Stanley Johnson is going to be a 95th percentile perimeter defender and 5th percentile shooter. Luke Kennard is going to be a 95th percentile shooter and a 5th percentile defender. I think we all understand what needs to be done here. Sex with each other to create either the GOAT player or the worst player ever.
Andre Drummond appears to be a true 65-70% FT shooter now. If he can get to that level, anyone in the world with one functioning hand and brain should be able to.
It'll be interesting to see how Kennard and Booker stack up a few years from now. They're basically the same exact player in terms of skill set. Booker's a tiny bit bigger, Kennard's probably a bit better ball-handler. Both should be 40% 3PT shooters (not that Booker is, but it seems like he should be able to get there based on how he shot in college and his form). Both suck on defense.
They were drafted into very different situations -- by his second year, last year, Booker was 12th in the league in FGA, because who the fuck else are the Suns going to give it to; Van Gundy is going with more of a tough love, guard-someone-first approach with Luke, which could mean he never plays a single minute, because he has a ways to go.
I agree that LA probably made a mistake trading Russell away after it looks like they won't get Westbrook, Paul or Lebron. Could've kept Russell and drafted Tatum or Fox, who I think are waaaay better than Ball. But no way Russell puts up those numbers every night. 20 and 5 is realistic.
Top 5 ROY prediction
1-Simmons, although I hate that guys are eligible even after practicing with a team for a year out of college.
2-Tatum
3-Fox
4-Smith Jr
5-Ball
MVP
1-Leonard
2-Lebron
3-Giannis
Embiid looks like he's awful to play with. When JJ missed the last shot, It cut to Embiid and he shook his head and said "I was wide open". Maybe, but you were also 0-3 before that shot and JJ was 4-7.
White SG out of Duke getting tough love from SVG until he can play defense - this is a tried and true success story. Kennard is in the right situation for him long term. Henry Ellenson is in the Pistons rotation now and didn't look bad last night, after spending a lot of time in D League last season. I expect a similar early career arc for Kennard, as long as he's not a bum.
Okafor, on the other hand, is in hell. He needs to go anywhere else. Bulls, Nets, any of the terrible teams in the league should be willing to take a chance on him, and the Sixers should be willing to move him for one 2nd round pick or a cheap expiring old guy to provide a stabilizing presence in the locker room. That is Okafor's worth to them.
Good feet and hands, improved FT shooting shows potential as an open jumpshooter, determined not to be fat. Should become a good PnR/rim-runner center with some attention and a coaching staff willing to change his game entirely. He seems humbled and ready to make the dramatic change.
Phoenix would seem that they're desperate for a guy who can sniff 50% FG. Their second-year bigs, Bender and Chriss, combined to go 1-10 in last night's debacle. Okafor would instantly be a top-3 player for them, and they have tradeable pieces.
I just want him to go somewhere where he can put up empty stats like he did his first year. He's a 20 ppg in this league easily. And he's not substantively different than Brook Lopez, who keeps getting large contracts.
Knee jerk post-game reactions from Lakers/Clippers:
- I would never call a young 20 year old with less than a year of experience a bust, but Ingram is going to have to start showing some returns on shot improvement before the end of the year if he wants to avoid being labeled a bust. It really hurts given that they had a chance to move him for Cousins or Paul George, and didn't.
- Lonzo could never live up to the Lavar/ESPN hype, but even I didn't think his non-passing offense was this bad. Still atrocious defender but we already knew that. He has even more expectations on his shoulders than Ingram given how much "stronger" this year's draft was, so in a way we're lucky he'll be a lightning rod for criticism instead of Ingram.
- Lakers are truly Knicks West, except with nothing close to a prospect as good as Porzingis, and ownership only a hair less chaotic than Dolan. The Buss children ownership era has been an unmitigated disaster so far both in terms of behind the scenes chaos and poor basketball decisions (going back to my theory of sports teams sucking because of shit-head children of the billionaires who originally bought the team) and it's not looking like the change to Magic as POBO has been a positive either. You can't even evaluate Luke Walton as a coach in these conditions, but he might have screwed himself by taking this job instead of waiting a few more years as a Warriors assistant for something better for his career to open up.
- This team is bereft of talent possibly more than any other team in the league. Certainly in the west. Vegas knew what they were doing setting the O/U on wins for this team at 24.5, and I might go under with that now as it stands. Some of that is bad luck, like missing out on KAT and Simmons, some of that is self inflicted like failing with marquee FAs and giving 3rd tier FAs atrocious contracts. Trading Russell just to unload Mozgov looks even worse than it did when it happened. All this and they won't even have their pick this year. Which of course naturally spans back to the disastrous start of the Buss children era, when they gave up what will finally become that pick in 2012 trading for the corpse of Steve Nash in assembling that massively disappointing Nash/Kobe/Dwight/Gasol team.
- EVERYTHING for this franchise's near future seemingly depends on getting LeBron and George next year after this botched rebuilding effort. Otherwise I could see a scenario where they really do solidly themselves as the Knicks of the West in record too, and become a perennial western conference doormat. Lakers still have a ton of fans in LA, many more than the Clippers. But they've never have a drought like they could be facing now. Not one that could last 5-10 years or more. Not since they moved to LA in the 50s. So we really don't know how patient those fans are. Those 16 trophies don't mean shit to free agents now, and living in the past isn't gonna tide over a bunch of increasingly angry (and honestly, bandwagonish) fans who've never experienced anything like this from the franchise before. But i'm not sure without LeBron what they do to turn things around anytime soon. It's certainly not going to be their incompetent organization doing something creative. Even if LeBron hates Gilbert, why would he want to join this team unless he just wants to dick around in LA and doesn't care about making the finals?
- Lakers fans are brutal. Lakersground has started to turn on Ingram and others. They are smarter than I thought though, as they seem to realize they are kind of a train-wreck of an organization starting from ownership down.
Also:
I didn't realize Jeanie Buss had posed naked for Playboy until I found out tonight on the internet. Good for Phil that he was tapping that for years
I think you're being a bit too harsh on the Lakers. They've blown their lottery picks more than any team in the league (except possibly Phoenix), but they actually have three legit young rotation players in Nance, Kuzma, and Clarkson, plus at least some potential-based trade value still in guys like Ingram and Ball. That alone might put them in a better spot than the Bulls.
Umm, three rotational players at best, none who would start on contending teams, is bereft of talent, dude. When you are comparing yourself to the Bulls - the only team that came to mind of having less - and Nets then you are at that point. It just gets magnified in the west where more than half the teams have multiple all-stars.
And Ingram's trade value is going to sink like a stone if he has a terrible shooting year showing no improvement.
Not only does every team in the Western conference have at minimum a player much more talented than the Lakers' best player, but almost all of them have a better player on a rookie deal, too.
Knee jerk post-game reactions from Lakers/Clippers:
- I would never call a young 20 year old with less than a year of experience a bust, but Ingram is going to have to start showing some returns on shot improvement before the end of the year if he wants to avoid being labeled a bust. It really hurts given that they had a chance to move him for Cousins or Paul George, and didn't.
- Lonzo could never live up to the Lavar/ESPN hype, but even I didn't think his non-passing offense was this bad. Still atrocious defender but we already knew that. He has even more expectations on his shoulders than Ingram given how much "stronger" this year's draft was, so in a way we're lucky he'll be a lightning rod for criticism instead of Ingram.
- Lakers are truly Knicks West, except with nothing close to a prospect as good as Porzingis, and ownership only a hair less chaotic than Dolan. The Buss children ownership era has been an unmitigated disaster so far both in terms of behind the scenes chaos and poor basketball decisions (going back to my theory of sports teams sucking because of shit-head children of the billionaires who originally bought the team) and it's not looking like the change to Magic as POBO has been a positive either. You can't even evaluate Luke Walton as a coach in these conditions, but he might have screwed himself by taking this job instead of waiting a few more years as a Warriors assistant for something better for his career to open up.
- This team is bereft of talent possibly more than any other team in the league. Certainly in the west. Vegas knew what they were doing setting the O/U on wins for this team at 24.5, and I might go under with that now as it stands. Some of that is bad luck, like missing out on KAT and Simmons, some of that is self inflicted like failing with marquee FAs and giving 3rd tier FAs atrocious contracts. Trading Russell just to unload Mozgov looks even worse than it did when it happened. All this and they won't even have their pick this year. Which of course naturally spans back to the disastrous start of the Buss children era, when they gave up what will finally become that pick in 2012 trading for the corpse of Steve Nash in assembling that massively disappointing Nash/Kobe/Dwight/Gasol team.
- EVERYTHING for this franchise's near future seemingly depends on getting LeBron and George next year after this botched rebuilding effort. Otherwise I could see a scenario where they really do solidly themselves as the Knicks of the West in record too, and become a perennial western conference doormat. Lakers still have a ton of fans in LA, many more than the Clippers. But they've never have a drought like they could be facing now. Not one that could last 5-10 years or more. Not since they moved to LA in the 50s. So we really don't know how patient those fans are. Those 16 trophies don't mean shit to free agents now, and living in the past isn't gonna tide over a bunch of increasingly angry (and honestly, bandwagonish) fans who've never experienced anything like this from the franchise before. But i'm not sure without LeBron what they do to turn things around anytime soon. It's certainly not going to be their incompetent organization doing something creative. Even if LeBron hates Gilbert, why would he want to join this team unless he just wants to dick around in LA and doesn't care about making the finals?
- Lakers fans are brutal. Lakersground has started to turn on Ingram and others. They are smarter than I thought though, as they seem to realize they are kind of a train-wreck of an organization starting from ownership down.
Also:
I didn't realize Jeanie Buss had posed naked for Playboy until I found out tonight on the internet. Good for Phil that he was tapping that for years
But seriously... this is still a 20-25 win LA team I think. But man, the Suns with more talent are getting even less from their team, and look to easily be the worst defensive squad in the league
I think you're being a bit too harsh on the Lakers. They've blown their lottery picks more than any team in the league (except possibly Phoenix), but they actually have three legit young rotation players in Nance, Kuzma, and Clarkson, plus at least some potential-based trade value still in guys like Ingram and Ball. That alone might put them in a better spot than the Bulls.
Yeah, okay, looks like Ingram and Ball played a little better tonight (albeit against the Suns). Still, Nance, Kuzma, and Clarkson are legit. Certainly better than Randle, at least.
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