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yes.
not really.
washed up nash. washed up metta. old kobe. pringles. exposed dwight.
anyone who thought this team would amount to anything just don't know what the they talking about.
so the word is not underachieveing, it's ubberhyped.
yes.
My solace rests in the fact that come mid-June, they'll be 29 others in last place with us. And if anybody on this Forum thinks for a second they're gonna walk away from that reality they've another thing coming.
Let us proceed...
The Lakers bigs are the best in the league, Dwight, Pau, Jamison, Hill, Clark. 3 are heathy, so that shouldn't be a problem. At swing positions, the have Metta, Kobe and Meeks, well Kobe's top 10 NBA player, MWP is having a good season and Meeks isn't a bad bench player. Finally, Nash and Blake run the point, third string is Duhon also an legit NBA player.
Their problem is coaching, Jim picked a wrong coach for that roster, Phil was a better choice. Another problem is that Kobe doesn't pass the ball to the Lakers bigs, which negates their advantages over other NBA teams, also Kobe and Dwight continuously whine to the press.
Sure Dwight isn't an MVP candidate after the back surgery, however he's an all-star, probably will make the all-nba and all-defensive teams too. The lack of deep is a non-sense too. Jamison was an all-star and 6th man of the year. Kobe, MWP and Dwight have no problems playing extended minutes, and Nash has good backups.
The only weakness is the PG defense as both Nash and Blake play bad defense, but they could use Duhon, also funnel to the paint. And the need Pau back, he's not "way" passed his prime, neither are Kobe, Dwight or Jamison. Nash isn't an MVP type of player at this point, but he's still good.
I think they have chances of making the playoffs, but will be first round fodder, OKC and the Spurs are much better teams.
Hmmm.... Laker Fan can't count. Explains a lot does that...
29 (others) + 1 (Lakers) + 1 (Champion) = 31
There are 30 teams in the NBA
couldn't disagree more. Dwight has not been anywhere near allstar quality this year. Neither has Pau for that matter. Clark is decent, Hill pretty average. And Jamison has always been a statpadder in losing teams, dude's a loser period. that amounts to a pretty pedestrian to bad frontline.
Metta is having a bad year. Agree Kobe is top 10 but his ball domination hurts the lakers more in the long run. And they have with no doubt in my mind one of the worst small guard lineup in the NBA. Nash/Blake/Meeks/Duhonembarrassing
taking all that into account and you have a borderline playoff team. so they are playing up to expectations IMO
I would say that if they aren't, they are close to it.
Hindsight is 20/20, and people are now talking like they will amount to nothing from the get go. Were there people that said they won't win the championship, not going to reach the finals, or not even a favourite le contender? Sure! But how many people said they won't make the playoffs, or close to it? How many people said they will be a ~.500 team come March. I bet nobody did.
Sure, players got old, injured, but they have way too much talent to roll out the results they have now. Kobe, despite old, is still one of the leading scorers in the league, Dwight, for all his injuries and wussiness, is still leading the league in rebounds, Nash, for his age and injuries, was leading the league the league in assists 2 seasons ago, and close to it last year. MWP has actually played much better this year than the last two or three years.
The problem lies in coaching and bad chemistry. It's like putting a Ferrari engine in the body of a Ford GT and driving it in off road conditions. The team was not built for the style it is currently playing, and Kobe is exposed as a ball-dominant wing who requires an elite front line to be a playoff team.
Like I said earlier on in the season, if the Lakers can just run pick and rolls all day with Nash and Gasol/Dwight, with MWP spotting up at the corner, and Kobe bailing them out, the offense will be unstoppable.
Dwight is not close to his former MVP-caliber self, but he is undoubtedly an All-Star big. I can't think of another centre better than Dwight this year. Nobody else is even close.couldn't disagree more. Dwight has not been anywhere near allstar quality this year. Neither has Pau for that matter. Clark is decent, Hill pretty average. And Jamison has always been a statpadder in losing teams, dude's a loser period. that amounts to a pretty pedestrian to bad frontline.
Metta is having a bad year. Agree Kobe is top 10 but his ball domination hurts the lakers more in the long run. And they have with no doubt in my mind one of the worst small guard lineup in the NBA. Nash/Blake/Meeks/Duhon
taking all that into account and you have a borderline playoff team. so they are playing up to expectations IMO
MWP has been playing as good as he had in three years.
Gasol was misused and injured, but he is still good.
Clark and Hill has always been average to below average, but the expectations of the Lakers never rested on them. Same with Jamison.
Their PG issues had not been worse than last year with Fisher/Saviour, and Kobe has always played this way.
Duncan, Gasol, Duncan, Chandler, Horford, Lopez, Noah, Jefferson. I'd take any of those over Dwight.
again the discussion is whether this years team should be a contender. and as composed IMO they are not even close. last year they weren't either.
The discussion is whether they underachieved, not whether they should be a contender. Even if the expectation was that they were the same as last year, they still underachieved massively, they are nowhere close to what they were last year.
so what was your expectation on this team?
the thread le is biggest underachiever in NBA history which should only be labeled on teams that came in as "contenders" in expectation. IMO this rules out the lakers because the team as assembled was never to be a contender.
If they don't make the playoffs I'd say yes.
It's not the only reason, and not even the biggest reason, but the amount of missed games due to injuries kind of changes what the expectations should have been. Three main guys to the core of the team (Nash, Gasol, and Howard) have missed a combined 55 games. The team has played 61 games. And Dwight hasn't even really been healthy in many of the games he has played. You can add another 70 or so missed games to rotations players Blake and Hill. Even if injuries aren't the only reason or the biggest reason the Lakers have struggled this season, you certainly have to factor them into why they have struggled. The Steve Blake injury on its own would not have been huge, but it happened while Nash was still injured and the Lakers had to trot out Duhon and Morris for many games (about 20 games or so). Kobe and World Peace are the only two guys in the regular rotation to play in pretty much every game (add Meeks and Jamison if you argue they are both part of the regular rotation). That's pretty significant. But because they were bad even before all the injuries piled up, it doesn't get mentioned very much.
Not to say had the Lakers been relatively healthy all season long they'd be challenging the Spurs and Thunder for the league's top record. Clearly, there are other issues that have led to their struggles this season. But you have to believe they'd be quite a bit better than their record is right now. They're still disappointing. They might even still be the most underachieving team ever. But I think the claim of most underachieving all time would be much more definitive if not for all the missed games due to injury.
^
My Team Detroit Pistons
If they were all healthy with no injuries then sure other wise stfu
Injury excuses? Manu, Parker, Duncan, Kawhi, Neal and Jack have missed games too. At some point, the Spurs were without a SF.
My expectation of this team was le contention, at least a top 3 seed in the Western Conference, going to the second round, and possibly WCF and finals.
An underachiever in does not need to be a contender, a team could be of playoff expectations, and fail miserably, and still underachieve. The Raptors this season would qualify. A team could even be expected to win 30 games, but only winning 10 would be an underachievement.
With all the flaws the team has, they still have too many strengths to be a, at best, borderline playoff team.
The Spurs now have Duncan, Parker and Ginobili missing 29 games combined for the season, while this is barely half of what three rotational players on the Lakers missed, Kobe Bryant didn't miss any games either.
And to top it off, a majority of those games were missed by Gasol and Nash, with Dwight only missing 6 games. With a healthy Bryant and a Dwight Howard still playing at an All Star level, the Lakers should at least be better than GSW, Utah, Houston, and probably Denver and Memphis. But it isn't.
To top it off, the Lakers best 5-man lineup this season doesn't even include Pau Gasol, it's MWP, Bryant, Howard, Nash and Meeks with a +49.4ppg per 100 posessions. In fact, Gasol isn't even in the 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th best 5-man lineup, he was only a member of the 5th best lineup of the Lakers, when they were +14.5ppg per posessions (and that lineup does not include Nash).
The best lineup with Dwight, Nash and Gasol in it was a mere +4.2 per 100 possessions, which isn't that far off from the +1.4 per 100 possessions of the entire team has been putting up.
Finally, the Lakers are fine on offense this year, they are #8 in offensive efficiency, in #6 in ppg. Their struggles, as we all know, are on defense. Nash will not help them on defense.
Only pussies & assholes cite the injury card.
What nags at me is the grinding & boundless loss of Odom. His numbers in his last season were superb. That calamity (the Paul trade) continues to haunt this team, not because Paul didn't come, but, because Odom left. Two years later and we're still looking down the bench & reaching for him, in vain.
We were granted a nearly 2 million dollar salary slot for the loss of Hill which inexplicably we've chosen to forsake. The fact is to this day the slot never has seen but a glimmer of public light & absolutely no accountability on it's dormant status.
I don't know how it is even a question, $100M payroll and just being a .500 team
^Pierce swearing up & in' down he'd not return to Los Angeles in June of '10. Then the not only has to follow us in attendant charter flights across the nation, but, the hump let's Artest takes his pants down in broad daylight.
Just like that.
I don't wanna hear it 'hrea. You guys should be on the top of the mountain, 1 seed style, yet you're out here talkin 'bout trading the franchise player, missing the playoffs, etc. You gotta where ya eat, and there's no way around it.
nuh, uh Daddy-O
^You're in the same in' line with us, sassafras.
Don't even start.
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