I'll post continuous breakdowns and analysis of the Lakers/Basketball here (Mostly offense), when I have the time. Overview: There has been very little to like from the Lakers offense thus far... and when I say very little, I mean almost nothing. Watching the first two games of the Lakers season has been like watching a car crash straight onto a wall almost every single possession. The funky thing about the Lakers' level of ineptitude however, is that while I know that SOMETHING HORRIBLE is happening overall when I watch them play, I sometimes can't figure out WHAT EXACTLY has gone wrong because there's SO MUCH GOING WRONG that it's hard to keep track of. The only way to truly break down all of these miscues then, is to go frame by frame and analyze as many plays as possible. Here we go! TERRIBLE LAKER PLAY #1: The play starts with Wes handling the ball after a Suns miss. (ha..ha..ha..) The Phoenix defense is not set, therefore the ballhandler should be someone who can push/drive the ball and get the defense further on their heels (AKA, NOT WES). This is a situation where Lin needs to demand for the ball in transition since he's the best driver (Kobe is out on this play). Boozer is posting up in the middle of the paint. WHY? WHY??! WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT BOOZER?! Whether this is by design or not, it's stupid because Boozer is no longer a good post player. Frame it like this... Let's imagine that instead of Wes handling the ball on this possession, Kobe or Lin were in Wes' position. Well, if Boozer is posting RIGHT IN THE PAINT, then even a capable ballhandler can't drive to the rim and take advantage of their one-on-one situation because Boozer's man can rotate off him to contest the driver's shot. All is not lost though! The offense is still getting set up. 19 seconds left. Lots of time to run a quality play. What should the Lakers do? Maybe they should give it to Boozer in the post? Yeah... let's not do that. How about we run a PnR instead? Lin is on the Right Wing, but will soon be heading to the top of the key to get the ball and call out a play. Davis and Price are running to the right side of the court, either for no good reason or to set up Double Screens for Lin who is continuing to the top of the arc in order to receive the ball. I can't really tell if Davis/Price are screening or not, because if those are meant to be screens, they're awfully half-assed. There are 18 seconds left. Plenty of time to set up a play. The Phoenix defense is set now though, so Wes should pass to Lin, who will call a set-play. Alas... Wes doesn't see Lin, so he dribbles around and looks for an entry pass to Boozer in the post. SPACING NOTE: Notice the 4 Suns ready to protect the paint? Yeah. That's a sign of horrible spacing. Wes is still trying to deliver the entry pass. Lin is still running to the top of the key, completely free now for an easy pass. Boozer continues to dig in for a post-up. It looks like Boozer really is going to get the ball for a post-up. WHATEVER MAN. SPACING NOTE: Still 4 Suns ready to protect the paint. Wes finally makes the pass! To Boozer... (Look at the disappointment in Lin's body language as he stops and realizes he ran all that way for nothing). Boozer digs his heels in and it looks like he's going to start posting up. Aight Boooze... Prove me wrong. Score on the block like you did when you were still in Utah.... 5 YEARS AGO. On the right side of the court, Price has gone in the corner to spot up, while Davis is hanging out by the rim along with Thomas who is completely lost for the Suns. After making the pass, Wes is attempting some sort of cut. If Boozer is actually going to work out of the post, Wes shouldn't be cutting through the paint. (There are already 2 guys on the side he'd end up cutting to...) Instead, if Booze is gonna post, Wes should stay where he is and wait for a kickout 3. SPACING NOTE: Still 4 Suns ready to protect the paint. Wes is cuttin- oh wait. Wes wasn't cutting. HE ONLY THREW THE BALL INTO BOOZER SO HE COULD TRY TO GET A HANDOFF... FROM BOOZER. WHAT. WHAT IS THIS OFFENSE??! WHY DIDN'T WES JUST KEEP THE BALL IF HE WAS GONNA SPEND 5 SECONDS TRYING TO PASS TO BOOZER ONLY TO IMMEDIATELY GET IT BACK. WHAT IS THIS! THAT 5 SECONDS LITERALLY HAD NO POINT TO IT. Lin and Davis look to be confused by this too. Price seems to have given up already, as he's no longer in his spot-up stance. Veterans know their stuff. SPACING NOTE: Now there are 5 Suns ready to protect the paint! Wes has the ball now. He gets into a shooting motion. His defender goes to close out on him. Boozer becomes a statue and doesn't try to screen Wes' defender. Lin and Davis remain confused. Price has still given up. SPACING NOTE: 5 Suns in the Paint! Lin remains confused (Check out his T-Rex hand). T-Rex hands are always a bad sign. Davis has joined Price on giving up on the play. Boozer remains a statue. Wes has been possessed by the spirit of Michael Jordan. SPACING NOTE: 5 Suns! Wes makes a dynamic move to the left! Lin and Price get into their catch-and-shoot stances as they expect a pass from Wes, (because he totally shouldn't take that shot it looks like he's gonna take). Also, after Boozer became a statue after the Wes handoff, he's finally reanimated back into human form. Booze still can't move his feet in order to set a screen though, but he does throw his hand out in a horrible attempt to slow down Wes' defender. Great job Booze. SPACING NOTE: 5 Suns in le paint! Turns out Boozer's hand nudging defense couldn't stop Wes' defender from contesting A FADE AWAY JUMPER from Wes... A fadeaway jumper. WITH 13 SECONDS LEFT ON THE SHOTCLOCK. Oh Wes... Okay. Whatever. Jeremy Lin's T-Rex hand returns. Ed Davis is now possessed with a T-Rex hand as well. Everybody get on the floor. Do the dinosaur. REBOUNDING NOTE: 4 SUNS IN THE PAINT and 2 LAKERS.
TERRIBLE LAKERS PLAY 2: Lin pushes up the court. Thomas is waiting for him. Lin and Wes recognize that there's a mismatch (on paper... lol) on the court. Wes Johnson (6'7, 215 SF) is being defended by Eric Bledsoe (6'1, 195 PG). Wes has now posted up Bledsoe, trying to take advantage of the size difference. Jeremy sees this and then immediately crosses the halfcourt line and throws... A RAINBOW PASS. LOL. What is this. It looks like Lin is shooting a freethrow. Okay! First problem... WES JOHNSON HAS 6 INCHES AND 20LBS OF MUSCLE ON ERIC BLEDSOE. WHY IS HE POSTING HIM AT 15 FEET. He should post him down RIGHT ON THE BLOCK. Secondly, WHY IS LIN PASSING THE BALL LIKE THAT. EVEN IF WES IS GONNA POST UP STUPIDLY FROM 15, LIN COULD AT LEAST GET CLOSER AND JUST THROW IT RIGHT INTO WES. Surprise, surprise, rainbow passes aren't very safe things. Even though Wes is 6 inches taller and has inside position on the pass, Bledsoe skies up and gets a piece of the ball. Great job by both Lakers on that play. Wes seems to win the mini-jump ball. (As he should... Thank goodness for that.) The rest of the team just stands around and watches which is always nice. But wait! It's not over! Bledsoe comes back for the ball and ties up Wes. A few moments of ballfighting later, Bledsoe would end up getting called for the foul, so I guess in the end it all worked out? Yes.
I really appreciate this. I know this will be both fun and not so fun to do for you with the way things are going. I hope you can keep it up.
Good stuff. All our players are standing flat-footed. They aren't bending their knees or even look like they're thinking about making some sort of move. So sad to see.
Let me preface this; I didn't write this nor break this down. I got them from another member last night after the game on LG. I decided to put it in this thread instead of making a new one. It breaks down the game last night and goes into some detail on both sides of the ball; both negative and positive. Hope you all enjoy. "Good win tonight- finally gave me the energy to put out this post which has been brewing through the last couple of games. There were good things tonight as well as bad things, and the team has shown some improvement in their schemes. However, the reality is they won mostly because the team got hot at the right time and their opponents can't shoot- and the game almost got away from them early. There are still some things on the court that frustrate me, because the solutions are so obvious. I know common refrain of those defending Byron is that this team has no talent. But coaching is about maximizing what you have. Regardless about what you think about analytics, anyone should be able to see the following logic: Lets say you have one set of plays that on average get you 1.1 points per possession (ppp). Another set that gets you 0.8 ppp. If you run them at a 30/70 split between the former and latter at a 100 possession pace, then you score 96 points per game. If you flip around the proportions, you score 104 ppg. Most of us already know that this is the logic that makes long 2s the worst shot in the game (2pts at 35% shooting w/ little chance at fts = 0.70 ppp) If your team is more talented, then maybe both numbers go up but it would take a ton of talent to perform an eight point swing in efficiency. The same goes for defensive efficiency as well as playing your more efficient players more minutes. The Lakers put their "70 percent" in the wrong place from the start of the season. This means they could do so much better with some fixes (which have been painfully obvious to anyone who has been following this thread) and some of which, they've slowly begun to implement: SUGGESTED FIXES: Start Ed Davis or play him a lot more minutes, preferably next to Lin where they were such an efficient combo during preseason but barely see the court together in the regular season. Minimize the possibility of Wes Johnson doing anything on offense outside of catch and shoot, and limit his time on the floor. What you don't do is run the same stuff you've been running the last 15 years regardless of personnel. (And over a decade ago the offense still didn't work: ) Remove or reduce the following: - Pindowns for non-ball handlers like Wes and Ellington - Pindowns which are designed to get long 2s - Pindowns for Kobe that have no plan B if they deny - Poorly executed 1st option out of the triangle - Isolation postups for Boozer, Hill, Sacre unless there's an obvious mismatch - Motion that takes too much time off the shot clock, clogs driving and cutting paths, and/or is designed to result in a 2 point jumper Run more of the following sets: - Pinch post - Spread pick and roll - Horns - Motion and/or zipper cuts that get the playmakers the ball on the wing rather than the spot up shooters ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtNFlxKxmHg&list=PLXWsHGeAyQD67l_3TZ8lEbJ0OjQzcCWtt ) - High post split On the last point, they've been running the high post split a lot more, and it's paying off, as it seems like they're able to get a good shot every time. This is something I've been recommending since the first post, and it is popular around the NBA because Rick Adelman successfully designed an entire offense after it: Twolves corner offense: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_hIUEB7Iw0 Rockets corner offense (under Adelman): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwhaW2nVVcg Warriors corner series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyUe5VimrvA Here are the Lakers doing the split game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gK4fxWY4nk#t=11 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gK4fxWY4nk#t=662 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e1wZ7DFWbs#t=35 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e1wZ7DFWbs#t=81 You see Kobe getting open off of it because teams are reluctant to switch on the screen, which would mean putting a smaller defender on him. Instead, they eat the screen. (Here is the Lakers containing the Suns by switching, but the Suns get bailed out by the refs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e1wZ7DFWbs#t=587) Going all in on the corner offense should be right up Byron's alley because it's a combination of a 3 man game and 2 man game, similar to the triangle and Princeton (was probably derived from the Princeton). At the same time, it's better suited for todays NBA because of the shots that result from it. Compared to the other teams above, the Lakers weak side action could use some work though. And finally, they need to preach what is an efficient shot and what is not. Even the Princetonesque sets can be designed for 3s and a layups- its a question of emphasis, not the motion itself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiRkRkCSx_U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEFDOS8ZT_0 As for defense, recall something that Bill McDonald was talking about during the Hornets game, Hornets coach Steve Clifford's philosophy of "no gambling" and "don't foul". This simple philosophy, helped the Hornets improve last year from 30th! in the league on defense to 5th, without adding a single defensive stud. The Lakers, who give up open threes and shooting fouls all the time with their wild gambles and slow feet should pay attention. This also goes for gambling on offensive rebounds and steals in transition instead of getting back on defense as early as possible."
I didn't write this up. I received permission to post this from another member on another forum. Just some insights. 'So the Lakers could have been easily leading at the half tonight against the Spurs, if not for some dumb defensive rotations and positioning, some of which looks like its by design. On offense, besides the usual stagnancy, they couldn't score because Kobe was cold, but that's going to happen if you're playing him so many minutes, and having him exert so much energy running around on defense. On the surface, it looked like they were doing OK defensively, due to the effort they were putting out, and also because the Spurs have been out of sync so far this season. But giving up all those wide open threes is inexcusable. First, the Lakers are trying to ICE every pick and roll, which is something I agree with, but then they completely miss the point behind ICE, which is to make the other team take an inefficient long two. I have to shake my head at the Lakers defenders rotating off of the 3 point shooters as if their life depended on it to stop Duncan or Parker from shooting a 20 foot two pointer. I bet for the most part they wouldn't have even shot those anyway because they know it's not the greatest shot - the Lakers rotations play right into their hands. (Couldn't find any clips yet, but I remember seeing it around four times in the first half). Couple that with the breakdowns where the guards don't cut off the middle or the bigs play too far out on the contain, this makes for some bad overall pick and roll defense. Also, they have to rein in Kobe on defense. All that tough talk about having Kobe's respect means nothing if you're willing to let him make defensive mistake after defensive mistake. Someone needs to tell Kobe he can't play Danny Green the same way he plays Tony Allen or Kidd Gilchrist. His hedge towards Parker meant that the Spurs trade a pull up Parker two for a wide open Danny Green 3. This one is Kobe's fault for leaving Green as well, forcing a bad switch: If he's tired, REST HIM. If not, then at least hold him accountable. In general, the entire team doesn't recognize what is a good shot to give up and what isn't. They give way too much space to corner shooters on the weak side. They help one pass away off known sharpshooters. They jam up the paint at all costs while not recognizing that the other team is penetrating SPECIFICALLY to kick it out to said shooters.' The last clip Kobe sprinting toward Duncan who probably isn't going to shoot that shot then passes over to a wide open Kawhi for an open 3; Green is also open in the corner.
