2014-15 Lakers Season Thread (21-61) KAT

[mj 23]

Would NEED to be in the top 3, I just don't see us jumping to #1 or 2 if we stay 4 especially with our luck. I really don't want them drafting mudiay he has BUST written all over him.

 

[essential1]

We don't know a lot of things, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be maximizing every opportunity to keep the pick first and foremost or upping the percentages to move up.

Yeah I get that.

But the Sixers didn't score for over 5 minutes in the 4th.

@LakersReporter 24 hours ago
Philly started 1 for 12 in this 4th Q, LAL outscoring them 14-2 in the first 6 minutes.

And it ain't like we played smothering defense. Sometimes a brick wall happens, and you win games. Even games you have no business winning or don't want to win.

You will never lose them all.


I'm just a realist... Would have been great to lose, but I certainly wasn't banking on it versus the Sixers.

 

[essential1]

Would NEED to be in the top 3, I just don't see us jumping to #1 or 2 if we stay 4 especially with our luck. I really don't want them drafting mudiay he has BUST written all over him.

Ehhhhh on Mudiay having Bust written all over him...


If we wouldn't jump into 1 or 2 from 4 with our luck... Wouldn't our luck at 3, probably mean we end up 5th... Let's stop with the certainty of where we will end up in this draft.

 

[MVP]

Wolves

 

[bravelude]

finally they getting it right with Bigs

 

[essential1]

The starting lineup as of tomorrow

Lin - Clarkson - Wes - Kelly - Black

 

[comptonprince]

The starting lineup as of tomorrow

Lin - Clarkson - Wes - Kelly - Black

 

 

[MVP]

The starting lineup as of tomorrow

Lin - Clarkson - Wes - Kelly - Black

Hopefully Lin reverts back to the bum he truly is.

 

[vtotheinay]

Hopefully Lin reverts back to the bum he truly is.

itll happen. last night was against the sixers i was at the game and the 76er defense was atrocious.

 

[kal-el-8]

Let me preface this by saying Byron is a moron. We all agree.

But starting lin isn't that bad. He's not a starter, and will lose confidence getting ate up against starting point guards.
Plus it's a good thing he's starting clarkson at the 2. Could be our sixth man at 1-2 next year.

Black is gonna start and that's great for his confidence and development. Not mad at all at this move.

He's playing Kelly at his natural position and wes is still trash.

I don't say this often. But good move Byron.

 

[ill 949]

Wolves 16 Sixers 17 Lakers 18. Wiggins and Noel better start showcasing why theyre ROY candidates. Elfrid you too, get yourself another win or 2 or 3

Lakers got 2 more games against Wolves and 1 more against Sixers....this stretch run feels more intense than when we were fighting for playoff seedings. This IS our playoffs this year

 

[bravelude]

sad how gasol couldnt make a last run with kobe and up n comings. the hate for him by some is too strong. guys called him a fluke, made all types of excuses, yet all he does is play his heart eye. feels good that Gasol just plays, while everyone abandoned him, especially mgmt and selective laker fans.

 

[jab step]

sad how gasol couldnt make a last run with kobe and up n comings. the hate for him by some is too strong. guys called him a fluke, made all types of excuses, yet all he does is play his heart eye. feels good that Gasol just plays, while everyone abandoned him, especially mgmt and selective laker fans.

You bring this up monthly and none of this is true 

 

[essential1]

He dogged it last year.. Let's be real.

And again I'm not really impressed by his number one bit. Except for the shooting more 3s

 

[orsrt8]

sad how gasol couldnt make a last run with kobe and up n comings. the hate for him by some is too strong. guys called him a fluke, made all types of excuses, yet all he does is play his heart eye. feels good that Gasol just plays, while everyone abandoned him, especially mgmt and selective laker fans.

Agree with everything said. That sorry excuse of a coach we had before wanted him to come off the bench and shoot 3's
Didn't value him at all.

 

[essential1]

He's shot more 3s this year than last year.

Also played 60 games last year. Started every game.

 

[mosk33toe]

Gasol has been amazing this year. I'm happy for him, MDA didn't use him right.

 

[essential1]

Signing Pau Gasol Was a Mistake
By Kevin Ferrigan

Offensively, the Bulls routinely force-feed Gasol isolations on the block, allowing him to post-up while everyone else mostly stands around watching him, not cutting, not moving, nothing, just watching. Pau goes to work down low and if he has a mismatch, he scores with relative ease. Put someone with some defensive skill in the post on Pau, though, and he is almost entirely neutralized. This has happened over and over this season. It happened recently against the Heat in Miami, as Gasol (along with Taj Gibson) was dominated inside by Hassan Whiteside, scoring just 13 points on 16 shots. In the Bulls' last game against the Cavs, with the defensively stout Timofey Mozgov as his primary matchup, Gasol went 4 of 14 from the field and scored just 11 points. In the Bulls' last game against the Washington Wizards' beastly frontcourt Gasol went 4 of 11 from the field and scored just 13 points in 33 minutes. Simply put, too often, Gasol's offense, the place where he actually provides some value, disappears when confronted with a tough matchup. Sure, put Pau on the floor with a depleted Bucks front line and he might drop 46, but against legitimate post defense, Pau does not shine the way a 7 footer with his size and skill should. He gets bullied.

Defensively, Gasol is an absolute trainwreck. Despite his heavy rebound totals, Gasol almost never boxes out anyone. His rebounding totals are primarily the result of his being around the rim for the vast majority of the game and catching whatever misses come off in his immediate vicinity. Pau's gaudy block totals result similarly. Gasol hardly ever leaves the immediate basket area to get out help contain penetration or to properly help rotate. Instead, Gasol hovers near the basket and, due to his height and reach, blocks a few shots here and there at the basket. Sure, there is some value in blocking those shots, but mostly Gasol hurts the defense in the same ways that Carlos Boozer once did (poor rotations, slow feet), without the value that Boozer provided in boxing people out and / or securing defensive rebounds.

http://www.blogabull.com/2015/1/31/7956711/signing-pau-gasol-was-a-mistake

Gasol played like the Tin Man on a rainy day, seemingly stuck in place on several defensive possessions where they Bulls desperately needed him to rotate into position. Whether it was on plays where he was directly responsible for slowing down the ball handler, or he was guarding the big not involved in the pick and roll action, Gasol was a step slow and a second late on pretty much everything.

http://drosesandthorns.com/tag/pau-gasol-bad-defense/



Zach Lowe

Pau Gasol — Chicago Bulls

Gasol has been fabulous, but count me among those who sense at least a slight dissonance between his killer numbers and actual level of play. Something just feels off. Gasol creates a ton of shots, but a lot of them return a middling bang for the buck. The Bulls have used him as a high-volume hub on the block, but Gasol is shooting just 40 percent on post-ups — including a ton of midrange jumpers, per Synergy.

That understates the value of Gasol’s inside game, since he draws help and tosses brilliant passes all over the court. Still, it’s unclear how much of a hit Chicago’s offense would really take if you gave all of Gasol’s minutes and touches to other players.

Even Gasol’s career-best rebounding numbers feel a bit inflated. Gasol is hoarding uncontested boards and snatching relatively fewer up-for-grabs rebounds, per NBA.com. The Bulls manage much better on the defensive glass when Gasol sits. He can’t jump, but Gasol has long arms, and he’s done a nice job protecting the basket. Gasol has struggled with the parts of defense that require more mobility, but he has owned the restricted area.

That’s in part because Chicago’s drop-back scheme1 plants him there. That used to be Joakim Noah’s territory. A lot of Gasol’s discrete skills, save for his passing, seem replaceable to at least some degree.

The sum total of Gasol’s skills — having one player capable of doing all this stuff — is not replaceable. That’s why Gasol is on this list. He might not be having the type of no-brainer All-Star season his surface numbers would suggest, but he’s been damn good for a Bulls team in need of an offensive stabilizer as Rose regains his feel.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/nba-all-star-team-eastern-western-conference/


Pau Gasol, dominant rebounder? Not so fast…


https://www.bsports.com/statsinsights/nba/pau-gasol-dominant-rebounder-fast#.VRGT4uEYExI

Yet despite the fact Gasol is stuffing the box score and turning into a double-double machine (he had 29 in 60 games last season), he hasn’t exactly transformed himself into as great of a rebounder as his stats may indicate. Of the NBA’s top 15 rebounders, Gasol ranks 14th in contested rebounding percentage – the percentage of rebounds the player collects where an opponent is within 3.5 feet.


It’s clear Gasol isn’t quite fighting off the opposition to clean the glass. That dirty work is left for fellow big man and reigning Defensive Player of the Year Joakim Noah, the only top-15 rebounder who averages more contested rebounds than uncontested boards. Gasol is getting a majority of his rebounds by simply grabbing the ball when no one else is around, averaging 7.7 uncontested rebounds.

7.7 rebounds a game when no one is within 3.5 feet..


Further

Across the board for the top 15 rebounders, a missed long shot is where the big men get their most uncontested rebounds. Gasol, however, is getting an unusual number of uncontested rebounds close to the hoop, off shots from 6 feet and in.

Part of the reason Gasol gets more uncontested rebounds near the basket than his contemporaries is because isn’t exactly an intimidating defender. Opposing teams are taking plenty of shots at Gasol near the rim, giving him plenty of opportunities to grab gimmies. Sure, rebounds come from missed shots and missed shots can come from good defense, but in the case of Gasol, the number of shots opponents take at the rim against him is so much greater than those taken against any of the other top rebounders that some freebies are inevitable.

He's still good.... BUT amazing, great, superb.... He's been none of that. And his numbers are not eye popping on the Bulls in comparison to his stats last year.

 

[vindeezy]

So tonight-we shouldn't stand a snowballs chance. Kellz starting at stretch 4! I need another 3×2 from the tazmanian devil tonight. No getting cute. Need an 0-5 trip BADLY.

 

[pmatic]

After a brief, absence it's the return of Tank Watch.

Tank Watch 3/24
Lakers vs Thunder...Don't expect any rest from Westbrook, even with a three game lead on the Pelicans. Go Thunder.
Sixers vs Kings...A Sixers win coupled with a Lakers loss gets the Lakers one game closer to the Sixers. Go Sixers.

 

[darthska]

Signing Pau Gasol Was a Mistake
By Kevin Ferrigan

Gasol's offense, the place where he actually provides some value, disappears when confronted with a tough matchup.

Nnnnnaaaah duuuuhhh.

 

[pmatic]

8. Ryan Kelly, Missing Everything at Small Forward

Injuries on the wing have “forced” the Lakers to play Kelly out of position, but they have enough tools on hand now to shift Kelly back to work as a stretch power forward — a role he played to some acclaim last season.

He can’t survive on the wing, and he’s suffering through perhaps the worst 2-point shooting season in modern league history. Kelly is just 28-of-107 from inside the arc — an unfathomable 26 percent. Even Nick Young thinks that’s bad. Since the league added the 3-point line in 1979, only one player — Bobby Hurley — has shot worse than 28 percent from 2-point range on at least 100 attempts in a single season, and he finished at 27.9 percent.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/n...the-suns-went-all-in-to-build-for-the-future/

Byron.

28. L.A. Lakers 3.94

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/12541459/nba-front-office-rankings-2015

Out of 30, the Lakers front office was ranked 28th. Seems like an overreaction to me.

 

[essential1]

They are doing rankings for GMs & Owners too....

Jimmy is going to get bottom 3... Why? Because of Jeanie / Magic who created all the turmoil

You can hate Jimmy but there are a bunch of **** ball owners who are worse than he is.

 

[denni5themenace]

with the raise of the salary cap in the 2016-2017 season (i think) looming, how does this affect players coming off their rookie deals who haven't signed an extension yet. for example, kawhi leonard and jimmy butler. would they stand to make more money if they take the qualifying offer, thus making them an unrestricted free agent and signing a larger deal when the cap raises? or does the rookie scale not really change and it would it be in their best interest to get an extension now?

 

[kal-el-8]

The only player to turn down his rookie extension was Greg Monroe. Doubt they take the QO

E mentioned that if we could get Butler to sign for 2 yes max money, bulls match, and you could max him when the salary goes up. (Something like that)