WMC 24-25: Seasonal Highs And Lows!

Meh...bottom line here is this. IF the Lebron and AD duo, had only missed playing together in 16 of our 49 games. Instead of only playing together in 16 of 49, we would be talking about how awesome this team is right now. IF we ever get to see them play together in 20 straight games this season, we will be talking about how awesome this team looks. You can put new tires and a higher octane gas in the Lamborghini, but if the engine and transmission are out of synch, you might as well have a 4 cylinder Mustang.

 

i'm not even sure i agree with slick. even with top lebron and AD, westbrook simply has to buy in on defense. you can't beat the best teams when you have even one guy who's constantly disengaged on that end. they will find him and exploit him.

 

Hell I'm in the room, and I'm not interested in just pointlessly bashing one player every damn day, while overlooking the real issue here. This IS the whine and moan thread isn't it? Well I'm whining and moaning about my two superstars being MIA as a duo, for the majority of the damn season!!! Every thing Lakers is not all about Russell Westbrook!! I don't care if you seem to think that is so and continue to push that narrative. That's your opinion, and your gripe. I'm entitled to have my own.

 

lol, we saw them put up 158 on the pacers and were like....nah. we'll punt.

 

Yeah well we can debunk my theory, just as soon as we actually see a top Lebron and AD play together for more than a smattering of games.. I did see the top rated defense in the NBA, finish in the play in game and out in the first round last season. I was told that was because Lebron and AD were out. Ok..well I'm going to apply that very same logic to this season. For as bad as the roster has been constructed, Westbrook's bid fit, Vogel's suspect coaching etc. We are still around the same 500 we were last season, without a top AD and Lebron. Ergo....perhaps not having a top Lebron and AD is the actual root cause to all these issues?

 

Well we might just get to see the big three actually play together tonight...Questionable usually means most likely playing. let's see how much we miss the role players if that is the case.

 

AD covers up a lot of mistakes on defense so there is hope for the regular season but again against good teams they will exploit this: I mean he just doesn't rotate to shooters well.

The playoffs are not going to go well - on offense he's redundant to what Lebron can bring in transition and is an active detriment in terms of spacing and on defense he's just not good and looks like he has no natural feel for it. He's not just part of a Big 3, against good teams who prep he's a weakness. WB is going to win the career lifetime award for empty stats (at least old box score numbers)

 

Yeah well..call it whatever, but I damn sure want to see more than 16 out of 49, from James and Davis moving forward. If that stays the same, there isn't a fix available period to fix that problem.

 

That's one hypothetical perspective, I haven't seen enough of Lebron, AD and Russ on the court at all, to make any judgements about what might or might not work. Hypothetically if Russ and Davis ran the P&R on one side of the floor, while James rotated toward that action from the perimeter, or cut to the basket when teams rotated over to defend it. We would be pretty tough to stop on offense, because we'd have shooters spacing the rest of the floor. Teams would be forced to play AD straight up, allow Russ a clear path to the basket, play Lebron straight up, or concede an open 3 to the other two shooters on the floor. There is more than one way to skin a cat, the Spurs won a chip with Avery Johnson attempting maybe 1 jump shot a game. At some point though, they have to actually play together in order to figure out what works or doesn't.

 

Yet they finished in the play in game nevertheless. All "valid, credible" NBA players to boot.

 

What are you going to do when they put SF on Russ and tell him to go under the screen?
The obvious play here is to give Russ an open jumper.

 

Look...let's not all develop amnesia around here about last season. You guys do remember that is took a 5 game win streak to close the season to get that play in spot right? We were 3-8 with AD before that late flurry.

 

Have Russ attack that SF off the dribble, which is his game. Let him go under the screen and drive right at him, the defense is still going to rotate towards Westbrook anyway. Cam Payne cooked us in that playoff series doing just that. Like I said, if you have a strong drive game to the cup, it's not so simple as backing off a guy and hoping he shoots a jumper. That open space you concede can bite you too. It's works great if the player in question, can't finish at the rim. Schroder got swatted a lot in that action last season. Regular season Rondo was ineffective at driving as well. Playoff Rondo knocked down his jumpers, so it wasn't an issue. Schroder didn't and still got swatted at the rim. I'm not worried so much about Russ, if James and AD or doing their thing.

 

Umm Cam Payne can shoot so the defender is put off balance: that analogy doesn't work. The space you're thinking of open up either floaters or mid range pull-ups which Russ either doesn't have his in his game at all or again the defense is happy to concede

The Rondo point actually proves what Russ's detractors point out: playoff Rondo worked because he made defenses pay for the go under by making 3's AND not by attacking the cup alone. I don't want Russ shooting 3's in a critical playoff game at all

 

The assumption is two fold, Lebron and AD can’t beat single coverage, because you can’t double them both without leaving Westbrook and a shooter open.

That dropping off Westbrook somehow solves all the issues in defending him in the half court. If that was the case how did he score 25+ points against us in 3 of 5 games. And as a third wheel if he goes off in 50%+ of playoff games, we are winning that series.