Good point, this was an ESPN game, players were watching. ESPN (Stephen A, Beadle, couple others) will still hate on him tomorrow, but despite his poor shooting he still is key to our offense and deserved to close the game. Only 6 points, but still managed to yet again fill the stat sheet with 10 assists and 8 boards. After that shaky first game, he’s put up 9, 13, and 10 assist games. That’s damn impressive for a rookie, especially on a team with almost no shooters.
^^^Man f*** Embiid, Philly and their whole Trust the Prognosis movement! Ball and Wall were on opposite spectrums tonight. +13 for Ball (best between both teams)...-14 for Wall (worst between both teams). But its blatantly obvious he needs to become a decent scoring threat for the pick n roll to work at its best. The good thing is that shooting is one of the easier abilities to gain during a NBA tenure. Now breaking down those shooting mechanics, while incorporating a drastic change to body composition is a whole other conversation I rather not get into at the moment.
4 games in Lonzo is tied for 4th in assists per game in the league. Super early meaningless stat? Maybe, but I think he could keep his numbers pretty high in that category. Westbrook - 12.8 Wall - 9.8 Harden - 9.4 LeBron - 9 Ball - 9
Funny I was thinking the same thing when I saw people's first reactions to LaVar. I was like "don't you know this guy" lol. I had a best friend exactly like LaVar, that's why I think I like him so much. His family was poor, black and from Mississippi and happy as hell to be living in So Cal and weren't about to shut up about it anytime soon about it and who cares? I liked having the positivism around me. We'd get up at 5am and jog across the city (Cucamonga) when we were 18 just to keep busy and that guy never, ever shut up once in the years I knew him lol. Competitive as hell, always braggin' about what he or we would/could do. Never stopped talking or smiling. But he rubbed some people the wrong way just by being positive. He would fight anyone or thing though. Our other best friend and I were linebackers in high school (this kid was a running back) and if you were gonna pick on Dana, you were gonna mess with us too. I bet La Var didn't need that as much, he looks pretty big but I'm sure he had his detractors growing up. I'm trying to track my friend down, not a literate guy so not on FB etc. I did just find out he's a Army drill sergeant now as he made a surprise appearance at my dad's front door recently. But yeah LaVar reminds me of him. People like that are good to have around, they keep things up when they go down, they don't baby you or give you sympathy which just makes you weak. They WILL help you when you need it but not when it's better for you to do it on your own. That's why I also don't understand why LiAngelo comes across like a little wuss. Is he on a different program?
Truly the first guy in a hot minute you gotta watch the tape to tell the whole story. Hes close to ironing out those lil kinks to establish LEGIT clutch status. Like everyone else with a brain i got a boner for Lonzo... ... ...
His shooting is way below expectations but everything else is great about Ball... He really need to make shots though...this 2-11 nights are too big of a hole to overcome longterm.
Maybe my expectations were low or somen...but always seems to make plays even if hes not scoring on them. Clutch rebounds,good play making down the stretch... Rattled a 3 that i think woulda been the dagger. Even had a great moment where he picked up a guy off the screen that he saw right off the bat...communicated properly to signal the other guy to switch as well.
I think ive said it before... What makes the gif the most is the beginning. I also just realized just how great it is to use Kobe gifs to put a smile on everyone's face lol.
That last sequence where Ball guarded Wall on the final play was a thing of beauty. Avoids the foul, and squeezes his feet up the 3 point line to make Wall take a tougher shot. That’s a very savvy, high level basketball IQ move.
Finds a way to impact the game. It takes years for some players to get that. I haven't seen this full game yet but it seems like he starts slow, but comes up big as the game is winding down. Two things that almost can't be taught, and he's showing them as a rook. Very impressive