Now come tomorrow DLo will be crowned the next Steph Curry because of course there can't be any middle ground. Still, a 39pt game having just turned 20 years old about a week ago is pretty impressive, doing it fairly late in the season.
This shit is too close for comfort, certainly don't need to start winning on the road at this point. That's game, DJ Augustine baby Good showing by Mudiay, 22 and 7 DLo with a 24 and 6 encore performance, just doin 22+pts every night now it seems. Making me feel like 17-5-5 is on the way next year depending on who they draft.
Turn him into sg full time. Let him be a harden type if he wants to. That seems his natural game. Playing pg puts shakles on him. He needs to shoot a lot this season to make his jumper better for next. Let clarkson run point instead. Clarkson seems to me to be a guy destined for sixth man duty once we get a more talented pg. He can be the backup at both guard spots and have a great career as a laker.
Traditional roles are blurring a little. DLO is a guy that scores and makes plays for other guys too. Forcing him into one role or the other is probably bad for him. He does look like he needs to be ball dominant though. You put another ball dominant PG on that team and it probably doesn't work.
Yeah trying to pigeonhole DLo into one spot is bad for him and bad for the team, Kupchak said the same earlier in the season. Just have to make sure he's always next to a backcourt mate that can defend the smaller more prototypical PGs, and so in that way Clarkson is a good fit next to him. Matching him up with another ball dominant guard probably wouldn't be good in most cases, however, off the top of my head there is one that would fit with him, Westbrook. Westbrook is just a ball of energy and would be fine off the ball as a cutter, runner filling lanes, alley oop partner behind the defense, also rebounds well, he's gonna get his no matter what + play pretty solid defense. DLo and Westbrook would be a fun watch, infinite swagger. But DLo himself is also pretty savvy without the ball as a spot up guy and cutter, gets a wide open layup or two every game from cutting behind the defense, he knows how to dish and then run to an open spot to get the ball back for an open shot as well. Plus he's showing that he can post up away from the ball too and punish as a post up G, good all-around skills offensively. If LAL gets Simmons they could have quite a few players in that combo mold, ones that can't really be pigeonholed into one position, something that makes the Warriors a tough team to deal with. Other than DLo, there's Randle of course who can do a lot of things and Clarkson as well who's a combo, Simmons would be sort of a Super-Draymond type right out of the gate able to play 1 through 5 at least offensively. Draft GPII at the top of the 2nd round this year, another combo. Bring Westbrook home in FA after next season, another combo. They'd be pretty tough to match up with, all these guys being able to rebound and push the ball up the floor and create, and further development from Derozan's/Randle's jumpshots ( and Simmons' as well ) would almost make it unfair. Get everybody committed to a scheme in terms of team defense and the Warriors will be looking over their shoulders, Draymond already can't handle Randle 1 on 1 and he knows it. 2017-'18 season Simmons/Upshaw Randle/Nance Derozan/A.Brown Westbrook/JC DLo/GPII
They say all kind of stuff those front office types. You saw his last game. The near 40 pt night. The ice in his veins pose. That was his coming out party. Thats him saying i know we tanking to get a star lottery pick like simmons or ingram, and i know that kobe is the superstar thats retiring... But im the new star lottery pick right here, im the future superstar hall of famer already on the team, im the new kobe bryant on these los angeles lakers.
PF is set. We have a Horace Grant kind of player starting. And nance is a nice energy guy off the bench like rambis and green. But for the modern era. SF will be eithee simmons or ingram. Unless they sign durant or something crazy like that. Either would be awesome. Clarkson and anthony brown can backup. SG should be Russell as he develops into the next great laker superstar. The offense will revolve around russell and the dude picked in the draft. Clarkson can back him up and be a super combo guard that leads the bench unit. C is where you make big splash and bring whiteside. Securing the rim and giving our talented young pf's help inside so they can press on D and attack on O. Sign andrew bynum cheap to backup whiteside. Promote upshaw to sacres spot. PG an fa signing to bring a stable role player to help guide the kids. Mike conley is a perfect fit. He wont fight the scorers for the ball. A facilitator who defends well and is a leader. He can also hit open 3s and is a reliable ballhandler who makes the right pass. The straight man to russells showmanship. Clarkson can back backup but a pg shuld be drafted like dejounte murray or gary payton. Conley. Clarkson. Dejaunte Russell. Clarkson. Williams Ingram. Clarkson. Brown Randle. Nance. Tarik Whiteside. Bynum. Upshaw
That was just DLo swag in the moment, he's played with Simmons before, has praised Simmons' ability at every opportunity. DLo knows who's who between himself and Simmons and is completely comfortable just doing what he does, which is more than enough. On one hand it was cool and funny to see, but on the other hand the ice in the veins stuff just kinda displays why Byron's been so tough on him. DLo's borderline cocky, extremely confident, needed a stern hand. Also why Clarkson had to tell DLo not to say anything crazy during their interview at the all star weekend, he's a little bit of a loose cannon, will say whatever comes to him. The chances of DLo being the next Kobe Bryant aren't all that good. Kobe is a Top 10 player all-time. If DLo even cracked the Top 75 I'd be stoked, that'd put him in the company of the prime Grant Hill types. But what Kupchak said about his game wasn't really news. DLo was only labeled a PG coming out because everybody was raving about his ability to pass, but if you remember back to the beginning of the season, Kobe said DLo was " moving back to PG ", so even then they'd taken that label away from him. Go back and look at his numbers in college, he didn't average 13ppg and 11 assists or anything like that. He did 18pts-5reb-5 assists at Ohio State, like craig said he's a scorer that makes plays for others too. If DLo were 6'8" instead of 6'5" we'd see the Penny Hardaway/McGrady comparisons.
I like the idea of adding Conley tho. He can play off the ball some as well, plays solid D. Sort of a combo type. The one thing I'd warn against there is his age and his size, he might wear down before an athletic monster like Westbrook. Conley's shooting % is as low as it's been since his rookie year, starts next season at age 29
