I was going to recommend that this thread be closed until we get a different coach, but maybe the assistants are bringing more to the table than I knew...
In response to that, fiendishoc and his commentary about the first game and going forward from an X's and going standpoint; additionally, comments on defense. 'I'm a big a critic of the offensive system as anyone, but it wasn't the problem tonight. We missed a lot of open shots and shots at the basket with our normal lineups, and our playmaking ability might be enough to somewhat overcome the lack of creativity and ball & player movement in the sets. The lineups in the 4th were a joke, so we probably shouldn't read too much into that- I certainly don't expect to see that during the season. What I do worry about is the porous transition defense. There were several things that we did wrong, carrying over from summer league. Floor balance was bad- often times we had four players crashing the boards and only one back. A lot of the guys didn't start heading back until the shot was off the rim. They should be in motion as soon as the shot goes up. Also, there didn't seem to be much organization in terms of the first guy back protecting the basket and then switching to different formations as the rest of the guys get back. It was all pretty random. And of course, tired legs were a factor with guys just losing footraces, but you don't want to build up bad habits either.'
Funny, if you were to read through their thread, there are still schematic flaws, but the message is that we may have enough creators on the team to compensate for the lack of X's and O's from our head coach...
Everybody's favorite, "coach" Miller was saying that a big reason for us looking not good on the transition D was the fact we were missing so many shots. Shot goes in they have to take it out of bounds of course. Long rebound they're off to the races.
I think good point guards have covered his bad offensive coaching, and that's why his winning percentage is only .400
From Fiendishoc on LG... It was great seeing the effort from the team and especially Randle clawing back the lead against the Jazz second unit. There were some things against the Jazz first unit that concerned me though. It was too easy to shut down our offense, and we fell in a big hole early. The Jazz had already played us once and knew how to counter our stagnant offense. They pressured the initiator to take time off the clock and then denied the first option of lot of our predictable sets. Often, our first pass was with around 16 seconds left on the clock or less, with us wasting time first calling the play and then walking the ball up the floor. With limited time, poor counters, and no angles, we either put up bad shots or turned it over, letting them run against our poorly weak (albeit slightly better than the other night) transition defense. In our own half court defense, we offered no resistance to the PG taking the ball off the court, jogging up to our side, and letting them get into their offense quickly. Generally they had twice as time as we do to run their offense. We had a lot of unwise switches on D that got us in trouble. Some of our switches are good, but often times they were forced in order to cover up for gambles, and left holes in our help defense that they exploited. Once they started to put the ball in the basket, we couldn't score and then the ball started going downhill for them with their transition opportunities and early offense. The second unit couldn't exploit these things quite as well, because we had better players on the floor, and played with more energy- but it could be a recurring weakness against other teams. We should be getting the ball up the court quickly, and either developing better counters to denial, or quickly going to some of the sets that we have better suited to dealing with pressure. We should also look at extending the ball pressure on the opposing PG rather than hanging back all the time, as well.
I mean yeah it's slow, but it's pre-season and these guys have never played together. Quickness within the playbook doesn't come overnight. They need time.
Despite that analysis, I saw a lot of half-court possessions where our defense looked miles better than last year's. If for no reason other than personnel, we are going to be a better defensive team this year. And for that I'm glad.
From Fiendishoc on LG OK, regarding the defensive issues against the Raptors, I'll try to go through the opposing team's highlights to point out the breakdown. There are some moving parts in there, depending on the particular scheme, so others may have different interpretations on the plays. Play 1: Randle is on Carroll on a switch. He overcommits to go help on the roll man, leaving his man an open three one pass away. I think it should have been Kobe going into the middle of the paint, ready to close back out two passes away. Play 2: I don't like Clarkson's stance while Kobe is still there. Makes it harder for him to close out quickly. Despite not even helping in the paint, Kobe is still a step slow on his own closeout. He should have already been moving back out when the first pass was in the air. I think Swaggy should have been there on the roll man while Nance plays safety on both weak side shooters. Play 3: Nance on Carroll on a switch with Kobe. He does a poor job in getting over the screen after he ices it, leaving Carroll open for the mid range shot. He should turn and run around over the top, rather than trying to slide through it. Play 4: Metta is can't recover from his close out and Nance is maybe a step late on the help. Not as bad as the other plays. Play 5: Lou loses focus completely and gets caught on the screen, giving up an open 3. Play 6 (0:49): Upshaw late in stepping up. Notice that Metta does pick up his man in the paint this time. Play 7: Three guys try to track the ball handler in transition, giving up the corner 3. Play 8: Just a good move by the Raptors center over Hibbert Play 9: Again, I'd much rather have Randle plant himself in the middle of the paint than Clarkson helping one pass away with no hope of recovering. We saw way too much of this last season. Play 10: Swaggy gets caught on off ball screens Play 11 (1:35): Lowry fools Clarkson on the cut. But at the same time Nance doesn't need to leave the paint to track a backpedaling Patterson. Play 12: Clarkson gets nailed getting over the screen and Lowry draws a foul on Upshaw. He looked completely unaware it was coming, so it could have been Upshaw's fault for not calling it. Play 13: Lowry bulls in for a foul on Nick Play 14 (2:18): Clarkson has a decent tag on the roll man, and then goes to close out on Lowry. Where he goes wrong is that he should have already shifted toward Randle's man on the pass, so he doesn't need to cover as much ground on the help. When he does go to help, he has no chance of recovering back to his man, and it's another open 3 one pass away. Play 15: Lowry takes Clarkson 1 on 1 in the paint. Doesn't look like he has good balance there. Play 16: Kobe does a decent job getting around the pindown screen, but just better offense from Carroll. Play 17: Good misdirection kickout pass from Lowry there, though Kobe probably should have been in a better stance. Play 18: Good attack by Lowry. But Clarkson probably could have done a better job getting around the screens and staying somewhat attached to him on the handoff. He needs to improve on those, but at the same time the Raptors center sets pretty good screens. Play 19 (3:06): Lou does a poor job getting around the screen but Lowry elects to pull back and isolate on him. Lou is overmatched, but Upshaw could have been a step in a better position to help. Play 20: Upshaw not in a good position to either hedge or drop on Lowry. Nick distracted by a potential backdoor cut and doesn't step in to help. There's also a Cory Joseph video, although much of that was of him exploiting Upshaw's mistakes. Overall, the game showed the flaws in our perimeter defenders and the inexperience in our young interior guys. Our help rotations have problems as well, but it's hard to tell whether that is a schematic issue or an execution issue because they weren't consistent from play to play. Back to top
So what happened with Mark Jackson? JW: Coaches who have been players in the league, they get so attuned to playing how they were successful, and who their coaches were. Mark was a real pick-and-roll guy and very, very good at it. Steve played for two championship coaches, and I think the coach obviously he has replicated is [Gregg] Popovich. He liked his style of play, even if he had great success in Chicago. Moving the ball, moving your body, all the little things you do to get defenses to make mistakes and to try to be able to counter. I think that's been his philosophy offensively. Do you think Steve's approach was informed by his having been a role player? JW: Steve is very bright. I don't think it has anything to do with being a role player. He would have figured it out regardless. He knew what he wanted to do when he got here. And a big emphasis with our internal people, [general manager] Bob [Myers], [majority owner] Joe [Lacob], who essentially hired him. He wanted more ball movement, wanted more people involved, wants more people touching the ball. And I think that's what we saw. http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/13844207/qa-nba-legend-jerry-west-winning-formula Good Q&A with Jerry West. Something I think we need to go in the direction of in the future; hiring a coach that just doesn't implement pick in roll or 'pet' systems that lack ball movement, player movement, and creativity; in the future, Messina or Luke who have been exposed to these kinds of system would make very good coaches, IMO.
Byron interview from today: http://www.nba.com/lakers/video/teams/lakers/2015/10/10/1444506164384-151010PracticeByron.mov-51690
did you see :Sacre:'s socks in the background? :copshaq: best be taking every day seriously my friend, or you may not be here long. He doesn't scream being all about business, and I don't think he can afford not to be.
Missed that. One thing I did like what Scott said about Huertas: he's looking great in scrimmages. That's a positive. Should help us considerably when he comes back...
Discussion of pick in roll plays and some breakdown during our GS game... The plays he ran they've had in place since summer league. He just happened to call more of them. Highlights start here: The first runner came off a faked side PnR after a Chin PnR. The second runner came off a side PnR going baseline. The crosscourt pass to Brown was on a spread high pick and roll. The double screens up top, we discussed earlier in this thread as the '45' double high PnR. Unlike when they ran it in summer league when they set the screens right on or below the three point line, the screens were set a couple feet beyond the three point line like the Clippers do. This may have been due to Huertas knowing that it would be more effective to set up there, rather than closer in.
They cut down on the switching on D experimentation the past few games, and the defense has looked better for it. Now you no longer see Randle switching on every guard in sight, but rather hedging high on the PnRs. Possibly, they dialed down on the weak side help as well, on PnR, as a few times I noticed Hibbert left to deal with the PGs himself. Hard to know for sure though. It's good to see they are likely moving relatively quickly with the adjustments, as opposed to last year where they would stick to things for 15-20 games for no reason. From Fiendish OC Good stuff...so some positives before the season; recognize what doesn't work and adjust quicker...
