RealGM

With the way the Lakers pass the ball-- Javale is bout to have a career high/borderline all star-ish season. Kind of like what CP3 did for Tyson on the hornets .. I've always liked Javale. That Shaqtin a fool stuff totally hurt his rep.. He's so fluid and a hard rim runner-- super athletic. Definitely Lakers 2nd best signing this year.

Man are Lakers in trouble though if (knock on wood) Javale gets hurt.. Still don't understand Maginka's logic by choosing Zu over TBryant.. Zu reminds me of a poor man's Chris Mihm.. (yikes!)

Anyways, Javale is legit . He's someone we should look at trying to lock in long term.

Sent from my SM-N950U using RealGM mobile app

I don’t think he has a chance at all star. But his per 36 mins are gonna look insane!!!

And he might have a 80%+ fg percentage on the season

He is going to get so many easy looks. His only limit will be how many mins he can play.

I think he'll easily lead the league in FG percentage.

God help us if he gets hurt. We have no other player like him. Credit to Magic and Pelinka, because with a minimum deal, that's fantastic and I didn't think he'd get off the bench outside of spot starts against big teams.

Tarik Black would really look sexy with all these passers. He can be an undersized Javale.

the guys are making Javale look like an all-star lol

God help us if he gets injured. Would have been fine with Zubac but he's been trash.

Health.

He's always been one of the most athletic big men in the league,but his career has been derailed by injuries, which prompted him to be traded or waived several times.He obviously looked healthy with the Warriors and right now. But he did have stress fractures in the same left leg, which might always be a risk considering his size and how he plays.

He's also a limited player, really a screen and roll big, although he's a big target for lobs and he runs the floor well.

Defensively, he does get blocks, challenges shots, but he doesn't quite have the defensive impact as elite defensive big men.

He'll be 31 as a free agent next summer, so he's motivated to play for his last chance at a big contract. An obvious reason why he left the Warriors for us.

Considering how tight our money is for Kawhi Leonard, JaVale will probably get a big enough offer that we can't afford. If we get hit with some major injuries early and are likely out of the playoff picture by the trade deadline, I'd definitely flip him to a contender for a 2nd rounder.

this team looks like it could really need Wagner

I'd rather see Zubac, or Julius, out there over McGee. Doesn't offer much unless it's spoon fed.

TyCobb wrote:I'd rather see Zubac, or Julius, out there over McGee. Doesn't offer much unless it's spoon fed.

Watching the Pelicans game, I think it's clear this team is going to miss Randle... He was our defensive identity last season and so far, it looks like we're still searching for that from this squad... Hopefully it can be Stephenson, and/or Ball.

Would love it if we could trade McGee and Zubac and get Randle back, though.

The FO didn't seem to want Randle enough to lose any future flexibility at all. Something there that's below the surface is the only explanation I have.

Zubac is an enigma to me. He has the tools to be decent in stretches but seems to lack the desire. Can we take a few ounces of Kuzma's confidence and give Zu a drip IV?......

As for McGee.... this version of him is better than my recollection of him from years past. He's settled down a bit on defense now... he used to get blocks but he horrible defensively which is common for athletic centers. He's leave his man to chase blocks breaking the defense all the time. He's staying home and waiting for the shooters to get to him now. That said, any offensive set (4 times in 2 games) that leaves him shooting face up 20 footers needs to be erased from Luke's play book.

Landsberger wrote:The FO didn't seem to want Randle enough to lose any future flexibility at all. Something there that's below the surface is the only explanation I have.

Zubac is an enigma to me. He has the tools to be decent in stretches but seems to lack the desire. Can we take a few ounces of Kuzma's confidence and give Zu a drip IV?......

As for McGee.... this version of him is better than my recollection of him from years past. He's settled down a bit on defense now... he used to get blocks but he horrible defensively which is common for athletic centers. He's leave his man to chase blocks breaking the defense all the time. He's staying home and waiting for the shooters to get to him now. That said, any offensive set (4 times in 2 games) that leaves him shooting face up 20 footers needs to be erased from Luke's play book.

The other thing with Randle, is he would most likely accelerate our accent into the luxury tax, and then deep into it when Ingram becomes available for an extension

Kilroy wrote:

TyCobb wrote:I'd rather see Zubac, or Julius, out there over McGee. Doesn't offer much unless it's spoon fed.

Watching the Pelicans game, I think it's clear this team is going to miss Randle... He was our defensive identity last season and so far, it looks like we're still searching for that from this squad... Hopefully it can be Stephenson, and/or Ball.

Would love it if we could trade McGee and Zubac and get Randle back, though.

We gave up 50 ppg in the paint last year. Lets not act like Randle was impressive last year as there was a reason he had no market and has no nba accolades for his career. Hell Randle himself will be lucky to be starting this year since he's a lesser player than Mirotic in New Orleans.

Randle would be the idiot of the group giving up layups in the paint, not running the floor full speed, trying to dribble it coast to coast, and not finishing lob or jumper sets.

kblo247 wrote:

Kilroy wrote:

TyCobb wrote:I'd rather see Zubac, or Julius, out there over McGee. Doesn't offer much unless it's spoon fed.

Watching the Pelicans game, I think it's clear this team is going to miss Randle... He was our defensive identity last season and so far, it looks like we're still searching for that from this squad... Hopefully it can be Stephenson, and/or Ball.

Would love it if we could trade McGee and Zubac and get Randle back, though.

We gave up 50 ppg in the paint last year. Lets not act like Randle was impressive last year as there was a reason he had no market and has no nba accolades for his career. Hell Randle himself will be lucky to be starting this year since he's a lesser player than Mirotic in New Orleans.

Randle would be the idiot of the group giving up layups in the paint, not running the floor full speed, trying to dribble it coast to coast, and not finishing lob or jumper sets.

If you watched a single game last season you'd realize that single stat is meaningless... Randle rarely was tasked with defending the paint... That was left to Lopez... Who was terrible defensively last season.

Randle (And Ball when he was on the court) was almost single handedly defending the entire other team... The constantly switched Randle on to the hottest player on the other team regardless of position and he routinely shut them down...

Luke wasn't joking when he said Randle was the best Man defender in the league last season... From what I saw he was at least top 10.

So yeah, Randle was EXTREMELY impressive defensively last year and probably the main reason we won as many games as we did, especially against playoff teams... Not only that, but he was clearly the Defensive identity of the team... When he locked in, so did the rest of the team.

And if you watched the first Pelicans games, you'd see that he's only better this season... He's the physical, defensive presence this team is missing right now.

Kilroy wrote:

kblo247 wrote:

Kilroy wrote:
Watching the Pelicans game, I think it's clear this team is going to miss Randle... He was our defensive identity last season and so far, it looks like we're still searching for that from this squad... Hopefully it can be Stephenson, and/or Ball.

Would love it if we could trade McGee and Zubac and get Randle back, though.

We gave up 50 ppg in the paint last year. Lets not act like Randle was impressive last year as there was a reason he had no market and has no nba accolades for his career. Hell Randle himself will be lucky to be starting this year since he's a lesser player than Mirotic in New Orleans.

Randle would be the idiot of the group giving up layups in the paint, not running the floor full speed, trying to dribble it coast to coast, and not finishing lob or jumper sets.

If you watched a single game last season you'd realize that single stat is meaningless... Randle rarely was tasked with defending the paint... That was left to Lopez... Who was terrible defensively last season.

Randle (And Ball when he was on the court) was almost single handedly defending the entire other team... The constantly switched Randle on to the hottest player on the other team regardless of position and he routinely shut them down...

Luke wasn't joking when he said Randle was the best Man defender in the league last season... From what I saw he was at least top 10.

So yeah, Randle was EXTREMELY impressive defensively last year and probably the main reason we won as many games as we did, especially against playoff teams... Not only that, but he was clearly the Defensive identity of the team... When he locked in, so did the rest of the team.

And if you watched the first Pelicans games, you'd see that he's only better this season... He's the physical, defensive presence this team is missing right now.

Randle played the second most minutes at Center on the team. Randle's DRPM was 61st in the league among power forwards at -0.12 last season. Randle's RPM was 0.58 which 30th among power forwards in the league last year.

Funnily enough among Centers Brook Lopez finished with a RPM of 0.29 (25th in the league) and DRPM of 0.09.

Randles biggest contribution was he finally learned how to finish respectably at the rim last year. And no preseason game changes the fact that Randle isn't a rim protector, isn't a good passer, makes stupid ass plays pushing the ball, can't shot a mid range jumper, and is a worse player than Mirotic who helped make the playoffs a force last year.

Randle had no market because he had no discernible skill that a team would pay for. He is not exciting and can't play above a rim so you can't sell tickets. HE is not elite defensively and can't protect the basket or change the game, so he's not being paid to be Draymond lite. He can't shoot a 10 footer, let alone a 15 footer or three so he can't space it at the 4 or 5. He also can't handle the ball and pass like Aaron Gordon who got drafted with him and got paid. The Lakers could have made his ass stay and he would have had to eat the QO because he wasn't good enough to get a good offer sheet anywhere and the pelicans could not offer a RFA their exemption, had they so chose. He's no world beater on O or D.

I rather have 20 mins of McGee knowing his limitations, finishing lobs, switching out, running the floor and being the first one down on both ends, and altering shots than 35 mins of Randle.Hell the Pelicans aren't going to stomach 30 minutes a night of Randle either unless if they plan on pushing AD out the door with losses when his lack of IQ and skills shows compared to Mirotic.

Ball and KCP handled their business much better than Clarkson and Russell had in years past. They made Randle look better on both ends. The Lakers will be fine without him. And I'm sorry but you need to order League Pass if you call Randle a top 10 man defender in the league. He isn't even a top 5 at either the 4 or 5, let alone top 10 in the whole league

McGee is well spoken. I like his interview regarding the evolution of his game and his take on the league phasing out the bigman position.

Javale will be good but he can't play more than 15 minutes due to his asthma. He was trash the last game, Zu did more in 6 minutes than Javale in 20. I don't get why Zu didn't get more time (6 min, 4 pts, 1 block) when Javale was invisible (20 min, 2 pts)?

Need to watch his minutes and keep him healthy i'd say around 20 min a game would be ok, just save him for the playoffs as he will be a big help

Javale has looked good in the preseason. I still worry about his post defense but overall a good surprise and alley combo with Rondo.

TyCobb wrote:I'd rather see Zubac, or Julius, out there over McGee. Doesn't offer much unless it's spoon fed.

None of those guys are better rim protector than Javale.

What's happened to McGee lately?