You said, "Upshaw is a long way from being NBA ready". I disagreed with that and said he is NBA ready for 10 minutes a game. Being a franchise center, developing his game, etc. is not the issue here. I think Upshaw is NBA ready right now, in small spurts.
I guess so, but I'd honestly prefer him in the D-League. I think giving him 20-25 minutes a game to work and get up to speed is just better for him than the 10 minutes he gets here, gets winded, sits and Byron doesn't let him get back up for a while. Maybe I was wrong in saying he's not NBA ready. What I meant was he's not ready to be the player he's built to be, so I think it behooves him to get more minutes in the D-League. It worked wonders for Jabari last season.
It's not D-League or Lakers squad though. They can call him up and send him down whenever they want. He could get a ton of work in playing in both Lakers and D-League games at home and travel with the team to go up against Hibbert in practice and spot minutes on the road. If he is going to become the next Hibbert, he'd probably be better off going against Hibbert than in the D-League playing against 6'7 dudes that play no defense.
I don't know man. I think Hibbert right now would just crush him offensively (as in Hibbert playing defense). I know he'd be going against shorter guys in the D-League most nights, but that gives him a chance to refine his footwork while getting in shape. I guess let's see where he is by the time camp rolls around. He'll see plenty of Hibbert in a couple of months. If he seems ahead of the curve and in better shape than those first few SL games, then I'm game to have him on the active roster Day 1. The key is still shedding Sacre and Kelly somehow. I feel like there's got to be a trade in place somewhere right? Otherwise what's the hold up? Just cut one or both of them and let's move on. For my money, cut Ryan Kelly and let's just move in a different direction. I like him, but we don't need him anymore and we have plenty of PF depth besides him. It's either a) we're clearing space for Upshaw somehow or b) we're just not going to sign Upshaw after all. Randle/Bass/Nance Jr. Hibbert/Black/Sacre/Upshaw That's fine with me. I'd prefer cutting Sacre too and bringing in a backup PG, but who is realistically available?
Yeah, I hear that. I'd prefer not to consider injuries in the equation frankly because.....I can't take another year of them. We'd have to have 2 injuries at the PF/C spot for Upshaw to get those minutes IMO. I'm not against it. I personally don't think he needs to spend the entire season in the D-league or anything, but I get stressed thinking about how Byron is going to manage Hibbert/Black/Upshaw. The thing that favors Upshaw getting those kind of minutes is that Hibbert barely notches 30 minutes a game.
Stressed about Byron? I'm not. He's going to coach/manage like sh**. I've already come to that conclusion. As for Upshaw, sign him already, please, Mitch.
^ What he said. It's not even worth being upset about, but I know we'll have some discussions in gameday about Byron anyway.
https://mobile.twitter.com/EricPincus/status/629066511521460224 This is a back and forth Pincus was having with somebody on Twitter earlier regarding Upshaw; apparently, Upshaw did something's on his day off to give the Lakers 'pause' on signing him.
This kid has been troubled in the past. Is he worth the risk? His ceiling is not that high other than blocked shots which is a misleading statistic. At best I'd put him in the D league and see if he can make a season being clean and cooperative.
Well I think that answers what is going on with his contract. If he had one shot in Vegas to prove something to us and he blew it in that environment, what's he going to do in LA with a guaranteed contract? Very disappointing if true.
His ceiling isn't just blocked shots. He altered more shots than anyone else on the floor in the games he played, set better screens, was active on both ends. He could be a double double with good defense. The seven footers who can do that are, well, rather rare.
OMG. After all this talk of the help he got to straighten things up, growing up and being in the wrong environment in the past... he gets the opportunity to play for the Lakers and does someting stupid on the very first occasion? If that's true, I don't even want to know what it was - if he did something that was clearly not approved by the Lakers, I'm as good as done with him. If he can't control himself in this kind of situation, he will be a ticking bomb once he actually gets a contract. Again - if he really did "something", meaning something related to his past issues - I'm literally pissed at him. How can you be so stupid? On a different note - we probably should be happy actually if what happened prevents the Lakers from signing him and dealing with a bigger problem in the future
An off day in Vegas is just asking for trouble if he was anywhere but in the gym, weight room, or the next safest place (but still has temptations) -- his hotel room. An off day during the Orlando hosted summer league might have prevented such a situation. Doesn't matter because we don't play there, we play in Vegas and at this point we have no idea as to what the issue was. Just some speculating.
