Talen Horton-Tucker Discussion: Growing Pains

these stories aren't fully honest. you can't get hard-capped out of keeping your own players. so the lakers can afford to keep both--at their maximum salaries if they want. this is really important, and the press constantly misses this stuff. it would just mean they might have to cut corners elsewhere (OR NOT--the only key rotation player whose contract isn't in the lakers' control is harrell).

now, if they did sign schroder and THT to their maxes, yes, they'd be in luxury tax hell (barring other moves) and unable to make many other moves (certain trades and sign and trades would be out of the question, no MLE, etc.). but then again, the idea would be that you made those moves so that you didn't have to make others, right?

as for the speculation about trading schroder for a center: man, i hope not. this team has proven they do NOT need to pay big bucks for a center. any pedestrian center off the street could play here because we only need about 20mpg worth of "center" play.

finally, their suggestion that schroder's new deal MUST start at 20 per is not something i'm willing to grant. i don't think anyone is going to offer him that on the open market, and i think he and his agent know that. i think if they can't agree on an extension below that number, there's a chance he's traded this year. but not for a center.

 

Harrell is going to play 25 minutes , Marc around 20 and AD will and already has finished games at the 5 this season .

Lakers have the number 1 defense team in the league , same for defensive rebounding .

The center talks makes ABSOLUTELY zero sense if no major injury to one of Marc or Montrez happens

The biggest need we have is a defensive wing as Lebron isn't going to spend much time defending the opponent best wing players during the regular season . It results in KCP/Schroder/Caruso defending the likes of Brown/Tatum/Harris ...

I wonder if some people do actually watch games

 

i know. i've been beating this drum all year. i'm not sure what's driving this stuff other than marc is portly and doesn't dunk or throw shots out of bounds. we're stopping people in the paint just fine. more importantly, we're literally the best defensive and rebounding team in the league.

and yes: any injury to our thin frontcourt will necessitate swift remedy. but given the limited use of our bigs, i think we can wait until it's necessary to fix.

the wing defense problem is ongoing and more glaring, imo--particularly because some of our main threats (mil, lac, phil, bos, bkn) feature big wing scorers, some more than one.

 

Well, Marc is done, Trez is too small and doesn't play any D and AD is soft :
Won't even talk about Morris.

 

i guess that's why we're in last place and can't defend or rebound, right? if we had dwight howard, we'd be 25 and -6 right now and allowing zero ppg.

 

.... man depending on your mood you can sure come up with some random negative bleep at times. If we had LESS talent and Phil Jackson he would have locked in his starting 5 and 9 man rotation the first game of the season. They'd be jelling a whole lot quicker. Give Vogel a break here. And yeah those guys are all disappointing until they go off for a game or two and then your remember they can play.

 

Quiet night. He was struggling a little bit defensively on how to defend stretch 4s when he got switched onto them. Couple of times got in the air and fell for Trae's shot fakes. All of this is good learning experience.

 

I still liked the Kuzma/THT pairing overall. I thought particularly in the second half (at least with Trae Young on the bench) they pushed the Lakers back in the lead.
The Lebron minus AD minutes are consistently positive again unlike with the Kuzma/Matthews pairing

 

It's not about if Gasol, Harrell & AD are doing a good job at C or not, it's about Bench balance.
When you have 2-3 guards & forwards getting DNP most games & constantly rotating Centers because of matchups, limiting Gasol's minutes or Harrell being undersized, having another athletic big body is a must.
I love what Gasol & Harrell bring to this Team & wouldn't go back to Dwight & McGee, but we used to be able to wear Teams down physically by endlessly bringing size off the bench..
We don't have that luxury anymore.. & Yes, I watch every game. I just have a different opinion than you..

 

Great interview .... we know THT a lot better now for it.

:Carusohearthands:

 

This guy is unreal. Weird a** body makes him so hard to guard - he's like Giannis with those long strides of his.
And playing for this team, he's forced to learn how to play within himself, make the right pass, and play defense.

Someone is definitely going to poison pill him. He would be such a great fit on a team like Charlotte

 

THT - what a beast man. 17 pts, NO FEAR, and took it RIGHT at Jamal Murray. He also D'ed up and stripped Murray a few times...that's the more impressive part to me.

 

It's funny near the end of the game, Stu was talking about how he doesn't like the word "potential" when Billy Mac brought it up about Bol Bol. I think Stu was getting at the idea that "potential" is often talked about because that player hasn't demonstrated anything substantive yet.

Not the case with THT. His value isn't "potential". It's abundantly clear that he has the skills and physical tools to already be a productive player on a great team. When his shot is going in, he's extremely difficult to guard.

 

Great interview. Thx for posting

 

Those plays he’s making are star quality already. If that draft was held today how high would he go in the first round? That interview with Trudell directly above is a must read .... explains everything about him. Godfather put a basketball in his hands at one. Was playing in a freaking league at 4 years of age. The “Bitty League”. Comes from the great Chicago basketball heritage that he acknowledges plays a part in his confidence in himself.

 

Caruso, THT, & Kuz are the youngins we always wanted.

 

His ability to go to the rim adds another dimension to our bench .