Welcome back Kelly.

[MAMBAEMD]

im glad hes back, but I don't think he sees any playing time this year. He has to go through Randle and boozer

Good point, but I really can see Kelly being on the court at the same time as Randle and Boozer.
Those two play an inside game.
You need people like Kelly sitting on the 3 point line to open things up for Randle and Boozer.

[EArl]

im glad hes back, but I don't think he sees any playing time this year. He has to go through Randle and boozer

Good point, but I really can see Kelly being on the court at the same time as Randle and Boozer.
Those two play an inside game.
You need people like Kelly sitting on the 3 point line to open things up for Randle and Boozer.

the problem with this is on defense. Kelly will get wrecked by most wings because of his foot speed and if Kobes on the court theres not much he can do.

[AcecardZ]

Kelly is BACK!!!

Best offseason evah!!!

In all seriousness.. I kind of like this Kelly kid. Glad he's back wearing the Purp and Gold!!!


Kelly averaged 25, 7.5 and 4 per game last year in the D-League. That's pretty beastly if you ask me.

And a 12.6 PER, NBA this time not D-League, isn't bad at all.

[AcecardZ]

im glad hes back, but I don't think he sees any playing time this year. He has to go through Randle and boozer

He will get playing time if he worked hard this off season and improved his game.

[milesfides]

Ludicrous - Kelly will play the four to draw bigs out. There's no point if he plays the 3. He'll be too slow for a three. For a four, he has exceptional ballhandling, passing, and ability to put the ball to the floor. He must play in the frontcourt to have these marked advantages.

And he's not going to play behind Boozer and Randle.

You need to stretch the floor with Lin, Kobe, and Hill. The lanes will only be open when you have guys like Wes and Kelly pulling their defenders out.

This is a proven formula for success, and a reality of today's game.

Boozer and Randle will be productive on some level, but for our team to really develop into something special, Kelly must be developed into that multi-skilled stretch four who will make this TEAM better.

As a paradigm of success, I give you the Spurs, who individually, can't compete with the top teams in league in terms of talent.

But the way that team was put together was perfectly logical, which is why they beat the Thunder and Heat who have better individual talent.

Jordan Hill NEEDS to be developed into that defensive anchor. He NEEDS to be our center. He NEEDS to become the rim protector and last line of defense. His role was all over the place under D'Antoni, but he needs to be trained right now to be that player for our team to get better.

Kelly needs to be that Boris Diaw that would punish teams who cheat, who open up lanes, who moves the ball.

We know what we have with Boozer. And the reality is that undersized power forwards who can't stretch the floor are being marginalized in this league. Getting too easy to guard, and they don't raise the overall level of the team.

Maybe Kelly won't be able to handle it. But I'll tell you this - if Kevin Love is gone, Durant goes to the Wizards, etc. It's gonna be awful hard for our team to become a contender if we don't have internal improvement.

Whoever our coach is, he has to let Lin play free, and has to get Kobe to accept that (although Kobe was pretty accommodating even when we had Ramon Sessions). Wes has to funnel all this effort and skills to being that elite defender and 3-point shooter. Hill (and Davis) need to protect that rim. And Kelly needs to bomb the hell out of defenses that collapse on our efficient paint scorers (Lin, Kobe, and Hill are among the league's best for their position).

But it can happen. Kelly proved enough in enough minutes last year to show that he's got that potential - can't kill it now. Even if he struggles a little you gotta stay with him. Our future depends on it.

[TylersLakers]

Ludicrous - Kelly will play the four to draw bigs out. There's no point if he plays the 3. He'll be too slow for a three. For a four, he has exceptional ballhandling, passing, and ability to put the ball to the floor. He must play in the frontcourt to have these marked advantages.

And he's not going to play behind Boozer and Randle.

You need to stretch the floor with Lin, Kobe, and Hill. The lanes will only be open when you have guys like Wes and Kelly pulling their defenders out.

This is a proven formula for success, and a reality of today's game.

Boozer and Randle will be productive on some level, but for our team to really develop into something special, Kelly must be developed into that multi-skilled stretch four who will make this TEAM better.

As a paradigm of success, I give you the Spurs, who individually, can't compete with the top teams in league in terms of talent.

But the way that team was put together was perfectly logical, which is why they beat the Thunder and Heat who have better individual talent.

Jordan Hill NEEDS to be developed into that defensive anchor. He NEEDS to be our center. He NEEDS to become the rim protector and last line of defense. His role was all over the place under D'Antoni, but he needs to be trained right now to be that player for our team to get better.

Kelly needs to be that Boris Diaw that would punish teams who cheat, who open up lanes, who moves the ball.

We know what we have with Boozer. And the reality is that undersized power forwards who can't stretch the floor are being marginalized in this league. Getting too easy to guard, and they don't raise the overall level of the team.

Maybe Kelly won't be able to handle it. But I'll tell you this - if Kevin Love is gone, Durant goes to the Wizards, etc. It's gonna be awful hard for our team to become a contender if we don't have internal improvement.

Whoever our coach is, he has to let Lin play free, and has to get Kobe to accept that (although Kobe was pretty accommodating even when we had Ramon Sessions). Wes has to funnel all this effort and skills to being that elite defender and 3-point shooter. Hill (and Davis) need to protect that rim. And Kelly needs to bomb the hell out of defenses that collapse on our efficient paint scorers (Lin, Kobe, and Hill are among the league's best for their position).

But it can happen. Kelly proved enough in enough minutes last year to show that he's got that potential - can't kill it now. Even if he struggles a little you gotta stay with him. Our future depends on it.

Interesting. So your suggesting Randle off the bench, Kelly to start with the first group to provide spacing?

[DEEP3CL]

Ehh...I was so so on Kelly. He just doesn't do enough on the court to warrant big minutes if hardly any at all. The premium keys for this Laker team will be as needed, much improvement on defense, rebounding and running a tempo controlled offense.

Last year too many guys put up insane numbers for bench players due to the minutes they shouldn't have been playing had we had a healthy starting 5. MDA became too obsessed with stretching the floor at all cost and that's a reason Kelly got a few starts. There's other ways to spread the floor, it doesn't have to come only from the 4 position. Basketball is a close to the game of chess as it gets. It's about what team can impose their will on the other. When the Lakers were a post up team we went inside to punish them, that was our MO . On the other end teams tried to space the floor to neutralize our size in clogging the paint. The whole reason this stretch 4 fad came is because teams started to lack hard penetrating guards.

Most guards starting from the early to mid 90's wanted to only score from the perimeter, and also 4's became less physically imposing and resisted working on the interior like in past decades. Bill Lambieer, Jack Sikma, Dan Issel are some off the top of my head that started trending that way first.

If Kelly can make improvements on defense and rebounding then maybe he can see a few minutes. But so far he doesn't meet the criteria on which I laid out for the Lakers to dramatically improve.

[kblo247]

im glad hes back, but I don't think he sees any playing time this year. He has to go through Randle and boozer

Good point, but I really can see Kelly being on the court at the same time as Randle and Boozer.
Those two play an inside game.
You need people like Kelly sitting on the 3 point line to open things up for Randle and Boozer.

the problem with this is on defense. Kelly will get wrecked by most wings because of his foot speed and if Kobes on the court theres not much he can do.

What logic dictates they can't switch on D? Randle can be the 4 on O with Kelly the 3. D wise they then switch on the other end and Randle takes the 3 and Kelly the 4? It's no different than what we would do with Metta and Clark or ny with Melo and Novak.

Hell Barkely used to do it a lot as well especially as a Sixer so it isn't crazy to think Randle will be that versatile

[Ballerhogger]

a some what decent back up if Boozer gets hurt

[Sofa King]

Maybe Kelly won't be able to handle it. But I'll tell you this - if Kevin Love is gone, Durant goes to the Wizards, etc. It's gonna be awful hard for our team to become a contender if we don't have internal improvement.

So the future of the Lakers lies with Kelly if we don't get Love or Durant...

[aaron_gray]

Pls start Randle and Kelly.

[Indy2LA]

Kelly was great at Duke, but I didn't see him play much last year. I was disappointed that we won the Boozer amnesty bid because I figured that meant less playing time for Randle and Kelly both. But I hope that Miles is right. I am still learning the team and you can never just assume that minutes will be split equally among positions. A great shooter will always get minutes if he continues to shoot well. Off the bench or not.

[Marionettetc]

I think he's primed to shoot his way right out of the closet!

[leeprettyp]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/491329169733591040[/tweet]

[DrClutch]

great now i would like to see the Lakers sign Greg monroe!

[Slava]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/EricPincus/status/491357126799806464[/tweet]

[SlimShady83]

I want that Lakers guitar in the background

[tweet]https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/491329169733591040[/tweet]

[leeprettyp]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/MarkG_Medina/status/491352567775887360[/tweet]

Medina is saying we used our room exception on Kelly.. Slava? I guess we dont have the money to offer to Sessions our even Shawn Marion now

[leeprettyp]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/MarkG_Medina/status/491352567775887360[/tweet]

Medina is saying we used our room exception on Kelly.. Slava? I guess we dont have the money to offer to Sessions our even Shawn Marion now