GT: T-Wolves @ Lakers October 28, 2015 7:30PM

Murphs56 · Post #401 » by **Murphs56** » Thu Oct 29, 2015 6:00 am

Loved what I saw from you guys tonight. Randle is going to be a force with a little more polish. He has no fear attacking the rim. My only question for you guys, is what do you make of Russell only getting 7 shots? I know it's the first game, but can Russell really develop and get into the flow offensively with Kobe? Do you bring him off the bench maybe or would Williams and Young overshadow him there?

Post #402 » by **crazyeights** » Thu Oct 29, 2015 6:00 am

Byron tried to let them figure it out. They didn't. Byron's loss.

Man the refs bailed Minny out with those crazy ass fouls on Martin. He's not even under control just throws himself around.

Horrible 2nd half.

**** better learn from it.

Post #403 » by **crazyeights** » Thu Oct 29, 2015 6:03 am

Also, I told you guys Ronny Turiaf was saying Rubio's shot looked great (due to Mike Penberthy).

Post #404 » by **Slava** » Thu Oct 29, 2015 6:05 am

Murphs56 wrote:Loved what I saw from you guys tonight. Randle is going to be a force with a little more polish. He has no fear attacking the rim. My only question for you guys, is what do you make of Russell only getting 7 shots? I know it's the first game, but can Russell really develop and get into the flow offensively with Kobe? Do you bring him off the bench maybe or would Williams and Young overshadow him there?

He plays with the first unit but he needs to make himself more assertive. Far too many occasions when the play just passed by him today. He looked more comfortable when running the pick and roll by himself.

DEEP3CL · Post #405 » by **DEEP3CL** » Thu Oct 29, 2015 6:05 am

Can't believe I'm seeing so called Laker fans on the GB praying to keep a so called top 3 pick. First off you have to realize this team is just decent enough that they won't come close to being low enough to keep that pick. Secondly college basketball will be almost unwatchable this season and there isn't one kid that will be a lottery pick that will put a team over the hump.

If you believe that they'll keep that pick and find a stud in a real weak draft....then you are mentally F'd up and have no ball IQ.

moonpie · Post #406 » by **moonpie** » Thu Oct 29, 2015 6:08 am

Quick grades and some thoughts:

Russell: D+/C- (Hard to do much offensively in this role. He's cutting, but literally no one else is moving. How about running him off some screens ala Klay? Too complicated for Byron, I suppose. Defensively, needs to get lower in his stance and find the angles to disrupt penetrating guards, some of that is just strength that will come in time though)

Randle: B/B+ (LOVE how he didn't back down from KG and just went back at him. His free throw form is looking nice, hopefully it translates to his jumper. Needs to finish at the rim with more authority at times. Good job on the boards.)

Clarkson: B (Needs to be mindful that he doesn't monopolize the ball too much and force the issue, although again to be fair, no one else is moving. Admirable job on Wiggins who seemed off tonight.)

Kobe: D (This is exactly the kind of Kobe we didn't want to see. Isolations, post-ups that lead to tough, contested fadeaways, and heat check 3s early in the clock, is not a winning recipe.)

Hibbert: B+ (Solid game, love the enthusiasm and energy he's bringing)

Williams: B+ (Obviously tremendous offense, but he did get outmatched at times due to size issues against Martin)

Young: A- (Solid game from Nick. Played within himself for the most part and it showed)

Kelly: C (Has to be quicker on the trigger with his 3 ball. It's your bread and butter, don't forego it and drive all the time.)

Bass: D- (He is not a center. HE IS NOT A CENTER)

Huertes: C+ (He didn't have the burst we saw in preseason - hammy issues? He tends to foul in fastbreak situations, but I guess that's what you're taught in European basketball?)

Byron: F (Where to start? No offensive creativity whatsoever, all the talk about "defense" and we give up 112 points, not knowing how to manage momentum and leaving the subs in to burn, not calling timeouts in crucial situations, the list goes on.)

gts1 · Post #407 » by **gts1** » Thu Oct 29, 2015 6:10 am

DEEP3CL wrote:You're obviously missing my point, and that's when you see a team stuck in neutral you have to change it. That lineup was horrible on all fronts, they didn't have a defensive presence out there and they launched 3 after 3 after 3. Bass and Kelly aren't scores and they aren't guys you can waste touches on. And by the way that mantra of "if you pull them they won't learn"....that's crap, you have to make guys realized why they got pull. You can't keep making the same mistakes over and over and keep playing.

No I got your point...

I just view it differently then you do... I'm a firm believer in letting guys as a unit figure it out for themselves, builds a smarter team, a team that can think for themselves in big pressure moments.. more so when you have this many guys that have never played together... First few games of the season are nothing more than an extension of the preseason...

If this was a championship squad or we expected them to make the playoffs then make some noise i'd think differently or if it were mid February but it's the first game of the season it's not mid February and they're definitely not making a big run at the playoffs this season, it's is all about getting the players experience and learning how to get your act together when you've blown a lead is a big part of them game.. it's also the right time for the coaches to see what they have and who steps up when the chips are down..

DEEP3CL · Post #408 » by **DEEP3CL** » Thu Oct 29, 2015 6:11 am

Murphs56 wrote:Loved what I saw from you guys tonight. Randle is going to be a force with a little more polish. He has no fear attacking the rim. My only question for you guys, is what do you make of Russell only getting 7 shots? I know it's the first game, but can Russell really develop and get into the flow offensively with Kobe? Do you bring him off the bench maybe or would Williams and Young overshadow him there?

Man bottom line Russell just has to be more aggressive, he's not a hunter. Playing in the 1st unit with Kobe has zero to do with his so called development.

And it's way too early to worry about how many shots he took in only his first game. If he had a hunters mentality than I could see 7 shots being way too low, but he's not aggressive so his shots will have to come within the flow of the offense. This means moving off the ball, which all young players have no clue on how to do that fluidly.

Post #409 » by **Danny Darko** » Thu Oct 29, 2015 6:15 am

Murphs56 wrote:Loved what I saw from you guys tonight. Randle is going to be a force with a little more polish. He has no fear attacking the rim. My only question for you guys, is what do you make of Russell only getting 7 shots? I know it's the first game, but can Russell really develop and get into the flow offensively with Kobe? Do you bring him off the bench maybe or would Williams and Young overshadow him there?

Gosh I think Russell will be slow to develop if he does. I think he has a few really special skills, and has already shown he can hit shots so the lack of accuracy early is mostly just being green. His slowness is fairly remarkable to me at this point... like wow he's slow. His rebounding is pretty good for a guard, but I don't think he's got the eye of the tiger, which is something that turned around Clarksons slow start(mind you Clarkson had years on D'Angelo as a rookie). Clarkson was pretty terrible in the first 1/3 of the season after looking great in summer league... Russell has been consistently bad with flashes of wow. Mostly I think he's got the tools and could totally make up for his speed at some point, but I don't know if he's got the angry dog in him, it's more like media savvy but lazy petulant millennial.

DEEP3CL · Post #410 » by **DEEP3CL** » Thu Oct 29, 2015 6:17 am

gts1 wrote:
DEEP3CL wrote:You're obviously missing my point, and that's when you see a team stuck in neutral you have to change it. That lineup was horrible on all fronts, they didn't have a defensive presence out there and they launched 3 after 3 after 3. Bass and Kelly aren't scores and they aren't guys you can waste touches on. And by the way that mantra of "if you pull them they won't learn"....that's crap, you have to make guys realized why they got pull. You can't keep making the same mistakes over and over and keep playing.

No I got your point...

I just view it differently then you do... I'm a firm believer in letting guys as a unit figure it out for themselves, builds a smarter team, a team that can think for themselves in big pressure moments.. more so when you have this many guys that have never played together... First few games of the season are nothing more than an extension of the preseason...

If this was a championship squad or we expected them to make the playoffs then make some noise i'd think differently or if it were mid February but it's the first game of the season it's not mid February and they're definitely not making a big run at the playoffs this season, it's is all about getting the players experience and learning how to get your act together when you've blown a lead is a big part of them game.. it's also the right time for the coaches to see what they have and who steps up when the chips are down..

Ok...and I'm from that school also. Let them figure it out, it's like the Coach Wooden approach of not calling TO's because he felt it was an admission of not being prepared.

And by the way I have us as a .500 team, so I know we'll have a whole lot more losses like tonight. But the game was a winnable game that was lost on two fronts....bad coaching rotations and too many 3 attempts. We have to establish some type of tempo of playing fast but being able to search for buckets within our offense, meaning we have to find a possession guy to funnel the offense through.

Pablo Escobar · Post #411 » by **Pablo Escobar** » Thu Oct 29, 2015 6:17 am

Kobe was chucking again smh.

SashaTheMachine · Post #412 » by **SashaTheMachine** » Thu Oct 29, 2015 6:18 am

It's like you knew it was coming all game.

Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

gts1 · Post #413 » by **gts1** » Thu Oct 29, 2015 6:21 am

Tobi wrote:It's like you knew it was coming all game.

Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

wish I could get the app to work on my iphone...lol

what's the secret

Dilly · Post #414 » by **Dilly** » Thu Oct 29, 2015 6:21 am

DEEP3CL wrote:Can't believe I'm seeing so called Laker fans on the GB praying to keep a so called top 3 pick. First off you have to realize this team is just decent enough that they won't come close to being low enough to keep that pick. Secondly college basketball will be almost unwatchable this season and there isn't one kid that will be a lottery pick that will put a team over the hump.

If you believe that they'll keep that pick and find a stud in a real weak draft....then you are mentally F'd up and have no ball IQ.

Have to disagree, weak draft or not. Getting a prospect is better than getting none at all

Post #415 » by **crazyeights** » Thu Oct 29, 2015 6:21 am

Anyone who blames Russell for his statline seems to think he was played 35 minutes and his team's game plan was to give him the ball.

He didn't and they weren't. Dude was wide open a dozen times at the 3. There was zero consideration of him on the weakside.

If he's not going to play with the ball in his hands and they don't look for him off-ball, then there's not much more he can do.

This team's going to have problems so long as there's no clear pecking order offensively. Clarkson doesn't know when or if he should take over. Neither does Lou. Hell, even Kobe's probably confused.

Dr Aki · Post #416 » by **Dr Aki** » Thu Oct 29, 2015 6:22 am

DEEP3CL wrote:
gts1 wrote:
DEEP3CL wrote:You're obviously missing my point, and that's when you see a team stuck in neutral you have to change it. That lineup was horrible on all fronts, they didn't have a defensive presence out there and they launched 3 after 3 after 3. Bass and Kelly aren't scores and they aren't guys you can waste touches on. And by the way that mantra of "if you pull them they won't learn"....that's crap, you have to make guys realized why they got pull. You can't keep making the same mistakes over and over and keep playing.

No I got your point...

I just view it differently then you do... I'm a firm believer in letting guys as a unit figure it out for themselves, builds a smarter team, a team that can think for themselves in big pressure moments.. more so when you have this many guys that have never played together... First few games of the season are nothing more than an extension of the preseason...

If this was a championship squad or we expected them to make the playoffs then make some noise i'd think differently or if it were mid February but it's the first game of the season it's not mid February and they're definitely not making a big run at the playoffs this season, it's is all about getting the players experience and learning how to get your act together when you've blown a lead is a big part of them game.. it's also the right time for the coaches to see what they have and who steps up when the chips are down..
Ok...and I'm from that school also. Let them figure it out, it's like the Coach Wooden approach of not calling TO's because he felt it was an admission of not being prepared.

And by the way I have us as a .500 team, so I know we'll have a whole lot more losses like tonight. But the game was a winnable game that was lost on two fronts....bad coaching rotations and too many 3 attempts. We have to establish some type of tempo of playing fast but being able to search for buckets within our offense, meaning we have to find a possession guy to funnel the offense through.

we're a .500 team if all we play are lottery teams.

it's not looking great

DEEP3CL · Post #417 » by **DEEP3CL** » Thu Oct 29, 2015 6:27 am

Dilly wrote:
DEEP3CL wrote:Can't believe I'm seeing so called Laker fans on the GB praying to keep a so called top 3 pick. First off you have to realize this team is just decent enough that they won't come close to being low enough to keep that pick. Secondly college basketball will be almost unwatchable this season and there isn't one kid that will be a lottery pick that will put a team over the hump.

If you believe that they'll keep that pick and find a stud in a real weak draft....then you are mentally F'd up and have no ball IQ.

Have to disagree, weak draft or not. Getting a prospect is better than getting none at all

Keep on disagreeing, because I'm here to tell you there isn't one guy in college that will put a team over the hump, there isn't even one that will come in and average 20. The Lakers are done seeking prospects, like Mitch said they don't have time for a 10 rebuild and they certainly can't rely on building through a weak draft. In fact the next 2 drafts will be about as weak as I've ever seen them.

gts1 · Post #418 » by **gts1** » Thu Oct 29, 2015 6:27 am

DEEP3CL wrote:]Ok...and I'm from that school also. Let them figure it out, it's like the Coach Wooden approach of not calling TO's because he felt it was an admission of not being prepared.

And by the way I have us as a .500 team, so I know we'll have a whole lot more losses like tonight. But the game was a winnable game that was lost on two fronts....bad coaching rotations and too many 3 attempts. We have to establish some type of tempo of playing fast but being able to search for buckets within our offense, meaning we have to find a possession guy to funnel the offense through.

That and they also need to work on moving without the ball... this standing around stuff and watching the game go by will have to stop and i'm confident it will as they get into the groove

Russell did not have a good game by any stretch but the offense wasn't helping him with the lack of movement...

your thoughts on Wooden remind me of all the times I yelled at Phil Jackson via my TV "call a time out Da** it" as the lead slipped away

gts1 · Post #419 » by **gts1** » Thu Oct 29, 2015 6:31 am

Dilly wrote:Have to disagree, weak draft or not. Getting a prospect is better than getting none at all

Can't agree with that

Lakers will be too good to lose that many games in the first place and sooner or later you have to stop trying to lose and start trying to win... We have more than enough solid prospects on this roster to develop now, don't need to stymie their growth by coaching to lose just to add another prospect that there's no guarantee he'd be the guy to get you over the hump

Post #420 » by **crazyeights** » Thu Oct 29, 2015 2:30 pm

This team doesn't have enough balls to go around. That means Byron needs to design more off-ball movement into the offense. Guys aren't even looking to pass to cutters.

18 assists is just not enough. We flourished most when we had ball-movement.

But again, we were knocked out of rhythm by a ton of fouls, both real and imagined (by the refs).