It's Nash's Team

[ldawg]

Thats the problem right there. Just give to 40 year old the keys.

[GailGoodrich]

Thats the problem right there. Just give to 40 year old the keys.

His age is obviously not ideal, but we really haven't seen a precipitous drop-off of his skills so far. In any case, the game tonight against the Cavs needs to be his coming out party in every way. We need scoring, we need easy looks for the rest of the team, we need efficiency, and we need all that so we can control the pace of the game and limit runouts by the Cavs.

This game belongs to Nash. It's on him to make this happen.

[ldawg]

His age is obviously not ideal, but we really haven't seen a precipitous drop-off of his skills so far. In any case, the game tonight against the Cavs needs to be his coming out party in every way. We need scoring, we need easy looks for the rest of the team, we need efficiency, and we need all that so we can control the pace of the game and limit runouts by the Cavs.

This game belongs to Nash. It's on him to make this happen.

I seem to be missing something. Nash has seen his better days and him and mike never made it to the finals. Howard, Kobe and Pau has all been there. Now 40 year old Nash the oldest guy on the team is going to save us? No pun but Lakers need to learn how to use Pau and Howard really quick. Slow the game down control the tempo, pound the paint, cut back on the three pointers, take care of the ball, Play hard nose defense. Not play more like the Suns in fact be the exact opposite.

[GailGoodrich]

I seem to be missing something. Nash has seen his better days and him and mike never made it to the finals. Howard, Kobe and Pau has all been there. Now 40 year old Nash the oldest guy on the team is going to save us? No pun but Lakers need to learn how to use Pau and Howard really quick. Slow the game down control the tempo, pound the paint, cut back on the three pointers, take care of the ball, Play hard nose defense. Not play more like the Suns in fact be the exact opposite.

Again, it's obviously not ideal, but what are the alternatives?

Everything else has been tried. Nash has only played 12 games with the team.

It's time for him to give it a shot. Because if he can't do it it's over.

[ILLUSIONIST^248]

I wish Kobe would buckle down and play defense first and lead this team defensively.

He's thirty****ingfour. He can't anymore. If he waisted all of his energy on defending he wouldn't be scoring for us as well. Without kobe scoring for us we would be an under 10 win team.

[Vinylman]

He's thirty****ingfour. He can't anymore. If he waisted all of his energy on defending he wouldn't be scoring for us as well. Without kobe scoring for us we would be an under 10 win team.

don't waste your time... they will never get it...

for anyone to think that a 34 year old who has played almost 1200 regular season games and 220 playoff games should be playing almost 40 minutes a game is assinine... let alone being able to turn in a top notch Defensive performance when he is relied on almost entirely to carry the scoring load

If people want kobe to play better D... the coach needs to cut his ****ing minutes... its as simple as that

Is Kobe perfect... absolutely not... does he gamble to much on defense? Yep

Does any of that really matter? Nope

In the end he won 5 chips that way because he had a roster that COMPLIMENTED that type of play and a head coach who got the best out of him...

The Lakers have neither at this point.

[New Power House]

don't waste your time... they will never get it...

for anyone to think that a 34 year old who has played almost 1200 regular season games and 220 playoff games should be playing almost 40 minutes a game is assinine... let alone being able to turn in a top notch Defensive performance when he is relied on almost entirely to carry the scoring load

If people want kobe to play better D... the coach needs to cut his ****ing minutes... its as simple as that

Is Kobe perfect... absolutely not... does he gamble to much on defense? Yep

Does any of that really matter? Nope

In the end he won 5 chips that way because he had a roster that COMPLIMENTED that type of play and a head coach who got the best out of him...

The Lakers have neither at this point.

Only scrubs come for him off the bench? Meeks! or Blake!

[duane v]

Well, he sure isn't leading us to wins

Nor has he ever lead a team to a championship...... I'll take my chances with Kobe thank you very much

[GailGoodrich]

Nash has now played 13 total games with the Lakers. In those 13 games I'd be surprised if he played with the full roster more than five times -- and he clearly hasn't played many minutes with Clark, who is now poised to move way up the bench and get major minutes.

I don't know where the idea came from that you can plug even a great point guard into a starting lineup without any need for the players to become familiar with each other, but it's lazy thinking. Nash is already worth his weight in gold to this team, and that will only get better as the team (hopefully) settles into a groove.

I also think, now that Kobe is saying he's going to step forward on defense, that Nash has a bit more responsibility, which is good for him and the team. If Kobe's burning energy on defense, and actually needs Nash to help him get easier looks so he can save his energy, that reinforces what the team is trying to do rather than going against it.

[GailGoodrich]

Great piece here on Nash. The guy says all the right things.

http://espn.go.com/blog/los-angeles/...the-postseason

[duane v]

With Nash in the line-up, the Lakers are 3-17.... Which includes the preseason

[GailGoodrich]

With Nash in the line-up, the Lakers are 3-17.... Which includes the preseason

We played 8 games in the preseason, so that brings our record down to 3-9.

We just had a 6-game skid with Nash in the line-up, half of which included most of our line-up, and half of which saw all of our bigs go down. Does anyone think the Lakers would have been better during that six-game gagfest if Nash hadn't played?

No? Okay, take out those six games and Nash's record is now 3-3.

How relevant he was to our winning or losing those games is obviously open to debate, including the use of idiotic statistics, but my eyes says we're better off with him than without.

[Vinylman]

We played 8 games in the preseason, so that brings our record down to 3-9.

We just had a 6-game skid with Nash in the line-up, half of which included most of our line-up, and half of which saw all of our bigs go down. Does anyone think the Lakers would have been better during that six-game gagfest if Nash hadn't played?

No? Okay, take out those six games and Nash's record is now 3-3.

How relevant he was to our winning or losing those games is obviously open to debate, including the use of idiotic statistics, but my eyes says we're better off with him than without.

I don't necessarily support the opposition on this but your argument as usual is damaged by your cherry picking...

why the **** would you exclude those first 3 games in the losing streak? It makes ZERO sense

this is the kind of post that shows you will go to absurd lengths to debate a competing point of view

[duane v]

but my eyes says we're better off with him than without.

The Laker record indicates they could have spent that $27 mil, plus whatever they are paying DAntoni elsewhere or not at all, and we wouldn't be any worse for wear.

[GailGoodrich]

No, the Laker record doesn't say anything like that.

The Laker record says Mike Brown was an idiot and we've been decimated by injuries.

The Laker record says we've got a new coach who has to learn new tricks and a bunch of players who've never played with each other.

And when did we all agree that if we speculatively change one variable the result is always positive? It's just as likely to conclude from the Laker record that if we hadn't signed Nash we'd have three victories instead of the 16 we have now, or some higher number.