D'Angelo Russell Discussion: Adopting A Professional Attitude

i'm guessing that if we managed to keep all the guys we just got, we wouldn't give lonnie a raise. we'd probably try to use the tpmle to keep schroder?

lebron 47
AD 42
DAR 28
beas 15
rui 13
bamba 10
reaves 8
vando 4.5 (!!)
christie 2

that has us about 10 million over the tax line before re-signing schroder (if we are) or another backup pg, which may be a need.

i penciled reaves in at 8, but someone might try to offer him 10, i guess. i penciled rui in at 13, but i think he could be cheaper--hard to imagine a young team with space wanting to go the RFA route, and we'll match anything mle or lower, so it would be wasted time.

i put DAR at slightly below his current salary because, again, i don't see one of the cap space teams throwing a full max at him. that would be wild.

anyway, we were at 166 this year, and i think with the upgrades we made, jeanie and company should be prepared to go higher next year. we're a couple years away from lebron retiring and us probably rebuilding, which means we're likely under the cap then. we can weather a couple repeater taxes.

if not, sell the team.

 

With the young guys we acquired and AD still relatively young it seems we are giving Lebron a chance for more titles and rebuilding at the same time. Rob did his job. Dlo hopefully will perform and be kept long term with AD. He is not a superstar but he is a star. They seem to like each other and are working on chemistry. If AD and Lebron are true superstars and with Dlo in the mix combined with the cast Rob has put together we are on par with anyone. We can no longer blame our supporting cast. It is scary with Ham being the X factor. This line up can still be misused but not as badly as the previous one. The onus is now on AD and Lebron to carry us to the championship.

 

dlo's a semi-star, but that's all you need if you have lebron and AD. do i wish he was jrue holiday? yes. but this is much better than a week ago.

yeah, it's hard to point out major deficiencies now. ham, lebron, and AD have the tools to win. and they're going to have to do a lot of it soon to not waste the year.

 

I guess semi-star, star, all-star doesn't make much difference to me how he is labeled. I just want him to produce and I think he will.

 

Well we already saw the difference of someone playing out of control vs playing under control. He going to be a much better player in the half court offense then brick.

 

Two things about Dlo for me. As unbelievable as this would have been years ago he is going to help stabilize our team and I really enjoy watching him play. I think he knows the importance of getting AD rolling and keeping him involved. I think this combination is going to explode for us.

 

yeah, he was clearly looking for AD on many occasions, trying to find ways to get him the ball. it didn't always work, but experience will turn that into easier buckets for everyone.

 

I don't think it's that surprising. There was never any doubt that he was a high-IQ player with a budding skillset. He was just immature to lead the franchise. He is both older and doesn't have to be the leader, so... he fits.

 

GS defense collapsed on AD all game since Lebron wasn’t playing. AD mentioned how D’Angelo and him were talking non stop and how good the communication was. When Lebron comes back, it’s going to be hard to shadow him with a secondary defender which means him and D’Angelo are gonna run circles around teams once the full squad is playing.

 

Hopefully the improved half-court offense with Dlo will help Ham realize that our strength isn't playing small guards and try to outscore the opponent by running all the time. We have a 38 year old Bron, AD and Dlo in the starting lineup. We need to slow the pace and control the tempo. Maybe let the bench mob run, but no more of this 40 point 1st quarters and 130 to 140 point games BS.

 

Remember the Boston C Bags coach in the huddle, all you have to do is defend the paint and the break against these guys. It's going to be fun to watch now that the Lakers are not so one dimensional.

 

He's matured as a basketball player so much

 

Has to be a Ram fan with that hair style.

 

He won't be leaving again.

 

he's still got his warts. minny just moved him for 35yo mike conley, and they had their legitimate reasons. but that shouldn't spoil anything for us. he's a good player who brings basically exactly what we needed on offense to fit next to our two stars. lebron's going to have to work some jr smith magic on him and be prepared for some jr smith moments, but it's well worth the price.

i'm curious to see if ham's going to ride the schroder/dlo backcourt for the rest of the season. it's not at all what i would do, but it worked ok in game 1!

 

It worked in Game 1 against a Curry-less Warriors. It will not work against better teams.

I hope Ham doesn't get empowered to continue that lineup. we have 4 fricking SG's (beasley, reaves, walker and christie) and yet he decides to start 2 f***ing point guards. It's unacceptable man. Really sick and tired of Ham sabotaging this team's success.

We need DLO next to a bigger guard that can defend (reaves) or a guard that can hit 3s in motion (beasley). Schroder IS a good defender against other PG's but he can't defend SG's as effectively. I would be OK with Ham switching up the lineups depending on the matchups..

 

I think it's smart to not put 2 or 3 new starters at once. Dennis has also been playing really well and would be poor management to just move him to the bench in such a hurry.

I think post ASG is the time to establish our core rotation moving forward, we don't have much time to lose. By then you'll have a better look on what combinations work better and can have a talk with everyone involved so they understand their role and how they can best help our team.

We tend to forget players are still human beings and have the same emotions we have in our jobs. Leadership, communication, building trust, etc are also fundamentals on sports success from a coaching standpoint

 

Yeah I don't think we will see much of AD/Mo. Game with Pels would be a good game to test it, putting Bamba on Valanciunas and having AD owning Ingram or Trey. But Ham doesn't want AD on the 4-out scheme not being the one in.

I always said my favourite AD is at the 4. It actually makes our defense even better and on offense is a complete other level because there's not even a handful of 4s in the league that can guard AD. But in Ham's system it won't happen unfortunately