Aloha,
I kind of feel sorry for Frank. He was given this roster and asked to turn it into a championship contender. The real culprits of course were Rob, LeBron and AD. It would have been a hard task to accomplish without all the injuries. With the injuries, a nearly impossible task.
Of course as we all know the Westbrook acquisition has been a disaster. First it was folly to believe that LeBron would hand the wheel over to another driver and let them run the show. LeBron will always be LeBron and will continue to do LeBron stuff until he hangs it up. What the team needed was a secondary ball handler who can score and can play well off the ball. DeRozen anyone? LeBron and AD talked with him as well. But to be fair, he was with the Spurs and we all know how much Pop loves the Lakers, so perhaps that prevented a deal from getting done.
In every post game interview we hear LeBron and others say they want Russ just to be Russ. I feel a little sorry for Russ as well because he can’t be Himself with LeBron, and this roster construction. I knew it probably wouldn’t work. No, I’m not some brilliant basketball mind. The entire basketball universe knew it wouldn’t work, except for LeBron, AD and Robb.
After the dust settled, what we had was a mishmash line up, with poorly fitting parts. Perhaps the front office had to much confidence in Frank and believed he could fashion a top ten defense out of this collection of misfit toys. Unfortunately Frank is not a miracle worker and with all of the injuries could only do so much.
So what is the solution? Trading Russ would be an answer but perhaps the only team would be Rockets. And it would cost us a 1st round pick. I’m not sure Rob will do that. Trading for Wall maybe a solid move but Wall hasn’t played and it would be a huge gamble. Besides Wall is a guard that also needs the ball in his hands to excel. Could he adjust better than Russ has? That’s the big question.
Short of a trade the ball is in Franks court now. I do believe he has managements approval to do whatever is needed to win. So Frank can begin by reducing Westbrooks minutes. He can do that in a number of ways, depending on match ups. Start him but pull him earlier for a rest, and put him back later. And don’t eat him finish unless his confidence is high and he is on a roll. The key here will be Nunn. Once he is back, he is the perfect secondary ball handler to pair with LeBron, he can both run the offense and play off the ball. He can score and most importantly he is a very good defender. Giving Nunn some of Russ’s minutes could help turn this season around. And if Nunn plays at a reasonable level, I would start him over Russ. Let Russ run the 2nd unit. Russ might actually excel against other 2nd units. I know it’s a bad look having a 44 mil player coming off the bench, but if it can lead to some wins, and playoff success, you have to do it. It’s all up to Frank.
One of two things happened in the off-season with this Russ trade.
Either…
Rob made all these major foundational roster changes without any input from his head coach. That would be the height of stupidity if he did this without hearing a strategy from Frankie about how he could make this roster successful.
Or…
Frankie WAS consulted, signed-off on it, and put forth a gameplan that has just been woefully inadequate. Whatever the case, it’s been a failure for everyone involved.
My biggest misgivings about this whole thing from the start was that we brought in Russ and immediately assumed he could be convinced to just stop being RUSS. He’s just not at that point in his career where he’s gonna be easily able to do that. We point to Carmelo and how he’s changed his game but we gotta recognize that it took Melo actually being out of the league for a lil bit before he came to that realization. Russ is nowhere near that point yet. Maybe next year…but he’s just so headstrong and self-confident (which has made him a Hall of Famer btw) it’s not gonna be an easy transition.
Crazy as it sounds…this could be where we miss Earvin Johnson’s presence in the front office. And also Jason Kidd to some extent. Because who in that building has the gravitas, the rep, the respect, the freakin AURA to sit down with Russ man to man and have him take his words to heart? Frankie? Obviously no. Rob? He ain’t never played in the League. Jeannie? Kurt? Doubt it. Maybe Lebron, but that doesn’t seem to be the way he communicates with his teammates. And Russ looks at him as a peer…not an Idol.
Not sure what the solution is. And the biggest problem of all is that those in charge of fixing this mess are the same ones who created it in the first place….
There’s no question that the silence we’ve heard from the Lakers’ front office since Pelinka took over from Magic has not been as harmonious and copacetic as advertised. More like no leaks.
The Vogel situation basically exposed the the false idea that the Lakers were an efficient organization making decisions by consensus with everybody committed to same goal and direction, with everybody on the same page, front office, coaching staff, superstars. Now we see there just as fucked up as ever. Just doing a better job keeping the shit in house.
As I write this, it strikes me that this type of organization, without strong leadership, is not what the Lakers need at critical moments like we’re in right now. This is when we miss having Dr. Buss making the decision rather than the current front office committee.
I just find it extremely hard to believe that Frankie had no input whatsoever on what went down last summer. The storyline that this whole thing was just thrust upon him just doesn’t sound plausible. If it’s true, then we might be in even worse shape than we thought. And let’s be real about Rob. He didn’t get Lebron here…that was Magic (Lebron said so on The Shop when Earv abruptly stepped down). Rob didn’t get AD here either..that was Klutch. AD was forced to get out of his comfort zone and become the bad guy because Rob couldn’t seem to get a deal done. Whiffed on the Kyle Lowry thing as well. As for Frankie….when I think about it, has any player (past or current) heaped alotta praise on him since he’s been in LA? I think he’s a good guy and well respected around the league and in the locker room but that’s about it. I don’t think the players look at him as a difference-maker and that could be a problem….
Excellebt post, Michael. I supported the Westbrook trade because I trusted LeBron to make this work but I think even he was unable, with the injuries, to get this to work. In retrospect, Russ was a poor fit, needs the ball too much, has poor ball security, poor shooting from everywhere, including the rim.
I’m all for addition by subtraction now but doubt the Lakers will make the necessary move, althougn it may depend on what they have available in trades come Thursday. I could see them getting a chance at Turner or Barnes or Gordon and deciding to use the pick for that rather than to move Russ. In that case, they keep Russ and bet that LeBron and AD and the new starter and less Russ will still be a championship formula.
However, if the musical chairs don’t materialize, the Lakers may decide that small deals to get more size and addition by subtraction via trading Russ to create minutes for new additions to play. Or, I guess, we could keep Russ and control his role so he doesn’t get clutch minutes unless he’s earning it. Don’t see that materializing into a playoff run unless we were also able to get some help via trading THT, Nunn, and the pick.
As for Nunn being the savior, I’ve had the same hopes at times, only to see them crushed by another report that he’s nowhere near playing. At this point, I’ll believe he’s playing when I see it. Otherwise, he’s still just trade bait for real players.