NBA General Discussions | Lakers Trade Ideas/FA Discussions

[$LakerGold]

D'Angelo Russell a late bloomer? He looks so lost on the court. He's awful. Waiting for mid-season -- please make something happen.

[dd24]

D'Angelo Russell a late bloomer? He looks so lost on the court. He's awful. Waiting for mid-season -- please make something happen.

It usually takes guards a few years to figure things out. Even Kobe wasn't great in his rookie year.

[bladefd]

It usually takes guards a few years to figure things out. Even Kobe wasn't great in his rookie year.

Only thing is all the other high draft picks have shown flashes of brilliance thus far. Except Russell.

I wanted Lakers to draft Russell from the beginning but I am worried I might have been wrong. We have seen nothing yet, not even in summer league or preseason. He looks slow out there reading defenses and making a decision. So many things he needs work on out there. He definitely has time. I will give him until next season to figure it out before I start wondering. Kobe was a double digit scorer by his 2nd year and looking very good out there.

[dd24]

Only thing is all the other high draft picks have shown flashes of brilliance thus far. Except Russell.

I wanted Lakers to draft Russell from the beginning but I am worried I might have been wrong. We have seen nothing yet, not even in summer league or preseason. He looks slow out there reading defenses and making a decision. So many things he needs work on out there. He definitely has time. I will give him until next season to figure it out before I start wondering. Kobe was a double digit scorer by his 2nd year and looking very good out there.

Big men can often come in and show flashes of being very good. PG's can do the same. The one position that almost never does is SG. Since Russell is kind of a tweener at the moment he really is more of a SG. Clarkson has had the ball in his hands a lot. I'll use the Kobe example again. As a rookie he put up 7ppg. His 2nd season he averaged 15. It is usually the 3rd season SG's start showing how good they really are. Look at KCP on the Pistons this year. It's his 3rd season. He's started off pretty good so far. Russell is the only guy taken in the lottery this year that plays that position. Look at the 2014 draft. The only SG taken in the lottery was Stauskas. He's finally getting a bit of a chance in Philly and although he looks much better this season he still looks like he's about a year from really contributing. Take a look at the other guys from the 2013 draft. Oladipo was playing a lot of PG his rookie season. This season he's finally playing well at SG. Last season he showed signs of being good but trust me if you had him on your fantasy team you were upset. The other guy is McCullum. Listed as a PG but we all know Lillard is the PG there and McCullum is more of a scorer so he's really more of a SG. Finally starting to tear it up. I need to see DeAngelo in year 3 to know if he's a bust. He still looks like he could be very good IMO.

Oh, and if we go to SG's in 2012.... Bradley Beal has had a pretty tough time too until now where he's finally starting to look like what he was touted as coming out of college.

[ihatetimthomas]

I have always said you cannot judge a player so early in their careers. However, he really is not passing the eyeball test. He is slow for a pg. He doesn't have a quick first step. He doesn't seem to be able to play within thwith flow of the team. I just worry bc I havnt seen much for me to be excited about him. I also don't like his responses about not playing the 4th. It's like he is putting it on Byron when he says he has no clue why he isn't playing the 4th. Obviously Byron is benching him bc of his production and play on the floor but he doesn't seem to be holding himself accountable. Byron is getting flamed for not playing him in the 4th but having a guy earn the time isn't the worst thing. It builds character. Just stings seeing everyone at the top of the draft producing or showing flashes

[dd24]

He's not really playing PG right now though. I think everyone is going to need to be patient. It's going to take a few years. Hope the Lakers can make the top 3 again this season

[tamaraw08]

I have always said you cannot judge a player so early in their careers. However, he really is not passing the eyeball test. He is slow for a pg. He doesn't have a quick first step. He doesn't seem to be able to play within thwith flow of the team. I just worry bc I havnt seen much for me to be excited about him. I also don't like his responses about not playing the 4th. It's like he is putting it on Byron when he says he has no clue why he isn't playing the 4th. Obviously Byron is benching him bc of his production and play on the floor but he doesn't seem to be holding himself accountable. Byron is getting flamed for not playing him in the 4th but having a guy earn the time isn't the worst thing. It builds character. Just stings seeing everyone at the top of the draft producing or showing flashes

Remember when Boston was so excited with Pitino and possibly getting the top pick? Well, they ended up with Chauncey Billups.
Pitino loves quick PGs but the rook was not. Not saying Russell is the next Billups but...I also remember Clarkson being terrible the first 25 games

[qrich]

Jamal Crawford for Nick Young and a 2nd!

[$LakerGold]

I thought it's Tuesday, why are you drunk, bro?

Jamal's 37? The moment that happens, that's gonna break Jamal's spirit knowing he'll never get a ring. rofl

[qrich]

So just cut his unguaranteed ass and let him latch on with....erm...not sure a team'll really sign him.

At least Young plays some sort of D.

[tamaraw08]

I thought it's Tuesday, why are you drunk, bro?

Jamal's 37? The moment that happens, that's gonna break Jamal's spirit knowing he'll never get a ring. rofl

So that's it guys, talk about guys like Crawford?

They are 2-9
4th worst in BOTH OFFENSE AND DEFENSE EFFICIENCY!. Average teams would suck in ONE aspect but decent on the other.
Byron said before that he would focus on improving their defense, 2 training camps,93 games and about 12 preseason games later and they still suck at it?
What, Blame the rookie? Forget the fact that he only plays under25 mins/game.
Their Center suck? Hibbert is 4th overall in blocks/game.
Don't have a veteran enforcer? Isn't that the reason they cut Brown so they could give his spot to World Peace?
No, I don't expect then to win 50% of their games but this is really ugly ball?

[dd24]

Clearly Crawford is not an answer by any stretch of the imagination. That makes absolutely no sense at all. But you also have to be realistic about this roster. It's terrible. There's some fun young pieces to watch. This season is going to be about enjoying their development. Outside of a blockbuster trade, just hope the Lakers end up with a top 3 pick and can land a big time FA.

[Lakers91]

Clearly Crawford is not an answer by any stretch of the imagination. That makes absolutely no sense at all. But you also have to be realistic about this roster. It's terrible. There's some fun young pieces to watch. This season is going to be about enjoying their development. Outside of a blockbuster trade, just hope the Lakers end up with a top 3 pick and can land a big time FA.

*Thumbs up*
Just have to be patient, the roster isn't great and I wouldn't expect a blockbuster trade (knowing the last time we made a "blockbuster set of moves" with Nash and Howard where that left the team - fast forward a year or two I'm hoping if there is one it's a little better this time around haha).

The team is just doing their best to keep the top 3 pick though I'm a little annoyed with Russell's development, patience is again a virtue, and Scott will probably be gone after this season anyway.

Enjoy the ride if you can it's not going to be a quick rebuild (though it is hard to watch).

[dd24]

I agree about Russell's development. Part of it is on the coach. Part of it is the back court the Lakers currently have. People keep saying he's a bust but quite honestly his numbers aren't much different than Mudiay's when you look at the actual usage of the two. There was a very good article about it that I read just a few days ago. It's going to take a few years before he really starts producing. We have to be patient with him too. But watching him, Randle, and Clarkson there's a solid core there eventually.

[Lakers91]

I agree about Russell's development. Part of it is on the coach. Part of it is the back court the Lakers currently have. People keep saying he's a bust but quite honestly his numbers aren't much different than Mudiay's when you look at the actual usage of the two. There was a very good article about it that I read just a few days ago. It's going to take a few years before he really starts producing. We have to be patient with him too. But watching him, Randle, and Clarkson there's a solid core there eventually.

Though Russell wasn't my ideal nor first choice there's no value in "crying over spilt milk" he's going to take time, as far as I see though some disagree he's more of a shooting guard with great passing than a point guard (at least I think he'll find it better when he matures as a shooting guard). He's not fast enough nor athletic enough to defend the top PG's and he isn't great defensively as is, I think he could eventually be a good shooting guard, Harden shows you don't need out of the world athleticism to be a top shooting, though as a SG my two main concerns are his lack of confidence (rarely driving...but that's partly the coaches fault I don't think Scott is helping his confidence AT ALL) and his heavy footing/reactions, I don't know whether that's simply my watching or not albeit.

His development isn't being aided by Scott, I don't think any of the younger players really are at all; Randle is basically being dumped the ball half the time out at the 18 feet line and asked to do something with it as the rest of the offense either stands still or makes ineffective screens; Clarkson is basically having to make something out of nothing (again as the rest of the offense...stands still). Then when you have Russell playing he isn't used to his strength nor really are any of the younger players, your supposed to play according to the players skillset and mold your game on that...not have your players not playing to their strengths because that's how you want (my main issue I had with D'Antoni was not coaching/playing to his personnel).

I just really am not impressed with either the offensive or defensive schemes...the roster isn't talented but how those younger players are being coached to play (and how their development is being affected) is what really bugs me when watching. I do hope there's better signs today.