5 Things: Bulls beat Lakers, AD sounds off

Well, with LeBron out we’re not at DEFCON 5 yet but man this is looking like a season of uphill battles thus far. Gone is any lofty talk of a 70 win season, at this pace the Lakers will be lucky to avoid the play-in. If this team doesn’t figure some things out, get (and stay) healthy and begin competing at a higher level you can kiss the banner goodbye and add another wasted season in purple and gold to LeBron James’ resume’.

1. Talen’s big game. The best Laker on the floor last night was THT. He attacked the defense in a variety of ways and his three point shot was on full display. With Vogel announcing that Kendrick Nunn is still “a way’s away” with a bone bruise we desperately need production from Horton-Tucker. The evolution of his three-pointer is a huge key to unlocking his potential as it will force teams to stay on him on the perimeter opening chances to drive the ball into the paint and attack. The next step is getting his teammates activated and involved and continuing to improve on defense. If THT is going to be a force he needs to bring that trifecta of impact.
2. AD getting tossed. This is becoming a theme: Lakers struggle for this reason or that, get into it with the refs, lose game and talk about how they need to stay better composed. Well the time to start that journey is now because this version of the Lakers really lets officiating bother them. From Dwight on the bench yapping to Melo every time down the court to DeAndre Jordan looking for touch fouls in the paint (hint: DAJ…they ain’t calling that stuff bro) the Lakers just need to suck it up and realize the refs aren’t bailing them out of their poor play. Everyone’s unhappy with the officiating so that indicates that at least there has been some level of consistency there. Now did AD deserve to be tossed and/or was he right about usually the refs give a a player a quick moment to re-shoe? Sure, but that ought not obfuscate the fact that the game was all but decided by the time he got tossed.
3. Play with some pride. LeBron alone won’t fix this. He’ll help but until this team comes together and starts sacrificing for one another, selling out for loose balls, and competing at a high level regardless of the opponent it won’t really matter who is on the floor. This team seemingly wants to be able to rely on talent, not get down on it in terms of defense, not focus on the minutiae and execute at a high level and in general has an air of laziness about it that simply won’t get it done most nights. Right now if 2 bench guys don’t get red hot from three, AD doesn’t pour in 30+ points and Russ have an above average game we have no shot to win against most teams. So when LBJ gets back we’ll see less of Monk and Bazemore, most likely. At this point that’s a good thing. While I’m high on Monk and his skillset it’s obvious we need someone to restore order and if it’s not LeBron it won’t be anyone. The trio talked a lot about sacrifice in their dinner where this was all envisioned, now is the time to start.
4. The question of Alex Caruso vs. THT. I mentioned this on the podcast. That i think this debate is absurd as it frames two guys who in and of themselves aren’t the reason the Lakers are in luxury tax land. The reason that happened is we traded for Westbrook and have two other max salaried players. So the idea that the smallish contracts that THT and Caruso signed respectively is just a false narrative that obfuscates the fact that the majority of resources available to the team are dedicated to 3 players. That in and of itself isn’t the problem. The problem is that, after committing so many resources to the three players and trading away the aspects of the roster we could easily retain we were left with 2 players whom we could go over the salary cap to keep, although the doing of that would be costly and those 2 players were AC and THT. If you’re going to build a 3 superstar team you have to do so with the correct mindset. 3 players does not a championship roster make and I hardly believe that could news to anyone inside the Laker front office war room. We needed the skillset of both THT and Caruso in order to field the most competitive team that also has some championship pedigree and experience playing alongside LeBron. So, in my mind, this debate is being framed all wrong. The issue is that the Lakers went big on 3 guys and cheaped out big time after that. End of discussion. Really the reasons don’t matter at this point either as this is the team we have.
5. How can we turn this around? Honestly, I don’t think any one thing can turn this around. James coming back re-creates the same problem we have now which is our offense is fine but our defense is not. We’re not elite in any way except roster payroll, at least we’re not playing elite. Russ doesn’t have the right kind of guys around him to be the best version of himself, but adding LeBron and THT will marginalize Russ (somewhat) so that may be the answer there is just having more guys who can get their won shot on the floor and hope Melo can keep his roll going on the road (although his last 2 games have been drop off games for him). We need 30 points from AD every single night, it would appear, because after AD and The King we don’t have anyone that can score in double digits consistently. Melo, maybe, but Anthony is old and isn’t going to have the mojo every single night. Russ will score in double-digits but the efficiency is a huge issue in regards to those points.

It’s certainly fair to say that I am now in the position of having to re-examine my opinion that adding Russ was the right move. At the time I could imagine how it could work, in reality I have yet to see anything consistent or organic from the team for the most part. This isn’t working, especially against teams that have an identity established or have gelled quickly. The Bulls in many ways were the perfect team to face at this crux of the season: they had a huge amount of turnover, have done the job early against a favorable schedule, and a re playing like champs already but with guys who haven’t won a thing (except Caruso). But thinking of a world where we could have had DeRozan and kept AC and THT is certainly a “hindsight is 20/20” kind of world. We didn’t go that route, nor did we trade for Buddy. We have Westbrook and now the guys have to find a way to make it work.