Well yeah, the Kobe hate goes without saying. That was Kobe though, he "earned it" in a lot of people's minds. I couldn't believe the hate Russ got right out of the gate for perceived attitude, and then after that Nick Young incident, from grown a** media members acting like they were prison inmates who found a snitch. I figured at least 19 year old rookies would get a clean slate when it comes to Lakers hate with ESPN, even Kobe did as you pointed out with the 16 years. They liked him at the start.
"grown a** media members acting like they were prison inmates who found a snitch" ..... smack :Headbang:
Kazuma is already playing better than a lot of these lottery picks. Just shows you that our scouting department is amazing. Another steal another day
For about half a second I considered a gif, but then I figured it would be too small. Shrinkage n all
Kobe gave reasons to not like him. Lonzo, despite his dad, has a cool demeanor. Hard not to like him.
Also, Lonzo may not be able to cover the Westbrook's or the Kyrie's(No one can anyways, put KCP or Ingram on them) but his help D is pretty damn good. And his instincts to jump the lanes for steals are great. I think is defense or lack their of has been exaggerated. He will be fine with good solid team defense philosophy. He isn't Steve Nash on defense, that is for sure. If he is even an average defender, he is a star in this league. Possible MVP in the future.
Nice breakdown. Makes it look like defenders need to pick their poison, and it will give Ball some open looks. Even more encouraged if that was possible.
Good post overall, but let's talk about the Transcendent thing. Clearly Rob thinks he is. Magic does too by purposefully comparing Lonzo to himself, Kidd implied it. Now you've got expert level observers of the game saying things like he's already making passes with regularity that no one else in the league is making. So, what does it take to deserve the label of transcendent? Here is the Dictionary.com definition: adjective 1. going beyond ordinary limits; surpassing; exceeding. 2. superior or supreme. How many transcendent abilities does a player need to display to be labeled transcendent? I suppose you could make a category for all around transcendence and probably only Jordan would qualify (but even the GOAT did not have a transcendent 3 point shot). But Magic was transcendent, was he not? If so, it was primarily for his passing and the way he changed his teams by his leadership on the floor. I view Rodman as transcendent for his freakish rebounding ability. Same with Reggie Miller for his 3 point shot, or Curry for the same reason. Lonzo has yet to play in a real NBA game, let alone the playoffs, so the book is wide open, but from what I've seen so far at UCLA + Summer League, this is a transcendent player.
I was trying to think what I can add to the positives most everyone is seeing with Lonzo so early on in just 3 games. How about this. I'm impressed how he has played himself into much closer to game conditioning compared to his college career .... in just 3 games. People noticed he looked gassed the first game. Not sure if it was mentioned much after his second. But he played big minutes last night (33-34-?) and was busting his a** to the end of the game trying to get that win last night. I bet the coaching staff is playing him that much for that reason too. Why not. He's handling it already. So picture Lonzo as others have said with much better players and athletes consistently around him, when he gets into NBA shape. The kid is going to be a stud. If he's smart hit Kobe up immediately for some back to the basket Kobe looking over his shoulder surveying the floor ready to pass or bust a move .....one on one tutoring. Not the quickest of quick twitch muscle systems, but so much of everything else out there physically. Coordinated. I bet he is deceptively strong where it counts already. You don't fire near length of the court chest passes without being strong.
A)who honestly can? Lol. B)KCP is here to contain and molest a lil if he has to on those players lol. He did a good job vs Kyrie,Curry,Harden. Lonzo will get to play the weaker guard which is great for his development.
