Welcome to swat it to the cheap seats, and cheer like your hair is on fire. My weekly column of Dikembe Mutombo finger wags, and Stadium shaking cheers. Each week I take something I don’t like and “swat it to the cheap seats“. Then In order to retain balance, and honor the basketball god’s appropriately, we also “cheer like our hair is on fire” for something each week. So, let’s get to it, for week #6.
Last Night Changed Everything
The week I was going to swat the entire Kings organization to the cheap seats. They have been a mess since they chose not to renew Rick Adelman‘s contract back in 2006. They had a fan puke on the floor on Saturday, and then turned around and fired Luke Walton on Sunday. It was easy fodder I thought.
I was also going to cheer like my hair was on fire for LeBron bringing back the silencer. He reminded us who he is in an amazing overtime performance against the Pacers. It was so worthy.
Then Friday night came, and the Kings foiled all my plans. Beating the Lakers in a triple overtime that should never have even happened. It was embarrassing.
I have one person I can clearly place the blame at though. Frank Vogel.
Swat!: Frank Vogel
I have been a defender of Frank Vogel’s. Look, I even wrote a column last week defending him. I gave him a lot of patience in his tinkering with the lineups. There were a lot of Injuries as well, that I also took into account.
Last night though, he had everyone but Ariza and Nunn. He had a Sacramento team that had just fired it’s head coach last week. It was even a home game!!
This is a game that should have been a wire to wire double digit blowout. Instead we Laker fans got raked over the coals in a painful up and down game, once again. The most infuriating thing though is it just shouldn’t have happened.
Swat!: Lineup Insanity
I have been also defending Avery Bradley and DeAndre Jordan, and I will continue to IF they get used correctly. The problem is they aren’t getting used correctly at the moment. I appreciate what they can bring to the table defensively, but they don’t need to be starting. They slow down the offense, and mess up spacing for LeBron and AD all the time.
DAJ does have good chemistry with Russ on the lob, and can sometimes protect the rim. Avery is a good (Not great) on ball defender, and an OK shooter. Those are nice assets, but they don’t need to be eating up starting minutes. They both should be coming off the bench.
Starting them in the third quarter against the Kings almost made the Lakers fall into another third quarter Pit of Despair. Thankfully it turned around when the Lakers went to a small ball lineup. Then it all fell apart again when, up by 13, Frank inexplicably brought DeAndre back in to the game. It of course fell apart. Thousands of voices on twitter cried out. Frank was stubborn and blind though.
So, we’re going to swat Frank Vogel to the cheap seats this week. Sorry Frank, but you asked for this! Get that (Bleep) out of here!
Cheer!: The Hope That Frank Vogel Gets Fired
I feel like I have come to you in mourning today. On this aftermath of such a terrible loss. I admittedly do not have much cheer in me today. I do have hope though. Hope for the future. A future without Frank.
What are they going to do other than hire an assistant to be interim right now? The obvious answer to a lot of people, has been David Fizdale. The less obvious answer that seems to be catching momentum on Twitter though is maybe Phil Handy. No relation to Jack Handey. The word is that he is a more offensive minded coach, and maybe better suited to getting the best out of this team.
I don’t know personally. At this point though either one sounds better than Frank. That defensive mind of just doesn’t seem to be able to adapt to the new personnel he has now.
Changing coaches helped the Hawks turn their season around last year. I think it’s time for the Lakers to take the same chance.
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