Forum Blue And Gold

A Lakers Blog. Thoughts, reflections, and the odd rant on the Los Angeles Lakers and the NBA (even the Clippers).

Daddy’s Got A New Pair Of Shoes

by


Welcome to the new look of Forum Blue & Gold.

A few things are different, but most things are the same. We’ve added a Lakers schedule widget just to the right — it comes up as a map but if you click the schedule button at the bottom of the widget you get a more traditional schedule.

Also, some of our standing columns — like about the new stats here or “what’s the deal with the name of this site?” — now have standing links across the top.

Aside that, things should work pretty much as they did before, just with a new look. The comments will follow below and be sort of straight line (not in threads, that was a hard call). We’ll be using more photos and graphs, but the focus here will always be on trying to provide some quality content and staring some interesting conversations.

Poke around a little and if you find any problems (bad links, what have you) put it in the comments or send me an email. There are always bugs, but we think we’ve caught as many as we could.

Many thanks to Vivien at eWebscapes for the design. I think it makes our little home on the web just a little more comfortable.


Reader Interactions

Comments

  3. J says

    Very nice! Now you just need to add a hot chick cam on the right nav bar and your hits will jump up even more.

    Oh wait, I’m thinking another kind of site. This is sports mode dammit, stupid meds aren’t kicking in yet.

  9. burningjoe says

    awesome layout look…easy on the eyes….things are in sensible spots…I like it!!!

    .and the shirts are up too!!!!

  13. chris h says

    yeah, goodonya kurt!
    I especially like that our names are at the top of the comment, this helps cause us ‘long-timers’ here can get a sense of the intended tone, by already knowing the commenter.
    by the way, whatever happened to ol’ John R?
    I kind if miss the ol’ crumedgeon.

  22. Jonathan says

    Wow… This new look makes my computer look so good, as if I got a new one. way to throw it down.

  28. j.d. hastings says

    Looks good, Kurt!

    I was just thinking about this Lakers start in terms of the long view. How good is it?

    Since the 2000 lakers, I think there have been 4 teams that have had early historic paces of wins, but the commonality between them isn’t always positive. (I’m doing a lot of this from memory, so sorry if I misstate anything).

    In 2000, the Lakers lost 5 games early while Kobe recovered from a broken hand. Then they used 2 or 3 10+ game win streaks to threaten to win 70 games. They all said the right things about going for it, but at the very end of the season they didn’t have much reason to push themselves, and lost a few while playing their starters fewer minutes. Going into the playoffs, the lethargy of the late season proved difficult to overcome. The Kings took them the distance, the Suns only won once, but that was a blowout, and then the Trailblazers had to implode for the Lakers to win in 7. Against the Pacers, the Lakers again showed difficulty finishing teams off and ultimately Indiana outscored the Lakers, though LA won in 6.

    Next came Detroit in 2005 I think. They lost only 3 games through February I think and were the talk of the league. Then around halfway through the season, they started showing signs of the hubris that has plagued them since. They fell off the all time mark, made it back to the finals, where they lost in a great series. However, the overconfidence followed them the next several years and many now consider them one of the most disappointing non-dynasties ever.

    Then came Dallas in 2007 I think. After choking (being robbed) in the finals, they came back with a renewed focus and also threatened to win 70 games. They fell short and happened to be matched up against the team that happened to play them best through the regular season. Historic upset followed.

    Then last year came the Celtics, who put it on teams all year. People became sick of talking about how good they were halfway through the season and focus turned to the Pau Lakers. At the end of the season, with home court settled early, they started resting their big 3 and generally let up on the stalwart practices that made them dominant. Their opening series against ATL was much like the SAC-LAL series in 2000. All home wins. Cleveland also threatened them before Boston finally seemed to wake up against the aforementioned overconfident Pistons. Aaaand we all know how this ended.

    So the common element I see (anecdotally) is that the lack of serious competition in the regular season hurts teams in the playoffs. Teams have to relearn how to compete at 100% during the playoffs, and that isn’t a convenient time to do so. And this Lakers team is already showing signs of complacency within games.

    So, while I’m enjoying this part of the season as much as everyone else, the most I can really take from it is that they are winning the games they should be winning during an easy early schedule.

    And if they hit a few bumps along the way, it may not be the worst thing in the world.

  30. barry g says

    it’s a really tough thing, to play a full game of completely focused basketball. all in all, i’ve been really impressed w/ the effort that the team’s put forth so far this year. they may blow teams out some quarters and get blown out others, but for the most part they’re constantly trying, running, rotating, hustling. it’s a huge boost for us to have the best player on our team setting such a great example work-ethic wise. once you get to this level, you’re big enough, fast enough, talented enough, whatever. i think what’ll take us to the next level is not just having great players, and not just having great players playing well together, but having everyone on the team committed to going all out while they’re on the floor. nobody wandering around half-heartedly, nobody just going through the motions. and the best part of it from the point of view of the coaching staff – if you don’t wanna work hard, i’ve got three other guys who play your position that will.

  34. Reed says

    Everything looks perfect except for the glaring lack of some awkward pictures of kurt decked out in laker gear, reenacting glorious moments in lakers history.

  35. chibi says

    I appreciate Kurt’s work, and the way he runs his ship. So, with all due respect, Cooke’s concept of “forum blue and gold” is bizarre, trivial, despotic nonsense.

    I think renaming the blog “FBG” or “FB&G” is much better. It accomplishes the same thing by referring to the blog itself, while alluding to its its tedious provenance to a lesser degree.

  41. Snoopy2006 says

    Happy Thanksgiving to everyone here at FBAG, hope everyone has a great Turkey day!

    And I like the new layout, it’s simplistic and gets the job done.

  42. bruinsfan says

    whoa this is crazy
    i thought the title of this post was a reference to lebron’s shoe video, lol.

  43. Geoff says

    I like the site, although it could look crappy and I’d still look it up. The content is the class of blogging.

  44. sT says

    Congratulations on a job well done, Kurt…

    Enjoy the moment for what it is… “Life is fast and things happen quickly.” – Derek Fisher

    Happy Thanksgiving to all.

  49. nomuskles says

    I agree with the comments previous. The site indeed has improved its look. I wish we had slightly more polished headers over there to the right. And much like a previous commenter, I would vote for the usage of the plugin to allow the site to recognize mobile browsers (iPhone, etc.) and reformat the site for that. Great work on the facelift!

    I’ll be looking to commenting on the new format during Friday’s game against Dallas, the start time of which I am now aware thanks to the widget.

  50. harold says

    Nice, I didn’t really like the old version in terms of design, this is better albeit a bit cliche (which makes it more familiar, though).

    Not to be nitpicky without having contributed one iota to the new design, but I kinda don’t like how the gold fades to greenish(*gasp*) yellow towards the end.

  54. KurkPeterman says

    I like the new look (and the fact that you kept the same layout pretty much). Great job Kurt!

    Anyone watch the Clippers/Nuggets game tonight? I stumbled into it with about 4 minutes left and was treated to one of the most entertaining coaching matchups in the league. Which coach would do a better a job at mismanaging their team in the late game? Now keep in mind, we have two of the greatest late game crumblers to grace the hardwood here; this was going to be a good one. In the end, nod goes to Dunleavy (I had him favored anyways, we have to wait until later in the season before we get to see Karl in his playoff form) who didn’t call the timeout with 11.5 remaining down 1 and instead let Baron run up the court (not a bad move necessarily, but what was he doing?) and dish to Camby hanging out near the 3 point arc. Marcus Camby! This is the same guy who’s taken 71 threes over his 13 year career and made 13 for them for a sizzling 18%. Is this who you really want taking a end game, perimeter shot? I know the game doesn’t mean jack, but I got my comedy for the night.

  57. This Little Pinky says

    54 – FYI, Dunleavy was not on the sideline, he was in Dallas for his father-in-law’s funeral. Assistant coach Kim Hughes made the decision not to call at timeout.

  61. ian says

    Thought you might like to know that content in the home page us not visible on my iPhone although individual posts are.

  62. mando says

    What was the reasoning to not use comment threads?

    honestly, its the main reason im not a regular visitor to the comments section of this blog. Threading makes for so much better conversation.

  63. Kurt says

    62. Mando, when this came up a while back opinions were pretty split on the issue, some people loved it, some didn’t. I just kind of decided, with that feeling, to stick with what this site has done in the past rather than make a change.

  64. Gatinho says

    Clean with a quasi-retro look.

    But I had to go to Safari, Firefox just shows the banner on my Macbook…