Channing Frye also concerned about Luke's rotations given the depth.. https://www.silverscreenandroll.com...zma-lebron-james-rajon-rondo-lance-stephenson Best case, the youngsters easily win the position battles, making Luke's decisions easier. In that scenario, I'd say the minutes look something like: McGee - 15 min, LeBron - 35, Ingram - 30, KCP - 23, Zo - 26, Kuz - 28 Hart - 21, Rondo - 20, Beasley - 16, Wagner - 14, Lance - 12 I used a rotation builder, so that's why the minutes are so exact. Svi and Zubac are probably riding the bench hard unless injury strikes, so that's why they aren't even there. Of course, I doubt Luke will play 11 guys a game in the playoffs, so minute allocation really becomes an issue during that time unless guys are hurt or just sucking. If I had any confidence in Zo's free throw shooting or the health of his knee, I'd have him closer or right at 30 min, but I can't see him getting more than a handful of minutes in 4th quarters. Hart probably deserves closer to 25 min, but it is what it is, he'll likely get plenty of meaningful 4th quarter minutes. Can make the argument that Kuz's minute total should be closer to LeBron's..can also make the argument that Kuz has to improve a lot defensively to play that many minutes for a winner. 28 is respectable enough for him, IMO. Enough to continue development.
LeBron out here looking like the new Lavar Ball in these summer league vids feat his oldest kid Lol Bronny threw down his 1st dunk on vid I guess, has twitter buzzing Smh Kid's not even in high school yet, already dunking
Bleacher ReportVerified account@BleacherReport Kobe asks “Why didn’t the Lakers draft [Tatum]?” after seeing how similar their games are http://bit.ly/2OtQBPJ Man. And that's no slight at Zo, who will probably be very good or all star level for at least a few seasons. But can you imagine Tatum with Ingram and Kuz..and LeBron? Man, man, man. And Tatum was a Kobe/Lakers fan growing up too. Oh well. Tatum is the enemy for sure now, but damn. Damn, damn, damn.
I think the Lakers team as constructed is good enough to beat the Rockets. Ingram and Kuzma are both going to be big time players next season. Kuzma will be a huge scorer and Ingram too as well as a good overall player. Lonzo will shoot better and Hart will be huge and take the SG spot. Svi will challenge for minutes everytime he gets on the floor and eventually supplant Stephenson in minutes. PG: Lonzo, Rondo. Bonga SG: Hart, KCP, Svi SF: Ingram, Stephenson PF: Kuzma, Beasley, Wagner C : LeBron, Javale, Zubac Hart is ready to ball with anyone right now. Kuzma, Ingram and Lonzo are all getting stronger and and LeBron is gonna hold them accountable because he always finds others to takes the blame. Kobe never had a group of talented young guys that were good like this, not even close. He had Kwameza, Mihms, Smushy, Cookies, etc... If he had these guys that LeBron is rolling out with he would have won way more rings. This is almost enough for the title. We are sleeping on the fact that Lance and Beasley were both real good last year and reestablished themselves as good nba players. The young Lakers are super talented and have tremendous team chemistry. LeBron will want to join in the fun that these guys have in the locker room. His boy is helping him relive being a young kid again and that will continue with his new teammates.
The road purples have been destroyed. The black side panel is actually fine..guys have worn black shoes/socks and black knee/arm sleeves a ton with the purple roadies over the years so that'll bring it together, but the white trim on the neck and shoulders destroys it all. They need to nix the white trim and run with black trim/shadowing. Only thing I can think is that they wanted an old school feel from straight away, but 4 colors is just too damn much, IMO The alt white uni is nice and clean, the gold - same. Those road purples, though..I think they could grow on fans given the black shoes and probably black socks, but again, the white trim really was unnecessary. I get what they wanted to do, take into account the black shoes and black knee/arm sleeves guys like to wear, but yeah incorporating the white as well was a step too far
I don't like how the purple jerseys have side panels, but none of the other colors do. The black looks forced on the side panel. It should be white or gold. I'd love to see purple side panels on the white and gold jerseys too.
A white or gold side panel on the road purples would give it the proper amount of colors for one uni, but again, I get what they're going for after so many years of LAL players electing to go with black shoes and black accessories when wearing the road purples. It's like the Celtics a handful of years ago when they adopted black on their jerseys, another iconic look and brand..they had players for so long wearing black shoes with their all green roadies that they just said to hell with it lets make it really work. But where the Celtics didn't fuck it up was with a 4th color outlining the black side panels.. When they show Zo from the waist up in the pic I posted, it doesn't play. But a guy like Kuz, who likes to wear the arm/shooting sleeves ( Ray has one on there on his left arm, but you can hardly see it), who sometimes wears the long compression tights/leggings under his shorts, if he goes with black sleeves and black tights on the road with black shoes, it'll mesh. Zo sometimes wears the Tee shirt under his jersey so if he goes with a black tee it'll work there as well. I complain about the white outline, but really it's already grown on me to an extent..it does give a retro feel to a new age format from the straight ahead view, but at the same time, black outlining would've been less messy and then they would've had their 3 colors. They could've gone with a black Nike Swoosh logo, black Wish text, number shadowing and so forth. But from a lengthy distance the white piping isn't all that big a deal. The black sort of dominates it. I think they would've lost touch with what they were trying to do retro-wise if they were to give the gold and white jerseys side panels. The Showtime era jerseys didn't have panels. Doing it with the purple roadies was sort of progressive, again, encompassing popular accessories guys have worn with purple.
PG: Ball24, Rondo24, Caruso0 SG: Hart24, Stephenson12, KCP12 SF: Ingram32, Kuzma16, Svi0 PF: LeBron24, Kuzma12, Beasley12 C : Javale12, Wagner12, Zubac12, LeBron12 Death Lineup 1: Rondo, Ball, Ingram, Kuzma, LeBron Youth Lineup 2: Ball, Hart, Ingram, Kuzma, LeBron Goon Lineup 3: Rondo, Stephenson, Beasley, LeBron, Javale Garbage Time: Caruso, KCP, Svi, Wagner, Zubac
Deng wants clarity from LAL, Lol That's a 3 second phone call. " Look, nobody wants to trade for you and we don't have any minutes for you. "
If he still has any game left, I don't see why he can't play on this team. It's not like we're in develop the youngsters mode anymore. He should get a shot at winning some minutes in training camp.
Perception matters though. Even though he is not old he has the stink of someone much older on him due to the fact that he hasn't been in games anymore and how his team just shelved him like old technology. Deng should play overseas to keep his game fresh. Send him to Paris St. Germain so he can showcase his skills.
I would guess that the issue is that they believe there's just no room for a mid-30's regular guy forward running with this particular crew in this system. Corey Brewer's not as old as Deng and is still a live body, so I'm guessing he fit the mold in terms of older guys that could run with them, even though he couldn't shoot worth a damn. Mike Beasley's been around for a while so its just assumed that's he's old, but he's yet to even turn 30 and he has the scoring chops to actually give a Draymond and other forwards around the league something to think about as opposed to Deng's garbage O and old beat up body. And then Lance is like 26 or 27 years old as well so he's a live body that needs forward minutes. I just imagine they still want to play with pace and that young, live body forwards are the preference. And I think that's the preference all around the league as pace has picked up. Still have some teams that play at slower paces like San Antonio, but there's just a handful of them. Even if they were to consider playing Deng at the 5, Wagner is a live body there and not all beat up and run down by old eastern conference playoff battles and Thibs' practices. I suspect Rondo will be wearing Deng's #9 jersey opening night.
I wouldn't be surprised if Deng is really older than he claims to be. Birth certificates and shit gets lost in war-torn countries.
Vegas sets LAL @ 48.5 wins, tied for 4th in the west Home court advantage in the 1st round would be nice for a young team, probably all they should shoot for Houston -10 wins from last year feels about right
