To be fair, my reaction (and I assume many others') to game one was a carryover from bad preseason lineups/rotations, which were a carryover from last season's bad lineups/rotations. We can't afford to lose games like this, not if we want to looks respectable to free agents this offseason. Optimistically, Byron uses better lineups, but history doesn't point to that. It points to him being stubborn and sticking with what doesn't work, and punishing guys like Black with no PT for no reason, like he did Clarkson half of last season. Let's see..optimism, free agents will probably see us as more attractive when Kobe retires at the end of the season. Real, more in the moment optimism, hopefully Russell moving back to PG will free him up to start to grow, because he wasn't going to improve much standing around at "SG". I'd like to imagine Mitch took him aside and asked him WTF he thinks he's doing with our #2 pick, but it was probably the media, Russell himself, maybe a little input from Kobe.
I'm thankful we have a former coach of the year and Legendary Laker Byron Scott as our coach. It's just a matter of time until we figure things out. ***Choosing to think positive***
I'm also optimistic that we will actually play unselfish, move the ball around and someone on the team will get more than 4 assists.
A little late, but I didn’t finish watching the game until late last night. My optimism from the Minnesota game. Russell made a couple of passes from the top of the key, to under the basket, which would have been great had they been caught. I hope he keeps making them, because eventually they will be caught. Kobe looked unstoppable against solid defense for parts of the game after taking almost a year off. Swaggy P found his swag. Randle is a beast. I think Garnett realized how good Randle is and tried to get in his head. But, the young man couldn’t be shaken. My expectations were high on the Clarkson - Russell twosome, but I’m now intrigued on the Hibbert – Randle twosome. Hibbert is a solid passer for a big man, and Randle is looking for his passes. Clarkson and Lou looked better than solid. Our defense was subpar in my opinion. But, the guys stuck to the game plan of trying to make Rubio a shooter. Who would have thought that Rubio would shoot like that? A Laker team that was literally put together this summer, dominated an NBA team for almost 3 quarters, with a Rubio playing better than I’ve ever seen him play, and a number one draft pick playing like a number one draft pick. The Lakers looked like the better team to me, they just didn’t play better the entire game. Sure, some teams might be able to gel quicker than this Laker team, but this team is so dynamic that we might see a different “best Laker aside from Kobe” on any given night. I loved that Kobe passed that last shot to Lou. It was the right play to go with, it just didn’t go in. I’m optimistic because Swaggy didn’t look like someone that will be in a Shaqtin a Fool clip this year. Lastly, I agree with Sirron, “we have a former coach of the year and Legendary Laker Byron Scott as our coach. It's just a matter of time until we figure things out.” Edit: Maybe Sirron was being sarcastic, but I still like Byron Scott.
You know I'm glad I found LB, a good group of logical fans that see both sides to everything. There's waaaaay too many people outside of here freaking out and panicking about Russell already. We're going to look better tonight offensively I think. Defensively I wonder what we'll do with Cousins now that he's adding that 3 pointer to his arsenal.
I'm finally able to see some optimism after that giveaway Wednesday. Despite our offense looking stagnant for parts of the game it seems we're not gonna have problems getting points. That was a huge problem last season, we literally had no one who could create a shot. Looks like we have that a plenty with this team. Even though we lost a game that we should have by all accounts won, I can appreciate that we were in a position to actually win it. Just use the backboard next time. Time to shake it off and a win tonight.
Clarkson, Young, and Hibbert, at least defensively and at free throws, have been good. Ben Simmons prediction of playing for the Lakers might come true.
I have no optimism. What I saw tonight. The flagrant lack of effort. The horrific rotations once again. Still no semblance of an offensive system. The talent is there clearly, but might as well have the scrubs we had last season if they aren't used properly. We may just get that top three pick.
^ Plenty of other threads to say this stuff and we can't even have one thread called the "Optimism" thread without it. Come on... haha
