dougthonus wrote:TeamMan wrote:As far as Lauri is concerned, it would be very interesting to see how he would play on a team with a player like Jimmy Butler that's a threat to put up a triple-double on any given night. With a player like JImmy, Lauri would get a lot more passes where he is unguarded (either under the basket or out at the 3P line).
IMO having to create his own shot every position is not Lauri's game.
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.
I think that "ironic" is a better word than "weird".
I only mention Butler because you can see the effect that he has while playing with a group of young players that are talented, but not All Stars (like LeBron has with AD).
I cannot honestly say that LaVine is a threat to put up a triple-double "on any given night". (I checked, and it appears that he's never had one in the NBA.)
Possibly, if he had (most likely will have) Coby with him in the starting lineup, then he'd get a lot more assists. It's actually something that I'm looking forward to next season.
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Regarding Lauri, I was indirectly responding to SCO's post (that was included in my previous post) about Lauri creating his own shot. But I think that SCO's 2nd option "...becoming more efficient..." is achievable.
sco wrote:I agree, but will say it a little differently. Defense aside, but I think he has shown flashes of the ability to defend at a NBA level. On offense he either needs to develop the ability to create his own shot on offense, a la Durant or AD and become a second option scorer, OR he needs to become more efficient with his shooting (esp. 3pt shooting) on fewer shot attempts per game (and shoot over smaller players in so doing).