Los Angeles Lakers: Things That Need to Change in a Hurry

It is easy to criticize Mike Brown after watching the Lakers lose three out of four home games before acting like lottery winners after the Hornets game won in the last seconds.

Once again, the Lakers looked tired, old and poorly coached.

After Thursday’s loss to the Thunder, Brown noted the Lakers were not getting to the 50-50 balls and needed more energy, which I interpret to mean hustle more. He refuses to acknowledge that younger teams like the Thunder are just quicker and faster to the ball than the social security bound Lakers.

Quinn Snyder, a Laker assistant coach, in an interview to start the fourth quarter against the Hornets, observed that the Hornets were outhustling the Lakers to loose balls and the team needed more energy.

Once again, the starters looked slow and tired while a younger, quicker team beat them to every rebound and loose ball.

In the case of Pau Gasol, teams are tiring him out with pick and rolls and pick and pops. Gasol is spending most of his time on defense at the three point line where he is slow and a liability. Point guards are driving around him and smaller power forwards are shooting mid-range jumpers over him.

Something must be done to stop the opposition from getting so many points in the paint caused by point guards getting around Gasol at the three point line on switches leading to a 5-on-4 offense leaving a player open either in the paint or at the short corner the point line.

Teams have been getting far too many lay ups and far too many short corner threes since early March. It seems like the Lakers are working too hard for their shots while their opposition is getting easy ones in the paint and around the free throw line.

Rather than harp on Brown’s poor substitution patterns, lack of offensive sets and loss of control of the team, let’s look at some simple changes that would make the Lakers a better team without making wholesale changes.

For most of the season the starting lineup has come out after halftime and looked old, slow and tired. It is becoming clear that the older Laker starters stiffen up during halftime.

In the Hornets game, Metta World Peace disappeared for the first five minutes of the third quarter. In other games, he has simply disappeared in the third quarter completely.

The Lakers effectively lost the Thunder game when their starters sleepwalked through the third quarter while Brown failed to substitute with quicker players with energy.

One solution is for Brown to make substitutions in his lineup at the start of the third quarter or quickly substitute fresh players for the ones who look tired and are missing assignments. Bynum is not the only player who should be benched from time to time for a lack of effort.

For example, when Metta World Peace morphs into Metta World Disaster, Brown should consider starting Matt Barnes in the third quarter to give the unit more speed and energy. I am certain Barnes wonders why he isn't starting in the first place.

When Kobe is shooting 0 for the half as he did against the Hornets, it may help to play Steve Blake at the two guard with Ramon Sessions. It was successful against the Hornets in the second quarter because Blake was wide open for threes and Sessions got the ball to Blake in his favorite spots.

Kobe may benefit from playing the three position when Blake is at the two guard. Against teams playing smaller lineups, this lineup would be very effective. Right now, Kobe is a better three than Peace except against stronger players like Paul Pierce and LeBron James.

I also think Andrew Goudelock, despite playing well the last month and being benched, is an excellent guard to play with Sessions, who could find Goudelock open in his favorite shooting spots.

Kobe is shooting poorly because he is playing too many minutes, leg weary and not getting screens and picks to give him the best shooting angles. Either Kobe is stuck facing the basket going one on one or another Laker player passes him the ball with less than seven seconds on the 24-second clock forcing him into a poor shot selection.

Kobe’s game will continue to suffer until he is either given a game off to rest or his minutes are significantly reduced. The Lakers have lost three out of their last five. So would it really matter if Kobe skipped one or two of those games and rested?

It is also clear that the bench can and often extends leads into the second quarter and the starters lose that lead by the end of the half. It seems like the Lakers starters have lost a ton of leads this year in the last five minutes of the second quarter.

The criticism of the Laker bench should be tempered by looking at their minutes and the distribution of their minutes. They are at the bottom of the bench scoring list because other teams play their bench many more minutes than the Lakers do.

And Brown’s inconsistent distribution of minutes and a lack of clear roles for bench players is a major contributor to their failure.

Sadly, the starters play no better in the middle of the fourth quarter when they return than they do to start the third quarter.

Brown needs to consider bringing starters back one at a time to let them get warmed up without impacting the team. Or accept that players like Barnes and McRoberts are needed to provide speed and quickness or energy and hustle as Brown calls it.

In the Hornets game, McRoberts hustled for offensive rebounds when no Laker starter was hustling at all. Barnes repeatedly beat Hornets to balls that Laker starters don’t even try for.

Brown needs to play McRoberts and Barnes more minutes with Kobe and Bynum. Teams double-team both Bynum and Kobe which leaves Barnes and McRoberts free to cut to the basket for Kobe’s passes and to pick up garbage rebounds. This was noticeable in the third and fourth quarters of the Hornets game.

And Bynum needs to learn how to pass out of a double team and to stop his one on one dribbling that leads to so many turnovers while Gasol needs to keep the ball higher to avoid the constant turnovers when he turns to shoot his jump shot in the lane.

Gasol may have the slowest hands I have seen in basketball other than Kwame "No Hands" Brown.

Peace, when he is on the floor, stands around the three point line waiting to take shots fans would prefer he doesn’t. While he made two in the Hornets game, he is still a 20 percent plus shooter. No one guards him. So why not play McRoberts or Barnes, who cut to the basket and are better rebounders than Peace is at this stage of his career?

Sessions and Blake shot better than Kobe and anyone with him. Brown needs to play players with a hot hand and not stars who are having rough nights.

Quinn Snyder said Kobe’s shooting wasn’t a problem in the game. What game was he watching? Goudelock could not have shot any worse. And, in fact, when Sessions and Blake played the guard positions together in the second quarter, the Lakers expanded their lead.

Failure is making the same mistake over and over again without learning anything from it. Brown and Snyder sounded like coaches that were inflexible and not willing to make changes in the face of three previous failures on their home court. Because of their unwillingness to make changes in the Hornets game, they almost made it four home losses out of the last five games.

The only question remaining is whether Mike Brown will see the light before he sees his exist as coach of the Lakers. Time is running out for Brown to figure out a team which most fans see clearly. It is just a matter of time before Laker management sees Brown’s flaws and act upon them.

Right now, it is easy to see the Lakers going out of the playoffs in the second series or being swept by the Thunder whenever they are required to face them. The Thunder will, in all likelihood, win the NBA title this year. But Laker fans will not see it as the better team winning. They will only see Mike Brown’s failures as a coach.