Some of you are underestimating what great PG's do for PF's, historically. Case #1: Stockton to Malone Case #2: Kidd to K.Martin Case #3: Nash to Stoudemire/Marion Julius will be the biggest beneficiary of Lonzo Ball.
malone = elite finisher, elite midrange shooter, high hoop iq, all-time great k. martin = elite finisher stoudemire = elite finisher, solid midrange shooter marion = elite finisher randle's been a pretty meh finisher, so the argument would have to be that that's simply because he hasn't played with the likes of lonzo ball. i doubt it. he doesn't have great instincts for basket cuts (something i've been hoping for in vain for a couple years now) and he doesn't get off the ground quickly. again, hope you're right, but i don't see it at all. maybe he'll get a few more buckets on the break--if he's willing to run the floor ahead of the ball, which is something else he hasn't done much of as a laker.
I think this is the first time he will play with a point guard who is a great passer since his rookie SL so any limitations he may have may be cured by Lonzo's outstanding vision.
All of the PF's had a higher FG% playing next to their star PG's (compared to rest of career), so there's little doubt their PG's made them better. I'm claiming the same here. Julius will have a break-out season regardless, but the addition of Lonzo Ball will take him to new heights. (btw Julius' 2P% last year was 50.8%, which is better than Marion/Stoudemire without Nash, Martin WITH Kidd, so they're not so 'elite'.....you're underselling Julius like a lot of folks here)
we'll see. and i said elite finishers, not elite 2pfg %. the rest of all of their careers was when they were old and/or injured. maybe having such dynamic finishers made nash look better? hard to know. it's not like he really elevated other players to star levels at any point.
I agree that Randle won't likely be Stoudemire or Marion or Martin or especially Malone, but you're underselling Randle a bit anyway. Randle last year at the rim was an above average finisher at 64.9% around the rim which was a significant improvement from his 56.8% the year before (which was basically his rookie season). For reference Brook Lopez is a 67% finisher and Draymond Green is a 63.8% finisher. I do agree he doesn't tend to have a great feel for moving without the ball (unless it's to get a board), but Lonzo should still help Randle at least statistically speaking. Great passing PGs have that effect on the stat sheet, it's partly why guys loved playing with Nash in those Phoenix years. Also Amar'e's numbers at the rim: 2006/2007: 68.6% (upper tier number) 2007/2008: 73.1% (truly elite number) 2008/2009: 65.2% 2009/2010: 66.9% 2010/2011: 63.7% Those are five of his six All-Star seasons from age 24-28 which is where Julius is headed right now. Before that he was 59,60,70, and 60% around the rim. Marion was always a good finisher usually hovering around 63-66% without Nash. When Nash got to Phoenix, Marion leapt up into the 70% range. When Marion was traded in 08, his percentages dropped back down to the mid 60%. Kenyon may have been the best finisher of all of them. He hovered in the high 60% to 70% range his whole career. There's no stats on Karl, but I'd say Stockton had an absolutely direct correlation with Karl's finishing numbers around the rim. So... I don't remember what we were talking about.
still need more context, though. when nash got to phx, marion was running the break a lot more. lots of use of his speed. not sure if that translates to a randle situation. again, i haven't seen randle do a great job running ahead on the break; he seems to like to lead or trail the most. and the way in which nash made amare better (questionable, as amare had a top-tier season without him, right?) was through pick and roll, same with stockton/malone. is the ball/randle pick and roll going to be a thing? both players will have to figure out how to be better on that play in that case. as for the malone/stockton: randle/ball comparison...i don't really have to dig into all the details, do i? please, please say no.
Not at all. I think (hope) part of what you're talking about on the fast break is due to conditioning which should obviously improve given what we've seen. I also think he's better at running the floor than he's shown, but we so rarely ran great fast breaks that he just stopped showing the same effort on every play. Guys like Clarkson and Russell and Lou running the break frequently took it themselves or hold on to the ball too long in order to get the assist. I think the one and only way Ball/Julius and Malone/Stockton would look even remotely similar is on the break. I think Julius is faster than Malone although not as violently explosive. I think the two of them could look great on the break. Other than that... No. No other explanation needed. I don't think Randle profiles like Malone in anything besides his unique physical body and even that is not really the same. And Stockton to Ball... I don't even know where to start with that.
Great job real & quick!! :Headbang: But damn. Reminds me so much of when @trodgers used to do that too.
yeah, really hope he's doing a lot more than this in terms of on-court work. i mean, can't we pay folks to play defense and stuff? my old a** goes harder than that in a gym by myself.
I mean it's just a short video. I'm not upset about it. I don't take anything from this except that the shot looks better. At least he's getting some muscle memory in.
Also, remember Lonzo isn't the type of passer that a Nash, Stockton was, yet. He's not adept to the pick and roll, and neither is Julius. Something ALL of those combinations listed lived off of. I would compare Lonzo's style of passing to Magic's, minus the flash. He moves the ball up, he gets people easy buckets, and it's contagious with the team. I could see Julius having a LOT more benefit in transition if he breaks out the Kuzma did last night than in the half court set. And yes, Ju still needs to work on his jumper.
