NBA 2K13: Why did the Lakers disappoint?

[MarvinOida]

Injuries, lack of chemistry through out the season, the usual Kobe does the work. You know.

Im not a coach, nor do I like the Lakers, but the Miami Heat had a rocky start and then a year later they won a championship with the Big Three actually focusing on a championship.

If the Lakers focus on team play, they will succeed with the Leader and scoring of Kobe, Passing of Nash, Post Present of Pau and Dwight, and crazy World Peace. They COULD be better.

Also, happy to see a mention of the Blazers

[turty11]

im going to put the blame on 3 things

1. COACHING
2. injuries
3. strong conference

[TheManofSteel3kO]

If we are speaking on the court, it was injuries & Mike D'Antoni. Injuries kept key players out for a while like Blake, Nash, Hill, Gasol, Howard, and most importantly Kobe at the end of the season was the ultimate death blow. D'Antoni deserves blame for not taking advantage of the biggest advantage they had and that was post play. Gasol should have been in the low post more often than Howard. Simply because Gasol is immensely better skilled & polished in the post than Howard. Howard should have focused more on defense & rebounding and getting his points from pick and roll action with Nash and/or Kobe and hustle points (offensive rebounding, etc.). To me a bit in part of injuries, D'Antoni didn't understand how to effectively use the talents on his roster. Those are the on-court problems.

If you want to blame one person fro the Lakers disappointing this season it lies with Jim Buss. Hiring a coach who has no success playoffs wise over a coach who is a proven champion, is absolutely an asinine offense.
Let's do the comparisons...

Times in the Conference Finals
Mike D'Antoni = 2
Phil Jackson = 14

Time won the Conference Finals/Time in the NBA Finals
Mike D'Antoni = 0
Phil Jackson = 13

Championships as a Coach
Mike D'Antoni = 0
Phil Jackson = 11

Some resume D'Antoni had to be thought to have success with this. And also the rumors suggesting that they wanted to bring back "Showtime" by bring in D'Antoni. With this old *ss roster yeah right. And he had trouble living up to expectation coaching the New York Knicks. What did anyone expect when the expectations of the Lakers organization and fans is championship or bust! Lakers expectations is way greater than those from the Knicks. You are criticized and scrutinized the worse than any media market and fans in Lakerland.

That is where the Lakers had problems. Injuries, D'Antoni, and Jim Buss. If any of those variables was different we'd probably be singing another song.

[cgalligan]

The Coach does not fit the players on the roster... In the long run they would have been better off with Mike Brown... A Defensive minded head coach... We all know "what" wins championships, and, its not "lob city" and up tempo offensive teams

[turty11]

Quote: Originally Posted by cgalligan

The Coach does not fit the players on the roster... In the long run they would have been better off with Mike Brown... A Defensive minded head coach... We all know "what" wins championships, and, its not "lob city" and up tempo offensive teams

lol lob city.

more like injury city with a 13 second or less offense

[hyphy1]

please leave articles like this to websites like grantland or espn. this was a painful read.

[turty11]

Quote: Originally Posted by hyphy1

please leave articles like this to websites like grantland or espn. this was a painful read.

nobody forced you to read it....

[Streaky McFloorburn]

Quote: Originally Posted by MarvinOida

Im not a coach, nor do I like the Lakers, but the Miami Heat had a rocky start and then a year later they won a championship with the Big Three actually focusing on a championship. If the Lakers focus on team play, they will succeed with the Leader and scoring of Kobe, Passing of Nash, Post Present of Pau and Dwight, and crazy World Peace. They COULD be better. Also, happy to see a mention of the Blazers

So making it to the Finals is a rocky start? Or did you just mean their first 17 games of the regular season?

I don't think the Lakers have that kind of "rock" to build on. They're going to need some front-office magic and/or league manipulation to improve next season. I suppose they will at least have some sort of decent frontcourt unless they lose Dwight and trade Pau, but expecting Kobe (until late in the season) and Nash (ever again) to be good for much is a bit of a stretch the way things look now.

As a fellow Blazers fan, I hope your optimistic comparison of the Lakers to the Heat was actually some kind of a jinx.