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Its just 2 preseason games but there are some things that is worth mentioning so far.

1.Rondo with starters not really a good fit.
So far i dont see a good flow in games when rondo starts or plays long minutes. becuase we there are 2 non threat player in mcgee/dwight and rondo teams are crowding the paint on defense and leaving rondo open bc he isnt a reliable shooter or scorer. We needed shooters to space the floor last season but so far noone is scared of lakers outside shooting making it tough for players to get open. when we watched the 1st preseason game vs gsw we saw how good lakers offense was when bradley and green was starting and then things got bad as rondo played more minutes. As i complained over and over again last season i hope coach makes more logical decision about rotation based on fits and skill rather than how many years they have played in their career.

2. KCP shouldnt play at all. i think nuff said lol

3.alex caruso should definetely be in rotation instead of rondo. what more to say he has good size and defense for a pg, can shoot, pass and plays within the system.

4.lakers true strength isnt visible yet with kuzma still being out. 2 preseason game so far is just rotation between the starters and then the end of bench where i believe we havent seen our true bench squad playin together with caruso, cook/bradley/green, daniels\dudley, kuzma, dwight. this lineup has 4 shooters and a center to play with fluidity while starters rest.

5.Lakers playin same defense as last season. All im seeing is lakers players chasing over screens AGAIN. When can we expect lakers to focus more on switching coverage instead of falling to opponents hand in them constantly beating lakers with pick and roll. why was nets players so open last night? bc lakers are being late in coverage going around top of the key pick and roll leaving help defense leave players at corner wide open.

It's 2 meaningless games for a largely veteran squad. If anyone thinks we're benching Rondo they are not watching. Rondo will play a lot and so will LeBron so they will play a lot together. The best the "Caruso should start crowd" can hope for is a Rondo injury IMHO.

KCP is vastly overpaid and over valued IMHO. He's a "shooter" that barely shoots over 40%... while Rondo is a guy who can't shoot who shoots over 46%. Show's me one of them shoots shots within his talents while the other one is chucking.

Landsberger wrote:It's 2 meaningless games for a largely veteran squad. If anyone think we're benching Rondo they are not watching. Rondo will play a lot and so will LeBron so they will play a lot together. The best the "Caruso should start crowd" can hope for is a Rondo injury IMHO.

KCP is vastly overpaid and over valued IMHO. He's a "shooter" that barely shoots over 40%... which Rondo is a guy who can't shoot who shoots over 46%. Show's me one of them shoots shots within his talents while the other one is chucking.

Exactly what pre season is for; confirming suspicions.

All you can tell so far is that Lebron and Davis are every bit of what they were supposed to be and more... They can be the most dominant pairing since Kobe/Shaq if they want to be...
The rest of the guys other than McGee are still figuring it out, so it's hard to make any hard/fast decisions about what we're seeing right now...
Green will start, but we're going to need a whole lot more from him or Kuz is going to take his spot... Rondo will probably be starter to begin the season, but I'm not convinced he'll be the starter by Christmas... I think KCP and Bradly are going to fight it out for backup PG with Caruso being the 5min a game max guy.

I dont think Kuz has any chance to take Greens starting job at all. Green is starting no matter what, or at least that was his $$$$ says. I think Kuz takes the Lamar odom role, off the bench. Trez for the clippers is a good example for kuz to show him if you ball out you can still get paid and take on a bigger roll later. We need him as a 6 man imo.

They better give Caruso a chance at starting...

I men I understand the chemistry of; Rondo/Bradley/AD etc, but sometimes it's not always about that.

Please give Caruso a chance

Kilroy wrote: I think KCP and Bradly are going to fight it out for backup PG with Caruso being the 5min a game max guy.

'Farking pees me off if True..

KCP is a half a season type of player and the white mamba deserves a chance and was also promised more minutes, if he doesn't get more minutes, he will ask to be traded IMO

They better wake up and give him time

From a fan boy

White Mamba, King Kuz, Mcgee all deserve time over these newbies

iamworthy wrote:I dont think Kuz has any chance to take Greens starting job at all. Green is starting no matter what, or at least that was his $$$$ says. I think Kuz takes the Lamar odom role, off the bench. Trez for the clippers is a good example for kuz to show him if you ball out you can still get paid and take on a bigger roll later. We need him as a 6 man imo.

I'm just saying that Green's been a little underwhelming in the 2 games we've seen of him so far, on both ends of the court, and I think Kuz is going to be pushing...
I don't really believe Kuz is going to just take his spot... And I fully understand it's just 2 meaningless preseason games...
But within the context of this thread about what we can determine from the first 2 games, I'm saying that IF Green doesn't show a little more, he could lose his job to Kuz.

No question Green was brought here to be the starter... IMO Kuz isn't ready to start yet... Not at that position, and not with these team mates... But if you give Green a shot and he sucks, and Kuz comes in with more skills and is more consistent, you have to make the switch.

2 games in, that looks more possible than I thought it would have before they started playing... Is all I'm saying.

SlimShady83 wrote:They better give Caruso a chance at starting...

I men I understand the chemistry of; Rondo/Bradley/AD etc, but sometimes it's not always about that.

Please give Caruso a chance

He's getting a chance. I don't know why he has to start for it to qualify as "a chance"... Caruso was a marginal NBA talent when we got him, we gave him a chance and he made the most of it...
He started as a marginal G League player and made the most of that opportunity and became a marginal rotation player...

He's done a pretty good job at that opportunity as well... But personally, I still don't see a starting PG on a Championship Contender there.
He's earned bench minutes, which is the "chance" we're giving him now... To be a bench player on a Championship Team... And we'll see what he does with it, but I think it'd be a little counter-productive to try to shoe-horn him into a starting roll just for the feels...

Team still plays soft...where is that smash mouth ball Vogel. I watched the two preseason games against the nets and they got whatever they wanted on offense. Our offense looks good when we have Davis and Bron out there but other than that the build around the two has been horrible. At times I saw a lineup of green, Bradley, kcp and rondo...wtf Vogel.

I don’t see us being an elite defense and that is concerning cause I don’t see us being an elite offense either aside from the beat down we put on a depleted gsw team in the first preseason.


I guess it is just pre-season but we did get beat soundly by the nets without durant or Kyrie...yikes

Don't overreact to preseason games, the more we lose, the better, they will be able to adjust and work on weaknesses easier.

Kilroy wrote:

SlimShady83 wrote:They better give Caruso a chance at starting...

I men I understand the chemistry of; Rondo/Bradley/AD etc, but sometimes it's not always about that.

Please give Caruso a chance

He's getting a chance. I don't know why he has to start for it to qualify as "a chance"... Caruso was a marginal NBA talent when we got him, we gave him a chance and he made the most of it...
He started as a marginal G League player and made the most of that opportunity and became a marginal rotation player...

He's done a pretty good job at that opportunity as well... But personally, I still don't see a starting PG on a Championship Contender there.
He's earned bench minutes, which is the "chance" we're giving him now... To be a bench player on a Championship Team... And we'll see what he does with it, but I think it'd be a little counter-productive to try to shoe-horn him into a starting roll just for the feels...

Yup, it doesn't seem to be enough to go from basically out of the league to the G League to a bit player on a pretty crappy team to a role player on a good team. It's gotta be "starter".

Kilroy wrote:

iamworthy wrote:I dont think Kuz has any chance to take Greens starting job at all. Green is starting no matter what, or at least that was his $$$$ says. I think Kuz takes the Lamar odom role, off the bench. Trez for the clippers is a good example for kuz to show him if you ball out you can still get paid and take on a bigger roll later. We need him as a 6 man imo.

I'm just saying that Green's been a little underwhelming in the 2 games we've seen of him so far, on both ends of the court, and I think Kuz is going to be pushing...
I don't really believe Kuz is going to just take his spot... And I fully understand it's just 2 meaningless preseason games...
But within the context of this thread about what we can determine from the first 2 games, I'm saying that IF Green doesn't show a little more, he could lose his job to Kuz.

No question Green was brought here to be the starter... IMO Kuz isn't ready to start yet... Not at that position, and not with these team mates... But if you give Green a shot and he sucks, and Kuz comes in with more skills and is more consistent, you have to make the switch.

2 games in, that looks more possible than I thought it would have before they started playing... Is all I'm saying.

Oh, dont get me wrong, Kuz is coming for that spot. Our spacing has been horrible. I think as time goes on and we figure out where people are suppose to be on offense Green will start to look better. I agree he has looked sub par so far. Im starting to wonder if the NBA pre-season isnt equal to the NFL where dudes just dont want to play. We need Kuz in a real way, I just think he will demolish the second units of the opposing teams.

There's a lot of pure scrubbage getting heavy minutes. These guys won't be around come opening day. I'm not overly worried, but I also realize this season is not going to be a cake walk. We'll be in the mix, but it's going to be a long tough slog.

iamworthy wrote:

Kilroy wrote:

iamworthy wrote:I dont think Kuz has any chance to take Greens starting job at all. Green is starting no matter what, or at least that was his $$$$ says. I think Kuz takes the Lamar odom role, off the bench. Trez for the clippers is a good example for kuz to show him if you ball out you can still get paid and take on a bigger roll later. We need him as a 6 man imo.

I'm just saying that Green's been a little underwhelming in the 2 games we've seen of him so far, on both ends of the court, and I think Kuz is going to be pushing...
I don't really believe Kuz is going to just take his spot... And I fully understand it's just 2 meaningless preseason games...
But within the context of this thread about what we can determine from the first 2 games, I'm saying that IF Green doesn't show a little more, he could lose his job to Kuz.

No question Green was brought here to be the starter... IMO Kuz isn't ready to start yet... Not at that position, and not with these team mates... But if you give Green a shot and he sucks, and Kuz comes in with more skills and is more consistent, you have to make the switch.

2 games in, that looks more possible than I thought it would have before they started playing... Is all I'm saying.

Oh, dont get me wrong, Kuz is coming for that spot. Our spacing has been horrible. I think as time goes on and we figure out where people are suppose to be on offense Green will start to look better. I agree he has looked sub par so far. Im starting to wonder if the NBA pre-season isnt equal to the NFL where dudes just dont want to play. We need Kuz in a real way, I just think he will demolish the second units of the opposing teams.

Yeah, all in all, I don't think these games matter a whole lot or all that informative... I don't think guys play hard and I think the better a team is, the less they give a ****... Especially the games in China. That's just a money grab that blew up in their faces, and hopefully won't be repeated.
I think Green is coasting... I'm sure he's going to step it up when it means something... And if he does, Kuz will stay our spark off the bench. Which is good for everyone.

This was all within the context of what we can learn from the first 2 games. Which is almost nothing.

Preseason games matter for the 10-15 spots every thing else is just a wake up yawn-stretch reflex.