Optimism Discussion: The Laker's Sky Is Not Falling

i think as long as the other west teams keep sucking, we have some oxygen.

 

We have oxygen because we haven't seen Ariza/Monk/Reaves/THT play together. That should be a set of players with decent to better size/athleticism and outside of THT shooting

 

true. it's the optimism thread, so i'll avoid talking about how i think AD won't be able to be himself for the rest of the year (which is, as we've seen, doom for the team).

i really think 25mpg of ariza and reaves in the same game can really change our defense. just one more guy on the floor at all times who's going to get to the right place and keep his head in the game, defensively.

 

3 more guys with defensive chops and size actually, when you add Johnson too. Wheeeeee!!

 

not only that, but when AD is back, we can take some more serious looks at him at center with stan or ariza playing alongside melo or lebron. no more three small guys, a sf, and AD.

 

It funny that small ball warriors really worked because they had 4 guys outside of Steph who were all 6'6 or taller and were physically just big/strong.
The idea is that you can do that around AD/Lebron and actually outdo the warrior but not by playing a bunch of shrimps. Ariza/Johnson, THT/Reaves, Ariza/reaves etc would be what I would be running most of the time

 

right. the only moderately successful "smallball" systems jettisoned small sgs (and sometimes even small pgs). 5 6'7" guys can work if they're the right 6'7" guys. but a big, a 6'7", and three guards under 6'4" has never worked as far as i can remember.

i've seen a small backcourt and two bigs work, too, provided the small backcourt is super talented. but in general, three-guard offenses have been gimmicks used to exploit second units in the regular season (see carlisle, rick).

 

Even if it's against the worst team in the West... win is a win at this point.

Some really nice offense from Bron, Russ, Melo, Monk, and even Bradley in the 3rd Q.

The Russ/Bron two man game to close this thing out was unstoppable.

 

The PnR with Westbrook and Lebron should be utilised more

 

Man.. Melo is a stud sometimes.

I'm still keeping hope alive, it's hard but I think this team of misfits can put together a pretty dangerous playoff run. I liked Russ overall again, I don't know what that guy is thinking at times, especially on defense, but he has energy other guys just don't seem to have.. we need that.

 

I guess I'm the only who feels that the team is going in the right direction

They would have won this game easily if they went back to Dwight at center. They were crushing Memphis and then decided to play Melo at C, Memphis quickly came back and then Dwight even did see time with Adams was in. Second game against Memphis were the coaches cost them the game IMO

Otherwise having real NBA level talent makes a big difference: Memphis is a very very good team.
Monk looks great
They found something in Johnson
Ariza/Reaves coming back

 

yeah, it was a weird game to freak out over. i think it came on the heels of a too-close game against houston and featured a collapse, so it's created emotions.

but in a vacuum: 2nd night of a back to back at memphis missing AD = expected loss.

i maintain that a) we're better than we've been, in theory, but b) we're still not that good, and we've basically run out of time to build the kind of chemistry necessary to compete with the top teams. utah/phx/gs (and even denver and lac if they get their guys back) are running largely the same systems with largely the same players from last year. this matters and helps you win.

 

Yeah, I'm not sure why this loss caused the reaction it did. We had no business being in it and having a shot all the way till the end. Memphis is a much better, much healthier team. We played the night before and only played 8 vs Houston. Obviously we're not going to have any energy down the stretch against a top 5 Grizz team. I hate that we gave up the 13 point 3rd Q lead in a loud, ugly fashion. We ran out of gas. Simple as that, mistakes ramp up when that occurs.

 

***If*** we go 5-0 or 4-1 over the next 5 games, that would make me optimistic.

 

Give us our team back, now with Johnson added and Ariza and Reaves and hopefully Nunn back soon, and I am optimistic going into the playoffs with a puncher’s chance. Big 3 healthy and possibly even Grant on board as well. I still believe it all starts with defense and Vogel can work with this much improved defensive roster vs the availability of what he has had up to this point. We can score the ball. ALWAYS a crap shoot with health for every team. S*** happens types of injuries. Not conditioning or proneness.

 

well, we haven't won more than 3 in a row this season, so i'm pretty sure we're not going to win 5 now. but the next 7 games are all winnable, in theory. honestly, less than 4 wins in this group would cause me to basically check all the way out.

 

Happy New Year! Most entertaining game of the season last night. The addition of SJ really balances the roster.

 

Nice to see us run a team out of the gym. Good bounce back from blowing the Memphis game.