Quote:
Originally Posted by itvnetop
LeBron James made it to the NBA Finals with the exciting cast of Larry Hughes, Boobie Gibson and Sasha Pavlovic. And friggin' Mike Brown, as their coach... Mike Brown! That run was herculean- and they got past Detroit that year.
OK, nobody's winning with Smush Parker or Kwame Brown, either- but the difference is LeBron makes his teammates better. But if you're going to quote Stephen A. Smith, at least quote him saying yesterday that the D'antoni hiring doesn't fit this Laker personnel. Kobe scores a lot, often inefficiently. Kobe could make his teammates better by passing the ball when defenses start doubling or triple teaming him in the fourth... but he often doesn't. Um, has Steve Clifford made anyone better defensively so far?
Well, if you want Kobe shooting the ball non-stop (with all that talent standing around watching him), you're going to see what happens in the playoffs. Nash will eventually start getting cranky if he brings the ball up court and Kobe shoots it in 7 seconds. And that bench isn't scaring anyone. The Lakers are the least athletic team in the league, but they'll be good for a fun regular season and maybe two playoff rounds. Mike Brown should have allowed for some pick and roll earlier on, obviously. But no (D)'antoni can't just rely on the p'n'r all year... athletic wings are going to close out fairly quickly, especially during the playoffs. And without any type of post up game, Pau and Howard's skills are highly underutilized.
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Not even going into the LeBron v. Kobe thing and not comparing those rosters either. LeBron's roster had pieces that fit around him (shooters) - Kobe didn't quite frankly.
To answer your Steve Clifford question, yes. He was the defensive assistant that coached the Magic & Dwight the three years Dwight won DPOY as well as the year they made it to the finals.
D'Antoni, Kobe, & Nash will put their noggins together and make it work. If we're going with a Stephen A. quote marathon ill go with another thing he said - "They're too smart not to". D'Antoni will modify this offense and incorporate some looks to play to Pau/Dwight/Kobe's strengths. Nobody is calling for Kobe to shoot it every time down, but the base of this offense calls for early shots and if there is anyone i want shooting on this team it's Kobe plain and simple. You run the pick and roll and let Nash read, thats it, either kick it to Kobe or don't. If you're wingmen close then you dump it in to the post, I think D'Antoni is smart enough to figure that out. Dwight isn't going to just be doing cartwheels around the 3 point line after a pick and roll. Just because the Lakers want to shoot it early doesn't mean they have to. D'Antoni can really on the pick and roll all year teams have done it before and reached the finals (Stockton & Malone Jazz to name one) and teams still do it (Bulls, Cavs, Celtics etc.).
He's never had a team like this. The Suns and Knicks weren't bad at defense because he didn't coach it, they were bad because they were disinterested in defense. Nash jokingly said they didn't play defense because thats not what they were payed to do. Get Clifford, or McMillan if he is hired to motivate them a little and they'll play enough defense to win. Even Kobe in one of his recent interviews said they ran about 3 defensive drills EVER with Phil, no exaggeration, and many of those teams were consider solid defensive teams mainly because they had size in the middle (see Dwight, Pau, Hill). Defense in the NBA is effort, motivation, and good communication - not X's and O's.