Official Wmc Thread: Um Those Too Many W's! Fix The Tank!

Discussion in 'Lakers Discussion' started by puffyusaf#2, Oct 4, 2014.

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  1. LaVarBallsDad

    LaVarBallsDad - Lakers Legend -

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    Even after the win last night, I don't take much joy from it...Kobe is playing into absolute exhaustion and it will be coming to a point where Bryant's production goes down dramatically or he gets hurt...it took a Herculean effort by Kobe to get the win last night and it took OT to get the job done. We won't see that Kobe every night on a consistent basis due to age;

    I'd rather get a top 5 pick than watch these meaning less wins since we have absolutely no shot at making the PO's...
     
    LaVarBallsDad, Dec 1, 2014
    #421
  2. Juronimo

    Juronimo - Lakers Starter -

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    I haven't embraced tanking yet pesonally but I got little joy from the win. Kobe is still playing way too many minutes and it's only a matter time before catastrophe strikes unless Byron Scott gets his head out of his a** when it comes to Kobe's minutes.
     
    Juronimo, Dec 1, 2014
    #422
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  3. five6two

    five6two - Rookie -

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    I'm starting to think Byron is purposely over working Kobe to complete the tank job own the down low. Just think about it, let Kobe do whatever he wants to basically tire him so if he goes down, the team is so far in the hole, it's too late to rally back with a good record. Byron, you really are an evil genius.
     
    five6two, Dec 1, 2014
    #423
  4. lakerjones

    lakerjones Moderator Staff Member

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    I absolutely agree that Byron abused Kobe's minutes for a stretch there. But last night I believe was justified. He pretty much kept to the timeline (was headed for 35 minutes - I think he played a couple minutes too long in the first, IMO), but then we went to OT and there was no way Kobe was going to go out of the game at that point. He made history last night with his 6,000th assist and his triple double with 30/10/10 (oldest player to ever get one) and if we had lost it would have been very, very bittersweet. It was an amazing night for Kobe and one for the ages, really. To take him out in the OT would have been pretty anticlimactic. I did enjoy last night's game a great deal!

    That said, he better cut down his minutes on this roadie to compensate.
     
    Last edited: Dec 1, 2014
    lakerjones, Dec 1, 2014
    #424
  5. ElginTheGreat

    ElginTheGreat - Lakers MVP -

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    It sucks to be in a position where we have to second guess literally everything but that is where we are. I have to admit there is a part of me that is watching the standings hoping we get a top five pick. On the other hand, I just can not root for my team to lose.
     
    ElginTheGreat, Dec 1, 2014
    #425
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  6. Doc Brown

    Doc Brown - Lakers Starter -

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    The disparity between Eastern and Western Conference....

    Western - Lakers are a last place team
    Eastern - Who's next on the list for a beat down?
     
    Doc Brown, Dec 2, 2014
    #426
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  7. LaVarBallsDad

    LaVarBallsDad - Lakers Legend -

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    Ok. I'll be nice. Kobe had no legs at the beginning of the game and was clearly struggling; he came out in the 3rd and put together a decent quarter of basketball. We built a lead heading into the 4th against a team worse than us and might possibly be the 2nd worst team in the league. Then, in the 4th, Scott comes out with

    Price
    Young
    Ellington
    Davis
    Sacre

    They ended up playing Nick young isolation for the most part and virtually ran no other offensive sets whatsoever; as good as Ellington as been this season in his reserve role, he's a spot-up and his strength is not creating shots off the dribble; knowing the situation with Kobe, Young being the only creator, I would have liked to see another floor spacing, creator out there next to Nick...I would have gone with Lin that entire 4th quarter or most of it. He played 30 minutes; an extra 8-9 minutes wouldn't have hurt and we possibly could have kept our lead without bringing Kobe back in that 4th quarter...
     
    LaVarBallsDad, Dec 2, 2014
    #427
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  8. Juronimo

    Juronimo - Lakers Starter -

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    RandleRoty I agree with you.

    That 4th quarter lineup made cringe. Price just isn't getting it done as a backup point. He's a point guard with literally zero, zero point guard skills. They could have brought Jeremy Lin at the 10 minute mark and that would have given them another creator out there.

    I wonder if Price has some compromising pictures of Byron Scott or something because I for the life of me don't understand why he gets so much playing time.
     
    Juronimo, Dec 2, 2014
    #428
  9. LaVarBallsDad

    LaVarBallsDad - Lakers Legend -

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    Here's another scenario; if you're worried about Lin and minutes, why not bring Clarkson in for 2-3 minutes. Better shooter, defender, creator, etc...2-3 minutes of Clarkson is wouldn't have hurt hus...
     
    LaVarBallsDad, Dec 2, 2014
    #429
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  10. Juronimo

    Juronimo - Lakers Starter -

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    Hey, what can I say, I agree with you. You are right. I would like to see JC get some burn out there. Unfortunately our head coach does not see things the same way.

    Sigh...
     
    Juronimo, Dec 2, 2014
    #430
  11. lakerjones

    lakerjones Moderator Staff Member

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    We should always play Eastern Conference teams. Love the title of the thread right now. By the way, great third quarter from our boys tonight. That's been the rough quarter for us, but tonight we dominated for those 12. Good to see. Yeah, Detroit crawled back but I never felt like they were going to catch us. Good win.
     
    lakerjones, Dec 2, 2014
    #431
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  12. Chillbongo

    Chillbongo - Lakers 6th Man -

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    ^Exactly. I could care less that it was against Detroit, a worse team than us. A win is a win and we played really well at times tonight. A win even against the Pistons gives confidence in the gameplan and will pump us up for future games.
     
    Chillbongo, Dec 2, 2014
    #432
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  13. puffyusaf#2

    puffyusaf#2 - Lakers Starter -

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    This team has too many guys who want to win to simply just suck. If this wasn't the Lakers we would be hearing all about how tough the schedule has been for this team. Our defense is still "WTF" level but with the return of Nick our offense seems to catching its stride. I won't go into the "we gonna make the playoff" rant but I will say that there might be a fee words of "is it possible" by the end of the season. I enjoy every win and am glad to see us put a couple together!
     
    puffyusaf#2, Dec 2, 2014
    #433
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  14. lakerjones

    lakerjones Moderator Staff Member

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    Agreed Puff. I'll tell you this - 4 losses is the difference between us right now and being a .500 team. I absolutely feel that if we had Swaggy P for the first 6 weeks those would be wins and we'd be at 9 -9. There were numerous games where we struggled just to get 80 something points.
     
    lakerjones, Dec 3, 2014
    #434
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  15. thkthebest

    thkthebest Administrator Staff Member

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    Unfortunately, .500 isn't enough to make the playoffs in the West.

    The 12-5 Clippers are 7th in the West right now. A team that is on pace to win 58 games is somehow the 7th seed! :banghead: The Suns are the 8th seed with a 11-8 record. OKC also got Durant and Westbrook back so we know they're going to start winning at an elite rate soon.

    After all that, we have 3 teams (Pelicans, Nuggets, Kings) that are hovering around the .500 mark.

    It's really absurd how bad the East just continues to be. I know the West overall has better owners, but geez, the disparity just grows bigger every year.
     
    thkthebest, Dec 3, 2014
    #435
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  16. lakerjones

    lakerjones Moderator Staff Member

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    ^^ Oh, yeah, not saying that .500 is good enough in the West to make the playoffs. I'm just saying we'd look a heck of a lot more respectable if those four losses were wins, especially given that we had the hardest schedule of any team in the league for our first 12-15 games. I never thought the playoffs were realistic for this team this year. Even at my most optimistic with Randle looking good in pre-season I thought we could maybe max out at 45 wins which was not going to get us into the playoffs unless one or two of the top tier teams suffered serious injury. Actually that did happen with OKC.

    But yeah, I'm just saying that had Nick Young been healthy we would not have nearly as bad a record as we have. We aren't going to beat many of the good teams in our conference. We just don't have a good enough squad. But with Young we compete hard and at least stand a fighting chance which I like to see when watching our games, win or lose.
     
    lakerjones, Dec 3, 2014
    #436
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  17. abeer3

    abeer3 - Lakers Legend -

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    i feel really dirty that my first thought about the detroit game was: this might lose us a draft pick.

    so, my wmc is about me. the team has been much more fun to watch of late.
     
    abeer3, Dec 3, 2014
    #437
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  18. karacha

    karacha Moderator Staff Member

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    They should change the playoff format: 16 best teams should be in it, period.
     
    karacha, Dec 3, 2014
    #438
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  19. Kenzo

    Kenzo - Lakers All Star -

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    That would be a start. Still, the east schedule is a joke.
     
    Kenzo, Dec 3, 2014
    #439
  20. therealdeal

    therealdeal Moderator Staff Member

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    I thought the same thing. But the NBA pulled strings to get Cleveland a top pick... maybe we can get lucky too.
     
    therealdeal, Dec 3, 2014
    #440
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