Let's hear em. This needs to be sent while the lunacy of his coaching in the 1st two games and especially Sacramento is fresh on everyone's minds in the organization, not just here. They cannot have been happy seeing what they are seeing from Scott themselves. For starters, with a search on "Los Angeles Lakers contact us" this comes up below, though the subject line auto fills as "Website Feedback". Of course there is a phone number and street address. feedback@la-lakers.com How about by noon time tomorrow Nov 1st PDT, we have at least several best bang for the buck addresses, including Media types that cover Lakers, and then just one sending of this post with a quick and short intro ..... to all of the addresses? So it's organized and not multiples flying in from everywhere with the same topic to the addresses. Not going to get Byron fired but could be added fuel, in addition to what they are probably already thinking, to lay down the law behind closed doors about his horrible use of the talent they have assembled this year and for the future.
Also make sure to send it over to the radio guys at ESPN LA. Thompson & Trudell, Mason & Ireland, and Max & Marcellus. Maybe get the Kamenetzky brothers in on it too. I don't have access to it now but I know they are active on Facebook and Twitter. I'm not saying it will get Byron fired or if it will even be the right decision ultimately, but the topic needs to be addressed at least. At a minimum, people can discuss what changes Byron must make so that it pressures actual change. If they want to elevate things further, they can discuss possible coaching replacements and if firing another coach is the right move. (I for one would be happy to see him sacked, he's so stubborn and set in his ways I don't see him changing anything about his coaching).
This is happening. Doc is down with it and his user name's going on it. Not mentioning LB as we look like rabid haters now with the all time record number of GARBAGE signatures and Byron being the record holder. I asked him if he wanted to edit first and look at it like an open letter to the FO. Reads even better with the passion still there. I'd like to get it out 2-3 hours before game time today if possible, if sirron or anyone can get me attachments of the copy below for email and twitter. As mentioned, to the link above. Though feedback I guess for the "web site" I'd expect someone to pass it on. Would suck if they did not. Anyone have any other email address where you would feel it would be forwarded to Jeanie, Jim and Mitch? Would be great to have a back up or an even better destination. On twitter of course Ireland comes to mind and Thompson, with Mason and Wiley. Ireland and Thompson couldn't come too severely as employees. But they would have to counter with intelligent conversation on the specific issues when Mason and Wiley hopefully attack as well with what they are seeing. Everyone else has to be seeing this as well besides us at LB ..... what Byron is doing and not doing that is horrendous. Who else on a short list of Lakers beat writers? Kamenetskys? One of them? Both. Bresnehan? Outside the box? How about Magic? Call his a** out too? I'd have to be talked into that. Open letter to Lakers FO from Lakers fans Many Lakers fans knew from the jump that Byron was/is a terrible coach and this legacy hire (Calling it what it is) is nothing more than a way to calm the flames from fans about the recent string of blunders this FO has bestowed on this great franchise. Byron is truly a terrible coach and more and more fans are beginning to see why. We could be sitting on coaches that fit THIS team better (Karl, Thibs, younger coaches with fire – Stevens (Bos)) and not someone that is a retread in the same group as Brown, MDA. But we are too worried about the perception and the look it would give other teams, players, media if we fired another coach so fast. Let me ask, how do we look right now? Scott is embarrassing himself with his lack of coaching, Kobe is embarrassing himself with his inability to realize 3-21 from three is proving all the doubters right about him, DAR is getting dumped on because he can’t do what got him to the pros, the rest of the team is down because our coach would rather blame them than put anything on himself. In two games, we have seen so much wrong from a coaching standpoint, most of us can’t stomach watching the 2nd half of games because there is only so many times we can yell at our TVs in one night. This is a year we are all supposed to be excited: Kobe is back, JC/Randle the future, DAR being the 1st real PG since Magic with his passing skills, Hibbert’s redemption, but no we are stuck waiting on the biggest obstacle in the way, Byron, to get the hell out of the way and let this group grow. DAR – Taking the best PG prospect in the draft with his skill set and sticking him in the corner at SG not touching the ball is literally the dumbest thing I’ve seen in basketball in a long time. You want to lighten his workload? You don’t make him learn a new position on top of the one he is already learning, you lighten the load that he came here to take on. Instead of running him in 10-15 pick and rolls a night, you let him get 7-8 in and the rest of the time let him initiate the offense. Problem being, we would be lucky to get 7-8 solid pick and rolls a night from Byron and we definitely aren’t running any semblance of an offense to initiate. Then comes the question, you draft a guy KNOWING that Byron hates the pick and roll (Remember he didn’t want Jeremy Lin balling last year because pick and roll is too basic for him), KNOWING that DAR’s bread and butter is pick and roll and now it’s "well we didn’t take the best player available because we thought fantasy land was going to deliver us LMA or DJ"……What in the hell, you don’t make franchise changing decisions based on hopes and dreams and definitely do not say that stuff to the media Byron. This is the number 2 pick overall, this is the building block for the future and Byron is just pounding him into the ground before he has a chance to put on the gloves. I would love to see what Pop would do with DAR, he’d be crapping pick and roll in his sleep he’d be running so many of them. Then he gets barely any meaningful playing time to play his game? Really? How the hell is supposed to learn, how did JC learn? How do Towns, Mudiay, Okafor and any top pick in the past learn? They get out there and take their lumps. Let the kid play his game, just like JC last year, give him the reigns to the offense, run the pick and roll to death and let him lead. He’s money off the pick and roll shooting, his pocket passes are 10/10, let him work for crying out loud. Kobe – I’m sitting here running earthquake drills and ducking for cover every time this dude shoots a 3. Drop the ego, get you’re a** in the mid-range/post area and drop 25 on people on 13 shots with the same move that can’t be stopped. 5-12 vs. the Kings and 1-8 from 3, HELLO? MCFLY? ANYBODY THERE? Dominate the mid-range, we’ve seen countless times Kobe dominating in the mid-range/elbow/post, if Byron can’t figure out that is where he is most effective, he needs to go. I’d love to see Nick Young chuck 3s at this rate, out of the flow of the offense (Well the time we have the ball, I don’t know if it’s considered offense), he’d be so far down on the bench section that 320 in the nosebleeds would have a better chance of seeing the game. But since Kobe is family, can’t be mad, it’s Kob, kind of how the FO won’t criticize Byron, Magic won’t criticize Byron, Worthy won’t, but if you are outside the family one mistake and you are hearing about it (Looking at MDA here and to a lesser degree Phil when he got spurned in a petty feud, but I digress). Byron needs to sack up and bench him or get on him about getting to his sweet spots and let others set him up because quite frankly Kobe is impeding the progress of our future players with his chucking antics. Go ahead and take 20 shots from the post because either A.) You get an efficient 30 or B.) The defense shifts and the other players get wide open looks. Kobe said he wants to pass the torch himself, well he’s got 3 young pups chomping at the bit for it and he’s doing the opposite of that. Byron needs to step in and drop this you are in the family can’t criticize approach because he’s failing big time in this department. JC – THE best player on the team and Byron is going to sit him for long stretches where we are losing leads or getting blown out. How blind are you? If he’s not at 35-37 minutes for the season, something is wrong. This kid can flat out ball and his progress as a player is being stopped because Byron can’t effectively manage a rotation without switching 5-5 at a time and letting players like Kelly get 20 plus minutes a night. You play your best players and JC is our best player. PLAY HIM when we need him most. Offense – If I had to sum up the offense we are running into 1-2 sentences it would be….Players dribble/pass around the perimeter until 10-12 seconds left on the shot clock, in which at that time whoever has the ball gets to ISO their man for a shot. Literally that is his offense and it’s pathetic. On top of that he’s going to blame the players for not running the offense. BYRON HAS NO OFFENSE. His in game adjustments are garbage/non-existent, there is zero spacing as 3-4 guys at a time are consistently inside the 3 point line, Byron can’t effectively run a play where we consistently get the defense out of position for easy buckets and going by this offense long 2s are the easiest shot in basketball. How hard is it to run DAR/JC/Young/Randle/Hibbert or DAR/Lou/Young/Randle/Hibbert or JC/Lou/Young/Randle/Hibbert or put Bass in for Randle for the mid-range game, Black in for Hibbert for lobs and baseline dumps for easy buckets or Kobe in for anybody to take advantage of his pick and roll skills, mastery of the game? Run a 1-4 pick and roll (WHAT 80% OF THE LEAGUE DOES), have the 2 and 3 spotting up on the wings stretching the defense, the 5 on the baseline ready for a touch pass from the rolling 4 or cleanup on a miss and the 1 attacking the roll to find the 4 or take the shot? It’s a hell of a lot better than having everyone ISO their man every damn time down the court. We wouldn’t know any easy bucket if THE OTHER TEAM SCORED FOR US. Every basket is so difficult, every clanked bad shot turns into a fastbreak the other way. Randle has to ISO all the time, same with Kobe, Young and Lou because we don’t know what an easy bucket is. It’s PATHETIC. Defense – Lord have mercy if Byron ever runs Bass/Kelly vs. Cousins/Koufos-Cauley-Stein again, I will pay for the plane ticket and arrest fine, fly to LA and slap some sense into Byron. In what world does that make sense? And to do it for an extended period of time? What good are you as a coach? AND YOU ARE KNOWN FOR BEING A DEFENSIVE COACH. Why is Kelly getting extended minutes, he’s a poor shooter, defenses are letting him shoot, how many wide open 3s does he have to clank or play out of position at the 3 or 5 before Byron realizes he either plays as a 4 or doesn’t play at all? In what world does Kelly guarding Cousins work? He’s being treated like a key sub, going up against guys he can’t matchup with and Byron just lets it happen. And on top of that, he’s taking minutes away from Randle in game 1? Just stupid. Black is a mini-double double (5/5) off the bench and can play some defense and you know, he’s a 5. The best part of the Kings game is ran a freakin’ zone last night. EL OH EL. Nothing says we surrender more than running a zone in the NBA. Byron is supposed to be "defensive guy" and his defensive philosophy is just terrible. Running zone with Kelly/Bass as the bigs trying to box out the frontline of Sacto is just comical. He should be fired just for that. Consistently playing players out of position, not getting on guys (cough Kobe cough) and ripping other guys for not playing defense is just poor taste. You coach all 15 guys not just the ones you feel like bagging on (Nick Young). Lastly you never let the offense get to the middle/paint and our defense seems to funnel them there. No wonder PGs are having career nights and throwing lobs. Thibs if you are reading this, come to LA. Byron had one thing going for him and that was he was a motivator/hard-working attitude type of guy that could rub off on young players. We couldn’t find that in another coach? He’s not the only person that could do that nor does the rest of his coaching aspects (Xs and Os) warrant a hire. He’s the definition of mediocre and even that is trending downward. Read up on what Shaka Smart is doing at Texas and the energy/drive he’s bringing (See quotes below). Am I saying he should be the Lakers coach, nope, just saying there are better motivators and people out there that can make/relate to players of this era to become hard workers. And it’s a whole hell of a lot better than this old school cat that doesn’t change his coaching philosophy, strategy for anybody. Players are already telling him he needs to change up his coaching, practices, running, outlook AND IT’S THE SECOND GAME OF THE SEASON. I won’t be surprised if he loses the players mid-season because of his inability to adapt, his inability to get the best out of players and his inability to get players to buy in. If you are asking for change this early in the season, something ain’t right and we as Lakers fans know what’s down that road (See Mike Brown). This stubborn, old-school, legacy hire move is really impacting our young guys’ ability to grow ....and to throw the team under the bus constantly and not take any of the blame (Remember it took half a year to admit to running Kobe in the ground) is not someone we want coaching the team. I said it then and I’ll say it again now, this was/is a terrible move and once the FO can finally figure out that winning is more important than making people happy, more important than petty feuds between siblings (Another black cloud over the franchise) and more important than putting on a show to the fans like this is good hire .....we aren’t going anywhere. Incompetence from the top down is hurting this franchise, not the other way around. Byron has done nothing but put down his players this season so far without making any adjustments himself. He needs to look in the mirror because the pitchforks are growing in numbers. I hope the FO realizes that the growth of our young players, winning to get FAs to come here, ignoring what the media has to say is more important than sticking out this legacy hire. Fans aren’t blind, we see the petty feud between siblings in ownership and how it is a huge black eye for the franchise and something the late great Dr. Buss would frown upon, we see the front the FO puts on about free agents and how there is no chance we get them unless the FO pulls their crap together. We want to win, we want the franchise to get back to where it once was and that can’t happen unless the people up top stop talking the talk and start walking the walk. We have a great group of guys right now and this current coach is doing nothing but bringing them down. QUOTES about Texas U program / motivation: “Can a new coaching staff really make that much of a difference? Perhaps. Especially when it's a staff that radiates positive energy, preaches values like appreciation and enthusiasm and demands you "attack the day." "Everything he told us from the first day he met with us has been true," Felix said. "From the time we step out of the bed in the morning, he wants us to be aggressive." "I don't know if coach Smart gives them supplements to get them going or what," Lammert said. "It seems like they're on something, I'll be honest, but it's contagious." “Best anyone can tell, this may be Smart's secret to success: enthusiasm. He devotes an entire day to it. Enthusiasm Tuesday. "To me, that should be the easiest one, if you set your mind to it," Smart said.” “It's one of Smart's five core values, along with appreciation, competitiveness, accountability and something he calls "teamship," in which players align themselves with team goals. Those five made the cut from an initial list of 19 when Smart was at Virginia Commonwealth.” "He told us if you're going to come to practice and not have energy, you might as well not come," Holland said. "He said he's really open to that. Well, I'm not sure he's totally open to that." Sincerely, Lakers Nation
Juronimo approves. If the fan base makes enough noise, maybe they'll be forced into action. We lose nothing by trying.
Boom goes the dynamite?? Might go viral if posted on Facebook? Lots of sports journalists and representation from other sites on there as well. Got to be millions of Lakers fans who know basketball reasonably well who are really pissed with what they are seeing just like most of us. First obvious step would be for FO to lay the law down to him behind closed doors, before he completely blows and ruins this season starting now. 10-15 more games of Bass / Kelly big rotation?? https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=los angeles lakers
You like this below OK for the simple intro wherever it gets sent? Anyone got anything better? Heck the few Lakers beat people above, the Lakers own website feedback email link and Facebook ought to about cover it I would think. Still waiting on attachments please, anyone, that can have the copy of the letter in whatever kinds of files that are needed, and be sent for email and for twitter and posted on a website such as here or Facebook. I need help ......please. An Open Letter to the Lakers FO Courtesy of "Doc Brown" ( a real life "Doc")
http://lefteyebrow.com/emoticons/emoticons/gifs/lakersball/Please_Help.pdf Click there for your attachment, and good luck. I support your crusade to persecute our resident genius coach unfairly.
Just my opinion but shouldn't we make sure to use the players/coaches full name instead of saying DAR, MDA, Randle, so on and so forth. I know who your talking about but I just think it kills the credibility if Lakers FO does but some chance read this. Yes, I know its coming from "Lakers Fans" so we make short names like this but this is just my thought process. I don't argue with people wanting to voice their opinions just thinking about how its going to look presentation wise.
My email. I'm a die hard Los Angeles Lakers fan. I had very high expectations for this coming season. Suffice to say those expectations have been lowered significantly. Listen I understand this is a young basketball team, but that doesn't excuse the flagrant lack of effort at times defensively, the terrible and slow rotations, and the horrible shots being taken. Byron Scott has got to go. Loved the guy as a player. Hard nosed, great team guy, hit big shots, took pressure off Magic and Kareem. The guy is a terrible basketball coach. Just terrible. How in God's name can he have the audacity to keep playing Brandon Bass and Ryan Kelly together? It doesn't work. They're too small and too slow together. There is no rim protection when those guys play alongside one another. Play Tarik Black. He's a guy who is the perfect backup center plays with a relentless motor, solid defensively, can finish in the paint area, and can rebound the basketball. It's inexcusable for this young man to not getting minutes. He proved with his play last season he can be a solid backup center. Kobe Bryant is my basketball player of all time. You find a bigger fan of him than me, but how can Byron just sit there and watch him chuck and chuck contested three point shots. He's shooting twenty percent I believe. TWENTY. It's the coach's responsibility to make sure the team plays together and unselfish and you cannot allow a player even of Kobe's stature to play completely outside the structure of an offense and it's clear there is none right now. Guys are just standing around, dribble athon's around the perimeter, and jacking up horrible shots. Where is the motion action? Where is the ball movement? The overall continuity? It's absent. The ball is sticking far too often. Makes us so easy to guard. You look at teams like Golden State and San Antonio. Elite level talent, but they actually have a system that demands constant movement of the basketball, crisp and a great flow. Where is that? D'Angelo Russell was the Lakers #2 draft pick and Scott refuses to use this young fella correctly. This dude has outstanding court vision and play making ability and they've relegated him being a jump shooter. That cannot happen? Why draft this kid if you're just gonna try and make him into Ray Allen? He needs to be the ball handler. Let him make plays. Get Kobe easier shots, get Randle and Hibbert easy buckets inside. Let Clarkson play off the basketball. Pick and roll is a strength of Russell's. He has a great feel for the game and consistently made teammates better in college because Ohio State let him run the show like this team needs to. Scott is supposed to be a preacher of defense and yet we've seen no semblance of that. This Lakers team gave up 80 points in the paint the other night in Sacramento. These players are sagging on those high screen and rolls and giving up easy mid range shots. Not closing out. Allowing easy duck ins. Poor help defense. There's no communication. The defense is a mess right now and that's on Byron for not instilling a scheme and discipline within his players. Byron has got to go.
Meh, I don't think that would have been an issue. It was a piece that covered all the bases logically with the raw frustration fans felt after the 1st two games, especially the Sacramento debacle with the Bass / Kelly lunacy against their front line, in each paragraph in the language of fans. The FO would have known the abbreviations were not what mattered, if it struck a chord with all those reading, linking for others and maybe discussing it on air. But it really felt to me like it needed to go by mid day Sunday prior to the 3rd game against Dallas. Now seems kinda after the fact and anti climatic because of the now late timing. Sirron let me know in PM that he'd been gone most of the day and was sorry the link took so long. Looks like one needs own web page such as his to host something like that which could be used for email, twitter and message board posting, as something to be clicked on and opened. I watched the Dallas game on time shift and am now just catching up on tonight's comments.
