Mitch got a new deal

[Shaqdaddy11]

We even have Lakers fans on here blaming him for the injuries, which is embarrassingly stupid.

That was just me actually, nobody else.

And I stick by it. When you lose FIVE players, with no previous injury history, under the age of 28 for multiple games something is going wrong with the coaching staff. Two, three players yeah maybe call that a fluke. Five?!?

Wrong training routine, wrong game setup, wrong assessment of players fitness levels. All boils down to the head coach.

 

[trojanfan12]

That was just me actually, nobody else.

And I stick by it. When you lose FIVE players, with no previous injury history, under the age of 28 for multiple games something is going wrong with the coaching staff. Two, three players yeah maybe call that a fluke. Five?!?

Wrong training routine, wrong game setup, wrong assessment of players fitness levels. All boils down to the head coach.

Actually, it wasn't just you. TLF and at least one other poster has made the same claim. Also, as others have pointed out, the likely issues behind the injuries is twofold:

1.) Short Buss got rid of the strength and conditioning staff.
2.) Several of these players are being called upon to play more minutes than they ever have in their careers because of the players who were already injured and missed significant time (Kobe, Pau and Nash).

If you think that those 2 factors combined with some bad luck aren't the main reasons for the injuries, I don't know what to tell you. You probably think the D-Rose missing the past 2 seasons because of his knee injuries is Thibs fault.

As for the bolded, there is so much wrong with that statement, I don't even know where to begin other than to say that it doesn't look like you have ever played a sport.

 

[trojanfan12]

That was just me actually, nobody else.

And I stick by it. When you lose FIVE players, with no previous injury history, under the age of 28 for multiple games something is going wrong with the coaching staff. Two, three players yeah maybe call that a fluke. Five?!?

Wrong training routine, wrong game setup, wrong assessment of players fitness levels. All boils down to the head coach.

Let me try explaining this a different way.

Best Case Scenario: The Lakers start the season completely healthy. This means that they have Kobe, Nash and Pau from day one and all 3 are available for the entire season minus the inevitable day off here and there for minor injuries/rest because they are older players. Let's also assume that the role players play as well as they have most of the season. Even with that, those are 3 heavy minutes players and we'd be looking at 30 minutes per game apiece from Kobe and Pau and 25 minutes per game from Nash at a minimum.

That's a combined 85 minutes per game that has to be made up. Since NBA games are still 48 minutes, teams are still required to have 5 players on the floor and they don't allow a team to borrow players from an opponent, those minutes have to be made up by the guys on the roster. That means players are going to be logging heavy minutes that aren't used to it. Then consider the inevitable injuries that will have players missing games here and there throughout the season and it means even more minutes that have to be made up. That's not the coaches fault. That is the fault of the circumstances they were in and the severity of the injuries that have caused Kobe, Nash and Pau to miss so much time.

Additionally, even though getting rid of the strength and conditioning staff was Short Buss's decision, every one of these guys either has or can afford to hire their own personal trainer. In fact, some players actually prefer their trainers to the teams staff and have their personal trainers travel with them. Isn't it the responsibility of the player and his personal trainer to make the changes necessary in their routine to handle the additional minutes?

I get it, most of you don't like D'Antoni, but when you start blaming him for injuries, it just shows how desperate you are to blame him for everything. Hell, some of you probably think he killed Dr. Buss.