WMC 20-21: Whine, Moan And Complain... You Know You Want To

That's fair on Kuz vs. Kawhi, he's lost some quickness and I noticed he didn't have a lot of lift. There was a play in the 1st where I thought Kawhi was going to yam it on Gasol, but he couldn't get there. Gasol isn't exactly known for his jumping ability.

I still prefer Gasol & Trez over Dwight and McGee. I see it this way, the latter are 2 centers who play around 15 mins a game, the former 2 are a PF and C who can play extended minutes. The fit seems better to me.

With that said, we might still need a back up center for occasions when Gasol isn't available. It's not a huge deal if Trez can't play crunch time minutes, but we're handicapped if Gasol is in foul trouble. I thought sliding AD to center would/should be the solution but I guess there's more to it?

I understand why you miss Dwight - last year, this team established the height/size advantage as a part of its identity. Between losing McGee, Howard and Green, this team is a bit smaller. This team should be better defensively as time goes on too though.

 

today was a game we win if AD is playing the 5 IMHO

 

We should have kept either Dwight or McGee.

 

Gonna say it again, we need a shot blocking presence in the paint not named Anthony Davis.

 

i guess i missed this, as it was a theme in the game thread, too, but i did NOT come away worried about centers and shot blocking. it wasn't a parade to the hoop. pg and kawhi hit a billion contested jumpers, just like in the first couple games we played them last year (when we had those marginal centers everyone's now pining for). dwight howard wasn't going to stop any of that. he wasn't going to be able to cover the pick and pop and get to ibaka on the three point line. nor was mcgee. it was why we barely played them in the playoffs.

like last year, we need to hit open shots here and there, and we hit very few in this one. we need lebron and AD to play like superstars, and they didn't in this one. and we need to not have 19 turnovers. centers don't really affect those things.

i feel exactly like i did last year after we lost the first one to them: one of their guys went nova to end the third, and that was the game. if matthews hits that first open three he had or schroder doesn't let kennard pick his pocket on that drive, i wonder if we take the lead and the clips collapse. instead, george got rolling and we lost.

i like our chances against that team in a 7-game series if we're healthy. without mcgee, howard, or whomever. if anything, having another center in this one might have made us lose by more.

 

guess my wmc was that the lakers looked unprepared for hard doubles on AD when it's clear that it's the only thing teams can do. gotta solve that. they had some good counters at points, but they need to be there right away to deter the practice.

 

a better mobile C may have prevented Ibaka from having a good gm at least

 

lebron and AD are probably going to coast quite a bit this season. got that feeling last night

but with lebron playing only 28 minutes, i'm surprised they even stayed in it for as long as they did

 

this. yet ive been told repeatedly that AD and Gasol are enough. 1 game is of course not a large enough sample size, but I'm concerned

 

shhhhhh (I agree)

 

This season is going to be a marathon, not a sprint. We have a great roster for the playoffs, so many games will be lost to our stars coasting or sitting out and Frank experimenting with lineups. We’re gonna lose plenty of games we probably shouldn’t be losing. I wouldn’t be surprised to finish a third or fourth seed. We’ll be a monster in the playoffs. Don’t worry

 

and that center is on our roster in the form of montrezl harrell. it certainly isn't mcgee/dwight, who, again, were generally played off the court by shooting bigs.

 

I could see this happening. Wtih so many players who deserve minutes, I could see Vogel just experimenting for a month or longer. It's not like the Lakers don't know what will work for them: they can just go to the core playoff rotation of AD/Lebron/Kuzma/Kieff/KCP/Caruso with Schroeder and Matthews taking the Rondo/Green minutes. That would mean dropping Gasol, Harell, and THT but s*** that what happens when you sign with a title contender. McGee was completely out of the playoff rotation and Howard sat wholes games and series as well.

 

I'd actually say the center on our roster is actually AD for that. That's still the playoff move and with Kieff/Kuzma/Matthews to provide shooting/spacing at the 3/4 spots that will still be the move going forward. This team will look a lot different in the playoffs then the regular season

 

well, yes. i mean, AD is probably the league's best center; he just refuses to admit it. i meant in the regular season. harrell can guard a guy like ibaka. just not jokic. we're ok at center unless someone gets hurt, in which case we may be forced to pick somebody up off the street or in trade (depending upon severity of injury). we can steal minutes with morris there against lots of teams, too. you need one big bruiser, imo, and no more than one.

 

Regular season is our pre-season as far as I’m concerned, not worried about the loss one bit. Regular-season P can occasionally catch fire but we’ll be fine going up against Playoff P.

My main complaint is the cheesy background music during the ring ceremony speeches. Couldn’t tell if it was just on the TNT broadcast or actually being played in the arena, seems the latter because I felt it threw off the cadence of Silver and Buss in their speeches. Quite distracting.

 

This is going to be a long season. Our guys from last year never got the rest they needed and are still finding their legs. The new guys need to gel. I think we all got a little too excited with the THT preseason. Remember last year we didn't look like championship material until a couple weeks before the season shutdown.

 

we're almost certain to underperform our talent level in the regular season, for several reasons.