Fl_Flash wrote:dice wrote:tie knee sample size
he shot 3 per game in college and made 67%. kinda hard to develop a rhythm when you're not getting there. I also didn't mention that he's missed a lot of games each year. he simply hasn't taken many FTs in the nba at all. now, that's obviously a result of lack of aggression, possibly due to not wanting to go to the foul line, so that's a problem
his TS% went from 44.4 to 48.7 in his second year. another jump and he's at least no longer a scoring liability
I tried not to respond to this, but I simply have to...
Lonzo shot 67% from the line in college. Not exactly a great percentage - especially for a back court player. Then he shoots less than 50% in the pros (supposedly a tie knee sample size). Looks like he's trending downwards.
did i argue otherwise? he's clearly declined as a pro. i'm merely saying that he's not the lost cause that people seem to be making him out to be
What do we have next... Ah, developing a rhythm as a free throw shooter.
Let's unpack this one.
nothing to unpack. very, very straightforward. when you rarely get to the line, you can't work out kinks that are obviously related to performance anxiety
There are around 450 players in the NBA. Every single one of them has the same opportunity to "get in a free-throw rhythm". For the vast majority of these 450 players, they have the ability to at least make half their free throw attempts. Lonzo can't.
again, this is about working one's self out of a funk. the only comparison that can be made is to others in a FT shooting funk. if you'd like to track down examples of players working themselves out of a funk while rarely getting to the line, feel free. i'm sure they're out there
This begs another question - are free-throws harder in the NBA than in college? I mean, he's missed a lot of games (well come back to this gem) and so that stands to reason that he misses a lot of free throws. You cite that he hasn't taken many free-throws in the NBA. I was unaware that free-throws were THAT MUCH more difficult to convert in the NBA as opposed to college. Glad that one's been cleared up.
wtf are you talking about?
nobody said FTs are any more or less difficult in college vs the pros. you look like an ass when you pull **** out of your ass
the POINT, which clearly went straight over your head (and ass) is that HE HAS SHOT FTs MUCH BETTER IN THE PAST. and that's important precisely BECAUSE it's no harder to shoot a FT in college
What's next... Oh! True Shooting Percentages. Fun!
He's gone from 44.4% (abysmal) to 48.7% (really bad). He's trending upwards though. In a couple more years, he may hit average. If he can hang in the league for 10 - 15 years, he should eclipse the 75th percentile! Yea Lonzo!
i SPECIFICALLY SAID that ONE MORE SIMILAR IMPROVEMENT would make him...wait for it...
NOT A LIABILITY. that's not the same thing as average, is it? and it sure as hell doesn't take 10-15 years to get there. nor 5-6. he could do it next year. whether he will or not remains to be seen. i'm certainly not betting on it
so what about all of this are you not able to filter through your skull? i did NOT say that he would ever be an average scorer. you pulled yet another thing out of your ass. how much ya got in there?
you are a strawman. a blatant one. setting up arguments that nobody made so that you can knock them off like a 6 year old playing tee ball. and then wave to the crowd. really not much of an accomplishment. but YEA YOU!
since your attention span is so severely lacking, i'll recap the reality that i have already pointed out to you:
1) lonzo's awful FT shooting in the pros has been immensely overstated in terms of importance. firstly, if you're shooting very few FTs, you're not hurting your team much at the FT line. pretty basic concept. secondly, there's no reason to think that he won't significantly improve going forward. based not only on what he has already shown us in college, but also based on the reality that he's had very LITTLE opportunity to improve thus far. two injury plagued years (which has to do with opportunity to play in stressful situations, not his injury affecting FT shooting or an inability to practice - another mistaken narrative on your part) where he has gotten to the line very little while playing. the result: a very small sample size
2) he improved significantly (yes, from truly awful to mere bad - nobody claimed otherwise) overall in his second season. so the prevailing argument that he's hopeless offensively is also completely false, particularly when you factor in that he was OUTSTANDING offensively in college
providing his FT percentages w/o any context whatsoever is intellectually bankrupt. as is making blanket statements about his abilities based on cherry picked numbers. i am attempting to take a big picture look at what it all means going forward in terms of his value as a trade asset. nothing more, nothing less. everything i have said is completely reasonable
lonzo ball shot 48 FTs this past year. do you have any comprehension of how tiny a number that is? here are the FT attempts totals and percentages for nick anderson in three consecutive seasons:
240 69%
94 40%199 64%
so did nick anderson become a bum all of the sudden that middle year? and then magically return from the depths of bumness the following season? or was there a sample size issue? note that he took TWICE as many FTs that year as lonzo took this past year
lonzo goes 20 for 48 this season and people throw their hands in the air because his already bad shooting numbers from the previous season fell even further. unfair. had he gone 30 for 48 (over 60%) i can guarantee fans of his would be saying "see, i told ya he'd get a lot better." they too would have been overvaluing a very limited sample size. and i would've called them out on that as well. because i'm a reasonable human being
by the way, lonzo as a freshman in HIGH SCHOOL went 61 for 75 from the line (81%). as a senior he went 104 for 130 (80%). there is very obviously a psychological issue going on here. again, no guarantee that he'll ever snap out of it (shaq didn't), but to assume that what he's shown as a pro is what we can expect going forward is foolhardy
the donald, always unpopular, did worse in EVERY state in 2020. and by a greater margin in red states! 50 independently-run elections, none of them rigged
