T-28: Who will lead the Lakers in assists per game?

[aaron_gray]

In New Orleans, CP3 was regularly playing with the likes of Tyson Chandler and Mo Pete, David West etc while putting up insane 125 offensive rating seasons. Those are the kind of blue collar players that basically want you to dominate the ball and get them easy shots so they can do their job on the defensive side. So I don't think his approach was in any way bad for motivation.

True, and the Clippers have done a great job surrounding him with players like Deandre and Redick. But what happens when you add a Lance Stephenson to the equation (ie. someone who is used to being involved more and isn't as mature as your typical 30 year old veteran)?

[Slava]

In New Orleans, CP3 was regularly playing with the likes of Tyson Chandler and Mo Pete, David West etc while putting up insane 125 offensive rating seasons. Those are the kind of blue collar players that basically want you to dominate the ball and get them easy shots so they can do their job on the defensive side. So I don't think his approach was in any way bad for motivation.

True, and the Clippers have done a great job surrounding him with players like Deandre and Redick. But what happens when you add a Lance Stephenson to the equation (ie. someone who is used to being involved more and isn't as mature as your typical 30 year old veteran)?

That probably falls on the GM or the coach who couldn't stagger their minutes effectively. CP3 has no issues playing with Griffin, who is the farthest thing from a low usage big.

[TKainZero]

Im not quite sure how setting up your teammates for assists constitutes as "selfish basketball".

Nash and the Suns started the whole 7-seconds or less offense, and had terrific ball movement. I think Russell would fit that style. I don't know a whole lot about what CP3 does these days, because I dont watch that so-called team. But I do remember how he played at New Orleans...and Russell would be great at that too.

You want him to play more like Irving? Fine.....go get Lebron. That will help turn Russell into more of a shooter. Much easier when defenses are busy with this freak of nature you call a teammate.

Want him to be more like Curry? I hope you have some sorta injection that makes guys shoot north of 45% from the 3. Or guess what? Your defender's gonna float off of you, the other defenders will stay home....and no ball movement. Russell ain't shabby at the 3. But he ain't Curry. You gotta shoot north of 45% with defenders ordered to stick to you like glue the second you come over half-court. You know what else helps? How about 6 other players you can pass to who shoot higher 3point % than any Laker? That kinda helps, don't it? Iggy had the 8th best 3p% on that team last year (I omitted 2 guys who almost never played) and his % was tied with Russel (our best).

This team ain't the Warriors. The sooner we realized that, and work towards stuff we'll actually be good at, the better. You wanna guy like Curry?.....well A) Get in line B) Go watch the Warriors....cause there's this guy there that does a really G* damn good Curry impression.

It's just my opinion....but if Luke is smart....he'll have Russell breaking down defenses...pulling out their bigs...and doing things like pick n rolls with Randle and Mozgov. I think Russell will have alot more assists this year. He's got my vote for leader

Selfish assists are where the player dribbles around for 20 seconds, then Passes the ball at the last moment to a player that has no other option but to shoot it or have a 24 second violation.


I would love to see an advanced stat that had a ratio between (time win Ball)/(assists)

How long does a player have the ball on average before getting an assist.

[ROballer]

APG? I'm betting it'll be Huertas again... Total assists will probably be Russell though.

So then you have Huertas getting the backup PG minutes and not Jose?

I think Jose will end up starting next to Russell, with Huertas coming off the bench for him next to Clarkson, sooner or later...
And whoever is on the floor with Russell is going to be giving up assists to him, so I think Huertas will still ultimately have the best stats.

I think having Jose's shooting in the starting lineup is going to be too attractive to pass up unless Clarkson really does become lights-out.

Calderon is as close to done as there is ...have you seen the Olympics?
The guy literally doesn't even play anymore, and he has Sergio Rodriguez and Ricky Rubio in front of him in the pecking order, not some outstanding talents that actually warrant him seing regular DNP's

Him seeing meaningful minutes, or even starting for that matter, for an NBA team(at full strength, injuries aside)....is not a viable option anymore

[warrenpeace]

Im not quite sure how setting up your teammates for assists constitutes as "selfish basketball".

Nash and the Suns started the whole 7-seconds or less offense, and had terrific ball movement. I think Russell would fit that style. I don't know a whole lot about what CP3 does these days, because I dont watch that so-called team. But I do remember how he played at New Orleans...and Russell would be great at that too.

You want him to play more like Irving? Fine.....go get Lebron. That will help turn Russell into more of a shooter. Much easier when defenses are busy with this freak of nature you call a teammate.

Want him to be more like Curry? I hope you have some sorta injection that makes guys shoot north of 45% from the 3. Or guess what? Your defender's gonna float off of you, the other defenders will stay home....and no ball movement. Russell ain't shabby at the 3. But he ain't Curry. You gotta shoot north of 45% with defenders ordered to stick to you like glue the second you come over half-court. You know what else helps? How about 6 other players you can pass to who shoot higher 3point % than any Laker? That kinda helps, don't it? Iggy had the 8th best 3p% on that team last year (I omitted 2 guys who almost never played) and his % was tied with Russel (our best).

This team ain't the Warriors. The sooner we realized that, and work towards stuff we'll actually be good at, the better. You wanna guy like Curry?.....well A) Get in line B) Go watch the Warriors....cause there's this guy there that does a really G* damn good Curry impression.

It's just my opinion....but if Luke is smart....he'll have Russell breaking down defenses...pulling out their bigs...and doing things like pick n rolls with Randle and Mozgov. I think Russell will have alot more assists this year. He's got my vote for leader

Selfish assists are where the player dribbles around for 20 seconds, then Passes the ball at the last moment to a player that has no other option but to shoot it or have a 24 second violation.


I would love to see an advanced stat that had a ratio between (time win Ball)/(assists)

How long does a player have the ball on average before getting an assist.

Exactly. This is what impresses me the most about Ben Simmons. You pass him the ball, and he is passing it to an open teammate, before the ball even reaches his hands. He is the only player in the NBA at the moment, who does this. True vision. Very impressive.

[Slava]

Im not quite sure how setting up your teammates for assists constitutes as "selfish basketball".

Nash and the Suns started the whole 7-seconds or less offense, and had terrific ball movement. I think Russell would fit that style. I don't know a whole lot about what CP3 does these days, because I dont watch that so-called team. But I do remember how he played at New Orleans...and Russell would be great at that too.

You want him to play more like Irving? Fine.....go get Lebron. That will help turn Russell into more of a shooter. Much easier when defenses are busy with this freak of nature you call a teammate.

Want him to be more like Curry? I hope you have some sorta injection that makes guys shoot north of 45% from the 3. Or guess what? Your defender's gonna float off of you, the other defenders will stay home....and no ball movement. Russell ain't shabby at the 3. But he ain't Curry. You gotta shoot north of 45% with defenders ordered to stick to you like glue the second you come over half-court. You know what else helps? How about 6 other players you can pass to who shoot higher 3point % than any Laker? That kinda helps, don't it? Iggy had the 8th best 3p% on that team last year (I omitted 2 guys who almost never played) and his % was tied with Russel (our best).

This team ain't the Warriors. The sooner we realized that, and work towards stuff we'll actually be good at, the better. You wanna guy like Curry?.....well A) Get in line B) Go watch the Warriors....cause there's this guy there that does a really G* damn good Curry impression.

It's just my opinion....but if Luke is smart....he'll have Russell breaking down defenses...pulling out their bigs...and doing things like pick n rolls with Randle and Mozgov. I think Russell will have alot more assists this year. He's got my vote for leader

Selfish assists are where the player dribbles around for 20 seconds, then Passes the ball at the last moment to a player that has no other option but to shoot it or have a 24 second violation.


I would love to see an advanced stat that had a ratio between (time win Ball)/(assists)

How long does a player have the ball on average before getting an assist.

Exactly. This is what impresses me the most about Ben Simmons. You pass him the ball, and he is passing it to an open teammate, before the ball even reaches his hands. He is the only player in the NBA at the moment, who does this. True vision. Very impressive.

Have you not been watching much NBA then? Simmons hasn't even played an NBA game.

[warrenpeace]

Selfish assists are where the player dribbles around for 20 seconds, then Passes the ball at the last moment to a player that has no other option but to shoot it or have a 24 second violation.


I would love to see an advanced stat that had a ratio between (time win Ball)/(assists)

How long does a player have the ball on average before getting an assist.

Exactly. This is what impresses me the most about Ben Simmons. You pass him the ball, and he is passing it to an open teammate, before the ball even reaches his hands. He is the only player in the NBA at the moment, who does this. True vision. Very impressive.

Have you not been watching much NBA then? Simmons hasn't even played an NBA game.

He was able to do it against inferior competition in the summer league. It's yet to be seen whether it would translate against real NBA competition. Still impressive none the less.

[Slava]

Exactly. This is what impresses me the most about Ben Simmons. You pass him the ball, and he is passing it to an open teammate, before the ball even reaches his hands. He is the only player in the NBA at the moment, who does this. True vision. Very impressive.

Have you not been watching much NBA then? Simmons hasn't even played an NBA game.

He was able to do it against inferior competition in the summer league. It's yet to be seen whether it would translate against real NBA competition. Still impressive none the less.

There's plenty of players who make the early pass or get a hockey assist. If you watch the Spurs, Warriors or even the Cavs you can see examples of these all game long. Its also weird you criticized Nash for this when he is one of the best at moving the ball to the open man as often as possible with elite vision.

[PKABOOICU]

Russell, with about 5 assists per game sounds about right.

[warrenpeace]

Have you not been watching much NBA then? Simmons hasn't even played an NBA game.

He was able to do it against inferior competition in the summer league. It's yet to be seen whether it would translate against real NBA competition. Still impressive none the less.

There's plenty of players who make the early pass or get a hockey assist. If you watch the Spurs, Warriors or even the Cavs you can see examples of these all game long. Its also weird you criticized Nash for this when he is one of the best at moving the ball to the open man as often as possible with elite vision.

For the record. I am a big Steve Nash fan. Like him on and off the court. I was also the one who took umbrage on this site several month age when someone attributed all of Nash's success to D'Antoni. I explained that it was the opposite, that D'Antoni's success was attributed to Nash's greatness.

[TKainZero]

After some thought

I could totally see Randle leading the lakers in assists per game with like 4.6 assists per game

Russell being a more scoring force

[dAdo dA dEvil]

After some thought

I could totally see Randle leading the lakers in assists per game with like 4.6 assists per game

Russell being a more scoring force

This could be possible. With the preseason games it is fun to see Randle grabbing the defensive rebound then push the ball and find the open man at the break for the finish. I'd seen him do that. If he could add the dish and drive into his arsenal he could lead this team in assist. Right now it's just drive and drive hard.

[Kilroy]

Well he did lead the team last game with 5, but it's just preseason... He'll either do it more or less as the season wears on...

What I did like about Randle's assists was that he seemed to get it to guys in their comfort zone and a lot of them were simple catch and shoot attempts... What's killing Russell and the other guard's assist numbers is all our guys seem to need to take a dribble or 2 before they shoot it... Not sure if that's just them being more comfortable off the dribble, or if they aren't getting the ball in their spots. Calderon is our only catch and shooter at this point... He's pretty good at it but we need a lot more guys like that for his offense I think.

[warrenpeace]

We have a starting point guard. He is the new face of our team, the leader of our team. He is going to have the ball in his hand a majority of the time and log the most minute. The fact that we are asking this question, is an indictment the passing ability or perhaps the willingness to pass on behalf of our point guard. Why are we even questioning this?

I don't think that the Clippers fans would ever ask the same question.

[warrenpeace]

Well he did lead the team last game with 5, but it's just preseason... He'll either do it more or less as the season wears on...

What I did like about Randle's assists was that he seemed to get it to guys in their comfort zone and a lot of them were simple catch and shoot attempts... What's killing Russell and the other guard's assist numbers is all our guys seem to need to take a dribble or 2 before they shoot it... Not sure if that's just them being more comfortable off the dribble, or if they aren't getting the ball in their spots. Calderon is our only catch and shooter at this point... He's pretty good at it but we need a lot more guys like that for his offense I think.

I agree, but I also think that in Luke's offense, there is going to be more catch and shoot.

[Michael Lucky]

Golden State gets to ask the same question.