LAL @ DEN, season opener

[SlimShady83]

Haven't seen any highlights just a Lakernation vid saying fall short lmao

Is this a OH NO "we suck again" moment?

[tamaraw08]

Lakers coaching still bad if not worse.

With under 6 mins to go Vogel’s current team is holding the Warriors to under 37% FG and 25% from 3. I miss Frank

[SlimShady83]

AD Is not a number 1 option and never will be.

Hope Lakers are seeing this

[JVL]

Lebron looked good, that was all I was worried about. It's game 1 against the defending champs, whatever.

[zuju]

Didn't watch the game, only highlights

Is Denver playing it easy while Lakers putting in effort ?

Base on the highlights, the defense was not there for the Lakers. Players rotation, Jame's effort etc. AD on Jokic again? What's the point of sigining Hayes and Wood?

Denver is the team to beat. I wonder if Ham and co have thought of any solution to combat Denver or if he is hiding it for playoff.

Dlo's defense is still horrendous. He made plays and scored this time.

Christie shall get a chance against Murray to see how he fairs next time. We are lacking of Perimeter D.

[Godfather13]

I enjoyed that game a ton, even though we lost to a better team at the end of the day. Some notes -

Cam & Wood - surprisingly good game for both. Feels unsustainable.
- Cam did in 18 minutes what no Laker was able to do last season - lock down Murray and force him out of possessions. Again he has those abilities, but his game IQ(ability to understand and execute defensive rotations) is just too much of a liability to make him a regular. I wish Ham's staff can help turn it around for him.
- Wood wasn't a tire fire on defense, and fairly efficient in his limited offensive opportunities.

Max - Ham just DNPed Max for Cam. That was unbelievable.

AD - Every other day Davis showed up again. This dude's motivation levels from game to game are just a fecking tragedy. Just stops rolling to the basket for opportunities & crashing the boards. IIRC, he had 1 rebound in the first half, and then of course he didn't score in the 2nd.

Rui - He still looks out of sorts. Ham needs to call some plays for him to keep him engaged and productive enough for his contract.

- Lebron - 29 minutes in a game like this was a big surprise from Ham. From Lebron's comments later, looks like even he wasn't aware that they were gonna put him on such a minutes restriction. Look spry & productive. He seems to be enjoying himself, which is good. If this gets him healthy to the playoffs, sign me up. Also, if this is how many minutes he's gonna be playing, its coaching malpractice to use him only as an off ball scorer. DLo & Austin obviously have their limitations in playmaking when the opposing team applies ball pressure. Both of them can easily be forced out of their dribble and neutralized to a large extent. Lebron has to initiate more plays if he's gonna be on an under 30 minute restriction.

Read on Twitter

Austin and DLo
- Austin had a below par game. But solid rebounding. Maybe he can make that a priority this season.
- DLo - Was a huge game for Dlo, and he was underwhelming I guess. His defense did not get exploited in the same way as WCF, but it wasn't great. 4/12 just feeds into his history of shrinking in the big games narrative.

I am a bit worried about our perimeter defense with these two at POA. Scoring guards see both of them as food unfortunately.

[PedroFlu]

I enjoyed that game a ton, even though we lost to a better team at the end of the day. Some notes -

Cam & Wood - surprisingly good game for both. Feels unsustainable.
- Cam did in 18 minutes what no Laker was able to do last season - lock down Murray and force him out of possessions. Again he has those abilities, but his game IQ(ability to understand and execute defensive rotations) is just too much of a liability to make him a regular. I wish Ham's staff can help turn it around for him.
- Wood wasn't a tire fire on defense, and fairly efficient in his limited offensive opportunities.

Max - Ham just DNPed Max for Cam. That was unbelievable.

AD - Every other day Davis showed up again. This dude's motivation levels from game to game are just a fecking tragedy. Just stops rolling to the basket for opportunities & crashing the boards. IIRC, he had 1 rebound in the first half, and then of course he didn't score in the 2nd.

Rui - He still looks out of sorts. Ham needs to call some plays for him to keep him engaged and productive enough for his contract.

- Lebron - 29 minutes in a game like this was a big surprise from Ham. From Lebron's comments later, looks like even he wasn't aware that they were gonna put him on such a minutes restriction. Look spry & productive. He seems to be enjoying himself, which is good. If this gets him healthy to the playoffs, sign me up. Also, if this is how many minutes he's gonna be playing, its coaching malpractice to use him only as an off ball scorer. DLo & Austin obviously have their limitations in playmaking when the opposing team applies ball pressure. Both of them can easily be forced out of their dribble and neutralized to a large extent. Lebron has to initiate more plays if he's gonna be on an under 30 minute restriction.

Read on Twitter

Austin and DLo
- Austin had a below par game. But solid rebounding. Maybe he can make that a priority this season.
- DLo - Was a huge game for Dlo, and he was underwhelming I guess. His defense did not get exploited in the same way as WCF, but it wasn't great. 4/12 just feeds into his history of shrinking in the big games narrative.

I am a bit worried about our perimeter defense with these two at POA. Scoring guards see both of them as food unfortunately.

Agree with basically everything. I'll add a big worry: Vincent. Schroeder was a dog defensively, and I think it's clear the starting team is in dire lack of perimeter defense - I don't think Prince can do it. I thought it would improve with Vincent, but it didn't look like it at all. Offensively, he was very tentatively.

All in all, Gabe Vincent is key to this team alleged depth. If he's gonna be a shy average player, Lakers will be in big problem. They actually need him a lot both on perimeter defense and offensive production from the bench.

I'd also like to emphasize the worry with Rui. Guy sleepwalks to a lot of games, and should be another integral part of the team nucleus. He actually played like this during last RS, not sure he can sustain stg similar to his playoff intensity after getting the bag.

DLO is what he is. I expect him to play better vs worse teams. He is the clearest point of improvement in a trade, if possible.

All in all, Denver is clear cut the best team on talent alone. I hope guys can develop during the season, but the fact is DLO is who he always has been, Vincent is unknown quantity, Rui has been nonchalant for most of his career. Maybe this is simply a 3-10 team in a very strong West, and improvement may happen only upon trading.

LBJ is great news. BTW, AD is not a 30 ppg player. Also cant be the defensive cornerstone of the team while carrying main offensive duties. He just doesn't have the motor - actually no player has it. Let him excert his power on the defensive end (specially with so many slow players in the starting lineup, with poor perimeter defense) and be a 17-18ppg guy. That's when the Lakers REALLY need their guards to step up and put up points on the borad.

Finally, I like the idea of benching DLO and starting LeBron on point with Reaves, Prince, Vanderbilt and AD. Really improves defense on the starting unit, takes Vincent away from PG duties on the second team and gives a scoring punch to the bench (Rui probably cant be relied upon that).

Oh, and I just imagine if we could have kept Schroder instead of Vincent (they make almost the same salary) and retaining Walker as the go-to scorer from the bench (making 2M only with the Nets - probably didnt stay because of Ham's lack of trust in him).

Schroeder - Skywalker - Prince - Rui - Wood/Hayes - that would be a deep team.

[TimeisIllmatic]

Welp, I will definitely eat crow on my prediction. I noticed this team still has a lot of the same issues as last year:

-Playing too many guys
-Giving up 2nd chance points
-Taking too many quick contested shots
-D'Lo turning the ball over crazy (he wasn't the only one)
-AD disappearing in the 2nd half of games

Positives:
Taurean Prince looks exactly like what we expected

[Beethoven]

season just started. Got thrown into the deep end of the pool playing the mcnuggets in their mile high stadium.
Coaching will fgure out as we move along.
Let's make our real assessments of this team by December.

[tamaraw08]

Oh, and I just imagine if we could have kept Schroder instead of Vincent (they make almost the same salary) and retaining Walker as the go-to scorer from the bench (making 2M only with the Nets - probably didnt stay because of Ham's lack of trust in him).

Schroeder - Skywalker - Prince - Rui - Wood/Hayes - that would be a deep team.

Murray averaged 32.5 pts, at 65TS% in the WCF vs the Lakers with Schroder and D'Lo's identical 126 DRTG which was really bad. Dennis also just averaged 7 pts/game at 45TS%.
Jamal on the other hand just averaged 21pts at 55TS% vs Miami. I'm not saying Vincent is a defensive stud but at least he was slightly productive at 11.4pts at 49.4TS%.
2 playoff years Dennis was pretty much a bust when the team needed him most, when they got eliminated by the Suns and last playoffs.

[Godfather13]

Agree with basically everything. I'll add a big worry: Vincent. Schroeder was a dog defensively, and I think it's clear the starting team is in dire lack of perimeter defense - I don't think Prince can do it. I thought it would improve with Vincent, but it didn't look like it at all. Offensively, he was very tentatively.

All in all, Gabe Vincent is key to this team alleged depth. If he's gonna be a shy average player, Lakers will be in big problem. They actually need him a lot both on perimeter defense and offensive production from the bench.

I'd also like to emphasize the worry with Rui. Guy sleepwalks to a lot of games, and should be another integral part of the team nucleus. He actually played like this during last RS, not sure he can sustain stg similar to his playoff intensity after getting the bag.

DLO is what he is. I expect him to play better vs worse teams. He is the clearest point of improvement in a trade, if possible.

All in all, Denver is clear cut the best team on talent alone. I hope guys can develop during the season, but the fact is DLO is who he always has been, Vincent is unknown quantity, Rui has been nonchalant for most of his career. Maybe this is simply a 3-10 team in a very strong West, and improvement may happen only upon trading.

I've enjoyed DLo adding the wrinkle of defense this season, and don't wanna jump on his ass so soon, but I'm basically in agreement about your thoughts to consolidate some of the lower end talent for a high level post season role player.

I mean all the depth talk is great, but you're just not fielding a 12-14 man rotation in the playoffs, and if Lebron indeed leaves to follow Bronny, this might be our last real shot at a chip, till some other star/s roll into LA.

I'd love to get my hands on guys like Kuz or Caruso - who get the system > can play elite defense and passable offense.

LBJ is great news. BTW, AD is not a 30 ppg player. Also cant be the defensive cornerstone of the team while carrying main offensive duties. He just doesn't have the motor - actually no player has it. Let him excert his power on the defensive end (specially with so many slow players in the starting lineup, with poor perimeter defense) and be a 17-18ppg guy. That's when the Lakers REALLY need their guards to step up and put up points on the borad.

That's fair about AD, but if he's on the floor, he can't just stand in one corner at the perimeter. He has very little gravity there & mucks up the lane for everyone else. It's essential that he keeps cutting and rolling at all times so the offense doesn't grind to a halt, since his defender is actively helping opposing teams to go 5 on 4.

Finally, I like the idea of benching DLO and starting LeBron on point with Reaves, Prince, Vanderbilt and AD. Really improves defense on the starting unit, takes Vincent away from PG duties on the second team and gives a scoring punch to the bench (Rui probably cant be relied upon that).

Oh, and I just imagine if we could have kept Schroder instead of Vincent (they make almost the same salary) and retaining Walker as the go-to scorer from the bench (making 2M only with the Nets - probably didnt stay because of Ham's lack of trust in him).

Schroeder - Skywalker - Prince - Rui - Wood/Hayes - that would be a deep team.

That's interesting. I love the idea of a flexible starting lineup and minutes overall for different players, based on matchups.

Dennis wasn't very good last year. Think a lot of us have his image imprinted in our mind from the 2020-21 season, when he was amazing at POA. I'm happy with Gabe - better playmaker and shooter, while being a reasonably decent POA. He's not stopping elite guards, but neither was Dennis, when we got burnt alive by all 3 primary guards we faced in the playoffs.

[Godfather13]

Welp, I will definitely eat crow on my prediction. I noticed this team still has a lot of the same issues as last year:

-Playing too many guys
-Giving up 2nd chance points
-Taking too many quick contested shots
-D'Lo turning the ball over crazy (he wasn't the only one)
-AD disappearing in the 2nd half of games

Positives:
Taurean Prince looks exactly like what we expected

Yeah man. The rebounding was driving me crazy last night. Just unacceptable with such a massive size & athleticism advantage. I put this one on Ham, cos it's plagued us all through his time and he hasn't taken any action to correct it.

[TimeisIllmatic]

Welp, I will definitely eat crow on my prediction. I noticed this team still has a lot of the same issues as last year:

-Playing too many guys
-Giving up 2nd chance points
-Taking too many quick contested shots
-D'Lo turning the ball over crazy (he wasn't the only one)
-AD disappearing in the 2nd half of games

Positives:
Taurean Prince looks exactly like what we expected

Yeah man. The rebounding was driving me crazy last night. Just unacceptable with such a massive size & athleticism advantage. I put this one on Ham, cos it's plagued us all through his time and he hasn't taken any action to correct it.

Yep. I get everyone is going to say the season just started and it's early, but still concerning nonetheless.

[Liam_Gallagher]

Rough night for Darvin Ham.

Rotations were horrible in the first half. At one point in the 1st Q, we had LBJ, AD and Austin all on the bench. Jaxon Hayes was in with Jokic on the bench. Felt like 2k automatic rotations. Cam Reddish should never be on the floor with Hayes, if at all. The rotation should EASILY be:

G - DLo | Gabe
G - Austin
F - LeBron | Prince
F - Vando | Rui
C - AD | Wood

Christie, Reddish and Hayes should only see the floor if LBJ or AD is injured/resting. Gabe Vincent should be getting all of the backup guard minutes, while Wood/Rui should be playing over 20 minutes easily. Vando should be around 12-17 depending on who we play. Prince can share some minutes with LeBron if need be, but I'm just done with the small lineups. Use size.

[stan francisco]

If our best coaching strategy is to play LBJ for 30 minutes per game, at age 94, and fragile AD for 38; we either need a new strategy or a new coach.

[Showtime:Part2]

Rough night for Darvin Ham.

Rotations were horrible in the first half. At one point in the 1st Q, we had LBJ, AD and Austin all on the bench. Jaxon Hayes was in with Jokic on the bench. Felt like 2k automatic rotations. Cam Reddish should never be on the floor with Hayes, if at all. The rotation should EASILY be:

G - DLo | Gabe
G - Austin
F - LeBron | Prince
F - Vando | Rui
C - AD | Wood

Christie, Reddish and Hayes should only see the floor if LBJ or AD is injured/resting. Gabe Vincent should be getting all of the backup guard minutes, while Wood/Rui should be playing over 20 minutes easily. Vando should be around 12-17 depending on who we play. Prince can share some minutes with LeBron if need be, but I'm just done with the small lineups. Use size.

This board over the offseason was adamant coaching doesn’t matter

[Showtime:Part2]

Where are all the clowns who argued this entire offseason that size isn’t the reason we lost to Denver. That Gabe Vincent was our lord and savior bc Jamaal Murray is the reason the nuggets won and Gabe is a much better defender than Schroeder (also false). I said it before, I’ll say it again the only way we beat Denver is if ad plays next to a good defensive big. If we had traded for kp or even someone like hartenstein, we would be in a much better position. Honestly we should have tried Hayes next to ad in the game also. AD needs to roam, he can’t be the primary defender in the post. It’s not that hard, but our coaching staff and front office is light years behind.

[Showtime:Part2]

Oh, and I just imagine if we could have kept Schroder instead of Vincent (they make almost the same salary) and retaining Walker as the go-to scorer from the bench (making 2M only with the Nets - probably didnt stay because of Ham's lack of trust in him).

Schroeder - Skywalker - Prince - Rui - Wood/Hayes - that would be a deep team.

Murray averaged 32.5 pts, at 65TS% in the WCF vs the Lakers with Schroder and D'Lo's identical 126 DRTG which was really bad. Dennis also just averaged 7 pts/game at 45TS%.
Jamal on the other hand just averaged 21pts at 55TS% vs Miami. I'm not saying Vincent is a defensive stud but at least he was slightly productive at 11.4pts at 49.4TS%.
2 playoff years Dennis was pretty much a bust when the team needed him most, when they got eliminated by the Suns and last playoffs.

And shooters like kcp went off against us. Jokic averaged a ridiculous amount of assists that series (higher than any other series or reg season). It’s because of hams stupid gameplay to collapse the paint and turn jokic into a playmaker. It’s not a mark on Dennis defense. Dennis held curry to below average efficiency metrics. Dennis was awesome last year and singling him out for the nuggets series when the coaching staff is the one to blame is misguided. The Vincent dickriding on this forum hopefully makes me eat crow. He’s the one who shot well above his long term sample averages in the playoffs and is likely to return to being a mediocre player. Dennis literally won us multiple games in the reg season and slowed down curry better than anyone in the last several years

[PedroFlu]

Welp, I will definitely eat crow on my prediction. I noticed this team still has a lot of the same issues as last year:

-Playing too many guys
-Giving up 2nd chance points
-Taking too many quick contested shots
-D'Lo turning the ball over crazy (he wasn't the only one)
-AD disappearing in the 2nd half of games

Positives:
Taurean Prince looks exactly like what we expected

Yeah man. The rebounding was driving me crazy last night. Just unacceptable with such a massive size & athleticism advantage. I put this one on Ham, cos it's plagued us all through his time and he hasn't taken any action to correct it.

As long as LeBron is the starting PF, team might have trouble rebounding the ball. LeBron really needs to rest instead of boxing out, so he can produce in the offensive end. I think this problem will simply linger throughout the season. In big games/playoffs it should improve. Also AD spends too much energy when chasing out rebounds

[Showtime:Part2]

Still in disbelief we more or less chose jhs over Kristaps porzingis this offseason