Aloha,

This was a good win. It really feels like this team is really coming together. And it was a team effort. We shot the ball well. 43% from 3 and 49% overall. And 5 guys were in double figures.

the Hawks are not a good defensive team. But it was our defense that impressed me the most. The Hawks are a very good offensive team. They are 5th in the league in scoring at 117 a game and we held them to 102. We also out rebounded them by 17 boards. If We didn’t have turnover issues again we would have won by more than 17.

We are now 4th in the west and climbing. The DFS trade was a great move that will pay off more as he becomes familiar with our system.

I believe we have a real shot at the 4th seed.

Aloha,

While we lost last night, I was encouraged by a few things.

First our starters beat their starters and that is one of the best starting units in the game. And we got enough good looks but be had some bad luck. Rui had two 3’s go in and out and Max and Dalton had two as well. Lebron and Cam each had one. Like they say, close but no cigar.

The problem was their bench beat ours by 20. This is our biggest problem that needs to be addressed. Struss beat our bench by himself. Once Shake and DFS our integrated into the offense that will help. And Wood can score and he will be back soon. Since there isn’t many microwave scorers out there, I think it’s kind of up to Dalton. Hopefully he can regain his confidence. He has demonstrated that he can score in a variety of ways but we really needs his 3 ball to start falling.

It’s looking more and more like we have our point guard and 3rd star in Austin. He’s over 18 ppg now and his assist numbers are rising. With DLO gone, that should continue. He was great again as a scorer and play maker, against one of the best defenses in the league. He’s fearless and successfully challenged their bigs inside and won. One columnist called him Luka light. I agree with that. Neither are particularly quick but they each have the handles and IQ to manipulate defenses.

I look at the rumored available players for trades and I don’t see any that will elevate us enough to be worth a first round pick. Even Kessler wouldn’t be a great fit next to AD. While Danny would trade his children for the right price, it might take more to get Kessler then one his kids.

I think adding DFS and Shake allows us to wait and see who might become available. At some point we will need to address the back up big spot and perhaps look for another 2nd unit scorer. If we did a 2 for one trade for the backup center we could look at Lonnie Walker who is drawing a lot of interest from multiple teams as he plays overseas.

It’s not often that I’m encouraged by a loss but I was this time. I even thought the defense was pretty good. It’s just that they made a lot of tough contested shots, so you have to tip your hat. And with Vando back very soon he could have helped with our Struss problem. The Cavs went 18 and one in December and have lost only 4 times. To trade runs with them like we did. Gives some hope that as we become more familiar with JJ’s system and maybe more growth from the young guys, we may end up in the top 3 to 6. And if you get there, who knows what could happen. I’m not saying we are a true contender yet but I think we’re closer then we have been this season.

Aloha,

Well it appears that Rob isn’t just sitting around after all. DLO goes to the Nets, along with Lewis for Finney-Smith and Shake Milton. This is a good deal for the Lakers giving them a quality 3 and D wing. I’m a little disappointed that they didn’t bring back Sharpe as a back up center, because they could have fit his salary in instead of Milton. They will be around 2 and 1/2 mil under the 2nd apron that could be helpful. We also gave up 3 2nds but no firsts. So we still have those to work with.

Rob kind of reminds me of Mitch in one respect. He never shows his hand. Everyone thought we were trading for Buddy but he trades for Russ. The Rui, DLo and Vando trades came out of the blue. And now this one. We still need a back up center. I’m hoping that will happen soon.

Aloha,

Last night we saw a duel between Austin and the guy many want to trade him for the Kings Fox. Austin had 26points on 9-16 shooting and 3/4 from 3 with 16 assists. Fox came in with 29 points on 12-25 shooting and 1-9 from 3 and 12 assists. Now Fox is an all star and better then Austin at this point although he’s not a good 3 point shooter at 32% But the question is, is he so much better that he is worth trading Austin, DLO and Dalton along with 2 first round picks and perhaps some swaps. The answer to that question is no.

We have won the last two missing one of our stars. No AD on Christmas which is a highly intense game regardless of who you are playing and last nights Kings game could have been a trap game after Mike Browns firing. You knew the Kings would play hard and they did.

So here’s the deal, when we are missing a star we play a more team oriented game. And it shows how much talent we actually have. With missing stars, Austin stepped into the 2nd star role and played like one.

Rui moved up to the 3rd option and scored 18 and 21. He went 9 for 12 from 3 over the 2 games. He’s our best 3 point shooter at 45%. One would think a team would try to get him 6 3’s a game. His defense has also become pretty good. He had another 2 blocks and a steal last night.

Max is growing before our eyes. Holding his own defensively against some of the best players in the world. He also scored 16 in the last 2 games.

Dalton had 18 and hit a couple of 3’s which is a good sign.

All of this around AD’s 36 and 16. For me, it begs the question. WHY CAN’T WE PLAY THIS KIND OF TEAM BALL WITH BOTH OF OUR STARS ON THE COURT?

If played like this as a team when both LeBron and AD are available, we would be a much more dangerous team.

Hopefully both Wood and Vando will be back soon. It would almost be like a trade since neither have played this year. Vando gives us another defender and Wood gives us a big that can play with AD at times.

Speaking of trades, I really don’t know what they will do. It’s kind of funny that the Lakers are linked to every player rumored to be on the trade block.

Our good play does buy time for the trade prices of some of these guys to go down. I would like to find a back up center right away. We were lucky that AD got hurt against the Warriors because they play small. We would not be as lucky against other teams.

There are a couple of centers that could help . Both Sharpe with the Nets and Richard’s of the Hornets are both good rim protectors and rebounders with bulk. Either would be an upgrade over Hayes . We desperately need a defensive center when AD is not on the floor. And either one of these guys can be had for a 2nd round pick or 2. Center is one position that we have leverage because there are more centers available than teams that need one.

LeBron should be fresh again for the Cav’s. Looking at the schedule, there games against bad teams that if he sat out he could get 4 or 5 days rest. We need to take advantage of those games.

With almost an entire month of home games coming up, this is a time when we can begin to stack some wins. We appear to playing well at the right time. I think we can move into the top 4
If we play as team, like the last couple of games.

Aloha,

28 points off of turnovers. Ball game.

Aloha,

Now that was fun. Our defense continues to roll along and what’s the most impressive, it’s been shutting down very good offenses. We are now the 5th seed in a very tight western conference. If there is going to be a trade or two, the way we are playing Rob can wait for a better deal. Just a few thoughts.

For me this might have been LeBrons best game, primarily because he was pretty engaged on defense, with the exception of a couple of uncontested Murray 3’s. On a night where the Kings were determined to not let AD score, he repeatedly attacked the holes that was created all the way to the rim.

Rui hasn’t shot the ball well the last 2 games but he was still huge in both games. There is a good reason why despite Laker Tom’s best efforts, he is not on the trade block unless it’s for a superstar. He has become a very good defender and can guard 3 through 5 like last night. Neither Murray or Derozan could do much against him and he held his own against Sobonis when we went small. And he has been great on the boards as well. That game winning tap out is something he has been doing all year. What made that even more special was he moved Sabonis under the basket to get to the ball and Sabonis is a strong dude. But so is Rui.

Over the last 10 games or so, DLO seems to have rediscovered his offense. He had another fine game and he competed on defense as well. He is always mentioned in pretty much every trade but they better have a plan for the second unit because he is most of our offense on that unit.

Gabe has been looking like the guy we were hoping to get when we signed him last year. He plays tough defense and his shot has been falling. The last 2 games he went 6 for 8 from 3 and one miss was a half court heave at the buzzer.

Man it’s a shame that Cam can’t find his offense. Because he has been playing some great defense. And he came up with 2 big offensive boards.

AD had a big game on defense and rebounding. I really wasn’t that concerned about his scoring because they sent two or three guys at him all night, which allowed Lebron to score at the rim pretty much whenever he wanted to.

Austin is definitely this teams glue guy as he does a little bit of everything including completing on defense. It’s no wonder we struggled during those 5 games he missed. He’s perfect as our 3rd option.

One sour note for me was turnovers. On paper 13 turnovers isn’t bad, but as usual it was the kind of turnovers that is maddening. I counted at least 6 of what I call WTF turnovers. Sloppy unbelievable turnovers that lead to easy baskets. A lazy out of bounds pass by AD. A couple of passes by LeBron that I couldn’t figure out who he was passing to. A fumbled hand off, a 5 second count. He goes on and on. The Kings had 12 points off of turnovers in the first half alone. Stupid turnovers kept the game close and continues to plague the team.

If we can pick up a couple of wins at least he end of the month it could set us up for a great January where we are home for almost all of the month. Go Lakers.

Aloha,

It’s funny, I never feel like we are doomed when LeBron has to miss a game. Over the last 2 years we have won more than we have lost. It’s when AD had to miss a game that I panic.

While AD was AD, it really was DLO and Rui driving the win. This was reflected in plus minus AD was +4 but DLO was +29 and Rui was +31.
Yesterday was the first game this year that DLO has dominated. It happened a lot more last year. It was good to see and I hope this wakes him up.

As for Rui, this an example of what he can do when the team involves him in the offense. From an efficiency standpoint point it was one of his worst recently he was only 9 for 13. He missed 4 shots! And only 3 for 5 from 3! I’ll give him a break on one of the 3’s the ball was dumped off on him and he had to throw it towards rim to beat the shot clock.

I kid of course. I have been calling for Rui to get more touches because he is our most efficient scorer. And JJ said something in post that was surprising. He said that this was the first game since pre season that he drew up an ATO for Rui. And it was not just offense. Rui had 4 steals, a block and Grant didn’t score a point against him.

While I would like to see Rui more involved, we have enough weapons to get multiple players more involved. Sometimes I believe we force feed AD and LeBron too much. I would love to see a more balanced attack. We have a lot of days off coming up, maybe JJ can work on that.

Aloha,

well that was ugly. This was a schedule loss. JJ should have rested Lebron, he has looked tired over the last several games. while he said he felt good at the beginning of the year, i belive he is feeling the effects of the Olympic summer just like Austin felt the effects of his team USA summer. The game might have even been closer without Lebron.

There are other issues that need to be addressed. We started the year with AD as the hub and that worked extremly well. We have went away from that over the last few games. part of that maybe AD’s foot issue but teams have made adjustments as well. Dalton went through a hot streak but teams have adjusted to him as well.

The mark of a great coach is the ability to adjust to the opponents adjustments. We will see if JJ can do that. The defense has been better. even last night, we gave up 109 points but the TWolves went on a 13 to 2 run against mostly G league guys in the last 4 minutes.

We continue to run Dalton off of screens but the defenses are ready for it and he never seems to get free. His open looks have come from inside out basketball and that is Laker basketball. We have to get back to basics and attack the paint. I would have liked to see Rui involved more as well. last night he was 4 for 5. Rui started out the season scoring well. Then played sick and missed some games. Then he hurt the ankle and missed some more. Since coming back its like he is the forgotten man on offense and its up to JJ to get him involved.

This stretch of games would not be nearly as bad if we had not given away 3 games we should have won. So I’m not going to panic yet. We need to tread water until next month when most of our games are at home. Hopefully AR will be available for the Heat.

We have shown we can win at times without Lebron, so I would look at games that we can rest him.

But now its time for JJ to earn his money and adjust to the opponents adjustments.

Aloha,

17 turnovers 5 by Lebron giving him 25 over the last 5 games

OKC 15 offensive boards.

Ball Game

Side note while I like Daltons shooting we will not win many games when Dalton gets 17 shots and AD gets 9. One shot in the 4th for AD will not cut it.

Utah is next. Might be a good game to rest LeBron because he has had a sting of subpar games.

Aloha,

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I’m thankful that the Lakers ended that losing streak and actually played some decent defense. Just a few random thoughts.

The Spurs are no longer pushovers. They are a solid team that was on a 4 game winning streak including wins over the Warriors and OKC. What I liked about this win was the total team effort on both sides of the ball. Defensively it was a great team effort and on offense there were 7 guys in double figures.

Moving Dalton into the starting lineup was the right move. While we give up a little defensively, one good defender does not make a great defense, so you might as well be the best offense you can be and Dalton does that. Even if he’s not scoring, you can’t help off of him. The Spurs did a few times and he burned them. And what’s cool about this line up is teams can’t help off of Rui either because he’s shooting 50% from 3.

Our half court defense isn’t to bad, it’s transition that kills us. And it’s turnovers that feeds that. Not just turnovers, but stupid turnovers. If there were a stat for stupid live ball turnovers the Lakers would lead the league. We had 13 turnovers which on the surface isn’t terrible but they led to over 20 points, most of those in transition.

Speaking of stupid turnovers, LeBron may lead the league in that category. He had 5 more turnovers last night. Several were the head scratching variety. He now has 20 turnovers over his last 4 games. This 4 game stretch is one of LeBrons worse stretches as a Laker. Yes he had a triple double and yes he was big in the 4th but poor shot selection and the turnovers were one of the reasons he had to be big in the 4th quarter. Hopefully this is just a slump because he needs to be better than he’s been for us to have a chance.

We had a DLO sighting last night. He has struggled offensively this year but we were reminded of how dynamic he can be on offense. We probably would have a couple more wins if he had been better. Hopefully he turned a corner and we will see more of this of this going forward.

Max was great last night. He teases us with this kind of play and when he does it makes that contract look good. He always plays hard and he has ability on both sides of the ball. What he’s lacked is consistency. He came into the season with high expectations because of that contract. Hopefully he is becoming more comfortable now. If we can see this version of Max night in and night out he will be huge for our bench.

OKC is next. It will be a tough game. While OKC has a sizable advantage in the back court, we have a size advantage. Outside of Hartenstein they are a pretty small team. They will need to collapse inside which should open things up for Dalton and Rui for 3’s.

So happy Thanksgiving. Go Lakers!

Aloha,

Talk about a crazy year. When the schedule came out, it looked like the Lakers were going to be severely challenged. But we find ourselves the 3rd seed and 1. 1/2 games out of first with the 5th best record in the NBA.

I think JJ has proven that he is up for the job. Moving DLO to the 2nd unit has made a world of difference. It has balanced the team, giving us DLO and Dalton to go with LeBron. Now the bench is scoring.

There are defensive concerns but our offense has become one of the best in the league. Hopefully the return of Vando will help in that area. Adding Cam to the starters has helped our defense and it’s been pretty good during our 5 game winning streak.

JJ wants a 9 man rotation but I really think we should go 10 deep. I don’t think it’s wise to play LeBron and AD extended minutes every night.

Austin is shooting 36% from 3 but I think he will be better. If he can get it up to 38% or better he can be that 3rd star. He is flourishing in this offense and averaging 18 a game with nearly6 assists and 5 boards. The best of his career.

In Dalton we finally have that motion 3 point shooter. We have other guys that are good 3 point shooters but Dalton can shoot on the move which we didn’t have before,

Now if we can just get all our guys healthy at once perhaps we can figure out how good this team can be. Starting at the end of this month, through most of December most of our games are on the road. I think we only have 4 or 5 at home. That will be a real test. I hope we pass. If we get through that stretch on a positive note, this team might be contenders after all.

Aloha,

Buha reported that the Lakers are interested in Walter Kessler of the Jazz. 24 hours later there are no less than 7 sites reporting this, quoting Buha. First that’s not news. There were reports in July of the same thing. I like Kessler and wouldn’t mind landing him. He’s averaging 11 boards and 3 blocks so far. But here is the rub. Is the Jazz looking to trade him? Not a peep on a rather important detail. You can want a player all you want but doesn’t mean a guys going to be trade. It doesn’t become real until we hear that.

Aloha,

The Lakers start to the season has been impressive. Not just the wins but wins against quality teams. What’s more impressive is they are doing it while trying to learn a new system. There are a lot of kinks to work out but it’s great to win while you are still trying to figure it out.

Actually the Lakers could have blown all three teams out if they hadn’t shot themselves in the foot. If we shot even 25% from 3 we would have blown the TWolves out. We had good looks, just missed. While the Suns shot an insane percentage from 3 early, the 7 early turnovers were as responsible for that 22 point deficit as the Suns shooting. And last night 19 turnovers fueled the Kings transition game. I don’t mind a turnover when it’s due to a great defensive play but I hate sloppy turnovers. Austin and LeBron accounted for 11 of them. They are both gamblers but there were just to many forced passes into tight windows. I see turnovers as our number one problem right now but it’s nice to win even when we are turning it over.

LeBron had sat back and played a supporting role in the first two games. But the Kings were determined not to let AD beat them and doubled and tripled him all night. So LeBron said fine, be that way and proceeded to score 16 points in under 3 minutes, on his way to an impressive 33 point, 14 boards and 10 assists game. He reminded the league that you have to pick your poison. You maybe able to shut one star down but not both.

And AD, 30 points. That’s 3 30 point game in a row.Considering the effort the Kings put into stopping him, those 30 points must have been disappointing for the Kings.

Rui continued his fine play with 18 points and 9 boards. He is becoming quite the master at finding seams along the baseline for easy baskets. He’s also shooting 50% from 3 so far this season. Not bad.

DLO finally broke out of his shooting slump. He is to good of a shooter not to. 3 for 6 from 3 is more like it. I think he has been the biggest victim of the new AD centric scheme. I think JJ will need to find him a few more looks a game.

Austin was Austin. He continued to rebound, defend and knock down his 3’s. Just need to take better care of the ball. Those 6 turnovers were way too many.

Max continues to struggle while Dalton continues to shine. When Vando comes back he will be the 6th man and come in for LeBron. But it very well could be Dalton coming in for Austin when he needs a break.As long as Dalton can continue to compete on defense, his offense will win him the job.

When you think of 3 point shooting, which is more important. The Lakers made 14 on 34 attempts while the Kings made 15 on 44 attempts. It’s the made number that’s important.

So it’s the Suns next to begin a 5 game road trip followed by a tough Cav’s team. Thats 5 games against contenders, one back to back and a long road trip to start the season. The schedule makers didn’t do the Lakers any favors but we are still 3 and 0. Not bad.

Aloha,

Great win for the Lakers against a team many consider a contender in the west. I know it’s just one game, but I saw what I wanted to see. The Lakers regulars didn’t play a ton together in the preseason but when they did they looked very good and this was a continuation of what I saw in preseason. Just a few thoughts.

I wrote earlier that I was warming up to JJ and that trend continued. The Lakers busted their butts and JJ was completely engaged. He even called time out to slow some of the TWolves runs, something Darvin rarely did. For a first game I thought the teams executed extremely well.

Our new offense was on full display. JJ promised to unleash AD and boy did he. 35 points and 16 boards. He could have scored even more but he missed some bunnies early that he normally makes. But it was the ball and player movement that was even more impressive. Since LeBron arrived the Lakers have been an iso heavy team. Not last night. I really like how JJ ran the offense through AD. AD had 4 assists but he had a couple of others passes that led to players getting fouled and there were missed open 3’s as well. The offensive created good looks, we were just missing. We will start making them.

The defense also shined. People seem to forget about coaching staffs. Nate McMillan is a great defensive mind and his switching defense had his fingerprints were all over the defense. We gave the TWolves multiple looks and they could never quite figure us out. Ant man had 27 but on 25 shots, he was never comfortable. We also did a great job on Randle and Reed.

And of course offensive rebounds were an emphasis and we came through big time. Austin and AD had 4 and Rui had 3. We had 3 more offensive boards and 8 fewer turnovers. We had only 7. That’s 11 more shots right there.

I thought Austin had a great game. Beyond his 9 boards his defense was very good and he just seemed to be the glue guy on offense.

Rui also had a strong game. Mister irrelevant did what he did last year after he became a starter. Did what he did in the Olympics and in preseason. 18 points. Strong defense, with 2 steals and he blocked Rudy. He generally had either Randle or Reed and neither did much.

I liked Dalton’s run. He wasn’t a liability on defense and he showed off some of his play making skills. I could see him taking minutes from Max when Vando returns.

I came into the season cautiously optimistic. Based upon how good our starting unit looked down the stretch last season and in the preseason. I’m still cautiously optimistic. Yes it was only one game but I liked what I saw.

Aloha,

I haven’t posted in a while. I went into NBA hibernation because this may have been the most uneventful NBA offseason I can recall. Not just for the Lakers but the entire league. The combination of the new CBA, the play in and the lowered lottery odds for tanking has created a truly boring offseason with very little in the way of trades. The few players supposedly on the trade block were being shopped at ridiculously high prices. Even moving players with 2nd round picks was pricy. It cost the Nuggets 3 2nd round picks to move off of Reggie Jackson. While I blame Rob for the position we were in going into the summer, I don’t blame him for not getting anything done under these circumstances.

Still I’m cautiously optimistic heading into the new season. JJ is growing on me. He has the players buy in. They seem genuinely excited to play for him. He has a few experienced former head coaches to fall back on. It’s the leadership and vision that counts more than X’s and O’s.

I like our starting unit. They were 21 and 8 down the stretch with the toughest schedule in the league. And everyone they faced has something to play for. When this group played together this preseason they still look very good.

While we didn’t add any free agents this summer, in a way we did. Vando and Gabe played very little last year and if they are healthy this years it’s like adding 2 tough defenders to the team. Wile I’m hoping Vando will be back soon, Gabe has looked pretty good in minutes he played. Obviously he was on some minute restriction as they eased him in.

So I think we are solid through the top 7. I think after that is what will tell the tale. Overall Max was pretty impressive, especially on defense. He is still young and does make young guy mistakes but overall I think he will contribute. I believe Dalton will make JJ go to a 10 man rotation. He looked very good. If Wood can rediscover his offense, he is a guy that played well with AD last year. But our biggest current need is a defensive minded center to back up AD. We were killed last year whenever AD rested. Perhaps Koloko can be that guy. If not, at some point we will have to trade for one.

I think if this team performs well, AD could be a MVP candidate. I believe JJ is going feature him more than any of the prior coaches. There will be no more 4th quarters where he doesn’t touch the ball.

A lot has to go right for this team to contend, health of course being number one priority. We will need our young guys to a take another step in their development. And I have already seen it. With the exception of 3 point shooting, Austin has looked better on both sides of the ball. Rui has as well. He is defending better and rebounding at a high level, to go with very solid offense. He was my candidate for MIP player in a poll I took part in. Max has grown and we will have to wait on Vando.

While the west is really tough and we have a hard schedule out of the gate if most everything goes right and maybe wrong for a few teams I think this could turn out to be an exciting year.