Is The Laker Offense Too Loaded?

Watching the Lakers at times this season reminds me of my kids on Christmas Day.  Between my wife and I, grandparents, and aunts/uncles - our home resembles a Toys-R-Us after being leveled by an F5 tornado each Christmas.

From remote control cars to riding toys to characters from the latest hit animation film - our house is bursting at the seams with toys.  No sooner do I assemble one toy, before I start to hear, “Daddy, Daddy put this one together!”  And before the Christmas turkey is even carved, most of these toys they couldn’t wait for me to put together and play with are tossed aside, and never seen or head from again.

Such is the life of a two and a five year old – too many toys and not enough hands.  Sort of reminds me of the Lakers – a wealth of offensive talent but not enough balls to go around.

The most dominant perimeter player of his time, two 7-footers with tremendous skill and talent, perhaps the most versatile power forward in the game today, and a one-time Defensive Player of the Year with a 16 point per game career scoring average.

Basketball purists would tell you it’s easy – play the game inside out allowing  Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum to establish interior superiority, but there’s a certain number 24 in Purple and Gold whose considered by many to be the best shooting guard ever – not named Michael Jordan.

The fusion of Kobe Bryant with Bynum and Gasol often presents a conundrum the Lakers have had trouble solving this season.  The Lakers offense often looks more confused than the title character in Sybil – with Kobe in the starring role.

Trying to figure out which Kobe will show up at the beginning of each game is akin to Chinese Arithmetic.  Will he look for his shot right away or allow his talented big men to find their rhythm early?  With such an embarrassing array of talent, should he be more facilitator or Mamba?  At times I don’t think he knows much less Phil Jackson or his teammates.

Despite all the maturing Kobe has done over the past few years – at his core – he is still the supremely confident Alpha Male who believes he can get it done all by himself, and his Lakers teammates are most useful when starting games 5-5 from the field.  A fumbled pass, a couple of missed bunnies, or any general sign of weakness will often transform a more sharing and giving Kobe into “give me the ball and get the hell out the way” Kobe.

The Lakers have lost 3 of 4 which included 3 straight for the first time since the Gasol trade, and it apparently has Pau a little ticked off.  The normally reserved Pau Gasol had this to say after a tough loss in Orlando:

"We haven't been playing with a good flow out there offensively and it takes a lot of people out of their rhythm," Gasol said. "We need to figure out how to move the ball a lot more so there's a flow out there, there's a rhythm.""Kobe's a great player," Gasol said. "We have to find balance as a team, as a unit out there. Kobe's a great player and he's probably the best offensive player out there. We understand that ... But at the same time, we need to find that balance and we need to find balance with our interior game developing, it a little more and using it a little more and moving the ball and changing sides more because, that's the triangle, that's what it does ... We need to get focused on that a little more. To find that balance, to find that flow."

Gasol also voiced his concerns about lack of touches after a loss at Utah in December.

Translation:  “Kobe you have two exceptional post players, how about giving us the damn ball!”

While the Kobe vs. Laker bigs drama plays itself out, Lamar Odom and Ron Artest are often left with balcony seats to this maddening production.  Here are two guys capable of being great wingmen on most other teams being reduced to mere afterthoughts hoping for the leftover scraps from the Bryant-Gasol-Bynum dinner plate.

The talent the Lakers start each game with may be unmatched in the rest of the NBA with five of the six players at the top of the rotation capable of filling out a pretty formidable starting unit in most H2H Fantasy Basketball leagues, but getting them to all play to that level together may ultimately prove to be the real Fantasy.