NBA 2012-2013 Season Thread - Page 643

I have not watched the Lakers play but when I look at their roster, they seem to me to be a better version of the champsionship Bulls teams. I don't know if D'Antoni is running "showtime" but wiith that team, you have an advantage at almost every position (except PG now) so I would be playing pounding the ball, half court sets. In Kobe you have someone that can bail you out when plays break down but they should be coming down, Howard, Gasol, Kobe, posting on dudes and just putting the hurt on them. I see that Gasol has sat the last two end of games (and I read he's a bit hurt) but to me, that is a failure of the coach and not of the player. Its one thnig is they were winning and playing significantly better with Gasol out, then you can say they guy needs to adjust but when he is sucking and you are losing, maybe you need to go back to the drawing board as a coach.

The Knicks have definitely benefitted from a weak schedule but anyone who has watched them has to agree that they are a top 4-5 team in the league at this point. They are undoubtedly a better team than last year and I think their current lineup creates more problems for Miami than the other way around but its still early and there is still the issue of getting Amar'e back in the lineup and the issue of 80+ games on the oldest team in the league. The very big surprise for me has been Wallace, last year when Chandler/Melo went out, the Knicks would not know where to get their offense from and the defense suffered. With Wallace, he is a better shot blocker than Chandler, can play the 4 or the 5 and offensively, he can shoot from outside or post up very effectively. Sometimes woodson puts him in at the PF, Melo at SF and Chandler at C and that is a pretty formidable frontline. Felton's play also can not be talked about enough, he went from being overweight in Portland to having a career year.

Lakers seem to have a similar problem to NY though, when Melo/Kobe score 30+, the chances of winning the game seem to decrease.

Believe me, I will be saving my Lakers jabs for the playoffs. You should have come back with the rampant suck of my fantasy team, I would have had no response.

Re Memphis, no man, I am genuinely not surprised. I mean it. If I were, I would say it. That team plays with a great sync. Great on both ends. Gasol and Randolph are probably the best front court in the league at the moment.

Amare needs to be the focus and needs an unclogged frontcourt in order to do well, he would play well on the second unit with Novak, Smith, Wallace if he wants to. The question is how does a guy that has been an All Star and makes about $25 million a year take to playing second fiddle and 20-25 minutes a game.

Speaking of Lin, I know I am a fanboi so take what I say with a grain of salt but I've seen a few Houston games and I don't understand what they are doing. He basically brings the ball up court and as soon as he crosses the halfcourt line, the ball goes immediately to Harden or someone else. Then Lin becomes the wing man (perched by the 3 point line) and Harden becomes the playmaker and typically gets a double team coming at him . Lin is not a good enough shooter where he is going to stretch the D that much and it seems like a lot of work having Harden handle the ball, make a play for himself or someone else, especially when he is facing double teams. Harden, I think, would benefit from being a reggie miller type half court player, running through various screens to get an open 3 or getting in a one on one where he can take the ball to the basket strong as he likes to do. Lin's skillset is to drive the ball and get an open shot for a teammate or a finish around the basket. Harden is going to get his points no matter what but I think the team will be better off having the ball stay in Lin's hands as much as possible and putting the onus on him to get the ball to open teammates through screen/rolls etc. I didin't see much of OKC when Harden played but on Houston, Harden is working really hard to get his shots and taking a beating.

^^ Also a surprise is Golden State, #4 in the west right now

Game was sloppy as fuck on both ends I don't know wtf is going on, me and homegirl watched the entire game she was getting annoyed.

Mike D shitting it up in LA. Lakers are not a run and gun team something that was obvious to . . . everybody.
That squad should be playing grindy basket-ball and straight shitting on dudes 101-87.

In other news. GSW actually looking like a team. Barnes has been a beast at SF and Lee has been a double double machine.

i'm not as concerned about the laker offense as i am the defense. and that's mainly cohesion. watch after almost every easy basket and you'll see players looking at each other like "i thought you were stepping up there". i think a big part of it is howard still being a step or two slow coming back. its exaggerated because their defensive scheme right now seems to be to funnel everything toward him. offensively, they're coming along OK. d'antoni isn't doing seven seconds or less, but he is expecting them to push the tempo. and when you've got two seven-footers who can run the floor, kobe bryant and (eventually, inshallah) steve nash, that seems like a reasonable thing to do.

the thing that would worry me, if I wasn't a laker hater, is that the lakers should theoretically be a perfect fucking team regardless of who's coaching them.

the lebron james miami heat superteam - it was a total contrast where it was hard to figure out how wade/lebron/bosh would work together... to the point where even the heat didn't figure it out until near the end of year two where injuries to bosh basically were a blessing in disguise in helping them figure out the small ball experiments.

yeah, for once i'd like to be pulling for a bunch of hard-working over-achievers. something like houston a couple of years ago, or gsw right now.

I'll disagree with you as I don't think this is a team that will be better pushing the tempo. I think an up tempo pace really plays away from the strengths of that team. I think thats what's happened effecting Pau and why you have these games where Kobe scores 30 but you lose. The Lakers aren't exactly spring chickens and when you have a center and SG that can dominate and command double teams, why help the defense by not running the offense through these guys everytime in the half court set up tempo is fun and leads to easy baskets but also to bad, forced shots and doesn't put any real pressure on a team defensively. Gasol/Bryant/Howard should be pick and rolling teams to death with MWP picking up the trash around the basket. I can't see LA beating Memphis/OKC/Clips in an uptempo game.