Talen Horton-Tucker Discussion: Growing Pains

to me they're more similar than they seem.

and if THT (or russ) is going to be here long-term, we need to either get a center who can shoot or he needs to get his standstill three to a respectable level. there's just no way around it.

 

yeah, i can't shake the feeling that he'll become a respectable standstill three point shooter in the next couple of years. i know the results aren't there, but i just feel like his shot looks better than it did a year ago.

 

I actually don't think he will improve much in another team in that department. Never looked like a good shooter. He should play to his strengths while working for multiple seasons in his weaknesses. He also doesn't possess a good BB IQ.

We need to shop him so he needs good minutes. He should be the only backup of Russ, so should play like 20/25min and never alongside Russ

 

kuz II; i'm telling you. we'll move him for a vet corpse and be like: why didn't he do this here?! when he was doing it on a smaller scale here already.

 

yep. ship him. for anything. he sucks. we've got a great record with this.

 

He's underachieved no doubt but there is no Laker on the rosters who has been in a worst situation then him because of the Russ trade.
His strengths aren't highlighted and his weaknesses come to the forefront.

I would love to see him get burn w/o Westbrook for a 5 game stretch and see what happens

 

should have kept both and not traded for russ.

trading THT at his nadir is compounding the problem.

if we still had kuz at the deadline this year, we might have been able to trade him for someone that fit better. but we cashed out at his nadir, too.

 

Also you can see him becoming a really really good defender out there. He's learning to use his bulk to hold position and then use his go go gadget arms to make it tough on the defender.

He's been playing well

 

Excellent game on BOTH ends of the court. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come, now he can relax a bit with the trade deadline over.

 

I think the trade deadline probably most affected him.


It was his name that mostly kept coming up in trade rumors.

Let's hope he can have a breakthrough to end the season.

 

He doesn't even have to break through, just show (or keep showing, depends what boat you're in) promise and progress. With a skeleton roster this summer and minimal means to get better or to keep Monk, we'll need THT as an asset. Hopefully he can at least get closer to last year's value (I know some of the was the unknown and salary as well).

 

We traded Kuz for a superstar. It was a good trade on that perspective. Harrell is scrambling in the league and KCP is a good player but hasn't much trade value.
We are all aware of the ins and outs of Russ's fit and performance, but on theory, considering that we wanted a 3rd star and apparently someone to get some more rest to LeBron, with the info we had by 2021 summer, it made total sense to move Kuzma in that deal. There's no better player (in a vacuum) we could get with that package. We didn't had many more assets and it was even a surprise to get a deal like that. We can argue the fit as we did at the time and intensely the past months, but it was a good move with a proper plan (that obviously failed hugely and had many flaws)

It would be great if we could do the same with THT. Because, I can't see many scenarios where we are able to improve this team while keeping THT.

So there's two scenarios. He either improves (meaning 6th man of the year candidate) or he doesn't.
I think we can agree he is not improving much with Russ on the team. So his best shot is if we move Russ. And for me that's the key. We clearly need to upgrade the roster, and our only assets to do that is via Russ or THT. Any trade that can bring us some value is centered in one of them. So the only way it makes sense to keep him and make the squad stronger is by trading Russ for at least 2 valuable pieces (either on court or as trade assets). I believe that's fairly unlikely.
So, how do you improve our squad without trading him?

Then there's his contract. LeBron ends his contract next year and THT the year after. Either THT improves immensely as a 3rd/4th wheel in this team during next year or he is messing up Lebron window. If we take that bet, keeping him instead of trading, it's because we are focusing on a chance in the future and eliminating any new chance to compete for a championship with LeBron.

So if we decide that, what's the point of keeping LeBron?

 

kuz for russ wasn't a good move. most of us said so at the time, and boy is that just undeniable now.

the lebron window is closed. if he's your top guy and russ is your third guy, you can't win. we've seen that, too.

where i agree is that THT's value can't get lower than now. period.

as for why we're keeping lebron: there are plenty of reasons, starting with he's still worth max nba money, even in his current form.

but i'd rather see how THT develops here than ship him for junk and end up with absolutely nothing in the end.

i was fine with the supposed wall/wood for russ/tht deal, too, so it's not like i think he's untouchable or something. but why sell low? for lebron's closed window?