Archives For Laker News

Rest In Peace, Dr. Buss

Darius Soriano —  February 18, 2013

Dr. Jerry Buss, owner and patriarch of the Lakers’ organization, passed away this morning at the age of 80.

Recently, it had been reported that Dr. Buss was hospitalized with cancer. The fears were that this day was coming soon and reports were that family was bedside and that former players had visited him to pay their respects. Sadly, that day has come.

Buss was the man who built the Lakers into what they are today: the most successful professional sports franchise of recent modern history. He had the tremendous ability to provide a long term vision and the patience to execute a plan while mixing in a gambling spirit. That guidance and stewardship, which directly led to so much success, will be sorely missed.

Our condolences and most heartfelt wishes go out to the Buss family, the players, executives, team staff, and the extended Laker community. Today, we mourn the loss of a titan. An icon. The best owner in all of professional sports.

Rest in peace, Dr. Buss.

Laker fans from all over the world thank you for all that you’ve done to enrich our lives through the team that you guided so wonderfully.

In Buss Family, Laker News
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Injury Update: Pau Gasol Out Indefinitely with Torn Plantar Fascia

Darius Soriano —  February 6, 2013

Pau Gasol’s MRI results are in and the results are not good. Per Mike Trudell from Lakers.com, Pau is out indefinitely with a partially torn plantar fascia:

Earlier reports from Ken Berger have Pau missing at least 6 weeks if he decides to let the tear heal on its own, or 12 weeks if surgery is the decided course of action. However, as Trudell reports, the Lakers aren’t yet putting a timetable on Pau’s recovery until he can meet with team doctors and a foot specialist. That said, in any event, Pau will be out for a some time and that, of course, is bad news for the Lakers.

Gasol was just starting to find his stride in Mike D’Antoni’s offense both as a replacement for Dwight Howard and in playing next to him. As we noted, Gasol’s shooting efficiency has been up in recent weeks and his individual defense, while not elite, was better than it had been all season. When you add those things to the constants in his game — the passing, rebounding, the general feel of where to be and when — Gasol was a difference maker for the team. Especially with Dwight missing games due to his shoulder injury.

It’s this total skill set that makes “replacing” Pau Gasol impossible. His skill set is too varied and unique for any one player to come in and adequately give the Lakers what they miss with him absent. Not to by hyperbolic, but not even Dwight’s return replaces what Gasol gives the team.

So, seeking another player on the open market is complicated. There are names out there — Kenyon Martin, Troy Murphy, Brian Cook, Sean Williams — who are free agents and could be useful, but to think that any of them should even be considered good options is overselling their abilities at this point.

If I were making decisions, I’d rather play Robert Sacre more until Dwight is ready to return and potentially add a wing so that Ron could slide up to play PF for the majority of his minutes. Since Earl Clark’s emergence, Ron has been more of a SF on offense but he’s still guarded most PF’s the Lakers have faced while Clark has chased players around the perimeter. A more full time shift of Ron to PF with the Lakers exploring options in the wing (where capable 10-15 minute players are easier to find) is the much more reasonable option, rather than combing through the incredibly slim pickings in the FA bigs market.

All that said, it needs to be restated that whatever decision is made, there’s really not a “solution” out there. Losing Gasol is a major blow to the Lakers’ season and finding a way to stay afloat and still make a push for  the playoffs will be incredibly difficult. Even when Dwight returns, the rest of the roster will need to step up a great deal and perform at levels they may not be capable of — at least not consistently.

So, at this point, all the Lakers can do is hope that Howard returns soon, that Pau’s timeline is on the shorter end of the estimates out there, and that the current roster raises their games enough to fill in the gaps the best that they can.

In injury, Laker News, pau gasol
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Dwight Howard, Metta World Peace Out vs. Nets

Darius Soriano —  February 5, 2013

The Lakers just can’t seem to catch a break this season when it comes to players missing games. Heading into Brooklyn (still feels weird to type that) tonight against a good Nets team, the Lakers could use all the help they could get. Instead, they’ll be down two starters:

Dwight not playing is somewhat of a surprise, but not something that should be a shock. Though he’s had multiple days to rest his ailing shoulder, he’s made it clear that he wants to be close to pain free when he returns. If he’s not yet to that point, he’s not likely to suit up. You can argue whether Dwight should be playing, but only he knows what he can tolerate when on the floor and still be effective enough to help the team. If he doesn’t think he’s there, he shouldn’t. I understand that can be frustrating, but it is what it is.

But while missing Dwight could at least be somewhat foreseen, this was less so:

On the review of the play, you can easily understand the NBA’s position here. At the time, it didn’t look like too much, but the replay does show Ron extending his hand upward and connecting with Knight’s face/jaw. The fact that the suspension came down after the Lakers had already had their shootaround is unfortunate (the game plan is in place, but now must change), but that’s just how it goes.

Missing Ron will be a big deal tonight as he’s been a key defensive player all season, but especially with Dwight out. Ron has guarded all three front court positions with Dwight out and that versatility will be missed sorely. Especially when you consider the player likely to replace him is Antawn Jamison who, putting it kindly, isn’t known for his exploits on defense.

The rest of the Lakers will need to step up both in defending the paint, but in helping on the glass to try and account for missing their top two defensive players. Expect Earl Clark to play even heavier minutes and for Kobe to have to play a lot of SF with Blake and Meeks picking up  the slack at SG with Kobe sliding up. Needless to say, though, beating the Nets just got a lot harder after this news.

In Laker News
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Injury Bug Bites Lakers’ Big Men

Darius Soriano —  January 7, 2013

The Lakers lost more than a game against the Nuggets last night. Apparently, they’ve also lost their best three big men to injury as well. Mike Trudell has the news via his @LakersReporter twitter account:

Let’s take these one by one, shall we?

Trudell later emphasized, again, that Howard is out at least one week. It certainly could be longer. He’ll be reevaluated next week and depending on how things look we’ll get a new timeline. That could mean he’s out a little bit longer. It could also mean we play the waiting game on Howard like we did with Steve Nash (though, lets hope not). Only time will tell.

Gasol’s situation is a bit trickier. He’s out at least two games but it’s not just a matter of him feeling better. As you remember from last season when Kobe came back from being concussed in the All-Star Game by Dwyane Wade, the NBA has instituted a strict policy to establish a protocol that dictates a player’s return to action after a concussion. Gasol will need to clear every hurdle in this process before he’s able to play again.

Hill’s injury seems to be the most straight forward of the bunch, though he will be reexamined later today. The tenor of the news seems to imply that Hill will be back to action before the others, but as I mentioned with Howard, only time will tell. Hip injuries can be pretty serious in their own right and no player should be rushed back from injury, especially to a crucial part of his body (hard to do any of the essential functions of a basketball player with a bad hip).

Taken individually, these injuries could be accounted for. It’d be hard as all three are vital parts to the rotation, but the next player in line would have to step up. It’s how teams work.

However, taken together and all at the same time is another story. These are the Lakers three best big men and two of their presumed best four players on the entire team. Much like with Nash and Gasol were both sidelined earlier in the year, this Laker team doesn’t have the depth to compensate for missing these caliber of players. No team does, actually.

Logistically speaking, Robert Sacre will be called up from the D-League to play (and likely start at) Center. Jamison will be back in the rotation too, likely starting at power forward. Also expect Earl Clark to see minutes at PF to go along with multiple small ball lineups that see Devin Ebanks and Ron as PF’s (or, as D’Antoni hinted with Ron, even at Center). These aren’t necessarily desirable answers, but they’re the only answers available to the team at this time.

Almost every optimistic prediction about the Lakers for this season was tied, first and foremost, to health. Today, like it’s been for nearly the entire season, the Lakers took another hit in this area. I know it’s simple to say they need to play through it, but at some point you have to wonder if there’s simply too many instances of key rotation players going down to injury for the Lakers to come close to being the group we thought they could be. The rest of the season will tell us if that’s true or not, but news like today’s isn’t encouraging on that front.

In injury, Laker News
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Mike D’Antoni Hire Offers Possibilities While Battling Perceptions

Darius Soriano —  November 12, 2012

If there’s one thing I love about the Lakers, it’s that they’re willing to take a calculated risk. Dr. Buss is known for his poker exploits, after all.

And, on the surface, this certainly looks like a gamble. With the most decorated coach waiting in the wings to take over and (potentially) bring championship glory back to the organization in a third stint, it seems….odd that the Lakers would go in a different direction. Over the weekend the team was said to be “all in” for Phil but it turns out when they turned over their cards it was Mike D’Antoni’s face as the new king of the sideline.

I, for one, would have been more than happy to have Phil Jackson return for another go ’round. The prospect of having him back was the stuff that feel good movies are built on.

Phil brings a caché that instills confidence and a sense of calmness. His history of championship level success meant the rope he’d have to produce would have been much longer than any other choice. That, in itself, can be a major difference in the perception of where this team is going. Simply put, he has style and substance and that reflects a calm sorely needed in any environment as rich with drama as this one. He knows that territory well and would likely navigate it seamlessly.

That said, there were no guarantees that what Phil would have brought to the team would have been what was needed. This group isn’t some sort of Triangle ready roster that’s simply waiting for him to come back and install the system everyone knows and has comfort with. Only Pau and Kobe have had any sort of success in this system and the other players on the roster that have even played in it number a grand total of three. For what it’s worth, the Lakers actually had just as many players on the team who’d played in the Princeton — or a version of it — with Jamison, Blake, Meeks, Hill, and Ron and it’s not like there was some extreme comfort level there.

So, the Lakers went in another direction. They chose the coach with the more simplified offensive system — yes, what D’Antoni runs is a system — that will rely more on players making the types of basketball decisions they’ve made their entire career. They’ll be asked to move the ball onto the open man and shoot when open all while operating on a spaced floor. There will be a reliance on pick and rolls but I think it’d be silly to think that we won’t see post up chances for Kobe, Pau, and Dwight. For all the sense that D’Antoni is such an offensive genius, I find it odd that there would be so many concerns that he wouldn’t be able to adapt to one of the most talented groups (at least in his starting five) that he’d ever coached.

This isn’t to say there aren’t any concerns. The fit of certain players certainly jumps out right away. Gasol in particular isn’t the ideal power forward to space the floor by circling the arc. The bench players aren’t necessarily “shooters” in the classic sense and that may lead to a breakdown in spacing that D’Antoni will need to confront with creativity rather than simple talent. But for a man that is considered as smart at coaching offense as he is, I think he’ll work through these issues. After all, his top end talent is elite and with that the foundation for any system is improved dramatically.

As to the question of D’Antoni’s lack of a defensive pedigree, there’s both a reality and a disconnect to facts when evaluating him. HIs Suns teams were never as bad on that end as the existing perception. They regularly ranked in the middle of the pack on that end of the floor in terms of defensive efficiency and suffered more in terms of antiquated measurements such as points per game. In his last year with the Knicks, his defense ranked in the top ten of defensive efficiency once he got Tyson Chandler to anchor his back end. With Howard in tow and some very good defenders in place in Los Angeles, I believe we’ll see a team that can play to that same level.

A this point, though, what matters most isn’t our perception of the past but what D’Antoni can actually do with this roster. The talent in place is the same that many believed was good enough to win a championship to start the season. Mike Brown didn’t maximize that talent and he’s now unemployed. D’Antoni will need to produce on the floor with the players he has or the criticism that haunted his predecessor will follow him in the same manner.

No, D’Antoni isn’t Phil Jackson. And we’ll never know the full extent what actually took place in those closed door meetings between him and the Laker brass. But D’Antoni is no slouch of a coach. His teams achieved a great amount of success even though they fell short of the final prize. With this group, though, he may have his best chance to rectify those past defeats and earn himself, and this team, some redemption.

I can honestly say I’m excited about the prospect of what he can do on both sides of the floor with a group that includes Nash, Kobe, Pau, and Howard. Time will tell if he’s up to the task but the same would have been true of any choice made. Even if some people’s perception says different.

In Laker Analysis, Laker News
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