No one sees that this team is well coached?

[Krispy Kreme]

team defense falls on the coach first. just because reports say in practice that MDA teaches defense, doesn't mean he teaches it well.


no NBA team should allow the kind of ppg we've allowed the past 2 months. it's embarrassing.


and that blame falls on MDA first.

i've seen other teams without great defensive talent play good to great team defense.
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Dominating every day.

[postandpivot]

[Nordvader]

[nash]

There is only one sure thing if you talk about NBA coachs still active and his name is Gregg Popovich. He has the rings and even when they don´t win it all, his teans play good and solid BB.

Lakers GM must break the bank hard making him the highest payed coach in sports to bring back our credibility. Period.

[dvdrdiscs]

[4OnTheFloor]

[postandpivot]

[yinoma2001]

^ still not one convincing argument that MDa is a good coach.
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From 2-10 to the Western Conference Finals

[PauXXL]

The horrific defense goes back to last year when we had Dwight Howard and yes MDA was the head coach like he is now. BY any chance P&P did you happen to hear what BruceBowen said about MDA coached teams? When the Spurs played them in the play-offs they never really feard them because they knew when it came down to making stops the Suns were not capable of doing it. The story of MDA's life. It will never change. That's why he's a pathetic and lame excuse for a coach and I will be the first to be laughing when he's fired from here. Can't wait.

[pjiddy]

[kikanga]

[onering]

postandpivot...

i generally agree with most of what you have to say, but I gotta admit i disagree with your stance on d'antoni being the right coach that can produce a good defensive if it weren't for injuries.

phil jackson used to piss me off in the past when he said "our defense comes from our offense". but now i see the wisdom of those words. the slow triangle was a better fit for our slow team because it encouraged a slower pace (playing out of the post to find the best shot required more shot clock). that pace effectively slowed the game down, enabling our guys to get back on defense and match-up better with opponents (less run outs, less frantic scramble to match-up, etc.)

the fast pace of d'antoni teams by definition leads to bad defensive balance. now this can be compensated for if you have super athletic freaks that have good defensive fundamentals. but it will NEVER be as effective of a defensive scheme compared to a slower paced approach with those same athletic freaks.

let's look at the latest round of phil jackson coached laker teams. guess who the defensive coach was? rambis! guess who the current defensive coach is? rambis! admittedly, our defense would be better without all of the injuries... but that said do we even have the correct holistic system (offense/defense) that is condusive to great defense?

assuming kobe and gasol come back next year (much slower than they used to be) and some of our more athletic young guys also come back, we just don't have the horses to be a good defensive team with d'antoni's fast pace offense.

d'antoni's fault is not that he is a bad defensive coach, his fault is that he insists on running his fast pace offense that creates inherently bad defensive positioning. even if we were healthy, can you honestly say that we would have the sheer athletic talent to outrun OKC, MIA, LAC?

no... the only way we can compete is if we slow the game down and pound it inside, out-rebound, out-hustle, mire the game down in the half court where the diverse offensive skill-set of Kobe and Gasol (maybe Love or Anthony) can wear down opponents. where we can take away the running advantage that the OKCs, MIAs, and LACs have.

look at IND. they slow down the game to a crawl and actually compete well against those teams. why? their offensive talent is far from comparable. they win ugly. and that is how the current version of LAL needs to be structured.

i agree with you that d'antoni is not a "bad" defensive coach. he is just not the right coach for this team.

and don't say we had a great defensive anchor for the last two championships. in fact... bynum didn't play in the first and barely played in the second. yes indiana has hibbert. and just because we don't have a great defensive anchor now, it doesn't mean we need to go the opposite direction and run a fast pace run and gun system (whether it is the true 7 seconds or less system or not).

[kikanga]

[1hu2ren3dui4]

It's not just lack of personnel. His lack of ability to adapt is mind boggling. How is this thread still going on?

[Fruscas]

The Triangle also had a solid floor balance going for it, that gave some assurance regarding our defensive transition, even with old as dirt guys playing. The slow pace and the organized offense allows for a more predictable game for both sides, both teams have more time to settle into their O and D and in the end it's all about execution. No coach could do that much better with our roster and respective injuries but yeah, going forward he gotta have the ambition to win and compete on every game.

In the end it's all about balance, defend well and attack better, you run ocasionally when you have clear advantages on doing it and you slow it down when you face a running team. So i would argue that we dont need neither a D'Antoni (only focus is on the offensive side of the game) nor a super defensive minded coach like Thibs or Lionel Hollins. I would just steal Buddenholzer right up from the Hawks, but that's just me

[Treble Clef]

[divncom]

[divncom]

[postandpivot]

[postandpivot]

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[postandpivot]

[Suckmaki Walker]

I find it hilarious that people are blaming MDA for all of these loses when it's blatantly obvious the Lakers were forced to tank due to all of these injuries. You complain the other team socred 120 or more points? They're trying to lose at this point. If they had only give up 95 maybe they would have scored 93. Keep hearing that he overruns his players? Kobe is just old and Pau has always been injury prone. As for everyone else, these guys all love the minutes they're getting due to contract years.

[Vin]

[kikanga]