NBA · OT: Lakers Player Mutiny Against D'AnToni (page 2)

holfresh wrote:

Mray20 wrote:Wow this all doesn't seem familiar, and yet there are still some who continue to make excuses for Dantoni and defend him

Amazing isn't it..

I can't believe I actually defended MDA. He sucked in NY and now he sucks in LA.

Dantoni is scamming a lot of $$$$$$$! wow 30mm from the Knicks 24 from thr Lakers I want in!!

BRIGGS wrote:Dantoni is scamming a lot of $$$$$$$! wow 30mm from the Knicks 24 from thr Lakers I want in!!

Right there in a nutshell UNBELIEVABLE!!

BRIGGS wrote:Dantoni is scamming a lot of $$$$$$$! wow 30mm from the Knicks 24 from thr Lakers I want in!!

Actually 24 mil from the Knicks and 12 mil from the Lakers...Still not a bad get...

gunsnewing wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:Dantoni is scamming a lot of $$$$$$$! wow 30mm from the Knicks 24 from thr Lakers I want in!!

Right there in a nutshell UNBELIEVABLE!!

Yeah and he made a comment that he would just play golf it didn't work out. TJ Simers seems to find away to include that quote in every article he writes about Mike.

-D'Antoni has the wrong personnel, needs to go despite $12M in guaranteed money. Give reins to Bickerstaff.

-Broussard thinks D'Antoni will eventually be fired so why prolong it? Says Mike Brown firing was rationalized the same way.

-"Sources" say players already tuning out D'Antoni. Kobe is the only one keeping the team from completely shutting him out.

-"Sources" say Dwight has mentioned privately that won't re-sign if D'Antoni is the coach.

-Goes through some high-level trade partners/scenarios for Dwight but concludes that keeping Dwight is the best solution. Even in his current down year, Dwight is still more productive than any active center.

-Says that Bickerstaff, albeit with a small sample size, would be the best option. May not make finals but would help team chemistry tremendously.

-Says realistically that Jimmy won't fire D'Antoni not only because of the money but because of pride. Won't admit to "colossal mistake."

From LG, I don't have a account.

So while it has been only 32 games and the Lakers still owe D'Antoni nearly $12 million in guaranteed money, it is time for a divorce. The Lakers should fire D'Antoni and let assistant coach Bernie Bickerstaff coach the rest of the season.

I know it sounds drastic, but it needs to be done. This is simply not working, and you know what? It's not going to work because D'Antoni's perimeter-oriented, point-guard-do-it-all, defense-be-damned system does not fit this team. And there are not enough trades out there to be made to make it fit, especially when it's built around a soon-to-be 39-year-old point guard.

Beyond that, there are strong rumblings that D'Antoni already has lost significant parts of the locker room. Two sources close to the situation have told me that many of the Lakers are fed up with D'Antoni and his system and that Kobe Bryant is the only one keeping many of the players from completely tuning out their coach.

What's worse is that I've heard talk that Howard is hinting he won't re-sign with the Lakers if D'Antoni is the long-term coach. I'm not sure whether that's true because I haven't heard it from Howard or anyone in his camp. But it makes all the sense in the world. Howard wanted the ball more in Orlando, where he was the focal point of the offense, so he certainly can't be happy with the offense he's in right now. It's hard to see him wanting to play the next two seasons or more in this system.

Will making the move to Bickerstaff get the Lakers to the Finals? I doubt it. But I bet it would improve the chemistry, get them playing much better basketball and perhaps even get them into the playoffs. And at this point, that would be an accomplishment.

Most believe Jim Buss won't fire D'Antoni soon, not just because of the financial repercussions, but because it would be an admission of a colossal mistake. But it would be an even bigger mistake to let the season continue to spiral out of control and as a result, lose Howard.

I don't have insider but found Broussard's article on a Laker's forum.

Lakers should keep D'Antoni. If only to do themselves the massive favor of getting rid of Howard.

Well maybe Kobe finally figured it out afterall...

NBA ‏@NBA
Kobe was 1 board shy of a triple double dropping 14pts, 9rbs and 14asts helping the @Lakers beat the @Utahjazz 102-84. D12 had 17-13.

BRIGGS wrote:Dantoni is scamming a lot of $$$$$$$! wow 30mm from the Knicks 24 from thr Lakers I want in!!

The day he signed with the lakers I said he should be arrested....hes robbing everybody. Soon he will say the same thing....I shouldnt have taken this job....his system doesnt fit pre-madanas. Hes better off coaching an expansion team or college....with no egotistic superstars.

Most of the time media guys don't really know what the heck is going on with these teams. I think everyone should hold off on making any final judgments until the season is done. There's this running meme that MDA failed in NY and will fail in LA, but they never seem to admit that in NY there were extenuating circumstances. No coach can survive without the support of his best player. There was no future here with Melo, cuz Melo just didn't jive with MDA.

I find it funny cuz from the many comments around here I don't get the impression that many of the naysayers are watching these Laker games. I can guarantee you that the problems with the Lakers have not been MDA's fault. All he can do is keep working with this group to try and get them to sacrifice for the team and buy in to team BB. So far they've been mostly dealing with player selfishness. They beat the Jazz because they FINALLY played TEAM BALL. Kobe wasn't trying to do it all by himself and D12 wasn't acting like a Bitch. In the end they fully bought into what MDA has been trying to get them to do.

This nonsense about MDA not being flexible is another load of crap. He's not running SSOL, but he is trying to get them to share the ball and keep things moving rather than having Kobe or anyone else trying to go solo every other play. They hustled and shared the ball. That's really all they need to do. If they can keep doing this they should win more games than they lose. All MDA asks is for players to share the ball and trust in what he's asking them to do. This Laker team may not be a title team, but it can and should play much better than it has.

When Kobe, Pau and D12 decide to actually give max effort and fully buy in, then all of a sudden they see how easy things can be, but they have to trust and buy in. No different than it could've been here in NY if Melo bought in. The Knicks this year were winning big running basically MDA's system. Soon as the team goes back to selfish ISO ball they start losing.

James Worthy, who does a radio show for the Lakers, went off on Dantonio.He said thry needed to
Changee to system that fit the players. Basically blaming for their situation.

Nixluva, are you related to D'Antoni?

JesseDark wrote:James Worthy, who does a radio show for the Lakers, went off on Dantonio.He said thry needed to
Changee to system that fit the players. Basically blaming for their situation.

He went off on the post game show after their last loss also. As did Kurt Rambis. The lakers have great coverage.

Apparently Buss and Kupchek met with Dantoni to give him a vote of confidence.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/basketball...

Hey you know what would be funny,

if MDA benched Kobe

Freaking media circus. Team meetings are private and in two hours it was all over the place.

The stench that is Kobe is masked by his glorious stats but this dude has been a locker room problem all his career. Add the man-child Dwight and its just gets better. Freaking Metta World Peace looks like the sane one. Kobe called out Pau the last two years so its not like Pau has been "ruined" by MDA. He had problems all along.

MDA is not a saint here and its a players league so the tendancy is to always Shyt on the coach and think the new coach will make all the changes and live happily ever after. They need to look in he mirror first. They are not playing defense.

D'Antoni is the only coach in nba history, who when given a front line of pau Gasol and Dwight Howard, could reach the conclusion "we gotta go small".

smackeddog wrote:D'Antoni is the only coach in nba history, who when given a front line of pau Gasol and Dwight Howard, could reach the conclusion "we gotta go small".

Dwight is not Dwight this season. The assumption is he is still a top 5 player. He is not playing to that level or close.

There will be a question to whether is a max player going forward. Im not privy to his exact condition so I can't say he returns to form or not.

Laker fans are raging in disspare and media gets good ratings to bash MDA.

Whose to blame?

Play the blame game. Its fun!

well, i am not a dantoni hater like some here and i thought he did some positive things here. it just unraveled when melo got here for whatever reason. it is both of their faults really but that is another story. however, talent wise, that laker squad is one of the best dantoni had. it comes to show you that talent isnt everything. he has a hard time coaching talented centers ( remember he had o'neal on the suns) and without a point guard, which he was without a decent portion of the season. now the players are getting frustated and pointing fingers. this isnt an easy organization to coach in and kobe isnt an easy person to coach for. as a matter of fact, if you look at kobe's career, the only coach he seems to get along with was phil jax and that was barely stitched together in some years.

jazz74 wrote:well, i am not a dantoni hater like some here and i thought he did some positive things here. it just unraveled when melo got here for whatever reason. it is both of their faults really but that is another story. however, talent wise, that laker squad is one of the best dantoni had. it comes to show you that talent isnt everything. he has a hard time coaching talented centers ( remember he had o'neal on the suns) and without a point guard, which he was without a decent portion of the season. now the players are getting frustated and pointing fingers. this isnt an easy organization to coach in and kobe isnt an easy person to coach for. as a matter of fact, if you look at kobe's career, the only coach he seems to get along with was phil jax and that was barely stitched together in some years.

Are they really as talented as they seem on paper?

Their big names are all nearing retirement, except for Dwight, and what does it say of Kobe that he's only been able to get along with a single coach in his entire career?

Guys point to MDA and say "he can only do one thing", well the same can be said for Kobe in that he can only get along with one coach.

I defended Isiah for many years...It came to the point where the results were the results and I had no choice to examine them..I had to man up and accept the errors of my analysis...Isiah knew talent but couldn't assemble a team to play team basketball...I manned up...

MDA is not a good coach.. He is a guy with a system that works with the perfect PG to run it...Not every PG can run it..He needs a coach on the floor to run it...Nash is old..

He goes from place to place putting up the same results and his defenders blame the players and the organization..At some point you have to look at the man...At some point reality should set in...Other coaches have won with Kobe, Gasol and Medda..Add Nash and DHow who is not the same player but is still the best center in the league, the results are still bad...What gives???..

Bill Parcells once said your are what your record says you are...