Eric Pincus on why the team can't win without Nash & Gasol: "A role player, a guy who’s not established in the league, can play way above his head for a week to two weeks…and then, they drop back to the median, that’s just what we’ve seen. The Lakers had Nash go down, they had Darius Morris come in, well, Steve Blake went down and then they had Darius Morris come in, and he played pretty darn well, for a second year guy who would probably be in the D-League if he wasn’t starting for the Lakers for two, or three, or four weeks. But, then, reality hit, the guy’s not ready yet. So they went with Chris Duhon, and Duhon had a couple of great games. But, then, oh yeah, Duhon was the same guy who the Magic wouldn’t put on the floor for a couple of years. It’s just reality. These guys can play really good for a week, maybe two. And, what happens is that, over time, the more you ask of these guys, the worse they’re going to get. It’s going to be progressively worse, and worse, and worse, and that’s what we’re seeing. Until you get the talent…and, I tell you, it’s like Lakers fans are begging for me to blast the team, and say that D’Antoni’s horrible, that everybody’s horrible, and that Jim Buss is horrible, and everything’s going to hell. And, if you give in to the knee-jerk reaction, yeah, it certainly seems that way. I just really think this is a team that has a lot of potential to be an elite team, still. Just, if you’re not playing with these guys (Nash and Gasol), you’re going to be terrible."
