PJax Describes Kwame: "Awful" "Terrible" <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">DALLAS ? As the Lakers' present season inched further toward failure with a fourth consecutive loss - 102-87 to the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night - their hopes for the future nose-dived with the worst game of Kwame Brown's dreadful first Lakers season. "It was awful," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said of Brown's performance. "He gave us a terrible game. He just didn't give us any productive minutes at all." For the second consecutive game with center Chris Mihm injured, Brown came up small. He paid for it after halftime, when Jackson benched Brown and went with veteran small forward Devean George. Just as in the second quarter when the Lakers made up ground with Brown never leaving the bench, they got hot and actually took a lead for the first time in three games, 66-64, on two Lamar Odom free throws with 2:56 left in the third. At that point, Jackson decided to rest George and Smush Parker for Luke Walton and Sasha Vujacic. The Lakers' lead was gone nine seconds later, and Dallas went on a 12-2 run to regain control. Lamenting his decision, Jackson said: "A dumb coach put the wrong substitutions in. Strategically, it was a bad move on my part. The guys went in the ballgame and didn't give us any help." When Jackson started the fourth quarter with Brown in and Kobe Bryant out, Dallas went on a 7-0 run to take an 83-68 lead. Brown played 14:12 and committed four fouls. His only field-goal attempt was a rushed layup that missed the rim entirely. He missed his only two foul shots. As the Lakers' highest-paid player behind Bryant and Odom at almost $8million this season, Brown isn't even showing enough potential to think that he could become part of the team's future foundation. On the bright side for the Lakers, Brian Cook made a case for replacing Brown as the starting power forward once Mihm's sprained right shoulder heals. For the first time in Bryant's past 27 games, someone else led the Lakers in scoring - with Cook scoring a career-high 28 points on 12-of-16 shooting. Cook alluded to how starting helps his legs stay warm, and his jumpers for the first time made the Lakers look like a team with a workable plan against defenses swarming Bryant. "They were stacking that side with Kobe," Cook said. "I was just waiting over there on the weak side." Bryant made just 5 of 22 shots in a 24-point game, a major drop from his 43- and 62-point outings in earlier victories over the Mavericks. Dallas jumped to a big early lead with Bryant shooting 2 for 7 in the first quarter and his teammates shooting 1 for 10. "They did what we've been seeing this whole trip," Bryant said of the Mavericks, "which is run and trap me, send three guys over, another guy behind." ODOM'S EFFORT Odom missed all four of the shots he took in the first quarter, but he wound up with 14 points, seven assists and six rebounds in a 39-minute effort despite his rib-cartilage injury. He called it "easily the most pain I've ever played in." Odom needed help after the game putting his dress shirt on. He said he viewed the contest as akin to a playoff game. Asked why, he said: "We fell to eighth place, and the (All-Star) break is almost here. We're playing a team that's playing really well; we're playing really bad."</div> Source Kwame Brown for the most part has been awful all season long, yet PJax continues to start him. I'm hoping Ronny Turiaf can make an impact for the Lakers on the frontline defensively.
I haven't seen Kwame play that much this season, but I don't understand why people think he's a great athlete. His arms don't seem particularly long to me, and he doesn't get up very high even on dunks. He has extremely small hands, which causes him to fumble the ball a lot. He's a subpar rebounder as well, going by rebound rate. People said a change of scenery would be good for him, but he's having his worst season as a pro this year going by PER (after a career low PER last year). Things don't look good for Kwame's future.
What is Kwame Brown doing in the NBA? He gets bullied by players smaller than him, constantly gets beaten to the rebound by every player he comes across, he has ranging spanning 4 foot and he can't hit a lay-up. How do you get into the NBA when you can't even score a lay-up? The Lakers have three options: 1). Send Kwame into the 9th grade 2). Send Kwame to the NDBL 3). Send Kwame to the WNBA He does more damage to our own team when he is playing. Bynum is already better than Brown. Kwame is so poor, I would start Sasha Vujacic ahead of him as power forward.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting durvasa:</div><div class="quote_post">I haven't seen Kwame play that much this season, but I don't understand why people think he's a great athlete. His arms don't seem particularly long to me, and he doesn't get up very high even on dunks. He has extremely small hands, which causes him to fumble the ball a lot. He's a subpar rebounder as well, going by rebound rate. People said a change of scenery would be good for him, but he's having his worst season as a pro this year going by PER (after a career low PER last year). Things don't look good for Kwame's future.</div> He doesn't have small hands, that is a myth. Kwame can palm the basketball just fine. The reason why Kwame fumbles a lot of passes is hand strength and nerves. He gets very spastic when the ball is delivered to him and this nervous energy leads to mistakes. He needs to slow himself down and learn how to adjust to the defense. Right now Kwame has a preconceived move he wants to do when he gets the ball and doesn't even look at how the defense is set. You're right, Kwame is not athletic at all. I think scouts confused his speed for being athletic. Kwame has very quick feet for a man his size, but he doesn't have the athleticism to take advantage of it. He cannot adjust in the air and control his body like a Dwight Howard or Amare Stoudemire. He's also not much of a leaper either. He can explode on the drive, but doesn't know how to finish strong around the rim. He has no idea how to maximize his length and play "BIG." The worst part about Kwame is his work ethic. Physically he has ALL the tools to dominate on the basketball court, but he'll never put in the work to learn how to get all the physical gifts he has, working in unity. If he doesn't drastically improve by next season, I think Kwame will be out of the league by the young age of 25.
Although everyone (including myself actually) said Kwame needed a scenery change, L.A. was probably the worst team he could have gone to. Kwame is not a very smart player and is the kind of guy that needs plays for him, and the triangle does everything but that for him. When he gets the ball down low he has to create for himself, but the offense makes it very complicated for him. Usually when a big man gets the ball the team clears the interior for him to go to work. However, in the triangle they always have a man run through the middle to set up a different set of the triangle and I actually believe that is one of the flaws giving him a hard time. When that teammates collapses into the middle it puts a lot of attention on Kwame and makes the paint very crowded. The effect is that Kwame doesn't have space to oporate and often fumbles the ball away or has to pass the ball out. I've been paying close attention to this and believe this is one of the biggest reasons he has had such a bad offensive season. On defense he is still working very hard, and his he does a pretty good job rebounding, whether his numbers say that or not. Most of our 2nd chance points are also either grabbed by Kwame or tipped to a teammate by him. Although Kwame is starting for us he has been in Jackson's doghouse all season, and I believe that hurts him more than anything. The coach analyzes every single move he makes, causing him to always play nervous when actually with the ball on offense. Most of his points come from tip-in dunks and layups after offensive rebounds, and in those situations he is very calm and productive. He only seems to make nervous stupid mistakes on offense but seems very relaxed (but still puts in the effort) otherwise. I would really like to see Jackson take a step back on criticising him and just clear some space for him down low. I don't want him to just tune Kwame out but there are other ways of getting on your players without criticising them. That may work for some players but I believe it only makes Kwame more nervous every time he touches the ball. Although everyone says he has gotten a chance here in L.A. I don't believe we have really given him one. The triangle is complicated enough for a smart player, and Kwame is not that. Give him some simple plays to work down low and clear the paint, and see what happens.
You're absolutely right Phreeze, the Triangle is overly complicated for Kwame Brown. He has to think too, much on offense instead of just playing off instinct. I think Kwame would be a lot more productive coming off the bench. Playing with the second unit would allow him to play with less pressure. He would get better touches with the second unit as well, because Kobe isn't out there dominating the offense. When Kobe is on the floor defenses make it hard for the team to run the Triangle because all the spacing is gone. The Lakers don't have the perimeter shooter to really extend the defense and keep them honest. These defensive schemes just create even more confusion for a player like Kwame and adds pressure for him to finish off of open looks. Playing with the second unit, he won't constantly have to look over his shoulder when he makes a mistake. Also with better spacing and a more conventional defense out there, Kwame can get the ball where he likes it. He's very good at facing up his man from the free throw line elbow, and then exploding to the basket.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting shapecity:</div><div class="quote_post">He doesn't have small hands, that is a myth. Kwame can palm the basketball just fine. The reason why Kwame fumbles a lot of passes is hand strength and nerves.</div> That's interesting. I hear Doug Collins say he has small hands all the time, and since he was his coach I assumed he knew what he's talking about. Maybe he meant he has "bad hands." <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The worst part about Kwame is his work ethic. Physically he has ALL the tools to dominate on the basketball court, but he'll never put in the work to learn how to get all the physical gifts he has, working in unity. </div> But does he really have all the tools, physically? He has the height and speed, I guess, but like you say he's not an explosive leaper and isn't much of a shot-blocking threat. Not exactly what you'd expect from an athletic big man. Maybe people are overestimating his physical gifts.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting durvasa:</div><div class="quote_post">That's interesting. I hear Doug Collins say he has small hands all the time, and since he was his coach I assumed he knew what he's talking about. Maybe he meant he has "bad hands." But does he really have all the tools, physically? He has the height and speed, I guess, but like you say he's not an explosive leaper and isn't much of a shot-blocking threat. Not exactly what you'd expect from an athletic big man. Maybe people are overestimating his physical gifts.</div> Height, speed, strength are the physical gifts Kwame has. What Kwame lacks is coordination, but this can be taught if he's willing to put in the extra work. The main fundamentals Kwame needs to learn, is how to use his length effectively. At 7'0 feet, Kwame doesn't need to be an explosive leaper, he needs to just go through people. Kwame has a strong base already, now he just needs to develop a shooting touch around the basket and be confident enough to dunk when he's in close. I was hoping he could model his game after Jerome Williams for now. Focus on rebounding, position defense, and just playing with non-stop hustle. I'm sure a lot of scouts and GM's invision a lot of the same "potential" when they look at Kwame. However, he just doesn't have the drive to fulfill any of it, and if he fails in LA, I wouldn't be surprised to see him out of the league or signed for the vet minimum for the rest of his career.
