Optimism Discussion: The Laker's Sky Is Not Falling

Thanks to Bron Prince Reaves and especially DLo

 

That's awesome and depressing at the same time

 

This team has a shot at breaking into the top 6, but they gotta take care of Sacramento and Golden State this week, and then take care of biz against the Hawks, Sixers and Pacers (all 3 games won't be easy as all 3 teams are in the play-in in the eastern conference jockeying for position).

Take care of as much business as you can at home (4-0 ideally and hopefully get Kings win), and then we got that 6-game roadie where it features mostly meh teams but some really good teams as well (Bucks & Pacers). Need to go 4-2 on that roadie. Then 3 more really tough games at home against Cleveland/Minny/Golden State (go at least 2-1 here), and then 2 more on the road to close out the season (Memphis and New Orleans and need to split these).


^If the above scenario plays out, we will end the season 48-34.

 

5 in a row, is it safe to be optimistic? If we can just get the Robber Baron back we'd look like a different team.

 

Weird how some people memory holes games like this and Lebronto and the Terry dunk to make it seem that dudes like to mess with Lebron.

 

whatever players need for motivation, do that

regular caring doesn't seem to work with this group for a whole regular season

 

5 game streak. I will take it.

 

I'd kind of written off the season after the two Kings losses, but here we are! Since Rui was inserted into the starting lineup this is a pretty good team. There are still hiccups and bad matchups like that Kings game, but that happens to everyone now. The Kings just lost at home to Dallas by like 30.

 

In fairness to Ham, which he doesn't deserve because he was NOT fair to "core" players / starters from last season's WCF run roster .... yes Vando out for most of that time and Rui for a couple stretches. BUT ...what was unfair from him was ignoring what most coaches don't do, which is having injured players lose their positions or normal allocation of minutes once they're healthy again and needing minutes to get back to what they were. Meaning either Vando OR Hachimura should have been back in that starting lineup just as soon as they were healthy and had some minutes under their belt maybe coming off the bench for a game or two at most.

 

Despite everything we are positioning ourselves for another deep run. We need a little luck on how the seedings play out but DLO and Austin are ready to lead us through this maze of good teams. IMO Denver is still much better than everyone else but we cross those rapids when we come to them. ELO (Eternal Laker Optimism) all the way.

 

I think it was because he felt neither LeBron or Rui could stay with SFs but Rui absolutely got hosed on his minutes and continuity once back …. and Ham’s attention to getting him “back” to where he was, and oh lookee here it hasn’t been that bad with defending SFs. PLUS everything else Rui brings on offense with his size and skills and on defense too with that size and strength and good athleticism.

 

I don't mind Ham experimenting, that's healthy for a team and necessary to make the jump from good to championship caliber. Vando moves well on the perimeter but can't do much on offense and Rui is slower-footed but spaces the floor well, so maybe Prince is somewhere in between and could be the best fit with the starters? It's not a crazy train of thought.

The problem was that when certain experiments didn't work, Ham didn't pull the plug and fall back on the continuity the 6 core guys built up last season. It's hard to keep the right balance between experimenting and evolving your team while still maintaining an identity, it takes a really good coach to do so. Ham just isn't that guy. Maybe he could be down the line, coaches can improve to. But I'm not willing to wait and see if that happens with this group.

 

All that being said, if D'Angelo Russell hadn't completely choked against the Nuggets, we'd be the defending NBA champion instead of the Denver Nuggets.

Yasuke is my guy no doubt, but to keep it a buck here, Rui played a ton of minutes in a lot of the games we lost (25+), before he got the nod to start. There were some games where he could have played more, but this narrative that he wasn't being used much previously, simply is not true.

There was a point that we had both Rui and Jarred, available this season, and Jarred was the preferred option on some nights. If he was healthy right now, that would still be the case.

That doesn't detract from Rui’s performance, Rui still does what we brought him here to do, get buckets.

 

Thanks for the 200th time for your opinion on that. And Rui's minutes were all over the place, with different lineups and little consistency each game how many, with whom and when he would be pulled. No one, aside from LeBron and AD, got the consistency that Prince got, undeservedly, due to HIS shortcomings.