Monday NBA Roundup: Byron Scott, Lakers Preparing for Post-Kobe Era All Wrong
In a season that has been little more than an icon-servicing exhibition, Byron Scott and the Los Angeles Lakers, held captive by the presence of Kobe Bryant, don't have many good ways to prepare for a post-Bryant world.
And they may have just blown their best one.
Before a 102-93 loss to the Toronto Raptors on Monday, Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times reported that Scott would remove D'Angelo Russell and Julius Randle from the starting lineup. Russell, the rookie, wasn't pleased:
Neither was Randle, who'd been averaging 11.7 points and 9.2 rebounds coming into the contest:
Scott's explanation, relayed by Serena Winters of Lakers Nation, defied reason:
The Lakers are among the worst teams in the league, and lineup changes would make sense under normal circumstances. But Scott refuses to bench Bryant, who drew chants of "We want Kobe" from the road crowd in Toronto, despite the fact that he's been, by far, the most damaging big-minute player in the league this year.
That's not to say Russell and Randle should have the same immunity as Bryant. It is to say that any personnel move made based on either individual performance or team success will look absurd precisely because Bryant continues to play such a huge (and hugely negative) role.
And please don't cite Kobe's 21 points on 8-of-16 shooting (the first time all year he made half his shots from the field) against Toronto as a counterargument. That's a blip in a historically awful season. So, again, if Bryant gets to play like this, how can Scott logically justify benching others whose performances have been far less corrosive to winning?
This latest decision proves he can't.
If you think about it, the way Scott and the Lakers have allowed Bryant to run wild—to the great detriment of player development elsewhere on the roster—is a perfect symbol for the backward priorities plaguing the team. Scott can gruffly sermonize about playing together, chemistry, putting the team first and whatever other old-school values he prefers, but if Bryant gets to hijack possessions, miss shots at unprecedented rates and generally sabotage his team's chance at functional basketball, well...the young players on the roster can hardly be expected to take Scott at his word about anything.
That's just one of the big-picture problems for a team that will, in theory, have to listen to Scott next year—when Bryant's gone. And even if Scott then makes his decisions based on merit and/or the values he's been espousing throughout this season, are we sure the young Lakers he marginalized will listen?
Are we sure they should?
And the only thing worse than losing the young players he already has is preventing the acquisition of the next one.
Remember, the Lakers have no chance to make the playoffs and will lose their first-round draft pick if it falls outside the top three. If Randle and Russell are contributing to the team's failure, good! Get them out there more often, and let them help amass those precious losses. Oh, and maybe give them a chance to develop a little since, you know, they're huge parts of the future.
Randle had a double-double off the bench against Toronto.
Los Angeles doesn't play many high-leverage minutes. What few it does often come at the very start of games when the result is still (at least theoretically) undecided. Taking those minutes away from Russell and Randle robs them of the limited exposure to meaningful basketball this Lakers team provides.
But there, again, is the problem: We're trying to logically unpack Scott's decisions from a basketball perspective. That hasn't worked all season.
The Lakers are 3-18, their coach is alienating the only pieces on the roster that matter, and Bryant just played 32 minutes on the second night of a back-to-back—after needing an IV following Sunday's game.
Maybe Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun found the real prism we should be looking through:
I've heard crazier ideas.
Kevin Garnett Does Not Change
Age forces even the most stubborn stars to compromise. You just can't keep dunking on everyone when you're 40 like you did when you were 20.
Unless you're Kevin Garnett, who logged his first jam with the Minnesota Timberwolves since 2007 on Monday when he crammed one home on the break over—get this—Blake Griffin.
To be fair, the dunk was notable precisely because KG has changed. The 39-year-old is nothing like the physically unlimited, do-it-all, MVP megastar he was back in the day. His demeanor is the same, though, and that was evident in the way Garnett barked at Griffin after the play.
It was novel and vintage at once, per John Krawczynski of the Associated Press:
More important than anything else, the young Wolves loved it. Karl-Anthony Towns was beside himself. Ricky Rubio shouted gleefully. They can't get enough of KG's intensity, competitiveness and, sometimes, borderline lunacy.
Garnett is worshipped by the kids he's mentoring, and though plays like this one won't be around much longer (seriously, we may never see this from KG again), the impact he's making throughout the roster is exactly why this team is in such good shape going forward.
R.I.P. The Process: 2013-15
The Philadelphia 76ers caved on Monday, hiring longtime NBA exec Jerry Colangelo as a special adviser and chairman of basketball operations. Despite signing off on Sam Hinkie's rebuilding process (which they expected would take seven years to complete, as former Sixer Julius Erving said on Sirius XM NBA Radio), Sixers brass "lost patience," according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports, and pivoted.
Colangelo, 76 and successfully running the USA Basketball program, isn't at a point in his career where he'd a) take a job without assurances of legitimate control or b) sign on for a long, arduous rebuild.
Fundamentally, the Sixers have changed their principles. And as strange as it sounds after more than two years, it feels hasty, even reactionary.
Because the basketball gods have a sense of humor, Philly lost 119-68 to the most principled, focused, consistent, process-oriented team in the league Monday. It was almost like the Sixers were being punished for forsaking their plans.
And the San Antonio Spurs took it easy on them, too, sitting out Tim Duncan, Kawhi Leonard and Manu Ginobili. Tony Parker and Danny Green played a combined 36 minutes.
What happens from here will be fascinating. The 76ers may pursue free agents, spend money and seek out shorter-term success. Hell, they might even win a few games. Maybe this will be a good thing for a team that believes it needs something to change.
But if we're going to razz the Sacramento Kings for changing philosophies and executives every 10 seconds, and if we're going to crush the Lakers for having mixed-up goals, don't we have to knock the Sixers for abandoning a path that they knew would take a long time?
New motto in Philadelphia: Trust the process...until you get scared and give up.
Keeping the Boss Happy Is a Good Idea
Boston Celtics president Danny Ainge was uncommonly positive about his team's 111-93 road win over the New Orleans Pelicans, and for good reason:
Or maybe he's just happy because it's Larry Bird's birthday.
Boston hounded Anthony Davis into an 8-of-21 shooting night while also holding both Tyreke Evans and Eric Gordon scoreless. On the other end, the Celtics shot 49.4 percent as a team and got 41 bench points in support of starter Isaiah Thomas' game-high 22.
Jared Sullinger snatched 20 rebounds in 34 minutes as well.
As presently constructed, the C's are loaded with competitive depth and led by a star on the sideline in Brad Stevens. The next step will be using a war chest of picks and salary flexibility to bring in a superstar somehow—maybe through a talent-consolidating trade, or maybe through the draft.
Things are going to change for the Celtics. Not everyone currently contributing will be around when this team makes what feels like an inevitable leap in the next year or so.
Until then, everyone's pitching in, helping Boston to a 12-9 record and a strong stance in the East. Those are great short-term results, but it's almost as if everyone on the roster is auditioning to be a part of the long-term vision.
No wonder Ainge likes what he's seeing.
Smaller Is Better
Playing without Nene, Marcin Gortat and Drew Gooden, the Washington Wizards went small against the Miami Heat on Monday.
And it worked, resulting in a 114-103 win.
Led by Wall's 26 points and seven assists, Washington played Jared Dudley at center and gave just 17 minutes to reserve big man Kris Humphries. This was serious small ball, and it shouldn't really be such a surprise that the Wizards succeeded with it—not after Paul Pierce's turn at power forward during the 2015 postseason, and not after it worked out in smaller samples earlier this year.
The space on offense and switching on defense suits the Wizards' rangy, fast personnel. And anything Washington can do to get Wall into the middle with shooters around him is a boon to a sometimes shaky scoring attack.
Interestingly, the Heat played down to Washington's size, taking Hassan Whiteside off the floor late. The big man was a perfect 7-of-7 from the field with three blocked shots in only 23 minutes. But it was Chris Bosh who manned the middle most against the Wizards' shrunken fivesome—not a bad idea considering Miami defends better with Bosh on the floor than Whiteside, per NBA.com.
And also not a bad idea because Washington head coach Randy Wittman wanted Whiteside out there, per Ethan Skolnick of the Miami Herald:
The Wizards are playing this way out of necessity, but it's becoming clear the style should be a bigger part of who they are. After starting the year with power forwards like Humphries and Gooden masquerading as three-point shooters, it seems putting actual perimeter players on the floor is a better idea.
A final note on Wall. When you return from what appeared to be a serious knee injury the night before to lead your floundering team to a win over one of the East's top dogs, you get to wear whatever the hell you want:
Kristaps Porzingis Is Not Dirk Nowitzki
And to hear Nowitzki tell it, that's actually a good thing.
"It's more than fair," Nowitzki told reporters of the Porzingis comparison everyone keeps making. "He's probably way ahead of the curve compared to when I was 20. I was scared to death out there competing against some of my heroes in that first year. He's almost averaging a double-double. He's way better than I was at 20. The comparison is probably unfair to him."
Unfair...to him.
Now there's something to think about.
Nowitzki's Dallas Mavericks downed Porzingis' Knicks in their first-ever meeting 104-97, and both skilled bigs played well. Porzingis led all scorers with 28 points on 13-of-18 shooting, while Nowitzki rang up 25 points to lead Dallas.
The truth is these two players aren't all that similar. Porzingis' quickness, length and defensive potential mark him as a likely center down the road, a position Nowitzki was never athletically suited to play. KP's guard skills on offense also appear to be legit.
Nowitzki, of course, is the greatest big-man shooter in history. It's safe to assume Porzingis will never equal Dirk's perimeter efficiency because, well...nobody ever has.
Perhaps the biggest similarity lies in their personalities. Both seem like genuinely good dudes, as Porzingis openly worships Nowitzki, while Nowitzki has been nothing but effusive about the young forward's skills.
It's kinda nice, right?
You Make Your Own Luck
The Phoenix Suns have been either profoundly unlucky or plagued by some serious late-game execution issues this year. Actually, it probably took a little bit of both to drop their last four games in a row by a grand total of 13 points.
They broke the losing streak and flipped the luck factor on its head Monday, roaring back to beat the Chicago Bulls with a 42-point fourth quarter capped by a Mirza Teletovic last-second game-winner.
Phoenix's 103-101 win was a big one for a team that just hasn't been on the right side of many close contests this year, though it also represents a low point for the Bulls. They blew a 16-point fourth-quarter lead with some soft defense and complacent play.
Those skeptical about Chicago's solid record alongside a break-even net rating (raises hand) could certainly point to this game as evidence of the Bulls' real identity.
This could be the rare game that functions as a turning point for both teams—with the Suns finally breaking through and the Bulls slipping back toward mediocrity.
I guess we'll see.
All stats accurate through games played Dec. 7.
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