So, I had this in my YT recommended: What occurred to me -- if that is the kind of defense Lonzo will face each practice (and I hope Luke realizes that), KCP is worth his contract, and then some...
After being forcibly neutered the last few years, I'm just happy that I'm finally getting a little movement down there. Or do I need to remind you just how dry and barren our nether regions have been? D obviously starts on the perimeter. Dribble penetration, your frontline rotates to help, dump pass for an easy score with poor rotation. All those lowly interior defensive numbers should change with some defensive effort beyond the arc.
We need to find him a solid back up. Ennis is 3rd string and JC gets tunnel vision too much to play PG.
Thought he looked pretty good. Made some nice plays defensively. Getting in the passing lanes a few times and offensively he just reads defenses so beautifully. Always making the right play. If Lonzo doesn't get the assist he usually makes the play to the player who gets credit for the assist. Here are the highlights.
Same issues as summer league really. Needs help on defense/can get lost man to man, a couple jump then pass bad turnovers, and the shooting. Like Stu said, he needs to be at least a little more of a scorer to make a big impact, can’t be all passes, because guys aren’t going to make shots some nights, and he’ll have to still get his own. All in all, was a fine debut though, I thought, didn’t play very well and still put up 5/7/8, a couple of nice steals too.
I’m probably gonna get roasted for this but here goes... I was at the game tonight and Lonzo will struggle on defense this season. He was just flat out bad. Aaron Brooks made him look like a turnstile. Very disappointing. Also his shot is as bad as advertised. He had one where he didn’t plant his feet correctly and just airballed. He has got to work on that because he needs to be a threat. I thought he was defended pretty well tonight. Finally, the guy needs to get some strength.
Nobody should roast you because that's the truth about Lonzo's game. He has a long way to go shooting the basketball and defensively. I would just say this was his first professional game and I think we all realize it's gonna take him some time to get acclimated to the speed of this game as well as the competition. He's a special playmaker and great floor general and did a good job for the most part setting his teammates up and running the offense, but the other areas of his game need to be worked upon. Lonzo is only 20 years old. This is just the very beginning for him. He's gonna improve, he's gonna develop, and we as fans just need to be patient with him.
I don’t think you said anything that isn’t true, doubt you’ll get roasted. Ball was IMO the right pick for us at #2, but his game has some major holes that he has to work on, and it will take time for him to adjust to the NBA. The biggest issues like you said are defense and shooting, his man to man defense is his just plain bad at this point. Patience will indeed be needed, similar to Ingram last season.
A little difficult to hear the questions in certain spots, but Lonzo answering questions after the game.
I thought Ennis played a great game tonight. Very patient when he needed to be and his pretty much all his shots. What else do you want in a backup point guard. I also saw Tyler pass the ball forward in transition more which wasn't the case. He's trying to do similar things that ball does. I know this is the Lonzo Ball thread, but I gotta give Ennis some series credit tonight.
Zo's job is to get us easy buckets #1 and he managed 8 assists, 7 rebounds, a couple steals, only 3 TOs - struggling shot or no he will get us those dimes and will be a threat to just take it to the rim. Dudes' nose for a target is unbelievable so if we're going to tear apart the rest of his game let's acknowledge the part he is here for. And I thought his length helped his D even if his feet didn't. He'll be alright.
I thought he was way too prone to letting others do what they want. If he's going to be great, he needs to be aggressive for his own shot. Call a screen for himself, get into the paint and do some damage. Cons- -tentative -jumper wasn't there -defense wasn't there -jump passes/forced passes Pros- -vision was there -effort was there -effortless stat accumulation is a good sign -he got in the paint and made a floater -anyone else see the play where he had the screen and roll set, and put the defender in jail on his hip? That's something I'm 100% certain he worked on with Nash and he's already implementing one lesson into his game. That's incredibly important for him. I think he showed all the flaws we should expect and a couple of positives we maybe shouldn't have. Solid debut, but to me it's a B- and he's got a ton of room to improve.
He overpassed numerous times last night. He'll get better. First real game against full NBA competition.
