This kid has serious hops. That pass that Bradley threw way over his head down left side of the basket near the baseline was fired and way high but in real time he went up so fast and high that he almost got to it, so I ran it back to him on the way up and went frame by frame. I got to a point where his feet were so high off the court that I thought surely the next frame or two he’d start coming down but nope he kept elevating 4 or 5 more frames and his head wound up just below rim height and I think he even got a couple fingers on the ball. Dayam!
yeah, we've known this since day one (another reason vet mins suck). the only way to keep monk is to get westbrook to cut his salary by a huge margin.
But I’m assuming that although the FO types all lurk on LB, that to be safe, @abeer3 has also e-mailed Rob what he needs to do in negotiation with Russ this summer in dropping him to a 3 x 20M extension with TO on the 3rd year. No sweat.
lol. just mimic paul's deal on a smaller scale: 4 years, 80 million, partial guarantee on 3rd year, no guarantee on 4th. russ gets to save face and not lose any money, we get a shot at building more competitive teams the next two years. russ gets to live in la.
You've sold me. Just want to make sure you got that info to Rob as well .... no telling if it's occurred to him or he might have missed a day or so on here and your posts on the matter.
It makes me physically ill to watch a game with Russ on it, if they restructure and extend him with more years, then a longer sabbatical in my Laker fandom is in order:Vogelheaving:
i'm certain they've considered far more creative options, too. the key is selling him on it... bear in mind that my own personal fake gm plan absolutely requires russ accepting a diminished role and being happy about it. like, the conversation would start with "if you're willing to take a step back, we want you here..." and end with "and if not, we're probably going to have to work to move you, and we're going to have to take the best deal for us".
Even if he agrees to a lesser role, he still won’t play even league average defense. I’m come to terms with his flawed offensive game- it’s the unacceptable effort on D that is unbearable. He needs to go. If there’s no takers this summer, then so be it. We ride out one more ugly season and then be done with him.
Point guard is the least valuable point of defence. Even the best guard defenders barely slow down the opposing player if they’re good offensively. It comes down to team concept.
i'm guessing svtzr has watched him on defense off the ball and knows, but he's hoping to see better effort out of him. he's cited times when he played better. but all i've seen this year are lapses and gambles that remind me of post-achilles kobe. he's trying to conserve energy on defense. as is lebron, and honestly, even AD was early in the season (though i think he's realized it's impossible for us if he joins them in lollygagging on that end). i actually consider myself a russ centrist despite my pretty strong criticism. i just think we can't bend our team to maximize him. it's a classic sunk cost effect. it basically ended houston, and it will end us if we decide to make him more useful by making everyone else try to fit what he does. edit: oh no, this is the monk thread. VERY curious to see if monk's still here in two weeks. i think it will speak to what the front office is thinking about the summer.
He isn’t a great team defender, but I feel like he isn’t any worse than many other point guards. And since his benching for that, he has done better. For everyone who brings up Trae’s last shot like it’s some indictment of poor defence, just remember PG a premier defender also did the same thing with Lillard from the logo in the playoffs and there are countless other examples. When people shoot from that far out they’re going to be open, it’s literally the best shot to give up. Our issue is how do we play Russ, Monk and Lebron all at the same time. It’s just too many poor defenders. I’d almost be happy to give Reaves and Stanley the starting spots and play Monk off the bench with Melo. But I won’t deny I really would like to keep monk!