Mike D'Antoni And His Boneheaded Rotations

We know, Kobe. We know.

This season has just been a nightmare. The Lakers are plummeting in the Western Conference, having dropped from 13-13 to 14-23 and are realistically starting to look towards the possibility of a top-5 draft pick. This team has been pummeled with injuries and are barely able to put up a competent roster and yet, Mike D'Antoni continues to play favorites with the few players he has. Obviously, some of these moves can be traced back to injury and not having anybody else than can man that position, but others have almost no explanation at all. Here are the Lakers' leaders in minutes per game this season:

More than a few things stand out here. Why is Jordan Hill only playing 20.2 minutes a game? Why is your leading scorer, Nick Young, only playing 27.2 minutes per game? Why is Pau Gasol, who is largely considered the Lakers' best player, only playing 30.8 minutes per game? So many questions and no clear answer. To help provide some context, here's the Lakers leaders in PER, as well as other important advanced statistics:

Rk	Player	Age	G	MP	PER ▾	TS%	ORtg	DRtg	OWS	DWS	WS	WS/48
1	Jordan Hill	26	37	748	20.6	.585	119	106	2.1	0.7	2.7	.176
2	Pau Gasol	33	34	1047	17.5	.491	98	105	0.2	1.0	1.3	.059
3	Kendall Marshall	22	9	245	15.4	.609	110	113	0.4	0.0	0.4	.087
4	Jordan Farmar	27	22	456	15.0	.497	99	109	0.1	0.3	0.4	.042
5	Nick Young	28	37	1059	14.4	.540	104	112	1.1	0.3	1.3	.060
6	Robert Sacre	24	23	339	14.1	.525	107	105	0.3	0.3	0.7	.094
7	Chris Kaman	31	20	350	13.9	.500	89	103	-0.4	0.4	0.0	.005
8	Steve Blake	33	21	669	13.3	.533	106	111	0.7	0.2	0.9	.067
9	Jodie Meeks	26	37	1169	13.2	.579	108	110	1.4	0.5	1.8	.075
10	Xavier Henry	22	31	675	12.8	.517	98	108	0.1	0.4	0.6	.041
11	Kobe Bryant	35	6	177	11.5	.505	85	108	-0.4	0.1	-0.3	-0.076
12	Wesley Johnson	26	36	967	10.7	.518	99	108	0.2	0.7	0.9	.045
13	Shawne Williams	27	32	645	9.3	.500	100	106	0.2	0.6	0.8	.056
14	Ryan Kelly	22	15	189	8.4	.528	109	111	0.2	0.1	0.2	.061
15	Elias Harris	24	2	11	7.8	.000	91	108	0.0	0.0	0.0	.023
16	Steve Nash	39	6	135	6.7	.390	87	113	-0.2	0.0	-0.2	-0.065

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table

I'm sure most of you immediately noticed Jordan Hill and his near-elite PER of 20.6, as well as his .176 WS/48 (second among qualifying centers, behind Anthony Davis), as well as his team leading 2.7 Win Shares, despite only playing 20 minutes a game. There is only one player within the Lakers' Top-5 in PER that is playing over 30 minutes a game and that is Pau Gasol, who is averaging a career low 30.8 minutes per game, though I suppose this isn't to be unexpected. Last season, Gasol only played 33.8 minutes per game under D'Antoni, both below his normal 35.7 career minutes per game. Gasol is one of two Lakers who can consistently create his own shot and it's almost criminal how D'Antoni has used him this year, running simple isolations with Gasol and hoping he has the strength, speed or quickness to score on his opponent instead of running subtle off ball screens or pick and rolls to get Gasol in better position, or better yet, having Gasol operate under the Horns set and letting him dictate who gets the ball and where.

Similarly, I cannot fathom how your leading scorer is only getting 27 minutes per game; Young has been their only perimeter player than can create his own shot and I simply do not understand how D'Antoni chooses to give some of Young's minutes to lesser players like Wesley Johnson or (formerly) Shawne Williams. I can understand Jodie Meeks leading the healthy Lakers in minutes; Meeks has been one of the few players to stay healthy all season and has been shooting well this season, but I think it's time to use a more conventional NBA rotation, one that has it's best players playing as close to 36 minutes as possible.

Granted, it isn't really possible to have a rotation among the outside players because only Kendall Marshall, Young, Meeks and Johnson are available to play between the three outside positions (we saw Ryan Kelly get some time at small forward against the Clippers. That should never happen), though this makes me question why Young isn't playing more minutes when there simply isn't anybody else to play. And I haven't even mentioned how Robert Sacre and Chris Kaman have been buried at the end of the bench; D'Antoni isn't playing either of them more than 17.5 minutes per game and Kaman has been basically out of the rotation. D'Antoni has taken a liking to playing a perimeter player at power forward because he does not care about defense or rebounding, which is criminal when you have Hill and Sacre who can both man that position when Gasol isn't out there.

I have long said that D'Antoni is a solid coach; he a very good offensive coach and a below average defensive coach, however he was never right for the Lakers when they hired him and that still rings true. More and more, it is looking like his final season with the Lakers and all I have to say is: Don't let the door hit you on the way out.