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wolfpaclaker
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 Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2023 7:31 am Post subject: |
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The only reason that could happen is a barrage of injuries. Given the team's resources and depth, they should be ok, unless Lebron+AD+ Reaves all go out at the same time. I think the test for the coaching staff will be in the playoffs. Match ups, etc. You don't want to jump the gun regardless of what happens in the RS.
ESPN had us at 46 wins. Seems a bit low, but they are probably betting on us having another AD/Bron injury/rest prone season, where Bron may have a little decline given his age. |
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ocho
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| Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2023 7:38 am Post subject: |
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| wolfpaclaker wrote: | The only reason that could happen is a barrage of injuries. Given the team's resources and depth, they should be ok, unless Lebron+AD+ Reaves all go out at the same time. I think the test for the coaching staff will be in the playoffs. Match ups, etc. You don't want to jump the gun regardless of what happens in the RS.
ESPN had us at 46 wins. Seems a bit low, but they are probably betting on us having another AD/Bron injury/rest prone season, where Bron may have a little decline given his age. |
Well sure. If any team’s best 3 players all get hurt at the same time any team in the league will take a dive. Post-trade last year we were one of the best teams in the league (while still dealing with injured stars) with no camp and no reps playing together. It wasn’t a fluke either, as they went on a deep playoff run.
I agree we may see a more diminished LeBron, but there’s better depth around him and I expect to see his minutes decline slightly. Hopefully there’s a lot of games where he’s sitting in the 4th with ice on.
Stats like these point to how potent the team can be in the regular season. And they got better around the edges.
| Quote: | | The Lakers with LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Austin Reaves, and D'Angelo Russell on the court last season were + 28.6 per 100. It's a small sample size of 213 possessions, but still, that's ridiculous. |
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wolfpaclaker
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| Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2023 5:36 am Post subject: |
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^
Which getting back to what the poster is implying, if the Lakers start slow, than the coach's job should be on the line?
I still disagree with that. Even if there's a slower than expected start, the team has shown they can figure it out slowly and Ham keeps them focused on the present/future.
ESPN has us at 46 wins. I feel given the talent of this team and the way they played when they put the AD/Bron/Rui/DLO/Reaves unit together, should equate to more than that 46 W number. As I said, injuries probably are what ESPN is anticipating.
On whether we got better around the edges. Depends. We went from a guard heavy roster to a forward heavy roster. We had 2 big needs (a big and a wing like KCP who can 3nD) and we didn't fill either. The ceiling of this team is on AD/Bron/Rui/DLO/Reaves' shoulders. Based on last season's late season data, they should be very very good. It could be anywhere from 48 to 52 wins IMO. I could even see us hit 50, if we play like we did at the end of last season right from the get go I see us being in the 50 win range. The big question is whether we will play like we did at the end of the regular season, right from the get go. You would think having played together like that will give them an advantage. |
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Laker's Fan
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| Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2023 5:06 pm Post subject: |
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Very interested to see Darvin's progression in year two. He got some great experience last season.
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slavavov
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| Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2023 7:22 pm Post subject: |
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If we stay healthy, I really think we can win 55 games, maybe more. We were a very good defensive team last season after the trades, and if Wood works out, our offense should be dynamite.
Even if Wood doesn't work out, we'll still have five legit scorers: LeBron, AD, Reaves, DLO and Rui. The only question offensively is if we'll have enough consistent 3-point shooting. If we do, we can have plenty of 130-140 point games where we win easily and limit LeBron to 25-28 minutes.
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JUST-MING
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| Posted: Thu Sep 28, 2023 6:46 pm Post subject: |
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Year 1 - Western Conference Finals
The team finished in the lottery the year prior under Frank Vogel. |
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epic_
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| Posted: Thu Sep 28, 2023 7:19 pm Post subject: |
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Can't wait for year 2.
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lar9149
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| Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2023 8:01 am Post subject: |
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Coach Ham is going to have to make a lot of hard decisions this year..
Christian Wood..is he misunderstood and perhaps not utilized correctly?
Max Christie..is this his breakout year or can he even break out?
Cam Reddish..perhaps another player that hasn't reached his potential but now is starting to put the work in according to reports.
Haze..same thing
I don't think all of the above players will work out but if it is just 1 or 2, the Lakers already hit a gold mine.
But it is going to be Ham's responsibility to find the which if any of the above will make the leap..and that just isn't easy..like Last year with Beasley..some felt he kept giving him too many chances even it was obvious he wasn't going to work out. The balance between waiting for a player to develop vs giving him too many chances that hurts the team isn't an easy one. |
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Aeneas Hunter
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| Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2023 9:02 am Post subject: |
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| lar9149 wrote: | Coach Ham is going to have to make a lot of hard decisions this year..
Christian Wood..is he misunderstood and perhaps not utilized correctly?
Max Christie..is this his breakout year or can he even break out?
Cam Reddish..perhaps another player that hasn't reached his potential but now is starting to put the work in according to reports. |
Actually, I don't think it will be that hard. None of those guys are locked-in starters. In fact, they're peripheral to the core of the team. All of them will need to earn minutes. Ham just needs to let them compete for minutes. Wood and Reddish should be motivated to play for a contract.
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tox
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| Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2023 1:20 pm Post subject: |
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^ Agreed, now that I hear the Lakers are thinking about Prince playing at the 2 -- plus Gabe/ DLO/ AR all being able to play at the 2 as well -- I think it's clear those guys are basically just "found money."
However, I think ultimately Cam or Max (hopefully Max) breaking out and earning the back up 2 role is going to be important for guarding Murray, Booker, etc. Don't think Prince is the guy defensively from what I've heard. |
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Megaton
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| Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2023 2:49 pm Post subject: |
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My only hope for this season is for Ham to get out of his own way and never play 3 guard lineups.
With this roster, he has zero excuses. But he will definitely try to find a way to play Reaves, DLO and Vincent together. 
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Lakers Offseason Goal:
- Draft Edey or Ware (Another guard)
- Sign Jonas or Claxton (NOBODY)
- sign and trade DLO (nobody wants him LMAO!)
- sign a coach that’s not an idiot (JJ: LeBron Bestie/might be a racist)
Call it an offseason (ROFL) |
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jb2
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| Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2023 7:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Megaton wrote: | My only hope for this season is for Ham to get out of his own way and never play 3 guard lineups.
With this roster, he has zero excuses. But he will definitely try to find a way to play Reaves, DLO and Vincent together. |
He already said that he could lol |
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Megaton
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| Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2023 10:08 pm Post subject: |
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| 2019 wrote: | | Megaton wrote: | My only hope for this season is for Ham to get out of his own way and never play 3 guard lineups.
With this roster, he has zero excuses. But he will definitely try to find a way to play Reaves, DLO and Vincent together. |
He already said that he could lol |
Oh god kill me. 
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Lakers Offseason Goal:
- Draft Edey or Ware (Another guard)
- Sign Jonas or Claxton (NOBODY)
- sign and trade DLO (nobody wants him LMAO!)
- sign a coach that’s not an idiot (JJ: LeBron Bestie/might be a racist)
Call it an offseason (ROFL) |
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defense
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| Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2023 5:33 am Post subject: |
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| Megaton wrote: | | 2019 wrote: | | Megaton wrote: | My only hope for this season is for Ham to get out of his own way and never play 3 guard lineups.
With this roster, he has zero excuses. But he will definitely try to find a way to play Reaves, DLO and Vincent together. |
He already said that he could lol |
Oh god kill me. |
Event though we know its coming, it's still painful. |
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joeblow
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| Posted: Wed Oct 04, 2023 5:37 pm Post subject: |
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I can't believe this guy.
Three guard lineups will return, with Lebron at the 5?! I am not joking when I say I really miss Vogel. |
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Megaton
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| Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2023 1:23 am Post subject: |
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| joeblow wrote: | I can't believe this guy.
Three guard lineups will return, with Lebron at the 5?! I am not joking when I say I really miss Vogel. |
I'm just puzzled and I'm wondering how the (bleep) is it possible to even do 3 guard lineups with Lebron at the 5 with this roster? The (bleep) kinda lineups is this potato head ass coach thinking up?
Vincent
DLO
Reaves
Prince
Lebron
If I see that bs, he should be fired from day 1. Like how the hell could any human being with basketball knowledge justify this?
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Lakers Offseason Goal:
- Draft Edey or Ware (Another guard)
- Sign Jonas or Claxton (NOBODY)
- sign and trade DLO (nobody wants him LMAO!)
- sign a coach that’s not an idiot (JJ: LeBron Bestie/might be a racist)
Call it an offseason (ROFL) |
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wolfpaclaker
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| Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2023 3:38 am Post subject: |
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He prefers to play smaller, but he has a sense behind it. Look at what Kerr did with Team USA. It came from a thinking that won him some titles. The smaller you are, the more guard skills you have, the less predictable you are on offense. This way everyone is interchangable as soon as you get a stop.
Ham isn't an idiot, and so far he's been running Vandy/Rui in lineups with the other 4 starters.
Everyone has their style of play they believe in. If 3 guards works for some run, it will get time. If it doesn't, I'm sure we will adjust. What you won't see this year is us start Gabe, DLO, Reaves all together. That was going on last year due to the roster (we didn't have enough wings). |
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tox
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| Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2023 8:58 am Post subject: |
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| Schro/ DLO/ Reaves was pretty effective last year and even clinched the Warriors series. Of course it didn't work against the Nuggets. There's a world where a three guard lineup can be useful in certain situations, although LBJ at center is not the lineup lol. |
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Hanging from Rafters
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| Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2023 9:17 am Post subject: |
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| tox wrote: | | Schro/ DLO/ Reaves was pretty effective last year and even clinched the Warriors series. Of course it didn't work against the Nuggets. There's a world where a three guard lineup can be useful in certain situations, although LBJ at center is not the lineup lol. |
With Jokic instead of Draymond I would have thought Ham would have known not to start Game 1 against the Nuggets with the 3 guard line up that worked against the Warriors. He tried 3 guards at the start and got in a deep hole that the Lakers climbed out of but it cost too much energy and the Lakers faltered late to lose.
Ham then went back to the 3 guard line up in Game 2 after the Lakers built a big lead, the 3 guard line up then proceeded to quickly give up the lead and the Lakers faltered late to lose again. Without the 3 guard line up it looked as if the Lakers could have been up 2-0 instead of down 0-2. It doesn’t always work out like that because motivations change with circumstances but I don’t see any defense or excuses for Ham running Shro/Dlo/AR in the Denver series. Malpractice. We’ll just have to hope he learned from those mistakes and doesn’t go with 3 guards when it’s inappropriate.
I don’t feel comfortable with Ham, hopefully the Lakers can win in spite of Ham instead of failing because of Ham, like Vogel.
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tox
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Posts: 18963
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| Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2023 9:22 am Post subject: |
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| ^ I agree that not starting the three guard lineup against denver was a no brainer. It's definitely something to watch with Ham. |
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joeblow
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| Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2023 12:52 pm Post subject: |
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| wolfpaclaker wrote: | | He prefers to play smaller, but he has a sense behind it. Look at what Kerr did with Team USA. It came from a thinking that won him some titles. |
Kerr's Team USA got beaten by Germany a month ago in great part because of their overall smaller size. They gave up twelve offensive rebounds and 25 second-chance points in a 40 minute game! It's easy to say that Kerr won championships with smaller rosters when he has literally the best shooter of all time on the team (and the best shooting back court of all time).
When you don't have anomalies like that supporting your team, you come back down to earth and have to consider being realistic about what does and does not work.
| Quote: | | The smaller you are, the more guard skills you have, the less predictable you are on offense. This way everyone is interchangable as soon as you get a stop. |
That's a list of the pros for playing small ball, but what about the (significant) cons?
- Losing the rebound battle
- Too short to affect the accuracy of quality jump shots
- Taller defenders more easily affect the quality of YOUR jump shots
- Abused by post ups from bigger opponents
- The defensive paint becomes a layup line if the attacker gets past his man
Our Lakers suffered from a lot of these issues when the bigger Nuggets swept Ham and his disturbing infatuation for three-guard lineups out of the playoffs five months ago. For instance, we were out rebounded 47 to 30 in Game 1 by the Nuggets, and 175 to 153 for the series.
| Quote: | | Ham isn't an idiot, and so far he's been running Vandy/Rui in lineups with the other 4 starters. |
Maybe not an idiot, but he's certainly shown he is TERRIBLE at recognizing and adjusting when he makes the same mistake over and over and over again (and terrible for allowing Lebron to shoot more threes than nearly every other Laker last season ). What lineups he runs in practice means little when he is literally bragging about three guard lineups with LeBron at center. We'll see what happens when the season starts.
| Quote: | | Everyone has their style of play they believe in. If 3 guards works for some run, it will get time. If it doesn't, I'm sure we will adjust. |
Coach D'Antoni had a style he believed in (small ball)... how many championships did that bring him.
With Laker fans, that's the only bottom line that we should care about. For all of Vogel's faults, at least we won a ring with him running the team (and he played our Lakers BIG in the playoffs!).
As for Ham adjusting if/when small ball doesn't work against quality bigger teams, he didn't get it in his head last year, so I don't know why we should be optimistic this year will be different.
| Quote: | | What you won't see this year is us start Gabe, DLO, Reaves all together. That was going on last year due to the roster (we didn't have enough wings). |
I agree that Pelinka was just as guilty as Ham for the abundance of small ball lineups we saw last season, but this year, Ham stands alone if this becomes a problem again. Based on the roster that we have right now, we should see more three forward/one guard imbalanced lineups than one forward / three guard imbalanced lineups from sheer numbers alone.
I'm not advocating for that here, but just pointing out that it'll be a deliberate choice by Ham if we are suffering from a bunch of Hobbit squads on the floor this season. |
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blackmamba08
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Location: Croatia
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| Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2023 1:29 am Post subject: |
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| My only problem with this Laker team is Ham. I don't trust him as a coach at all. Just does not give me confidence that he will be able to get the best out of the team. If we have Pop, Spoelstra or even Kerr I think this team would be fantastic to watch. With Ham not so sure. But nevertheless I like this team a lot. Pelinka did amazing job this offseason. |
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Hanging from Rafters
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Joined: 31 Jul 2018
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| Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2023 11:25 am Post subject: |
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| blackmamba08 wrote: | | My only problem with this Laker team is Ham. I don't trust him as a coach at all. Just does not give me confidence that he will be able to get the best out of the team. If we have Pop, Spoelstra or even Kerr I think this team would be fantastic to watch. With Ham not so sure. But nevertheless I like this team a lot. Pelinka did amazing job this offseason. |
Same…hoping for a huge leap in effectiveness for his year 2.
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Outspoken
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| Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2023 11:05 pm Post subject: |
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Ham has shown to not be that good of a coach, and it worries me with this team.
Every time I think about how much size and depth Lakers have, I think "but we still have Ham." |
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kikanga
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Location: La La Land
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| Posted: Tue Oct 24, 2023 10:06 pm Post subject: |
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We gotta zone up that Jamal Murray/Jokic P&R when we see them next.
Also. If Aaron Gordon is on the floor with Jokic. We gotta go with 2 bigs. Have to slide LBJ or Rui to the 3. And play Wood or Hayes with AD. Or Wood and Hayes together.
Not sure if Vando would've helped or hurt us. But we gotta experiment with going big this season. Especially since Ham already told AD to take 6 threes a game.
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