I'm not sure if weight is his problem, he is an interior post player but he isn't exactly huge. Now getting with somebody to improve his mitts and touch around the rim? Absolutely. That alone would increase his scoring average IMO. 4-6 pts...I'm not joking.
He’s 6’10” and 280 “after” he “says” he dropped 10-15 lbs after Cleveland. But that’s not big for his height?
That's very big, he's huge IMO. He could drop some lbs to improve his speed. On the other hand, his stamina was just fine, and he can jump higher than people think. He shows it on blocked shots. It's just that jumping high to finish lobs isn't his game at all. His first priority is to work on his D, then catching the ball better.
If he comes back, he cannot start for any team with Championship aspirations at this point in his career. I don't get "the someone as good as Gasole" angle. I did not see much from him last year.
I don't know what to make of listed weight, I keep seeing KD listed everywhere as 6'10 240 and he looks like a bean pole. Drum doesn't look fat and out of shape, but Gasol is listed at 6'11 255!
at the vet min, we have very little chance of approximating gasol's value. we need to pray that a) he doesn't ask for a buyout and b) he doesn't come back on an even more boris-diaw diet. not sure what you saw, but i saw us in first place with gasol starting at center.
lol. gasol's well over 300. and 35. still a better defender than drummond, though. which, i agree, is totally messed up.
except...no? https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/h/howardw01.html#all_advanced-playoffs_advanced https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/g/gasolma01.html#all_advanced-playoffs_advanced
I get that Marc Gasol is your guy. But if you’re trying to imply that 2020-2021 Gasol was more effective than 2019-2020 Howard for this franchise then there’s no use even discussing this with you.
Is it possible that the truth is something between the two positions? Dwight was better for us than Marc in these ways: Rebounding Pick and Roll defender (show and recover) Lob threat Getting under the skin of the opponents Marc was better for us than Dwight in these ways: Passing Spacing the floor (60% from 3 against the Suns) FT shooting It seemed to me that they were about equal in low post defense.
we offered dwight the same salary to play the same role, and he chose philly's offer. we were fine without him and favored to win the title until our stars got hurt. i don't know how often it bears repeating. i also think people have weird memories of howard's defense. having big muscles and an athletic look didn't make him more able to guard pick and rolls. he got smoked worse than gasol, tbh. nor was he really a fearsome lob threat. this wasn't 2008 dwight howard. he was choosing between minimum offers, and not fully out of generosity. all the claims that gasol only looked good because he played with stars could be made about dwight christ as well. gasol is and was a slightly better player. i'd have preferred both, but howard was kind of a lil' punk about it, as howard can be. one thing we can all agree on: bringing on drummond did not help us in any way, nor would devoting our MLE to him this offseason when folks like howard and gasol are signing for vet mins. edit: and if someone wanted to attack the howard < gasol argument, they should start with rebounding, where howard is DEFINITELY better. we just sort of don't need it from that spot because we have it elsewhere.
That ship sailed, pointless comparing Howard. Anyways Marc is in the books for next season and will likely start as I don't see us being able to pay Andre. Bad-market for traditional bigs aside, you don't just happily accept a vet min deal or 6mil MLE after making 29 mil when are still just 27. He won't make that paper anymore, no, but he can make more than we can pay elsewhere.
What? udleyshrug: Anyway, back to the DRUMMOND thread, I really hope he returns for another year here, but it’s not looking good.
Just curious @CarolinaLakerFan, how much would you be willing to pay Drummond next year? I don’t mind him coming back but I would like to keep our MLE for someone else.
Good question Cookie. Definitely not the full MLE. That’s why I don’t see him coming back. I know it’s hindsight, but I really wonder if our fortunes would’ve been different if we’d offered that MLE to Christian Wood instead of Trezz last year. He and AD would’ve been a great fit together.
I would like him back on an attractive deal to the Lakers who can help reinvigorate his career. Same benefit to both parties as it was last year with Dwight. More than that, even including his bad hands and lacking in areas of knowing where to be on the floor …. my reason is I think it’s a slam dunk we’ll see the best year of basketball from Andre Drummond in his career, as always, with the health caveat. The guy seems pretty robust physically already. He will be the most motivated to improve this summer both financially and from knowing it’s going to happen. He’s clearly thrilled to be here playing on the Los Angeles title contending Lakers with 2 of the top 5 -7 players in the world in Lebron James and Anthony Davis …. Who want him here. AD anyway is certain and Bron it seems so, have heard nothing to contrary. So a some degree more mobile, quicker and stronger athelete than he’s ever been PLUS the entire off season to train physically and skills particular to him, polish and improve them AND work hard to understand the finer points of basketball from our coaching staff and Lebron and AD themselves as well. That level of best season of his career and going forward with that level of play in the prime of his career seems very exciting to me actually. Totally solves saving all the minutes at the 5 for AD except when needed for winning time. I have faith if he works hard mentally he can considerably up his positive on the floor impact. It’s up to Rob to sell him on that vision and the best deal for the Lakers and the team for competition purposes next year “contract”.
