We need a center
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troy
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 6:27 am    Post subject: We need a center

I was happy with what Rob did offseason, but I said it once on this board, and I will keep saying it...our failure to retain Dwight Howard would come back to haunt us.

The old saying comes into play here...if it ain't broke, don't fix it. We had a winning combination with McGee/Howard. We had a large, athletic front line that could not only be defensively intimidating and rim protecting, but could consume rebounds, and produce points via putbacks and lob dunks. Laker fans tend to forget that Howard scored well for us last year, not just on putbacks and lob dunks, but the occasional low post moves.

We now expect to repeat our success from last year with a team that has resoundly lost its defensive identity. We expect to repeat, something very difficult to do to begin with, starting a 36 year old, washed up, out of shape Marc Gasol. Really?

We won last season based on our defense. What I've seen so far (please don't give me the "it's still early" excuse) is that our interior defense is not only subpar, but it's a true vulnerability. The Clippers exposed what other teams will exploit; drive inside, straight into Gasol, who can't jump nor move laterally, and either score over him, draw the foul on him, or force AD into a help situation, and dump the ball to whoever AD was covering. Come playoff time, the opponents will drill down on this strategy.

On offense, the old, bloated Gasol seems lost. We can't have him on the perimeter because that's where AD likes to hang out. If we have him inside, his limited low post game will not produce enough points to offset what he'll give up defensively. We can't do the high key lob dunks like we saw all last season with him because he can't jump. Damn, I'm gonna miss those high key lob dunk plays.

The more skilled, younger, athletic centers will disrupt whatever Gasol can do inside, so all we can expect from Gasol are passes and the occasional 3 point shot. Problem is, we don't need either of that from him. We don't need him to out there passing we have enough passers on this team. And we don't need him to make the occasional 3 pointer as we have plenty of 3 point shooters. We need an inside presence for low key work, rebounding, lob dunks, and RIM PROTECTION. Gasol fails on all these counts.

Please, I don't want to hear the tired mantras of AD is our rim protector. No. AD is a rim protector, yes, but he's really our power forward who will only play center if it's necessary. And we can't rely on him to cover Gasol on defense, because first, it puts him into foul trouble, second, it will wear him down physically, and third, it causes our entire defense to collapse. As for Montrel, that guy is an undersized, no defense playing 6th man who's only real contribution will be low key work against undersized centers. Montrel is as much a defensive liability as Gasol is.

I have generally applauded what our front office has done. And I trust them. But why or why did we let Dwight go? With Dwight on this team, we had our athletic, rim protector who could also score. Even letting McGee, our starting center, go will be something that will hurt us. We lost both our starting and our star backup center on a team that won it all last season, and now we have Marc Gasol and his so called high IQ. Sorry, but speculation won't cut it. The eye test is what I go on.

The only thing we can do now is to package Kuzma (who has NOT improved his game at all), Gasol, Kief, and someone else and get a true center on this team.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Our failure to retain our proven center combo from our championship run of last season will be our downfall this season.
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laker50
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 6:45 am    Post subject:

What Pelinka did not realize is that Howard is an elite rim protector.
And McGee is also good at it.
With them the Lakers had the best league interior defense.

But what done is done.
Vogel has to start Harrell against the small ball teams or will be eaten alive.
Morris was an essential signing.

Losing the defense of Danny Green did not help. His IQ makes him a good defender.
The Lakers will not be as good on defense, so now has to have a
very good offense.
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pio2u
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 7:59 am    Post subject:

I miss DH already.
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Halflife
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 8:01 am    Post subject:

laker50 wrote:
What Pelinka did not realize is that Howard is an elite rim protector.
And McGee is also good at it.
With them the Lakers had the best league interior defense.

But what done is done.
Vogel has to start Harrell against the small ball teams or will be eaten alive.
Morris was an essential signing.

Losing the defense of Danny Green did not help. His IQ makes him a good defender.
The Lakers will not be as good on defense, so now has to have a
very good offense.

Pelinka>>>>>>everyone here
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Bol
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 8:45 am    Post subject:

The centers we had last season didn't do much in the playoffs, did they? JaVale literally did nothing at all. Dwight was good against Denver because he had the strength to bother Jokic so AD didn't have to guard him the whole game. Marc can do that too. Dwight and JaVale provided near a full game of serviceable center minutes through the regular season, which was good, but lest we forget, we did lose the first two games to the Clippers last season too. And if you look at the box scores, you'll see those guys did next to nothing against them. Dwight, for example, played 6 and 12 minutes in the Lakers' 2 wins. What we really need against the Clippers is for LeBron and AD to dominate. If PG and Kawhi outplay them by a significant margin, as they did last night, we're going to struggle.
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 8:54 am    Post subject:

This is a little repetitive with the rim protector thread? - it's possible Marc is just getting acclimated, but it looks an awful lot like he's wearing lead boots so far. We'll see if he shows up soon.

We do need a quality big for the regular season, as AD is much more comfortable playing the 4 throughout the season. Come playoffs we're not in as bad shape there.

That said, we could use someone who can contend with the likes of Jokic in the playoffs. Dwight might have played limited minutes, but he played a key role when Vogel called on him.
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lakersfever714
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 9:02 am    Post subject:

I still trust in Rob although not as much as I did before. We were thinking alike when he signed Howard but we weren't thinking alike when he decided Gasol would be better than Howard. We'll see.
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 5:20 pm    Post subject:

lakersfever714 wrote:
I still trust in Rob although not as much as I did before. We were thinking alike when he signed Howard but we weren't thinking alike when he decided Gasol would be better than Howard. We'll see.


Somehow the communication got muddled between D12 and Rob is my take. I think there was a lot of mutual interest but somehow D12 panicked and surprised Rob by going to Philly.

I was thinking we would keep him for sure after last season, that said we won the championship last season and picked up Montrez Harrell and Schroeder, two of the best bench player in the league and only gave up Howard, McGee, Bradley, Green and of course Playoff Rondo.

We could stand to find someone who could replace at least some of what Dwight brought last season. We had Jordan Bell at one point on the roster, I thought maybe he could be that guy but they moved on from him.

I trust in Pelinka, he isn't stupid and I think the need is pretty obvious.
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 5:26 pm    Post subject:

John Henson or Cheick Diallo.

Not exactly hopeful here.
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 5:26 pm    Post subject:

lakersfever714 wrote:
I still trust in Rob although not as much as I did before. We were thinking alike when he signed Howard but we weren't thinking alike when he decided Gasol would be better than Howard. We'll see.


Actually, he decided that Trezz is better than Howard.
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LakerLanny
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 5:29 pm    Post subject:

Mike@LG wrote:
John Henson or Cheick Diallo.

Not exactly hopeful here.


Henson would be of interest to me for sure.

Not as sure about Diallo but trust your scouting!
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Jesusdelonla
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 5:31 pm    Post subject:

Mike@LG wrote:
lakersfever714 wrote:
I still trust in Rob although not as much as I did before. We were thinking alike when he signed Howard but we weren't thinking alike when he decided Gasol would be better than Howard. We'll see.


Actually, he decided that Trezz is better than Howard.


thats not true. Howard just got into his feels and committed to Sixers instead of waiting
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 5:33 pm    Post subject:

LakerLanny wrote:
Mike@LG wrote:
John Henson or Cheick Diallo.

Not exactly hopeful here.


Henson would be of interest to me for sure.

Not as sure about Diallo but trust your scouting!


Those are the top 2 guys left that I like. Henson has terrible hands and would get rocked by Zu. Same for Diallo but at least he's a lob threat/roll man.

My point is, the crop at 5 is super weak, and neither guy is saving LAL defensively.

At least both guys have a clue for swatting, but none of the 5s left can handle bigger 5s, including Kaminsky.

https://www.nba.com/freeagents/2020-tracker
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 5:34 pm    Post subject:

Jesusdelonla wrote:
Mike@LG wrote:
lakersfever714 wrote:
I still trust in Rob although not as much as I did before. We were thinking alike when he signed Howard but we weren't thinking alike when he decided Gasol would be better than Howard. We'll see.


Actually, he decided that Trezz is better than Howard.


thats not true. Howard just got into his feels and committed to Sixers instead of waiting


Actually it is true. Dwight Howard tweeted he was happy to be a Laker, deleted the tweet, then LAL newly signed Trezz.

That's exactly what happened.

Dwight thought he was the shoe in just like the rest of LAL. I'm sure Pelinka didn't even think Trez was available, and once he found out, signed him as soon as he could.

Legitimately signed Trezz over Dwight.

https://twitter.com/TheHoopCentral/status/1329943712265211904

https://twitter.com/LakersNation/status/1329990475520962560

Same. Day.
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 5:57 pm    Post subject:

Dwight would have had nothing to do with PG13 last night, and wouldn't have given you Trez's points to help keep up with the scoreboard. I expect Gasol won't be getting 5 fouls in 1 minute again. LOL!
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roger_federer
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 6:52 pm    Post subject:

Runway8 wrote:
Dwight would have had nothing to do with PG13 last night, and wouldn't have given you Trez's points to help keep up with the scoreboard. I expect Gasol won't be getting 5 fouls in 1 minute again. LOL!


We could have happily had both trezz and DH. Why we needed gasol?
Oh fir 3 pt shooting. How many did he attempted? 0000
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 7:15 pm    Post subject:

Mike@LG wrote:
Jesusdelonla wrote:
Mike@LG wrote:
lakersfever714 wrote:
I still trust in Rob although not as much as I did before. We were thinking alike when he signed Howard but we weren't thinking alike when he decided Gasol would be better than Howard. We'll see.


Actually, he decided that Trezz is better than Howard.


thats not true. Howard just got into his feels and committed to Sixers instead of waiting


Actually it is true. Dwight Howard tweeted he was happy to be a Laker, deleted the tweet, then LAL newly signed Trezz.

That's exactly what happened.

Dwight thought he was the shoe in just like the rest of LAL. I'm sure Pelinka didn't even think Trez was available, and once he found out, signed him as soon as he could.

Legitimately signed Trezz over Dwight.

https://twitter.com/TheHoopCentral/status/1329943712265211904

https://twitter.com/LakersNation/status/1329990475520962560

Same. Day.


na trez was signed to be 6th man and with McGee possible gone it was Dwights Starting gig.

same old emotional Dwight
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 8:46 pm    Post subject:

roger_federer wrote:
Runway8 wrote:
Dwight would have had nothing to do with PG13 last night, and wouldn't have given you Trez's points to help keep up with the scoreboard. I expect Gasol won't be getting 5 fouls in 1 minute again. LOL!


We could have happily had both trezz and DH. Why we needed gasol?


Because he's a better defender than McGee or Dwight.
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 8:53 pm    Post subject:

Andrew Bynum, anyone?
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Mike@LG
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 9:07 pm    Post subject:

Quote:

na trez was signed to be 6th man and with McGee possible gone it was Dwights Starting gig.

same old emotional Dwight


So you're saying Dwight didn't want to start?
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 9:59 pm    Post subject:

CandyCanes wrote:
Andrew Bynum, anyone?

Let’s do it.
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 10:30 pm    Post subject:

We saw pretty much the very worst of Gasol last night. Maybe his worst game ever.

Remember, McGee and DH looked like Keystone Cops at times.

I don't expect Marc to swat shots, but he will play his role fine. His defense has never been a question.
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 10:42 pm    Post subject:

roger_federer wrote:
Runway8 wrote:
Dwight would have had nothing to do with PG13 last night, and wouldn't have given you Trez's points to help keep up with the scoreboard. I expect Gasol won't be getting 5 fouls in 1 minute again. LOL!


We could have happily had both trezz and DH. Why we needed gasol?
Oh fir 3 pt shooting. How many did he attempted? 0000


Your Clippers looked good. We'll see if they can do it in the playoffs. Why do you continue with this "we" charade? LOL!
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 10:56 pm    Post subject:

LakerLanny wrote:
lakersfever714 wrote:
I still trust in Rob although not as much as I did before. We were thinking alike when he signed Howard but we weren't thinking alike when he decided Gasol would be better than Howard. We'll see.


Somehow the communication got muddled between D12 and Rob is my take. I think there was a lot of mutual interest but somehow D12 panicked and surprised Rob by going to Philly.

I was thinking we would keep him for sure after last season, that said we won the championship last season and picked up Montrez Harrell and Schroeder, two of the best bench player in the league and only gave up Howard, McGee, Bradley, Green and of course Playoff Rondo.

We could stand to find someone who could replace at least some of what Dwight brought last season. We had Jordan Bell at one point on the roster, I thought maybe he could be that guy but they moved on from him.

I trust in Pelinka, he isn't stupid and I think the need is pretty obvious.



Point is, Rob should not have put Dwight in a position where he would panic. How hard is it to do that??? Blunder by Rob. Huge blunder.
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 11:48 pm    Post subject:

"wait longer than an hour" apparently isn't enough to keep Dwight from panicking I guess.
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