Lakers Can Learn From the Golden State Warriors
This years’ young Lakers team can learn some valuable lessons from the Warriors.
Listening to Draymond Green being interviewed post-game on ESPN SportsCenter, it became clear what the difference is between the two teams. He calmly explained how the Golden State Warriors have won so many games over the last two seasons. It was painfully obvious that the Los Angeles Lakers as a team are a far cry from the Warriors.
It also became clear that there are quite a few things that the Lakers can learn from the defending NBA Champions.
Play ‘We Ball’ Instead of ‘Me Ball.’
The Warriors play “We Ball.” It’s not all about Stephen Curry, or Draymond Green, or Klay Thompson; it’s about the team and what is working on any given day to get a win.
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Patience is a virtue; it comes with maturity, something the Lakers’ young players don’t yet have necessarily. Metta World Peace, of all players, was the cool head on the bench mentoring a young Randle, who was ticked off that head coach Byron Scott pulled him out of the game in the fourth quarter.
I was clear to more old school Lakers fans that Randle had gone cold and was missing baskets, four in a row for that matter. Other fans and analysts feel Randle should never be pulled out of the game. You would never hear any Warrior complain about being taken out of a game; they play team basketball.
Andre Iguodala came off the bench last year when he didn’t want to and ended up helping the Warriors to win an NBA Championship. On top of the Larry O’Brien Trophy, the former Arizona Wildcat won the Finals MVP award.
Playing ball as a team should have been taught and learned in college. Some of these players don’t attend college for all four years, so they miss out on full-circle basketball mentoring and indoctrination experience. Both Julius Randle and D’Angelo Russell only played college basketball for one year.
Get the Ball To the Player With the Hot Hand and Get Out of the Way
The Warriors often play the hot hand to win games. They play for a while and figure out which player has the hot hand, then get the ball to that player. Not only does the team score more with this strategy, but the passing ramps up their assists.
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It is quite clear that certain young Lakers are disappointed when taken out of games in the fourth quarter. Maybe it’s because they feel they deserve to play no matter how they are performing or maybe it’s because fans and media keep preaching they should play in the fourth quarter and their coach is an idiot.
NBA coaches have to be given carte blanche on making substitution decisions in crucial moments throughout the game depending on how a player is performing at the time. If a player misses four baskets in a row and the gap in the score is widening, then the coach has to make a substitution pure and simple. This is not recreation basketball.
What Scott sometimes does, which maddens fans, is that he may pull the player who has the hot hand and put in someone else. The question has to be asked, is he purposely trying to lose? If your answer is no, then think about last season. Remember all the games the Lakers were within a few points of winning and then all of the sudden the team folded? Maybe Scott was told to tank. Is that the same situation this season?
Whatever the case, it does not seem that Scott is worried about using the hot hand to win games. Heck, he supposedly doesn’t believe in analytics either, although the Lakers began investing more in analytics this season.
Employ a Coach Who Understands How This Generation of Basketball Players Tick.
The Warriors coaches understand their players and those players have a ton of respect for Steve Kerr and Luke Walton‘s basketball intellect as well as their demeanor. Millennials are the “consensus generation,” they make decisions by consensus. They want to be involved in decisions and want to be heard. They want to be successful before they put in hard work.
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Byron Scott is an old-school, dictator type of coach. He feels he knows best and everyone should do what he says—at least, it appears this way. In years past, this style of “break them down and build them back up” used to work. The hardest working athletes, such as Kobe Bryant, get the most playing time and respect from old-school type coaches.
Basically, the coach feels they need to teach lessons to their players, benching them when they don’t listen to instructions or they aren’t performing is common place. This does not sit well with Millennials. However, veterans on the Lakers teams don’t sulk or seem to get their panties in a knot if they aren’t playing or starting. They understand basketball is a team sport. The young Lakers? Not so much.
Scott will have to figure out what motivates and invigorates the young Lakers to want to bust their tushes for the team. He needs to take a page out of Kerr and Walton’s playbook.
Walton would be an excellent match for a head coach for our young Lakers team, but who would leave the Warriors at this point? A ton would have to change in the organization, so don’t hold your breath.
Next: Lakers Draft Prospects: Brandon Ingram Breakdown
In any case, the Lakers as a whole could learn a ton from the Golden State Warriors, their players, and coaches.