. |
NAW and Kira in the last 3 games:
- 128 minutes
- 7 turnovers
Basketball.
Jax coming out the shell. Naw coming out the shell. Kira unzipping his wrapper a little.
Last 3 games, win or lose...has been great watches.
If he has it's been inconsistent, if not existent at all.
But I can tell you what Lonzo gives this franchise NAW/Kira doesn't yet...website clicks, eyeballs on LP, and some merchandise sales. And folks from Griff's level on up pay attention to those things. This is a business.
So from that standpoint alone Lonzo will probably get more minutes than he deserves.
At best he'll take Kira's minutes off the bench. But I know it's going to be more than that. Which will urinate me off.
A lot of praise for Kira Lewis Jr. tonight. You get the sense guys aren't just spouting platitudes either. “He’s going to be really good," Brandon Ingram said.
— Christian Clark (@cclark3000) January 18, 2021
Glowing praise of Lewis at the very end
I really enjoy SVG interviews. Just very honest and unfiltered.
Guess whose a 40% 3 point shooter.
Bledsoe.
And unsurprisingly...
Lonzo is a whole 30%.... Bye Felicia Rubio.
I'm glad this board attraction to Ricky Rubio is dead.
Last edited by Taker597; 01-18-2021 at 12:45 PM.
Eh. This Lonzo bashing is getting a little out of hand. I don't think he's a longterm piece either, based on his performance to date, and I certainly wouldn't pay him anything approaching $20 million. But he's shown he can improve aspects of his game and I wouldn't totally discount the possibility that he could come back and play better than he has recently.
The key is achieving some consistency and where he is mentally. The last thing we (or any team) needs is a disgruntled role player who thinks he is a superstar. One thing that has stuck out to me since training camp is that Stan Van and Griff have spoken often of their vision of playing Lonzo off the ball, especially in half court sets as he doesn't drive to the hoop, isn't much of a threat in the pick and roll and not good from the line. Lonzo, on the other hand, still makes a point of referring to himself as "a point guard." It may be he is resisting the effort to make him into more of an off guard and doesn't want that role or doesn't think it's good for his NBA career.
Over his last 3 games, Jaxson Hayes holds a rebounding percentage of 24.7, including a defensive rebounding % of 34.2 and an offensive rebounding % of 16.3...His overall rebounding % and defensive rebounding % lead the #NBA over this span. #WontBowDown
— Pelicans PR (@PelicansPR) January 18, 2021
He is not completely unplayable: as champ details, there's an imaginable role in which he'd probably be actually fairly positive. The issue is that he doesn't seem to have any interest in playing that role, and instead forces himself into a position where he is clearly a negative.
The issue is in terms of role, opportunity cost (every minute you play him at PG is a minute you can't give Kira or NAW), and the impact he has on the team situation. He's not been very good this year, and that's just the reality of the situation. He wasn't very good last year either. Or the year before. At some point when a player continuously shows you nothing across various teams, coaches, team contexts, and roles, you have to just cut loose.
Everyone's said it: maybe when he's 26 or 27 he figures it out and starts dialing back the negatives and becomes a positive roleplayer elsewhere using his abilities to their best fit. But I'm not interested in paying him for the 3, 4, maybe 5 years it takes him to figure that out.
Nobody is making him out to be an unplayable bum. The issue is the other guards on this team are better at what this team needs and this team's future outside of Bledsoe.
And even Bledsoe just needs time to acclimate to a new team. He also has been playing very well lately.
Just watching Ben Taylor's latest video on Shaq's peak.
Fun fact: during the Lakers 3-peat, Shaq did not take a single shot outside of 15 feet in the playoffs.
Turns out that if you're a historically dominant interior scorer who can do work off the ball, you can be very good in the playoffs without jumpers. Wild.
There are currently 4 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 4 guests)