WMC 20-21: Whine, Moan And Complain... You Know You Want To

If we're grabbing another C, why not wait for buyout season? If anything it would be foolish to not wait and see how the market unfolds.

 

I wasn't trying to say that Howard was better than Gasol, I realize that Gasol does some things really well. But he has his limitations and teams are clearly taking advantage of them. Gasol does not clog the middle much anymore. When he is in place, he is a load, but he is really slow and if he ain't there already, he ain't getting there anytime soon. I think when he gets the ball in place, he should shoot, but he usually hesitates and that is my biggest complaint with him.

 

another C is a must. gasol plays good defense but he moves at a snail's pace and harrell sucks on defense

 

Never said we shouldn't wait
I just think we could use another big body. Preferably one that's focused on defense and rebounding.

 

I'm fine with Gasol but I'd say Dwight impact was more physical and "viewable" than Marc one , including with no AD on the floor ... because of lobs/dunks and just bullying people in the paint .

In case of AD missing games , D12 stamina/ physical condition and ability to get you easy buckets look more valuable to have .

2019-2020 Dwight would probably get you 12-14 pts yesterday while Marc didn't score .

Overall we are depending too much on Lebron heroics from 3 lately .

 

right. viewable. in terms of impact, gasol was better last year and is actually better this year.

i liked howard, but have yet to feel like we'd have won a game if only he were here.

if gasol gets hurt, we'll pick up a big on the waiver wire who can do what mcgee and howard did last year, imo. or something similar. i think people underestimate how easy it is to fill that role on this team and how little use it is against most top teams.

 

Except that there are some top teams who do have bigs like Jokic. I think in the playoffs, we can throw a couple of big guys just for their foul count, then AD is going to be able to hold down the middle. But even AD did not do very well against Jokic. We are giving up a ton of points in the lane, even against teams with mediocre big men. I do not believe that this is not a problem for us once the playoffs begin and the games slow down.

I believe that if we don't address this soon, we will not win the next ring. I have to find a way to slow teams down in the lane. We had that before and we don't have it now. It is huge. While I think Gasol has some serious skills, he is too slow to really be a solid force for shutting down the lanes on defense. As good a shooter as he is, he doesn't score much. I can see him as a second string sub on a team that has a defensive starter at center.

 

Nah we're fine , we're the best defensive team in the league ... I get both abeer3 and others point of view ...

 

lol ok.

but can we at least WMC about real things. we basically didn't score for 8 minutes against a terrible team and we're complaining that gasol isn't good enough on defense (and that's not even true!).

 

THT > lonzo

schroder probably is, overall, too. that one's closer though.

 

https://www.ocregister.com/2021/01/29/making-sense-of-the-lakers-lineups-and-minutes-shuffle/

Basically any lineup with Kuzma and Matthews doesn't work: throw in THT and Caruso for one or both of those two

 

The whole article is great on why Vogel knows that these lineups suck but is willing to play them still:

 

he opens up the floor with the threat of his shot, and he creates easy baskets for others. dwight and javale need dunks created for them, marc creates dunks and layups for everyone else.

he's not our problem. our real problem, honestly, still: we don't have guys who can bother the top notch big wings. as we'll see tonight when we have trouble with tatum and brown. i'd rather get a rhj type than a rim running big, tbh.

AD and lebron can both get after wings here and there, but it would help to have someone who could eat minutes just wearing paul george types down. kcp (small), wes (slow/short), and kuz (slow) can't. THT has the tools but isn't experienced enough yet.

 

Yeah brain fart.

 

I agree with this as this rosters biggest weaknesses: Kuzma hasn't been able to progress from last years in terms of defense. Him being able to guard Harris and potentially Tatum, Kawhii, or Durant will be critical for the Lakers success unless Matthews can take it up a notch. As you note it's possible THT could develop into someone who can also guard these guys with his freakish wingspan but that's a lot to ask a 20 year old.

However, Dwight and McGee were pretty negligible in 3 out of 4 matchups last year, Dwight was very valuable against Jokic. So there are two potential matchups where Dwight would help (Denver and Philly). Odds are that we have to worry about the wing issue more (Clips, Nets, Boston, Philly again, Bucks) as they're several more teams who the 2+ big wing threat.

This roster is still very very good so if your able to flip one of the underperforming bigs (Kieff, Kuzma, or Trezz) for a guy like Dort or even a Aaron Gordon type that will make this team complete and basically unbeatable outside of a fluke series

 

Our off season was awesome... but so far, all our new acquisitions suck.

 

I'd rank them like this:

I think Schroeder has been pretty good: he had a rough stretch but the last couple of games he's playing like he did in the early season

Harell has been ok. Just depends on the matchup with him: If a team doesn't have size he can do a lot of damage.
I'm still concerned about him though as he can't stretch the floor and we don't use him on the PnR to finish games.

Gasol just seems to slow against good teams.

 

We miss Dwight a lot. We are soft in the interior when it comes to contesting shots and rebounding, Lakers need to look into the trade market or FA and try to find a shot blocker (Dedmon?) .