Mike D'Antoni: My goal is to get as many shots as possible on offense over the course of a game

Kobe: You're hired.

I don't understand. They want to win championships so they hire a guy with no track record of being able to do so.

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Team Cutler.

He came pretty close with some of those Suns teams and he's never had a team as remotely talented as this.

If Phil was asking for too much then I can see why they went this route. Nash and Kobe like him. Problem is that in their first five games this season, they were 6th in points per possession and 23rd in PPP allowed, so it's not like offensive struggles were causing their problems. They'll be a hell of a lot funner to watch now though. Need to get more shooters, preferably a stretch 4, to properly run the SSOL offense though. We'll see.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I read Phil wanted total control of roster, ability to miss shoot-a-rounds and some away games. He was nuts if he thought he would get that much.

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The Lakers are going to score 200 points a game.

And give up 225.

Yup...

OKC and San Antonio are still the two best teams in the West.

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Kid Cairo's Boers & Bernstein YouTube Channel

Kid Cairo: 2013 March Madness Tournament Winner!

"Cowabunga? Cowa fucking piece of dog shit! This game is diarrhea coming out of my dick!"

The Lakers are going to have to pay a $30M luxury tax bill. They are not going to pay Phil Jackson $10M-$15M per year to coach 70 games and the playoffs.

As far as the defense goes, its true that D'Antoni does not coach defense. Luckily, Pau and Kobe have pride and already play defense, Howard is a multiple winner of defensive player of the year, and World Peace still likes to lock people down. The only issue is Nash, and he wasn't playing defense with or without Phil Jackson.

The biggest thing to look for here is D'Antoni changing the Lakers from Kobe running the show to Nash running the show. Will Kobe be able to deal with it?

Once he is fully recovered from his knee surgery.

Kobe has lost a step defensively and really is only slightly above average now and Pau still struggles against 4's that can shoot. The bench is awful defensively and speedy guards will continue to dominate LA. I don't think they'll be a top 10 defensive team.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I still think you give Phil whatever he wants if he is interested. He is WORLDS better than D'Antoni. We will see how much love and respect Kobe has for him once the playoffs start.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

And Dwight is not all that great a defensive center overall. The DPOY awards he won were due to the blocked shots, which can be an enticing stat on paper, but not necessarily an indicator of how good a defender you are.

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Kid Cairo's Boers & Bernstein YouTube Channel

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"Cowabunga? Cowa fucking piece of dog shit! This game is diarrhea coming out of my dick!"

See, there's the thing.

I don't think Phil was all that terribly interested. That does not mean to indicate he never will be interested in coaching again, just he wasn't interested in coaching now. Because of his knee? Because of Dwight Howard? Because he just didn't feel like it? Who knows.

BUT, since he's likely not done with coaching, perhaps he didn't think it would serve him well just to politely decline outright. Rather, he asked for what he figured they'd never give him - and if the actually did give it to him, the marginal value of what he would've received would've likely buffered most of his dislike of returning at the present. AND, it's (arguably) such a silly contract to ask for that it also saves face, for the most part, for the Lakers for not signing Phil ... a sort of synergy that just wouldn't be there for both parties is Phil just said "nah".

Maybe not the preferred narrative currently, but it is a somewhat plausible alternate to the "Phil's full of himself" story making the rounds.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Don, all good points, and that very well maybe the case

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Jim Buss is a complete idiot. I can't believe his father continues to allow him to make these moves. Phil Jackson WAS going to accept the Lakers offer and essentially wanted the same arrangement he had during his last season. That isn't asking for the moon. Especially considering Phil Jackson is arguably the best coach in the history of professional sports. Money isn't an issue for the Lakers either. Phil would leave in a couple years anyway.

If your goal is the win championships in Kobe's last couple of years you don't hire a guy that has NEVER won a championship. To hire D'Antoni is a slap in the fans face and Kobe's. Jim Buss has routinely acted like a spoiled child and it's going to hurt the franchise.

D'Antoni's offense won't work either. What do you do with Gasol? Where are the shooters? That's on top of the fact that Kobe and Nash are 90 years old and can't runaround the way they used to. Besides scoring wasn't the main issue.

Nothing D'Antoni has showed you in his career tells you he can handle superstar personalities. Look no further than NY for that answer. Nothing D'Antoni has done in his career tells you he knows anything about defense. Phil Jackson would have solved all of these problems and made the Lakers the favorite to win it all.

D'Antoni is the consummate snake oil salesman in the coaching realm.

Flim flam man.

I disagree that Phil would've put LA as favorites. The talent on the roster is severely overrated because of their collective career accomplishments, similar to when they had four future HOFers in 2004.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I was going to say...this team very much reminds me of the '04 "Superteam" that got trounced by the Pistons. Was Phil coaching them or was that Rudy T?

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Kid Cairo's Boers & Bernstein YouTube Channel

Kid Cairo: 2013 March Madness Tournament Winner!

"Cowabunga? Cowa fucking piece of dog shit! This game is diarrhea coming out of my dick!"

So you are saying they will go to the finals?

That was Phil's "Last Ride". Rudy T only coached them for about 2-3 months the next season before stepping down for health reasons.

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Very disappointing hire. I would have probably tried to coax Sloan out of retirement. He also never won a title, but that's more of a casualty of having to face Jordan in the Finals than anything.

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Kid Cairo's Boers & Bernstein YouTube Channel

Kid Cairo: 2013 March Madness Tournament Winner!

"Cowabunga? Cowa fucking piece of dog shit! This game is diarrhea coming out of my dick!"

None of the Lakers "Big 4" have taken a step back like Malone and Payton had. Kobe is still a top 5 to 10 player and Nash and still one of the best pure PG's. Howard is in his prime and Gasol is at the tail end of his.

No. Not sure how you could extract that from my statement. I'm just saying that the construction of this team reminds me of how the '03-04 team was put together.

_________________
Kid Cairo's Boers & Bernstein YouTube Channel

Kid Cairo: 2013 March Madness Tournament Winner!

"Cowabunga? Cowa fucking piece of dog shit! This game is diarrhea coming out of my dick!"

Nash has definitely taken a step back. It's not debatable really. So has Kobe. He might still be a top 10-12 player.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Malone and Payton were role players then. You can't say that about Nash and you definitely can't say that about Kobe. Therefore the comparison to 2004 really isn't valid. This team is better on paper in just about every way. Phil would have made them the favorites because there isn't a coach that knows how to manage personalities better than him. This team needs that. Kobe can't continue to be a player/coach.

Jackson apparently also wanted an ownership stake. No way Buss was gonna allow that.

Buss will give up his daughter's pussy, but no ownership stake.

If in not mistaken, Kobe took about 5 more shots per game than anyone else in the league last year. He's still got a great mid range game and can score, but his defense, rebounding, and general athleticism have been in obvious decline for two years.

And Nash is a role player now. Hes a very good one, but he's not a top 30 player overall anymore. '04 Shaq AND '04 Kobe are better than anyone on this current team, so the overall talent comparison between the two teams is definitely valid.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I think the Lakers were Finals contenders before, and now they have a good shot to win it all. Nash is pretty much done but on a team with this much talent, he should be able to get by.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

You should know the league well enough by now to know that those defensive teams are done by reputation as much as on-court performance. It's impossible to argue that Kobe is currently a top 5 defensive guard. He's just not.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

The Lakers are at best, the 3rd best team in the West right now. I just couldn't see them beating SA or OKC in a 7-game series.

_________________
Kid Cairo's Boers & Bernstein YouTube Channel

Kid Cairo: 2013 March Madness Tournament Winner!

"Cowabunga? Cowa fucking piece of dog shit! This game is diarrhea coming out of my dick!"