One of the goals for the Lakers, in hiring Mike D'Antoni as their new head coach, was to quicken the team's pace.
Former Coach Mike Brown's style was somewhat plodding, especially as the players tried to execute his hybrid-Princeton offense. Patience now would have paid off later, but ownership decided it wasn't worth the time to find out.
"We have a vision of how we thought this team would play, bringing in a player like Steve Nash," said General Manager Mitch Kupchak. "We thought we could get the ball in his hands a lot, play up-tempo."
Instead, Nash suffered an injury (leg) and the team started 1-4 before Brown was let go.
Once Nash returns and the players acclimate, D'Antoni expects the Lakers to score more than 110 points per game.
"If you've got the best team, why wouldn't you play the most possessions that you can play, if you're the best defensively and offensively?" asked D'Antoni. "Any time the possessions are cut down, then a bad call, missed shot, you've got a chance to lose. We keep the possessions up, to me statistically we've got a lot better chance to win when we're playing a lot of reps. That's the way we're going to try to go."