Since the return of Steve Nash, we’ve seen some immediate improvements to the Lakers’ offense. The ball is moving a lot more, there has been a considerable improvement in off ball movement and things just feel different when he’s on the floor. The Lakers are 2-1 in Nash’s return, and in those games he’s recorded […]
Breakdown
Lakers’ Defensive Problems Include Kobe Bryant
Last week, before the OKC game, I was asked whether the Lakers’ bigger problems were on offense or on defense. To me, this answer was, and remains, clear. It’s the defense. The Lakers’ have fundamental problems on D, mostly related to denying dribble penetration and how they don’t always help the helper. Any team can […]
The Breakdown: D’Antoni Channels Mike Brown
One of the enduring critiques of Mike D’Antoni’s coaching career is that he’s not very adaptive to his personnel. He’s seen as a spread pick and roll devotee, and those players who don’t fit into that model aren’t very useful. While I don’t fully accept the premise of this critique, it’s also not completely off […]
The Breakdown: Getting Kobe in Scoring Position
In today’s breakdown, we’re going to take a loot at some of the different ways that the Lakers’ new offense has gotten Kobe more high percentage shots. We haven’t seen much of the old Kobe repertoire this season — wing ISOs, high P&Rs, triple threat of death — we’ve seen a much more efficient Kobe […]
How Dwight Howard Can Space the Floor for Pau Gasol
The version of the Princeton offense the Lakers will use this season has the chance to be an evolving oasis of offensive possibility. The sheer talent and versatility of their core four players can translate to a multitude of actions — some obvious, some not so much — that can hurt a defense in a […]
The Strategy Session: One Play, Two Actions, Same Result
Welcome to the Strategy Session. In this space we’ll explore different aspects of the game from a strategy standpoint. It may mean looking at a coaching decision — like determining a rotation. Or a specific offensive play that we think will work. Or it could be an examination of a defensive scheme. Sometimes we’ll use […]
The Breakdown: Dwight Howard
After a nearly flawless off-season, we saw all of the Lakers flaws come to the forefront during the pre-season as the Lakers went 0-8 as Mike Brown tried to work around a new offensive system, new personnel, injuries and a roster that was simply too long with too many fringe guys. In the midst of […]
The Breakdown: Steve Nash
Over the summer the Lakers signed point guard Steve Nash, and after a couple months of me yelling at myself “oh my God we have Steve Nash!” I could not wait to see how he’d play in the games. Through the Lakers first three preseason games I’ve realized that watching this rendition of the Los […]