Three in a row and back to .500, small victories in the grand scheme but you have to feel a little more optimistic about this team than you did 10 days ago. However, don’t get too high off of beating Toronto, regardless of how good the offense looked and all the assists. The Raptors are worse than I had pictured, their perimeter defense is abysmal.
Let me go to a Phil Jackson quote from the Press Enterprise this week: “I expect this team to catch fire and start playing (good) basketball sometime around the New Year … and have some strength at the end of the year.” As I and others have said since the start of the season: If the Lakers can hang around .500 and stay within reach of the playoffs as they get (then stay) healthy and become more proficient in the offense, the schedule the last 20 games of the season favors them. Then, as they make the playoffs, pundits nationwide who have said “Phil Jackson just did this for the money†or “Jackson is whipped†will start praising him as a genius. And say they knew it all along.
A few other thoughts to clear out my inbox:
• I mentioned this in a comment the other day, but one of my favorite things I’ve read this season comes from 82games.com and Kevin Pelton — a detailed breakdown of how Detroit dealt with the Phoenix pick and roll. With that, Kevin put himself in the middle of the TNT crew/Mark Cuban rift. If you’re going to pick a side in that fight, go with the smart billionaire.
• The latest blog poll rankings are up at yayspoorts.com. Detroit is number one and San Antonio number two (I had them flopped). The Lakers are 22nd (I had them 20th, and the voting was Monday before the Lakers looked good two nights in a row).
• Speaking of yaysports NBA coverage, interesting piece on Kobe’s tights: Are they more about keeping his legs warm or pleasing the bosses at Nike?
• Grady Little? I have a Red Sox fan as a wife so I watched more of him than I would have cared to. He was a conservative manager who chose odd times to be aggressive. His biggest weakness — leaving in pitchers. Part of that was a poor pen, but Grady was slow to remove struggling starters, and not just in The Pedro Incident.
I have a thing against Grady — he has made me more scared for the live of my child than at any moment before or after. During the 2003 ALCS Red Sox/Yankee series my wife was pregnant, she had already ordered Red Sox PJs for the child. We were watching The Pedro Incident and she became increasingly incensed as only a passionate person whose body is surging with extra hormones can. She screamed at the television for Grady to take Pedro out. She screamed at me for not screaming at the television to take Pedro out. She paced the living room like a wild cat and just yelled random swear words. I thought Nurse Ratchet was going to have to be called in. Honestly, I was genuinely concerned for our unborn child’s welfare, but knew the sentence, “Honey, you need to calm down†would not have the hoped for result. So I sat there and repeated the same answer to the same question 100 times: “I don’t know why. It was stupid.â€
So, I’m not really excited about this hire.
Gatinho says
I really dug that Pelton article as well. So where are the Lakers going wrong? I’m guessing going under too often.
My pregnant wife and I were at the Sac/LAL X-mas game in ’03 when they lost to the Kings. She was screaming (and cursing like a sailor) so much she had to go puke in the third quarter. “Honey, you need to calm down” wasn’t working then either.
Kurt says
I’m certainly not above stealing a good idea and plan to do that with the break down of the Lakers covering the pick-and-roll. But, I missed the Buck game and knew Toronto would not give an accurate picture. So, I’m going to try to use this weekend’s games.
Zoltan says
Good stuff.
The Grady hiring depressed me. I still don’t understand how you fire a solid manager like Tracy who always kept his team in the thick of things, even when the talent wasn’t necessarily there. Especially when you then go and fire the GM who got rid of Tracy. And now we get Grady. It’s rough being a Dodger fan these days. A like minded article on the subject: http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5148452.
Tony B says
With the talk of having salary cap room for the 2007 free agents, has anyone noticed that D. George and Slava’s contracts end after this season? Is it safe to say they will not be Lakers next season, and if not, why not trade them now and try to get an expiring contract in return? It’s obvious the Lakers don’t need either one.
Kurt says
You usually don’t see trades until closer to the first of the year, teams are just figuring out how what they have fits together. But as for those two guys, Slava probably won’t be traded only because nobody wants him, he’s known as a guy who plays no D. I’m not sure you could even get a second round pick for him, especially since he’s been injured.
D. George has been playing a fair amount of minutes coming off the bench for the Lakers but he’s the one guy they may get rid of who has the most trade value. I’m just not sure how much.
Patrick says
Kurt, that’s the best take on the Little signing I’ve heard.
KD says
Dunno about the media calling Phil a “genius,” they’ve gone out of their way to demean his accomplishments since “Sacred Hoops” came out (“he’s too smug! He’ll only coach ready-made winners!”), and they’ll probably find a way to denigrate him again come April.
Thankfully, Phil couldn’t give a flying flip.
john says
how would you rank the lakers now, kurt?
i’ve been wondering just how good this team is now, if the good habits aren’t reversed, with a goose egg contribution from kwame brown.
i don’t think i’d put them in the top 10 teams, although i’m not sure. i’d probably rate them a touch above or below minnesota… that high because it seems like they’re developing a killer instinct.
i remember that dallas-phoenix game. did you see it? i couldn’t believe how dallas was just switching dirk on nash at the end.
i was even more surprised that nash didn’t take advantage of it at ALL. a seven footer on him and a whole side of the court cleared out, all he did was pull up for jumpers. must’ve been tired.
stats are nice, but they don’t tell the whole story. a guy on the comments of cuban’s blog used 82 games to prove that kobe is a TERRIBLE clutch shooter. we all know that is only half the story.
i would suspect the switching stat has its own half-truth. either it being run by a lot of teams that are unable to take a real advantage of the pick and roll, or [more likely] it’s the type of defense the mavs have been the least inept at.
Kurt says
John, let’s see. First, I’m not sure how much I’d move the Lakers up. I’m using a system that is largely focused on per 100 possession differential, but I’m making some changes to that. The Lakers have been good the last week or so but they need to keep it up for a while longer before I’d move them up to the lower teens, which is where I think they end up.
Stats without context are only half the picture. That’s one key way advanced hoop stats are differnet than what has happened in baseball, the people working with teams have basketball backgrounds and understand the need to meld the two worlds.
About Dallas switching against the Suns, the book on Phoenix often is to switch and make Nash beat you as a shooter. Dangerous, but less so then letting him get his teammates better shots.
john says
hmm. i wanna study the pick n’ roll sciences in detail now. i don’t understand why after a switch a guard like nash wouldn’t use his speed advantage and just blow by a taller player. i guess the other parts of the defense adjust?
i remember how clear the lanes were that night against dirk. i did figure there must’ve been some reason he didn’t drive. since it was early on in the season, i blamed fatigue. it wasn’t as if dirk was sagging back to protect the lane.
yeah, i feel like a bit of a crazy homer bumping the lakers up so high. i know the competition hasn’t been the greatest so far on this road trip, but they’ve beaten them severely like they should have. i really like how the offense looks, the defense is sexy, and on top of that other really pro habits seem like they’re being built.
get minnesota on a non back-to-back, i think that’s about an equal fight.
chicago away and not the 2nd game of a back-to-back will be a good of a test. would you rate the bulls higher than the lakers at the moment? gimme a number in your next post.