Wmc 15/16: We are finally at the END! BYE BYRON!!!

Tough, tough loss in one of our better efforts on the season. Especially with that bogus offensive foul call on Lou when Barea reached and grabbed him before the push off. Good fight tonight and we almost had one for a change. Heartening after all those 20 point blow out losses.

 

Yeah tough game.

This is going to sound crazy, but the defensive rotations were really good for about 22 seconds in most shot clocks. It was the first time I've seen even decent defense for any length of time out of this team. Excluding the first quarter of course which was a s*** show. I thought this was a pretty well played game, but D'Angelo was off and the young guards let Barea completely eff with their minds.

Barea is a tiny irritant, but you can't lose your composure against him and we pretty much did. That last call was BS, but it wouldn't have even happened if we'd just relaxed against him and beat him easily. The possession that comes to mind is when Julius had him in the lane. Dude, just go right at him and score easily over the top. Barea is 5'5"!

 

^^ Yeah, there was some really good play on D last night after what I thought was going to be the same old, same old, with us going down by double digits in the first and never catching up. Instead, they fought and were in position to win this one against a pretty good opponent. That's a rarity this season. Loved Lou's swat on Barea, Roy got a nice block and Julius had that great run down swat. Besides those standouts, it was pretty solid team D other than the first.

The play with Julius he was up at about 15 feet from the hoop and them showing zone and I think he was worried about drawing a charge if he attacked as well as getting the ball stripped against a little guy. The whole team got flustered by the zone there for a few minutes.

 

Agreed, but the spacing was soooo awful there was no way for Julius to make his move. They dump him the ball and then stand and watch him literally 10 feet from him so Julius is essentially triple teamed immediately. He can't make a move without the defense helping while Lou and Nick(?) are standing there looking at him.

 

My WMC:

Yesterday I had to do a lot of driving and ended up hearing a bunch of Mason and Ireland and I caught when they did crosstalk with Kellerman and Wiley. Ireland and Kellerman were EXTREMELY supportive of Byron Scott and both even claimed he deserved another season. I was shocked. Ireland is a mouthpiece, I know, but Kellerman isn't. Kellerman might be annoying, but he's generally a smart guy.

They argued that this season hasn't been an easy job juggling Kobe's tour and a handful of mostly inexperienced kids with high expectations. For the record, Carlisle said the same thing yesterday.

However, it completely ignores all the incredible mountain of evidence that Byron is doing a historically poor job. They neglect to mention the myriad of coaching mistakes that Byron makes every single game. They neglect the stunted development of the younger players. They neglect the mind boggling losing streaks.

In fact Kellerman's argument was that we're TOO competitive in games citing our close loss to the Mavs. He contended that Byron has the team playing hard and that they're finally gelling. I wonder if he actually watches games or if he was handed something by the Lakers and told to say it? I don't know...

Ireland closed with: "If Mitch has his way, if he's the only one making the decision, then Byron will stay on this summer".

Mason was the only one calling it ridiculous.

 

^^^ There's a reason I said this thread should be titled "FML".

 

Unfortunately, everything on ESPNLA is suspect because they paid A LOT of money for those rights. I mean, in 50% of our games thus far in January, we have lost by more than 15 points. How are we close? How is that gelling?

 

To that point @RandleROFY Kellerman's ONLY caveat was do the Lakers make the move this summer to go get Luke while they have a chance. At WORST Luke took a great team and didn't eff it up somehow which is more than can be said for Byron. This Laker team is far more talented than single-digit wins, but Byron can't coach so here we are.

Kellerman weighed in with: "Is it worth it to jettison Byron (in his opinion) "unfairly" in order to get potentially the next great young coach?"

The answer is obviously yes. If you can get Luke you do it. He's got all the potential in the world to be our Brad Stevens and given our more talented roster, we could take a strong leap forward.

 

Actually I like listening to everyone except Lebatard who is the worst and Wiley because he's just the most annoying kind of person to talk/listen to.

Listening to Ireland and Trudell give you great insight to what the Lakers are thinking. They're right there and they know what the temperature of the Lakers is. By listening to their "ideas" you can get a good look at what the Lakers FO is thinking.

That is actually why this "Byron for another year" thing from Ireland REALLY makes me nervous. Before I figured there was no way they'd do it and even this I'm sure is lip service because there's simply no justification for keeping him. In fact the more I think about it, the more I think this is Mitch saving face with his buddy by leaking stuff about how he really wishes he could keep him around.

Mason and Ireland are a fan and an insider discussing the Lakers' thoughts. I like that.

 

Oh no. I knew it was possible a week or so ago when Mitch started in with the Kobe's goodbye tour stuff. Making excuses for why Byron is not as bad as the record indicates. Honestly, I'd say it's 50/50 right now.

 

Not feeling it.

 

I'll boycott next year if Byron is coaching. Seriously. He's the last person in the world that should be coaching these young guys after the way he's treated them this season. That's just preposterous.

 

It's so bad right now, I've decided to join RandleROFY and Elginthegreat in rooting for the tank. I can't believe it's come to that again. Another terrible year where I want us to lose to keep our pick. Disgusting. I did not see that happening this season at all. Sad. But count me in on the tank now. I want the number one or two pick.