Dez wrote:ZOMG wrote:dougthonus wrote:
Lauri already gets most of his passes when he's unguarded and isn't asked to create his own shot. The vast majority of his three point looks last year were qualified as open or wide open. Part of his complaint was the exact opposite of this, that he doesn't want to be a guy getting kick outs and wants to be more involved.
Butler's a really weird guy to bring up in that circumstance, probably not a whole lot better than LaVine really, and not a guy that could have ever played with Lauri since Lauri was part of the goods that came trading him out.
Weird take. You can be damn sure that Lauri has always been under orders from both Fred and Boylen to try to score when he sees daylight. A guy who can shoot but refuses to do so is a very bad thing to have on your team in the modern NBA. Sure, we all know this didn't work like it was supposed to because there was so little natural ball movement - Markkanen often didn't see the rock for a long while so when he got it, he seemed hellbent on putting a shot up. He knew that he'd look even worse if he just handed the ball off again. Passive. Avoiding responsibility.
Also, I'll use the exact same argument people always trot out in defense of Zach - who's he gonna pass to out there? There's been numerous lineups where Lauri and LaVine are the only two legit scoring options. So Lauri drives, draws the defense... and surveys his passing options. Carter clogging the lane looking for a rebound, a hobbled Porter out on the perimeter with a dude glued to his chest, Arci standing near midcourt, not doing much of anything. Yeah, I think he's gonna put a shot up.
Except he doesn't do this, he's passive and weak.
Do you have any idea how difficult it is to dribble drive from the perimeter in the NBA if the defense doesn't respect the shots of 3 of your teammates? Because that's the story of the last 3 years for the Bulls. This team has been packed with people who can be ignored on offense, which has made it very difficult for players like LaVine and Markkanen to find space.
That's why it's extremely important that we don't draft or sign any more non-shooters. The remaining ones should be shipped out ASAP.