Byron Scott has bristled all season when the subject was raised about the Lakers tanking in order to preserve their top draft choice this next offseason. Perhaps the only thing he has been clear and consistent about all season is this: That the Lakers are the proudest and greatest franchise in sports, and as long as he is the coach, this team will never roll over or give up no matter the circumstances. When he makes these statements he does so with conviction. So if we choose to believe Scott, he is trying hard to win. Still, I’m not so sure.
Blue Man Hoop
Witness Sunday night’s loss to the Mavericks. Ed Davis entered the game near the end of the first quarter. He looked very energized and had eight points, four rebounds, and two blocks in eight minutes, at which point he was yanked from the game and did not return until the third quarter was nearly over. He played a good part of the fourth quarter with the Lakers in a position to win, then he was removed and the team almost immediately stopped scoring and they lost again in the final minutes with Davis on the bench. He ended up playing the fewest minutes (19) of any Laker player on the team (except Robert Sacre, who did not play at all).
The game before, when the Lakers played the Memphis Grizzles, it was close at half time, and when the third quarter started, something unusual happened: Instead of falling apart as they do most nights, they started strong in the second half.
In particular, Jordan Clarkson was on fire. One criticism of Clarkson is that he starts strong but does little in the second half of games. So this was a good sign. It might have been a turning point in his career, for midway through the third quarter, he was still making shots and on his way to a career night.
Suddenly and unexpectedly, it came to an end. Clarkson was taken out of the game mid-way through the third quarter. The Lakers said their number one goal for the remainder of the season was to give Clarkson as many minutes as possible. Yet, in a situation where he was having a career night and the team was finally playing a strong third quarter and they were in position to defeat a top ranked team on the road, Clarkson went to the bench at a crucial moment.
When he sat, Lakers radio announcers (John Ireland, Mychal Thompson) were stunned and very critical. They knew the team had to finish the quarter strong, and they worried that Clarkson’s momentum and rhythm would be broken. Predictably, the slide started as soon as he left and the lead was lost.
When Clarkson finally returned to the court in the fourth quarter, he had cooled off. His rhythm had been broken, and he could not get it back after sitting. It happens all the time. Great coaches know you don’t take a player out of a game on his career night when he is still in a good groove, especially a young player like Clarkson who never seems to tire and could play all night if the game lasted that long.
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After the game, Scott credited Tony Allen for putting the clamps on Clarkson when he returned to the floor in the fourth quarter. The Lakers media corps let him get away with this half-truth. After Scott made this statement in his post-game interview, everyone started talking about Allen’s great defense. Not once in the post-game interview(s) or in articles written about the game did the media question why Scott took Clarkson out of the game prematurely in the third quarter – though these same commentators were apoplectic about the decision at the time.
That was not Scott’s only poor coaching decision in the Memphis game. Among others, with three minutes left, and the Lakers still very much in it, Scott took Davis out of the game and replaced him with Carlos Boozer.
Because of his poor defense, Boozer has rarely played at the end of games all season. Yet, in this crucial moment of an important game, Scott decided to replace the Lakers best defender with one of its worst. Boozer played poorly after replacing Davis, and the Lakers collapsed in the last three minutes as they have done nightly in recent games. Once again, the media did not question Scott about his questionable substitution after the game.
The truth is, Scott makes so many bad decisions in virtually every game that one has to wonder, what in the world it going on? How could he justify starting and playing Sacre and Ryan Kelly so many minutes this season when neither of them has any possible future on an improved Lakers squad? Wouldn’t it be smarter to give Davis and Tarik Black more playing time?
Davis has been on the team all season. He has done well, but his playing time has been so uneven that we really don’t know if we have seen his ceiling or if he could be even better playing 35 minutes a night in a consistent rotation. Until the last game, when he played extended minutes, Black had barely played at all this past month.
The Lakers’ D-League team has some intriguing players. Roscoe Smith, for example, is a big guy with skill who can play small forward, a position where the Lakers have needed help desperately all season. He was one of the last players cut from the team this past preseason and has enjoyed a solid year with the Defenders averaging 19.2 points and nearly 12 rebounds per game. He is leading the D-League in double-doubles.
Wouldn’t it be smart right now to find a way to add Roscoe Smith to the roster and give him some minutes, rather than continuing to play Kelly at small forward which serves no purpose and where he has been horrible?
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Scott always gets a pass from the media. He gets puffball questions in post-game interviews and because he is never seriously challenged, we never get any true insight and are left to speculate about what is really happening. There are two main theories: Either Scott is trying to lose or he is a really bad coach.
The problem is, if we take him at his word, Scott is not trying to lose. Much has been written about the team’s lack of talent, but in truth, there is some talent on this team. They have stayed in many games, especially since the All Star break. They are in a position to win at the end, but they never do, and one must ask why? Is it only because they don’t have a “closer,” which is Scott’s excuse, or is there another reason?
Why is Davis, who is arguably the Lakers’ best player and certainly the best defender, always on the bench at the end? Do the Lakers have any set plays they can run with time expiring? How about calling a time out to get organized and call a special play?
Mike D’Antoni once did that and had Wesley Johnson receive a lob pass at the rim from out of bounds resulting in in a dunk and a stunning Laker victory as time expired. Another time, in Houston, D’Antoni drew up a special play that allowed Steve Blake to get off a last second shot over Dwight Howard’s outstretched arms to win the game.
Why doesn’t Scott ever do those things? The Lakers have looked disorganized all season on offense. Could it be that the coaching staff is contributing to, or responsible for, the late game lapses?
Here is the question on the mind of many Laker observers: Is Scott a great actor who, despite his denials, is really trying to lose, meaning he has done a great coaching job this year? Or is he just a really bad coach? This raises a second question once thought to be unimaginable: Would the team have been better off sticking with D’Antoni as their coach instead of hiring Scott?