Ominous sign. 0-4 https://bleacherreport.com/articles...he-was-fired-and-what-it-means-for-the-lakers
This Lakers team does not take pre-season seriously. They are not trying to prove anything. That being said, they have looked terrible. I only pray that they are actually going to be much better than this. Between this bad pre-season and their injuries, I am beginning to wonder if I should be worried.
Not worried. We have been through similar disasters before in 2012 and to a certain extent 2004 just showing the same signs and, thus. prepare for the worse thing that could happen...if only they were younger.
I like Vogel as a coach. That being said, there are a couple of things I do not like. I know the NBA babies superstars, which ties a coaches hands to some degree. What I want to see is the star players held accountable all season. I expect more from my stars not less. If we are not playing as expected it is their fault not the role players. I don't know this because I'm not there, my belief is that Frank can be indecisive at times. He doesn't have to be an a$$ like Phil was, he does need to hold his stars to a higher standard. He also needs to give his younger players more time and room to make mistakes. If young players, already under stress playing with all these legends, have that added pressure they will make mistakes. Frank should be calm and reassuring to the young guys and at the same time make sure they know the expectations. By playoff time we need THT, Monk, Nunn and Reaves feeling comfortable and confident, not looking over their shoulders and gun shy. This comes from being given time to play through rough spots. As much as I do not like it, I know Vogel has to bend his coaching to keep Lebron happy. I do not care about preseason wins but I do care about preseason chemistry. I think we have missed a bit of an opportunity to build that by not playing a starting group together. In the end it likely won't matter but from a coaching perspective I hate any missed opportunity. In summary, overall I like coach Vogel, just stop being a wuss at times.
Pre season, only playing two stars a night if that, other guys out on other nights . . . But yeah we look like garbage.
^ That's probably how their talk with Russ goes. "Russ, maybe use the clock more... you know, not chuck the random 3 right away?" "Nah, I don't think so." "It will look good when you win the championship." "Uh... I don't know coach."
Vogel has the toughest job in the NBA right now imo... He may have to bench Westbrook in the 4th quarter at times during the season for us to put our best guys around AD/LeBron...
Didn't really know where to write this, but it relates to coaching. We're going to hang our head on our defence and getting into transition off the back of that. But I'm curious how Vogel and the coaching staff are going to get the best out of the big 3 when they're on the floor together in half court situations. I think our closing 5 could be: Russ Baze Ariza Lebron Davis I chose Bazemore and Ariza because they're going to be the most useful in defence and both can spot up from the corner, but the game plan doesn't change if you sub in Monk, Ellington, Nunn or Carmelo. AD's role is also kind of obvious, if he gets deep position and seals his man, let him go to work. If he is feeling it at the high post, clear out for him. Or just play a 2 man game with him and the ball handler and try to get a mismatch through a screen, PnR or PnP for either him or Russ/Lebron. But what happens to Russ and Lebron when the other is handling the ball? Neither are world beating spot up shooters... Houston had an interesting game plan that helped Westbrook have the most devastating offensive run of his career (apart from his MVP season where he shot about 35% from 3). Houston play a 5 out offence with a spot up shooter in each corner. Harden would call for a screen on the strong side and try to get a double team. At this point there would be four outcomes; If no double team came, Harden would attack the basket or shoot a three. If the double came from the screener's man blitzing the PnR, the screener would roll aggressively to the basket for a good shot or an easy pass to a spot up shooter if extra help came. If the double came from the spot up shooter on the strong side, it would be an easy pass for a corner three. If the double came from Russ' man from the weak side wing area, Harden would move the ball to get it to Russ quickly, who would aggressively attack the basket. If the defence collapsed around him, it would be an easy pass to a spot up shooter. It was this ability to punish the help and especially punish the defender sagging off Russ that had them humming offensively before the coronavirus break. Harden is a great decision maker - but so is Lebron. So this should work equally as well. It's a really simple offence but it uses the strength of both of our best ball handlers. Russ has the first option in transition to attack the basket or find the open man, if nothing comes off it, we go to an early phase offence of AD in the low/high post. If neither of these are possible, we go to Lebron ball and a two man game with AD. If help comes move it to AD, a spot up shooter or Russ who attacks aggressively. We just want to destabilise the defence and get a good open shot in the paint or from 3. I'm just not sure if we have the coaching staff and/or time over the season to develop a high performing defence that creates a lot of transitional opportunities and really work on our decision making in through the three phases of offence - transition / early offence with AD and Lebron / secondary offence with Russ attacking and finding an open shooter. But I remain optimistic that we have the tools and potential to be absolutely devastating on both ends of the floor.
He lost his best POA defenders , I would be interested in knowing how much he was involved in the latest summer moves , if at all .
He never would have “chosen” to let AC go and probably the same with KCP given his druthers would be my guess, although he might have with KCP knowing it allowed Russ?
