I still believe he can contribute to winning basketball maybe off the bench. He totally exposed himself on the big stage of the Lakers lights that he’s not reliable in certain crunch time situations. Easy to hide behind bad teams like the pistons and the Cavs. When it winning franchise everything is highlighted. If he would come back on the MLe I would still consider retaining him.
I was very wrong about Drummond. The fact is, he's got small and buttery hands and his rebounding numbers are a fluke. Lakers missed so many easy buckets because instead of going up for a lob to dunk, Drummond can't jump over a paper clip so he has to lay the ball up instead. Last season, we had Dwight+Javale catching lobs and sprinting over the other side of the court for an easy basket after a football pass from Bron. This year, we have two slowpokes in Gasol/Drummond who can't get any easy buckets. Lakers need to prioritize getting young legs who can catch lobs and finish around the rim... No more fat centers who are slower than a turtle.
This is a great point: with Drummond but you limit the offense by taking aways Lebron's passing skills in multiple ways -poor lob threat since he can't jumpt -bad hands to catch the PnR -bad finishing even when he catches the ball -lack of touchdown passes due to lack of speed -big man running the floor and dunking on you wears you down.
How many times did Damian Jones (rostered one of the worst teams in the NBA in the past q5 years) , McGee, Dwight, Marc, or Trezz draw a triple team?... I'll wait. (Trezz saw more attention than any of those other 4). I don't think Drumm is not a great player. We don't need him to be, though. In the regular season, he is on the top 33% of starting centers. The attention he gets proves it. The stamp of approval from our leaders and the front office locks him in.
Who cares if he gets triple teamed: in the regular season he looks really good once every two weeks (like the Nets game) but then against locked in teams they love it if he gets the ball as he'll either turn it over or work real hard to miss an open layup. This team needs players who have the skills to complement AD and LEbron not make life more difficult by clogging the paint and fumbling passes and bunnies at the rim. In addition, he just makes too many dumb mental mistakes
That is not the point. We don't need Drummond drawing triple teams but the amount of passes he fumbles and the fact that he is more of a finesse player at the center position is a bad pairing with LeBron. LeBron works well with a center who can p&r to the rim because he'll draw both defenders and toss up a lob. Drummond will fumble the pass and then take WAY too long to put the ball back to the rim because he's simply too slow and can't jump. Against the Nets, you have a point... Drummond would feast on them. The problem is there are 4 teams you have to beat to win the title and more often than not, Drummond is going to be ineffective.
To be fair, when they triple team him a lot of times they steal the ball or he panics and loses it. He’s just not a very good player. I’m not saying Jones is better, he’s not, but he brought something we lacked big time.
We will see what happens. I said awhile back that I felt like he needed a full training camp to help with the team, get coached up, etc and I still feel that way. I won’t be sad if he goes though.
I think we need to look at a longer term solution, Dwight is still good but he’s also 35 with a history of back issues. I don’t know who we look to, but there got to be some youth out there. I’d take Dwight back as a backup though for sure.
Yeah, this is what I am hoping for. Dwight is still a beast. I hope the Lakers can convince him... Javale is also a free agent. I hope we can convince him as well. If not for their on-court performances, it's their energy cheering for the rest of the team. Can't believe Rob let BOTH of them go.
Not many options for available centers in the free market next season. What if we can get Kanter/Dwight?
Nothing against Drummond as a person, I wish him well and hope he can find a home in the NBA. At the end of the day, we did need depth in the front court and we weren't going to get much better on the buyout market (quiet down Dieng advocates, yeah you've probably been proven right ) But yeah, just not a fit. Yes we need size and rebounding. But not like this. We need that size to come with SOME semblance of speed, mobility, spacing, IQ. If he wants to re-sign for the minimum, we could probably do worse. But if we actually see him as a long-term fit beyond that, that would be very questionable.
My friend who is a Hawks fan told me he thinks the Lakers should go after John Collins, apparently there is some beef with Trae Young. He’s restricted so have no idea if the Hawks would actually let Collins walk, but he’d be an upgrade over Drummond. Drummond was very disappointing I expected him to compete better against Ayton, but he was clearly outplayed to the point of being benched tonight. As some of you guys detailed Drummond is a great rebounder and interior defender, but he’s not a threat offensively if he is not dunking and is a liability in the P&R as well as in transition.
Collins isn't happy with front office negotiations and he and Trae had some locker room issues. But we have no money to bring him in. He turned down $90m over 4 and wants $125m over 4. No chance of getting him.
Bigs don't matter much when you have AD on your roster . They shouldn't be the priority of this offseason . FO already made this dumb mistake at the deadline , do not repeat it
Not true. If you have to count on AD to defend the true, physical ones on other teams. Or they will destroy you in the key. His body and his game is simply not built for that, certainly during the long regular season, nor “full time” in the tough playoffs. He’s a power forward. During strategic parts of games yes definitely but not full time. Also need one at least legit big man in the center position if you want to contend. Nets don’t count obviously.
Huh?? An agile big does matter who can defend the post against Centers. AD is a forward not a center. We were much better with Dwight and JM last year manning the post. I don't understand what you are watching.
