I think we need to trust our talent evaluators and Scouts here with him as to why over some others and the new coaching staff’s developmental capabilities.
i agree; though if a player accepts a multi-year mini mle with no player option, you're probably overpaying, if that makes sense. most guys in the market at low prices believe they're worth more and don't want to get locked in below their market value. it's the hazards of operating over the cap (particularly after failing to retain your own bird rights players like caruso). the clippers know how to use bird rights and trades to churn the roster so they don't have to rely on mini mles as key contributors and instead can use them as fliers, which is basically what they are.
we approached him for his defense? ok. i actually believe him on shooting. he shot 40% on low attempts his first two years and 36% on nearly 5 attempts per two years ago. plus he's nearly an 80% ft shooter. he should be able to knock it down as well as most we've had here. i actually don't know if i love him bulking up; he looked plenty strong to me before and you'd like to retain the quickness. i'd rather use him like we did kcp than try to have him guard up a position too often. when i watch his highlights, he reminds me a bit of kcp in a lot of ways, except obviously kcp had better defensive instincts (though it was rocky early for him, too) and lonnie's a better ballhandler. same unique athleticism, similar size.
and stan's only 25. sometimes it takes guys a while to figure it out. it's part of why the draft is such crapshoot. you want to get your hands on the next big thing, but they can look so similar at 18/19 years old. relatedly, i'm really curious to see how jaden hardy does. if he had gone to kentucky or something and just been meh there, he's probably still a lotto pick. but he looked worse (against better competition) in the g league and slipped all the way to 37. were people that wrong to have him rated #1 in his class a year ago? or were they really wrong in having him rated #37 now? obviously, a little of both, but that's a HUGE swing.
The defence thing is odd. You play under Pop and you’re a terrible defender and you go elsewhere and say your calling card is going to be defence? I mean ok, let’s try it…
I’ll give him the whole season. But I do want to explain, Russ was a long time all star, so I always hoped he could play similar to his level in Washington than his level last year. Lonnie hasn’t shown the level we need from him yet. Believing someone can do something they’ve never done is harder than believing they can do something they’ve done before.
Uh huh. Nobody brought up Russ. All I said was that you should give him a chance out of all posters. That's it.
