Maybe it shows how good he is at getting the team to play Lonzo's game. It exposes a weakness but not so much on the coach. Prepare your team? Got news, we suck at point guard after Lonzo. None of the other PGs come out and get the whole team playing a certain way which is the way we want to play. Luke's 3 top players are 2 rooks and a sophomore. You prepare your team to play first with the tools you expect to have on the floor. Ennis and Caruso are garbage time players. Clarkson is a bench guy. A little too much doggin on Luke, he's proven he can get a defensive culture out of our youth. Thibs wouldn't come in here and do a better job either. If he was minus Lonzo the team would still suck. It's a tough gig and he's a smart but young coach. He'll get better and quickly but he needs Lonzo on the floor.
Ideally you'd want to establish a system to operate out of half-court sets --- one that relies less on individual skillset. The C Bags and Spurs have a system where anyone is replaceable. The better coached teams never fall off a cliff even with multiple injuries. Yes it's unfair to expect Popovic/Stevens level success from Luke in his 2nd year, but at the same time, it's ridiculous that we're THIS DEPENDANT on a rookie PG.
I'm sure when LaVar gets back in the States he's going to be insufferable over the fact they can't win yet without him.
His rebounding is truly undervalued defensively, as we saw last night as well with the second chance points. For some reason, we can't find any bigs that box out. They routinely get outworked because they're too reliant on their size, their athleticism, or expecting the ball to fall into their lap. Not only does Lonzo's rebounding affect our defense, his vision off the rebound allows the team to push the pace and play at a speed other teams don't like. But Lonzo can't be the only one grabbing boards out there, we have to dominate the glass. If there's one thing this team needs, it's a paint presence that can protect the rim and hustle for boards.
It's embarrassing how bad we are without Lonzo. That's on Magic and Rob. Not on Luke. Get some fricking backcourt help you idiots!!!!
There are other factors to this as well, Ingram missing games, uh, maybe jail KCP, but the list isn’t long. Dude is a culture changer and a winner. Lol at “bust” labels being thrown around after 20 games or whatever and screw ESPN for all their mockery of his early shooting woes. Hated hard on the kid just because they don’t like his father.
Millions of votes from fans with players and media chipping in as well and there's a 4 way tie right behind a 2 way tie. How the hell do you even get 1 tie? Must be some serious rounding off.
