Around The World (Wide Web): What Lies Ahead For The Lakers

Ryan Cole —  April 30, 2013 — 27 Comments

From Mike Bresnahan, LA Times: Steve Nash couldn’t finish this season because of injuries, but he knew where to start next season.With Dwight Howard. Nash was “very hopeful” the soon-to-be free-agent center would return to the Lakers. ”I think this is the place for him,” Nash said Monday. “He’s in the prime of his career. He’s got his best years ahead of him. He can play for one of the greatest franchises in sports and an amazing city. This has got to be the place for him and I’m hopeful that he sees it that way.” Howard, 27, can sign a five-year, $118-million deal with the Lakers in July or a four-year, $88-million deal with another team. Reserve guard Jodie Meeks, who built a solid bond with Howard during their first season with the Lakers, also seemed to think a reunion would be best.

From C.A. Clark, Silver Screen & Roll: The season from hell. A nightmare. The cursed year. These are the words being bandied about Lakers Nation now that the 2012-2013 Los Angeles Lakers has been mercifully put to rest. From the fans to the bloggers, the players and even the coach, everyone agrees this year was an abysmal failure on all fronts. Therein lies the problem … on all fronts. If the Lakers’ troubles were singular, or uniform, knowing what to do next would be easy. If the problems all stemmed from poor chemistry, or ill-fitting personnel, then the solution would be much simpler. If injuries were all that kept the Lakers from being great, there wouldn’t be a need to do anything at all. But the Lakers organization is not that lucky. Instead, they have many difficult decisions to make, and very little real information with which to make those decisions. That’s the worst part of the debacle that was the failed 2012-2013 Lakers season: Not knowing whether to try it again.

From Kurt Helin, Pro Basketball Talk: The San Antonio Spurs didn’t just end the Lakers season, they put Los Angeles out of its misery. That was the first time the Lakers have been swept in the first round of the playoffs since 1967, but you could see it coming for a long time. From the injuries during training camp, to the firing of a coach five games into the season, to the hiring of a new coach with a radically different philosophy and style that didn’t match the roster, to more injuries, to fan dissatisfaction, to Kobe Bryant blowing out his Achilles, it was all building to this ugly sweep by the Spurs. The question now is how do the Lakers spend their summer vacation? What steps do they take to become the contenders they thought they were back in October. Here are five suggestions.

From Dave McMenamin, ESPN LA: Just before 1 a.m. on Monday morning, a few hours after leaving Staples Center following the Los Angeles Lakers’ season-ending loss to the San Antonio Spurs, Dwight Howard addressed his murky future with the team. ”I hope I get the chance to make it up to you! Thank u la,” Howard posted on Twitter. Whether that means Howard will indeed sign a five-year, $118 million contract extension when he becomes a free agent come July 1 and remain a Laker remains to be seen. Howard will be able to explain what he meant by the tweet when he addresses the media following his exit interview with Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak on Tuesday, much like some of his teammates did Monday, including Metta World Peace, who said too much was put on Howard’s shoulders this season. ”I think we put a little too much pressure on Dwight and as responsible leaders, we gave him a little too much responsibility,” said World Peace.

From Kelly Dwyer, Yahoo Sports: In terms of overall word count, the NBA blogosphere probably broke the all-time record this season when it came to the 2012-13 Los Angeles Lakers. It’s true that the 2010-11 Miami Heat, fresh off of LeBron James’ annoying “Decision,” really turned on the content providers, but something about this collection of stars hit home with both writers and readers. It certainly hit home with me. The chance for the two greatest guards of their respective generation to mix with the NBA’s best center and most versatile big man had me salivating last summer. I didn’t appreciate Los Angeles’ borderline-cruel great timing as they seemingly fleeced both Orlando and Phoenix into acquiring the services of Steve Nash and Dwight Howard. Even with the caveats – age, health, the presence of Mike Brown on Los Angeles’ sideline – I assumed that an 82-game season would last long enough for the Lakers to figure it all out and start to find their groove just as they hit the postseason.
In Morning Links, Uncategorized
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The Season That Was, Hopefully Not What Will Be

Darius Soriano —  April 29, 2013 — 42 Comments

We’ve spent months chronicling what went wrong with this Lakers’ campaign. And, to be completely honest, I’m tired of doing so. There’s only so many words to be devoted to the countless injuries, the faults of the coaches, or even the death of an owner. This season brought many more lows than highs and for that it was memorable, even though I’d pay to forget.

In the wake of such a season, the impulse is to try and fix things; to figure out a path to avoid the same results the next year. For the Lakers, this won’t be easy. There are too many questions to answer in one day. Health, personnel decisions, coaching, the salary cap and luxury tax, the draft, and on and on we could go.

The Lakers are a team that needs to take some time to reflect and reassess. The plan was to always make a push in the final two years of this core’s contracts. Does the utter failure of this season change that? Do the injuries and uncertainty of key players heading into next season? Do the feelings of a fanbase about a coach?

Only the Lakers’ brass knows the answer to these questions, but I’ve a feeling that even they don’t at this time. There’s simply too much to comprehend to think logically on such things right now. Anyone who claims to know, for certain, what will work and the moves that need to be made are either lying or so cocksure their opinions are likely not worthy of legitimate discussion. It’s one thing to think you know, another to know you know. At this point, no one can know those answers.

The only thing anyone can know is that next season can’t be like this one. Whether the front office believes that will be the case with minimal changes or believe the opposite and try to make sure through radical ones won’t be decided today. The draft isn’t until June and free agency doesn’t begin until July. As much as we’d like for the makeover to begin now, it will have to wait.

And maybe that’s a good thing. Most great things take time to come to fruition. It may seem like they happen in an instant, but that’s just the moment when many hours of thought and hard work combine to create that defining moment. For this organization, some of those hours have already been put in but there are many more to go. From Jim and Mitch on down through the players.

In the end, I think Rey said it best when noting that this season was mercifully put to an end last night. Through all the bad moments I’ll try to recall the good ones, but even those are crowded out by what went wrong. As we transition to next year, hopefully what was will not be what is to come.

In Fast Break Thoughts
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Around The World (Wide Web): Laker’s Tough Season Ends

Ryan Cole —  April 29, 2013 — 8 Comments

From Dave McMenamin, ESPN Los Angeles: After everything the season brought for Gasol – Mike Brown wanting him to play the facilitator; Mike D’Antoni wanting him to play back-up center; a laundry list of injuries, including a concussion, knee tendinitis and a torn plantar fascia in his foot causing him to miss the most games of his 12-year career — he still chooses to identify himself as a Laker and everything that is supposed to stand for. Being traded from the Memphis Grizzlies to the Lakers made Gasol a champion. It lifted him from being remembered like the Grizzlies’ best franchise player before him, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, as a very good player on a middling team, to a great player on a great team. To Gasol, the Lakers’ lore is real. While Dwight Howard seemingly has struggled to grasp what it means to be the next in the line of great big men following George Mikan, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Shaquille O’Neal, Gasol got it from the get-go, helping the Lakers to three NBA Finals appearances and two rings in his first two-and-a-half seasons. When asked about the crowd’s ovation for him during his postgame news conference, Gasol teared up. ”I am very appreciative and thankful for our fans and the support they show and their loyalty and their appreciation that they have for me,” Gasol said.

From Kurt Helin, Pro Basketball Talk: Dwight Howard‘s final game as a Laker was ugly. San Antonio early on in its series against the Lakers took to the strategy of fouling Howard hard every time he went up for a shot. San Antonio fronted him in the post, was physical in taking away his position on the block, they collapsed on him (which they could do because there were no healthy Lakers guards to really fear), then finally when Howard would get the ball and start to make a move the Spurs would just foul him. Hard. Howard put up decent numbers through the series — 17 points per game on 61 percent shooting with 10.8 rebounds a contest — but he wasn’t the dominant force the shorthanded Lakers needed against the Spurs, either. He got frustrated early in the second half of Game 4, pickup up his second technical, and got ejected. He watched the end of the Lakers season from the locker room. Late Sunday night/Monday morning, Howard took to twitter to apologize to Lakers fans.

From Ben Bolch, LA Times: Staples Center held Pau Gasol in a warm embrace late in the fourth quarter Sunday, as fans stood to applaud when he left a game that had long been lost. Kobe Bryant then rose from his seat behind the Lakers’ bench to tenderly place two hands on his teammate’s shoulders. It was gracias, Gasol. It also felt very much like adios. The power forward who prompted Lamar Odom to exclaim, “The Beatles are back, baby!” on the day the Lakers acquired Gasol in February 2008 probably has played his last game as part of a not-so-Fab-Four. He stayed classy throughout the Lakers’ season-ending 103-82 loss to the San Antonio Spurs in Game 4 of their Western Conference first-round series, remaining on the court to congratulate conquerors who had swept him out of the playoffs.

From Drew Garrison, Silver Screen & Roll:The season has ended for the Los Angeles Lakers after the San Antonio Spurs swept L.A. in the first round of the NBA Playoffs. For the Lakers, it means the organization can finally focus on moving forward instead of trying to salvage a broken present. The 2013 off-season could be very interesting for the Lakers as they prepare for a new season that, hopefully, puts the nightmarish 2012-2013 season in the distance.

From Arash Markazi, ESPN LA: There have been many times over the course of this season when one could have wished to be a fly on the wall in the Los Angeles Lakers’ locker room, their training room or even the Buss family living room. The moments are far too many to number at this point and in the aftermath of the season just blend together like a marathon showing of “Jersey Shore.” But perhaps the most fascinating moment came Sunday night as Dwight Howard was inexcusably ejected from a game in which he was one of only two players from the Lakers’ regular rotation able to walk. Howard already had received a technical in the first half for complaining about a call, then picked up a second technical a little less than two minutes into the third quarter with the Lakers down 55-34. Many Lakers fans hadn’t even made it back to their seats from halftime as Howard walked back to the locker room.

From Stanley Lee, Lakers Nation: This postseason has most definitely not been what we all expected when this team began their post-All Star break turnaround. The injury bug has bitten the Lakers all year, but the list of hurt players is piling up like never before at the worst possible time. Already missing four guards—Kobe Bryant, Steve Blake, Steve Nash, and Jodie Meeks— in Friday’s humiliating loss to San Antonio, starting forward Metta World Peace now joins the list. After one of the most embarrassing losses in Laker postseason history in which the Lakers fell to the Spurs by a score of 120-89, Mike D’Antoni would once again be forced to trot out one of the worst lineups he has fielded all season—forced to start Darius Morris and Andrew Goudelock against a champion-level Spurs team.

In Morning Links
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Lakers/Spurs: Mercy Killing, Swift And Quick

Rey Moralde —  April 28, 2013 — 51 Comments

What else is there to say?

The Laker season has come to a merciful end after the Spurs put the brooms on them, 103-82. It goes without saying how disappointing this season has been; it’s definitely the most disappointing Laker season in my lifetime in terms of what was expected out of them.

As for the game itself, what did you expect? It was a bloodbath from the start. It was surprising enough that the Lakers were only down six after one and that it took more than 15 minutes of game time for the Spurs to be up by double digits. Then in the third quarter, Dwight Howard got ejected after getting his second technical. Even in losing, the Lakers are spectacular; they go down in flames. They couldn’t take care of the ball (21 turnovers) and the Spurs made very few mistakes (eight giveaways). After Dwight’s ejection, it pretty much looked like Pau Gasol and a D-League team. At least, they had they D-League MVP (Andrew Goudelock) in that squad?

We expected a championship trophy at the end of this campaign but what we got was a rash of injuries, a coaching change that didn’t result to most people’s liking, philosophical clashes between coach and player, and (sometimes) inexplicable losses to bad teams. Sure, the regular season ended with a flourish but luck just wasn’t on the Lakers side as we all know what happened to #24. It was like we all thought we were going to see the cast from Saved By The Bell but instead we got The New Class. Sure, Mr. Belding was still there but it really wasn’t the same and it turned out to be terrible.

Oh, yeah. Hi, Kobe. Nice to see you in the building. Also, hi, T-Mac. How does it feel to be in the second round?

We can all point to a lot of what ifs but the fact of the matter is that THIS is what happened. I’m sure we have a lot of questions in our minds. What if Mike D’Antoni came in from the start? What if Dwight Howard was healthy from the start? What if Steve Nash never got hurt? What if Pau Gasol never got hurt? What if Kobe Bryant played less minutes?

And that’s the theme coming into the summertime: it’s questionable. We’ll have weeks and months to dissect what the Lakers will do in the offseason. Will Dwight Howard stay? How healthy will Kobe Bryant be? Will Steve Nash retire? Will Pau Gasol be traded? Will someone get the amnesty clause? Even the coaching situation will have some questions.

This will be a long, long summer. Mitch Kupchak has a lot of work to do.

Thanks for reading, everybody. I’m sure the other guys here at FB&G can agree with me that it had been quite… an interesting season writing here.

In Game Recap
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Lakers v. Spurs Game 4: It’s Been A Rough Year

Phillip Barnett —  April 28, 2013 — 63 Comments

Imagine this: Vegas had a prop bet on the Lakers facing a first round sweep after squeaking into the post season. The Lakers would be playing without 55 percent of their scoring on the season, the starting power forward would be playing with a torn ligament and the starting off guard would be the D-League MVP. This team, which would have a starting five that has played a grand total of two minutes together all season, would have to try to slow down the San Antonio Spurs with a three-man core that has been playing together for almost a decade. How much would you have put down on the odds of this scenario happening?

As I write these words, the Boston Celtics are holding a 12-point lead, and seem to be holding off a 1st round season sweep of their own against the New York Knicks. After three games, it didn’t seem like the Celtics had a glimmer of hope of winning a game this series, yet J.R. Smith was suspended for a game and Carmelo Anthony just hasn’t been able to find a rhythm. I’m sitting here trying to convince myself that this Lakers team — as depleted as they are — can find a way to be competitive in this Game 4 at Staples Center in front of their fans. Unfortunately, that seems as unlikely as the scenario mentioned above.

There were such high hopes and expectations coming into this season. Mitch Kupchak put together one of the most incredible rosters we had ever seen on paper. He did the impossible by bringing in Steve Nash. Then did the even more impossible by trading away a center who would not log a single minute in 2013 for this generations best. Even the minor move for Jodie Meeks was a great signing… on paper.

Problems would ensue, however.

The Lakers failed to win a preseason game. Red flags were ignored. Steve Nash broke his leg. Mike Brown was fired. Phil Jackson was (allegedly) snubbed from the coaching position. Mike D’Antoni was hired. The Lakers lost a whole lot more games than they won, and in the midst of losing (and the probably cause for a lot of those losses) more core guys missed time due to injuries. Pau had knee problems. Jordan Hill had back spasms, Chris Duhon did as well. After the spasms, Hill tore his labrum. Pau had a concussion. Dwight had a partially torn labrum. Steve Blake had a stomach thing. Pau then had Plantar fascists. Kobe sprained his ankle. Ron tore his meniscus. Nash pulled his hammy. Kobe ruptured his Achilles and then the season was over.

There were 14 injuries during the regular season with a total of 175 games missed from everyone who went down. As bewildering as the regular season was, the Lakers bad luck continued into the post season with Meeks, Blake, Nash, and Artest all down with an injury going into Game 4 — and Gasol will be playing with a torn ligament in one of his fingers.

How do you preview a game that is notionally a foregone conclusion?

The Lakers will start Darius Morris, Andrew Goudelock, Earl Clark, Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard in what is likely the last game of the season for a Lakers team that suffered through setback after setback. The Morris-Goudelock backcourt wasn’t as bad as many would have expected in their first stint together as back court mates, but there was a lot left to be desired as the Lakers suffered their largest home playoff defeat in Game 3 after a 31-point loss. While the two combined for 44 points, neither could keep Tony Parker out of the paint, where has lived for the whole series.

Tim Duncan has had a great series, the interior defense of both Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard have been questioned, but they’ve largely been left out to dry by the poor perimeter defenders allowing penetration, freeing up Duncan and other bigs after rotations. The case was most evident in Game 3, once again, with Morris and Goudelock struggling to stay in front of Parker and Co. The Spurs had 30 team assists, and will be looking to move the ball in similar fashion tonight to close out the series.

For the Lakers, a steady diet of Gasol and Howard aren’t going to win it. The Spurs had packed the paint with more fervor as the series has progressed and the consistency of perimeter shooting has decreased. The Lakers have shot just over 25 percent from three in this series (15-for-57) and will need to see the three-ball fall and a much higher rate should the Lakers make this one competitive. There really hasn’t been an opportunity for either Howard or Gasol to get into a real groove with the Spurs having four guys at any given time with one foot in the paint.

On the defensive end, it’s all about keeping Tony Parker on the perimeter and out of the lane where he has been dangerous, creating scoring opportunities for himself and others. The Lakers defenders have worked hard in this series, but the hard work hasn’t exactly been within the realm of the Lakers scheme, which is understandable considering the fact that at least three rotation players have been out in each game this series, and five will be out in the finale.

We can’t go into this one expecting a Lakers win, but we can go into this one expecting this team to work hard on each end of the floor and to go down fighting for one more game. No Lakers team has ever been swept in the first round of the playoffs, and if you’re suiting up tonight, you don’t want to be a part of the cast that is the first to end the season in that fashion. While I would love to see the Lakers come away with a victory in this one (I’ll actually be in attendance tonight), just seeing them going down fighting until the very last possession will be good enough for me.

D’Antoni can only ask these guys to play tough, play smart and to play hard. This season has been a disaster, but what is potentially the last game of the season doesn’t have to be.

In Game Preview
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