ImageImageImageImageImage

Kuz has been working with a private shooting coach

Moderators: Danny Darko, Kilroy, TyCobb

Kilroy
Forum Mod - Lakers
Forum Mod - Lakers
Posts: 21,520
And1: 12,222
Joined: Jul 10, 2006
Location: The Motel 9 in Vegas
       

Re: Kuz has been working with a private shooting coach 

Post#121 » by Kilroy » Wed Aug 14, 2019 4:38 am

Ball so hard wrote:
Kilroy wrote:I don't care so much about his production rate from 3, no matter where he's taking the shot... What concerned me last year, is actually related to that "Mamba-mentality" credit he's receiving...
After his rookie year, in which, regardless of consistency over the entire season, he established himself as at least, a guy you had to stay honest on, on the perimeter, he started talking "Be like Kobe" and decided he didn't want to just be a spot up shooter anymore. He came in in season 2, with the seeming goal of competing with Ingram at his own game, and trying to win the starting 3 from him. He started passing up wide open 3s for awkward drives... Not only that, but his 'mamba-mentality' turned him into one of the worst black-holes on the team last season. He was focused on scoring every time he touched the ball, and wasn't super efficient at it... And worked his way out of minutes...
Not to mention outside of a handful of passable match-ups, he was comically bad on Defense.



The bolded part is grossly exaggerated. There isn't a single stat that supports Kuz being a blackhole. He certainly didn't appear to be a ball-stopper in the games I watched. Hard to call someone a blackhole who average around 2 seconds per touch and around 2 dribbles per possession. This is not even close to being one of the worse on the team, given similar minutes.

Ingram's averaged around 4 seconds per touch and around 3 dribbles per possession.

His defense also wasn't nearly as bad as you're making it out to be.


What does minutes per touch have to do with being a Blackhole? I think you misunderstand the concept...

If a dude catches and shoots the ball every time he touches it, regardless of clock or offensive set, or who's on the court with him, he's still a blackhole... Dribbling has nothing to do with it.
Never have rice at Hanzo's house...
Ball so hard
Sixth Man
Posts: 1,996
And1: 677
Joined: Jul 04, 2017
     

Re: Kuz has been working with a private shooting coach 

Post#122 » by Ball so hard » Wed Aug 14, 2019 12:36 pm

Kilroy wrote:
Ball so hard wrote:
Kilroy wrote:I don't care so much about his production rate from 3, no matter where he's taking the shot... What concerned me last year, is actually related to that "Mamba-mentality" credit he's receiving...
After his rookie year, in which, regardless of consistency over the entire season, he established himself as at least, a guy you had to stay honest on, on the perimeter, he started talking "Be like Kobe" and decided he didn't want to just be a spot up shooter anymore. He came in in season 2, with the seeming goal of competing with Ingram at his own game, and trying to win the starting 3 from him. He started passing up wide open 3s for awkward drives... Not only that, but his 'mamba-mentality' turned him into one of the worst black-holes on the team last season. He was focused on scoring every time he touched the ball, and wasn't super efficient at it... And worked his way out of minutes...
Not to mention outside of a handful of passable match-ups, he was comically bad on Defense.



The bolded part is grossly exaggerated. There isn't a single stat that supports Kuz being a blackhole. He certainly didn't appear to be a ball-stopper in the games I watched. Hard to call someone a blackhole who average around 2 seconds per touch and around 2 dribbles per possession. This is not even close to being one of the worse on the team, given similar minutes.

Ingram's averaged around 4 seconds per touch and around 3 dribbles per possession.

His defense also wasn't nearly as bad as you're making it out to be.


What does minutes per touch have to do with being a Blackhole? I think you misunderstand the concept...

If a dude catches and shoots the ball every time he touches it, regardless of clock or offensive set, or who's on the court with him, he's still a blackhole... Dribbling has nothing to do with it.


A blackhole in basketball is essentially someone who doesn't pass the ball. Like an actual black hole, the ball is considered lost whenever it reaches a "blackhole" in basketball. Dribbling has as much to do with being a blackhole as catching and shooting ever single time as you put it. Randle was almost universally considered a blackhole despite rarely ever attempting a catch and shoot.
Using your logic, Kyle Korver and any other 3 point specialist is a blackhole. You're making out Kuz to be some wild out of control player who's uncoachable. Luke should've been fired a long time ago for playing a guy 33 mpg who shoots every time without regard for the clock or offensive sets.

Regarding catching and shooting every time - with similar utilization as Ingram, their AST% are 11.5 and 12.9, respectively. It's kind of odd to have a player who catches and shoots every single time have similar AST% as someone who was considered a facilitator.
User avatar
dockingsched
Retired Mod
Retired Mod
Posts: 55,654
And1: 21,465
Joined: Aug 02, 2005
     

Re: Kuz has been working with a private shooting coach 

Post#123 » by dockingsched » Wed Aug 14, 2019 11:46 pm

"We must try not to sink beneath our anguish, Harry, but battle on." - Dumbledore
stan francisco
Lead Assistant
Posts: 5,294
And1: 1,538
Joined: Oct 20, 2015
 

Re: Kuz has been working with a private shooting coach 

Post#124 » by stan francisco » Thu Aug 15, 2019 7:18 pm

https://youtu.be/PVUitgeuW90

I expect many of these types of scoring outburst by Kuz this season. But I’d rather see him becoming a MWP minded (w/o the crazy!) defender.

Fun highlights. Like Stu says, “if you’ve shown me you can do it once...”
PG: D Lo / Reaves / Vincent(IL) / JHS
SG: Christie / Dinwiddie / Lewis / Mays
SF: LBJ / Prince / Reddish / Windler
PF: Rui / Vando(IL) / LBJ
CTR: AD / Hayes / Wood

Modern era NBA titles:
LAL 11, CHI 6, SAS 5, BOS 5, GSW 4
Kilroy
Forum Mod - Lakers
Forum Mod - Lakers
Posts: 21,520
And1: 12,222
Joined: Jul 10, 2006
Location: The Motel 9 in Vegas
       

Re: Kuz has been working with a private shooting coach 

Post#125 » by Kilroy » Thu Aug 15, 2019 7:21 pm

dockingsched wrote:


Terrific, but he's like my wife playing video games... Lots more levels left before he's good.
Never have rice at Hanzo's house...
Landsberger
General Manager
Posts: 9,031
And1: 1,969
Joined: Jul 04, 2016
 

Re: Kuz has been working with a private shooting coach 

Post#126 » by Landsberger » Fri Aug 16, 2019 2:36 am

He could skip a dozen levels just by being asked to defend just his position instead of centers.

His defensive issues are overblown IMO.... It takes a while for the fans to get over the initial impressions. Hart splashed a little defensively his first few weeks then was basically a turnstile the rest of his tenure here yet he was a "defensive stopper" off the bench. Hart was never that good and Kuzma has never been that bad. They both played in a constantly changing system, had no idea of the player rotations from night to night and rarely played with the same other 4.

Teams play defense or they don't That's typically how it works. No one guy can ruin or make a defense.

I'm just glad to see him working on his game as hard as he is. His ceiling is not that far off but in the right situation he can be a difference maker and I think he may be in the right situation this season.
lakerz12
Head Coach
Posts: 7,362
And1: 8,894
Joined: Jan 29, 2006
Contact:
     

Re: Kuz has been working with a private shooting coach 

Post#127 » by lakerz12 » Sat Aug 17, 2019 3:49 am

He just put up a really ugly airball in the team USA game. His hair looks stupid too.

I hope he improves this year. I wish he were the one getting the minutes on team USA, not Tatum. Apparently they don't view him as being on Tatum's level.
TKainZero
Head Coach
Posts: 7,056
And1: 3,275
Joined: Jul 31, 2014
       

Re: Kuz has been working with a private shooting coach 

Post#128 » by TKainZero » Sat Aug 17, 2019 4:51 am

lakerz12 wrote:He just put up a really ugly airball in the team USA game. His hair looks stupid too.

I hope he improves this year. I wish he were the one getting the minutes on team USA, not Tatum. Apparently they don't view him as being on Tatum's level.


His hair looks ridiculous.
His game hasn’t looked great either.
USA Celtics in full effect. Amazing chemistry building experience right there for the main core of the team


Proceeds to finish 7th and shames the entire nation!
User avatar
kblo247
RealGM
Posts: 13,832
And1: 2,130
Joined: Apr 16, 2011

Re: Kuz has been working with a private shooting coach 

Post#129 » by kblo247 » Sat Aug 17, 2019 5:09 am

Kilroy wrote:
dockingsched wrote:


Terrific, but he's like my wife playing video games... Lots more levels left before he's good.

Maybe he can be like Randle, horrible or like Ingram, ineffective by every metric for you to lay off him

He just has to be competitive and capable on that end which comes down to scheme and being put in a position to succeed with his own physical attributes, as in not playing small 5 .
Image
Landsberger
General Manager
Posts: 9,031
And1: 1,969
Joined: Jul 04, 2016
 

Re: Kuz has been working with a private shooting coach 

Post#130 » by Landsberger » Sat Aug 17, 2019 4:25 pm

Wow... we have a young player who has been arguably the best performing of our entire youth venture making $1.9M a year and we're discussing him like he's some kind of scrub/cancer on the team. He will be a key to our success this year as a primary scorer off the bench and in all likelihood our 3rd leading scorer. Wanting to trade him for a 15min/a game backup center? Man he elicits some real irrational venom around here.

That said.... I'm not a fan of the hair either.... but it's not a tradable offense.
User avatar
dockingsched
Retired Mod
Retired Mod
Posts: 55,654
And1: 21,465
Joined: Aug 02, 2005
     

Re: Kuz has been working with a private shooting coach 

Post#131 » by dockingsched » Mon Aug 19, 2019 2:15 am

Read on Twitter


Looks like the “bad defender” talk needs to end immediately.
"We must try not to sink beneath our anguish, Harry, but battle on." - Dumbledore
SportsReelLife
Ballboy
Posts: 18
And1: 8
Joined: Aug 01, 2017

Re: Kuz has been working with a private shooting coach 

Post#132 » by SportsReelLife » Mon Aug 19, 2019 11:39 am

He's gonna have a big year. Can't wait!
See Breathe Live Sports
jkokkotos
Sophomore
Posts: 157
And1: 72
Joined: Jul 28, 2015
Location: Athens,Greece
   

Re: Kuz has been working with a private shooting coach 

Post#133 » by jkokkotos » Mon Aug 19, 2019 3:01 pm

Not a huge Kuzma fan here, but it's quite obvious he became our X-Factor the moment Cousins tore his ACL. If Kuzma can't make another leap this year & become a legitimate #3 on a contending team, then we aren't winning this year either. Danny Green is a very strong starter on championship teams but if he's your #3 guy, you won't win.
I don't like to oversimplify what it takes to win in the NBA, but here it goes: Spurs needed him to be their #5 guy on 2014 behind Duncan-Kawhi-Manu-Parker and Toronto relied more on Kawhi-Lowry-Siakam-Gasol-FVV than him. We're already projecting him to be at least our 4th best player after LeBron-AD-Kuzma and since we already know what we're getting from LBJ-AD & Green will be 32, it means we need Kuzma to become a really legit #3 guy. I'm not asking him to be voted an All-Star in the West, that's impossible but he needs to get his rookie 3pt% back, to improve his defense from 'below-average' to 'good' (big leap) & to average an efficient 15-16 ppg. I don't know if that's asking too much from him or not, but, unless KCP or AB or Caruso really have an outstanding year that no one saw coming, then we will need at least this much from Kuz to win. Possibly more if a team proves to be even better than what we expect them to be today.
Ball so hard
Sixth Man
Posts: 1,996
And1: 677
Joined: Jul 04, 2017
     

Re: Kuz has been working with a private shooting coach 

Post#134 » by Ball so hard » Mon Aug 19, 2019 3:10 pm

dockingsched wrote:
Read on Twitter


Looks like the “bad defender” talk needs to end immediately.


I wish this were the case, but it's simply not that easy to lose a label. It's possible Kuz will be labeled a terrible defender for the rest of his career.
LAKESHOW
RealGM
Posts: 17,139
And1: 4,177
Joined: Mar 14, 2002
Location: HOME OF THE 17 TIME WORLD CHAMPIONS!

Re: Kuz has been working with a private shooting coach 

Post#135 » by LAKESHOW » Thu Aug 22, 2019 12:39 pm

Kuuuuz, doin it down unda mate!
Home of the 17 Time World Champions
User avatar
snaquille oatmeal
Retired Mod
Retired Mod
Posts: 16,759
And1: 4,763
Joined: Nov 15, 2005
Location: San Diego
   

Re: Kuz has been working with a private shooting coach 

Post#136 » by snaquille oatmeal » Thu Aug 22, 2019 11:28 pm

[instagram][
Great form
Forum permissions
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot trade for basketball reasons in this forum
You cannot but I can...five rings!
Up-And-Coming
Assistant Coach
Posts: 4,290
And1: 3,639
Joined: Jul 21, 2015
       

Re: Kuz has been working with a private shooting coach 

Post#137 » by Up-And-Coming » Fri Aug 23, 2019 3:54 am

snaquille oatmeal wrote:[instagram][
Great form


Yup. Kuz has had a great shooting form, but it seems like he tightened his shot a bit and is clearly shooting it with way more confidence. Keep it up young fella
stan francisco
Lead Assistant
Posts: 5,294
And1: 1,538
Joined: Oct 20, 2015
 

Re: Kuz has been working with a private shooting coach 

Post#138 » by stan francisco » Fri Aug 23, 2019 10:34 am

His higher and quicker release on threes will make it a much harder shot to guard.
PG: D Lo / Reaves / Vincent(IL) / JHS
SG: Christie / Dinwiddie / Lewis / Mays
SF: LBJ / Prince / Reddish / Windler
PF: Rui / Vando(IL) / LBJ
CTR: AD / Hayes / Wood

Modern era NBA titles:
LAL 11, CHI 6, SAS 5, BOS 5, GSW 4
ROballer
General Manager
Posts: 9,309
And1: 2,742
Joined: Sep 06, 2009
Location: Romania
   

Re: Kuz has been working with a private shooting coach 

Post#139 » by ROballer » Sat Aug 24, 2019 3:57 pm

He injured his ankle and was cut from the US team. No China for him.
Steve Nash injures his back while carrying bags

Slava wrote:I pulled a hammy while fapping. I won't make fun of Nash.
LAKESHOW
RealGM
Posts: 17,139
And1: 4,177
Joined: Mar 14, 2002
Location: HOME OF THE 17 TIME WORLD CHAMPIONS!

Re: Kuz has been working with a private shooting coach 

Post#140 » by LAKESHOW » Sat Aug 24, 2019 4:45 pm

Good. This is offaeason. Get some rest and ready by season
Home of the 17 Time World Champions

Return to Los Angeles Lakers