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Plan B has been plan A since the start of training camp.
Lakers' act: Bryant shoots first, last, almost always
Web Posted: 11/29/2005 12:00 AM CST
Mike Monroe
Express-News Staff Writer
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/b...t.8a8a60c.html
LOS ANGELES When Phil Jackson walked out of the SBC Center and into a steamy San Antonio spring night a little before 11p.m. on May13, 2004, euphoria surrounded him and the entire Los Angeles Lakers entourage.
It lingered long after Derek Fisher's buzzer-beating shot had deflated the Spurs in Game5 of the Western Conference semifinals in the most dramatic single moment of an entire NBA season.
The buzz carried them all the way back to Los Angeles and right into the 2004 NBA Finals.
Who knew it would be 565 days, two major trades, three coaching changes and one more Spurs championship run before Jackson would walk back into the arena that afforded him his last great playoff memory?
Things are different these days for the Lakers, who are 5-7 and dead last in the Pacific Division as they meet the Spurs tonight at the SBC Center. And things are especially tough for the coach San Antonians love to hate.
Jackson is trying to teach the triangle offense to which he is so committed to one of the NBA's youngest rosters. He has a lineup that does not seem suited to run the triangle the way it functioned when Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen provided two nearly equal-length sides of the triangle in Chicago, or when Shaquille O'Neal was the base and Bryant the hypotenuse in Jackson's first go-around in L.A.
"We are really young," Bryant said after a recent practice. "I mean really, really young. Andrew Bynum was 3 years old when the Bulls won their first championship and 7 years old my rookie year. We're very young, so these concepts are completely new."
Indeed, Bynum, who played 12 minutes in the Lakers' 102-96 overtime loss to the New Jersey Nets at the Staples Center on Sunday night, celebrated his 18th birthday on Oct.27, making him the NBA's youngest player ever.
Bryant was only 21 when Jackson arrived in Los Angeles for his first run on the Lakers' bench, but learning the triangle was easier then with a roster full of veterans.
"We had Rick Fox, Brian Shaw, Robert Horry, Derek Fisher, myself and Shaquille (O'Neal) and Glen Rice and A.C. Green," Bryant said. "We had guys who had been around a long, long time, guys who knew the pro sets and knew the triangle offense from having played against Chicago many times. So it was easy for us to pick it up."
Now, Bryant is one of only four Lakers who were with the club in 2003-04, the lone starter remaining from that NBA Finals team. And what has become abundantly clear, even to Jackson, through the Lakers' first 12 games is the fact their only chance to win, at least for now, is to go to "Plan B."
Plan B is simple: Bryant takes over. Consequently, he also takes most of the shots.
In the Lakers' loss to the Nets before a crowd that booed them during a first half in which they scored only 28 points, Bryant took 36 shots. The other four starters took 38. At one point in the fourth period, he had scored 45 of the Lakers' 89 points.
"We had to start going back to Plan B, which is getting Kobe to activate himself," Jackson said. "We had to get him going in the second half and get us back in the ballgame. So it's setting up for having to start getting more support for him."
For the season, Bryant has taken 349 of the Lakers' 990 shots (35.2 percent). By contrast, Tim Duncan leads the Spurs in percentage of shots taken: 210 of 1,035 (20.3 percent). When the Bulls won an NBA record 72 games in 1995-96, Jordan, who averaged 30.4 points, took only 26.9 percent of the shots.
For now, Bryant has little choice. Not when his scoring average, an NBA-best 34.2 points, is 20 points higher than his next most-productive teammate, Lamar Odom.
The dilemma Jackson faces is simple: Where does he find help for Bryant? Odom was supposed to be the Lakers' Pippen to Bryant's Jordan. Jackson even brought Pippen to training camp in Honolulu, specifically to school Odom on the fine points of the triangle.
Thus far, it hasn't registered, except on rare occasions.
"It's a major concern for us," Jackson said after Odom missed 10 of 11 shots on Sunday night. "A major concern. We have a player like Lamar Odom who is coming off a ballgame where he had 23 points ... and he comes back and was hesitant. That's a major concern for us. And our offense kind of sputtered behind that."
Odom insists he is getting more comfortable with the offense. It takes time, he said, and even Jackson is fond of reminding everyone, often, that learning the complex offensive system "is a process."
"Raising your IQ as a basketball player and learning a new offense is going to help us in the long run," Odom said. "As we get more and more comfortable with it, everything flows more easily out there. It's a real cohesive offense, so I really like it."
What about the mistakes he and his other triangle-challenged teammates make so often, which has caused the Lakers to shift to Plan B?
"If you're a football coach," Odom said, "and you and your offensive coordinator move to a new team, you expect a guy to run a wrong route or not to pick up a blitz every once in a while. It's going to happen."
Jackson has to bite his lip and focus on the few positives he can find while he waits for it to happen. So he praised his team's defense in the second quarter of a remarkably ugly first half against the Nets because the Lakers kept the Nets scoreless through the first six minutes of the period. He takes comfort in his team's gritty comeback from a 16-point second-half deficit to force overtime.
"We got ourselves mired in the mud out there," Jackson said of that first half. "Moving the ball was difficult for us. Passing the ball was difficult for us. Shooting was tough for us. Yet we found a way to come back and be in that ballgame."
Veterans who remember what the Lakers were like in Jackson's first incarnation in L.A. do their best to be kind.
"They've got a unit in there that's growing, and it's early in the season, and they're going to have growing pains," the Nets' Jason Kidd said after slicing up the Lakers' defense for 35 points. "But I think by the end of the season, Phil and Kobe will have those guys playing at a high level."
Jackson remains sure of it, at least in his public utterances.
"We're starting to make the second and third options work for us," Jackson said, "and that's really important. Now the idea is to counteract and be subtle with the offense, and deploy the defense, and make them react and come back to the other side, and do things like that which are a little more elite."
Of course, that was before Sunday's first-half debacle against the Nets, which necessitated Plan B the Kobe alternative.
Plan B has been plan A since the start of training camp.
Why can't we have a vBookie on who will win the scoring le - Iverson, Kobe or other?
For all I care, let Kobe get his scoring le! I'm willing to bet Phil Jackson's return to the Lakers will turn out to be nothing more than a joke come mid-to-late April; the Triangle Offense probably won't soak in at all this season! Charles Barkley said it best; the "triangle" looks more like a circle right now.
Tonight's game is a rubber-stamp LOSS for the Piss and Purple, and if I am wrong, I will not post here for a WEEK! (everyone here has my word on that!)
Now as for getting Kobe the ball often being the Lakers' "Plan B", I think they need to start cooking up a "Plan C", because, gee, I wonder who's gonna be guarding his piss-and-purple-clad ass!
heck.. plan b has always been plan a since shaq got traded
Plan B was also Plan A all of last year too. The only thing that has changed is the head coach.
You should do everyone a favor and leave out of sheer inep ude.Tonight's game is a rubber-stamp LOSS for the Piss and Purple, and if I am wrong, I will not post here for a WEEK! (everyone here has my word on that!)
Anyway, the Lakers will probably lose this game as they continue to struggle. Kobe does take too many shots, but watching the games it's sad that he is the ONLY option on that team. Lamar has been a disapointment and Kwame and George have been gone for the last few games. It's probably going to be ugly. I expect Kobe to shoot 40 times this game.
As good as Kobe is he is no Michael Jordan or Snaq. It's as simple as that.
Phil's genius was his ability to pick jobs.
Imagine how good Kobe could actually be if he had Manu's mind? Oh well, so much for imagining.
I don't understand the whole BS that Kobe gets because he's no Shaq or MJ. Those players had decent role players and other star players around them while they made championship runs. Kobe's got right now. You put TD on this team and they would struggle...yes I'm saying this because even with POP at the helm all they would play is pass the ball to TD and him kick out to shooters that will miss more than most. Kobe has been playing good D all season, shutting down VC and Ray Allen the last few games while outscoring them 2-1.
^^^ With TD they would definitely make the playoffs.
no - no no. TD would not be able to take that team to the playoffs in the West without Kobe. He has no 3-point shooters to open the lane for him and nobody to get him the ball. no way would they make the playoffs in the west.
inep ude? he is completely right, Lakers are going to get creamed tonight
Some ppl are saying the Lakers could make the playoffs. If that's the case, TD would definitely make the playoffs with them, TD makes his teammates better, anyway this is ridiculous.
They'll lose this game and plenty more. , they're not even the best team in their own city. A true testament as to how far they've fallen. This is a team that WILL NOT make the playoffs for the second straight year. Even in a "weak" Western Conference, this team will occupy the bottom of its division for most of the season.
Blame Laker management for assembling this "piss-poor" collection of players. Kobe also deserves his share of the blame for thinking he alone could lead a team to a championship without the presence of a second superstar.
Make no mistake about it. This is an organization whose arrogance is only exceeded by their "bad" personnel decisions. From Buss feeling as though simply bringing back Phil Jackson would instantly restore team credibility and get them to the playoffs to bringing together the "so-called" four HOFers (O'Neal, Bryant, Malone and Payton) in 2004 for a "failed" championship run.
They've hitched their wagons to the Kobester and they're getting what they deserve. As for the future, does anyone really believe free agents are going to want to come a play with a guy that hoists 30-40 shots every night?
I shed no tears for the Fakers and to coin a phrase from McDonalds, "I'm lovin' it"
Sadly, Kobe is NOT the only option, IMO...he just thinks he is. No matter who you put on that team, that would not change. It's too late for Kobe to become a team guy.
They will continue to struggle as long as Kobe, who is a legend in his own mind, is allowed to be the boss. That, IMO, is what causes the struggle.
not even phil jackson thought he would make the playoffs this year. kobe thought they would, but jackson is no fool - he knows this is a long term project. i think the spurs have to be careful this game, the lakers can still score, especially if the spurs give a half ass effort on the defensive end - which has happened far too often this season already.
Yeah a line of TD, Smush, Laron Profit, Odom and B cook would make the playoffs.
Michael and Snaq made those role players good. For example, Damon Jones and the rest of the scrub guards had last year. They were pretty good but look at them now. Why does Devin George all of a sudden suck, but when snaq was around Devin was pretty good? Same can be said of Fisher, Fox, and Shaw.
Kobe has the same talent around him but doesn't know how to bring the best out of those guys.
Michael did the same with the likes of BJ Armstrong, Paxson, and Kerr. Those guys stunk when they played without Michael, except Kerr when he played with TD.
Kobe is a great one on one offensive player, but IMO in order for the lakers to be successful Kobe needs to play like a young Jason Kidd, 18pts, 10rbs, 10asst, 3 stls per night.
Phil on the other hand needs to figure out how to get Dwight Howard, Lebron James, or Amare Stoudamire on his team.
more like Smush, Odom, George, TD, and Mihm. Yes they would.
Shaq and Michael had another All-Star or 2 on the team...Yes having MJ and Shaq raised the level of the role players....totatly understand, but the Lakers are once again battling through injuries. Oh, and another thing I'm not a kobe jocker and do understand his immaturity and poor choices on the court seem to move the team backward. The thing most of you don't understand unless you watch the games is that he wants to win every game and will kick out to open players or take it upon himself to score. Role players make the all-star into the superstar, not the other way around.
No doubt the Lakers have less talent but at basically just below .500 you take any player off and replace with TD I'd say its worth at least 8 to 10 more wins for the season putting them 7th or 8th in the seeding. Plus that division is not looking so good right now.
Odom is an all-star, but the rest of them do stink. Kobe is not surrounded by the same talent, but Michael before Scottie took his team to the playoffs. Remember Michael dropping 62 on the Celtics too. Snaq did the same in Orlando and when looking back at that team Penny and the rest of those guys were not very good except when they played with snaq.
yea they would...with TD anchoring the defense and george and smush getting those wide open threes...odom slashing (but he cant make layups though). but mihm sucks. Kobe is a great talent with very average basketball IQ. there would be three guys in his face and he would still shoot...and im not exagerating...three, the reason he takes so many shots is because he wont pass the ball. kobe fans (sadly...there are no more laker fans...just kobe fans) are quick to say that its because other players are passive. ive seen instances where odom or someone else would be trying to take their man, and kobe would be there with his hands open like "Yo" calling for the ball. and for those of u who play...there is nothing more frustrating than playing with a ballhog...no wonder shaq wanted out...seems like Odom wants out too (from his body language)
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