play at a high enough level to compete better. But the defense will not be repaired with the guys we have now. We’re either big and slow or small and slow, we’re not quick to the ball, we don’t rebound at a high level. Those are the death of anyone’s playoff dreams.
Kudos to THT for a bust out game. Call me if he does it for a month. No more spirit awards from me this season. This is getting sad and that’s the nicest way I can frame it.
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Jamie Sweet wrote a new post
Read MoreHey man it takes a village. Frank Vogel, reportedly on the hot seat once again, trotted out a very Frank Vogel starting five. If he’s going down he’s going his way. Turns out it was the guys who didn’t start that ended up having the larger impact but I expect this look to solidify over the course of the rest of the season with a couple key differences. Regardless it worked out, against a top team at that, for at least one night.
- LeBron’s apology. While he didn’t get 40 like he predicted on social media The King was still the force we needed him to. While not his best showing in terms of efficiency there is rarely a time where I question LeBron’s effort or shot selection. Like all the greats they’ve earned a dud game here or there. SO, while not a standout game where he scored 40 or even a continuation of his 30+ point tear this was a solid game from James. Which was all we needed.
- Russell’s dunk. Honestly, and I’m not trying to be a downer or anything, I though Russ could have been called for an offensive foul when he used Golbert’s shoulder to get that extra lift that allowed him to throw it down. Same way i though Blake Griffin’s “iconic” dunk over Pau Gasol should have been an offensive foul. I guess there’s a question of did Rudy foul Russ first and everything was game after that or whatever but the point is that was something I think the whole team needed. Especially Russ. He puts up a stern façade and his demeanor rarely shifts on the court except to seemingly get gloomier, but this was a long time coming.
- Stanley’s big game off the bench. This is the role he needs to carve out on this team. While a case can be made for putting together a starting line up that has all our best, fastest horses in it I think we’ll see more of what we got last night going forward. Ariza stunk, Howard was OK, Bradley was fine. But they’re all old and it makes sense that, if they are to be used, that we use them when they’re warmed up and not ask them to get going midway through the first half or what have you. Get warm, go play. That leaves journeyman Johnson to come off the bench and find his groove. I think this better suits his talents. Let’s him get going against other guys off the bench and if he rolls hard there maybe be an impact player when the game matters.
- What can we take away from this? As we have all learned and espoused there seems to be no corner this team will be turning. One potentially statement or season-altering game on a Monday can be wiped away by a dud against Indy tomorrow night. If we put together a nice string of 10-15 or so games I’ll look back to the game that started it all and, with the benefit of hindsight, and say “Hey look! It was THAT game that started it all!”. Because to do otherwise is fruitless at this point.
- The trade scenario. Reaves, Monk and THT all had great games off the bench. All three are likely trade sweeteners since we don’t have a ton of picks in this decade to add. I don’t think the minimum deals of the likes of DeAndre Jordan or Kent Bazemore are moving anyone’s needles. So, with that in mind and with the news that annual Laker trade target Myles Turner is out for an extended time with a stress reaction in his foot, is this the time to trade for him? We also had some good and bad news on the injury front with AD cleared to ramp up and Nunn set back again with pain in his knee. At this point I’ll be surprised if Nunn plays this season, I think he’s likely to get surgery to see what’s going on, clean up the knee, whatever he needs to do to get back on the floor. It’s not a guarantee he’ll ever wear his Laker uni. Could we do a deal for Turner with THT, Nunn and one of Reaves or Monk as the sweetener and actually keep our pick? Is it worth it to our theoretical title hopes this season? I have been pretty dour for all the trade enthusiast’s as I continue to be more of the opinion that we won’t do any in-season deals and not less. But the injury to Turner opens an odd kind of door. One that makes getting a player that can actually play back in a deal for him look a little differently. Also that teams looking for help now will start to look elsewhere leaving us in a position of possibly being able to swoop in and get Myles on the team. I think that all parties involved will wait for more definitive reporting but it is a curious case.
We need wins. Doesn’t matter how they come. If we need to play the octopus that predicts world cup victories at 2 guard or the mule that kicks field goals from the Disney movie so be it. Can’t lose the winnable games anymore and need to eke out some tough ones, too. Otherwise this is done.
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Totally agree, man. Nunn was one of our “big” moves this offseason but now it would appear we would have been better off not signing him at all, giving that cap resource to either Malik Monk (and making it easier to retain him this summer) or keeping Caruso. Hindsight is 20/20 on that one, though. No way anyone could have predicted a bone bruise would take over half of the season to heal. All in all, I just don’t what we have moving many needles and I’m not too high on 33+ players at this time. We got a lot of those in spades.
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Jamie Sweet wrote a new post
Read MoreThis has gotten beyond critiquing. There’s really just nothing more to say. You could make a case that the Lakers could see an uptick in the quality of their play when AD gets back but, if one is honest, that won’t be enough to crack the top 8 teams in the Association. These issues have been here from the beginning: porous defense, suspect offense that relies on one or two players, and a general lackadaisical attitude towards their opponents. It’s not looking very bright in Laker Land these days.
- The team Rob built but that LeBron and AD signed off on. While I doubt Rob called James and Davis regarding every move made they all agreed that Westbrook was the way to go. We can all wish things had worked out differently, they didn’t. We can all wish that we had retained Caruso who honestly probably wouldn’t be enough to “fix” the defense but would certainly have provided the coach with a better tool than is currently available. We’re old, slow and entitled. Not a good combo.
- A referendum on Frank. The defense isn’t working. He was never a great offensive coach as he basically relies on his star players to just kinda make it work. Unfortunately, with the roster he was delivered, Frank needs to do more. A lot more. Does he have it in him? I’m not so sure.
- The spark of competitive spirit burns low. Russ and Dwight spoke after the game of playing hard. Well, that would be a helluva place to start. We are getting outplayed, outhustled and out worked in too many games. You could argue that a veteran team could lose a handful of these kind of games. We’ve lost a ton. The heart of this team is not strong.
- They can improve, right? Yes. But it’s going to take something they haven’t shown us, yet. LeBron is playing his heart out. Russ is Russ. Davis, the fragile being that he is, won’t be enough on either end. We need the team to compete harder and more consistently than they’ve shown the inclination or ability to do.
- The trade solution. While nice to imagine player X, Y or Z could come riding in and save the day it feels unlikely to me. Our trade “assets” are playing like garbage right now. Russ might be traded (sic: will) this summer but his play now makes it highly unlikely we’ll deal him this season. I don’t see anything other than an elite three and D guy (unavailable given our assets) or an elite center (same) who can help shore up our awful defense in the paint. Really, we need both. Given the lack of maneuverability we’re fairly locked into this team. Sure, we might move THT and Nunn and maybe even the pick in 3099, hell, some team might coerce us into tossing in Reaves or Monk. Doesn’t feel like that would be enough.
I pride myself on being pragmatic and honest in these assessments after games. Losses like this can make it difficult. When you question the heart of your team it’s never a good look. Yet that’s where we find ourselves.
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What he said.
Right now, something’s missing. The glue that binds the team’s chemistry has cracked and were seeing bone on bone disruptions of functionality that smacks of a self-destructing team on the precipice of disaster.
Ultimately, this will fall on Rob Pelinka’s head. He’s the GM who built this team regardless of LeBron and AD controlling the team’s direction by meeting with Russ. Frank is victim and contributing confounder.
Don’t know if this team has anybody who can provide the spark to create an internal fire that brings this team back together. Something is obviously wrong right now. Stephen King wrong. We’re just starting to see the cracks. Getting harder and harder to see how we can change the course we’re on right now.
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Getting Covid mighta saved Frankie’s job because it allowed Fizz to take those L’s. He really should be on the hot seat right now and the overall team effort makes it look like he’s lost the locker room. If he had input on the construction of this roster but had no plan on how to use it then that’s on him. If Rob didn’t seek his input when constructing this roster then that spells doom for him also. Dead man walkin.
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Yeah, depending on how bad this ends I could see Jeannie cleaning house. With whom I dunno but we can’t just be Klutch Central
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JAMIE SWEET
Associate Publisher
Jamie Sweet and his eagerly awaited ‘5 Things’ post after every Lakers game have become a staple feature of Lakerholics. Jamie’s the Laker fan who jumpstarts and drives conversations with his informed comments and insightful observations.
Another refugee from the LA Times Lakers Blog, Jamie’s a must read Lakerholics poster and commenter whose reputation as a savvy but objective fan is well deserved
You can always get in touch with Jamie on the Lakerholics blog. You can also check out his work with the Garage Theatre in Long Beach or with his band Gnarwhal.
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Lakers Quietly Transforming Team Into 3-Point Offensive Juggernaut!
Don’t look now but the Los Angeles Lakers have been quietly transforming what has been one of the league’s worst 3-point shooting teams this season into a legitimate top-5 3-point shooting modern offensive juggernaut.
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NBA Observations- Big Money Spent For The Clippers And Heat, Are The Lakers Next?
The guys from the Lakers Fast Break return for some NBA Observation as they share thoughts on the recent big-money extensions for Miami coach Erik Spoelstra and the Clipper’s Kawhi Leonard. Does this mean the Lakers will be opening up their wallet a little more as well? Plus after Toronto Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic’s huge rant after the Lakers game because of the fourth-quarter free throw disparity, we ponder if Darvin Ham will ever show that kind of energy if he remains as the guys on the sidelines for LA. We’re back talking some big $$$, and wondering if the Lakers are ready to go on a spending spree? Find out our thoughts on the latest Lakers Fast Break podcast!
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Lakers stars used speed and space of transition as stage for talent
https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1437491268544835595
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This game was it for me as far as Frank Vogel is concerned. I will no longer support him remaining as the head coach of the Lakers. He should be fired ASAP. He is a stupid idiot who has no idea how to put together a winning starting lineup or rotations.
Starting Russ, Bradley, LeBron, Ariza, and Dwight for the third game in a row despite horrible stats and eyetest was too much. I loved the decisions Frank made in the bubble but his decisions on lineups and rotations all year long have been brain dead and illogical.
Just look at the stats for the Russ, Bradley, LeBron, Ariza, and Dwight starting lineup the last three games despite the team ending up trailing by double digets in each game due to the poor offense, defense, and overall play of the team’s starting lineups. In fact, the only reason we won one of these three games is Frank replaced Dwight with Stanley but left Ariza and Bradley in the starting lineup.
Yes, we had injuries and Covid but the real culprit to this season was an old school coach who refused to accept the direction of the front offfice and figure out how to play the shooters Pelinka signed and instead contuinued to play DeAndre Jordan and two bigs and refused to embrace the small ball style the front office wanted to play to make Russ work.
Basically, we had a coach lead an insurrection that derailed the first half of the Lakers season. Time for a change. Bring in Mike D’Antoni or any coach who will run plays to get our shooters shots and motivate this veteran team to play defense. Right now, it’s obvious Frank Vogel can no longer do the job for which he was hired.