newyorknewyork wrote:

3G4G wrote:As has been stated it shows how important Nash was first and foremost always and forever but second no player no matter what team he plays for is absolved from not giving full effort something Melo admitted he didn't do when D'Antoni was the coach. For this reason among many others he's made it hard for me to support him as a player.

Dwight Howard very similar to Melo in that he derailed Orlando. I loved the fact Orlando kicked their butts yesterday. I'm hoping if Kyrie can get back on the mend soon the Cavs can be every bit the foe for the Heat.

I do not, will not, support players who do things on their terms that in any way sets back a team or becomes a detriment to a team's present and long-term success.

Sorry I have standards

Yet MDA is absolved for admittingly quitting on the Suns, then quitting on the Knicks.

Who absolved him from quitting on this team? He went to mgmt made a request to trade for Deron and it's obvious how things shook down from there. He wasn't extended, somewhat forced to hire a defensive assistant, at odds with star, star at odds with him, the writing was on the wall, he was lame duck, he took the safe route not good.

I said from jump we should have never hired D'Antoni nevertheless it doesn't absolve Melo.

MSG3 wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

skeng wrote:

MSG3 wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

MSG3 wrote:The following are 2 statements that I believe to be true:

1) You cannot judge D'Antoni on the Lakers until he has Nash back for a few weeks
2) D'Antoni has not had success in this league without Nash. Nash made him. It's not a coincidence that our record was so much better right after D'Antoni left. To not admit this is foolish.

An alternative way of phrasing that is that he's always had success when he had a competent PG. Two sides to every coin

He had Felton for half the season a couple years ago and Billups the second half. Both halves he was .500. To be considered a good coach, I think you should be able to have a decent record with a team loaded with talent. He's never had a decent record without Nash.

Both Felton and Billups were only here for half a season each. If both got more familiar with it the records might have been different.

Yeah, we're talking about half seasons here? And it's in a year where the team's winning percentage went up by about 200 points.

So you're saying D'Antoni should be judged well on being .500 with a talent laden team? He did a good job because a 20 win team with marginal talent turned into a .500 team with All Star talent? Give me a break. The guy did a bad job here. Why is that so hard to admit?

Bonn1997 wrote:

MSG3 wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

skeng wrote:

MSG3 wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

MSG3 wrote:The following are 2 statements that I believe to be true:

1) You cannot judge D'Antoni on the Lakers until he has Nash back for a few weeks
2) D'Antoni has not had success in this league without Nash. Nash made him. It's not a coincidence that our record was so much better right after D'Antoni left. To not admit this is foolish.

An alternative way of phrasing that is that he's always had success when he had a competent PG. Two sides to every coin

He had Felton for half the season a couple years ago and Billups the second half. Both halves he was .500. To be considered a good coach, I think you should be able to have a decent record with a team loaded with talent. He's never had a decent record without Nash.

Both Felton and Billups were only here for half a season each. If both got more familiar with it the records might have been different.

Yeah, we're talking about half seasons here? And it's in a year where the team's winning percentage went up by about 200 points.

So you're saying D'Antoni should be judged well on being .500 with a talent laden team? He did a good job because a 20 win team with marginal talent turned into a .500 team with All Star talent? Give me a break. The guy did a bad job here. Why is that so hard to admit?

No, I haven't made any judgement about D'Antoni in LA - not good or bad. I pointed out the contradiction of criticizing MDA for his job in LA while the team is playing better than it did under Brown, but I have not reached any evaluation of MDA as a coach in LA.

I was talking about the Knicks, not LA. I'm reserving jusgement on LA also.

D'Antoni waiting for Nash, eerily sounds like last year waiting for Baron Davis to save his mediocre ass. Convenient excuses.

3G4G wrote:

Mray20 wrote:I've never heard of any good - great coach who needs one specific player ala Steve Nash to run his system otherwise it doesn't work and yet people continue to defend Dantoni, His system is trash he had a great PG and young Amare & Marion in Phoenix any coach would have won games with that roster, He sucked in NY he never ever made adjustments he was quoted as saying I don't make adjustments I make teams adjust to us, He stinks in LA also if Howard is missing free throw bench him and just play Gasol at the 5 it doesn't matter if Gasol isn't lighting it up they can't hack him he's a great free throw shooter this is what I mean when he doesn't adjust to anything. People piled on Melo saying he was the problem and he didn't play for Dantoni that's a load of crap he was playing hard but was not put in a position to succeed , Woodson plays Melo where he should be and it helps everyone else because he gets doubled and kicks the ball around. A good coach gets the most out of the talent he has on his team and he adjusts to the personnel and maximizes their talents , It's unbelievable how 38 year old Steve Nash is the savior now and we can't judge him til he gets there , well for that matter why isn't Steve Nash the coach as well.

lol @ the idea of a so-called run of the mill coach ruining a so-called IN THE DISCUSSION MVP

He ruined the team not the player by not putting his star in a position to make the team better and misusing him

http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2012/12/03/kobe-big-boy-pants-for-pau/

“Put your big-boy pants on,” Bryant said. “Just adjust. Just adjust. You can’t whine about it. You can’t complain about it.”
You don’t have to read between any lines to figure out that Kobe is calling Gasol out in the best/worst way (depending on your perspective). Demanding that Gasol man up and take responsibility for his own game and his own transition from Phil Jackson‘s system to Mike Brown‘s system and now, Mike D’Antoni‘s system, is exactly what you’d expect from a team leader.

ChuckBuck wrote:

tkf wrote:Interesting interview with kobe.. pretty much tells pau to man up... to adjust.. kobe even goes on to mention how this has been a big adjustment for him, he said he never ran so many screen and rolls in his career.. he said he will adjust, he will stay after practice, work on his ball handling and his screen and rolls.... That is good to hear.. now lets see how this works out.. so far I like his approach, taking a real leadership role.. not whining in the corner playing half arse ball, trying to sabotage the coach, meanwhile sabotaging the team...

http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2012/12/03/kobe-big-boy-pants-for-pau/

“Put your big-boy pants on,” Bryant said. “Just adjust. Just adjust. You can’t whine about it. You can’t complain about it.”
You don’t have to read between any lines to figure out that Kobe is calling Gasol out in the best/worst way (depending on your perspective). Demanding that Gasol man up and take responsibility for his own game and his own transition from Phil Jackson‘s system to Mike Brown‘s system and now, Mike D’Antoni‘s system, is exactly what you’d expect from a team leader.

Not like the poison pill Carmela!

Kobe a born leader of men.

kobe approves of this..

I've been watching Lakers games since before MDA was hired. The issue is much larger than whether MDA is a good coach or not. I do believe they made the right decision to bring in MDA if the idea is to have Nash be the floor leader for this team when it gets healthy. Right now the issues are a lack of team speed on the perimeter and thus they get broken down continually. What do you expect tho when you have Darius Morris and Duhon as your PG's? I mean seriously both of them are barely acceptable on offense but horrendous on D? Basically they're bad. Jamison and Ebanks are stiff legged. Metta W Peace has lost a lot of speed tho he's a bit better this year with some weight loss. Howard and Pau are horrible defending the PnR and teams are killing them on that play. Howard is a great help defender, but a poor man defender.

The Lakers don't have a real 6th man to come off the bench and thus they have to try and fake it when Kobe goes to the bench as there is no other wing player that can come in and be a spark. Basically they MUST have a healthy Nash and Blake to enhance the teams offense, cuz they aren't built to be a dominant defensive team for 48 mins a night. They can dig in and get stops tho, but there will be parts of each game where they have bench players in there and those guys will not be able to defend at a high enough level. The problem is that having Howard can be a blessing and a curse. The Hack-A-Dwight has worked against them in close games. Especially if they can't get stops.

Eventually this Laker team will have to make some changes to make the parts fit better, but getting Blake and then Nash back are essential. This team will become a very potent offensive team and have to live off of that this year unless they can make a deal to bring in players with the kind of perimeter D they need.