Lonzo underachieved in shooting, but his assists and defense were more than expected. Wish he could stay on the court more (the real issue going forward) and he's gotta get some confidence in that shot.
His defense? yes. His assists? no. His rebounding was also better than I expected. I think 7 assists is about what everybody expected in our fast paced free flowing offense, even in year 1. But his shot is too meaningful to be this awful. Its ok to have a weakness or two...but being a complete black hole at something is tough to hide. If your PG shoots 45% from the free throw line, it means that your PG can never touch the ball in crunch time, much less handle the ball. He becomes an automatic turnover getting fouled. That to me is not acceptable, regardless of his other strengths.
Lonzo was an elite player in every way except for his shooting. That's not an exaggeration, it's the truth. His rebounding was elite, not just for a guard but throughout the league. His passing was elite not just for a guard, but given his low turnover numbers he was shockingly high in assists. Lonzo is already right now one of the best guard defenders in the NBA. Nobody is excusing his shooting, but this odd narrative that he's not that great is just wild, especially among Laker fans. Lonzo has two problems: shooting (which was clearly mental) and staying healthy (which was clearly physical).
I agree with a good chunk of this apart from the shooting being mental. He doesn’t have an easily repeatable shot. The rule of thumb is, those kinds of shooting motions are usually more inconsistent.
That same shot made him one of the most efficient players in college basketball history. He shot 38.4% from outside from December to February (38/99). Once he got more comfortable in the league, he was shooting far better. I agree with KB24 that his FT% was unacceptably low, but it was clearly a mental problem and not a problem with ability. Don't buy any weird national narrative that Lonzo's season was anything short of spectacular in every single way besides shooting.
That’s got nothing to do with my point that wonky shooting mechanics lead to inconsistencies. And we’ve gone through his shooting before, he had a 2 week hot streak from 3 and apart from that he shot 27% from 3 for the year and 45% from FT while having poor shot distribution. I like Lonzo the player and I’m excited to see what he can become, but I won’t lie that the rap, back and forth with Kuz, the baller brand and tv show is starting to grind. If you’re honest about becoming great it takes a ton of dedication, 12 hrs towards recovery, 6 hrs a day towards training and extra hours are put into knowledge of the game. That can be up to 20 hrs a day of trying to become great. I don’t know how many people have the energy and or time for all these other distractions.
His college consistency has nothing to do with inconsistency? That makes no sense. In college he started and played in all 36 games for the Bruins and shot 41% from three on 194 attempts. He had a 67% true shooting percentage. How does that not play in to his consistency? And I don't know where you got "two week hot streak" from, but that's 100% false. From 11/22/17 to 3/7/18 Lonzo shot 40% from distance on 6.3 attempts per game. That's 24 games which is just about half his season. That's a hell of a lot longer than the "two week" timeline you pulled from somewhere. I agree his shot exhibits inconsistency from one shot to the next which is not ideal, but that's due mostly to his weak body. Lonzo has had tremendous success with that shot, there's no denying that. Besides, ugly shots don't matter if they go in. Kevin Martin was a career 38% shooter from his hip. Reggie Miller a 39.5% shooter with a hitch. Jason Kidd shot 35% with a shot put. His form is inconsequential. The problem is he's young and got in his own head and he let the pressure get to him. His FT% is an absolute problem and something he needs to work on. Luckily, taking 1000 FTs is easy to do. I don't disagree that the off-the-court stuff has been annoying, but by all accounts he's been in the gym working hard. A rap song doesn't mean he's not working out. He's been in the gym consistently since the season ended, we've seen him in a ton of those workout videos of the other prospects. Just because we're not seeing constant updates about him in the gym, doesn't mean he's not there. This is just the off-season when off-the-court things become magnified. I can't ever fault our players for doing things they're interested in off the court when we use that as a positive about Los Angeles. Hart went to that E3 event. Kuzma put out a "Haters Ball" video. The only reason we aren't b****ing about those two is what? A couple videos of them doing ball handling drills? Because their father isn't a nuisance? Ball is extremely talented and the perfect complement to what we're trying to accomplish this summer. He needs work, but everything points to him being on the right track.
^^^I agree with all of this! Zo is a rookie that turned 20 this last season. He had to deal with coaching drama, his mom recovering and his bros/fam away for the majority of the season (all largely cause of pops). But he hung in there, so obviously we need to cut him a break. My only beef with him is that he brought unnecessary attention during a time when we're selling ourselves to individuals that can make us immediately competitive next year. We got trollin wars between our rookies, while Dejuante Murray (a rookie) is trying to recruit Gay (his teammate) to opt into his contract and had also said publicly how playing with fellow Klutch client, Lebron, would be ideal for the Spurs. You got Mitchell (another rookie) saying publicly how he'll try to recruit PG. I get the tampering fear (clearly doesn't apply to players), but these guys know how the media works especially dealing with it for the entire season. The media once again made it bigger than it shoulda been, but trollin instead of recruiting? Really? Couldn't spare one bar to shout out PG and Bron in one of your tracks, Zo...instead using a line to diss your mans wanting to be like Russ. Comen man! At the end of the season, Rob/Magic challenged these guys with the notion that their season ended early, but they should treat this time as their "playoffs." Zo got a Prp injection and recovery time varies, but you still can go thru your day to day activities, just with lingering pain that eventually dissipates within months (stem cells aren't intended to work that fast). So dude is recovering, but he still can shoot 1000 Fts easily if he wanted to. If you're going to be the leader of this young group, then your means of operating are different than the rest of your collective. Instead Zo chose to give BBB exposure, all while risking the wrong exposure for the Lakers. The FO compared our transcendant leader to the likes of Dlo and SwagGee. Congratulations...you played yourself!
I don't think promoting BBB and working hard are mutually exclusive, but I agree with the concept that they all came off unprofessionally when they didn't have to.
I feel Zo is in that same space that DLO was in when Magic took over. He had that “feeling you out” conversation, then decided if he should be traded for the greater good or not. Zo is there right now, will he be traded for the greater good? I think so.
Saw this on LG, thought it was worth sharing, especially after the Haynes report we are shopping Zo. B0ron may not be coach anymore, but he and Magic are tight for sure, so it could be B0ron just talking, or it could be stuff he and Magic actually talked about http://forums.lakersground.net/viewtopic.php?t=185002&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=175
Still feel I went on my LaVar rant for no good reason Zen? This f****** moron just screwed up the lives of all 3 of his sons. If Zo is shipped out and we take at obvious face value that Lonzo playing for the Lakers was a long time family dream that came true and at a perfect year and time in their history? Plus they too expected him to have the balls to stop his father from attacking the organization.
But, I don’t recall Jellybean Bryant simultaneously trying to get his brand off. The Ball’s are too much baggage, or should I say saggage. Pun intended.
If he is the main piece that nets us Kawhi or Lillard, I could care less about what happens. Yes, Lavar is a moron and cost his sons, but Lonzo is partly to blame in all this because he refuses to distance himself from his Dad. He is 20 years old. He is old enough to understand his Dad is out of control and he needs to stop him.
Yeah, again, B0ron could be entirely speaking for himself. Someone on LG also suggested that if he put this out there as Magic’s mouthpiece, maybe it’s to lower Zo’s value because he doesn’t WANT to trade him. Who knows, probably a stretch, just thought it was interesting. I like Zo a lot, but even I am annoyed at this point that he hasn’t come out and said something to back up the team/training staff/coach, anything at all to shut his dad up and squash the ridiculousness that he will leave in free agency if we don’t draft Gelo and Melo.
Agree Savory, and I was adding that last part to my post while you were posting this. Many of us felt that way.
I always envisioned Lebron has a boner for lonzo cause in our offense if PG and Lebron Amar'e running and gunning waiting for dem long outlets... Lebron knows he won't have to waste energy finally doing so and would be the recipient,george included, of easy offense to utilise their talents. It's a great scheme fit. Think even Rondo with prime Garnett, pierce and Allen but lonzo having more offense CAPABILITY with his ceiling and going into year two.
