Lakers (10-14) vs. Suns (6-16) - Dec 9 - 7:30 PM PST

[The Prodigy]

As good as he's been this year, I'd sell high on Lou if we can get a solid 3-and-D wing for him. His value will never be higher.

As bad as Clarkson has been, I'm not ready to give up on him yet. He's still young and talented. Give Luke some time.

[Landsberger]

Just watched the last few games (been out of the country) and it's clear that the team is pressing. Other than Lou and Moz they are all pressing and out of their previous rhythms. Clarkson is the most glaring example but he isn't the only one. The second unit was comfortable when the first unit was complete. Maybe it's a simple as getting the first unit back...... maybe not. Clarkson is a scorer and has that mentality. He's streaky and seems to play at one speed most of the time. He is what he is. I think he can improve some but he's closer to his ceiling than a few others on the team for sure.

Ingram needs a ton of work. He's OK on the defensive end but his offensive game is really not there. Yes he's young but objectively a 2nd overall pick should be able to have some effectiveness on the offensive end....19 or not. He's not ready physically and he really needs a lot of work on the offensive end.

Currently this team is somewhat being held hostage to it's surprising early success. They are pressing and no one other than Lou looks comfortable. This is what happens to young teams. I was never thinking playoffs with this group anyway so the early success was a huge surprise. This stretch is injury induced for sure but it may be that this team is no longer sneaking up on anyone anymore as well.

If we're looking to trade anyone I'd go with Lou and/or Young. Get pieces to fill in the gaps. Let the young guys play out a season in this system before selling on any of them. It's not like we're close to contention again. This is going to be a multi year process and my guess is that the next team that truly competes will have 2 or 3 of our current squad at most. Not unlike the 94-95 teams which were a lot better than this one. To get back into contention only a couple of those guys survived to be on teams going deep in the playoffs.

[tugs]

“We just have to figure out how to get easy baskets. Stop rattling on the defensive end, start from there and just hold our hand on that.”

Oh JC. You just know what to say but when game time comes there's nothing to be found.