I bought a pair of PR level tickets for the final Reg Season game vs Utah on Stub Hub before the Season started for $170/ea.. They're now worth $2,000/ea..
Just watched the dvr. Much better shot selection from Kobe. Julius Rodman showed up. We saw some ball movement and we generated turnovers. Great win which was sorely needed.
I don't really know where else to put this, but I'd say it's pretty damn optimistic. Today Silver Screen and Roll had a short article about how Julius Randle is among the leaders in rebounding from the last two draft classes. As you can see, Julius is rebounding at a rate nearly the same as a 7'3" guy, so that's something to be pretty damn optimistic about. However, they used basketball-reference.com to get those stats so I decided to take a further look at the rest of our guys. Here's some things worth noting: Two of our three young guys are in the Top 10 this season in minutes played from all the players in the last two draft classes. Here's the breakdown: Okafor- 624 minutes (20 games) Wiggins- 599 minutes (17 games) Clarkson- 580 minutes (18 games) Payton- 575 minutes (18 games) Mudiay- 572 minutes (19 games) Grant- 547 minutes (20 games) McConnell- 543 minutes (20 games) Porzingis- 534 minutes (19 games) Randle- 516 minutes (18 games) Noel- 502 minutes (16 games) Russell- 496 minutes (18 games) Towns- 494 minutes (18 games) Clarkson is 3rd in FGAs and FGMs with 241 and 114 respectively. Russell is 9th in FGAs, but 10th in makes. Randle is 10th in FGAs, but 8th in makes. Okafor leads both categories. Andrew Wiggins blows the field away in FTs and FTas with 101/136 so far. Julius Randle is 4th in attempts and 6th in makes. Clarkson is just 14th and 16th in makes and attempts respectively. Russell is not in the top 30 in either category. While Julius is a monster on the glass, D'Angelo is no slouch. He's 17th among his peers with 82 rebounds (more than Mudiay, LaVine, and Wiggins). Clarkson checks in just 26th with 61 rebounds. There are three people in the last two years with now over 100 assists: Mudiay, McConnell, and Payton. After that though, our group is in the Top 10 of assists relative to their draft class. Russell is 5th with 55 assists. Clarkson is 8th with 41 assists. Randle is 10th with 39 assists. There are seven players with 20 or more steals: Hollis-Jefferson (27), McConnell (26), Noel (23), Payton (22), Mudiay (21), Galloway (20), and Clarkson (20). Russell is 9th with 18 steals and Randle holds his own at 14th with 15 steals. None of them are shot blockers. Randle falls outside the Top 10 at 12th with only 10 blocks. Russell and Clarkson are both in the low 20s with 4 blocks each. Julius and D'Angelo are fairly careless, coming in 10th and 11th with 33 turnovers each. However, Clarkson is no saint coming in 13th with 31 turnovers of his own. Mudiay leads the pack by far with 74 turnovers and Okafor follows in second with 55 of his own. Russell and Clarkson don't commit many fouls, but Julius sure does. He comes in 4th with 54 fouls. Jordan Clarkson is the third highest scorer this year with 287 from the last two draft classes behind only Wiggins (375) and Okafor (327). Julius comes in 9th with 210 points and Russell is now 14th with 192 points. We have no one in the Top 10 in FG%. However, Clarkson is 8th in 3PT% with 41.3% from deep. Russell is 21st shooting only 29.7% (Towns is 20th at 30%). Randle is last with 0% from deep. Here's the link to the stats I used, but really I just wanted to illustrate that of all the young players coming up, we've got three REALLY good ones.
Thanks for posting that RD. Yeah I've said from the outset that this is a championship core only they develop and mature. Once we get the right coach and surround them with better pieces. People keep talking about trading them. NO. I don't wanna trade any of them unless it's for a superstar a legit superstar that we know will re-up and not just a rental. I love all of these guys as players. Julius is still very raw and is already basically a double/double guy. Clarkson has continued to improve and build upon what he did last season. Jump shot, three point shot, the floaters, that nice fake and turn around, and he's so explosive. Russell I've already made how I feel about him. I think he's just gonna be a great all around point guard. Someone who'll get Julius, Jordan and the rest easier opportunities. His jump shot looks good he just needs more legs. Coming up short a lot, but I like how he's attacked more. He's the best passer we've had since Magic although that's probably an indictment of what we've had at the point guard position although we played in a system that didn't require one for so long. Once we can get some shooters D'Angelo and Jordan will be very difficult to stop in the screen and roll game.
Some similar stuff. There are 111 players in the NBA who are in either their first or second season in the NBA. Check these ranks: Minutes Clarkson 5th Randle 9th Russell 11th Nance 46th Huertas 59th Black 63rd Brown 99th Points Clarkson 3rd Randle 9th Russell 13th Nance 49th Huertas 65th Black 66th Brown 88th Assists Russell 5th Clarkson 8th Randle 10th Huertas 26th Nance 48th Black 82nd Brown 89th-tied Rebounds Randle 2nd Russell 17th Clarkson 26th Nance 34th Black 42nd Huertas 60th Brown 100th-tied For a rough calculation of their rank, just take those ranks and add, then divide by 4. Randle 7.5 Clarkson 10.8 Russell 11.5 Nance 47.5 (Huertas 50.5) Black 63.3 First, we have three of the top 12 draft picks over the last two years. Second, if an NBA round is 30 picks, then that means we have drafted four first round values in the last two years, and Black is an early second round value. Russell Clarkson Nance Randle Black We've added five players who are at worst quality role players in the past two seasons. And they fill out a lineup.
^ now imagine how well Russell, Randle and Clarkso would be in a system that caters to their strengths. How much better Black would be with playing time.
Please don't mention Black. The ONLY explanation that makes a lick of sense with how under utilized he is, is that the FO has told Byron to "hide" him so he doesn't get a big contract. If the FO has not said that, Byron should be fired JUST for that. Black is far and away our second best center, yet Boron insists on playing an undersized pf there. It actually might be my #1 point of contention with Boron. Sure, it isn't affecting us as much as some of Boron's other idiotic maneuvers, but it is the most inexplicable.
They have to be thinking of something like this. Extending Clarkson and offering two max deals, maybe trying to extend Hibbert, worrying about Black - that's another headache they don't need.
I just don't think the Lakers FO would do that. That's a pretty dishonorable thing to do, hiding a guy so he makes less money? This is a man's life here. He deserves a shot to make the most money he can. I think more likely, Byron loves his veterans and maybe the FO has told him they're going to look to move him to a contender. That means playing him a bunch of minutes even if he has to be out of position. That makes a little more sense to me than costing a guy potentially millions. That's not cool.
This is a bigger deal than I think people really understand. Players are only as good as the relative field and guess what? We've got at least three of the BEST guys from the last two years AND two really good pieces to go along with it. That's pretty damn special. HUGE props to the scouting department.
Lakers just matched their longest win streak of the season, and now have a chance to double the length of their previous win streak. So freaking cool
