What I don't understand is why wait until tomorrow to get that knee surgery. It was leaked 2 weeks ago that Lonzo had a torn meniscus. Why not get that surgery as soon as they found out about it to have as much recovery time as possible before training camp starts? We all know Lonzo is the anti-Wolverine. He heals extremely slowly, so to me...if we had additional recovery time to minimize the risk he misses time during training camp, that would have been better.
Makes sense to me. Why wait for so long unless they finally are giving up on the PRP and time taking care of the healing.
According to Rob they had several options and any one of them would have resulted in Lonzo being ready for training camp. I'm not worried.
If Rob and Magic were serious that we are having open competitions for the starting positions, my money is on Rondo being the starting point guard opening night. I just watched the Rondo vs Lonzo highlights from a March game. Rondo ate up Lonzo....imagine this happening everyday in practice during training camp lol.
The real bummer is instead of using the summer to improve, Lonzo will use the summer just to get back to normal.
Agreed... it’s kinda why I’m losing my patience with this kid and starting to become a Lonzo hater. At Lonzo’s exit meeting, it was clear to everyone that the message was “this is the most important summer of Lonzo’s life”. He needed to work extremely hard this summer to get his body stronger and more durable (fail). He really needed to be in the gym working on his shot because he was easily the worst shooting perimeter player in the league (fail - 6 weeks, a third of the offseason is now lost because he will be rehabbing instead of improving his jump shot). He needed to work on his handles as well because in his rookie season, he didn’t look like he had the type of handles to be able to break down his defender, drive to the lane for either a layup or create for a teammate. Most of his assists came from him just standing in the perimeter and passing to a teammate that was already open. The knee surgery causes him to again, lose time to be in the gym working on his handles, finishing around the rim, etc. So to start the season, I expect he’s going to be more or less the same Lonzo we saw last season. Inconsistent perimeter shooting, terrible free throw shooter, great rebounder for a guard, good defender. His court vision will hopefully improve if he continues with studying film with Magic, But the big thing that made me lose patience with Lonzo is really his daddy and how Lonzo didn’t help his own case. Every time there was a issue with Lonzo, it was either the coaching staff or the training staff’s fault. There was no personal accountability there. The rumor where his camp leaked he needs knee surgery to scare away any potential trade partners was extremely weak too. If Lonzo doesn’t want to be traded, the best way to do that was to shut up and work his a** off so that he becomes so good that it would be crazy to trade him. You become untouchable based on talent, instead of the bush league move of leaking your own medical reports. I’m also not a big fan of Lonzo’s rap “career” either.
It's insane to me the amount of hate this kid gets just because his dad is annoying. It's crazy. Go watch the kid play. He's insanely talented and this surgery means nothing to his availability for the upcoming season. He's been studying with Magic, is getting clearly bigger and stronger, and if Lavar didn't exist I have 100% faith he'd be getting far less of this treatment.
The shade I’m throwing at Lonzo is because of what his dad says and how it’s detrimental to the team. When LaVar says things like “Coach Walton lost the locker room, nobody wants to play for him anymore” and “Lonzo missed games because of the Lakers coaching staff, Gunner Peterson should go back to Hollywood”. Comments like that bring negativity to the team. It undermines Luke as well as Gunner. Not just for Lonzo, but for the rest of the younger players. When we go through rough patches like every other team and these comments are put out there, it doesn’t make the job easier for guys like Luke and Gunner. In both cases, Lonzo did nothing to say he disagreed with his dad. If anything, because he was non committal on either side, it gave the perception he shared the same feelings as LaVar. I agree the kid is talented, but he needs work because there is a lot of his game that needs to be improved on. The surgery is gonna cost him time in the offseason to work on those areas he needs to improve on.
Those comments against Luke and the training staff will find Lonzo on another team if it continues. Magic is mature and will excuse a lot, but not anti-Team / anti-Laker stuff.
Have you ever tried to control what your Dad says? I've never been able to and I'm older and wiser than Lonzo. Of course Lonzo's game has areas of needed improvement. Every player does. That's why he's been working all summer both on the court and in film sessions with Magic. Still not seeing any valid reason to be losing your patience with him and becoming a hater of him. But, that's your freedom as a fan. Just doesn't make any sense to me.
This is where I'm at. Even D'Angelo had more support from this site than Lonzo this summer. Most of what's "wrong" with Lonzo is outside of his influence or control (injuries and a jack*** father). For what it's worth Kawhi presents literally the exact same issues.
I’ve thought about my own decreasing amusement with Zo and I think it just has to do with Lakers fans being hungry and that building frustration with mediocre results. We “lucked” up on three #2 picks, all of which came with a lot of promise. Only one of them is living up to the hype and ironically he is the one usually mentioned in trade talks. I just don’t think there’s a lot of patience left to see if Zo will be as advertised, but now with the King here this could change. Looney dad’s mouth, well I don’t know if anybody ever expects something like that to be a part of the package. But I get your point.
I’m fine with his numbers, I just think the expectations were still higher. That is probably more of a function of his injury time off the court. Because he was a skinny rookie, that didn’t bother me or surprise me. For me the only performance issues were the horrendous free throw shooting and being too passive to take it to the hoop. I thought he had a little more dog in him because there were many opportunities for him to exploit his quickness and size, but he didn’t. That’s what makes someone like Mitchell or Booker enticing prospects, they just take take it to you. But these are very fixable issues that I’m sure could be fixed in this next season.
This is sort of my point. There's absolutely blemishes on his game, but he seems to be addressing the most important: his size and strength. A stronger body lets him take more contact on his way to the rim. This knee procedure will keep him from playing ball, but he'll be able to take some set shots relatively quickly.
To me, Lonzo didn’t have to control what his dad said. If during either one of those two incidents he just said himself, “I don’t agree with what my dad said. Luke/Gunnar have been great.” Something along those lines would have been fine. Instead, during the Coach Walton lost the team incident, he responds with “I don’t care, I can play for any coach.” That message didn’t dispute what dad said and just led to speculation that LaVar was speaking on behalf of Lonzo.
You should have been around back in the day to hear what Magic said about playing for Paul Westhead. What Lonzo said was tame by comparison.
I remember this game, so frustrating, we had it but slowly choked it away mainly because IT sucked and Rondo worked him. Rondo will be the perfect mentor for Lonzo though, will show him how to be effective even if he still can’t shoot, how to attack and he aggressive even without a jumper.
