[dropcap]E[/dropcap]very year it is something or someone else filling up rumors in the NBA. A few years back it was LeBron, then Carmelo, and for the past two years it was Dwight Howard and the Lakers. You can make a thousand cases against the Lakers on what to do in their current state. First it was Mike Brown, then Dwight Howard, next was Mike D’Antoni, and last but not least big man Pau Gasol.
I’m not one to bash people and take cheap shots and that’s not what I am doing here as well. Sometimes for the average fan it is hard to know the truth about how pro sports are run as all you have to go by is reading sports writers points of views as well as your own. When I speak to people about current events of the NBA the Lakers must come up 5 times a day on slow one.
First off I don’t think the average fan understands how difficult it is to coach and manage an NBA team. There are many moving parts to deal with as far as players, coaches, management, owners,media, fans, and many other things. As a coach you need to juggle so many different aspects of the game and most of the time it isn’t so much X’s & O’s that decides your team’s fate.
For the Lakers their biggest issue is trying to resign Dwight Howard. As an organization when a player holds you hostage directly or indirectly it is very difficult to make everyone happy. In a perfect world you want to hold everyone accountable and on track, but if the direct result of that is losing the player that is a very difficult pill to swallow. When your best young asset is undecided on staying or going to another team it is very difficult to look ahead in your organization.
The state of the Lakers is a tough one. They traded one of the NBA’s top centers in Andrew Bynum, basically mortgaging their future for Dwight Howard. Their hopes of this is that they have a center that they can build a team around for the next 10 years. With Kobe Bryant making $30 million and Steve Nash with little trade value because of age that only leaves Pau Gasol as their only trade asset besides Howard it will be tough to just let Howard walk.
Mike D’Antoni’s system is one that he’s developed as a very successful coach in the NBA. It calls for one true post player, an athletic stretch four man, and a dominant point guard that can score as well as distribute. His system is an uptempo one that calls to run and try to score as much in transition as possible. When in the half court he wants to have the court spread with shooters and drivers with four players spaced out and to run pick and roll forcing the defense to make a decision. Usually is to try to stop the ball handler without giving up a lob to the roll man, but also have to worry about the shooters and drivers spaced out.
When he was in Phoenix with one of the top point guards in NBA history in his prime it was simple. Steve Nash has helped the economy of NBA players as Jason Kidd did in his prime with the New Jersey Nets. His ability to put players in position to be successful helped inflate their numbers to obtain huge contracts. Boris Diaw, Amare Stoudemire, Shawn Marion, and Leandro Barbosa played at their highest level with Steve at the point only to level off while playing with other teams.
Since the Lakers feature two true post players D’Antoni has struggled to get the results he expected. He is so used to playing a certain style the current roster may serve an issue to what he is used to. In the NBA coaches who have revolved their system around their players instead of their players around their system have stood the test of time. D’Antoni is comfortable playing a certain way and wants to do things his way.
The issue here is that Pau Gasol is the odd man out for many ways. First off for the Lakers, they can’t afford to lose the younger asset in Howard so if there would be one big man to lose the battle it would be Gasol. For D’Antoni the thinking may be trade Pau for a talented athletic stretch power forward to fit into his system. This could be a short term fix, but also long term problem. FIrst thing that comes to mind is that the Lakers will sacrifice splitting up the best 4-5 combination in the NBA. In a league where size is a premium making a move to fit a certain style can serve to be a move that the Lakers will regret for years to come.
Pau Gasol is by far the best post scorer in the NBA. I don’t think there has been a better post scorer since Hakeem Olajuwan and Kevin McHale. His ability to score in so many different ways makes him one of the toughest players to guard in the post in the NBA. HIs combination of size, athletic ability, skill, mobility, and quickness makes him a once in a decade player to have on your team. Lets not forget the Lakers won two championships with having two low post players in Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol. To think that the Lakers can’t win a championship with both Howard and Gasol is a little far fetched. Gasol has averaged 18 points 9 rebounds and 1.7 blocks a game over his 13 year career which includes 2 championships and 4 all star games.
With the trade deadline coming up next month the Lakers have some tough decisions to make. Do they trade Dwight Howard their once prized acquisitions in last summer’s blockbuster trade? The issue there is they won’t get anything even close to his value in return, but if they lose him this summer to another team probably the best they can do is conduct a sign and trade and receive a trade exception and draft choices in return. Usually in a sign and trade situation you lose all of the bargaining power and are at the mercy of the team that you are trading with. In sign and trades it helps the player because they can sign for an extra year if they sign with their original team and then get traded rather than just going to a new team in the deal.
Here is my take on Dwight Howard. Do I think he’s overrated? That’s a tough question to answer. When he’s healthy he can impact the game like few others can with his ability to rebound, block/alter shots, and finish in the paint. Where I feel as though he is much overrated is on the offensive side of the ball. He’s one of the least skilled back to the basket scorers in the NBA. He’s clumsy, holds the ball too long, and is a turnover waiting to happen. To hear that he wants more touches on the block is humorous to me as besides free throw shooting scoring on the block is one of the weakest part of his game.
In the NBA it is hard to be brutally honest with players, especially with stars that need to be signed in the following summer. But with the Lakers currently 4 games out of the 8th spot in the West and losers of 7 out of their last 10 games the Lakers are in no position to beat around the bush. I think someone that has the ear of Dwight Howard needs to be straight with him. They need to tell him that he can’t score consistently on the block and his 50.3% FT% (which sadly isn’t the lowest that he’s shot in his career) makes him a very poor go to option. Where he can have an impact on the game is running the floor, rebounding the ball on both ends, being a hard roller on screen & Roll, and deep post touches. He still can be a 20 point and 15 rebound a game guy and be a big market player if he would go back to what makes him great.
By spacing out Pau Gasol and force feeding Howard the ball on the block put the Lakers at a big disadvantage. By taking the ball out of Gasol’s hands as the number one post option for the Lakers does not compute. Watching Lakers games and seeing Pau as a jump shooter and on the bench for the majority of games doesn’t make sense on any level. The Lakers can still be at a Conference Finals level team if they identify what they are. They need to obviously have the ball in Kobe’s hands for the majority of the games, but need to utilize Steve Nash by putting him in as many pick and rolls as possible. With using Howard as your hard roller on screen & roll it forces their opponent to send multiple players at him and opens up easy shots for the Lakers.
Gasol should be their main post up option for a couple of reasons. First off he is their top post scorer, but he can also pass out of the post and find open teammates when opponents double on him. Interior passing could also be a big weapon as it was with Bynum and Gasol for so long. Having two bigs on the court at 1 time gives them a big rebounding advantage on both ends of the floor as well as protecting the rim for them on the defensive end.
Everyone has their theories on what the Lakers should do. I think if history tells NBA teams anything it tells them not to make moves because of short term troubles. There obviously are some big issues to deal with in Los Angeles. As you can see they are dealing with a lot of things. Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash Pau Gasol are trying to put together championship runs late in their careers. Mike D’Antoni is trying to put the Lakers in position to win on the system in which has led him to two Western Conference Finals. The Lakers are trying to keep their top young asset in Dwight Howard without losing him for pennies on the dollar.
It is easy to criticize, but understand being a successful NBA team isnt’ just about making moves or changing a coach. It takes a lot of hard work, patience, and a lot of luck.
