Look, the collection of people who know what it takes to be a Laker is already small and continues to shrink. These Los Angeles Lakers can’t afford to lose another one of those valuable entities.
Has the 2014-2015 campaign gone to plan? Well, no. Fans were sold on a potential playoff run if everything fell the right way. Byron Scott was the former Laker who would magically inspire greatness from his prior franchise. Kobe Bryant’s limbs were supposed to stay attached to his withering body.
None of that happened, and Byron can’t possibly be to blame for any of it.
Only a Laker could get his team to compete night in, night out. Players from those other wimpy franchises don’t have the toughness and internal grit it takes to be successful coaches. Sure, former Lakers have been about as successful in that position as I’ve been at writing decent jokes, but that’s because their players aren’t Lakers.
Those damn millennials just don’t get what it takes to be great.
Winning in the National Basketball Association takes grit. Mid-game adjustments and research into numbers and calculus and stuff won’t win championships. You have to impose your will on the other team. If the other team makes an adjustment and starts killing you, fight harder. Run through a wall or something like that. If you weren’t already, give 110 percent – even if it’s mathematically impossible.
Remember, math is for guys whose experience with girls in high school only took place in their sleep.
Planning for the future obviously isn’t the Laker way, either. The Los Angeles Lakers don’t rebuild. They retool. Draft picks aren’t being properly allocated if they’re used to draft actual prospects. Imagine how great the Indiana Pacers feel knowing they were able to turn Kawhi Leonard into George Hill. What a steal!
Just look at the Lakers picks. Julius Randle’s right leg couldn’t hold the weight of that beautiful golden uniform. Andrew Bynum mastered the art of entertaining Playboy models – an irreplaceable quality of all the greatest Lakers – but little else. I mean, you have to think the Charlotte Hornets still feel great about their decision to give up Kobe Bryant for a steady center like Vlade Divac, right?
No. If the Lakers hope to turn things around, it’ll through veterans like Ronnie Price and Carlos Boozer. Byron can relate to those guys. They just get it. Prospects on cheap contracts offering flexibility to fill out the rest of the roster is overrated. Jordan Clarkson might be the better shooter, passer, defender and rebounder than his more experienced counterparts, but he’s a rookie.
Rookies are only good for babysitting dolls.
