Not following why you think Jordan has "plateaued" already? He seems to be adding more footwork and moves and variety of shot selection to his game the more he plays. In fact he reminds me a tiny bit of Kobe as a player willing to work on his fundamental footwork more than anyone else on the team. He's already strong as hell in absorbing contact and still getting where he wants to go when attacking the rim. As hard as he works he is only going to get stronger and better with his footwork and fundamentals the next 3-4 years or more. Defense I don't know. Everyone agrees he's weak right now.
Because he's all offense and no defense. We've seen more than a full season from him now and if anything he's worse defensively today than he was a year ago. A plateau doesn't mean he can't get better. It means right now he's not improving. It's like weight lifting: if you plateau it just means you need to change things up to find a new way to break through again. This season he's hit his peak as a really good offensive weapon, but a horrible defender. Meanwhile Randle and Russell are improving week to week and game to game.
You just said 2 days ago Randle was horrible with his defensive footwork and we all agreed on defense and help defense and knowing where to be in general. Excused it as being about no system in place as fault of the pathetic coaching staff. Russell has been better than expected on defense most of the season, agreed. I see the point though if you feel on defense Clarkson is worse than last year. Let's get a real coach in here.
I don't think Clarkson has plauted or hit his ceiling and I don't agree at all that he hasn't gotten better. His numbers are all higher basically except for assists and his three point shot has gone up over five percentage points. Really none of the guys have looked good defensively on a consistent basis. That's what happens when there is no communication with the coach and he doesn't preach a defensive concept or scheme. He may not get better from here on out we don't know until we get a real coach. It's impossible to judge these guys when they literally have to do everything because of this garbage offense and not having a defensive scheme that they trust.
Again: plateaued doesn't mean finished. I think you've mistaken the meaning of the word. This season he has not improved defensively. That is 100% fact. He's had more minutes already by now than he had all of last season and he's regressed defensively. I'm not saying it's all his fault. Absolutely part of that is Byron's terrible defense. The same can be said for Julius in that regard, but I'm not giving either of them that excuse. The reality is that scheme or not, neither of them (nor D'Angelo) have been anything resembling good defenders this season. Jordan is worse in Defensive Rating, his Block Percentage, Steal Percentage (although this is a slight difference), Defensive Win Shares, and his Defensive Box Plus/Minus is worse too. He's averaging only 0.2 more steals per game this season than he did last and he's playing more than seven more minutes per game. He's averaging less blocks than he did last season in more minutes. An argument can be made that instead of regressing he's simply doing the same he did last season, but that's precisely my point: he's plateaued. All that means is he's not improving defensively and that's not some sort of insult or something that needs to be defended. It's just the truth. The difference between he and D'Angelo and Julius is that Jordan's offensive prowess is still ahead of theirs by a decent margin. Unfortunately for him that margin is closing fast. If he doesn't start playing defense at a much higher level, his peers will pass him up as overall players on both sides of the ball. I'm a big fan of Jordan, D'Angelo, and Julius but they've got a long way to go. It's not so bad to give constructive criticism when it needs to be given.
1 of my main concerns with him becoming our starting PF was his ability to rebound. Needless to say I'm happy to be proven wrong. It's going to make it that much easier to find a C that fits next to him. We just need someone to protect the rim and possibly score if we don't add offense in other ways.
Another solid outing and double double. 14 and 13 with a steal to go with it? Another good finish with the right, too. But tonight belonged to DLO!
As mentioned, he is just solid right now, a double-double nearly every night. Post game 'Twan was saying how he still hasn't quite learned the game yet like he will, and he had opportunities where he could have backed down the smaller defender guarding him. He was basically saying that Randle is doing this on pure talent alone, and that makes it more impressive, because when he figures out how to take advantage of defenders, what moves to go to against certain guys, he'll be that much better.
Yeah he's still doing the same charging move against absolutely every opponent no matter their size and he'll keep picking up offensive fouls until he changes that up. Anyone else love the fight he and Thaddeus Young were showing? Julius and Thaddeus (how about those throwback names?) were absolutely BATTLING last night. I thought Young was actually resorting to flopping a lot because he was having real trouble keeping up with Randle down low.
That was fun. I was about to say, I thought Julius and Thaddeus sort of played each other into a standstill. They seem to be cut of the same kind of cloth and their lines were almost identical throughout the game. It was great to watch them go at it.
I'm a bit surprised that there's no love for Julius this morning even with the loss last night. I thought he played a very nice game vs. the Hawks. 16 and 10 on 50% shooting. Also had a couple assists (and a nice feed to Brown in the lane where he got fouled and went to the line) plus that sweet steal in the passing lane for a dunk ala his mentor Big Game James. Good to see the three point shot working and he hit from distance within the arc as well. Once again I'm blown away by this kid's strength. Head to head with Millsap and he just bullied Ronnie in the lane. Since the guards were bricking so badly they should have gone to him more often because Millsap couldn't really handle him there. He also played Millsap well on the other side of the ball - he only shot 4 for 9 and only got 3 boards. So another well rounded double double for Randle with a very good shooting night and solid D. I thought his play was the bright spot of the game.
I think people have come to expect it at this point. He double-doubles so often it's just another day at the office and we spoiled Laker fans just ask for more. I think he's got a long way to go, but out of our rookies his growth has been consistent now for a while. Even before his re-insertion into the starting lineup, he was doing this stuff. He's been great. This summer: help defense and jump shot. He needs to practice those two things every single day for the entire summer. He should take 500 shots a day and work on help defensive timing and footwork for an hour or two. Lord knows he doesn't need to put any more muscle on, the kid is built like a tank.
Agreed realdeal. And keep working on that right, keep working on counters for the post, keep working on that first step plus the jab and step back J. He's got the potential to be a very, very tough guy to guard. Like you said, not sure how much work he needs in the gym as he is strong as an ox. He'll do some of that stuff anyway. But yeah, the help D needs WORK. Big time. I feel like he needs more coaching in that department though. Hopefully Ron will be kept on in that regard and can do some one and one tutoring with him on all aspects of D.
Yeah I'd love if Ron and Kobe stuck around with these young guys this summer and just showed them proper footwork. D'Angelo seems to get it pretty naturally but Julius and Jordan don't at all.
^^ They all need work, DLO included. If I'm not mistaken we have the worst defense in the NBA, right? It's like there is no coaching in that direction at all. It can't be all on the players like Boron and the guys on TWC seem to be suggesting. I've seen no improvement in that department all year long. None. I think the coaching just sucks. We all know what it is - basically "Man UP!" There is no semblance of a system, or a philosophy other than that. Just one of the many, many reasons Byron needs to go as soon as Kobe retires. He's not the right coach for our future (or even our present). I think the kids are all smart and would be receptive if there was something intelligent being said out there in that regard. These guys don't strike me as unresponsive, un-coachable kids. They all (meaning the core: Clarkson, Julius, D-LO and Nance Jr.) have a very tangible drive to get better, to be winners. The coaching doesn't measure up to their potential and desire.
He spoils us with double doubles so I honestly expect it every game. It's the random steal, block or 3 that's surprising. I honestly wasn't expecting a good game from him yesterday. I think he struggled against Milsap last time.
