His unique skill will take LA by storm. And when he has BI fully developed and Paul George on the other side running the break, the league will be crying to figure out how to veto the Lakers again when they are kicking everyone out of the gym do to exhaustion.
Lonzo is opening up a LOT more than he was right after the draft. He was very guarded at his introductory press conference. Good to see him answering questions and expanding on his answers.
Look, I don’t mean to keep bringing up D’Angelo, but this is his replacement, so it’s kind of hard not to. The difference in demeanor, confidence/self assurance, maturity, it’s night and day. I know that isn’t everything in the NBA, but when you’re asking a kid right out of college to lead your team and he can seemingly do it, that’s huge. Russ on the other hand, as much as I liked his game, left me with so many questions and so much uncertainty during his interviews, I didn’t sense a lot of..care about the game or getting us winning. I don’t know it’s hard to put in words, it’s a certain feel that’s there. You can sort of see why Magic made a point to say they took Ball because they needed someone to lead the team, something we were lacking aside from maybe Ingram.
I still think they could’ve coexisted pretty easily and would’ve been great together with some time. The difference I see is one kid has been a star for years in Ball while Russell kind of exploded on the scene and needed time to adjust to the limelight. It is what it is at this point though and I’m excited to see what Ball will become.
As much criticism as his dad gets, you do have to give him credit for raising a kid who seems to be so ready for the spotlight.
I still feel like the team may have needed to get away from Russ’ mentality entirely. The reported know-it-all, not super hard working, not super receptive to change kind of mentality, the sort of slow, indecisive play, and get back to team first ball that leads to winning. I wish the kid well in Brooklyn, but Ball seems to represent a desperately needed culture change that was dragging us down from within, aside from even our roster talent limiting us.
Could DLO play shooting guard? Absolutely. He can knock down the 3 ball and wouldn't need to set up the offense. Just do what he does best. But..... that attitude. Magic has been clear on this: Players didn't want to play with him. Fair or not, I don't know. I think the video thing was overblown, but Magic is more in-tune with the team than any of us. I'll defer to him on this. And being blunt, I'm over DLO. I never felt he was the star we could build around to win a title. I'm not convinced Lonzo is either. But I think Lonzo can be the catalyst for putting a guy like Ingram over the top to being that guy. Or maybe they are simply 2 players who will be a part of something big. Or they develop enough that other players want to play with them. I'm fine with that. Bring on the season.
And he was too cool as a shooting guard to have to actually "jump" when shooting his Js. Preferred the gunslinger hot or cold Curry wannabe quick draw approach. Hard to be consistent against athletic, good wing defenders game after game doing that.
I’m definitely not going to spend the whole season talking about DLO or the trade or going back through all the arguments of the summer. I liked what Luke Walton said after the trade and think that should be the last word on his time with the team.
Things that sort of stick out to me: Russell was far too willing to give in to a process in which we're not winning. He showed up and when he failed he blamed it on "the process" or learning what to do under the guise that he'd figure it out the second time. However, when the second time rolled around, he still made the same mistakes. It became a lazy, entitled repeatable attitude. Ball however shows up and the first thing he says is "we're thinking about the playoffs". The media sort of scoffs, but look around and suddenly it's not so crazy. The teams undoubtedly ahead of us: Warriors, Rockets, Thunder, and Spurs. After that there's the Clippers, Nuggets, Wolves, Jazz, Grizzlies, and us fighting for the scraps. Are we going to get there? Maybe. Hopefully. Ball is definitely going to push for it and that's the start of a changing mentality. Ball isn't walking around with the ice in his veins and promising we haven't seen anything. He's just doing what he does, working hard, and inspiring the rest of his teammates to follow suit. Every single one of his teammates said that Ball's ball movement just forces everyone else to join in. It's infectious. Every one of them to a tee says it. I don't recall them saying that about Russell (that he was infectious and inspired hard work and focus). Something that stuck out to me was Magic at media day saying that Ball showed up and he didn't act like the #2 pick. That stuck out to me like a sore thumb. What #2 pick came in here and acted differently? What #2 pick came in with an entitled attitude? Magic can't help throwing shade at D'Angelo even though I think it's inadvertent. Like you said: it's hard not to compare the two, but Ball just comes out on top.
