TEB11
Active Member
.....I am getting the feeling here that no one wants to play on the same team as Kobe Bryant. Too bad Laker brass can't figure that out!!!!!
I think you guys are really overstating any issues with the Buss family and Kobe at these presentations.
I'm sure they thought they had a good chance to get Aldridge, but doubt they thought it was guaranteed. That previous rebuild included a prime Kobe. Slightly different situation now.
I do blame Jim Buss for losing Howard. That was a result of choosing D'Antoni over Phil. That was a huge mistake IMO and ruined that reload plan.
Yea, it'll be B.Scott and Mitch this time. Apparently the Lakers left out all of the albatrosses. Let's see... ...the weirdness of the Buss family, James Worthy, and... ... not going to say it.
Certainly a possibility.
There's no proof Phil was even still interested in coaching, he was having a hard time traveling with the team before his retirement and he has not returned to coaching. When you are offered a team that consists of Howard, Kobe and Nash and you say "I'll think about it" then I wouldn't blame the organization for going a different route. D'Antoni was a backup plan that was derailed by injuries to Steve Nash who was supposed to help that offense work. Instead we got Kobe trying to run and gun as point guard.
Can't speak for others lakersrule, but I presented a compilation of reports in my posts using some verbatim and some interpretations.
For all Phil had done for the organization, I think Jim could have given him the whole weekend to decide. There was no reason to rush the hiring of D'Antoni. He was laid up on pain killers after knee surgery. Another team was not going to beat us to him. It reeked of a sibling rivarly/power play to me.
I think you guys are really overstating any issues with the Buss family and Kobe at these presentations.
Yea that too. There's some truth to some of the stories otherwise why would they have a second meeting to "get it right"?
I guess I just feel like some Lakers fans will be begging for Phil even when he's 100 years old, the guy's getting older and he won't be able to save our team and lead them to championships forever, eventually you gotta move on. He seems pretty happy with the job he has now, at least when he's not being asked questions about the effectiveness of the triangle.
We got 5 championships and 7 finals with him, I'm happy with that.
"The Lakers say they have six people working on stats, four of whom focus on data provided by SportVU, the six in-arena cameras located in the rafters of every NBA arena that use Israeli missile-tracking technology to record the movements of each player, the referees and the ball 25 times per second every game.
Two of those SportVU people are based in L.A.; two others -- including the Lakers' top SportVU consultant -- are based in the home of the Lakers' biggest rival: Boston.
"Just so you know, he's born and raised in Southern California, not Boston," Kupchak said of their top SportVU consultant, whom we'll call Jack. (The Lakers declined to reveal the identity of their analytics staffers, provide much information about them or allow them to be interviewed.)
Jack attended graduate school at UCLA with Kupchak. "He's somewhat of a basketball fan," Kupchak said. They stayed in touch over the years and talked about analytics, eventually discussing the type of person an NBA team needs to hire for such a task. The topic came up as SportVU started to become more and more available; all 30 teams had access to it beginning in the 2013-14 season. "And then he was able to say, this is the kind of person that you need," Kupchak said.
Kupchak said he hired Jack about two years ago.
Jack keeps in touch with the two SportVU staffers in L.A. through conference calls and visits. The other employee in Boston, Kupchak said, is tasked with helping break down the data into a more digestible form. The Lakers' other two analytics staffers are former Lakers coach Rudy Tomjanovich and his son, Trey, both of whom are based in L.A. Kupchak said Rudy has worked in a "statistics-based analysis role" for several years with the team, working with more conventional stats, such as information found in box scores, and also using NBA.com's StatsCube, the league's official advanced statistical analysis tool.
Another element is Lakers executive vice president Jim Buss, who in a 2012 interview with ESPN.com said he has a "defensive rating, basically, that involves the offense, defense and then the impact depending on how much they play." It's a formula that Buss said then that he developed himself. "I'm up to all hours of the night doing numbers. Trying to tweak it. Trying to get it better. Seeing if it truly [corresponds]," he said in the interview. It's unclear what involvement -- if any -- Buss has with the Lakers' day-to-day analytics operations. (The Lakers declined to make Buss available for an interview.)" - EPSN
Their analytics department isn't just about Rudy and son looking at +/- numbers. Is it as in depth as other teams? No, that's true. How do you explain all the shitty teams that are using complex analytics? Did analytics help Cleveland make it to the finals or was it Lebron? Great players and deep teams are still necessary to win, regardless of how complex your analytics department is. The Lakers don't have that now.
I'll give you that management failed in their pursuit of FAs these last two summers, but you do have to take into account the context of each individual situation. Carmelo was blown away by the Lakers presentation. He went with the money. The Lakers were not Aldridge's top choice. They failed to convince him it should be. Not surprising given his age, desire to win a championship, and the comparative rosters of the Lakers versus the Spurs. DeAndre was always considered a long shot.
I'm not changing face. Of course I'd rather see Aldridge or DeAndre sign. I'm not going to get emotional over it but rather understand the realism of individual situations.
Man, the "it's Kobe's fault" narrative is soo tired in this day and age. We have a young nucleus, that's why things aren't going the way they want them too. Look, let's switch the situation. Let's say the Spurs had a "glitz and glamour" meeting with Aldridge.....but do you know what's facts at the end of all of that? The Spurs have been in contention for forever it seems, they have a team ready to win the title, they have a budding star in Kawhi Leonard, they have a Grade A organization, and they have the best coach in the game in Gregg Popovich. So at the end of the day, who cares about the meeting when you know they're a title contender this year? With us, we have a team that's not quite ready for title contention, and we have a young nucleus. Lastly, couple that with the Buss's, Mitch, and Kobe Bryant, and you have three VERY EASY targets to make headlines about
It's just folks being intellectually lazy and grabbing low hanging fruit. Doing anything other than blaming Kobe would require actually taking a logical look at the situation and that's simply too much work for most.
naw, it's ALL Kobe's fault. so was Jimmy Hoffa, Katrina, and Mt St. Helens...
Kobe is also being investigated for being the cause of Cancer...
Wasn't he involved with Al Quaida?