Want to see us do the same with Baze and Ellington for a couple of our G-Leaguers. Few options--Huff, Chaundee, McClung.
Congrats! We're already bigger entering next season than we were going into this one. Hopefully Handy sticks and can work with both Gabriel and Stan. Camp under the belts will help too.
I'm glad to see Kurt so active in player interviews. He's basically our on site Laker Lore since the only other past stars are only in broadcast roles.
Does useful by definition mean being better than the corpse of Trevor Ariza, a definitely not on-fire Bazemore, one hipped Isiah Thomas, DJ I got paid for being friends with Durant and Kyrie? I think they crossed that high bar last year lol. Now if being useful is being a contributor on a playoff-caliber team they have some work to do: consistent 3 point shooting is the name of the game for every player nowadays.
somewhere between? it's pretty silly to expect gabriel to be a playoff minutes guy, but stan should be able to get there, in theory. i want both to be good enough to play 15-25 minutes and help us scratch out more wins than we did last year. the question is whether their youthful exuberance can overcome the limited experience (especially in gabriel's case). other teams have young guys contributing. hell, reaves did for us last year. but yeah, all this "we're going to conjure a two-way wing with the mini-mle and reclamations" is pretty fantastic. ironically, our best bet is on THT getting back on track, which makes everyone snicker. and i get it. he was terrible last year. but we're only a year removed from everyone claiming we couldn't afford to keep him in FA. i'm off track now.
If Gabriel can be a 15-25 minute a game player and help us win more games he should be good enough to at least get a few playoff minutes. I liked what I saw from him. I think coach Ham will get the best out of him and put him in position to make the most out of what he has. I'm not so quick to discount these young guys that work hard. I would agree about THT, I am still expecting good things out of him.
I'm with you on THT: he has glimpses of being not just a good point of attack/wing stopper but elite. The NO game stuck out to me, Ingram was taking everyone to school including Stan who is usually pretty good with iso and than THT just put a lid on him. Plus I think he was injured pretty much the whole year between the thumb and ankle. And I mean pretty severely injured not just the aches and pains everyone goes thru. Doesn't mean he has stuff work on: off ball rotations on defense and of course getting a consistent 3 point shot but I haven't lost hope with him
yeah, i just think after he signed his contract everyone forgot he was 20. wenyen is 25. stan's 26. not everyone is ready right out of the box. few are, in fact.
I still remember one revelationary move I happened to see him do once this past season. It was genius. He made a juking move dribbling the ball and winding up below the FT line in the lane but unable to get to the basket .... and instead of having to pass it out or turning it over or going to the old man Dirk and LeBron one legged fade away .... it was incredible, he actually jumped off the floor vertically and extended his freakishly long arms above his head and sank a short traditional J. Mind blown!
One of the highlights yesterday. Apparently, he said he had his first healthy off-season in awhile. Love his ability to switch, his rim protection, and his overall effort. Shooting remains a struggle. Hoping Jent can work with him. We may have stumbled into another rotation piece.
Wenyen has a shot to play on this team. I noticed that he played with all three of our other bigs last night, and he didn't get in anyone's way. He's long and moves well at PF IMO. If he can knock down an occasional jumper, he will give us the ability to keep two bigs on the floor for most of our games.
