How the Lakers Can Win Without Pau Gasol (or Andrew Bynum)
Keys to stealing victories:
1. Focus. Seems obvious, but it’s absolutely essential considering the situation. Focus throughout the game keeps the game close. Don’t get down on ourselves, don’t let a few baskets become a major run. Suffering blowouts can kill a team’s confidence, especially a squad that has lost major players to injury. Coaches need to call timeouts and run a tight ship. Players need to be mentally tough and disciplined in their execution, and those with fragile minds must keep their stuff together, particularly Lamar Odom. Lamar is the type of player who plays well when everything is going well, but has trouble turning the tide. Lamar once dribbled the ball inbounds instead of passing it, so focus should be a priority for him. We should never be overconfident in a game, nor lose our composure.
2. Defense. Without Bynum, the Lakers will have limitations to their level of defense. Turiaf can try protecting the basket, and the one advantage with Pau out is probably defense. Mbenga and Turiaf are better defensive presences than Gasol, who might block a couple shots a game, but isn’t an intimidating force; he easily gets pushed and bullied out of the kill zone. But Fisher and Farmar must be able to pressure the perimeter better to prevent Turiaf from getting into foul trouble. That’s part of team defense; the perimeter and the paint need to work together. They need to defend the pick and roll better, which depends on preparation and communication. Players need to close out on open shooters – this is just a matter of effort. In general, players must hustle instead of playing passively, force turnovers rather than gamble, crash the boards rather than watch. Considering all this, benching Radmanovic is probably the appropriate move to immediately improve the team’s defense. Turiaf: protect the basket and rebound. Odom: rebound and play good man defense. Kobe: shut your man down and don’t cheat. Fish/Famar: pressure the ball without getting into foul trouble. Sasha: hound your opponents, get into their heads. Walton: Rotate, rebound, and draw charges. In order to play better defense, we need to make sure the players capable of playing defense are on the floor, and are on the same page.
3. Ronny Turiaf needs to become a weapon, he needs to play his game. He needs to play loose and fun and wild. Don’t try to force him into any particular roles, such as a rebounder or hacker. Turiaf is a talented forward with a full range of skills. Give it to him in the post when he has position. Let him take the jumper when his defender sags on him. He can change the game when he’s confident, so we need to involve him in the offense as much as possible. If we can establish Turiaf in the post, we can run our offense that much more effectively (instead of relying on Kobe or broken plays).
4. Jordan Farmar must be given more minutes. Without Pau and Bynum, he’s our best scorer after Kobe. We need his production to prevent a stagnant offense relying too much on Kobe. We need him playing confidently and in rhythm.
5. Walton needs a larger role. This season, our chemistry relied heavily upon the scoring, passing, and space-creating from Bynum and Pau. However, we also had decent chemistry last year, when Walton had a major role in the offense. Phil Jackson called him the “yeast” due to his ability to involve his teammates effectively. Injuries, lack of confidence in his shot, the return of Radmanovic and the rise of Vujacic, along with the shift in the offense towards Bynum, then Pau, all contributed to Walton’s decreased role. But if there’s a player who can shoulder playmaking duties, that’s one fewer responsibility for Kobe.
6. Derek Fisher and Sasha Vujacic need to take better shots. During the loss against the Hornets last night, Fisher and Sasha took too many jumpers, too quickly. Their roles should be shooting when they’re open, in rhythm, receiving passes as they spot up on the three-point line. Sasha has a quick release, and doesn’t need much lift on his legs, and that type of overconfidence is becoming a bad habit.
7. Lamar Odom needs to play smarter. He’s not a 20 ppg scorer. One of the misconceptions about Odom is that he is a talented scorer. He’s not, he never has been. So fans who want Odom to be more aggressive are perplexed when Phil Jackson expresses satisfaction with his play. We don’t want Odom taking heat-check shots, nor should he drive mindlessly, since the result is usually an offensive foul, because opponents know he drives left every time. He just needs to take what the defenses give him, and he needs to maintain focus and confidence so that he capitalizes on those opportunities. When he has mismatches, he should exploit them; when he doesn’t, he needs to move the ball. Unfortunately, trying to revive his natural talent, his instinctual skills, will most likely expose some of his major flaws as well, such as his difficulties in playing in a halfcourt set (he doesn’t move well without the ball). However, as long as Odom rebounds, pushes the ball, play free and smart, he can be a consistent player for us.
8. Kobe needs to revert to Black Mamba aggressive mode. Basketball is a natural game; when teammates are reliable, stars trust them, when they’re not, stars don’t. But no one player can consistently win ballgames without help (although there have been 3-4 game stretches during which Kobe has done it). Kobe can’t sit back and try to get his teammates involved, because the reality is that most teams will be more talented the Lakers current lineup. They’ll get outplayed. So we need to milk Kobe as much as we can. He needs to score a lot, he needs to make perfect decisions in the midst of his berserker rage, he needs to pass when a teammate has a better shot, he needs to rebound, he needs to play defense, he needs to try filling as many deficiencies as possible. He needs to extend himself, and knowing Kobe, he relishes these challenges (just not for years and years with no help in sight).
8 Keys to Winning, and from Phil to Kobe to Mbenga, everybody needs to perform at his highest level.
May 20th, 2008 at 1:07 am
they can’t win without gasol and bynum. they need one or the other.
everything you ask for is unrealistic. they need gasol or bynum or it’s game over.
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