**LA LAKERS THREAD** Sitting on 17! 2023-2024 offseason begins

[thasoleful1]

Realistically what Center would fit with this team?

 

[sohi 23]

First of all I never wanted to fire Luke.

Second, if those rotations were so great, why did Luke not keep starting Ennis or play him during competitive minutes? Once Luke put BI at point guard & started playing Hart more, Ennis only got minutes during garbage time. Luke realized playing Ennis during meaningful moments in the game was hurting the team and adjusted properly. Fixing mistakes is a good coaching move.

Zubac is a different thing. He wasn't getting minutes cuz Nance/Randle/Lopez/Kuzma (and Bogut for a bit) took all 96 minutes at the 4 & 5. Now that Nance is gone, some minutes opened up for Zubac and he's taking advantage of em. Props to him.

Only like 3-5 people were actively calling for Luke to be fired. I can criticize Luke for mistakes and not want him to be fired at the same time. These things aren't mutually exclusive.

 

[BIG LEEMELONE]

Ennis averaged 17 minutes a game for a month straight but why let facts get in the way of a weak argument amirite

 

[Lizakers]

 

[CP1708]

We win, rotations must be fine.

We lose, it's all rotations.


Y'all praise THE **** out of Nance for doin "the little things" like hustle, defend smartly, make the extra pass, etc, hence, the coach agrees with you and says Nance was our best player tonight, and you guys are mad cuz "points".

You guys DEMAND the young fellas play, so Luke puts in Ball instead of the "trash" Clarkson (remember y'all call him trash every day?????) And then you ***** about Luke playing Ball.

He can't win with you people. If he plays Kuzma and Clarkson and we lose "WHY THE **** IS BALL ON THE BENCH??????"

WHERE IS LOPEZ?????

WHERE IS NANCE?????

Yet, every God damn game folks trash Randle, Ingram too skinny, Clarkson is a black hole, Brooke is soft, Nance can't shoot, Ball can't shoot, KCP chuckin up crazy ****, but then question why the coach does or doesn't play them in crunch time.

Pick a lane and stay in the ****in thing.


My God some of you guys. The coach is not at fault for missed free throws in a close game. Coach isn't to blame for Austin Rivers rebounding his own missed free throws. Coach ain't to blame for the starters havin foul trouble at opening tip.

Players gotta do their jobs when they are called upon. If they need special handling game by game, they aren't good enough to win in the NBA folks. Newsflash.

Luke coached Golden State pretty damn well. Guys who did their job.
Same coach, more experience, lesser players. Pretty easy to grasp here.

Lot of you think MDA sucks too. Seems to coach pretty well in Houston. Prolly nothin to do with the players tho, right folks?

'sallgood tho, fire Luke, so you guys can get the next scapegoat hired/fired while *****ing about every player cept Kuzma. *Thumbs up*

November 27th was so long ago.

Suddenly Ennis was the issue.


Excited for Bron and PG helping fix our rotations for us.

 

[CP1708]

Ennis averaged 17 minutes a game for a month straight but why let facts get in the way of a weak argument amirite

Show me that month. Cut and paste it, right now. Let's do this together.

 

[sohi 23]

I don't get it. Are you denying that starting Julius and cutting Ennis's minutes didn't help the team?

And Ennis still got garbage time minutes so the averages aren't what I'm really talking about. It was about starting him and playing him minutes when games weren't decided. He isn't doing that anymore so he obviously realized his mistake.

If anything, this just shows Luke is a good coach and can recognize mistakes. Like I really don't get what the argument is.

 

[CP1708]

First of all I never wanted to fire Luke.

Second, if those rotations were so great, why did Luke not keep starting Ennis or play him during competitive minutes? Once Luke put BI at point guard & started playing Hart more, Ennis only got minutes during garbage time. Luke realized playing Ennis during meaningful moments in the game was hurting the team and adjusted properly. Fixing mistakes is a good coaching move.

Zubac is a different thing. He wasn't getting minutes cuz Nance/Randle/Lopez/Kuzma (and Bogut for a bit) took all 96 minutes at the 4 & 5. Now that Nance is gone, some minutes opened up for Zubac and he's taking advantage of em. Props to him.

Only like 3-5 people were actively calling for Luke to be fired. I can criticize Luke for mistakes and not want him to be fired at the same time. These things aren't mutually exclusive.

I know you didn't ask to fire Luke. Neither did leemelone. You're both good there.

AGAIN, you assume BI was ready to be a full time PG. Remember, Luke tried BI at point last year, it was bad. He couldn't handle it. He wasn't gonna just dump BI in there again.
Wasn't Hart a PG in college? He get much burn there with us?

Zo went down, he tried to get something outta Ennis and Caruso as best he could, he wasn't doing it cuz it was fun. For a minute, Caruso was workin, and then BI started to expand. Takes some work, like practice and such, no?

We were not losin games cuz Ennis got 5 minutes a half, 2-3 minutes a quarter. We lost cuz no one could hit a FT, cuz we played a BRUTAL stretch of games, cuz we we're playin 3 rookies + 2 brand new vets, Nance got hurt, Zo got hurt, and BI was barely 20.

But let's blame the coach for the 11th man getting a few minutes a half.

And not you two, but plenty wanted him fired, here, and Twitter. Fired, after 15-20 games.

 

[lovehateself]

Realistically what Center would fit with this team?

Rudy gobert
An athletic rim runner but these kind of guys clog the paint and would kill randles game.
Brook being allergic to the paint really did wonders to randle this season

Idk maybe a guy like Marc gasol could be nice with Lonzo and BI

Considering the draft and current construction of our roster...what position do we try to fill with that pick or do we go with bpa?

 

[sohi 23]

Hart was a 2 at Nova.

I see your point, but how was BI ready for point in January but not December?

I'm not even saying we would've won all those games in december if Ennis wasn't playing and Randle was starting, but it definitely would've helped the team be more competitive. Who knows what could've happened.

Point is, Luke realized his mistakes, kept experimenting and found the best thing that works. Good on Luke.

 

[sohi 23]

Rudy gobert
An athletic rim runner but these kind of guys clog the paint and would kill randles game.
Brook being allergic to the paint really did wonders to randle this season

Idk maybe a guy like Marc gasol could be nice with Lonzo and BI

Considering the draft and current construction of our roster...what position do we try to fill with that pick or do we go with bpa?

Brook being a stretch 5 is damn near the best thing that ever happened to Julius. Perfect match for him. I wouldn't mind him back on a 1 year if everything fails this summer.

Marc too old and Memphis would want a king's ransom for him. I'm good.

I'd like to see us go after Noel, an athletic big that can catch lobs off p&r and protect the rim would be ideal. I still got high hopes for Thomas Bryant tho, he's hella young and has high potential.

Go BPA in the draft. I'm confident in the Lakers scouting department to identify another steal with the Cavs pick. Don't reach and draft for need. We should still be acquiring the best talent we can get.

 

[CP1708]

It's not mistakes, it's work. Ingram was working on it.
Randle came in after Nance got hurt, Nance was our best defender and most productive player before his injury. Randle seized his opportunity and has grown as he has each year. (Despite what some say)

That's not mistakes, that's what he was dealt and he was working on fixes. Rotations weren't to blame, nor are they solving anything now, they're just minute allotments.

 

[Lizakers]

TB if he could develop into a Capela type would be great for us in a few years

 

[sohi 23]

It's not mistakes, it's work. Ingram was working on it.
Randle came in after Nance got hurt, Nance was our best defender and most productive player before his injury. Randle seized his opportunity and has grown as he has each year. (Despite what some say)

That's not mistakes, that's what he was dealt and he was working on fixes. Rotations weren't to blame, nor are they solving anything now, they're just minute allotments.

I guarantee if he was still playing Ingram at 3 and Ennis was getting 15 meaningful minutes a night our record would not be 16-7 in the last 23.

Nothing magically changed in Ingram's game from December to January that he all of a sudden knew how to play point. There's no amount of work you can change through maybe a few days of practice to suddenly teach him how to do that. Those changes, all that work was done during the offseason.

 

[BIG LEEMELONE]

Randle came in after Nance got hurt

 

[CP1708]

I guarantee if he was still playing Ingram at 3 and Ennis was getting 15 meaningful minutes a night our record would not be 16-7 in the last 23.

Nothing magically changed in Ingram's game from December to January that he all of a sudden knew how to play point. There's no amount of work you can change through maybe a few days of practice to suddenly teach him how to do that. Those changes, all that work was done during the offseason.

 

[CP1708]

Randle didn't come in after Nance got hurt?

 

[moonman818]

TB if he could develop into a Capela type would be great for us in a few years

TB’s game is way more dynamic than Capela already.

If he drops the baby fat and work on his lateral quickness he’ll be a monster

 

[BIG LEEMELONE]

Randle didn't come in after Nance got hurt?

 

[licensed to ball]

Luke toyed with the rotations throughout the entire first half of the season, and many of those nights were injury free and had the full roster suited up.
Im not sure what were really arguing here.

Of course the players actually win the basketball games, but to act like the minute distribution and rotations haven't improved over time is asinine.
Not everything is black and white.

Ive never asked for Luke to be fired or anything like that, you can look for a quote in the thread if you'd like.
But he hasn't been perfect either.

Just like players, coaches can improve too.
CP is acting like Luke came in and has been coaching like Popp since day 1.
(I know i know man, youre going to say 'when did i say that ' but obviously im not being literal)

Cmon man, the same way we can acknowledge growth in players we can also acknowledge growth in coaching strategies as well, cant we?
I mean basketball is a 'team' sport and the coaches and staff are all a part of the time, so why would they be off limits from the Laker thread on an internet forum for objective discussion?

 

[sohi 23]

TB’s game is way more dynamic than Capela already.

If he drops the baby fat and work on his lateral quickness he’ll be a monster

Bryant can shoot threes and Capela can't, Capela has him beat on everything else.

For me, Capela is one of, if not THE most underrated players in the game. If Bryant gets anywhere close to Capela's impact, then the 2017 draft class would go down as the greatest of all time.

 

[CP1708]

You're right, it was Brooke that got hurt.

Also.........Ennis was starting because Zo was out, Brooke was out, and KCP was in jail.

 

[sohi 23]

Do you disagree with the 1st point, the 2nd point or both?

 

[fun guy]

 

[CP1708]

Do you disagree with the 1st point, the 2nd point or both?

All of it.

I just looked it up, we were down THREE starters when Ennis started starting. Luke wasn't playin with his ****, he had no other options.

Brooke/KCP came back, got more of a normalish lineup back, minus Zo.