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Wait I just noticed Valentine is on his last year according to the machine. Why we want that unless we know he returns?
Heya guys, just wanted to point out how damn good Lonzo has been this month.
https://www.espn.com/nba/player/game...421/lonzo-ball
Check his Feb %'s
Has he been good or has his stats been good?
People often see those things as two in the same, but they are not. the ball goes in sometimes. Sometimes it doesn't. That doesnt mean you played well on the nights it happened to go in and poorly the nights it missed by 4 inches
@mcnamara247
What I'm seeing on the court with Lonzo is enough for me to think he's worth matching, I mean if some team maxes him maybe I'd balk, but I'm ok giving him a Bledsoe level contract or Julius Randle type contract, totally fine.
I get your point but at the end of the day efficiency counts towards winning and Lonzo showing he can be efficient scoring the ball (which has been the major flaw to his game) is a very healthy sign.
If you can pull Duncan Robinson from the Heat, you gotta do it. He's in a different class of shooter than all but 3- 4 people in the league. https://t.co/6ezmW3wEzR
— Shamit Dua (@FearTheBrown) February 19, 2021
If there is any truth in this whatsoever, it must be pursued.
I would trade Lonzo for Robinson in a heartbeat.
Basketball.
He's played in 25 games for us so far this year.
In about 15 he's been bad-to-awful. In about 10, most of them very recently, he's been pretty good. That's just looking at box scores.
In reality, some of those ''good'' games have actually been games filled with poor decision making and baffling shot selection, they've just happened to go in on those nights. Similarly, some of those ''bad'' games were actually good games where the shot just didn't fall.
But overall I think it's fairly safe to say that Lonzo has been about 50/50 terrible/good so far this season. It's 25 games. This comes after he was bad for the hefty majority of last year.
I think he would have to be extremely good for the rest of the season to warrant anything approaching $20m, because he's been so up-and-down in his career so far that I have basically zero faith in him to be consistent until I've seen it happen for an extended period of time: he gets no good-faith belief from me, I need hard proof. And of course, then you run that risk of him not doing it and you losing him for nothing cause you passed up the deadline waiting to see if he worked it out.
In my opinion Lonzo is and should be part of the core. Zion is the generational megastar, BI's strength is on the offensive side and Lonzo can balance that with the defensive excellence he has proven capable of as well as being a highly efficient shooter (I think his much improved stats across the board, and improved form are both legit) with a superb passing game.
Before we consider ditching Lonzo I would rather we shift him to shooting guard where his skills fit best with what the team needs, and trade for a capable point guard who can run the offence without being a ball hog. I'm thinking of a vet who doesn't need to prove anything, say, for example George Hill. He can run the point guard capably, he has decent height 6'4", can defend and is a legit sharpshooter. (trade example Meli and Jax to OKC for Hill, we could add a pick if needed) Hill/Lonzo/BI/Zion/Adams would be extremely efficient scoring and potentially decent on defence.
The next thing is to continue to improve the bench so it doesn't suck the life out of the starters, helping them to maintain energy and effort all game. We've already upgraded with HGZ and Kira both of who show effort and consistency and a positive net rating. Bledsoe is an instant upgrade over current Redick and might get his defensive mojo back as a 6th man. If we can trade Redick for a solid wing backup we should do it. And three cheers to Josh Hart, demanding accountability on and off court.
I've missed a few games, looking forward to watching today's match. Let's go !
Just another Kiwi basking in the reflected glory of Steven Adams....bask bask...
I think that what a lot of people aren't realising (or are realising, and just choosing to avoid) is the fact that the question isn't really whether a player might be good or not, what's more important is whether or not they'll be good enough to warrant the pay they'll demand.
Like, if Lonzo and Klutch came to us and said ''Lonzo is willing to resign, and he'll do it for $5m a year, three years with a team option'' then of course you take that. That's almost no price at all, it's not that long, and it gives the team max flexibility: he's clearly worth that price.
Alternatively, if they come to you and they say ''Lonzo is willing to resign, but he'll only do it if you max him'' then I think even his supporters would generally agree that would be an absurd overpay.
So you can't just decide in the abstract whether Lonzo is worth keeping, you have to decide what price you're willing to pay to keep him. Everything we're hearing is that his asking price is relatively high, at least high enough to give the FO pause for thought. Now, this is pure speculation here with no evidence to back it up, but that says to me that he's probably not taking any less than other high draft pick second contracts which, if you look at guys who went behind him in his own draft class like Jayson Tatum, Bam Adebayo, Donovan Mitchell, and OG Anunoby, is probably at least $19m (OG's contract's yearly value).
That's a lot of money for a gamble.
I would suspect you are right in that, if I were Ball, I would be looking at the Anunoby contract. 4 years/$72 million, or $18 million a year. Kennard got 4 years/$56 million, so he will certainly get more than that. So, the Pels would probably like to get him for something closer to 4 years/$64-$68 million, or $16-$17 million a year.
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