|
Overall
Win/Loss Record (as of November 30th): 9-8, fourth place Pacific
Division
|
14
|
This Month:
19
|
Team
Statistics and League Rank
|
Individual
Statistical Leaders
|
|
SDH’s Worst of the Month: Pau Gasol
 Lakers fans hoped that last season's debacle where Pau Gasol posted career lows across the board was simply a fluke as he had been injured for much of last season along with him being worn down from playing in the Olympics. Many had thought that a restful off season would rejuvenate the aging big man and thus return to form leading the Lakers in a time when both the team and fans most needed him to up his game. Unfortunately, instead of having the "Pau Gasol of old" who ranked among the league top big men, the team and its fans got an "Old Pau Gasol"-one who looks as if his best years are far behind him with nowhere to go in his career but down. Coming into the season Gasol looked like a shadow of his former self averaging a career low of 14.9 points per game, shooting just .430 from the field, and only having scored 20 or more points in just five of his first 15 games of the season. If his game continues to decline or does not return to the form that everyone expects him to be in, expect Gasol's name to be mentioned in numerous trade rumors as his contract expires at the end of the season and it is less than likely that the Laker front office will sign him back on. |
SDH’s First of the Month: Mike D'Antoni
 Despite being given a lot of flack over the last few years for his poor showing both as coach of +New York Knicks and the Lakers, give Mike D'Antoni credit for taking the team that he has and making the best of a rather bad situation. Here is a guy who is without two of his star players, a roster which consists of the who's who of who cares, an All Star big man who has been playing well below expectations, and still managed to keep his team competitive in a rather tough Western Conference. Despite all the odds being stacked against their favor, the Lakers have remain still somewhat competitive with a rather respectable record to say the least at 9-8--a far cry to what many had anticipated. As it stands, now, Mike D'Antoni has the Lakers on the right track--in a position where they are maintaining a solid enough presence until +Kobe Bryant arrives so they can make a run for the playoffs. It is already a forgone conclusion that the Lakers are in no ways near to being in the running for a championship run this year or anytime soon, but at least they still manage to tread water in the rather stormy shark infested seas of the western Conference. IF LA manages to make the playoffs for the seventh straight year then Mike D'Antoni certainly deserves Coach of the Year Honors as he would have accomplished what many have thought to be impossible--managing to take an aging, battered down team that is low on talent to the post season. |
|
It may not be a sight that their fans have been used to seeing nor does it meet their nonstop high and somewhat unrealistic expectations, but the Los Angeles Lakers have thus far performed the most admirably than it has ever had in the past ten years as they came in as a team with no star and no chance to reach the post season, but still manage to keep within arm's reach of the top teams in the West. Despite starting the regular season without their franchise player, Kobe Bryant who continues to undergo rehab for his torn Achilles, losing their starting point guard +Steve Nash for what seems to be for the rest of the season, and their best player in the midst of a shooting slump, the Lakers still managed to pull out the first month of the season with a winning record surprising many. They started the season with with surprising upset victories against their home rival +Los Angeles Clippers (10/29), a team expected to not only dominate their Pacific Division, but finish among the top teams of the West, the +Golden State Warriors (11/22), another team expected to be a powerhouse in the league and the +Houston Rockets (11/7), a team that has been projected to reach the Finals. They even managed to give last season's Western Conference Finalist +San Antonio Spurs a run for its money grinding the game out holding the Spurs to just 91 points before falling by six points (11/1) and had they held on to win the game, the Lakers would have been 10-7 instead of 9-8. Sure there have been a few off-putting moments such as losing big to Golden State (10/30), +Dallas Mavericks (11/5), and +Minnesota Timberwolves (11/10), but overall the Los Angeles Lakers have managed to play solid competitive ball which their fans should admire instead of abscond as they have been doing.
Coming into the regular season, absolutely nothing was going right for the Lakers as they had starting their off season losing the bidding war to keep +Dwight Howard, a player that the franchise had sacrificed so much to bring to LA only to see him bid farewell and head for the Houston Rockets. To make matters worse, due to the team's salary cap situation being well over the luxury tax threshold hold, the Lakers were forced to literally scrape the bottom of the barrel in order to fill out their roster settling with a pathetic crop of free agents consisting of the saddest group of misfits that both the team and its fans have ever seen. They picked up Wesley Johnson and Xavier Henry, two former lottery picks who had been waived from their teams after failing to meet up to expectation to their high draft selection status making them even less desirable for any team, even the worst ones, to consider giving a chance. Johnson had already been cast away the previous season, by the team whom originally selected him third overall in the 2010 NBA Draft, the Minnesota Timberwolves, before being sent away yet again by the +Phoenix Suns, after failing miserably to redeem what had been thus far a failure of a career. Xavier Henry was expected to shine in the NBA after coming off an exceptional freshman college campaign at the University of Kansas starring for the team and getting selected twelfth overall in 2010 Draft; however, after three rather nondescript seasons with the then New Orleans Hornets, he was then jettisoned with the rest of the garbage as the team went to change itself into the Pelicans. As if it was not bad enough to settle for those two losers, then Lakers went on to assemble the biggest group of misfits and riffraff that has ever been together on an NBA team--two of which had been labeled as not only knuckleheads but also as team pariahs, one that the team has originally cast away, and a big who at one time had a bright future in the league only to have it snuffed out as fast as he ascended. Both Nick Young and Shawne Williams had rap sheets as long as the distances between the teams in which they had both bounced around with Williams spending much of the early years of his career either suspended by his team or in police custody while good old Nick for much of career would be fodder of every harsh insult and the butt of every cruel joke by every sports caster and journalist. Young was especially maligned as he was essentially singled out as one of the causes of the downfall of the +Washington Wizards from playoff contender to laughing stock and that label had stuck with him which led to him being run out of town by not only the District of Columbia, but both the City of Angles and the City of Brother Love in the span of two seasons. +Jordan Farmar was a member of the Laker championship teams in 2009 and 2010, but was essentially was given up on by the team ever becoming a major impact player as he was sent away in a trade to the then New Jersey Nets, only to be traded once again to and waived by the +Atlanta Hawks. As for +Chris Kaman , his case can be considered the most tragic as he actually had the potential to be one of the league's elite big men until injuries took hold railroading a once promising career only to be sent away to the arm pit of the NBA in a trade that brought +Chris Paul to the Clippers and him to suffer brief but humiliating stints in New Orleans and Dallas. Combine those players with the already sad group of returning players which consisted of broken down and useless spare parts, one can see how any hoop fan in Los Angeles would easily cross the floor trading his Lakers purple and gold shirt for Clipper red, white and blue. For the first time ever in Los Angeles sports history, the Clippers who had forever been hidden under the immense shadow of the hated nemesis whom the shared the same arena with, would now be the one on top receiving all the accolades while their once mighty rival lay bare defeated and disgraced. Any self respecting season ticket holder would go and crawl in the nearest hole and not come out until the Finals end in June as they watch their time honored franchise which is filled of history of glories past degenerate to the point it has; however, unlike the rather dark projections placed on this team, the Lakers have actually defied the odds and have played at least at par with some of the average teams in the league. They actually have a winning record and to the chagrin of many of the team's detractors and doubters, have done with little or nothing in terms of having any real big names or any exorbitant amount of talent as a basketball team known for its star power has now been taken over by a merry band of misfits who time had either forgotten or ignored. And that is what makes this team more special than any other Laker team in recent memory for it is a team that has been held together by the fact that all of them are considered as outsiders or undesirables and have banded together to prove the entire world wrong. Granted, they are nowhere near to contending for a title and may just possibly not make the playoffs, but there is something to be said about moral victories and looking deeper into a team rather than just taking it at face value. Remember that this is a team who started the regular season with not just one, but two of its key players sidelined with injuries while the third, despite his best efforts, has yet to find his shooting stroke and has thus been unable to lead the team. Lakers fans along with the sports media need to remind themselves of this fact whenever they plan to say or write their harsh critiques on the team, but that will sadly never happen as all that matters in the City of Angels is winning--and not just passing through the season with an above .500 record. When people talk Lakers, it is all about championship glory and as long as the denizens who pride themselves in donning purple and gold, it will be a very long season of heartbreak and disappointment instead of one filled with optimisim and hope. |
||
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
SDH Presents the NBA's Worst to First for November: 19. Los Angeles Lakers
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment