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

[Brosizzlew30.23]

Frank Vogel, in his first year with PHX....

1. Inherited a completely brand new roster, with players who have never played with each other for extended seasons. Even this year's PHX team is nothing like last year's, while the core of this year's Lakers team is the same as last year's. How's that for CONTEXT lol

2. Has led the team to the 4 seed on the West in this young season while dealing with multiple missed games from his #2 and #3 top players. Meanwhile AD, Bron, DLo, and AR have played damn near all 18 games so far with Bron and AD only missing one game.

3. Has his team on a 7-game winning streak and only getting better. One word: CONSISTENCY

Vogel > Ham and its not close.

You put Ham on the Suns roster and they'd probably be on a 7-game losing streak cause he would be playing Nurkic, his top Big, and PF Eubanks a mere 10-15 min per game each unlike the 28 min Vogel is playing Nurkic now and 19-20 min Eubanks is playing as well LOL

 

[Brosizzlew30.23]

Rhetorical question…You mean you don’t want the answer?

It’s not hard to tell by the way people post if you’ve been a coach, played the game or just a random guy talking out the side of their neck.

Lmao.... so are you ASSUMING I've never been a coach, been a VP, ran a company (or two), have coached kids and/or adults, managed team(s) and people, or been a "trainer" at any capacity??



How long you been on this earth? Ignorance is bliss.

 

[Brosizzlew30.23]

Neither guard is really that selfish at all.

Both play the same amount of minutes. Both make the same number of passes in a game. Both in top 10% of passes.

DLo and now AR is starting to get the same treatment that DLo always gets. Want them to be involved. Score points, but don’t shoot too much. Pass, but be aggressive. No win situation.
DLo and AR are honestly both a lot better offensively than people give them credit for.

What the Lakers need is a floor general other than Bron who makes the same impact Playoff Rondo or Playoff Fisher made both offensively and defensively for the Lakers during the title years.

And Rondo/Fish were never known as scoring guards either but they were ultra valuable in that they always made timely buckets and made timely plays when games were on the line.

DLo and AR got a long way to go and a whole lot of work to do to get on that same championship level as Rondo and DFish were in their title runs.

AR and DLo will never be a top scoring guard on a title team like Jamal was for DEN last year, or how Curry was for GSW in 2022, Kyrie in '16, Parker for SA, Wade for MIA, etc etc. Therefore AR and DLo need to be top notch decision makers and playmakers for the Lakers' scoring duo of AD and Bron in order for this team to reach that next level when it comes to guard play.

In my humble but unpopular opinion.

 

[grittyman]

 

[sohi 23]

Enjoyed Lowe & mcten’s convo about the Lakers offense.

 

[Brosizzlew30.23]

Among the top 8 teams in the NBA today (by record/conf seed), only two teams (BOS and MIL) are in the top half in 3-point attempts per game.

The other 6 teams are in the bottom 13 of the NBA in 3PT attempts per game.

Threes are overrated. Shooting threes in volume is not how you win championships and was never the Lakers way to begin with so its funny to me that folks think the Lakers key to winning games is making open threes and get with rest of the "Modern NBA" lol

Teams will have a game where they shoot 60%+ from deep about once every 15 games. But that isn't sustainable at all.

Spoiler

 

[tupac003]

Pat Bev is really the most delusional player in the NBA.

I thought it was Harden...but it's him.

 

[essential1]

Jovan strikes again. Just trade Gabe and JHS and a 1st for Caruso & Drummond. Right your wrongs and move on.

(Just for reference DDR and Caruso would need to be either DLo, Gabe and fillers. Or DLo and Rui

 

[tupac003]

Do we want Drummond again? It really didn't work the last time he was here.

But with that roster, nothing would have worked.

 

[tupac003]

 

[sohi 23]

Watching Troy brown against the thunder and someone insert the John wall talking about Brad Beal clip

 

[pmatic]

TBJ did more in the last two minutes vs the Thunder than Taurean has done all season.

 

[Brosizzlew30.23]

This gonna be on repeat all the way til the trade deadline.

One thing is for sure: nobody gonna doubt the capabilities of The Robfather after what he pulled off at the deadline last season.

Bron / Reaves / JHS
Caruso / Reddish / Christie
DeRozan / Prince / Lewis
AD / Vando / Wood
Drummond / Wood / Hayes

Then fire Ham and hire Budenholzer, put Bron back at the point, play a 2-Big starting lineup, and watch in amazement as AD turns back into the monster he was in 2020

 

[darthska]

"It's nothing personal."
*proceeds to tell how it is very personal*

 

[CHAOSE57]

Iirc Austin did the ‘too little’ in response to Bev doing it first. The nerve to say it be your own ppl.

 

[grittyman]

Lakers are what? The 24th or 25th ranked offense in league…
Top 5 points in the paint

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Top 10 in fast break points

And are scoring a good chuck of their points from the ft line

Until this team (mostly AD) can learn how to shoot (not just 3’s…midrange is certainly important as well) the offense just isn’t going to be good enough

 

[Brosizzlew30.23]

Beverley is the reason why we can pretty much dam near guarantee that Philly ain't making it to the Finals

 

[Brosizzlew30.23]

Lakers are what? The 24th or 25th ranked offense in league…

Until this team (mostly AD) can learn how to shoot (not just 3’s…midrange is certainly important as well) the offense just isn’t going to be good enough

Really? Let’s dive deeper.

The year LAL last won a chip, they averaged almost 113 ppg. This year they're at almost 112 points per game. Lakers are scoring just as much now as they did in 2020. Is offense the real culprit as to why they're pretty much playing .500 basketball right now? How many ppg they're giving up is the real question.

​

What's even more interesting is the Lakers in 2023 are giving up more points per game to opponents than they score. LAL's opponents are scoring 113.7 ppg against them, while the Lakers are only scoring 111.8. Lakers defense sucks and the eye test shows it.

Team Scoring and Offense are NOT the problems. Getting AD more involved on offense in the 2nd half of games IS the MAIN issue offensively, NOT their three point shooting or ability to hit outside shots.

To the contrary, the MAIN team issue is on the DEFENSIVE END. In 2020, LAL was scoring 113 ppg while giving up 107. It's the opposite this year lol

Let's look at more numbers related to the Lakers defense

2020 Rebounds Per Game, Lakers were 9th in the NBA at 45.7, and 2nd in the league giving up only 42.8. Which means they were constantly outrebounding teams because of that vaunted 2-Big lineup.

2023 Rebounds per game, Lakers are 20th in the league at 43.8, and they give up more rebs to opponents, with opponents averaging 44.8 rebs against LAL, good for 20th in the NBA. Lakers are getting outrebounded night in night out LOL

Offensive rebounds 2023 - Lakers are 29th (next to last place) in the NBA in offensive rebounding, an indication they don't utilize enough size and rebounders to help AD. They are 22nd in offensive rebounds given up to opponents. In fact opponents are averaging more O-Rebs per game than the Lakers.

Offensive rebounds 2020 - Lakers were 8th in the league at 10.7 ORPG and 7th in offensive boards given up to opponents.

What about steals, another defensive and hustle metric?

2020 Steals per game, Lakers were 5th in the league at 8.6 per
2023 steals per game, Lakers are 18th in the league at 7.5 per game

It's clear that the numbers and the EYE Test prove that Defense is the bigger Lakers issue as to why they have a record hovering around .500, and why this squad ain't winning a championship until they fix their defense and rebounding problems.

The championship solution? PLAY BIG, Fire Ham, hire Budenholzer.

 

[grittyman]

Team Scoring and Offense are NOT the problems.

Okay coach

Team has one of the worst offenses in the league but that’s not an issue…hilarious. I see we’ve reached the let’s argue just for the sake of arguing part of the day.. I’m cool. Have a good one!

 

[Lizakers]

Feels like Lebron is always listed Questionable

Maybe we save him for OKC, but that can always backfire if we lose to Detroit

 

[noblekane]

Do we want Drummond again? It really didn't work the last time he was here.

But with that roster, nothing would have worked.

hes better than jaxson "cant get a rebound" hayes

one player plays 13 minutes a game and gets 6 rebounds a game

the other plays 12 minutes a game and gets 1.7 rebounds a game.

 

[essential1]

That Bulls trade is awful.
Trade 2 of your 3 best 3point shooters on a bad 3point shooting team for a 34 year old who in his career shoots from 3 how TP is shooting from 3 this year. And Caruso great defender. Good 3point shooting this year but isn’t enough offense to replace DLo’s shooting from 3.

The Bulls are 5-14 for a reason.

The necessity for the Lakers is being relatively more healthy and getting what you’re paying for from the ancillary pieces.
And the forwards to learn how to rebound (DLo has 1 full rebound per game more than TP and plays the same minutes)

 

[CP1708]

You guys do know that when AD is doubled that means someone is wide open. LOL “adjustment” … how about players have to make teams pay for not guarding them? There’s a long list of stuff that matters to me before we get down to coaching.

*Passes the keys*

Thank you sir.

 

[trynafeelmink]

Ham helped get this team to the WCF with a completely new roster & 70% of Lebron, not saying he's great or doesn't have flaws but This happens to every coach not named Pop or Spo

I would wait until we arem't missing 1/3 of our rotation before making strong statements

 

[Lizakers]

No need to make a trade it’s early and we need to get healthy. Even with the injuries still over .500