Thursday, July 5, 2012

Trolled by a Canadian

There's no time like Showtime someone that's not famous once said. Last season there was Show(ish)time in the Staples Center, but all of the hoopla belonged to CP3 and his merry band of dunkers. While the Clippers had obvious holes, they were at least fun to watch at times. The Lakers on the other hand had holes galore and weren't really fun to watch. One of the main reasons for the lack of fun was the lack of a noteworthy point-guard.

Independence Day certainly brought fireworks to the lives of  Kobe Lakers' fans. The purple & gold swathed front office was able to turn four future draft picks into an elite passer & shooter with the skills to pull the Lakers' offense out of the doldrums. The monetary cost of Nash will be a three year, $25 million or more contract. This puts the team miles over the salary cap, but that's the price of winning when you have Kobe Bryant on the books. As a fan of the Bulls I really don't care about their salary situation or that they can outspend most teams. I care about seeing Nash try to accomplish a few things.

Firstly, I want to see how well Kobe & Nash will mesh together. I actually think they'll play together better than a lot of people are predicting. Yes Kobe loves to have the ball in his hands, yes he loves to chuck contested 22 footers and yes he loves to operate in a way that makes Pau Gasol's talents negligible. But Kobe has shown he can be quite deadly when scoring after finding space without the ball. Nash pulling the strings should give the man of a thousand glares plenty of opportunities to free himself on screens for uncontested shots. Kobe, in my opinion, will relish the opportunity to score in easier ways and in more creative ways.

Just imagine Nash bringing the ball up while playing conductor at the top of the key. He uses an initial screen to weave his way into the lane, and meanwhile Kobe has just found himself open for a 18 foot jumper. Nash gets all the way to the basket only to shoot a laser beam to an open Mamba. Swish (I hope). So that's one area where the offense could vastly improve in comparison to this past season.

Another area would be consistent involvement of the Lakers' duo of Bynum and Gasol. Everyone wanted more offense to be funneled through these guys, but many nights those cries fell on deaf ears. Sometimes it was the fault of the seven footers, and other times the blame laid on the uncreative shoulders of Mike Brown. Then there were plenty of times when Kobe just forgot about them in the second half. Even if they were rolling in the first half he'd start gunning as the game wore on.

I want to see an obscene amount of Pau/Nash pick & rolls. Gasol moves well enough to make this a fantastic situation. He can also be affective from outside of the paint. The thing that could present a problem for Nash's effectiveness is spacing. The Lakers can crowd open lanes which is a detriment to the dazzling Canadian.

Outside of superb distribution Nash will provide reliable shooting from all zones on the floor. The most obvious plus will be the three point shooting of the sharpshooting Nash. I fully expect him to shoot 40 percent or a little above from three during the upcoming season. Defenses will have a lot to worry about with Kobe, Pau and Gasol on the floor. There will be times Nash will be the forgotten man or plenty of other times his man will be late rotating back to him after some ball movement. As trigger happy as Kobe is, he's an adept passer who will find Nash on the parameter after drawing defenders. Gasol is a very capable passer in his own right as well. Unlike Bynum, Gasol knows how to recognize and pass out of a double-team. More chances for Nash. If the defense becomes befuddled enough it could lead to Gasol finishing around the rim with less opposition.

Now let's assume for a second that L.A. has just traded Bynum for Dwight. The offense can be sped up a bit more to suit Nash's tastes. It won't resemble a seven seconds or less offense, but it would probably look more spry than one including the plodding behemoth Bynum. The defense would would also improve in this scenario. I won't go into what that means for Nash/Westbrook match-ups or any of that stuff, because there was no one on the Lakers stopping Russ last year anyways. There are going to be guards that beat Nash, it's the way nature works in the NBA. Nash lessens that by opening up the offensive attack of the Lakers.

I think all of these things are surely attainable with a PG like Nash running the team. What remains to be seen is if Mike Brown will put the players around Nash and Kobe in better positions to utilize all of this. Allow Steve Nash to do what he has done the past eight years in Phoenix, and things can go smoothly. He doesn't have to be a world beater to make this work, but he does need plenty of rope with the team. Kobe should be salivating at the chance to still score and chuck it, but be in a position where he's not draped with defenders every time.

The most important thing for Steve Nash might be putting this behind him:

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