Eh. Maybe. Russell has looked real good for them. He played poorly last night, but a 21 year old coming into that situation probably had nerves. No doubt some of that ice had melted. I really hope we find a way to keep Lopez around. If Kuz continues this play and Zo finds his shot, signing PG-13 will be enough to get us to the next level if we retain Lopez. Granted LBJ gets us to the next, next, next level, but it'd make most of us feel dirty.
At least Luke has not ignored his most potent offensive weapon this last two games. It is insane why we rely more on unproven wings than pound the ball inside to Brook who has the advantage over his defenders most nights.
And when he doesn't have the advantage down low, he should be parked on the 3 point line to open up the lanes for Kuz, Ingram and Zo.
He's definitely not a rebounder, but that shot of his the last 3 games has been a welcome addition. Keep it up big fella.
Having Lopez on this team is so huge. With his size, strength, defense, skills, experience and offense plus 3 point shot it pretty much means the odds are really low for any other of the best centers in the league to punk us enough to single handedly beat us. It may happen of course but it's just as likely he will do it more often to other teams over the course of the season than happens to us. He's a STUD.
Also remember this guy was defending Marc Gasol all game, and from the outside, and rotating over to challenge shots. Guy can't be everywhere and do everything. Except, he's been our best player so far.
Yeah it's weird but it's not really what we need from him. As long as his 4 running mates bring down 31 boards and he's drawing bigs out to 3 point land opening up lanes to the hoop and we are out-boarding the other guys overall, you just chalk it up to "well that's how we play our big, you do what you want with your bigs". It's a necessity thing. If we needed him in that role, I'm sure he could average 7-8. We need 3 point shooters and we need that lane to the hoop as clear as possible. We are still pretty big with him out there too, whether he boards or not. Lonzo is switching off to 1-3's, KCP guards their best 1 or 2. Lopez draws his big outside, no one can stop Brandon going to the hoop. Kuz is grabbin' 12.5 boards since starting and our pg grabs around 7 a game. Not too mention on the other side he's played more like a traditional big and gives us some rim protection. It's all about necessity and we should be glad he's versatile and frankly this team fits him.
i never expected.big reb #s from brolo, he has a poor history of it but we got players who reb in spades but that 3pt shooting is so vital, im willing to be its one of the reason ingram has been able to drive more effectively now, no clogged up paint
We draw even at the center position in a match up vs Marc Gasol for the first time since the Pau/Bynum days, and we’re whining about how many rebounds Lopez didn’t have?