Lauri appreciation thread - Bye GarPax era

[dougthonus]

When you look at the Bulls monetary outlays for this season, its well spent money. Only really Coby sticks out as a misuse of funds.

I don't get this, every team in the league would love to have a Coby White on his rookie contract as a bench player. Lou Williams put up the same numbers and got more money from six different teams for ten years in a row, and Coby's half a foot taller and considerably stronger.

I understand some angst over his inability to run an NBA offense as a 20 year old kid, but "misuse of funds" is ridiculous.

Coby is your 4th guard. Ball, Lavine, Caruso.

He is one of the highest paid 4th guards in the NBA on a team that is really questionable at the 4 spot. That's a misuse of funds. I'm not beating up AKME too much over this because no team allocates money perfectly but if someone goes over the money versus role, Coby is the one that sticks out.

Just to add: Its actually DJJ but he is a 1 year expiring the team had to take on to facilitate a trade. I overlook that one.

I'm not sure Coby's role is smaller than Caruso's role, and Caruso makes more and we went out further on years to get him. I'd say his deal is better than Caruso's for the team relative to what my expectations of each player is.

[dougthonus]

Lauri's performance just reminded me of the first 25 seconds or so of this clip.

Watch on YouTube

[BullChit]

Lauri's performance just reminded me of the first 25 seconds or so of this clip.

Watch on YouTube

Hahaha I totally forgot Favreau was in this movie.

Sent from my SM-G986B using Tapatalk

[BahamaBull]

Lauri will be Lauri...

A 3 here and there, a flashy dunk when you are down by 30...Horrible D, no physicality, no energy and ZERO impact.

Thank god we found a team dumb enough to pay him

[dougthonus]

Lauri will be Lauri...

A 3 here and there, a flashy dunk when you are down by 30...Horrible D, no physicality, no energy and ZERO impact.

Thank god we found a team dumb enough to pay him

I think Lauri is fine. Guys making 16M a year are usually not big impact players. He will have games where he is shooting well and add a lot and other games where he does very little.

[sco]

Lauri will be Lauri...

A 3 here and there, a flashy dunk when you are down by 30...Horrible D, no physicality, no energy and ZERO impact.

Thank god we found a team dumb enough to pay him

I think Lauri is fine. Guys making 16M a year are usually not big impact players. He will have games where he is shooting well and add a lot and other games where he does very little.

I'll say it this way, if he isn't the best he's ever been this year next to Fro and Okaro, he is never gonna be good.

[dougthonus]

I'll say it this way, if he isn't the best he's ever been this year next to Fro and Okaro, he is never gonna be good.

If he performed like last year (high TS%, high volume 3point attempts, good scoring volume) then he's worth his deal. Who knows how the fit will work in Cleveland. Theoretically his spacing should help, but that team may also just be really bad. I don't watch the Cavs enough to know if Garland has good passing instincts, but Sexton certainly isn't much in that regard so he may be in a similar situation of being a guy that requires a good passer and being stuck with Coby White level PGs.

Either way, I'm done worrying about what he will or won't do. I suspect he will be a reasonable value deal for the Cavs and do reasonable things but nothing that I will lose sleep over losing on our team or think "man I wish we had him back". Seems a lot like a guy who came into the NBA a decade too late, in that way he's the anti-Ben Gordon who came a decade too early.

[kodo]

Cavs were 29th in 3P made and 30th in 3P%.
If Lauri just hits a bunch of 3s every game and does nothing else, he'll help that team.

Being the league's worst overall 3P team is a death spiral with the way modern basketball is won. They had to do something.

I'm not sure this is the best environment for his development given Mobley will be doing a lot of things Lauri wants to do, but Lauri at least got the contract he wanted.

[Kurt Heimlich]

There weren't any feelings of "man can't believe we let him get away" watching Lauri play last night. It looked like more of the same old same old. He might make some 3's which are nice when they're falling. He still plays like a guard minus the ball handling and/or play making in a slow footed 7 footers body who doesn't do much else other than spot up for 3's. He's just such a low impact player on the court it jumps off the screen especially contrasted with a "no name" guy like Javonte Green doing what he does opposing him.

The Cavs obviously aren't a bastion for talent identification/development, and the Spurs seemingly passing on Lauri in the DeRozan talks (correct me if there's news to the contray) so that doesn't give me the warm and fuzzies about his future prospects either. There's just so much missing from his game and such a lack of any signs of development to justify paying him that large of a salary. Netting a future protected 1st still qualifies as making lemonade out of some garpax lemon's for me.

[madvillian]

There weren't any feelings of "man can't believe we let him get away" watching Lauri play last night. It looked like more of the same old same old. He might make some 3's which are nice when they're falling. He still plays like a guard minus the ball handling and/or play making in a slow footed 7 footers body who doesn't do much else other than spot up for 3's. He's just such a low impact player on the court it jumps off the screen especially contrasted with a "no name" guy like Javonte Green doing what he does opposing him.

The Cavs obviously aren't a bastion for talent identification/development, and the Spurs seemingly passing on Lauri in the DeRozan talks (correct me if there's news to the contray) so that doesn't give me the warm and fuzzies about his future prospects either. There's just so much missing from his game and such a lack of any signs of development to justify paying him that large of a salary. Netting a future protected 1st still qualifies as making lemonade out of some garpax lemon's for me.

He's added nothing to his game in 4 years. Nothing. In same ways he seems worse. He is a guy that doesn't live and die hoops that's obvious. He likes to go home, be with his family, enjoy the sauna, nothing wrong with that but as a fan you don't want those guys.

[GusFring]

Feels gratifying to watch real basketball being played by the bulls even if one pre season game. It's been a long journey. We won't regret Lauri, his ceiling is elite role player and I don't think he would achieve that here.

[GrowingHorns]

Gonna say same things I shared with some cavs forum.

- Lauri's biggest key to have success in Cleveland is to stay active through games and in between games. if he can do just that AND getting close to his shooting splits from last season with that added volume, he is well worth of his contract
- it will only be seen few weeks into regular season how much of progress with say, mobility and maybe a bit of added things he has been making this summer or not - I saw few pretty nice passes that were bricked last night, so i hope he keeps finding people under the basket and over the perimeter instead of just shooting, and it seems thats what Bickerstaff is going to ai for to make him less predictable and keep defenses on their toes - bc aside shooting or straight drives and soe slashes he hasn't lot of moves he has to improve his passing. If he can add just anything into his hopefully good shooting splits, ha has a chance to exceed his worth printed on paper
- His stance and handle sees still too high and it will cause some turn-overs. It has been a trouble through his Bulls tenure too, but somehow he and his trainees hasn't been able to fix it enough. It's a trouble especially in the post and stationary moments around the perimeter. If Lauri gets balls in motion he do just fine usually
- In defense he will be probably a mix of below average defending and sometimes on better nights average
- Wasn't a good fit in Chicago and all the changes but most likely will help cavs
- And on that Garland thing in above messages_ he is imo better than anyone Bulls had in Lauri's bull tenure. Thadd 2020-21 was the best court vision guy ulls had with Lauri. Oh, and Otto. Sato was ok too, but somewhat limited at times.

[IliketheBullsNBearstoo]

His performances are always like "hey look I can play basketball" and not "hey I'm trying to win this game." He doesn't have it.

[GrowingHorns]

His performances are always like "hey look I can play basketball" and not "hey I'm trying to win this game." He doesn't have it.

Strong hyperbole but got some truth in it. As stated the key factor will in his career to be activity level. He vanished lot of times especially after Boylen era came in, and it feels his best chance to win back some confidence and grow consistency is the new environment and fresh start. NBA has seen plenty of players that has been on and off good and bad nights that ultimately has had a solid career starting games and even being more consistent than in their first rookie contract. Can't know this without a crystal ball.

[WindyCityBorn]

His performances are always like "hey look I can play basketball" and not "hey I'm trying to win this game." He doesn't have it.

Strong hyperbole but got some truth in it. As stated the key factor will in his career to be activity level. He vanished lot of times especially after Boylen era came in, and it feels his best chance to win back some confidence and grow consistency is the new environment and fresh start. NBA has seen plenty of players that has been on and off good and bad nights that ultimately has had a solid career starting games and even being more consistent than in their first rookie contract. Can't know this without a crystal ball.

Cavs suck, he play with two very high scoring guards and young PF they see as their future. He will be forgotten by most of the NBA very soon. He may score his 15 and shoot good splits, but that’s about it.

[MGB8]

I actually thought Lauri looked a touch quicker last night - like towards the end of last season. That's good for him. And he was giving effort, too.

But the reality is that, despite his height, he doesn't have the strength or length to really punish wings who are guarding him. And while his height gives him a bit of an advantage in terms of rebounds and defending smaller players around the rim - he isn't a high volume rebounder and he's not an instinctive enough rim defender even for smaller guys --> he blocks Javonte Green nicely (due to his massive height advantage) but he can't stop Green from getting it back and dunking.

He has a high floor as a player - it just turned out that his ceiling was much, much closer to his floor than we thought after the first two seasons.

[NecessaryEvil]

goodbye Lauri ....

[dougthonus]

The Cavs obviously aren't a bastion for talent identification/development, and the Spurs seemingly passing on Lauri in the DeRozan talks (correct me if there's news to the contray)

The latest news is the Spurs were willing to take him and agreed to a contract, but the Bulls pulled him out (presumably knowing they had a deal in place with Portland which later became the Cavs). Obviously the Spurs weren't dead set on him as the deal still went through with Thad/Aminu/Pick.

[dougthonus]

I actually thought Lauri looked a touch quicker last night - like towards the end of last season. That's good for him. And he was giving effort, too.

But the reality is that, despite his height, he doesn't have the strength or length to really punish wings who are guarding him. And while his height gives him a bit of an advantage in terms of rebounds and defending smaller players around the rim - he isn't a high volume rebounder and he's not an instinctive enough rim defender even for smaller guys --> he blocks Javonte Green nicely (due to his massive height advantage) but he can't stop Green from getting it back and dunking.

He has a high floor as a player - it just turned out that his ceiling was much, much closer to his floor than we thought after the first two seasons.

In the end, Lauri was more or less who we thought he was on draft day. Probably a bit more athletic than we initially credited him for, but on draft day people said a stretch four without a huge ceiling. That's more or less it.

As I said in earlier threads, Lauri will make it in this league for another 10 years if he wants. He can probably earn over 100M dollars. He's not a loser. He's just not a star.

It seems like he's tried to both play bigger and become a stretch five and be a guy who is quicker to exploit matchups at the four and hasn't been able to effectively do either. 10 years ago, he probably would have been a much better fit when the league was going much bigger at the four and he'd have had more quickness advantages.

As it stands now, I think his best bet would to get a lot stronger and become a stretch five, but that's easier said than done, and he may never be enough of a rim protector to pull that off even if he gets strong enough to rebound and defend big men.

That said, still a dude whom will last in the league for a decade longer and make over 100M if he wants to and even though fans are disappointed with his progress, probably still a dude that was roughly worth his #7 draft slot.

[DuckIII]

His performances are always like "hey look I can play basketball" and not "hey I'm trying to win this game." He doesn't have it.

Strong hyperbole but got some truth in it. As stated the key factor will in his career to be activity level. He vanished lot of times especially after Boylen era came in, and it feels his best chance to win back some confidence and grow consistency is the new environment and fresh start. NBA has seen plenty of players that has been on and off good and bad nights that ultimately has had a solid career starting games and even being more consistent than in their first rookie contract. Can't know this without a crystal ball.

Cavs suck, he play with two very high scoring guards and young PF they see as their future. He will be forgotten by most of the NBA very soon. He may score his 15 and shoot good splits, but that’s about it.

I don’t agree with this. I think the Cavs were an excellent landing spot for Lauri. If he doesn’t establish himself there, his career will be a flop.

One of those two guards is an excellent and willing passer, and Lauri blends virtually perfectly with Allen and Mobley. On paper. Plus there will be less pressure on him and he should have the green light on a developing team that needs a stretch big. Not to mention having Kevin Love as a mentor.

If I went down through every NBA roster I’m sure I could find a handful of places he could theoretically fit better than Cleveland, but it would be a very short list. This was an excellent landing spot for him (as an individual trying to make a name for himself, that is).