Lakers Analysis Part 2

In the 2^nd part of our series let’s look at the different end of spectrum for Lakers, the so called scrap heap. People who might not make to the playing team except for the garbage minutes. People who are almost on un-guaranteed contracts playing of r next contact. People who are dangling between NBA and D-League. I might include few players who are injured and are almost as good as these players in terms of playing in a game.

Robert Sacre: The 60^th pick in the 2012 draft is known all over the league for his celebrations and cheering his team mates. Mike D Antoni is the legend of his offensive philosophy and equally infamous for his defensive ones. Last year Lakers were one of the absolute worst in the league defensively. Yet Mike D’Antoni said that Lakers have Sacre as the hardest working defensive big man. Now that’s a good thing to hear. Though the source is not so reliable especially when defense is the point in matter but it’s still good to be talked in superlatives while being a scrap in a team like Lakers. Sacre if he works on his skill can really be a very good backup center in league for a long time or may be a starting center for a low seeded team.

This year when you saw Sacre playing you will know instantly that he has really a very good 12-15 foot range. Approx. 50+% of his shots are coming off the mid-range. That’s a good thing to hear. But it’s a good thing if we assume if the player is equally good in close range. Strangely that’s not the case with Sacre. You expect a 7 footer to play close to the basket, get rebounds and play close, dunk and get putback points. Sacre doesn’t play that game. There are some games when he will play good defense but is lost in rebounds while some in which he will get good rebounds but is lost in defense. If he gets that thing corrected then he can be a as good as we think him to be. 

Sacre shares training room and locker with Jordan Hill and Ed Davies – one of the most premiere bigs in rebounding and offensive rebounds. If the rebounding bug gets to Sacre on a consistent basis it would be a huge plus. Since both Hill and Davis are 6’10’’ they know the mechanics of getting a rebound and have the smarts for it. Sacre’s 7 foot frame and his weight can help in getting more rebounds. Sacre has also shown he can be healthy for long time. He should develop more core body strength and fight it out with J-Hill and Ed for rebounds. This is where Boozer can help in his knowledge as we previously discussed. Also Sacre has shown he can defend. But he fouls at a very high rate. He plays approximately 15-20 mins. a game and he still gets 3-4 fouls which is huge. I assume they are the growing pains of a defensive bigs. Some good defensive centers in league today for e.g. bogut, de andre and others had this problem of being foul prone. It shows they were more aggressive. This aggression helps in getting the exposure to various situations. Either fouling when trying to block, or fouling when taking a charge, or fouling when giving help defense. So it’s good if Sacre sees lots of film and learn from his mistakes. It would also help if he sees film of how other defensive stalwarts like Howard or Marc Gasol or De Andre react in similar situations. If he develops this sense of how hard to go for blocks, when and how to go for help defense, how to take charge then he can really be a good defensive presence. Sacre should grab at least 8 boards per game to help team mates. Lastly on offensive side Sacre has shown that he is a good screen setter. There is no statistic to measure that thing but he passes the eye test. Sacre should consider Tyson Chandler as his role model in this aspect. Like Tyson he should only focus on setting screens, make weak side offensive movements, go for lob to dunk, go for offensive rebounds and put backs, be a threat from mid-range to pull other bigs out of paint to provide driveways and passing ways to guards.

Ryan Kelly: If you can get appreciation from Mike Krzyzewski saying that you are one of the best bigs in the draft class then you surely have talent in your pocket. Ryan Kelly has that. Sadly he is not able to use it till now. With injury riddled seasons in his first 2 years in league it’s difficult to make case for you being in NBA. Couple that with the fact that you have negligible presence on rebounds and defense, it’s a recipe for disaster. Having said this, Kelly is one of those bigs who if can work on his strengths and go to Spanish league he can become an offensive juggernaut. It may be blasphemy but if Kelly lives to his promise, I can see another Nikola Mirotic in him at least speaking about the offensive repertoire.

Kelly needs time to develop. He is physically fragile and there are many aspects of his game which needs lots of development and practice and repetitions. Sadly hard work and weak body don’t go hand in hand. This makes me say that Lakers cannot be the team who can offer that opportunity to Kelly. However Lakers can choose to exercise the option on Kelly, let him play in D-League or overseas and bring back 2 years later as an offensive spark off the bench, it would be a great addition to the whole team. Let me review about his game in a similar standpoint.

Kelly is not one of those hulky bigs who can rebound or defense. He is a specialist. And that means your competition will be specialist too when you are on the court. It now means that he has to be elite in what he does if he wants to stand chance to be a rotation player in this league. Kelly should focus in getting his core and legs healthy for the next season. It should not matter if he gets bulky but he should at least have lean and mean body like what Garnett had in his prime, slim but tough. Kelly should focus only on his 3 pt shooting. He is already very good there but he should add more aspects to his 3 pt shooting. What that means is he should do more practice in shooting off the dribble with right leg, shooting off the dribble with left leg, catch and shoot with catching front, catch and shoot with catching left, so on and so forth. Running across the court left to right and shoot and vice versa. He should be absolute beast in his 3pt shooting. He should get lateral speed to defend opposite stretch 4s on the perimeter. He should see films of nowitzki on how he defends his assignment on perimeter. He should see some films of how Dirk fakes on 3 attempt dribble once and catch and shoot from the elbows. He should copy 1 more step from Dirk, if Kelly takes the ball on the block and plays post, if he can face up and drive for lay-up or hook good, if not then this fade away flamingo jumper should be as deadly as Dirk himself. Again add more layers to it by shooting similar percentages when turning left and turning right. Kelly should get minimum of 5 boards in a match, 1 steal, 1 block and good perimeter defense, very very good offense. He can be a mystery puzzle for Lakers. But again he needs 1-2 years of seasoning before that.

Xavier Henry: Xavier Henry has turned many heads in his Lakers campaign in 2013 season. Sadly his injury bug caught up to him and he ended up missing half of the games. If we rule out the injury aspect of Xavier’s career, he might be getting a huge extension from some team right now. That’s not the case and we got this talented kid. With his positives we also inherited his injuries and he again in the list of scrap players to fight for next contract. Xavier has a very explosive game. He can penetrate and finish at the rim or at least get contact and get to free throw line. He also has a respectable jumper from 3 which makes him a decent threat. Problem is he has very less offensive game if you leave these 2 aspects. He has poor pull up jumper, poor mid-range game, poor passing, poor floater. He needs at least 1-2 years to develop at least 2 of those options. Again Lakers can’t provide him that time. Again Lakers would have to stash him outside or assign to D-league.

What Xavier has to do is nothing much than what Ryan Kelly has to do. Be Healthy first. Then concentrate on distributing when he slashes to rim. If he can avoid his tunnel vision when he drives and look for teammates while also having an option to drive or just pull up for a floater or pull up it will make him a very good offensive prospect. He is below average defender which makes me tend to say that Lakers are just keeping him and his partially guaranteed contract as a part of trade feeder or to waive him off if they want to absorb some salary later. Assuming Lakers want him to be a part of the puzzle he should be a Jodie Meeks type of player who doesn’t need to have balls to be effective. He should develop game around playing off ball where his only role is to set screens for Kobe or Lin and just catch and shoot for 3s or slash and make drives to basket after setting screens for pick and roll. Also not to mention he has to develop his defensive side of game. Since he doesn’t have defensive intellect and the physical tools to be a lockdown defender he has to lots of film study to be effective.

Ronnie Price: Ronnie price is everything Lakers wanted from a point guard at the fag end of the free agency at such a low price. He is veteran. He is good in defense. He applies pressure. He has a decent 3pt shot. He can run offense. That’s more than what you can ask from a 9 yr veteran point guard who was unemployed till late September in a point guard dominated league. You should keep expectations low when evaluating such talent. Having said so let’s discuss what he brings to the table and what he can improve and what he can offer.

So Ronnie is good PG. He has decent handles. He can run an offense. He applies pressure on defensive end. But all of those things can be offset by he having lesser ability to create shots for himself and others, small height, decent penetration and 3pt shooting. This is a knock mainly on Ronnie’s physical attribute than his ability. Had he been a 6’4’’ guard he would be commanding 10mn$ per yr from teams. But with his size he has to forgo many advantages to opposing team PGs in offense and defense. We will take the examples of other small guys like nate robinson, allen Iverson, Isiah Thomas to judge Ronnie because they had the ability to improve other aspects of their game so drastically that their heights weren’t a factor. 

So Ronnie needs to develop a very very good 3 pt shooting. It’s his 3pt shooting which will open doors to other aspect of his game. If he shoot lights out from 3 means guards will pressure more on perimeter, which means he can just fake to shoot, let the defender jump and penetrate inside. Now with the penetration he has to have a good handles to penetrate to the basket or at least draw enough defenders to kick the ball outside. Chances of him finishing at the rim is very less because of the size differential which means to make the defenders honest in collapsing on him he should develop a good floater. I won’t expect too much from Ronnie but if he can develop a 5 foot floater and shoot 35+% from 3 he can be a la Tony Parker guy for the 2^nd unit. Another opportunity which waits for Ronnie is that Byron wants to run Princeton. Princeton offense doesn’t depend heavily on playmaking skills of a PG which will hide some of his deficiencies. If he understands and internalizes the nitty gritties of Princeton and can execute to a T, it might bring a new balance to the 2^nd unit scoring overall.

Wayne Ellington: Wayne was brought to the organization for his 3 pt shooting. Frankly speaking I don’t expect much from him except for this thing. He has a rather average offensive game. He has some fade ways some post play some iso play tricks in his bag but other than that I don’t have much expectations. Only way I can expect some stuffs from Wayne is in a situation where the Lakers find less number of offensive options. Nick Young is injured for a considerable time, Nash is out of season, Randle is out for season. This is one of those peculiar cases which makes me consider the above mentioned offensive tricks and in fact expect something out from him.

Wayne has to have his 3pt shooting hand hot always. And by always I mean every second he is on floor. He has been brought as a 3 pt specialist in a team which despised 3pt shooting in preseason and by the time 3^rd game rolled Coach Scott and Kobe accepted they should in fact take more 3s. This brings us to have unrealistic expectations from Wayne. He needs to keep his 3shooting white hot by practicing daily all the drills I mentioned for Ryan Kelly. All Wayne has to do is play off ball and play catch and shoot all game. He should use his average set of offensive game only when he finds a mismatch in defense or if he finds himself a separation from defense in spacing or timing. He should be one of those guys who sets screens and run all offer the floor to confuse defense and then pick a spot and just pop for a 3. If he can develop the exact game what we asked in previous sentence he can be a beta version of JJ Reddick for us and it might again be helpful in 2^nd unit scoring. May be Kobe can get some rest against weaker teams if Nick Young comes on 1^st unit SG and Wayne backs him up.

Steve Nash: Nash is a legend. I am lucky to be born in an era when Kobe and Nash played. This sentence is not because they both are Lakers but only because I saw impossible offense from Iso from Kobe and impossible team offense by Nash [though latest versions of San Antonio Spurs are becoming equally poetic as Nash’s Suns] The amount of offensive knowledge Nash has in his mind is more than all other Laker players and coaching staff sans Kobe Bean Bryant. Lakers aimed for the stars and fell flat on face in deep quick sand with the trade with Suns for Nash. We are still paying that price. But Nash understands what Lakers mean and how the organization takes care of its players and their family and values their relationship with them. Nash has expressed his decision that he will quit if he is traded coz he doesn’t want to move away from his family at 41 situated in California. Nash is known as the best team mate ever and the ultimate professional in basketball circles.

So what expectations do I have from Nash? Well Nash wasn’t able to help team in 2012-2015 era when he played. May be he can help team help in post 2015 era being an assistant coach or a player development coach. Lakers can either waive Nash or get a buyout from Nash as neither will help cap problems. If Nash retires only half of his salary gets off the books. They can get injured player exception of half his salary if they file for it, which they have. They can also do a trade and it will come off their books but I will write about it in different blog entry. So how does Nash help Lakers?

He should invest all his time to be fit. Not fit for game but just be able to walk and talk in life. I wish him all the luck and good life ahead. After a hall of fame career he surely deserves a good healthy happy life. Now he should focus on the PGs of Lakers for our future. Lin has strike a bond with Kobe and his work ethic along with Asian-American population in Los Angeles and Lakers presence in Asia, he might be a piece who can be retained by Lakers. Similarly Jordan Clarksson looks like a steal in 2^nd round. If Nash can help Lin develop in distribution and look out for his team mates without developing a tunnel vision while driving in, Lin can be unstoppable. Lin already is elite in finishing around the rim, he has very good 3pt range. If Lin develops this last piece of puzzle along with his recent flashes of a good floater Lin can carry forward Nash’s legacy of being elite point guard without being elite athlete himself. Jordan Clarkson can very well become the 1^st guard off the bench for a long time and can be a candidate for 6^th man awards. He is a combo guard and Lakers should develop him as a combo guard. He can’t handle ball as easily as PGs and don’t have the supreme offensive game as other SGs have. But the combination of his size, speed, handling and scoring can help in substituting for either guard spots from bench.

Nash can also help other team mates understand the timing and nitty gritties of a pick and roll game. He can teach them how to play off ball so that a PG is always in a position to kick the ball to them for shots. Ed Davies and Hill can get that timing and positioning and rolling tips from Nash, the person who steered Amare Studamare and Dirk Nowitzki in his prime. Also others like Ellington, Wesley Johnson, Young and Henry can learn how to position themselves on 3 pt line or to blast for a dunk when moving in transition or playing a fast game. Be it Princeton or Triangle it’s more or less just variations and complex combinations of setting screens and passing and shooting and getting free. So Nash can help others [non guards] develop the offensive side of games. He can really help in shooting forms, quick release. Nash never had fastest speed or the length or the bulk to overpower other guards, he was just the smartest who knew how to use angles and his body forms to get perfect shooting arc to be the best offensive guards of all times. He can teach those specific details to undersized Davis, Hill and Randle respectively.

Nash knowledge of shooting and passing and his philosophy of team basketball along with Princeton offense-which is spread out and involves all 5 players means if the players buy into the system and pick Nash’s brain Lakers can soon turn into another symphony just like Phil Jackson’s Triangle or 13-14 Spurs. Nash should be a huge part of Lakers in future to help bring championship back to Lakerland. Buss family needs to take this opportunity to lock him down as assistant coach. We already lost out on Shaw, Jackson, Fisher, Hollins, Blatt, Messina. Scott is a good coach and I won’t want to write him off, but those are clearly better choice considering the statistics.