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- Thread in 'Sports & Training' Thread starter Started by licensed to ball,
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Y'all got together and planned all this Magic Bryant, Kobe Johnson, #324 foolishness just to irk me, didn't you?
Jerks.
Magic and Kobe are probably my two favorite Lakers so it's awesome to me!
Interesting stat there, CP with the Kobe surpassing MJ with assists. Too bad the media won't release that.
It's funny how Kobe always says his idol was Magic growing up but he duplicates his game and mannerisms after Mike. Quite baffling. That gif of Magic and Kobe high fiving.
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freaking awesome
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Y'all got together and planned all this Magic Bryant, Kobe Johnson, #324 foolishness just to irk me, didn't you?
Jerks.
I take zero credit in coming up with those, but I have to say...they're awesome. Hopefully Kobe continues to justify his new nicknames 
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i always thought mj was kbs idol growing up but he was too proud to admit it
and that assist stat isnt too crazy considering the amount of years mj played compared to kb
and that assist stat isnt too crazy considering the amount of years mj played compared to kb
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Ron does make bone-headed plays OFTEN....
...but its because he is usually trying to make something happen, hes probably the only guy on this team that doesn't play in kobe's shadow.
I've seen ron put this whole team on his back before time and time again, dood is just a pure competitor...he is literally the TRU WARRIOR
Hes been AMAZING so far, I couldn't have asked for more from ron-ron this year.
When its all said in done, ron's tenure as a Laker will be greatly appreciated.
...but its because he is usually trying to make something happen, hes probably the only guy on this team that doesn't play in kobe's shadow.
I've seen ron put this whole team on his back before time and time again, dood is just a pure competitor...he is literally the TRU WARRIOR
Hes been AMAZING so far, I couldn't have asked for more from ron-ron this year.
When its all said in done, ron's tenure as a Laker will be greatly appreciated.
gllahone84
Banned
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So Mike was only ahead of Iverson?
Hmmmmmm........
Hmmmmmm........
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Pau came out and said Lakers are pretty much coaching themselves now offensively. Kind of sad MDA is getting 12 million out of the Lakers for being a cheerleader now.
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Link?
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dwight said something too 
these dudes need to stop talking to the media
these dudes need to stop talking to the media
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Great game tonight, Houston vs. Utah, regardless of the result its good for the Lakers!
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Kobe 3.0
If he keeps his assists up like the past 2 games, he's going to save his body on offense and become even more effective on defense over the next few seasons. Props to him for adapting his game to make his team better.
If he keeps his assists up like the past 2 games, he's going to save his body on offense and become even more effective on defense over the next few seasons. Props to him for adapting his game to make his team better.
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Wow. Well, we do have the money. Stupid. I can now see why Kobe is dropping dimes left and right now. Source?
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What's earl Clark's contract situation? Please
Don't tell me he's in a contract year
He is.. We have full bird rights..
Don't expect him to get anymore than 6 or 6.5 mil a year.. Lakers will not let him go.
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@ these talking heads on Around the Hornso much cynicism, Jesus
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LOS ANGELES -- Thought Mike D'Antoni's offense was a bad fit for these Lakers? Guess what. They're not running it.
This shouldn't be a huge secret, considering that the person best fitted for running D'Antoni's sets, Steve Nash, has been playing off the ball the last two games.
When the Lakers hit their breaking point this week with a pathetic 0-3 road trip that brought them eight games under .500 at just past the midway point of the season, D'Antoni was taking just as much heat as anybody for being unwilling to change his system.
Well, playing Kobe Bryant, one of the top shooting guards ever to lace them up, at point guard is as drastic a change as they come.
"This isn't necessarily any offense," Nash said after the Lakers' 105-96 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday. "This is bringing the ball down, calling over a pick and playing the game and because we have good players on the floor, when (Bryant) distributes we can make them pay for leaning too much to Kobe. When they lean too much to us, he makes them pay."
Bryant has excelled at running the point, picking up 28 assists in the two Lakers wins against Utah and Oklahoma City -- and so has the Lakers' offense as a whole. They're averaging 103.5 points per game while shooting a combined 84-for-154 from the field (54.5 percent) and had five players with 14 points or more against the Jazz and six players in double figures against the Thunder.
Only three times through the first 1,203 games of Bryant's career had he played more than 30 minutes and tallied more assists than field-goal attempts. Now, he's done it two times in a row in games Nos. 1,204 and 1,205.
"I think we played easy," D'Antoni said. "Everybody can contribute and Kobe starts it, just sharing the ball and he hasn't forced a shot."
Even more efficient than the Lakers offense as a whole has been Bryant's individual output. He's 15-for-22 (68.2 percent) in the last two games.
D'Antoni was asked if Bryant can keep this up.
"Oh yeah," D'Antoni said. "This is easier than the other way. This is much easier, I think. This is great. I hope he's having fun, that's the biggest thing and understanding this is the way to go."
The "fun" part of that answer can't be overlooked, because everyone knows how much Bryant enjoys scoring points. There's a reason why he became just the fifth player in league history to reach the 30,000-point plateau earlier this season. Bryant was averaging 28.7 points per game coming into Sunday, third best in the league and in striking distance of Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant who is No. 1 with a 29.6 average.
There was a thought that Bryant's streak of four straight 40-point games early on last season messed up that campaign from that point on because it left him not only chasing wins but also gunning for a third scoring title. He is averaging just 17.5 points per game in the last two games. He'll have to be OK with scoring in that range if this will have any chance of working.
It sounds like Bryant has accepted it willingly.
"I'm just open up to all possibilities," Bryant said. "You just try to lay in bed at night and think about how we'll attack this thing and what are we going to do, what I can do to help us win ballgames. It seems like I kind of got my finger on the pulse a little bit."
L.A. was close to flatlining before this change came about. When things got bad in Memphis, D'Antoni likened the Lakers to a mismatched All-Star team.
"Have you ever watched an All-Star game? It's god-awful," D'Antoni said. "Everybody gets the ball and goes one-on-one and then they play no defense. That's our team. That's us."
The thing about All-Stars, however, is they're also really good at their sport. They're talented enough to play a slight variation of the way they're used to and still be just as effective. They're also intelligent enough to realize that individual sacrifice can benefit the group. The problem is, being superstars, they're usually stubborn enough that it can take time before a change can really take place.
It's taken some sacrifice from the coach who can be stubborn, too. D'Antoni has had to relent to what his players wanted. But was it his idea? What inspired Bryant to grab control of the wheel is a little clouded.
"(D'Antoni is) telling us to go but sometimes you can't get those engines to start up that fast," said Dwight Howard, who has been the most vocal critic of D'Antoni's offense this season, clamoring for more post-up opportunities.
Are the Lakers listening to D'Antoni's direction?
"We listen," Howard said. "But we're the guys out there playing. We see things that sometimes the coaches may not see. We're an opportunity fastbreak team right now because we don't have a lot of speed. When we get the ball in the half court, we still can move and do all the things out of the offense. He wants us to stay spread, which for the most part we do."
Insubordination? Inmates running the asylum? Maybe for a team without the talent that the Lakers have. But not for these guys. It has worked because D'Antoni has let go a little and the players have committed to being on the same page.
It shouldn't matter who should get credit for the change, because it's in everybody's best interest associated with the Lakers to simply win games by any means necessary.
"Finally we hit rock bottom and who knows why things stick (but) it does and they decided to do this," D'Antoni said. "And, it's good."
If you think of the only other part of the season when the Lakers looked this good, it was their 4-1 record under interim coach Bernie Bickerstaff. The reason they looked so good under "Bernie Ball" was because the veteran coach basically rolled the ball out and told them to trust their instincts. They're doing that again now even better because that air-it-out meeting in Memphis seems to have built trust in one another to go along with those instincts.
D'Antoni's been praised by Bryant himself as an "offensive genius," but he's had to sacrifice his ego to realize his system wasn't ideal for this group, just like Bryant's had to cool down his individual scoring, and Nash has had to deal with not always having the ball in his hands for the first time since Jason Kidd was his teammate, and Howard has had to adjust to less shots, and Pau Gasol has had to accept coming off the bench.
"There is an adjustment but I think the key for us is to not look at the past and how we played in the past individually and say, ‘Hey, I had success doing it this way,'" Nash said.
Just like D'Antoni has had to bend from how he's coached in the past.
This shouldn't be a huge secret, considering that the person best fitted for running D'Antoni's sets, Steve Nash, has been playing off the ball the last two games.
When the Lakers hit their breaking point this week with a pathetic 0-3 road trip that brought them eight games under .500 at just past the midway point of the season, D'Antoni was taking just as much heat as anybody for being unwilling to change his system.
Well, playing Kobe Bryant, one of the top shooting guards ever to lace them up, at point guard is as drastic a change as they come.
"This isn't necessarily any offense," Nash said after the Lakers' 105-96 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday. "This is bringing the ball down, calling over a pick and playing the game and because we have good players on the floor, when (Bryant) distributes we can make them pay for leaning too much to Kobe. When they lean too much to us, he makes them pay."
Bryant has excelled at running the point, picking up 28 assists in the two Lakers wins against Utah and Oklahoma City -- and so has the Lakers' offense as a whole. They're averaging 103.5 points per game while shooting a combined 84-for-154 from the field (54.5 percent) and had five players with 14 points or more against the Jazz and six players in double figures against the Thunder.
Only three times through the first 1,203 games of Bryant's career had he played more than 30 minutes and tallied more assists than field-goal attempts. Now, he's done it two times in a row in games Nos. 1,204 and 1,205.
"I think we played easy," D'Antoni said. "Everybody can contribute and Kobe starts it, just sharing the ball and he hasn't forced a shot."
Even more efficient than the Lakers offense as a whole has been Bryant's individual output. He's 15-for-22 (68.2 percent) in the last two games.
D'Antoni was asked if Bryant can keep this up.
"Oh yeah," D'Antoni said. "This is easier than the other way. This is much easier, I think. This is great. I hope he's having fun, that's the biggest thing and understanding this is the way to go."
The "fun" part of that answer can't be overlooked, because everyone knows how much Bryant enjoys scoring points. There's a reason why he became just the fifth player in league history to reach the 30,000-point plateau earlier this season. Bryant was averaging 28.7 points per game coming into Sunday, third best in the league and in striking distance of Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant who is No. 1 with a 29.6 average.
There was a thought that Bryant's streak of four straight 40-point games early on last season messed up that campaign from that point on because it left him not only chasing wins but also gunning for a third scoring title. He is averaging just 17.5 points per game in the last two games. He'll have to be OK with scoring in that range if this will have any chance of working.
It sounds like Bryant has accepted it willingly.
"I'm just open up to all possibilities," Bryant said. "You just try to lay in bed at night and think about how we'll attack this thing and what are we going to do, what I can do to help us win ballgames. It seems like I kind of got my finger on the pulse a little bit."
L.A. was close to flatlining before this change came about. When things got bad in Memphis, D'Antoni likened the Lakers to a mismatched All-Star team.
"Have you ever watched an All-Star game? It's god-awful," D'Antoni said. "Everybody gets the ball and goes one-on-one and then they play no defense. That's our team. That's us."
The thing about All-Stars, however, is they're also really good at their sport. They're talented enough to play a slight variation of the way they're used to and still be just as effective. They're also intelligent enough to realize that individual sacrifice can benefit the group. The problem is, being superstars, they're usually stubborn enough that it can take time before a change can really take place.
It's taken some sacrifice from the coach who can be stubborn, too. D'Antoni has had to relent to what his players wanted. But was it his idea? What inspired Bryant to grab control of the wheel is a little clouded.
"(D'Antoni is) telling us to go but sometimes you can't get those engines to start up that fast," said Dwight Howard, who has been the most vocal critic of D'Antoni's offense this season, clamoring for more post-up opportunities.
Are the Lakers listening to D'Antoni's direction?
"We listen," Howard said. "But we're the guys out there playing. We see things that sometimes the coaches may not see. We're an opportunity fastbreak team right now because we don't have a lot of speed. When we get the ball in the half court, we still can move and do all the things out of the offense. He wants us to stay spread, which for the most part we do."
Insubordination? Inmates running the asylum? Maybe for a team without the talent that the Lakers have. But not for these guys. It has worked because D'Antoni has let go a little and the players have committed to being on the same page.
It shouldn't matter who should get credit for the change, because it's in everybody's best interest associated with the Lakers to simply win games by any means necessary.
"Finally we hit rock bottom and who knows why things stick (but) it does and they decided to do this," D'Antoni said. "And, it's good."
If you think of the only other part of the season when the Lakers looked this good, it was their 4-1 record under interim coach Bernie Bickerstaff. The reason they looked so good under "Bernie Ball" was because the veteran coach basically rolled the ball out and told them to trust their instincts. They're doing that again now even better because that air-it-out meeting in Memphis seems to have built trust in one another to go along with those instincts.
D'Antoni's been praised by Bryant himself as an "offensive genius," but he's had to sacrifice his ego to realize his system wasn't ideal for this group, just like Bryant's had to cool down his individual scoring, and Nash has had to deal with not always having the ball in his hands for the first time since Jason Kidd was his teammate, and Howard has had to adjust to less shots, and Pau Gasol has had to accept coming off the bench.
"There is an adjustment but I think the key for us is to not look at the past and how we played in the past individually and say, ‘Hey, I had success doing it this way,'" Nash said.
Just like D'Antoni has had to bend from how he's coached in the past.
MVP
Supporter
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So it took 2 months for D'Antoni to figure out his stupid offense didn't work with this team??! We shoulda just kept Bernie, he figured it out in 24 hours to just let these boys play ball.
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No, it took Kobe this long to realize dominating the ball will result in a trip to the lottery. D'Anphony isn't innocent though.
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Ah yes it's Kobe's fault 
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It's everyone's fault. Kobe's ball dominating ways definitely was the thing that needed to change the most.Ah yes it's Kobe's fault
You notice the defensive effort the past two games? It's because everyone got involved on the other end, everyone touches the ball. Naturally that has an effect on their defensive effort. Nobody wants to play on the other end if they know they'll be ignored on offense.
Didn't mean to say it was all Kobe's fault at all but his approach to the game is what needed to change the most and what needed to change first.
darthska
Staff member
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Oh, forgot to say earlier... [quote name="CP"]Why, for the love of God, even ask about 20 and 10 for 4 years, at age 34-37, when LEBRON is only doing 20 and 8 thru his 20[/quote]... ... no one ever said 20 & 10. You did. In our discussion, in the hypothetical question that was asked to me and my hypothetical answer, we simply said 'play this way'.
Now if you want to ask "Well why even ask about him playing 'this way' for 4 years," I would simply like to remind you about the numerous trade scenarios that have graced our pages and say "Because hypotheticals is what sports fans do."
Now if you want to ask "Well why even ask about him playing 'this way' for 4 years," I would simply like to remind you about the numerous trade scenarios that have graced our pages and say "Because hypotheticals is what sports fans do."
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Sooo, you're telling me Kobe isn't dominating the ball right now? How u have back-to-back 14 assist games without dominating the basketball?
