4-8 Mike D’Antoni
4-1 Bernie Bickerstaff
1-4 Mike Brown

It is time to push the panic button on the Lakers season. They suck, they stink and they are terrible. They play no defense, give up a ton of points and have no continuity on the offensive end of the court. They are running a dumb offense created by a dumb coach who has had no success with his system.

I know the above sounds harsh but there is no excuse for the Lakers being 9-13 this deep into the season. You are going to hear the other analysts and radio guys say it is too early to judge the Lakers but how much more of a sample size do these guys need. We are 22 games into the season and this team is bad, really, really bad.

I blame Lakers management, in particular, Jim Buss who because of some feud with Phil Jackson decided to hire Mike D’Antoni instead of the guy who brought the Lakers their last five championships. Honestly the hiring of D’Antoni screams of lack of homework. Did you not see what happened in New York and how much better the Knicks were once he left? D’Antoni totally bombed and do you want to know why? Because he cannot coach players he only knows how to coach a system. A system that is better suited for Danilo Gallinari than Carmelo Anthony, a system that centered on Jeremy Lin, a system that is not suited for Pau Gasol but better suited for Antawn Jamison. Pau Gasol is one of the best low post players the NBA has seen since Kevin McHale and you can’t use him. It is not Pau Gasol, it’s not Carmelo Anthony it is you Mike D’Antoni you are the weak link.

Mike D’Antoni’s seven seconds or less system is not designed for a team that has a slow point guard a slow small forward, an old power forward and a center with a bad back. Yet for some bizarro reason he still wants them running this system. A lot of analysts are saying “well wait till Steve Nash comes back. Let’s see how things are when Nash gets back.” Steve Nash broke his leg we have no idea what he is going to look like when he returns or when he is even retuning for that matter. On top of that Nash is a well below average defender and is 38 years old. What exactly do these guys think he is going to accomplish? How is Steve Nash going to turn this thing around.

What disgusted me the most came last week when after D’Antoni was asked why he simply won’t bench Dwight Howard when teams start the hack-a-shaq strategy D’Antoni answered you don’t do that to a Dwight Howard. So let me get this straight you don’t bench a Dwight Howard who has missed 124 free throws this season but you bench two-time NBA champion Pau Gasol for Antawn Jamison.

Watch the video below:



Mike D’Antoni, with a straight face, says we spent a half an hour on defense. He actually gets angry like he is doing a good job. A half an hour is all you spent when coming into the Cavs game you lost four of your last five games and in those losses allowed 113, 107, 114 and 117 points. A half an hour isn’t enough time to spend on anything that is a major problem. If your child is failing a class do you tell them to spend an extra half an hour on the subject? How can you possibly expect to solve your defensive problems in a half an hour. Phil Jackson must be somewhere laughing his head off at this train wreck.

Another thing that is angering me is this stat that the Lakers are 1-10 when Kobe scores 30 plus. The media is actually trying to put this on Kobe. Steve Smith said it the other night Kobe takes more shots when the Lakers are losing as opposed to when they are winning. In Laker wins Kobe is attempting 16 field goals a game and in loses 23 field attempts. Both scenarios Kobe makes 48% of his attempts. It is really unbelievable that there are analysts out there trying to put this on Kobe or perpetuating the fact that Kobe has anything to do with this.

The sad part about all of this is we the fans are not going to see the Lakers in the finals. It would have been great come June to see the Lakers versus the Celtics one more time or Kobe Bryant versus LeBron James. The way things are going we will be lucky if we see Lakers versus Grizzlies but I realistically can’t see that happen with D’Antoni putting this team in a position to fail night after night after.

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