When the Los Angeles Lakers lost to the lowly Toronto Raptors on Sunday afternoon, there was one positive to take from the deflating defeat: Pau Gasol had his highest scoring game of the season with 25 points – one of his best performances under Mike D’Antoni.
The offensive breakout, however, didn’t win over the troubled coach. In fact, it prompted him to announce the demotion of Gasol to the bench on Monday, in favor of Earl Clark.
The news didn’t go over so well to many in the media, including a miffed Jalen Rose, who didn’t understand the logic behind the move:
The decision to bring the power forward off the bench is confusing not only because he is simply on another level compared to Clark in terms of skill , but also because of what it does to the value of Gasol should the team seek for a trade, as noted by Bill Simmons:
As promised, Gasol came off the bench against the Chicago Bulls on Monday and put up a solid 15 points and 12 rebounds. Unfortunately, it didn’t stop the Lakers from dropping another game – their ninth loss in the last 11 games.
Tweet of the Day: Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade
Mike D’Antoni, from all accounts- both via reports from the media and interactions with people I personally know, is an extremely nice guy, kind hearted guy, who loves coaching. I’ve got no problem with D’Antoni the man. But as a coach- he’s terrible for the pro game. I witnessed his unyielding style of coaching with my favorite team, the Knicks, for the past few years, and it’s extremely frustrating to see. He simply refuses to do anything outside of his comfort zone, and places players in his doghouse, because they won’t adhere to his nonsensical system. For years, the blame was placed on each player that didn’t fit in- because the system was successful if run by the right players, exactly how he desired, because it worked in Phoenix. Well, if he wasn’t going to win with a healthy Stoudemire, Nash & Marion in their primes, Joe Johnson close to it, and the ultimate complimentary players for his “system” in Barbosa, Diaw/Richardson, when was he going to win?
His system and coaching career are like a pyramid scheme. Sure, you can get rich from a pyramid scheme if EVERYTHING breaks right for you. But more often than not, the bottom falls out of it, leaving the investor holding the bag. D’Antoni needs everything to go right for him- perfect pieces for the team, so he can coach. Why can’t he be the one to adjust- ever?
He needs to go to college, where his system would be very effective once he recruits who he wants and they came specifically to play for him. Also, I’m not even going to speak about his obvious defensive deficiencies. He can win in college with this; not the NBA. He’s the problem in LA; and was the problem in NY. Glad people are realizing now.
The thing is I wonder how many Lakers games has Jalen watched over the last three or four years? If he’s watched the Lakers night in and night out he couldn’t possibly really believe that Gasol hasn’t at least somewhat earned finally coming off the bench.
Pau will likely come out of this almost as a martyr because “oh woe is me, Mike ‘A isn’t using me properly” and he’ll get a pass by virtually everyone. Which is unfortunate because it just masks the fact that Gasol has been slumming it/checked out since at LEAST the sweep from the Mavs. The whole Mike ‘A thing is just his latest excuse on why he’s declining/not performing as strongly as he can be.
Gasol has always been an underacheiver/stats filler to some degree. Combined with his inability to do any kind of conditioning (resulting in him getting gassed-pun intended–so fast as well as pushed out of position) puts him in this position every season.
Strong opinions. Thanks for reading, Alek.
I’ve watched a lot of Lakers games over the last 3-4 years. I’ve seen Phil Jackson hold Pau accountable, and they both got the chips to prove it. Since Jackson left, I’ve seen one glorified ass’t coach (Brown) and an NCAA coach (D’Antoni) lead one of the league’s most prestigious organizations to utter failure.
As for the Lakers current situation, I’m a Knicks fan. I’ve seen the D’Antoni soap-opera before. He’s not a pro-coach. Nice guy, but completely clueless.