| . |
 |
I absolutely hate Lonzo's game. I don't care if he's shooting mid 30s from 3pt. All those Magic Johnson comparisons when he was drafted, those people were totally wrong. He's Elfrid Payton if Payton thought he should shoot 3s instead of driving to the basket. 11m for next year is too much for him.
I understand we had to do it. I'm not mad that we did. But God, if he doesn't change his game he might actually take an asset to move at this rate.
Completely agree.Originally Posted by Mythrol
It's weird, coming into this season I actually had a fair bit of hope for Lonzo. Obviously I had doubted him previously, I'm not pretending I hadn't, but I guess I allowed myself to over-value his strengths and under-value the damage his flaws could have, and it's really showing.
The defense that he's shown at high levels in the past just isn't there so far this year. He's inconsistent at best, and when he's not on, he's dreadful.
His playmaking in the half-court looks okay-ish, but it's shown no real improvement from last year, and since he's decided to have these games where he launches 5+ ridiculous off-the-dribble 28 footers, his willingness to play secondary passer seems to have dropped as well.
And of course, while his shooting has improved, it hasn't improved nearly as much as it would need to in order to justify his god-awful shot selection. Oh yeah, and he's gotten even worse at driving to the hoop, even more reluctant somehow.
It's pretty dismal at this point for him.
And that's before we even just get to his terrible decision making in general.
Basketball.
I dont believe in net ratings. At all. That is fully dependant on who you share the floor with. Both on your own team and the opposition. It basically a useless stat for an individual player.
Second, defense includes rebounds. You can stop people all you want, but if you cant rebound than your defense is useless.
So 3 rebounds for Hayes in 29 minutes and 6 rebounds for Okafor in 19 minutes.
If they both suck on defense, then I'm choosing the player that can at least rebound the ball and get some of those points back on the other end (Okafor 10 in 19 minutes and Hayes 7 in 29 minutes).
Okay. Not worth the debate.
When Hart is healthy, he should absolutely inherit most of Lonzo's mintues
NAW should get all those minutes back.
I get that NAW's had serious shooting troubles this season so far, but at least he drives and interrupts defenses.
You missed my sarcasm.
I think you got my sarcasm.Yes.
I wish NAW would get a little more run, but his handle has been really loose and even when he does drive his passes are erratic and he gets blocked at the rim more than anyone I've seen. I'm still a huge believer, but if we're still trying to win games, Hart deserves more minutes than NAW
Hey look, I'd be fine with Gray getting Ball's minutes. Lonzo has no head for the game.
I do totally understand that, but based on from when Hart was healthy and playing before, the minutes he was getting were coming from Moore rather than Lonzo. So give Hart all of Moore's minutes, and give NAW back the minutes Lonzo's getting, is my general take. I do totally agree that NAW has had a lot of inconsistency to start the year, that's fair, but I have more long-term faith in him from a play-style perspective than I do Lonzo atm, so if we're gonna invest those minutes, may as well invest them in the more promising dude.
Why does Gentry like Ball?
He is complete ******
One thing I just saw on Twitter was this:Yes, I know this is suuuuuuuper nitpicky and I'm going to get killed for this, but I wish Jrue would pass ahead to the streaking Hayes. Consistently seeking layup passes is what separates good/great from elite passers: pic.twitter.com/d82iNhuW5Y
— Ben Pfeifer (@Ben_Pfeifer_) November 25, 2019
Now, it's totally true that those clips are from the Jazz game, but it did happen a few times tonight as well and in fact has been happening basically every time Jax has played so far this season.
Jax rolls a lot. He rim runs a lot. He very very rarely gets rewarded for that. Jrue's a very good and capable passer, but he's not one of those top tier, elite, top-10-passers-in-the-league kind of guys, and if he was Jax would be getting 3 buckets a night off these easily, and when Zion comes back he'll benefit greatly from those passes as well.
That's one area where Lonzo, if he was able to be trusted as a lead ball handler, would be superior (he does see those kinds of go-ahead passes) but unfortunately you just can't trust Lonzo to run the offense right now whatsoever.
Someone like Jokic, or Trae Young, or Doncic, or Lebron, would be absolutely feasting on throwing those touch-down style passes, either simply as layups or as long-distance lobs.
Jax had 2 of the most rediculous contorted finishes in the paint I've seen tonight
Special
For real, the dude is one of the most fluid and co-ordinated guys of his size I've ever seen. Very few other guys who are listed at 6'11 *in socks* who move anything like that. Runs like a wing at basically 7'0. Absurdity.
When he gets some core strength going? Yeah, cheat code.
See Elfrid Payton.
Elf would be a thousand times more useful than Gonzo
Its not just Jrue. I've seen most of his teammates not pass him the ball leaking out or rim running.
I'm guessing the coaches have really gotten on the team about turnovers, but you would think the older vets would still see the opportunity.
I'm betting 19 year old Zion would see that and make the pass better than most of the team right now.
in the last 3 weeks I been saying come December ill trade lonzo for payton…….payton took the pressure off of jrue and made jrue be selfish and focus on his scoring....payton also drove the ball more to the rim and him and jrue fit better in this offense....
I hope a healthy favors and zion make gentry shorten his rotation to a solid 9 or 10 man group so players can have a good feel for each other on the court to make the defense better....
I pray come January that we can have a healthy team just to see the damage we can do just for month...
I feel like we've been saying that for the past ten years.
Lack of defence don't win games. Bad game all around and Yes - Frank Jackson is playing terribly in the last 3 games.
Few points of interest from this game
- Hayes had 7 screen assists that led to 17 points. Nice
- Hayes also led the team in box outs
- Jrue led the team in deflections (tied with Ingram) and also in loose balls recovered, and in total shots contested
Lonzo is 22 years old in his third year.
If it came down to it, the only discouraging thing to me is Lonzos free throw shooting...and he doesn’t get to the line enough to show me he can kick it up a notch....
...but, everything else about his game tells me he’s still so young.
Anyone remember Steve Nash’s first few years? Phoenix dealt him. Then he went to the Mavs and every positive and negative glimpse you see about Lonzo, it was Steve Nash. He stabilized that Mavs team often and they didn’t realize it Mind you, this was Nash at 27-28 doing that..Lonzo is 22 (Nash came into the league at 22) and you can see the glimpses of the coach on the floor aspect with him often. At 26,27,28 when he’s going up against children, don’t come crawling back.
This era is too quick to give up on young players.
Because Lavar Ball has induced a psychosis across the entire Basketball zeitgeist.
It will be a fascinating story 10 years from now. How a father just through his mouth could alter the perception of a player. I was even hoodwinked because I generally like to root for young men trying to achieve their dreams.
It's why he stays hurt. Because then we'd see how bad he is for more than 2 months at a time.
Lavar thinks the kid will get Max offers. 11 million is even too much for a player whose only value on the court is full court transition passes which make up 3% of the game
Last edited by akhan786; 11-25-2019 at 05:49 AM.
Go compare 22 year old Elfrid Payton to 22 year old Lonzo. Elfrid was the better player so far. It's not even about what Lonzo potentially could develop into, right now he's playing at a level where he doesn't even deserve minutes. The entire reason you take a top 2 pick is because you think how good they will be, no one drafts someone at 2 and then says, "just wait until he's halfway through his 2nd contract he's going to be good".
It's worthwhile to use minutes to see if Lonzo can still mature. Yes, he has been disappointing but I think it's still too early. The light switch still may come on. If the "only" thing we get from the AD trade is this Ingram we are seeing now with further upside potential and Jaxson Hayes as he currently projects via the eye test and early indications, then everyone else can be a colossal bust including all the other picks. The trade was still great trade for us and a huge success.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote