Howard and McGee barely played in the NBA Finals. Everytime we lost a game, we hear this. Team has plenty of size. Portland made 90 three pointers out their a** last game. Size wouldn't have done s*** anyway.
i obviously agree. if teams are going to have guys shoot like that 4 times in a 7 game series, you're just going to lose, period. and we were in that game despite it. this team just has to fine tune, and in the interim, we'll take everyone's haymaker. we'll see how many they have when the chips are down. anyway, this is about kuzma: rebound the basketball, pretty boy.
I think everything about Kuz's game looks "smoother" this year. Has slowed down and is more deliberate or "smarter" on offense, yet just since the start of this pre-season, even, his feet are moving much quicker laterally on defense, along with his timing on defense. Those chase down blocks at the rim are always waiting to happen now.
I believe signing that contract has forced him to realize that he doesn't have to worry about forcing bad shots because he's going to get paid the same regardless. His playmaking has been much better and while his defense still needs a lot of work, I like that he's at least become a decent shotblocker lately. Unfortunately for Kuz, he's just going to have to realize he's not going to get the opportunity to be the 20 PPG scorer that he wants to be on the Lakers. He's gotta be willing to just be okay with 8-10 shots per game but helping the Lakers in other areas.
I'm so happy for Kuz. He's been asked to be a swiss army knife/super sub. Good for him. I hope he goes for 15/6 with maybe an assist, block, steal and good defense
Career as a starter Ingram: 219 games, 33.5 mins, 18.2 points, 5.4 rebs, 3.5 assists. 46.7% FG, 36.9% 3pt Kuzma: 115 games, 34.2 mins, 19 points, 6.0 rebs, 2.4 assists, 45.9% FG, 34.2% 3pt Starter numbers since AD trade Ingram: 68 games, 23.8 points, 6.2 rebs, 4.3 assists, 46.3% FG, 39.3% 3pt Kuzma: 11 games, 19.9 points, 5 rebs, 2.27 assists, 50.59% FG, 39.68% 3pt Obviously BI is a much better passer and distributor but Kuz isn't that far behind in other areas
Problem with this is Ingram continues getting better as a player as it comes more instinctively for him. Kuzma has improved from his rookie season but the improvements Ingram has made the past year has been superb. Ingram could be a top ten player in the league by next year.
I'm not sure if BI could be top 10 he's a very talented player and a much better all around player than Kuzma. BI is definitely a very good 2 way player, but I think Kuzma can be almost as effective and productive as him if given the opportunity. I don't think Kuz can pass and make plays like BI can but he can score and do the other things almost as good as him. Considering the salaries Lakers are getting great value for the contract they handed out to Kuz
It's very hard to stay consistent when you aren't in rhythm. There is too much talent on this team. Kuzma would need to play 35 min a game and have lots of volume. It's what he is. It's no ones fault.
I'd like to see how he'd starting as the PF and not as SG. Liked the idea of him being besides 3 playmakers but the problem is Schroeder is both a ball handler plus scorer, and tends to have blinders on. At the same time he's done well as a starter so maybe run him more at his natural position
AD and Lebron are enough to win a title. I seriously have never seen a team like this. There is so much talent and depth, the Lakers lost two of their best guards in AC and KCP the last week, and they haven't missed a beat. I do not really know how to critique this team. I was early on Gasol being good, then he looked like he was stuck on the floor the first couple of games and then he came around. The 2 losses were against teams that had their players have career games. That's what it takes to beat the Lakers. I'm just gonna sit back and enjoy this with the bad and good play.
They look good but they've also had a pretty weak schedule: wins against SAS, Minnesota (no kat), Memphis (no Morant). The talent is there but I'm wary as they haven't played well in the 4th quarter against the two better teams. OTOH, I don't think we'll see the best of this team till the playoffs (AD switch to the 5, Lebron/AD playoff modes) so I get your point. For me it will be see what combinations are going to be worth playing the playoffs so what I'd like to see is the team experiment a lot and then tighten things up as the season progresses. I'm expecting underperformance for awhile
Both games were lost in the 3rd quarters. Weak schedule is 80% of the league. Same s*** happened last year and then the Lakers started mowing everyone down after the all star break.
i think you're both right and in general agreement. the lakers aren't playing that well right now, and it's not really a cause for concern. i expected this and expect more lackluster whole-less-than-sum-of-parts play for much of the regular season. i also think picking against a healthy laker team in the playoffs is...unwise.
Interesting Ringer article on how effective the Clippers starting lineup is with a stretch 5 and wing defender at the 4. https://www.theringer.com/nba/2021/1/4/22212982/paul-george-clippers-kawhi-leonard This is basically the same setup the Lakers main lineups looked like in the playoffs (AD as the super stretch 5, Morris as tweener forward in place of Batum). For me this another reason to try Kuzma as the starting 4 as he's better suited for that role then the smaller Batum and play THT or Matthews at the 2.
