I hearken back to last season in moments like these. Moments when I was ridiculed, berated and told to “stop worrying” when I brought up the incredible number of turnovers the team coughed up last season. In the moments that I thought to myself, “Maybe I am worrying about nothing…?” I would, as I generally do, stick to my guns and continue to insist it was an issue that could (and ended up being a major culprit in) derailing our repeat title hopes. This season, since we solidified the roster, the defense has been my #1 concern as it would seem both on paper and in reality that this team couldn’t stop a hobbled turtle from escaping. In short, this Laker team has some major issues to address.
- 115. That’s the minimum number of points the Lakers have allowed in every single game this season. Don’t worry, we’ve allowed even more in some games, too! This continues a trend in preseason (which some believe doesn’t matter at all, I feel differently) where we gave up an average of 119.3 points per game. So, while one might assume that things would improve once the intensity of the regular season became a factor and the games really matter, in reality it’s gotten slightly worse as we now are giving up 119.6 points per game. That’s a number that will get coach Vogel canned sooner than later. If a defense-first coach can’t get a team to buy in and/or execute the defense then the defense-first coach becomes expendable. Especially when the roster has been filled out with minimum contract players.
- The minimum contract players. I was worried about the composition of the roster before preseason and it’s a full blown concern now. The issue isn’t that the roster doesn’t have talent, one could actually make a point that the talent level is possibly too high and we need more yeoman type of guys to put forth the proper effort on defense. The issue is that these guys are all defined already, some of them are fighting for their first ring, Dwight wants a parade, and so on. Only a handful are young players still looking to prove themselves. We have 5 bonafide first ballot Hall of Famers on the team (LeBron, Davis, Dwight, Russ and Carmelo), role players that have championship pedigree and guys who have accumulated the ancillary NBA accolades. It just feels like we lack the right kind of fire and hunger that you want to see in a team that can go all the way.
- The lack of composure. Russ’ late game meltdown (which I felt was unwarranted, with 1.5 seconds to go and being up only 3 that dunk sealed the win for OKC and was not pouring salt in the wound) is just the latest in an early string of surprising losses of composure from what should be a veteran team. Dwight and AD fighting, Russ losing his mind at a game sealing dunk, and the loss of guys like Kidd and Lionel Hollins and…yes…Jared Dudley have all eroded the locker room chemistry that even through the litany of injuries and myopic play last season stayed strong. At least to the public. No longer. Like a daytime soap opera the drama is on full display for all to see and it’s getting ugly real quick. This one circles right back to the coach, again. Vogel seems content to let the team police itself, that he seems to feel his job is to set forth the plan and then yell at refs. Would Phil Jackson have allowed the spirit and harmony of the team to get to this point? Certainly not, he would’ve come up with an obscure ceremony that helped put things in perspective and then benched the young guys, of course.
- Wasn’t there a game last night? Yes, and we lost it in stunning fashion to an 0-4 team we were up 26 points to. The issues above have been here from the start and I didn’t even touch on Russell’s quadruple double that he achieved via 10 turnovers or our inability to generate a quality shot over the last couple of minutes in the 4th quarter or our mediocre three point shooting (but with volume!) or inability to defend without fouling (the Thunder shot 29 free throws last night, were the more physically aggressive team and beat our azzes, kudos to them but we should have won this game going away). If we can’t solve these basic, core issues this team will win a decent number of games and be bounced out of the playoffs within two rounds. I don’t care how much center Anthony Davis plays or how many threes we shoot. If the spirit of the team isn’t right, if we can’t defend or come up with something resembling a quality offense, this season is going to be another wasted one for LeBron and the Lakers.
- Well Mr. Grumpus what do YOU think we can do to fix this? Get healthy and that’s not happening soon. By the time we get guys like Ariza, THT and Ellington back we could be in quite the hole in the loaded western conference. Depending on how truly severe LeBron’s ankle injury is (listed as questionable for tonight and nobody saying the kind of things like “if it were the playoffs I’d play”) it might not really matter anymore. Our 2 wins came in the form of Ja Morant missing a free throw and failing to force overtime and against the Spurs…in overtime. The Spurs are another rebuilding team and it’s feeling to me quite lucky that Ja missed that free throw or this could be `1-4, at best. Luckily for Frank we won those games because the last Laker coach to start the season 0-5 lost his job by the 8th game. If that happens this season, with the roster not having any continuity at all, I don’t think much will improve. Firing Vogel won’t fix what ails us at this point, or at least it’s not likely to fix it soon enough. The truth is that this will fix itself if, and only if, Russ, LeBron and AD can figure out a way to dominate as a trio. Other than that we just don’t have what it takes on the roster.
The only good thing is that we’re not 10 games in and it’s possible we’re getting all the bad mojo out of the woodworks early. Dwight and AD seem to have truly squashed whatever beef that they had, LeBron isn’t likely to be out for the whole season as I think they’re just waiting for him to not feel limited with the ankle, and Russ will get better. Time is the Lakers enemy right now. The more time it takes for things to coalesce the harder the road gets. We need to feast on these rebuilding teams and treat them like the pond scum they are. If we can’t fatten up on the early portion of the schedule and build a little cushion for ourselves it just means the tight rope gets longer and higher as the season wears on. Best to get across it early.
I’m always amazed at how glass-half-empty people totally lose perspective whenever early troubles hit their sports team or political candidates. They become veritable Chicken Littles, pimping how they were right last season when their predictions of disaster came true while ignoring how many times their crying ‘Fire’ on the blog turned out to be false alarms two years ago when we won our 17th NBA championship.
1. No, Frank Vogel’s is not going to be fired based on his record 5 games into the season. The NBA season is a marathon and we’re just leaving the starting gate. If the defense doesn’t improve as we get healthy, then we will see major trades before the deadline. Lakers knew they had holes that still needed filling. My bet is we will see modest improvement but will still make major moves at the deadline to get a stretch four who can guard wings.
2. Frankly, we haven’t seen many of our minimum salary players, including Ariza and Ellington, two guys touted as likely starters by the pundits before the season. I think we’ve seen excellent starts to the season from Monk, Reaves, and Bazemore. The injuries have just hit us at the positions and roles where we were weakest.
3. I have mixed feelings about the lack of composure. First, I do think chemistry is far more important than most fans do. Second, however, I think you have to differentiate between recurring behavior and single incident behavior when you’re criticizing players. 5 games is far too small a sample size. I don’t think there’s any chemistry problem with this team.
4. Yeah, we got problems, especially defensively, but come on, man. This is just one game. And only the fifth in a long season. We’ll have 77 more games to fix the problems we have and several months before the trade deadline to consider moves to upgrade the roster. It’s silly to lose faith in the team this early.
Aloha Jamie,
I was concerned coming into the season about our defense. and i still am. Last night was embarrassing, and there was no excuse for it. Even big game James ripped them on air. he is usually more diplomatic then that. That said, we havent had the oppurtunity to see what this defense will eventually look like. Nunn has a defensive reputation and he was receiving rave reviews in training camp. Of course Trevor is a solid denfender. while THT was also looking very good on the defensive side. i will reserve my judgement until after we get those guys back. probably wont see much of Rondo, once Nunn returns. and i doubt you will see Melo in crunch time when we need stops once we get guys back. one could make an argument that 4 of our 6 best defenders were out. i wasnt one of those guys predicting a 19 and 2 start. I knew it would take a while.
Hey Michael!
Yeah, it’s going to take more than a little time. Just a question of how long. If it’s the whole 2 months that Ariza is out for…that could be too long. If it’s in the coming weeks and we get a couple guys back and the fit right in and contribute at a high level…different story and it’s impossible to say which way things will go. More losses like last night though and it won’t matter who is play where and when: changes of some sort will be made.
1) 2 words: Mike Brown. If this continues into game 7-10ish, Frank will be bye-bye.
2) Agreed, but that’s life in the NBA. If you can’t adapt and figure out a way to win then someone will be brought in to replace you.
3) I think there are a lot of issues with this team, being one comprised of vets and already having Russ tossed over what was decidedly not an “in your face” showing and Dwight and AD literally WWEing on the bench coupled with everything else is a red flag, to me.
4) I don’t lose faith, I don’t really deal in faith. Life is a “prove it to me affair” what you did once is awesome. Now go do it again, and a again and so on. So, with that in mind, the Lakers need to prove it. They have won 2 games and have yet to hold an opponent under 115 points in any game they’ve played since assembling. While this wasn’t supposed to be a defensive juggernaut it also wasn’t supposed to be Matador Training School for Beginners. The 36 year old Ariza is not the solution i and of himself. Right now I feel like I can count on Kent and AD and that’s about it on D. So, even if this isn’t a huge issue in the regular season (I still see us making the playoffs, after all) it does mean we will be outted quickly if this is the best they can muster. So far, this is the very best they can muster and it isn’t anywhere near enough.
Also in regards to this: I’m always amazed at how glass-half-empty people totally lose perspective whenever early troubles hit their sports team or political candidates. They become veritable Chicken Littles, pimping how they were right last season when their predictions of disaster came true while ignoring how many times their crying ‘Fire’ on the blog turned out to be false alarms two years ago when we won our 17th NBA championship.
I vividly recall an early season podcast last season where I brought up turnovers and you said something essentially like this only to see you come around and by season’s end be harping on the turnovers. So, it’s not about “pimping” my brain and it’s ability to discern patterns it’s the fact that that, and these, patterns are so very easy to discern. Frankly, I’d rather be wrong if I’m honest even though it is fun to be right. No Lakers fan should want to be right about the current state of the team. I would very much like to see Russ succeed in the purple and gold because he’s one of my favorite players to watch play. So far, they’re not proving they can make this work and until they do, well, this is reality baby and not rose-colored dreamland.
And, in the spirit of pimping my big old brain, I also vividly recall a discussion with a co-worker in which he told me that there was no way Trump would win the GOP nomination and I told him that he wasn’t just wrong about that but that he was going to be surprised when he saw how close it could be between Trump and whomever the DNC nominated.
Never underestimate the power of hate and resentment, it drives people almost as much as the desire for money and success. Sad, but true.
I’ve always believed I would rather be wrong about my criticism and have the Lakers win than be right and have them lose. Nothing wrong with stating your opinion. Just have to be man enough to take the heat for your position, admit when you’re wrong, and don’t be an ass when you’re right.
Regardless of GHE, you , Sean, and Gerald have always met those other criteria so I don’t really have a problem with it. Just find it laughingly funny and predictable. So blog on and we’ll see who’s right in the end; cancer or championship?
Westy is playing better except Turn Overs are awful.
It’s not the coach, it’s the players. They wouldn’t be here without LeBron’s approval. But if it turns out to be the coach, remember who replaced Mike Brown. I trust the people who are infinitely smarter and better informed than me to get it right. Cheer the wins, accept the losses until I can’t watch anymore. Which has never happened.