Because Nunn who was brought in to replace Caruso hasn’t played a single game. Also Ariza replaces Trez essentially and he hasn’t played a game either. Also unfortunately no one was brought in guard wise to do what KCP does. They are only shooters. Maybe Baze was supposed to but he’s a bust. That’s what you get with a vet min signing. Monk at least is a good scorer. But no one plays KCP level D.
Nunn wasn't brought in to replace Caruso. They are different types of players. Caruso is an elite defender. Nunn has never been considered a good defender.
this is what i mean, they brought in mostly offensive players and the offense still ranks at bottom portion just like last yr
i wouldn't say nunn was brought in to replace caruso. nunn isn't even close to being as good a defender as caruso (or KCP) anyone waiting for nunn and 36 year old trevor ariza to come save this team is in for disappointment
The loss of Caruso is such a kick in the nuts: he's right in his prime, he good at what this team is lacking, and he works absolutely great with Lebron. He also paired well the only other young player the Lakers had THT k9 sucks, Nunn is hurt and doesn't bring what Caruso would bring. And guess what he fits in well when Ariza comes back as well.
Freakin jackholes played like the 96 Bulls last night only to look like the Clippers since their existence today and lose to the Kings. Great.
Luke Kennard vs us, 5-8 threes, vs the Kings, 2-6. Lakers get every team’s best shot, and it makes a scrub like Kennard’s season to have a big game and beat us. The team knows this, they should be ready for every team’s best shot, that’s part of putting on the purple and gold. Even when we friggin sucked teams enjoyed destroying us, kicking us while we were down trotting out Ryan Kelly and Robert Sacre.
Nonetheless that was who they brought in to replace him at a lower price. They play the same position, backup PG. You all are thinking about replacing how Caruso plays and of course Nunn doesn’t play the same way. But he was brought in as a replacement for the position. Since he hasn’t even played that’s a big gap there.
The bigger issue to me is that they replaced KCP with only shooters who don’t play D at all. That is a glaring problem to me.
yeah, part of it is teams getting up for us, but part of it is our awful team defense. everyone hates our offense, but the clippers are even worse. one of the very worst offenses in the league. and they put up 119 in regulation without sweating. still can't believe that people mocked some of us on the forum who were concerned that we lost three 35+mpg rotation players who defended and how that would impact the defense this year. well, it has HAD AN IMPACT. vogel (or any coach) can't just wave a defense wand when half the team is thoroughly disinterested in playing defense, including its stars and other veteran guys who are supposed to be leaders. what do you do? sit them and only play guys who will defend? can you sit lebron? i think he's catching crap from our player/gms for sitting dj! can you sit melo? you're stuck.
It used to be that we would be good enough to overcome a scrub lighting is up, missed FT's, or any other negative and still win in our championship runs. Point? This team can't do that. Just seems like they don't have "it". Whatever that is. Just disappointing.
If KCP and Caruso were the key to everything then Vogel is a fraud. Caruso only played 20 mins a game. Top perimeter players lit us up last year too, including Westbrook twice. Folks got amnesia around here, with this idea that those two were out there locking people down one on one. That didn't happen, the team defense was a bit better on the rotations, and I get that, the guys had played together for a couple of seasons. We played the same slow it down, hold the ball until late in the shot clock, don't crash the boards, game without AD or both him and Lebron. It helped keep the scores down, but they struggled to score, so the offense was always all on AD and James. Vogel just gets out coached down the stretch in too many games IMO. Including this last one.
vogel is a defensive coach and he has nothing to work with this season. the FO got rid of all the defensive-minded guys and brought in a bunch of old shooters who don't play D
To be fair with “no” picks they brought in Reaves who is helping in the now also and Brown who can maybe help in the now and also shoots some. Obviously surprised with Austin this early. Let’s hope with Huff too who’s starting to turn some heads with his play. And Stan Johnson hopefully too and probably before that latter two but good they are 2-way contracts. Not being that magnanimous, yeah no defending wings with size besides up in years Ariza and same with the guards.
Like who? Kuzma couldn't guard a parked car. He still can't in Washington now. Melo is a push for Kuz. Trez was a defensive liability but he could score. Those two weren't defensive minded players. We complained all season about Dennis and his lackadaisical effort on both ends of the court. Russ isn't some huge drop off from Schroeder defensively IMO. It comes back to Caruso who again only played 20 minutes a game. And KCP...who I will point out, has never made an All Defensive team, and was decent one on one, he had his issues with guys that could score too. Howard is a defensive player, everybody wanted him back. Vogel hasn't played him enough. James was a big part of the perimeter defense too, he hasn't played in half of the games. I think the Vogel doesn't have the players he need stuff, is an excuse for him being rather mediocre this season. Again... I still believe that 12 new players and some missing a lot, or all the season is the biggest problem. Frank could be doing a better job, of coaching what he does have though.
KCP and Caruso are missed for sure. KCP was the price that had to be paid to get Westbrook and I don’t mind that a bit. We know why the Lakers didn’t resign AC. They lied about going all in unfortunately and balked at the luxury tax they would have to pay to keep him. They put their money in THT (same contract) instead. I won’t fault them for their choice even though THT had three good games and now looks terrible. The issue here is that the guards they brought in Ellington and Monk can’t guard their own shadows. I mean nothing there on D. To top it off Baze who was touted as a pretty good two way player has fallen off the map into DNP category. That’s a huge bust. He was slated to possibly start and now he can’t crack the rotation. And he was also supposed to be able to cover some wings as well as guards. Personally I want to see what Nunn and Ariza will bring to the team. In that part I agree with Vogel. Not giving him an excuse because he should have enough already to win most of our games (.500 is not acceptable, sorry).
