PJax has always had a soft spot for Luke Walton and his "high basketball IQ" and ability to pass the ball. PJax felt the team was playing too much one on one basketball the past few games and wanted Luke with the starting lineup to get the offense back on track. I don't mind the move, but I think it's clear to everyone watching the Lakers the problems we have are on the defensive side of the ball. This was a perfect opportunity to insert Sasha, Ariza or Odom in the starting lineup to improve the defensive intensity of our team. Luke tends to play well with the 2nd unit anyways because he can find the open guys in transition and won't hurt you as much on the defensive end. I really want to see the Lakers with Odom-Gasol-Bynum in the lineup together and I also want to see how a Kobe-Ariza backcourt would produce for us. I thought Radman was having a solid season and was shooting the lights out. He was also competing on the defensive end and doing a decent job on help defense. Having him sit on the bench the past two games without any minutes is going to shatter his confidence.
Which is why Phil deserves criticism. You don't start someone, and have him play some of the best basketball of his career, and then all of a sudden bench him and give him zero minutes for two straight games, without even going up to him and talking to him personally about why he was benched. Vlad was actually focused this season, he was stretching the floor, shooting nearly 50% on 3 pointers, and was doing a decent job defensively. Benching him, like Shape said, will only shatter his confidence and break his focus. Luke is a much better passer than Vlad, and runs the offense more efficiently, but all that is negated because defenders just sag off him defensively and give him open looks because they know he cannot shoot.
I don't like the move either because Radman was making strides this season. He really wanted to prove himself to the team after the past two seasons and he was finally contributing consistently for us and spacing the floor. He's been hustling on defense and has been active on both ends. He's one of the few guys who actually moves without the basketball to create scoring opportunities. You're right, teams are sagging off Luke and daring him to shoot. He's racking up assists for us, but he's a two-way liability on the court. Wing players he defends are killing him and taking it right at him. Matt Barnes had a career night with Luke on him and Garcia killed him last night. These guys confidence just sky rocket when they see Luke matched up against them. I think the player who needs discipline is Farmar. He has stopped attacking the rim and is jacking up jumpers again. He needs to be getting to the FT line at least 4 times a game for us and doing damage in the painted area.
Farmar at the FT line is a joke. I told you all about Farmar and how he settles for jumpers. Lets not even talk about his horrid defense. I think he is the worst defender in the NBA, bar none. The only reason he is so loved is because he is a home town kid.
I don't know if I want Farmar and his 64% FT shooting going to the line that much... Though I do agree that Farmar needs to attack more. He needs to go back to how he played in the preseason. He attacked the hoop a lot during the preseason and was playing really well. Hell, at the beginning of the season he was attacking quite a bit. Recently though, he's just stopped going to the hoop and started jacking up ill advised threes all over the place, and that needs to stop.
Yeah his free throw % currently sucks, probably because he's not used to shooting from there. He's only taking two attempts a game, which means he's only drawing 1 foul opportunity per game. Pathetic. It's a shame because Farmar is a good finisher around the rim. We need him to perform at the same level was showing during pre-season and earlier in the year. I'm also worried about our defense from the PG spot. I can't imagine Fisher or Farmar doing anything to slow Rondo down.
Farmar's free throw shooting woes aren't because he barely gets there, he has been bad since he came into the league. He is just a bad FT shooter.
I don't know what's happened to Farmar at the line. His freshman year at UCLA he shot just over 80% from the line and has just fallen off since then.
My thoughts exactly. He seems to shoot his FTs long every time though, so he just needs to learn how to adjust.
