eh, i think guard/forward/center is still the reigning paradigm, despite the league's attempts to legislate centers into non-existence. but your point about guards is right on. so few "true" pgs left--largely because teams employing the best ones couldn't win the big one.
Damn did I miss something? How did Kevin Porter Jr. drop all the way to the second round in mock drafts? That's actually insane...he was a top 10 prospect to begin the year. If I'm the Lakers, I find a way to nab him in the 2nd round. He would be an absolute STEAL.
If we don’t trade the pick I’m not gonna be upset if we take this guy with how much praise he keeps getting
i said earlier in the thread (i think) that one concern is that he moves up the draft board. if he does any workouts with memphis or ny, his shooting might blow them away, and barrett and morant have that as a question mark. look at who's been successful in the past few years, and it would be easy to place garland ahead of those guys. question is whether he'll be a huge liability on d, i think. other than that, plenty of reason to believe he could be the second-best player in the draft. but i don't like quibbling with west, who loves morant.
He left the combine though, right reported yesterday? Some team already committed? Or was that another guard? Is he back all recovered from the meniscus tear and that was not much to worry about?
typically, meniscus tears aren't a huge deal, i think. i believe i had one, but i didn't get it treated because i read that most of the time you just rest it, anyway. but yeah, he missed most of the season due to the injury. he may have gotten a promise at 6 or 7, but i doubt he'd shut down workouts with the 2-5 spots just due to that. that would be silly. i HIGHLY doubt he would pass up the chance to play for the lakers, particularly as a klutch client.
Yeah. I think he probably has more than one promise. I think he has one from us in that we take him if we are still picking for ourselves, and then a promise from Phoenix or Chicago if we don't take him due to us picking for the Pelicans. In the end, I think there's a decent chance we take him, sign Kawhi, and then trade Lonzo for some sort of asset. Maybe package Kuz and Lonzo for an even better asset. Is Kuz, Lonzo and a couple future firsts enough to snag Bradley Beal? I like the idea of having Beal and Kawhi at about the same age. Then Garland and Ingram at about the same age. Sort of tier our stars a bit. It also gives Garland the chance to come off the bench and learn the game.
A Lonzo/Garland pairing is intriguing. Garland can play off-ball with his elite shooting and ball-handling, and his size on D isn't really a problem with Lonzo's versatilty. I have no interest in Morant and Barrett. Their skillset provides very little to help our team.
Would that cost us the other two Ball kids if the Lakers ship Lonzo out? Something to think about. You know LaVar.
That's why I was being serious above. Don't care about twiggy Melo. https://lonzowire.usatoday.com/2019/04/08/lavar-ball-liangelo-ball-zion-williamson-2019-nba-draft/
I like Garland as well, he’d fit the Ball/Russell pairing a lot of wanted to see. I am a little concerned about the defensive side of things though, he’s a little on the thin side. There are reports of Barrett wanting to play here so who knows. The posturing and chess games for draft position is gonna be interesting, hope our guys didn’t bring their checker pieces.
i think the asking price for beal will be high. kuz/lonzo/2 1sts should be in the bidding, though. but it won't work salary-wise. i think it would have to be ingram, unless we've got a cap trick up our sleeve. but i'd like that, too. we always seem to bring the checker pieces. barrett has big upside, but again, his shot concerns me as an nba wing. he won't bust, though, which is nice.
Garland can play off the ball in this era of shooting. Garland is the perfect 2 guard the Lakers need. Ball handler who can dish and more importantly, shoot. Ball and Garland backcourt would work. Lakers arent gonna have a shot at AD until 2020, however if they can summon a miracle and get Kawhi with a talent like Garland, could be better in the long run. McGee James Leonard Ingram Ball Garland and Kuz as the super 6s. Not a bad team next year.
Cool! Hey can you get us the best Barrett video compilation you've seen and link it here, OK? It'd be great to compare to Garland's excellent footage above.
