Optimism Discussion: The Laker's Sky Is Not Falling

Best game from the starters in a long time.

 

He just needs to relax. His shot should not be this bad. I understand if he is hesitate to go to the hole, he is still frail, but he should hit more of those open shots. Hopefully soon.

 

Win streaks start with one game!

 

15 game winning streak baby!

 

Don't remember seeing this level of chemistry between DAR and Julius before .

 

The kid looks confident, he's aggressive, he's got great handles for a 19 year old at his crazy length and looks better out there than many of us thought with his slight build his first year. I'll take that over his being a better shooter out of the gate but not as good at all the other things including defense that he's shown us. The shots are going to fall. He's too good to not get this fixed. He's not A. Brown.

 

I think we can follow a similar path that the 90s Lakers took from a win loss perspective.

Take a look:

1993-94 - 33-49
1994-95 - 48-34

We acquired Cedric Ceballos during the 94 offseason. Maybe we acquire our Cedric Ceballos this offseason and make a PO run next season.

I think this teams youth has more upside than the 90s teams youth; nevertheless, I'd still like to follow the path that they took.

 

I wonder if Tarik has still a higher level in him? He's really improved this year his FTs and other important parts of his game. Makes the occasional "whoa!! look at Tarik Go!!" play. He's athletic and semi beast like with his strength. Listening to him interview this past summer this still young stud of a player was blowing us away with his demeanor, intelligence and focus. He flat out said he expects to be great. Just sayin'.

 

Our past few games has brought optimism back, even if a little. We are in it with these playoff teams but being young means we aren't going to close out against them. At some point things are going to click, hopefully its a bit sooner rather than later and we can win a good amount of games the rest of the season.

 

my primary hope is that it stays this way as the season progresses. that way, when everyone goes to tank, the lakers can pick up some wins and move up in the standings, thus making philly's pick less painful to lose. you know phx and probably minny will tank at some point, and then you expect one of den/por/sac to decide to tank, too.

actually--and i want to punch myself in the face for saying this--this is a great year to tank. because really only phx in the west doesn't want to make the playoffs. it's just too dangerous when your pick is only top-3 protected. if it had top-5 protection, i'd be pushing to tank, honestly.

as it stands, though, gotta hope for wins and development from that. maybe miami, bkn, philly, and phx tanking is enough to avoid giving up a top 5 pick in a stacked draft for exactly zero games of steve nash.

 

The other side of the argument is valid too .

I think a lot of these teams (including us) can and will bang their head against the call for not making the playoffs ... which is important to attract better players .

 

I'm sort of conflicted here because yes I would love to keep the pick, but I want these guys to make some progress. So that means being in a position to lose the pick. I'm accepting of the fact that the playoffs are not likely, but I do want the Lakers to be in a position to sniff the playoffs. If we do keep the pick, I want it to be because we got a lucky bounce, not because we were so bad the percentages were in our favor.
That being said I think Lakers are on a good track. Yeah they're loosing close games and failing to close out games they should, but then again they are young. I said before the season began that this season should be about learning how to win. That means there will be failures, frustrating failures but ones that they should be learning from. We've seen from the Memphis game and to a lesser extent the first half of the Portland game the type of performance they're capable of. Based on that I believe this group can be really, really good. They won't get there this year, but they are making strides and that's all we can ask for. Despite the poor record they are sniffing the playoffs, that's something they can build on. If it means giving up a pick in the end, I'm okay with that.

 

Good news on the turnover front. Of course Russell with 0 2 0 last 3 games but per Tania Ganguli the entire team is really improving with TOs. 11 last night with only Deng and Williams having as many as 3, but in the 3 games preceding ..... 8 against Toronto, 7 Memphis and 6 against Portland. Keep that ish up.

:Headbang:

https://www.pressreader.com/usa/los-angeles-times/20170107/282235190340415

 

that is good news. the turnovers have been a bugaboo all year.