Reflections

Aloha,

I am pretty pumped up about the coming finals. I have been thinking about what got us to this point.

1. Defensive wins championships. It always has and always will. And this team was built around defense. We are number 1 in the playoffs and this is without our best perimeter defender. I know some grumble about some inconsistent scoring with guys not named LeBron or AD but we are here because of our defense that the other guys are playing. I understand that 3 is greater than 2 And that we are not A great 3 point shooter team. But 3>2 only works if you are getting the 3’s. We dominate paint scoring while contesting 3 point shots and running guys off the 3 point line. While I would love to have guys that were as good at defense as our current group and were very good 3 point shooters. But those guys are few and far between and they are expensive. We will not have the cap space or realistic trade chips to land them. So give me defense first. Beside we have guys that do hit 3’s enough to make our offense work.

2. Our star duo. There are a lot of star duos in the playoffs. But the Lakers are still standing is because of the consistency our stars have played with. While other teams stars have had off nights, the Lakers stars haven’t. Our stars games have ranged from very good to great. When very good is your worst games, you have something special.

3. The myth of the 3rd option. Coach Vogel said it best when he said the 3rd option is the open man. Our offense runs through LeBron and AD. Many want Kuz to be that 3rd option. But he doesn’t get the shots to be a 3rd options. Most of his points comes from activity. Running the floor, cutting to the basket and put backs. He gets very Few plays run for him.

When you have LeBron or Rondo running the offense, they search out the open man. What makes this offense click is several guys can score so teams have to defend everyone. I think that’s better having a 3rd guy. You never were the points are coming from. KCP had been the closest to a 3rd scorer we had but last game he only took 2 shots, while points came from several other players.

4. Depth and versatility. it still amazes me how We can play so many different ways with so many different line up combinations. In today’s NBA I feel that 2 stars and a deep versatile line up is now the winning formula. While we maybe able to do a few small upgrade this off season, I believe the two stars and a deep team will be the road map for the team going forward.