Sit the Babies on the Bench!

    LAKERS REPORT- April 1, 2012          
                            
        Sometimes, even when you are following in the footsteps of [at least one of] the best professional coach in sports history you have to assert yourself and show your players that you have some balls. Coach Mike Brown finally showed that he has some control over his players and has the balls to bench his two all-star players when it is necessary. It was indeed a welcomed sight, and a far cry from his hands-off approach so far, that has led to many people, including his own players, to question his leadership.

        First, Brown benched Kobe Bryant in the game vs. the Memphis Grizzlies when he was being handcuffed by their defense and forcing up bad shots, when he wasn’t making ill-advised passes that became turnovers (which led to easy baskets for the Grizzlies). That was a big step considering he seemed to have no control over what Kobe does on the floor leading up to that point, basically admitting in several press conferences that Kobe can do whatever he wants, shoot from wherever he wants, as many times as he wants, even if it costs his team. Of course, Kobe was visibly pouting on the bench and then when he was put back on the floor during the final couple of minutes, he evaded the team huddle and went right to the floor all by himself. And as expected, the first play he made when he came back on the floor was a turnover to help the Grizzlies cement their victory, proving the benching was probably justified. Kobe hasn’t been playing well lately, and maybe the extended minutes this season have caught up with him, so it only makes sense that he spends some time on the bench, when the alternative is a 30% shooting performance that leads to a lopsided loss. One day, Kobe will realize that all of those missed shots ado hurt the team, and a little rest could do his aging body some good. That was an impressive show of dominance by the coach, but it was only for a few minutes in the fourth quarter, whereas the next all-star benching was for almost an entire half.

       A game or two later after the Kobe benching story, Andrew Bynum was finally punished for acting like an immature baby, in the game against the Golden State Warriors. Bynum sometimes shows a very lackadaisical effort on the floor, not hustling back on defense often, not making the extra effort to put a hand up to affect opponents’ shots when he does get back on defense, and constantly pouting and whining when he doesn’t get the ball on offense. Near the start of the 2^nd half of this game, Bynum caught the ball above the 3-point line, which is a common occurrence when they start an offensive possession, but this time he lofted up a 3-point shot with about 19 seconds left on the (24-second) shot clock, which of course clanked off the rim and left most of the crowd and commentators with their mouth gaping open in astonishment. To make matters worse he lollygagged when transitioning from offense to defense, and let his man beat him down the court, as he barely jogged down there to watch (from half court) as his man made an uncontested lay-up. I was surprised Bynum stayed in after that terrible shot, but the lack of hustle was the final straw for Coach Brown, who yanked him right out of the game, where he sat for most of the rest of the game. He came back in to the game to start the 4^th quarter, but showed further immaturity as he jogged around with disgruntled body language, and no effort to hustle on the few plays he was out there for, before Brown yanked him out again almost immediately, to supplant him on the bench for the rest of the game. To make matters worse, cameras showed Bynum mimicking his 3-point shot on the bench in conversations with teammates, laughing and shrugging his shoulders as if to say he thought it was a good shot, and didn’t understand why he was being benched. I expected him to be contrite and apologetic in post-game interviews, even if he was forced to by players/management, but he remained defiant and even professed that he would keep on shooting them because he thinks it’s part of his game, going on to say that if he had made it then it wouldn’t have been such a big deal. I think a major reason for his defiant thought process is that his big man counterpart, Pal Gasol, has taken a few 3-pointers this season (and made a couple of them) but the immature Bynum is missing a few key points there too. First off, Gasol makes a majority of his shots from outside of the key, because he is much more of shooter than an inside pounder, which is the opposite of Bynum, who is best in the low post and hardly ever makes any shot from outside of the key near the basket. Even though Gasol is a much better shooter, and he tends to avoid contact (or at least yell and scream every time someone makes contact with him) in the low-post, he probably still shouldn’t be taking 3-pointers because he is a power forward, and shouldn’t be drifting that far away from the basket. For Bynum to even think that was a good shot, is absolutely ridiculous, and I applaud Mike Brown for showing some balls and benching one of his best players, for failing to fulfill his true role on the team. There are still a lot of aspects of his coaching that are questionable, but at least this time he did what was right, and the team still won, so it didn’t negatively affect the game that much, and proved the team can win without him. Now, if he can get his team to hustle and play with some energy in every game, instead of for half of every game, that would be an even bigger step in the right direction.

        I can understand the fact that Bynum wants the ball on offense, and I agree that he should get the ball in the post more often, and when he passes it out, he should get the ball reposted right back to him, because no one defender can guard him down by the basket, but he looks like a crybaby when he pouts and gestures for all to see his disappointment, and it negatively effects the team cohesiveness. He should shoulder some of the blame, because he doesn’t pass the ball out of double teams well, and doesn’t put out his best effort all the time. After the benching, he played much more aggressively, with a chip on his shoulder, but that should be the case in every game, so hopefully he will learn a lesson or two from this event, and realize that he helps the team by hustling on defense, and getting into the low post to either score or invite double teams from the opposition, which opens up teammates for better shots.

        In that next game following the benching, the Lakers looked good for about 1 ½ quarters against the #1 West team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, holding them to their lowest shooting percentage for a half, but the Lakers only managed to convert that into a 5 point half-time lead. They gave up two many second-chance points and had way too many turnovers, which has become a common theme, so the game was very close despite the Thunder’s shooting woes and adequate Lakers defense. It was pretty obvious they were going to end up losing that game, since they failed to increase their lead despite all their energy and effort in the first half, and as expected, the Thunder took a double digit lead soon into the 3^rd quarter and went on to win the game easily, further proving that the Lakers can’t play with the young Thunder squad. The game also signified the return of Derek Fisher, who was inexplicably given away just before the trade deadline, to save more money.

         Many Lakers fans don’t quite understand the move to trade away one of the Lakers leaders, who has meant so much to the organization, not to mention the league- as the players union representative during the lock-out. I like the fact that they traded for Ramon Sessions, formerly of the Cavaliers, because they lacked speed at the point guard position, and Fisher was one of the main culprits in that deficiency, but I still don’t understand why they would rather have Steve Blake as the #2 point guard in the rotation, instead of Fisher. I would rather see the rookie Andrew Goudelock as the backup, over Steve Blake, and I’m sure Derek Fisher would have been fine coming off the bench. The rumor was that they were near a trade of Blake to the Timberwolves for scoring forward Michael Beasley, which would have helped the team immensely, but then that fell through, so they traded away one of their most appreciated and trusted players instead, just to save money for next year apparently, since the player (whatever his name is) that Houston sent over has played about 2 minutes in the games since the trade. That is two separate occasions now, with the trade of Odom and Fisher, that the Lakers have given away two of their most popular players, both with the fans and with teammates as co-team leaders, for absolutely nothing, just to save money. And now, instead of using Fisher and Sessions as a respectable tandem (whether Fisher remained as starter or not) at the point guard position, Blake comes off the bench to provide little to no offense, with very few assists and almost no points, and he tends to be defensive liability against the taller guards. Granted, Blake does give a good effort and he tries to play some tenacious defense despite his very short stature, but the fact remains that he is simply not that good, and his outside shot is very unreliable and miles away from what it used to be when he played for Portland a few years ago.

       I still can’t figure out why Blake is playing nearly half the game, and Goudelock has been sitting on the bench for the past month or so, and the questionable player rotation is another reason why his players seem to lack respect for Coach Brown, despite his recent efforts. Brown has made some questionable decisions for sure, but the person to blame seems to be their General Manager, Mitch Kupchak, for absolutely giving away starting players who would been key components of championship contenders for the past decade or so. The team does have a tentative lead in their division, so they obviously have some potential, but they are only a few losses away from falling out of the playoff race altogether, and with the rest of the league seemingly improving, the Lakers seem to be falling further away from realistic contention as each week progresses, and it is disappointing to say the least. The only thing that gives me hope, is the fact they weren't playing that well during the regualar season when they won the championship a couple of years ago, but that was a far different (and much better) team (and coach) then, so hope is fleeting. At least baseball season is almost here!