how cooked is LMA

[Prokorov]

Nets fan here.

so how cooked is LMA. ive only seen him 3 times this year and a handful last year but he looked pretty terrible in all of those. lots of standing around, having smalls finsih in his face. nowhere to be found on screens, and taking turnaround fade aways like it was 1984. the occasional 3 didnt seem to make his perfomrances less awful.

Is there a reason to think he should be getting minutes on a team with claxton, DJ, blake, and Green already getting minutes at the 5?

[imagump1313]

Nets fan here.

so how cooked is LMA. ive only seen him 3 times this year and a handful last year but he looked pretty terrible in all of those. lots of standing around, having smalls finsih in his face. nowhere to be found on screens, and taking turnaround fade aways like it was 1984. the occasional 3 didnt seem to make his perfomrances less awful.

Is there a reason to think he should be getting minutes on a team with claxton, DJ, blake, and Green already getting minutes at the 5?

He was pretty much our Blake Griffin. He might be useful for you because you don't have to depend on him scoring like we did but he really brings nothing defensively anymore. He has never played a bit role before either so who knows what you are going to get in just 20 minutes or under a night.
Also, he always complained about playing the 5 here and now he is going to be mostly doing that for you.

[G R E Y]

Nets fan here.

so how cooked is LMA. ive only seen him 3 times this year and a handful last year but he looked pretty terrible in all of those. lots of standing around, having smalls finsih in his face. nowhere to be found on screens, and taking turnaround fade aways like it was 1984. the occasional 3 didnt seem to make his perfomrances less awful.

Is there a reason to think he should be getting minutes on a team with claxton, DJ, blake, and Green already getting minutes at the 5?

Hey,

Well it depends on what you believe. He went down with a shoulder injury last season and so we entered the bubble restart without him. At that point we revamped our style of play to go fully into one which best suits the young guys who want to run - D to O transition more, less half court LMA-centric sets.

A lot of good things were said about incorporating LMA into it to start this season and I guess it was tried but to what extent LMA was dogging it I don't know. I do know that the drop off was bad and noticeable especially on D. His previously reliable range on O was missing, too. He started the first half or so of the season to not great results. He had a couple of resurgent scoring games without which we would not have won, but defensively, rotations to perimeter close outs and jumping for rebounds was not happening. He got switched on a lot by guards who flew by him.

Then Jakob was officially given the starting role...

Soon thereafter (like two or three games or so) LMA was in and out of the line-up with some ailments - something with his hip, the some stomach issues... He basically missed 8 of the last 11 games he was still on the roster.

He was on IR when Pop announced the 'mutual' decision to part ways.

Tonight I read some now deleted tweets from a new reporter around Spurs who was told specifically that LMA started missing games and Spurs didn't know why. This may coincide with the various names we gave for LMA missing games. Supposedly the Spurs were surprised by his request as his desire was close to the vest.

Now, if I and many other fans saw the writing on the wall with LMA not fitting after last season's bubble, it stands to reason that professionals plugged into the everyday workings of the organization and in touch with the players surely had a hunch.

This frankly sounds like Jabari Young trojan horse attempt as seeding discord. Again. He's attempted it a lot in the past and has since moved on .

It also may be a test of the new reporter with info given, regardless of merit. If so, she failed spectacularly saying only that her 'source' gave her the info LMA kept the organization in the dark and she stood by her info but was forbidden from elaborating yet insisted that both sides parted amicably. Ok. So why bother putting it out there? Are we supposed to trust her with like next to no credibility? Just very unprofessional.

Now LMA is quite hard to know, sort of an enigmatic personality. Perhaps he did distance himself. It felt that way when Jakob was put in as starter after LMA struggled. I mean, the team has to do what's in its best interest to win. Perhaps he took it as a slight. Lots of changes and his adjusting to them after he carried us through a horrible year into the playoffs. But given that he was around when snake went AWOL and his group manipulated PATFO, I'd be shocked if LMA - who by all accounts was a great leader through that time, and didn't have any love lost for #2 - went the same route. I'd be shocked if his reps didn't work with the Spurs to work out what we did. Id'be shocked if we hadn't clued into what was obvious to even fans last season.

I'm going off on a tangent here, but bring it all up because 1. he's not easy to know or read 2. there are a couple of examples of his not jiving with the team 3. he was noticeably less plugged in this season 4. openly wondering about playing with Dame again so 5. who knows the extent to which all of this was his way of orchestrating out and he has a lot more left in the tank than he wanted to give with us in a new style of play. So 6. right now I take his play at face value but if 7. he was holding back a lot it's a POS move but 8. I guess we'll soon see.

I wish him the best to the extent LMA was genuine in his effort to give his best on the court. But if he was, you'll get someone who can hit automatic turnaround Js, get to the FT line, get timely O rebounds and putbacks (he picks his spots), but is a liability on D unless he gets to body someone around his size.

I hope this gives you some idea that it's not easy to know him and where his game is at right now provided he was giving it his best. I think having a title to potentially play for will give him a resurgence. He's also playing for a potential new contract so there's extra motivation. I don't think he liked having to take on a bench role, and if he was going to do so, then a contender was preferable.

He will not be a locker room distraction, though, and will do his job. Given that he wants to win a title, I expect him to do just what he's asked. Properly motivated, he'll align himself with the goals of the big picture.