- 22,555
- 16,301
In a playoff series. It’s very very hard to win when you have someone who is a GLARING hole on defense. They will get picked on repeatedly. Our title team had practically no defensive players in that category. This year we have at least 4 in the rotations that are clear and utter defensive liabilities in a 1 on 1 situation (DJ, Ellington, monk, melo). Ideally our closers will be tht/Russ/ariza/lebron/ad which helps prevent getting picked on. Problem is they can’t play 48 mins.THT is the guy that needs to come off the bench.
The Lebron center minutes have been great, team definitely has to lean into those lineups while AD is out.
Rewatched the Xmas game this morning. I know Russ had a bad game, but it was mostly him finishing at the basket. I hate doing the hindsight thing...aka it's only a bad shot when you miss, so I'm not mad at him for taking 15/20 shots in the paint. He definitely has to do a better job of finishing, that was an uncharacteristically bad game from him in that area.
What stood out to me the most on the re-watch is just great Lebron is and how often the Nets targeted Melo on defense. I mean almost every time down they involved him in some kinda ball screen action and it just killed the Laker defense...over and over again. To his credit he's a great floor spacer on offense, and one of the few Lakers that will rebound but ideally he should only be playing limited minutes. I think he was out there for like 40 against the Nets and that's just wild but there really was no other option I guess.
That’s why I was never super high on melo. Sure for 15 mins a game sharpshooter that’s fine but he’s basically playing nearly starter minutes all year. We have a few more moves to make to help add 2-3 playable players along with the above mentioned 5. Our only hope is come feb we are fully healthy and have added said players. And we have 30 games together to get acquainted. By game 30 we are running at full speed ready to kick *** in the playoffs