Clippers mastery over LA complete.

[heatmyshorts]

Currently the Clippers are in a good position to keep their players. Doc Rivers will inject his brand of hard nosed defense. It is just a shame that the Clippers got Rivers and not the Lakers. But perhaps it is the Clippers turn to be LA's favorite franchise.

 

[Shanemansj13]

Fuck the Lakers, I'm glad they didn't get him. It is the Clips turn and Lakers only go downhill from here.

 

[jayviabay]

Fuck the Lakers, I'm glad they didn't get him. It is the Clips turn and Lakers only go downhill from here.

LOL The lakers have been in the playoffs 96% of the time in this leagues history... its never down hill

 

[heatmyshorts]

LOL The lakers have been in the playoffs 96% of the time in this leagues history... its never down hill

Hate to break you from the past but last season was going a bit downhill. The Lakers have not made any good moves.

 

[jayviabay]

Hate to break you from the past but last season was going a bit downhill. The Lakers have not made any good moves.

I wouldnt call it downhill, we still made the playoffs. Downhill would be like the 10 yr drought Celtics experienced. When you make a trade and the commissioner cries, " unfair", how do you label that not good? Then you trade a center that didnt play a single game this year for one that helped you reach the playoffs, has to be considered good... I would say not bringing back phil or hiring brian shaw, was not a good move

 

[BOTSLAYER]

Hate to break you from the past but last season was going a bit downhill. The Lakers have not made any good moves.

This is the truth, but rather than call this a knock on your franchise realize how amazing it is that this is what is considered downhill. You made the playoffs and probably would have won a game if Kobe was not injured. Pretty impressive down hill slide imo.

I wouldnt call it downhill, we still made the playoffs. Downhill would be like the 10 yr drought Celtics experienced. When you make a trade and the commissioner cries, " unfair", how do you label that not good? Then you trade a center that didnt play a single game this year for one that helped you reach the playoffs, has to be considered good... I would say not bringing back phil or hiring brian shaw, was not a good move

As a Laker fan I would be very worried about your current situation. Your new GM seems like a complete moron. I know players win championships but it is management who bring the players and coaches together to get the job done.

One of the tell tale signs that your GM is completely incompetent is hiring D'Antoni. Previous signs include firing every coach you hired with in 12 minutes of hiring him. Another sign would be hiring a coach for a 39 year old rather than for a 34 year old superstar or the 27 year old you hope is the future of your franchise.

 

[trojanfan12]

This is the truth, but rather than call this a knock on your franchise realize how amazing it is that this is what is considered downhill. You made the playoffs and probably would have won a game if Kobe was not injured. Pretty impressive down hill slide imo.



As a Laker fan I would be very worried about your current situation. Your new GM seems like a complete moron. I know players win championships but it is management who bring the players and coaches together to get the job done.

One of the tell tale signs that your GM is completely incompetent is hiring D'Antoni. Previous signs include firing every coach you hired with in 12 minutes of hiring him. Another sign would be hiring a coach for a 39 year old rather than for a 34 year old superstar or the 27 year old you hope is the future of your franchise.

The Lakers don't have a new GM!! They have Mitch Kupchak who has been there for years. First as assistant GM under Jerry West and then as GM.

Jim Buss (aka Short Buss) is the problem and D'Antoni was his hire!!

 

[lakersrule]

Is Doc Rivers really that great of a coach? He only started having success when the Big 3 formed. His was a sub .500 regular season and playoff coach prior to the Big 3. Tom Thibodeau may deserve more credit for the 2008 title than Doc. Thibodeau was the defensive coach and the 2008 Celtics had one of the best defenses ever. I'm not convinced that this move makes the Clippers significantly better than last season.

 

[lakersrule]

One of the tell tale signs that your GM is completely incompetent is hiring D'Antoni. Previous signs include firing every coach you hired with in 12 minutes of hiring him. Another sign would be hiring a coach for a 39 year old rather than for a 34 year old superstar or the 27 year old you hope is the future of your franchise.

D'Antoni was a mistake. PJ should be back. Short Buss can still make this right.

 

[shitsho]

Is Doc Rivers really that great of a coach? He only started having success when the Big 3 formed. His was a sub .500 regular season and playoff coach prior to the Big 3. Tom Thibodeau may deserve more credit for the 2008 title than Doc. Thibodeau was the defensive coach and the 2008 Celtics had one of the best defenses ever. I'm not convinced that this move makes the Clippers significantly better than last season.

He was always a good coach. He never really had the cred until the big 3 arrived. Now that he has that in his resume any player that doesn't toe the line is going to look bad not him.

 

[Heatles84]

Is Doc Rivers really that great of a coach? He only started having success when the Big 3 formed. His was a sub .500 regular season and playoff coach prior to the Big 3. Tom Thibodeau may deserve more credit for the 2008 title than Doc. Thibodeau was the defensive coach and the 2008 Celtics had one of the best defenses ever. I'm not convinced that this move makes the Clippers significantly better than last season.

I actually thought about the same thing the other day. Personally I'd rather see Thibs go over to the Clippers and be a headache in the West. His defense is probably the best defense I've ever seen. As a Heat fan I can say that our defense is exciting, but it relies alot on athleticism and getting into passing lanes. Chicago's is just stifling and scary.

 

[BOTSLAYER]

The Lakers don't have a new GM!! They have Mitch Kupchak who has been there for years. First as assistant GM under Jerry West and then as GM.

Jim Buss (aka Short Buss) is the problem and D'Antoni was his hire!!

I thought SB was the acting ish GM because he made that hire. but SB was who I was referring to the whole time.

Besides that he fired the long standing scout they were using and hired a buddy of his. He also said something to the effect that 10 random dudes in a bar would give you an accurate measurement of a players abilities LOL.

 

[BOTSLAYER]

At the NBA level not many players are learning new things, they have made it and most are not going to learn a new scheme or get better at fundamentals. The ones that do work at that stuff are players like Ray Allen, Curry, LBJ the MJs, the Reggie Millers, they are the players who have left a mark on the game. Russell used to have notes on player tendencies.


Sadly in todays day in age the best coaches are not the one teaching fundamentals but the coaches that can get their players to work hard together. The best scouts and GMs understand that and never hire D'Antoni for a Phil Jackson job and never have Amare or Melo on any roster, let alone the same roster.

This is why it is so frustrating to be a Heat fans sometimes because they just "turn it on". Spo is a good and very creative Xs and Os coach, but is supremely limited with how hard he can get his team to work on a nightly basis. If we had a Thibs we are talking an 80 win season

 

[rmilia1]

The Clippers best year in franchise history and the Lakers worst season performance compared to expectations in franchise history both equaled first round playoff losses..... LOL. Nice work Clips!!! Truly signing Doc could be OK IF he can get the youngsters on the Clips to buy in on D like he did the older Celts. Of course those guys knew they were up against time and sort of sucked it up to try to win a title. Tougher to get a young team to buy in on urgency IMO

 

[Heatles84]

I don't like the Lakers whatsoever. But to bag on the Lakers and start calling the Clips the better team is downright absurd - even though all signs point to the Lakers having a down year. I'd feel the same if in 5 years from now the Magic somehow had a better roster then the Heat and I had to hear Magic fans gloat. As Lakers fans say, come at me when you're hanging banners. Last I checked - the Lakers have 16 of them. It's hard to stick up for them, but I'm not going to be a hypocrite when the same thing could happen at a later time.

 

[heatmyshorts]

I don't like the Lakers whatsoever. But to bag on the Lakers and start calling the Clips the better team is downright absurd - even though all signs point to the Lakers having a down year. I'd feel the same if in 5 years from now the Magic somehow had a better roster then the Heat and I had to hear Magic fans gloat. As Lakers fans say, come at me when you're hanging banners. Last I checked - the Lakers have 16 of them. It's hard to stick up for them, but I'm not going to be a hypocrite when the same thing could happen at a later time.

Lets be realistic. The Clippers under Doc Rivers can be a huge threat to the Heat next season. We saw how good the Clips can be last season. They may not be hanging banners but they are a better team than the Lakers for the forseeable future. Things may change if the Lakers revamp the roster and land 2 of the top 5 uninjured players in the league.

We can start calling the Clippers the better team. The sad part is that the Lakers are simply concentrating ob keeping Howard. How is that going to make them any better than before? How is an injured Kobe going to make the Lakers any better than before? If I were the Lakers GM and my mission was to win at all cost, I wouldnt be banking on keeping damaged goods or locker room cancers.

 

[BOTSLAYER]

I am not going to say the Clips are a threat with their current roster, but they are much closer with Doc.

I think they need one more real star...paging Dwight

and clips are better this year as of now, not anything more.

 

[trojanfan12]

Lets be realistic. The Clippers under Doc Rivers can be a huge threat to the Heat next season. We saw how good the Clips can be last season. They may not be hanging banners but they are a better team than the Lakers for the forseeable future. Things may change if the Lakers revamp the roster and land 2 of the top 5 uninjured players in the league.

We can start calling the Clippers the better team. The sad part is that the Lakers are simply concentrating ob keeping Howard. How is that going to make them any better than before? How is an injured Kobe going to make the Lakers any better than before? If I were the Lakers GM and my mission was to win at all cost, I wouldnt be banking on keeping damaged goods or locker room cancers.

Right now, looking at the rosters and the way each team performed in the regular season last year, the Clippers are the better team. However, as we have seen, that can change rather quickly in the NBA. Barring a minor miracle, the Clippers will be the better team next season.

As for how signing Howard makes the Lakers better than before. You have to remember that he came back from his back surgery sooner than he should have. It took him awhile to start to regain some of the explosiveness and quickness that we are used to seeing from him. By the end of the season, we were starting to see some of that again.

If Dwight comes back and is close to the Dwight that we saw prior to the back injury, then he definitely makes the Lakers better.

As for Kobe, it really depends on 2 things: How close can he get to where he was last season? and How quickly can he adjust his game when considering the lost quickness and explosiveness that will undoubtedly be a factor given his injury?

If he can adjust smoothly to being more of a jump shooter and facilitator, he could actually make the Lakers better overall because the Lakers will not be able to rely on Kobe playing "hero ball" to get them to the playoffs.

Lots of ifs going into next season, but as a Laker fan, I'm not real concerned about next season. Even if everyone comes back 100% healthy, it's pretty unlikely that they were going to win the championship next season anyway. I'm more interested in what they will do next summer when, even if they re-sign Dwight, they will have lots of cap space to play with.

 

[HizzleRocker]

I thought SB was the acting ish GM because he made that hire. but SB was who I was referring to the whole time.

Besides that he fired the long standing scout they were using and hired a buddy of his. He also said something to the effect that 10 random dudes in a bar would give you an accurate measurement of a players abilities LOL.

Yep. Plus he fired the long time strength and conditioning coach Alex McKechnie, who was widely considered one of the best in the league. Interesting that last year we had so many injuries???

I did hear something about him hiring a buddy to come do scouting. From what I heard his name is Chaz, and all we know is he's a fun guy to be around. Oh boy.

 

[BOTSLAYER]

Poor Laker fans, I am sorry, unless Jeanie starts calling the shots I am jumping ship.

Jim looks like a dude who has a friend named Chaz and he lost a bet to chaz while drinking a ton of bomb beverages and was forced to name his son Jager.

Not who I want running my team.