Jerky Boy Jim sure screwed things up bringing in Dumbtoni instead of waiting for another chance to talk with Phil. He should rectify his ignorant decision by firing Dumbtoni now and just letting Bernie Bickerstaff coach the team. Let’s not forget that the one coach who had a winning record with these Lakers is Bernie.

Kurt when you will get smart and say the problem is Dumbtoni instead of dancing around the issue and trying to blame the bigs, Howard and Gasol? Howard’s back obviously hasn’t healed up all the way and Gasol is now playing scared and tentative because Dumbtoni is too stupid to know how to get the most from Pau.

Fire Dumbtoni!!! Trade Away Nash!!! We Want Pau!!!

The problem is, is that these players thought all you had to do was put them on the same team.
It’s not the coaches fault they are to lazy or refuse to play defense. They shouldnt need to be taught how to play it either, they have been playing the game their whole lives. It’s a question of want and will, they don’t have it.
Kobe not giving up the pill isn’t helping either.
This trainwreck is all on the players, not Jim Buss, not the coaching, the players.

Idk I think the main problem with the Lakers is balancing these beastly egos.

The wheel came off then with that hire after refusing to accept Phil Jackson’s input in roster decisions (Exhibit A– Pau and Bynum), and an insistence to have more decision making in future trades and acquisitions were he to continue after the debacle in Dallas (recall Phil in Gasol’s chest during that one, and Bynum’s statesmanship).

The answer to Phil’s concerns about retooling was to insult him with a pay cut, and to send him packing, when he should have been the rebuilding guidance this organization so sorely needed.

What we rightfully should have witnessed was Phil getting his wish to have more manegerial sway in the organization, and the bringing in of Byron Scott, who was then and still should be the heir apparent as coach of the future Lakers. This could have been effected if the front office did not declare no confidence and low level warfare on Phil’s contributions to the Laker legacy. Who could have been a better protege and successor to Phil’s system than Byron Scott? Phil Jackson as heir apparent GM, and Byron Scott as heir apparent protege coach (a la Riley and Spoelstra in Miami) could and should have happened.

So the wheel came off, and that train uncannily managed to careen uncannily careen forward and remain deceitfully upright on one rail like a wayward top long enough to slam into the Staples Center like the west coast Sandy. You couldn’t a scripted a more perfect storm.

The only upside is that dumping Bynum is one less of many decisions left to clean up the mess.

Who should go? Cup-Check, Buss the Younger, Howard, and Gasol. Who should stay? Everyone else as the rebuilding core. Phil and Jeanie will do fine with Byron Scott, who is worth every penny it would take to buy him out from Cleveland. Then they could use genuine basketball wisdom to retool with a younger supporting cast, and do the Laker fan-base the dignity of supporting this franchise’s noble legacy of which this last year and a half they have so sorely been deprived.

You’re wasting your time with the baseball/football garbage.

Firstly, the Celtics brought in a 31 and a 32 year old all-star to go with their 30 year old all-star, none of whom were coming off of surgery, let alone major back surgery.

D’Antoni somehow needs to learn from what Erik Spoelstra did in Miami tweaking his system until he figured out what worked.

Like having two guys who can steal or block at will and fire it to the other guy at the other end of the court for a highlight alley-oop in every single game?

Howard needs to look at Dwyane Wade and how he learned to play with LeBron James, even if that means deferring to him, to make it better for the team. Howard can be the co-leader of the Lakers with Kobe if he wants to be. But to do that he needs to give not just take.

Did I read that right? Maybe Wade would tell him, “What you gotta do is play with a beast who dishes first, yet scores at will and shoots over 50%.”

Come on, Kurt. Howard may not be perfect, but he is leading the league in rebounding and third in FG%. With Nash on the team, anybody would expect the bulk of the offense to be run through him.

Anyway, I don’t think the comparisons are apt. LA went from champ to bust in two seasons. Miami and Boston were moving the other way around.

Yeah, well…

Id say he is learning great from Kobe then! Switch Howard with Kobe, and Nash with Howard in that sentence and you get an entire new, probably more accurate picture of the problem. I seem to remember the headlines on your site of “Kobe calls out Gasol” “Kobe ‘Needs help from rest of team’ ” “Kobe 10-32 as Lakers lose to terrible team”. Was I sick the days Howard said that stuff?

I am loving it, but not to the point where the only thing I can comment on is Lakers related.