We Hate Your Team: NBA Blog

Can D'antoni really fix the Lakers?

Put Your big Boy pants on. Just adjust. You can't whine about it.  You can't complain about it

That was Kobe Bryant talking about Pau Gasol after the Lakers lost to the Orlando Magic last night. Once again, Pau Gasol, the all star with one of the best big-man skillsets in the league, was benched in the last moments of the fourth quarter. The Lakers new head coach, Mike D'antoni, has given the nod to to Antawn Jamison over Pau Gasol. This is mostly due to Jamison's ability to stretch the floor with his 3-point shooting. The Mike D'antoni offense is geared to create floor spacing and fast-paced open shots. Pau Gasol is a methodical player, who makes his moves in the post after a well ran 24-second shot clock. This is not Mike D'antoni's offense. This is not Pau Gasol's game. If the Lakers keep losing, and Gasol keeps whining, the problems won't be over in Tinsel Town.
       Mike D'antoni's offense is a thing of beauty. It makes the lesser capable players on your team so much more capable. He can turn bums into servicable players. See: Chris Duhon, Tim Thomas, Al Harrington, New York Knicks 2008-2010. What he makes up for in his offensive mind he lacks in his player development and defense. Players like Jordan Hill and Pau Gasol do not fit D'antoni's model of a power forward. Therefore, though he may sparingly play them, he'd much rather give shots to stretch-fours rather than orthodox, POWER forwards.
      So here's my take, and this is something you can see without Stats, without crunching the numbers and analyzing every aspect and every quote from the Lakers. You can see this when you watch a couple of Laker games. Why? Because it's so damn obvious. When the offense is on, it is ON. The Lakers hit a ridiculous amount of threes vs. the Nuggets...so much so that Dwight even made one. (Video) However, on nights like Sunday, when the Lakers played awful defense, and couldn't hit as many shots, the Lakers looked bad.
    The Lakers allowed more than 20 points in the last four minutes of the fourth quarter last night. That is awful. That is down right pathetic. When you have a team that includes Dwight Howard, a defensive player of the year, Metta World Peace(another DPOY), Kobe Bryant (NBA All-Defense), along with Antawn Jamison and a not so shabby defensive bench, it is a complete anomaly to let up so many points in the fourth quarter. This is not about the players on the court, but the coach on the bench. We've seen it in Phoenix, we've seen it in New York. Especially in New York, but that is mostly due to lack of talent. D'antoni's teams are not defensive anchors. They are usually middle of the pack defensive teams (see: Phoenix Suns, 2005-2008) that when sparingly play defense. The Lakers last night weren't incapable of defense because they did not have the effort, the talent. They played such horrible defense because they didn't have the effort or motivation. Where does motivation come from? Well, you would hope it'd come from your coach. Unfortunately, Mike D'antoni doesn't seem to emphasis defense. Instead, he emphasises offensive sets, finishing plays, and making shots. J.R. Smith was once quoted as saying that Mike D'antoni went over defensive sets for maybe 5 minutes of practice. This is all fine, and very ingenious coaching, as long as you make more shots than your opponents. After all, that is the name of the game. But when you're getting beat to the hole, when you're franchise center can't keep guards out of the paint, when you're franchise player can't keep guards in front of him, when you can't make the effort to close out on an opponents shot, then that is a lack of effort. And a lack of effort will go back to the coach, especially if these players have once before shown the ability to do all these things. Add that to a disengaged Pau Gasol, and a pissed off Kobe Bryant, things don't look too good for Mike D'antoni.
            Here's the bright side of things: The season is young. D'antoni has only coached a handful of games. I believe that Kobe will be able to turn things around for this team, and I believe that Howard won't let this team be so awful defensively. What I don't see happening is Pau Gasol ever returning to the star he was as the Lakers repeated as champions. In fact, as long as Mike D'antoni is coaching, Pau Gasol will be relegated to a role-player status. We'll see how well this goes, but if the Lakers continue to disappoint, I wouldn't be surprise if a trade-deadline blockbuster deal is done which ships Gasol out of Laker town. It could be the best move for both sides. We'll see. The season, after all, is young.