Lakers vs. Knicks Summer League Game thread 7/13 (RECAP PG 13!)

[Kobe System]

Yep. Let's wait 3-4 years to call a bust, a bust.

[ArC_man]

Am I the only one that thinks you guys are over-analyzing the **** out of Summer League?

I just want to know why Russell was benched and if his turnovers are his fault. The offense doesn't really bother me, since it's summer league, and summer league offenses usually look like garbage.

See them for yourself. I would say 7/8 are his fault, the pass to Black isn't. A lot of lazy passes.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=875XRk2GGEM[/youtube]

[SlimShady83]

Yep. Let's wait 3-4 years to call a bust, a bust.

lol 3-4 years? Knowing how most guys on here, they'll be saying "trade him please" by the end of the pre-season

[Kobe System]

Yep. Let's wait 3-4 years to call a bust, a bust.

lol 3-4 years? Knowing how most guys on here, they'll be saying "trade him please" by the end of the pre-season

If we can flip him and Hibbert for Cousins, I will be happy.

[Lakernut4ever]

I still think that its not the players but the coaches. Madsen can join his superior Scott as tank commanders and not great coaches Lakers pay them to be. I bet they don't know what they are doing and it reflects on several bonehead plays.

[Sofa King]

I wonder how much did Russel, Randle, and Clarkson gambled and spent on strips last night.

[Slimreaper703]

Yep. Let's wait 3-4 years to call a bust, a bust.

lol 3-4 years? Knowing how most guys on here, they'll be saying "trade him please" by the end of the pre-season

Just for comparison sake..Here is a short list of point guards who left after freshman year of college
and how they performed in summer league.

Wall - 23.5ppg 4.0rpg 7.8apg
Tyreke Evans - 19ppg 6rpg 4apg
Zach Levine 15.7ppg 4.3apg
Rose 9.5ppg 5.5apg (injured after2 games Right knee tendinitus)
Conley 11.4ppg 5apg

[lake_show]

Yep. Let's wait 3-4 years to call a bust, a bust.

Nah... Let's label a rookie playing an all new system with all new teammates a bust after 3 Summer League games

That seems a lot more rational to me.

[The Prodigy]

D'Angelo has looked like ass. No two ways about it. And while some of his struggles are due to our **** offense, we can't attribute it all to that.

It is up to him to use this as a learning experience and make the necessary adjustments. FWIW though, I'm still confident he'll be a very good player for us.

[lake_show]

He'll be fine.

He's got a ton of work to do between now and the start of the season but he should be ok.

Playing with actual NBA players, not to mention playing with Kobe, should make a big difference. Right now his only mentor is Clarkson. Who's 1 year removed from his rookie season himself.

He needs to settle down. Learn the offense and stop forcing things. Same for Randle. They're trying to do too much.

[mcscotty]

Who knows what the future will bring, but this upcoming season is looking like another stinker.

[BeanBurrito]

Some of you guys are ridiculous. It's his 3rd game and he is trying hard to show what he can do with teammates mostly playing for themselves. Get a clue.

All I wanted to see is what his strengths would be in this summer league and what he needs to work on. Not killing him for not showing he is an all-star his first 3 games into his career.

[Gek]

Spoiler:

Player Recaps/Grades:

Russell- Had a team high 8 TOs tonight, some of them unforced errors, some of them were passes that his teammates just missed. Either way, not a good look. Offensively, he's been feast or famine on his jumper-it either goes clean through the net or is noticeably short off the front. Really though, his strengths are being mitigated heavily in this **** of an offense we're trying to run (more on that later). Defensively, he's been surprisingly solid aside from the one backdoor he seemingly gives up a game. Active hands, good job communicating in the zone. I hated the fact that he was benched for the last 6-7 minutes of the game when we actually got it somewhat close. That's a perfect time to experience a close-game situation and see what he can do. Oh well. Let's see how Russell responds when the games really count now in the tournament.

Grade: C

Clarkson- This was his worst showing so far. Struggled with his shot and missed a bunch of chippies at the rim. More than that though, he was a little too iso-heavy this game. He and Jabari seemed to monopolize the ball the whole game. Not a whole lot of ferocity on the glass like we usually get from him, but it is summer league and we know what he can do in that regard.

Grade: C

A. Brown- Honestly I didn't notice him much out there and that's a bad thing. Our spacing is extremely poor (in large part thanks to the sets we're running) but he's gotta know where to be on the floor to be the release valve. Otherwise, teams just pack it in. Nothing noteworthy defensively today.

Grade: D+

Black- He's being asked to do too much out there offensively. He's a garbage man, plain and simple. Stop giving it to him at the high post and asking him to do anything with it. Thought he could've been a little more physical with Kristaps, considering the height and length he was giving up. Oh and he needs to keep his hands up when he's rolling, that's twice now that Russell has racked a TO when it should've been an easy roll hoop.

Grade: C+

Randle- He turned it up a bit late in the 4th after a very lackluster first three quarters. His energy seems to wax and wane depending on how involved he is in the offense, which isn't really a good thing. He has no confidence in that pull up jump shot right now and that's disheartening to see. His effort on the glass is deplorable, no way around it. One play the rebound was right there and he stood there while a Knicks player ran in and grabbed it. Defensively, his position defense is pretty good, but he lacks the length to contest. I'm hoping it's just rust and overcoming the mental roadblock of a horrific leg injury for Julius.

Grade: C-

Buycks- I do not want to see any more players named Dwight play for us ever again. This dude was out there looking for his own and building a chimney with all his bricks.

Grade: Double F

Mitchell- He was subbed in for the last 3 minutes or so of the game for some reason and was playing small ball PF. I don't get it.

Grade: INC

Nance Jr.- Again, loved his hustle and tenacity, but his lack of an outside jumper was really apparent this game as he clanked a few open looks. He'll definitely need to hit up a shooting coach and get at least a respectable jump shot so it can open up other parts of his game.

Grade: B

Upshaw- He only got 6 minutes of action and didn't do anything noteworthy. Thought we'd see him more with Porzingis's length.

Grade: INC

Munford The game log says he got around 3 minutes of action. I didn't notice him.

Grade: INC

Brown- Jabari scored 20 in his debut tonight, but I have to say I wasn't a fan of the ball stopping tonight. He literally looked to score every time he caught the ball. That definitely contributed to the stagnation we saw tonight. On the plus side, he continues to demonstrate a nice ability to draw fouls and showed quick, strong hands on defense, coming up with 3 steals.

Grade: B-/B

Lakers Offense-

Too much pointless motion. Setting screens to free up guys for...nothing. Our bigs are being tasked (for some crazy reason) to initiate this trainwreck of an offense at the high post, but neither Tarik Black nor Robert Upshaw are capable of doing so. If you're going to insist on hammering a square peg into a round hole, at least have Randle be the high post initiator because he at least has shown the ability to find teammates and is actually an offensive threat from out there. As is, we're either standing around not doing anything on offense, or running around like headless chickens for no reason. The end result is nearly the same every possession-we kill about 18 seconds off the shot clock and the person with the ball in his hand is forced to isolate and throw up a low percentage shot.

Not creative enough with simple PNR sets. What I'm seeing when we do actually run PNR is that either Russell or JC will call for a pick. Then, the big will take a few seconds to process that (wut) before coming up to actually set the damn screen. Next, Russell or JC will use it to get some separation from their defender. However, neither big is rolling hard to the hoop, and so they get walled off from the paint. Meanwhile, everyone else not involved in the play is just standing there staring at them. This leads to a forced mid range jump shot usually (Byron is pleased, I'm sure) with the shot clock about to expire.

How about some 1/4 PNR? Instead of giving the ball to Julius so he can try to bumrush his way to the hoop in an isolation, why not have him come set a hard screen (which he needs to get better at doing) and rolling or even popping for the J. Anthony or Jabari Brown should be situated or be situating themselves in opposite corners so the ball handler has multiple options in case they can't get to the roll/popman. It also creates more driving space for them so they're not running into a wall of defenders.

We ran HORNs maybe twice in the past two games, why not utilize that more? How about running multiple screens off ball for Russell? Hell you could run multiple screens on ball for Russell ala Curry in the finals. Point is, this offense that we're trying to shove down these kids throats isn't conducive to winning games and is only hurting their morale.

thanks as always moonie

[ChocolateThundr]

Does anyone know if and when the team will play next? I read that every team plays 5 games in the LV summer league?

[moonpie]

Once today's games finish up, they'll seed the teams based on record and I believe we should play again on Wednesday. We're guaranteed at least two more games (first round matchup and loser's bracket game). We'll play more should we advance

[tugs]

I wish they were able to play Dallas.

[tugs]

Ha. Wish granted.