erudite23 wrote: I take it, is the general perception?
I think the general perception with the manic game by game reactionary crowd would be yes. I think the general perception among the guys here who see a long term strategy in building a team is ambiguous at this point. The potential is there and whether Lyles can become that guy is up in the air.
After all it all comes down to shooting and driving with Lyles. His interior defense and rebounding will never be great but his ability to move and pass are there. This translates into hopefully a good perimeter defender and a facilitating big who can put the ball on the floor. If he becomes a knock down perimeter shooter then we are in business.
The laws of limiting returns put Lyles in a pretty good spot IMO with the emergence of a league focused on small ball and stretch 4's. He has length, he has movement and he has awareness. We have 2 awesome rim protectors and zero stretch 4's so Lyles is the guy who is going to make or break the contending for the championship IMO... at least as far as the bigs are concerned. He is much more suited for this position than Favors (although Fav is really pushing his perimeter D and shot to a high level) or Rudy or even Booker and Kanter.
The naysayers look at a young rookie with limited minutes and scream and yell but who gives a f*** what these guys say anyways? It should be interesting to see if Lyles starts to get confidence and rhythm with in this offense that basically runs the passing game with bigs on the perimeter. Rudy and Fav pose zero threat there. It stagnates the offense as they hold the ball and make a pass to a wing that is usually tightly contested and moves the ball into a position that isn't an improvement with the clock winding. Lyles can give you that threat hopefully and open things up a little and make the offense more fluid and much tougher to defend. With Rudy going down it's time to see if Lyles has what it takes.
lol
