First off, I’m no X’s and O’s expert. Shoot, I’ve never even played organized basketball at any level.
But, I am a fan of the game and know what I’ve seen from the Lakers in the past, and what they’re doing so wrong in the present.
Obviously, the Lakers are in turmoil right now with Dwight Howard apparently upset at his lack of shot attempts, and Kobe Bryant insisting he’s tried to help Dwight throughout his struggles.
Forget all of that for a second.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, Bryant had this to say after the Lakers’ 95-83 loss to the Chicago Bulls on Monday night:
“We need to go back to basics. We need to put guys in positions to do what they do best. We need to strip it down. Steve is best in pick-and-roll. Pau is best in the post. I’m best from the free-throw line extended down. Let’s go back to basics.
We’ve got to evaluate what’s going on. Management is looking at it. The players are looking at it. I’m looking at myself. I’m shooting a low percentage right now, and I’ve got to look at that. It’s on me to make shots, but I’m having to make tough shots, getting the ball 30 feet from the basket and [expletive] like that.
Originally, teams would have to play our pick-and-roll coverage, which left me open on the back side quite a bit. But they’ve made adjustments, and they’ve decided to stay home on Kobe no matter what. So I’m trying to space the floor. I’m trying to do my job the best I can. I try to create opportunities. But most of them are trying to take the ball to the basket with four or five seconds left on the [shot] clock, trying to manufacture tough shots.”
Well, alright, maybe the proposal I’m about to make isn’t exactly original since Kobe pretty much said it, but I’m going to try and elaborate on it a bit:
Obviously, the defense has been the main culprit for the Lakers all season long, and that has to improve if they want a shot at making the playoffs this season.
However, for many players–especially star players–they play with better effort and consistency when the offense is running smoothly, balanced, and consistently.
So, let’s delve in to the offense a bit, starting with Kobe.
Kobe Bryant
First of all, Kobe’s exactly right about where each player needs to be.
The Black Mamba has–over the years–transitioned his game into that of a post player, much like Michael Jordan.
He’s been most effective down there, and won his two most recent championships by operating there. It’s also part of the reason he was shooting such a high percentage early on this season.
However, after Mike Brown was fired and Mike D’Antoni was hired, Kobe gradually moved away from the basket and had to run mainly screen-and-rolls due to the absence of Steve Nash.
Compared with last season, Kobe has averaged more shot attempts from three-point land (6.1 compared with 4.9), but also more shots at the rim (5.4 compared with 3.5). I attribute Kobe’s rim attacking more to his increased conditioning this season more than as a compliment to the offense, however.
Anyway, back to Kobe’s shot distribution. Bryant (compared with last season, again) is averaging less shots in the 3-9 foot range (2.8 compared with 3.0), the 10-15 foot range (2.1 shots compared with 3.8), and 16-23 foot range (5.2 shots compared with 7.7).
What range is Kobe most efficient in besides at the rim? Between 10-15 feet, where he is shooting 51.3 percent.
So, I think we can all agree that Kobe needs to operate a bit more in the mid-range area. Additionally, it will allow Kobe to facilitate better when it comes to his “bigs.”
I don’t think anyone–not even D’Antoni–can argue with that.
Pau Gasol
As for Pau Gasol, let’s compare this season with the 2009-2010 championship season, since Gasol has struggled since then.
Gasol averages 3.2 attempts at the rim compared with 5.8 attempts in 2010 (this number has steadily decreased since then), where he currently shoots 65 percent from the field. He also shoots less in the 3-9 foot range (1.9 shots compared with 3.7, although he’s shooting a weirdly low 25 percent from that range compared with 45 percent in 2010), and 10-15 foot range (0.8 shots compared with 1.8). He’s shooting more from the 16-23 foot range (4.2 attempts compared with 1.6) to the surprise of nobody.
I’m sure I didn’t need to pull up all those stats to point that out, but I did anyway.
Bottom line: Pau Gasol is most effective in the post.
Let’s now take a look at exactly what’s not been working for the Lakers’ offense this season, and how it can (hopefully) be fixed.
Next Page: Breaking Down What’s Wrong With The Offense
What’s wrong with the offense in a nutshell is pretty much what Kobe implied; the star players simply aren’t in their comfort zones.
To his credit, however, Mike D’Antoni decided to bring Pau Gasol off the bench in an effort to utilize him in the post more. Against Chicago, it actually somewhat worked as Pau put up 15 points and pulled down 12 rebounds in just 25 minutes.
One way I see that could possibly “fix” this is simply going back to how the Lakers know how to win.
No, not these current Lakers, but the Lakers who’ve won a championship together before: Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, and Metta World Peace.
Obviously Steve Nash, Dwight Howard, and the rest of the Lakers have to become cohesive on both ends of the floor, but what
Plenty of times this season, the Lakers have been “right there” or close enough to win games–even against the likes of the Clippers and Miami Heat–but have simply collapsed at the end.
What often helped them come back or have some sort of advantage over various teams has been their half-court play.
However, after each of those games in which the Lakers eventually came up short, I’ve attributed the loss to having Gasol benched during crunch time because other than Kobe, he’s the Lakers’ best half-court player and post player.
During the championship seasons, Gasol was the other half of the “one-two punch” between him and Bryant–and obviously it worked out well.
Gasol may not be the same player athletically, but he’s still just as skilled now as he was then; he just doesn’t get positioned correctly.
Defensively, yeah, Gasol can be a liability at the power forward position. What about at the center position, though? This season, although he’s played limited time down there, Gasol has a PER (Player Efficiency Rating) 27.4 at the center position, with an opponents’ PER of 10.1 compared with a 13.0 PER at the power forward position and an opponents’ PER of 15.4
Therefore, Mike D’Antoni is right about having to play “small ball” and utilize Metta World Peace and Earl Clark defensively at the four position.
Where he’s wrong, however, at least in my opinion, is how he’s not utilizing Pau Gasol.
Those numbers I stated about Gasol are actually better than Dwight Howard’s, but because Gasol’s minutes at center were limited, I won’t put too much emphasis on that.
However, it’s a known fact that Gasol is far more skilled and polished offensively in the post than Howard, and more so than most of the league’s big men.
Additionally, while Gasol may not be the best help defender, he’s not the worst position defender, either.
In fact, he virtually shut down Dwight Howard in the 2009 NBA Finals, but I’ll once again acknowledge that he’s not the same player athletically and won’t put too much emphasis on that, either.
Now let’s take a look at what can help the Lakers finish off ballgames.
Next Page: The “Fix”
The solution I see here is to play Gasol down the stretch of ballgames–all of them. For one, Kobe Bryant knows how to play with
D’Antoni can continue bringing Gasol off the bench, and it will actually keep Gasol fresh by lowering his minutes, but Gasol has to be a focal point of the Lakers’ closing lineup.
Remember how the Lakers used to finish off games in the past?
Phil Jackson would have Andrew Bynum start games, and even though Bynum wanted to finish them, in order to execute offensively and not be too slow defensively, Jackson would opt for Lamar Odom in the closing lineup alongside Pau Gasol.
This is what needs to happen for the Lakers going forward.
Pau Gasol has to be the Lakers’ “go to guy” in the closing minutes of ballgames.
Sure, they’ll miss Howard’s last-line-of-defense capabilities, but the tradeoff may not be all that bad.
Conversely, because Howard is so athletic, he may not even need to be sent to the bench–but he does have to get out of the post.
The Lakers–on defense–can have Howard guarding the power forward position. Even against teams that play “small ball,” Howard is still relatively quick enough to disrupt faster players. Against players like Blake Griffin or DeMarcus Cousins, I’d much rather see Howard on them than Pau Gasol or anybody else. Howard’s athleticism and length can disrupt guys like that, and I wouldn’t mind seeing Howard occasionally on LeBron James or Carmelo Anthony when they’re playing at the four spot, either. Honestly, those types of players are unstoppable either way, so why not try to put some length and athleticism on them when they play close to the basket?
Like I said, the last-line-of-defense aspect will be gone, but the Lakers will still have a decent position defender at the rim in Pau Gasol.
What about on offense, you say? Well, sure, Dwight won’t be able to post up, but he really hasn’t done much of that this season in crunch time anyway. Additionally, when he does get the ball down low, he’s either fumbled it, been stripped, or gotten fouled on a number of occasions.
Perhaps that’s due to him not being 100 percent physically, but it’s the reality of the situation. Until it gets better, the logical approach is to use Gasol in the post more when the game is on the line.
What can actually be effective offensively, however, is positioning Gasol close to the basket down the stretch and having Howard hang out on the weak side. Gasol is too skilled not to get double-teamed, and if he doesn’t, he’ll shoot an easy left-handed hook shot or somehow get the ball up towards the rim–with Dwight right there for an easy put-back dunk if Pau misses. If Gasol indeed does get double-teamed, again utilizing Howard’s athleticism–this time on offense–Superman can cut to the basket for an easy dunk off of an over-the-shoulder Gasol pass; which is another thing Andrew Bynum couldn’t do that Howard can.
And if it still doesn’t work with both big men on the court together in crunch time? Then go with Metta World Peace, Antawn Jamison, or Earl Clark at the power forward slot as long as Gasol is the big man closing out games. The suggestion is truly less of an insult to
Kobe and Pau play a very efficient inside-out game, and although Kobe and Dwight severely need to develop that chemistry, at least in crunch time and at this point of the season, the Lakers need to go back to using the method proven to be effective in closing out games.
Obviously, Steve Nash needs to be an intricate part of this as well, but perhaps one reason he chose to join the Lakers was so that–at his age–he could actually play alongside other talent who could be the hubs of an offense just as much as he has been his whole career.
There’s no questions the whole team needs to gel offensively and defensively; and Dwight Howard indeed does need to be featured more and put in better positions to score, without a doubt. However, the main theme here is that Gasol needs to be on the court down the stretch of ballgames and be one of the main factors during that time, because he’s simply too much of a half-court weapon to not be utilized.
Despite all of the turmoil, winning cures everything.
Right now though, the Lakers can’t seem to get a win. However, Kobe Bryant is definitely on to something, even though it’s something so simple: Going back to the basics and putting players “in positions to do what they do best.”
For Pau Gasol–and Kobe Bryant as well–that’s allowing them to go to work in the post with the game on the line.
*Stats provided by 82games.com and hoopdata.com.