GT: Summer League Game # 3 - TOR vs DEN - Tonight 8pm TSN

[ConSarnit]

Lawson is shooting 32% from 3 in his NBA career. He’s slightly better at 34% in the G-league. His 3pt shooting isn’t consistent enough. It’s his make or break skill. You can’t be a rotation guard if you can’t space the floor or create for others (which Lawson can’t really do either). Lawson has to be able to provide supplementary skills (mostly spacing) to carve out a real role because he’s not going to get enough on-ball reps. I really don’t think we can take anything away from his summer league performance. If you’re a good G-league player (as Lawson is) you should be killing it in the summer league (which is a worse league than the G-league). I just don’t know if his game translates to the NBA unless he can shoot. G-league volume scorer doesn’t usually translate well.

Came to say this but you nailed it.

Lawson isn't a real 3 point threat and calling Battle "no D" is kind of exaggerating IMO. He isn't top tier but he also doesn't get targeted.

FWIW - I like Lawson, but he might be a cut just because of our depth.

Battle has been getting targeted in Summer League, he'll be even more so in the bigs if we start to win games and get properly scouted for. He dies on every screen and is quite capable of letting guys blow past him.

Lawson may well get cut because of our depth. But if I had to pick between Battle or Lawson as a guy you could plug into a lineup because another piece is hurt, I'd go Lawson every time. Battle needs very specific contexts to be able to shield his defensive shortcomings.

Why? The only thing Lawson has shown he’s able to do at the NBA level is create low efficiency offense for himself.

From what we have seen from Lawson in the NBA he has no role on a good team. At least Battle will hit shots from outside even if he has defensive limitations.

[Tripod]

It's as if people need a reminder, AJ is 1 month younger than RJ.

No issue keeping him on the team until Jan when a decision on his contract needs to be made. But him being on this roster or not being on this roster, won't likely matter one bit.

But keep him for now...no need to rush into any decision. Let's see how injuries go, guys play, what the needs become as the season rolls on.

[bape_lovers]

Watch rj’s hightlights in the summer league…

[youtube] https://youtu.be/LPEZkF6e_6c?si=qzpD3ZcMwbzN4gLG[/youtube]

We needed to get rid of RJ yesterday. It's going to be harder during the season. His numbers will go down due to Ingram being the top option.

[bluerap23]

Hate to say it but I would rather have Lawson than Battle. I love that quick release and the defense. Lawson is the better player.

Battle can play a role. Lawson can’t.

Battle is just a better role player and that’s what’s we are looking for. Lawson plays more like a volume scorer and he isn’t good enough there.

There’s room for both

Is there anything to suggest that Lawson can't play a 3+D role? That's a more concrete role than Battle's 3 + no D. I can more easily see useful NBA minutes coming from Lawson than from Battle. Leaving aside that in our system we want our shooters to be able to do other stuff offensively anyway.

But we should just keep both. No benefit to cutting Battle (maybe he's a trade salary dump later in the season if they never use him?).

I like both guys. Battle is definitely a far superior shooter. Lawson has improved his shooting significantly but I just don’t see him as a high % volume shooter. But damn he has impressed me with his defence and his scoring. Not just in SL but last year too. I don’t know what else he could do to earn his contract. I’d be pretty disappointed if they cut him. Hoping they can figure it out.

[Psubs]

We needed to get rid of RJ yesterday. It's going to be harder during the season. His numbers will go down due to Ingram being the top option.

If Ingram is as advertised everyone's numbers go down, not just RJ's.

For all his faults RJ is still young and improving. This upcoming season is going go say alot who RJ is. If he averages 20/6/4, while improving his free throws (80%), and hitting three's at a respectable rate (36%), that's a guy who can be a top 3 option on a contender.

Id rather hold onto him, his value to us is more than what it is across the league. Best case hes a respectable scorer, young, Canadian, and someone who wants to be here. Worst case we let him expire if hes not someone who can fit a winning culture. Im not willing to trade a guy like him away and let him explode somewhere else.

Maybe 18ppg and if he can get his FT shooting to 75% that would be insanely good. Maybe he doesn't try to do too much by himself and make those costly tide-turning turnovers late.

[Potential]

Tomorrow night is a must win. Biggest game in 4 years

[tsherkin]

If Ingram is as advertised everyone's numbers go down, not just RJ's.

For all his faults RJ is still young and improving. This upcoming season is going go say alot who RJ is. If he averages 20/6/4, while improving his free throws (80%), and hitting three's at a respectable rate (36%), that's a guy who can be a top 3 option on a contender.

Let's look at that. 36% from 3 and 80% from the free throw line with everything else in place and his volume unchanged leaves RJ as a -0.4% rTS guy relative to league-average last year.

As a third option, that's tolerable. It's not awesome, and probably at volume higher than makes sense for him, but if our lead two guys are efficient and our shooters are clicking, then it's fine given what he brings as far as foul and rim pressure. But we do need to create efficient offense from places other than just Jak and Ochai. And last year, Ochai, Poeltl and Battle were our only guys with 1000+ MP and a TS% at or north of league-average. Quick isn't likely to bring that up, though his shooting will be a huge boost to our offense anyway. BI is a question, because he's mostly been around league average for the past decade, but again, he'll still be boosting the team with his presence regardless and he has the potential to be a little above-average in that regard.

But circling back. RJ was fairly horrific in efficiency this past season at 54.7% TS (that's about 3% worse than league average) and was incompetent at the line. And he's closer to the 70% shooter he is at the the FT line on his career (69.7% now) than an 80% guy (topping out previously at 74.6% on lower volume in his second season). That makes that marker much less likely, leaving him inefficient volume again. The 3pt shooting is more possible, especially if we're able to get him into the corner more frequently.

I like RJ and I hope he's able to justify us keeping him, but he has a LOT of work to do in order to make his contract and his volume justifiable. Trying to win next season, we really shouldn't be giving him 16+ FGA/g like we did this year, especially if he's in that same "almost as bad as Scottie Barnes" category of efficiency. It'll all heavily depend on what he does to open the season, I think.

So we have to hope that having Quick and BI opening things up gives him better seams, and he's able to smash it going to the basket. And maybe some timely screens from CMB helping to get him that much clearer on the first action, etc.

[WuTang_OG]

Read on Twitter

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[ash_k]

RJ was averaging 20 playing with hogs like Randle And Brunson ; and with IQ coming off the bench.
He averaged 20 in the Olympics playing with SGA.
He will average his 20+pts with BI.
He is the last of our concerns with Yak right now.

IQ, Scottie and BI have much more to prove.

Listening to Yak and Scottie, it has been clear that Darko's offense has been questioned, still is in question moving forward with BI. Which was good to hear as all those down20-games were certainly not just due to that awful defense

[RoteSchroder]

RJ was averaging 20 playing with hogs like Randle And Brunson ; and with IQ coming off the bench.
He averaged 20 in the Olympics playing with SGA.
He will average his 20+pts with BI.
He is the last of our concerns with Yak right now.

IQ, Scottie and BI have much more to prove.

Listening to Yak and Scottie, it has been clear that Darko's offense has been questioned, still is in question moving forward with BI. Which was good to hear as all those down20-games were certainly not just due to that awful defense

do u have clips of Yak/Scottie questioning Darko's offense?

[Tripod]

Yeah wtf is that Darko comment about?

[HangTime]

RJ was averaging 20 playing with hogs like Randle And Brunson ; and with IQ coming off the bench.
He averaged 20 in the Olympics playing with SGA.
He will average his 20+pts with BI.
He is the last of our concerns with Yak right now.

IQ, Scottie and BI have much more to prove.

Listening to Yak and Scottie, it has been clear that Darko's offense has been questioned, still is in question moving forward with BI. Which was good to hear as all those down20-games were certainly not just due to that awful defense

Green font?

[ConSarnit]

RJ was averaging 20 playing with hogs like Randle And Brunson ; and with IQ coming off the bench.
He averaged 20 in the Olympics playing with SGA.
He will average his 20+pts with BI.
He is the last of our concerns with Yak right now.

IQ, Scottie and BI have much more to prove.

Listening to Yak and Scottie, it has been clear that Darko's offense has been questioned, still is in question moving forward with BI. Which was good to hear as all those down20-games were certainly not just due to that awful defense

20ppg is not an impressive number when you’re doing it on well below league average efficiency.

[Son Goku 25]

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Man did we finally find our Fred replacement?

[WuTang_OG]

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Man did we finally find our Fred replacement?

The shot needs to come alive consistently or he’s destined to be a back up

[hyper316]

Read on Twitter

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Man did we finally find our Fred replacement?

Lowry replacement

[HumbleRen]

Yeah wtf is that Darko comment about?

Ash lives in their own world lol

[God Squad]

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Man did we finally find our Fred replacement?

The shot needs to come alive consistently or he’s destined to be a back up

That's a win IMO. If we found a legit backup with the 45th pick? We're laughing if all these 2nd-rounders turn into legit rotation players (which seems like it's happening).

Chomche and Shead development has changed the outlook IMO. It's been very promising IMO, particularly with Chomche. He looked so raw in SL last year, and even throughout the G League. My expectations were so low that he has already surpassed them.

Credit goes to him and the coaching staff.

[ash_k]

RJ was averaging 20 playing with hogs like Randle And Brunson ; and with IQ coming off the bench.
He averaged 20 in the Olympics playing with SGA.
He will average his 20+pts with BI.
He is the last of our concerns with Yak right now.

IQ, Scottie and BI have much more to prove.

Listening to Yak and Scottie, it has been clear that Darko's offense has been questioned, still is in question moving forward with BI. Which was good to hear as all those down20-games were certainly not just due to that awful defense

20ppg is not an impressive number when you’re doing it on well below league average efficiency.

47 FG% and 35 3P% doing 21.1ppg | 6.3rpg|5.4 apg are All-Star numbers.

The problem is that 63.0 FT% (whatsup with that RJ?!).... going back to your "efficiency point"

[ash_k]

RJ was averaging 20 playing with hogs like Randle And Brunson ; and with IQ coming off the bench.
He averaged 20 in the Olympics playing with SGA.
He will average his 20+pts with BI.
He is the last of our concerns with Yak right now.

IQ, Scottie and BI have much more to prove.

Listening to Yak and Scottie, it has been clear that Darko's offense has been questioned, still is in question moving forward with BI. Which was good to hear as all those down20-games were certainly not just due to that awful defense

Green font?

They did go into the offense specifically, as a work-in-progress (thus questioning). I mean what is so surprising about this? Example: Werent you there when that offense made the current ECFMVP Pascal look like he was behind Schroder in the pecking order? We certainly do not want this to reoccur with a IQ over BI.