Wmc 15/16: We are finally at the END! BYE BYRON!!!

I was crunching some numbers. I know they're just numbers, but if we do the following:

Out: Kobe, Hibbert, Bass, Huertas, Kelly, Peace
In: DeRozan and Whiteside
Improve: Black, Brown, Clarkson, Nance, Randle, Russell

We're still - just by my calculations - short of .500. I'm not saying my calculations are authoritative, but it bummed me out.

 

I don't care about ,500 next season to be honest, all I care about is Byron being gone. We could win 30 games next year, but if we do it the right way (seeing improvement, implementing a system, etc.), then I don't mind.

Strange. Feels like I said the same thing about this year...

 

Honestly I don't condone tanking, I've just stopped caring. The Lakers ARE tanking. It's not about rooting for or rooting against it anymore, if you can't objectively see that the Lakers ARE trying to lose as many games as possible, then I don't know what to tell you. Byron's job is to ensure the Lakers have the best shot at that pick this season. That's IT. That's why he doesn't know what his team is like. He doesn't draw up plays that make sense. He doesn't know his rotations. See, he KNOWS the best rotations for this team, but he won't use them because that might mean we win an extra game or two.

Unlike the Sixers though, the Lakers are a premiere franchise and we cannot openly admit to tanking. The dwindling number of fans left would leave, regardless of Kobe's farewell tour.

It doesn't matter if we're rooting for or against tanking. A team OPENLY trying to lose is only ONE game worse than us... If we're not tanking, then what are we doing?

 

I liked it in both threads because puff speaks the truth!

 

Exactly. I was saying the same thing last offseason too. I was fairly certain we wouldn't make the playoffs, and I was more than happy watching us lose a lot of games, but the losses should be like the Dallas one. Close, but not quite there yet. Flashes of brilliance from our kids (Randle's good game), but just not quite there yet. We are getting blown out of the gym on a regular basis. Our kids have some individual moments of greatness, but it seems more due to luck + raw natural ability coming together at the right time as opposed to actual growth.

 

Yep. I cant even count how many times we see someone get the ball at the top of the key with our own players standing right next to him resulting in a triple team. My google image searches aren't coming up with anything, but our spacing is so bad that nobody can even get off a clean look. It's awful and it makes no sense.

Get a good coach and I think we see our guys grow in leaps and bounds. Clearly we're TRYING to lose this year and sometimes our guys still show enough talent to impress. What happens when we TRY to win?

 

I will say, I don't think everyone is trying to lose. I think the front office is, but it ends there. I honestly think Byron is that bad of a coach. And because the FO is hoping for Simmons, Byron is the perfect man for the job. Randle, Kobe, Russell, Clarkson...those guys are trying to win at all costs. They just have Byron undermining them at every turn. Making stupid substitutions when our team has momentum. An offensive system with zero spacing. You are totally right about that. I have seen players get the ball alone at the top of the key, then two players on our team for some reason slowly creep in on him. Dragging their guy with him. Now the iso becomes a triple team, like you said. I could understand faking a run to the guy then cutting away, but they just slowly come up to him and linger like a fart.

 

That describes our coach to a T.

 

Yep it happens every single game. In Dallas Julius had Barea on him and yet inexplicably Williams and Clarkson or Young (can't remember which) didn't immediately give him space. They just stood there and let their guys triple team him. What the eff are you doing? Go away! I'm trying to make a move here!

I don't think Byron is trying to win. How many times have we seen him make an asinine substitution at the end of games? Got to be more than 10 games that we could have had a shot to win. Instead he puts Kobe in or he takes out the hot hand or he takes D'Angelo out of the game or he has Clarkson inbound the ball or he draws up a last shot for Kobe instead of Lou...

A coach trying to win doesn't do that and I refuse to think he's that incompetent. There's a line between incompetence and purposely losing. Byron, while maxed out on incompetence, is also trying to lose.

 

Realdeal, I think he is that incompetent, and his season as Cavs coach with that 26 game losing streak is part of the proof. That team was not good, but they had some legit NBA players, they had Jamison, Varejao, Mo Williams, Sessions, Hickson, and a few other competent guys. That team won 19 games in the EAST, and had no business losing 26 straight. The 76ers of this season are compiled of mostly players I've never heard of and guys that should be in the D-League or overseas, and they haven't come CLOSE to a 26 game losing streak. B0ron is the worst head basketball coach in NBA history, our roster is not as bad as our record, and it's because he is a moron. I refuse to believe he is craftily tanking, he's just garbage as a coach. Here is a photo from a Sports Illustrated article about that awful season, with a caption that is all too familiar to us.

 

I just can't imagine that he makes these mistakes on purpose. Unless he is stupid in the most literal and classic sense, I don't get it. He seems fairly intelligent when not talking about basketball. He can't possibly be THAT stupid and yet keep getting a job?

Unless teams hire him specifically to lose a LOT of games. And how in the world did he end up coaching a team in the Finals?

 

I honestly don't know how he made the Finals. He did have some great players (Jason Kidd specifically), and the East wasn't super strong in that period either. That was also a very different time, now the NBA has passed him by, his coaching style doesn't work anymore. I truly believe that he believes the moves he makes are good ones. The benchings, the rotations, the system, he's stubborn as hell and does things the same way he has since he started, and it doesn't work anymore, but he remains clueless to that. Good coaches adjust and adapt, like Popovich who has said he hates the 3 pointer, yet he uses it because you have to in order to win today. Good coaches also surround themselves with good assistants, and I can't name any of ours except Madsen.