The Lakers' Season after Starting 1-4

poor Lakers, its getting really UGLY, Howard Sr now chimes in making everyone feel uncomfortable....Nash and Howard argue in-game. poor Dwight Howard, he had a whole franchise that catered to him, NOW? what a sad mess. I would be shocked if Howard resigned with this team, I think he'll go to Atlanta.

cowens/oldschool wrote:poor Lakers, its getting really UGLY, Howard Sr now chimes in making everyone feel uncomfortable....Nash and Howard argue in-game. poor Dwight Howard, he had a whole franchise that catered to him, NOW? what a sad mess. I would be shocked if Howard resigned with this team, I think he'll go to Atlanta.

Most people who know Dwight, including his father, think that Dwight will re-sign with the Lakers.
Today, the following came out about Dwight and Atlanta:

Howard, who is struggling through a nightmarish season with the Los Angeles Lakers, will become a free-agent this summer, and Atlanta will join Dallas and Houston in offering him a max-salary contract. Sources have said Howard has little interest in playing in Atlanta. ESPN.com

Dwight has never shown any interest in playing for Atlanta. Also, there is a good chance that Josh Smith might not be on the Hawks next season.
Why would Dwight walk away from $30m in guaranteed money to play for a non-championship contending middle of the pack team and have few endorsement opportunities?

I'd still like to see Dwight in Boston. With the right coach/psychiatrist I think he could reemerge as one of the dominant players in the NBA.

Current rumor-du-jour has Josh Smith being traded before the deadline.

It would be ironic if LAL traded an unhappy and disappointing Dwight Howard to Atlanta for Josh Smith. I don't see it happening, Atlanta would be fools to do that trade unless Howard agreed to re-signing with them, but it would be funny.

I think Dwight's unwillingness to commit contractually, neither to Orlando nor to LAL, until the free agency period begins and everybody comes wooing, is hurting his market value. Who wants to deal with that?


bob


.

bobheckler wrote:Current rumor-du-jour has Josh Smith being traded before the deadline.

It would be ironic if LAL traded an unhappy and disappointing Dwight Howard to Atlanta for Josh Smith. I don't see it happening, Atlanta would be fools to do that trade unless Howard agreed to re-signing with them, but it would be funny.

I think Dwight's unwillingness to commit contractually, neither to Orlando nor to LAL, until the free agency period begins and everybody comes wooing, is hurting his market value. Who wants to deal with that?


bob


.

bob,


Dwight, Bynum, Josh Smith and other soon to be free agents would be fools to sign now or to verbally commit to a team.
They can only sign for 3 years now, but 5 years in July.

The Lakers would be stupid to trade Dwight to Atlanta.
Atlanta also wouldn't do it because why would Dwight stay there?
They are a small market team with not a great future.

worcester wrote:I'd still like to see Dwight in Boston. With the right coach/psychiatrist I think he could reemerge as one of the dominant players in the NBA.

When healthy, he is one of the most dominant players in the NBA.
He was recognized as the 3rd best player in the NBA going into this season.

I don't see how Dwight could ever land in Boston.
LA can't sign and trade him and Boston has no cap space.

worcester wrote:I'd still like to see Dwight in Boston. With the right coach/psychiatrist I think he could reemerge as one of the dominant players in the NBA.

Hard to argue with you on this one.

I'd love to see what Rondo, Bradley and Green could do with Howard cleaning the glass. The lineup; Howard, Sullinger (for now), Green, Rondo and Bradley with Lee and Bass off the bench. Sounds OK to me.

As always, money is as big an issue as location. KG isn't going anywhere and if Pierce is still with us I'm not sure we can do it. Of course he would have to even want to come here, and I've never seen an indication he does, but I don't know how we make the money work. We kept KG and Pierce too long in that scenario.

The only other problem I could forsee would be his back. We already have a forward with back issues; would we want to risk having two key bigs who might break down?

I wouldn't envision a trade from LA. The only scenario I could see would be see Dwight signing straight up as a free agent in July. How Danny could swing that cap wise is way above my pay grade.

IF LA gets to keep Dwight, I think they'll rebound (pun intended) to the top of the Western division soon enough to make Kobe happy.

Realistically, I just don't see DH wanting to move to a cold weather city. Celtics, Schmeltics. He likes the sun too much.

As much as I hate to join in here, I have one thing to say (or maybe two). First of all, I question Dwight's heart. He has the world by it's tail out there in LA. I know at times it is tough to play with Kobe, but, he is playing with the best of the best. How can he sit there and whine the way he does. It is beyond me why Boston would take a guy like that. BUT...... on the other hand, can you just imagine what the offense would look like with Dwight in the middle taking lob after lob from Rondo???? Add Green, Sully, Bradley, and your front line is unbelievable. If he came and played one year or two with KG, he would learn what the heart of a champion really is.

This is all moot, as we will never see it happen. I have never seen a guy with so much talent peak in his early 20's and never return to peak form. He is not for me.

Rosalie

Rosalie, that's why he needs a good coach/psychiatrist. Doc might be able to coax him to be a better person and player. However, I can't imagine him leaving sunny climes.

Even if we buy him a good snow blower????

He is hard to root for, nobody roots for Goliath and hes such a sourpuss, he changes his mind nonstop like a woman, no offense Rosie. Why would Dwight want to resign with such an aging team like the one hes on, going forward the whole team is too old, no depth, etc?

Howard would love to play with a young core like ours, only way for it to work would be to amnisty Pierce, then sign Howard as a free agent....how ruthless would Danny go?

Even if Boston amnestied Pierce, they would have about $53m in 11 contracts. They would only have about $7m to offer Dwight when Dwight could make over $20m next season with the Lakers or another team that offered him a max contract.

To add to the oddness of the Lakers 2012-13 season, last night Kobe had 0 shot attempts in the first half and 8 assists. He wound up going 1-8 for 4 points, 9 assists and 8 turnovers in the Lakers win over Phoenix.

More people are now getting on Dwight's case and telling him that he needs to step up, focus and try to be a leader. Rick Fox and JVG have been very critical of Dwight in the last couple of days. Dwight's yelling at Nash running down the court on Sunday when Nash tried to get him the ball was the most recent example of how Dwight just doesn't get it. His story from last week about how he sometimes can't feel his legs when he runs down the court looks like it was made up, to get people to feel sorry for him. Dwight's biggest problem is his heart, not his back, legs or right shoulder.

tjmakz wrote:To add to the oddness of the Lakers 2012-13 season, last night Kobe had 0 shot attempts in the first half and 8 assists. He wound up going 1-8 for 4 points, 9 assists and 8 turnovers in the Lakers win over Phoenix.

More people are now getting on Dwight's case and telling him that he needs to step up, focus and try to be a leader. Rick Fox and JVG have been very critical of Dwight in the last couple of days. Dwight's yelling at Nash running down the court on Sunday when Nash tried to get him the ball was the most recent example of how Dwight just doesn't get it. His story from last week about how he sometimes can't feel his legs when he runs down the court looks like it was made up, to get people to feel sorry for him. Dwight's biggest problem is his heart, not his back, legs or right shoulder.

TJ,

Sadly, I agree with you (it's not sad I agree with you, but that you are right). Dwight Howard is a basketball Grinch. His heart is two sizes too small.

And you cannot play with Kobe if you don't have heart, he will chew on you like you are his personal dog toy. I have opined that Kobe and D'Antoni need to shut up and not keep airing their respective grievances in the press, but it's getting harder and harder to argue that a team that has more talent on its roster than any other team in the league is struggling to make the playoffs in a league where more than 50% of the league makes the playoffs, shouldn't have somebody sounding off about it.

Still, they are only 3 games back in the loss column from Houston, and the last game of the regular season is Houston vs LAL in LA. I don't know who owns the tie-breakers, but if LAL is just one game behind Houston at that point...

bob


.

Right now Houston is up 2 games to 1.

TJ,

I didn't see the game, but it almost seems as though Kobe
must have been focusing on areas other than shooting in order to
galvanize his teammates. And, if he was, it seems to have worked in
terms of a win. It would arguably be a smart move on his part,
especially since he focused on supporting the offense with assists and
rebounds. It would be interesting to know what went on in the locker
room and huddles before, during and after that game.

The Lakers'
season with Dwight reminds me all too much of the 1977-78 Celtics
season, which I consider the lowest point of the Celtics franchise.
Sidney Wicks was a virus that affected the team
in John Havlicek's last season. Wicks wasn't star of the magnitude of
Dwight, but he managed to make a mockery of a proud franchise—to the
point where legend has it that Red Auerbach was on his way to sign with
the Knicks when a Boston cab driver talked him out of it. I know
Heinsohn quit as coach mid-season, but his replacement, Tom Sanders,
couldn't turn things around either.

I remember going to a game
with a friend, and we were both in tears as how lackadaisical the team
was; and even Havlicek wasn't physically up to doing much about it.

The
only good thing about that season happened in Havlicek's last game,
when the team fast broke as Ernie
Digregorio fed John on play after play until John had to check himself
out, due to exhaustion,with 28 points. That was probably the only time
that season when the Garden rang with an extended crescendo of cheers
from a Celtics crowd.

Obviously, the franchise recovered, and I know you're justifiably confident that it won't take the Lakers long to right the ship. They always do.

Sam

It would be great if we could somehow get Dwight Howard.

I would bet that just about everyone that is playing in the NBA is nursing some sort of injury. And depending on the extent of the injury who are we to judge the toughnerss of the particular player? The only one I know that doesn't have a heart is the tin man and howard is no tin man. He had back surgery during the off season and now has some sort of a muscle tear in his shoulder yet everyone expects him to be the physically dominating center that he was when he was heathy...Ridiculous.

Even if Dwight was heathly and playing at a higher level the lakers would still be in trouble because Steve Nash cannot cover his position defensively. Metta is and always will be a nut (the wife refers to him as Melee)

And of course you have a coach that is still trying to figure out how to use what he has, plus Gasol has been injured and Kobe lacks the proper protocall to address issues that he perceives without going to the media and turning it into a freakin circus.

For the Record that bum Howard is still averaging 16.3 PPG leads the league in rebounds at almost 12 per game has 2.4 shot blocks and leads the Lakers in FG percentage at .576.

If only he was wearing Green.



dboss

dboss

Good point Kobe has a history of being a backstabber and just bloviating to the media, many times right after coaches and players all agreed/promised to keep things in house. I grew up watching guys like Havlicek, Cowens and Dr J, they were all great ambassadors for the game and you pulled for them because they just emulated all that was right for their respective team and class. Kobe has been a spoiled pampered brat his whole life, able to get away with whatever his whole life, he knows his shit don't stink and he can get away with it.

cow

bobheckler wrote:

tjmakz wrote:To add to the oddness of the Lakers 2012-13 season, last night Kobe had 0 shot attempts in the first half and 8 assists. He wound up going 1-8 for 4 points, 9 assists and 8 turnovers in the Lakers win over Phoenix.

More people are now getting on Dwight's case and telling him that he needs to step up, focus and try to be a leader. Rick Fox and JVG have been very critical of Dwight in the last couple of days. Dwight's yelling at Nash running down the court on Sunday when Nash tried to get him the ball was the most recent example of how Dwight just doesn't get it. His story from last week about how he sometimes can't feel his legs when he runs down the court looks like it was made up, to get people to feel sorry for him. Dwight's biggest problem is his heart, not his back, legs or right shoulder.

TJ,

Sadly, I agree with you (it's not sad I agree with you, but that you are right). Dwight Howard is a basketball Grinch. His heart is two sizes too small.

And you cannot play with Kobe if you don't have heart, he will chew on you like you are his personal dog toy. I have opined that Kobe and D'Antoni need to shut up and not keep airing their respective grievances in the press, but it's getting harder and harder to argue that a team that has more talent on its roster than any other team in the league is struggling to make the playoffs in a league where more than 50% of the league makes the playoffs, shouldn't have somebody sounding off about it.

Still, they are only 3 games back in the loss column from Houston, and the last game of the regular season is Houston vs LAL in LA. I don't know who owns the tie-breakers, but if LAL is just one game behind Houston at that point...

bob


.

bob,

I'm not sure if you saw Kobe's comments after the Lakers were blown out by the Clippers.
Here is how Kobe felt after the game:

The Lakers were blasted by the Clippers on Thursday night 125-101 at Staples Center. During and after the game, Kobe Bryant was livid. "It's not a good feeling at all," said Bryant. "Once things got difficult, we didn't step up to meet that challenge and I'm not very happy right now and hopefully my teammates feel the same way." Bryant scored 20 points on just 13 shot attempts while dishing 11 assists. He did struggle with six turnovers. "We've just got to sit over the [All-Star] break and just kind of reflect and think on how important this is to you and what it means to you," he said. Los Angeles Times

Kobe also said something about how we can't be laughing and joking after losing by 20 or 30 points.
I wonder who might have been laughing and joking after the game? Maybe Dwight?
It is getting hard to envision Kobe and Dwight making it through next year if they get through this year.
Kobe is not going to get off of Dwight's back and Dwight is just going to zone Kobe out.
Maybe it would be in the Lakers best interests to listen and be open minded to trade offers for Dwight.

cowens/oldschool wrote:dboss

Good point Kobe has a history of being a backstabber and just bloviating to the media, many times right after coaches and players all agreed/promised to keep things in house. I grew up watching guys like Havlicek, Cowens and Dr J, they were all great ambassadors for the game and you pulled for them because they just emulated all that was right for their respective team and class. Kobe has been a spoiled pampered brat his whole life, able to get away with whatever his whole life, he knows his shit don't stink and he can get away with it.

cow

Cow,

I respect your opinion about Kobe even though I don't think it is a fair opinion.
Just because Kobe's family grew up with money compared to some other superstars, that doesn't make him a spoiled pampered brat.
Kobe has worked as hard as anyone in the league to become a superstar.
Kobe has had that same driven mentality since he was in HS.

tjmakz wrote:

bobheckler wrote:

tjmakz wrote:To add to the oddness of the Lakers 2012-13 season, last night Kobe had 0 shot attempts in the first half and 8 assists. He wound up going 1-8 for 4 points, 9 assists and 8 turnovers in the Lakers win over Phoenix.

More people are now getting on Dwight's case and telling him that he needs to step up, focus and try to be a leader. Rick Fox and JVG have been very critical of Dwight in the last couple of days. Dwight's yelling at Nash running down the court on Sunday when Nash tried to get him the ball was the most recent example of how Dwight just doesn't get it. His story from last week about how he sometimes can't feel his legs when he runs down the court looks like it was made up, to get people to feel sorry for him. Dwight's biggest problem is his heart, not his back, legs or right shoulder.

TJ,

Sadly, I agree with you (it's not sad I agree with you, but that you are right). Dwight Howard is a basketball Grinch. His heart is two sizes too small.

And you cannot play with Kobe if you don't have heart, he will chew on you like you are his personal dog toy. I have opined that Kobe and D'Antoni need to shut up and not keep airing their respective grievances in the press, but it's getting harder and harder to argue that a team that has more talent on its roster than any other team in the league is struggling to make the playoffs in a league where more than 50% of the league makes the playoffs, shouldn't have somebody sounding off about it.

Still, they are only 3 games back in the loss column from Houston, and the last game of the regular season is Houston vs LAL in LA. I don't know who owns the tie-breakers, but if LAL is just one game behind Houston at that point...

bob


.

bob,

I'm not sure if you saw Kobe's comments after the Lakers were blown out by the Clippers.
Here is how Kobe felt after the game:

The Lakers were blasted by the Clippers on Thursday night 125-101 at Staples Center. During and after the game, Kobe Bryant was livid. "It's not a good feeling at all," said Bryant. "Once things got difficult, we didn't step up to meet that challenge and I'm not very happy right now and hopefully my teammates feel the same way." Bryant scored 20 points on just 13 shot attempts while dishing 11 assists. He did struggle with six turnovers. "We've just got to sit over the [All-Star] break and just kind of reflect and think on how important this is to you and what it means to you," he said. Los Angeles Times

Kobe also said something about how we can't be laughing and joking after losing by 20 or 30 points.
I wonder who might have been laughing and joking after the game? Maybe Dwight?
It is getting hard to envision Kobe and Dwight making it through next year if they get through this year.
Kobe is not going to get off of Dwight's back and Dwight is just going to zone Kobe out.
Maybe it would be in the Lakers best interests to listen and be open minded to trade offers for Dwight.

TJ,

I didn't see those remarks but if they were directed at anybody but Dwight I'd be shocked, if for no other reason that nobody on that team other than Howard and Nash have the superstar status (and cojones) to laugh after a loss around Kobe, and I sincerely doubt it's Nash.

We are now, I guess, 6 days away from the trade deadline for this year and I haven't heard so much as a whisper of a trade. Due to the CBA, I don't think any team in the league is going to be able to just sign Howard as a free agent straight up without some kind of sign-and-trade or such. So, from a Lakers perspective, they can keep him around and hope the Lakers rally and make the playoffs this year and, if they don't or even if they are just done with Howard, trade him in the off-season for other pieces. Not much downside there for them, other than ego. A big deal was about bringing Howard to LA, with billboards and you name it, and if he doesn't pan out it is a reflection on "you know who". A face-saving point might be that whatever you are getting out of Howard this year it's more than Philly is getting out of Bynum. On the other hand, if Bynum comes back strong next year and Howard is gone and the pieces you get in return don't impress, then it's still egg on his face.

If there's one aspect to the Lakers dysfunctionality that I honestly truly do revel in IS NOT that it is the Lakers (believe it or not), but that it reinforces the perception that a team is more than just a collection of talent. If the Lakers do not make the playoffs (and it is still quite possible they make it), then all those idiots who crowned them before the season even started will be stripped naked of any pretense of knowing what team basketball is about. In fact, I would MUCH rather that it was some team other than the Lakers, so that the inevitable stress it causes you and this board wouldn't be here. Dallas beating Miami in 2011. That is exactly what I am talking about here. All the individual talent in the world, but they couldn't harness, focus and assign roles (and have them accepted and embraced!) to them successfully.


bob


.

tjmakz wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:dboss

Good point Kobe has a history of being a backstabber and just bloviating to the media, many times right after coaches and players all agreed/promised to keep things in house. I grew up watching guys like Havlicek, Cowens and Dr J, they were all great ambassadors for the game and you pulled for them because they just emulated all that was right for their respective team and class. Kobe has been a spoiled pampered brat his whole life, able to get away with whatever his whole life, he knows his shit don't stink and he can get away with it.

cow

Cow,

I respect your opinion about Kobe even though I don't think it is a fair opinion.
Just because Kobe's family grew up with money compared to some other superstars, that doesn't make him a spoiled pampered brat.
Kobe has worked as hard as anyone in the league to become a superstar.
Kobe has had that same driven mentality since he was in HS.

TJ and Cowens,


I think there are few players in the NBA with the work ethic and competitive nature of Kobe Bryant. Gerald Henderson Jr. came from money too. His father won 2 championship with the Celtics and 1 with the Pistons. Jelly Bean Bryant never won a championship. Who would you rather have on your team? This son of a 3x World Champion or that son of an NBA journeyman?

Phil Jackson had, what I thought was, a nasty habit of talking about his players in the press. He used that as an indirect motivational tool. His record is such that I probably should just accept it for its efficacy, but I don't like the style. It seems that Kobe is doing it now, and that's a damn shame. Not every word and gesture by a guru should be perpetuated, and I feel this is one of Phil's that should be buried deeper than Jimmy Hoffa. It's locker room cancer. At this point in Kobe's illustrious career I don't think there's much anybody can do to change or stop it, so we just have to roll our eyes and say "that's Kobe being Kobe".


bob


.

No doubt Kobe is one of the greatest players to ever play.

Right now he is feeling his basketball mortality. He must get to 6 rings but this year is a big setback.

The lakers would be foolish to move Howard unless they can acquire some serious talent. The lakes need to get in line with todays game. Their roster may not work against current competition. They be able to play small and fast.

Dboss