dougthonus wrote:GoBlue72391 wrote:People worth the big bucks don't have their roles and usage fluctuate on a game by game basis either.
I agree, and the Bulls did everything they good for 3.5 seasons to try to put Lauri in position to succeed. After Lauri still didn't succeed, they are now treating him like a player worth the big bucks and have relegated him to a player whose role will fluctuate.
He was put in a position to fail against the Hawks, forced to play a role that doesn't suit him. Given how he was utilized that game, it would have made much more sense to play Theis instead.
Most players whom are fringe / MLE talent types take what minutes they can get and make the best of them and don't expect the team to be built around trying to make them succeed.
That is in direct contrast to the previous two games where we did a great job of utilizing him properly and it seemed like he was getting more comfortable with his new bench role. I mean, what's the logic in playing a guy 18 minutes when he's 8-10 then playing him 27 minutes when he only has 4 shots?
Guys who rely on other people to get shots are always going to have up and down attempts. Personally, I think we've seen Lauri get tired lots of times in the past, four games in five nights, I think Lauri was just gassed and had a poor night. Could the Bulls have gotten him more looks? Maybe, but who cares? You don't argue about how many looks your fringe players get. That's who Lauri is. He's a fringe player. If Coby White gets 4 looks one night or Pat Williams gets 4 looks one night, I don't care about it either.
At the same time, I don't bury Lauri for having a poor game against Atlanta. He could easily bounce back next game. It's just who he is, an offensive gunner that can't create his own shot but can create good offense with help occasionally. Some games he'll be really useful some games he won't.
It's interesting you feel that way because I feel the Bulls did just about everything they could to sabotage Lauri's development. Obviously not intentionally, they were just grossly incompetent. Not just Lauri either, pretty much all of the young players in recent years have been exposed to a less than ideal development environment. Lauri is just the most blatant example.
Fred Hoiberg is a bad NBA coach. He was replaced by arguably the worst coach in recent memory who completely mismanaged Lauri and botched his development. Of course Lauri is to blame as well, but I think it's a real stretch to say the Bulls did everything they could to develop him. There's clearly been a change of culture and an increased focus on player development since AKME took over, and maybe Lauri would be a different player had they been the ones to draft him back in 2017.
Billy Donovan is 10 times better than Hoiberg and 100 times better than Boylen, but while he's ostensibly got Lauri more involved in the offense this season, he's pretty much doubled down on Boylen's view of Lauri as a one dimensional 3 point shooter. The only difference is Boylen used Lauri like a Keith Bogans type (primarily spotting up in the corner) while Billy uses Lauri as a Kyle Korver type (primarily running him off screens for 3s). Lauri is absolutely capable of doing those things, but during his first two years he was by far at his best when he was a high volume, high touches, high usage player who did a lot more than just shoot 3s.
Just take a look at his unassisted 2 point FG% his first two years compared to this year. He actually was pretty good at getting his own offense for a guy his size, but we've almost completely abandoned utilizing Lauri in that manner. Now he's become a system player. What happened to him grabbing the defensive rebound and pushing it up court himself? I can only assume he's been told to cut that out, as I can count on one hand the number of times he's done it the past two years.
Lauri was 2nd on the team in touches per game his rookie year. He was also 2nd in 2018-19 (the FebruLauri year), above even Zach. He was 5th last year and he's 7th this year. That is absurd and the exact opposite of what's best for his development. Lauri is a player who plays better in all aspects the more involved he is. His defense and rebounding alone aren't good enough, but when he's active and involved on offense they reach acceptable levels. If we're going to continue playing Lauri 25+ minutes with a minimal amount of shots and offensive involvement then we can expect more games like we saw against the Hawks.
People like to point to Jerami Grant as an example of a guy taking on a bigger role and running with it, but even now with Grant being the clear cut first option his unassisted 2 point FG% rate is still lower than Lauri's was in the past. Lauri created more of his own offense as a 2nd/3rd year 2nd option big man than Grant is right now as a 7th year 1st option wing.
I think another team will take a chance on Lauri and bump his touches up closer to what they were his first two years and he'll be the player we all hoped he would become and we'll all be kicking ourselves for letting him slip through our fingers. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
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