Our New (Post-Trade) Frontcourt is Kinda Crushimg It

[TrueLAfan]

Our front line now …. Mmmm. Look, I know Trezz won’t/can’t keep shooting like this, and Green can’t keep hitting 50% of his threes (you read that right). Still, these are the numbers that our four man frontcourt is putting up right now in the six post-trade games:

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                MPG   PPG   RPG  APG  BLK  STL   FG%   3P%   FT%
Frontcourt     92.3  57.8  24.5  7.2  3.3  2.7  .553  .379  .832


If you’re getting 58 and 25 from your front court (just so we’re clear, that’s 22.5 and 9.6 per 36 at each position) and they can all shoot well and your PFs are spreading the court (like I said—JaMychal Green is 10 for 20 from behind the line as a Clipper) then, well, you’re doing okay. And the thing that’s great is that we’re getting colossal production from each position—our positional two man rotations are great too.

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                MPG   PPG   RPG  APG  BLK  STL   FG%   3P%   FT%
Zubac/Trezz    46.0  30.1  12.2  4.7  2.0  1.0  .612  .000  .765
Gallo/Green    46.3  27.7  12.3  2.5  1.3  1.7  .485  .400  .900


My takeaways after are 6 games are:

--They can’t keep shooting this well. Just can’t. So, yeah, that’s gonna drop. Especially because…
--Trezz is on a tear, and will come back to earth. But he’ll still be good.
--Zubac and Green are both + defenders right now. Zubac is young, but he’s big and mobile for his size. He’s a decent rim protector. That may last. Green is a bulldog and always has been. So we’re actually making up for the defensive shortcomings of traded Tobias and still here Gallo to some extent. It’s almost surely an upgrade over Gortat and Tobias.
--Green will come back to earth too—he’s not going to shoot 50% from three. But he’s not way out of the ordinary in his (short) time here. He’s putting up 8.7 and 6.7 in 19.5 minutes on .529/.500/.750 as a Clipper. The last three seasons with the Grizz, he averaged 8.9 and 6.5 in 23.5 minutes on .476/.366/.768. He’s only 28. He may be a keeper.
--Gallo has been Gallo. I worried about how losing a good scorer and court spreader like Tobias would affect him, especially since he’s been having a (very) good season. He averaged 19 and 6 with Tobias. He’s averaged 19 and 6 in the last 6 games.
--Where we’ve been hurt is rebounding at the other three positions. Without Tobias’s minutes at SF and Bradley (better rebounder than Shamet), we’re getting beaten on the boards. But that’s not a frontcourt issue. These guys are pulling their weight (Green, in particular).

And this also means that Wilson Chandler and Luc when/if they come back—we don’t need them at PF. That’s not an issue so much for Luc; it is for Wilson. He’s going to have to get his time at SF. That will help the rebounding … if Chandler can stay with SFs.

Still, I just wanted note that we traded our starting C and borderline all-star SF/PF and haven’t lost a step at all in the frontcourt. That’s good.

[esqtvd]

Well, we see what a millstone Gortat was. ANYbody is better.

As for losing Tobias at SF, we're in the deficit there. We HAVE to start Pat Bev for his D and leadership, but are still starting guards at the 3. Whether Shamet or Shai is the 3, we're not getting anywhere near Tobias's 20 ppg.

The rest have to figure out how to feed Shamet at distance, and Shai's numbers are now approaching Avery's for the year--the difference being that Avery's D is superior and he's been getting better--Shai's numbers are getting worse.

After a disastrous start, Avery's now shooting over 34% from 3 on the year; Shai has dipped to 30.9%. We're taking a hit there too. It's hard to imagine anyone being worse than Bradley--but there it is. And 4.2 assists per 36 minutes isn't gonna cut it either for a guy who's supposed to be our PG of the future.

As for JaMychal Green, the numbers look gaudy but I'm not a believer yet. There's got to be a reason Memphis couldn't get anything for him and gave him away to us just for some lux tax relief. OTOH, occasionally somebody gets it at age 28. At the moment, I'm good b/c he's earning his PT and seems to be an upgrade over Mike Scott--although let's remember Scott had a hot shooting start for us too until he petered out.


Mostly, I don't know how Doc is doing it. He's creating rotations on the fly that seem to work at some level--if our starting 5 is unimpressive [and it is], he's not trying to fix it by disrupting the second unit that is keeping us afloat. That's throwing good money after bad, and with due respect to Gallo, our bench is our gold.

Gotta coach this thing backwards, from the end of the game back to the start.

[TrueLAfan]

Shai’s a rookie and he’s a physically developing (nice way of saying skinny) and I think he’s hitting a rookie wall. He’s played more than twice as much as he played at Kentucky last year against professional competition. He needs a break. But, yeah, I agree with your points about Bradley and Gortat. Gortat was big and set screens and was a good locker room guy and that’s about it.

Here’s the thing about Green, as far as I can see. He’s an adequate, not big, scorer. He’s an overall plus defender, but doesn’t really have the bulk to play at C or quickness to stay with many SFs. He spreads the court well, but isn’t a good passer. That kind of pigeonholes him. It doesn’t mean he’s a bad player; he’s actually a good player at what he does. And one of his strengths is he seems to know his limitations. And if he’s used properly, with recognition of those limitations, he’s a good player and, IMO, a good to very good bench player.

Memphis has Jaren Jackson Jr. now and he’s their future PF. So Green was expendable—but he played a lot when the Grizz were better and that should be recognized. The year that Green played the most in Memphis was 2016-7. He started 75 games and played 27.3 minutes a game, and he played pretty well (he averaged 9 and 7 on good efficiency and was a good defender)—he started over Zach Randolph, who was still putting up good numbers. The Grizz chose to push D. But they were a mess at SF and SG, and Conley missed about a dozen games. Still, they were over .500 and made the playoffs. Green was third on the team in minutes played. Like I said, he’s not in their future and kinda was getting in the way of Jackson—but by all accounts, he’s a very good locker room guy and a high energy player. He’s tough and that seems to be a quality we’re cultivating for our team.

[Galloisdaman]

I know this is crazy but is there anybody sitting out or in the D-League that could help out the starters?.

I'm not a fan of Melo but I'm almost that desperate for this team to get a starter that can produce in the last 20 games and playoffs.

[esqtvd]

[esqtvd]

LOL


https://www.sportskeeda.com/basketball/los-angeles-lakers-news-carmelo-anthony-appears-to-be-the-lakers-last-option

Los Angeles Lakers News: Carmelo Anthony appears to be the Lakers' last option

https://heavy.com/sports/2019/02/lebron-james-carmelo-anthony-lakers/

LeBron James Wants Carmelo Anthony Signed To Lakers

LeBron James and his camp want Carmelo Anthony to fill the Los Angeles Lakers 15th roster spot.

But will he join?

“LeBron’s camp is insisting on the front office signing Melo,” a league source with knowledge of the Lakers told me via text message this afternoon.

[Galloisdaman]

That shows my desperation for a starter that can score. I do not like the guy but id take anyone that could score and rebound right now.

[esqtvd]

Well, who wouldn't want somebody who can score and rebound? Thing is, that body ain't Melo's.

[TheNewEra]

Really need to make sure to keep Zubac involved

[TrueLAfan]

Last night kinda shows things in a nutshell. The Jazz frontcourt is really good—Gobert is an All-NBA level player and is a legit top 15 player contender. Derrick Favors is a terrific backup PF/C. Ingles … well, we know what he does. The Jazz go small a lot … it’s kinda funny when they start Ingles and Favors, since there’s really nobody else over 6’7” on the team that gets any time at all. Gallo, Green, Zubac, and Trezz came back to earth shootingwise, but still played pretty well on the offensive end—51 points (on 43 shots—and 0-10 from three) and 29 boards. Ingles, Favors, and Gobert got 44 (on 29 shots) and 29 boards in basically the same amount of court time. But the rest of the Jazz outrebounded us by 9 … Shai, Lou, and Temple combined for 3 boards in 72 minutes. We lost because the frontcourt shot badly and because the SF, SG, and PG positions—other than Bev, who is a very good rebounder—got beat up on the boards. The frontcourt will shoot better … not like they did in the first 6 games, but not 40% from the field and 0-10 from behind the line either. But we need to get better rebounding from the backcourt and more scoring punch from the starters. Shamet has a sweet stroke but he doesn’t score a lot right now and neither does Shai or Zubac.