Watching this Los Angeles Lakers team stumble and bumble through games is very upsetting to Laker fans everywhere. It really doesn’t matter whether they win or lose anymore because the team just looks awful.
The starters look disinterested. The bench looks lifeless. Some players look confused because they don’t know their roles. And the coaches look overmatched.
Some of this is caused by the unique problems of coaching in a strike year with no preseason and an unheard-of free-agent deadline that ended during the truncated preseason.
But once you look past the strike and its apparent obstacles, it is hard not to notice that teams like Dallas and San Antonio who suffered through many of the same problems have put together impressive win streaks.
Along the way, the Lakers have made players like Marcin Gortat, "The Polish Hammer," look like All-Stars. In back to back games this weekend, Gortat scored more than 20 and 15 against the Lakers. Last week, it was Jeremy Lin. This week it will be either Kevin Durant or Russell Westbrook.
The loss to the Suns was pitiful. The Suns led by as many as 27 early in the second half and then by 26 with 5:16 remaining in the third. Despite 20 second-half points and four assists from Kobe Bryant, the Lakers never even reduced the lead to single digits. It was like the Lakers were playing with only three players most of the time.
Laker players cannot complain that they were tired or leg weary from a tough schedule, as this last week has literally been the easiest part of the season so far in terms of number of games played and limited travel. And they finally got some time to practice as a team.
Watching the disheartened, disoriented Laker players stand around on offense and defense like old trees with little movement makes you wonder whether they quit.
Or, at the least, they are poorly coached.
After halftime, the coaches remarked that they were unhappy with the team’s effort. If this is true, they should look in the mirror and ask themselves why the team looks like they have no clue what they are doing at either end of the floor.
Does anyone really know what offense the Lakers are running? It looks like this: a pass into Kobe, pull up a chair and watch. When Kobe goes to the bench, it looks like a bad three-point shooing contest.
Right now, Matt Barnes is the only player who ever dives down the lane for a pass while the rest of the subs just stand around and watch his energy and effort.
"Metta World Disaster" has become the invisible man. He appears to be morphing back into the malcontent who played for the Pacers, without legally changing his name back to Ron Artest.
Does Ron-Ron really think he is fooling fans with his poor play? Does Mike Brown really think that Laker fans are buying into the "Metta doesn’t need to shoot well for the team to win" policy line?
The Lakers have a position player that is shooting less than 25 percent from the field and much like in the Emperor’s New Clothes, Mike Brown thinks fans should believe that the former Ron Artest is still an NBA-caliber player.
He is not. Maybe that is why he changed his name to Metta World Peace. Even he knows that Ron Artest is dead as a player. Sadly, the new name did not come with a phone booth and a red and blue costume. Instead it came with a wig and a Three Stooges costume.
Mike Brown needs to change his lineup and push players who do not perform like "World Disaster" to the end of the bench. Devin Ebanks is a better player with one hand tied behind his back.
Maybe World Peace should go to the NBA D-League for a few weeks to work on his game, and Ebanks should be returned to the rotation. At least Ebanks can shoot and run up and down the court.
And Ebanks can jump, while World Peace’s feet haven’t left the floor since last season, if then.
Mike Brown already wrongly evaluated Andrew Goudelock and nearly cut him in December. Now, among his many faults as coach, Brown has done the same with Ebanks.
The Lakers need some speed and offense from someone other than Kobe, Gasol and Bynum. The supporting cast isn’t supporting anyone anymore. Right now, the Lakers could easily cut everyone on the bench, except for Blake, Barnes and Goudelock, and not miss any of them.
Despite the Lakers history of not firing coaches in midseason, perhaps they should revisit that issue before this team completely melts down. Mike Brown made a statement last week that winning is exciting, not how the style the team plays.
He is wrong on both counts. The Lakers are a plodding old team that is boring when they win and an embarrassment when they lose. They are not embarrassing because they lose. They are embarrassing to watch because they are a listless team that seems so apathetic that they don’t care whether their coach is fired or not.
When a team reaches this point, management has no choice but to step in and find a coach that the team can rally behind. It is a shame that Brian Shaw is no longer available.
Source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1073111-has-mike-brown-lost-this-laker-team-already
Chad Moeller Jorge Posada Lance Berkman Reegie Corona Juan Miranda Colin Curtis
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