The biggest story of the NBA season so far has been the poor start of the LA Lakers and the ensuing firing of Mike Brown and appointment of Mike D’Antoni.
It will be interesting to observe the decisions D’Antoni makes in handling the star-studded team he has at his disposal.
From the outside looking in, his main task will be to come up with a system that allows Kobe Bryant to make the most of his time on the court.
As guys like Bryant (34) and Steve Nash (38) get older, it becomes more difficult for them to play extended minutes for 13-15 games per month.
Therefore, giving Kobe the opportunity to maximise his time on the court and improve his points per minute will be a high priority.
From there, it’ll be a balancing act, as using Dwight Howard effectively will also be crucial. The NBA is all about post ups and pick and rolls – they are the two main aspects because everything else is in isolation.
The Lakers will need to give Howard plenty of post touches, but not just by lobbing it in. They’ll need to utilise what Nash does best, which will involve him dragging the defence away from the basket and to then finding ways to post up Howard.
Despite his age, Nash is certainly still good enough to be able to find players because of his intelligence, feel for the game and ability to be able to use the pick and roll to create
The challenge will of course be to ensure that Kobe is still getting multiple touches and being isolated. If the Lakers just stick to pick and rolls, the downside is that Kobe doesn’t get the same opportunities. Again, it comes back to getting the most out of him while he’s on the court.
Like any good offence, it’s all about balance.
From a franchise perspective, the Lakers have done the right thing bringing in a coach from the offensive side. Obviously there was talk about Phil Jackson returning to the job, but a key criteria for being an NBA coach is you’ve got to have the passion.
The NBA season is massive and the pressures associated with it are massive as well. It’s a full on job.
It didn’t seem like Jackson came out and said anything to suggest he was passionate about wanting the job. In the reports I read, it was all about his potential availability and more about the money than it was about the opportunity to go back and do it again.
If you’ve had the success that Jackson has, you can be forgiven if your motivation changes somewhat.
For D’Antoni, this is obviously a massive opportunity. He’s never coached a high profile team with such high profile players as Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant, so he’s obviously going to be passionate about the opportunity.
I don’t think the Lakers will win this season’s championship, because the Miami Heat should win it again. They got a taste of it last year and their two superstars are at the perfect age to dominate.
In saying that, the Lakers will turn it around from the way they’ve started. They’ve got too many quality players and too many quality veterans to not push for the Western Conference title.
Shane Heal is the current coach of the NBL’s Sydney Kings. He played NBA basketball for the Minnesota Timberwolves and San Antonio Spurs and represented Australia at four Olympics.
Follow him on Twitter: @ShaneHeal
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