Dan Plotsky
The Los Angeles Lakers are a big steamy
pile of dog poop on your Mayan, calendar, type of mess. As a Chicago
Bulls’ fan I couldn't have been more delighted with their win
over Los Angeles. However, as a
basketball fan, it left something to be desired. Instead of the gold and
purple powerhouse, we saw a team, that only weeks ago, Kobe Bryant eloquently quipped as "an old damn team."
It
was reminiscent of the 2008 fantasy baseball season when I took Vlad Guerrero/Magglio Ordonez/and Ichiro
and was initially ecstatic only to, eventually, find out that the studs of my
youth had left their talents in South Beach. That's what Kobe/Steve Nash/Dwight Howard (bad back) reminded me of in their game against the
Bulls.
Normally, I wouldn't
take one game as a cross-section of the season and bury a proven franchise. Except
that they just got torched by the Toronto Raptors
on Sunday as well! Any time DeMar
DeRozan gets the best of you, it’s time to sound the panic alarms. It
only raises questions like:
·
How in the world is Pau Gasol getting benched on this
squad?
o
Let's jump back 6
months ago to the Summer Olympics
and look at the
gold medal game again. Gasol was terrifying and required a double
team all game long, especially down low, on his way to posting the following
numbers:
§ (9-17 from the field) 24 points, 8 rebounds, 7
assists in 33 minutes of play.
o
I sat there
thinking, "Wow! Gasol is back!" and that he was going to be
re-engaged for the upcoming season after his
almost trade to the Houston Rockets in the failed attempt to land Chris Paul.
o
The irony of it was
that he dominated Team USA down low
on the blocks next to...??? That's right, his brother Marc Gasol who also plays center in the NBA.
o
Marc managed to post
17 points in only 17 minutes against the Americans.
o
Since they are
brothers they probably have that weird telepathic link but there was an example
of two centers playing on the blocks together and thriving against the best
talent in the world.
Let’s jump forward to
the Lakers and the circus that Mike D'Antoni
has made it to be. "Coach" D'Antoni is so obsessed with his
gimmick offense, he can't even tweak it slightly to adjust to the roster talent
he has and instead opts to bench Gasol who would start at center for at least
22 NBA teams right now.
To clear room for Nash
to dribble drive, Gasol will come up from the block to set a screen for the
ball handler and roll to the free throw line or slightly above and bunker down.
This is where Gasol sat all night which makes as much sense as a poop-flavored
lollipop. Much credit is deserved to 82games.com as I have to
mention that they are the finest source of real-time statistics to back up what
I see on the floor. According to the shot chart, Gasol is currently taking
a whopping 65% of his shots as "jumpers" this year, which is just wreaking
havoc on his overall effectiveness. Take a look at Gasol’s best year with
the Lakers and the season he currently is having:
PER=Player Efficiency Rating
/ TS%=True
shooting(fg%+3pt%+FT% divided by 3)
·
2010-11 Gasol: 55% of
shots on jumpers- 22.3 PER/ .589TS% 18pts 10 reb 3ast
·
2012-13 Gasol: 65% of
shots on jumpers- 15.5PER/ .494TS% 12.7pts 8 reb 3ast
The change in floor
spacing and offensive responsibility has resulted in Gasol's worst PER since
his rookie year and easily his worst TS% ever (career .574%). This is
completely unacceptable by any standards for a player of this caliber and only
compounds the problem by destroying his trade value in the process.
D'Antoni could not have been a worse candidate for the roster on hand and
I do believe two centers can coexist on the same team just like the Gasol
brothers did in the Gold Medal game.
Don't believe me? (The
nerve!—Ed) Take a look at this 5-man rotation:
·
From 82games.com: Steve Blake-Bryant-Metta World
Peace (or as I like to call him, Ron Artest—Ed)-Gasol-Howard
o
This is statistically
the best 5-man rotation by plus/minus and defensive pointst/possession (+33, .94/possession,
respectively) the Lakers have run out all season long (4th most minutes
logged).
o
The caveat is Blake/Nash
endured injuries and Nash hasn't played enough minutes to get a more reliable
statistical comparison.
o
But what do we notice
by looking at that rotation? Feel free
to sub in Nash for Blake! It's the very lineup that anyone who didn't
know basketball would assemble, duh!
Which brings us full
circle: D'Antoni values his offensive principles to such an extreme, it is
detrimental to the success of the Lakers (I
feel your pain Magic Johnson!).
Then there is this tidbit-- no stats needed:
·
Gasol won TWO rings
with Andrew Bynum as his frontcourt
partner.
o
Why has the NBA
community gone crazy and think Gasol-Howard can't work?
o
The numbers say they
are relatively effective together and we know chemistry takes time to develop,
but nonetheless they should be beasts on the boards if all else fails.
Simply put, Pau Gasol
is not the problem and the numbers show that he could possibly be the
solution. Just depends whether D’Antoni
wants to switch up his game to save the Lakers.
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