got around to watching the game, and vando was the mvp. we don't get back in it without him. what an incredible pickup.
Steal of the trade deadline. I'm still surprised how we were able to get him, never thought he'd be available. We lose that game if we were throwing Bev at Luka instead of Vando
Bev or anyone else for that matter. Rui would have been smoked unfortunately, even with his good size. Not possible or prudent to put AD on him full time.
he torched AD and lebron, too. vando was our only option. and he was a good one. did a great job staying in front of luka on drives and then staying down once luka got to the paint--this is how he draws a lot of his fouls, with his stopping ability and strength. anyway, all hail vando. think he's an even better deadline pickup than ariza was back when.
C'Mon Man. Sure we're better off now & sure having Westbrook's massive contract helped us get more assets, but what the Problem is... We wasted a Year & a Half of LeBron & AD together. 22-22, what is that gonna get you? Everyone knew we didn't have the depth, shooting or defense to win anything with Russ taking up all our salary cap. Rob pulled it off with some trade deadline magic, but it was a failed experiment.. Period.
Exciting time at CL. Sky finally got his athletic defender after years of lusting for Marcus Banks and we had "Gumby" ... a real (though not Lakers) "insider" posting on the forum, breaking the news in advance, before we knew who he actually was. (Trevor's agent, for those here not there at the time)
https://theathletic.com/4255012/2023/02/27/nba-lakers-jarred-vanderbilt/ Jovan lurks here too. Everyone does. His actual title of this piece, for real!! Lakers’ Jarred Vanderbilt is proving to be trade-deadline steal, I agree with @abeer3 By Jovan Buha 5h ago 33 DALLAS — With 18.1 seconds remaining and the Los Angeles Lakersleading by three points, Jarred Vanderbilt had one goal on defense: speed up Luka Dončić and make Dallas’ final possession as difficult as possible. That’s easier said than done. Dončić, the NBA’s leading scorer, famously plays at his own pace, which is one of the many reasons he’s a generational talent. It also makes him an especially tough cover at the end of games, where the threat of his lethal step-back 3-pointer puts a defense in an impossible predicament. But as the Lakers and Mavericks lined up on the sideline, Vanderbilt stuck with Dončić through a diversion, extended his arm and deflected an inbound pass from Kyrie Irving. As the ball neared half court, Dončić had a mental blunder. He thought it was going to be a backcourt violation, so he smacked the ball forward in an attempt to save the possession. In reality, he could’ve just collected the ball and begun the possession. Anthony Davis gathered the loose ball, and the Mavericks eventually fouled the Lakers, icing a 111-108 Lakers comeback victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday. “My mindset was to just make him uncomfortable,” Vanderbilt said. “He’s a hell of a player when he’s comfortable and gets into his rhythm and gets into his zone. I was just trying to disrupt that, just picking him up 94, making him work.” Anthony Davis had 30 points and 15 rebounds, and LeBron James powered through a right foot injury late in the third quarter to score 26, but Vanderbilt was the X-factor in the Lakers overcoming a 27-point deficit — the largest comeback in the NBA this season. NBA teams were a combined 0-138 when trailing by 27 or more points this season. The Lakers won despite missing D’Angelo Russell, who was a late scratch due to a sprained ankle he suffered against Golden State in the previous game. Vanderbilt finished with 15 points, 17 rebounds (a season high) and four steals (tied his season high) in 27 minutes. His eight offensive rebounds tied his career high and helped the Lakers’ offense stay afloat while the team shot just 17.6 percent on 3-pointers. Every time the balance of the game was teetering, Vanderbilt made a momentum-swinging play that tilted it in Los Angeles’ favor. “That’s why he’s here: to create havoc with his energy and his efforts,” Lakers head coach Darvin Ham said. “And his size and athleticism, his quickness, all of that, was on full display tonight.” Dončić and the Mavericks built their lead in a first half that resembled the second half of their Christmas Day blowout of the Lakers. They shot 47.8 percent and made 12 3-pointers. Dončić scored 14 points in the first quarter, manipulating the Lakers in the pick-and-roll, first with his step-back 3 and then on drives after they adjusted. From that point on, however, he only scored 12 points on 5-of-14 shooting to go along with two assists and five turnovers. With Vanderbilt as the primary defender, Dončić shot 0 of 3, dished one assist and turned the ball over five times (Vanderbilt either forced the turnover or intercepted a pass). Vanderbilt used his 7-foot-1 wingspan to stay big against Dončić and disrupt his step-back and his vision on drives. Vanderbilt’s five deflections led the Lakers and almost matched the Mavericks’ team total (seven), per NBA.com. “That’s a tall task to try to manage that matchup,” Ham said of Vanderbilt defending Dončić. “As skilled as Luka is — one of the top five players in our league easily, hands down — he was up for the challenge.” Vanderbilt’s presence has helped the Lakers forge a similar identity to the one that was so impactful during their 2019-20 championship season. He addresses the need for a long, athletic, dirty-work forward that can seamlessly fit next to James and Davis. His presence shifts the tenor of the frontcourt. Kyle Kuzma and Markieff Morris, who both played next to James and Davis from 2019 through 2021, are both vastly different players than Vanderbilt, but that positional type — a tweener forward that can defend multiple frontcourt positions — elevates the team’s frontcourt to a different level from a physicality standpoint. All of the sudden, the Lakers have an imposing frontline, dominating smaller opponents on both ends, and capable of switching 3 through 5. “It gives us a lot of freedom,” Davis said. “It’s things that we probably could not have done earlier because we were so small.” Davis’ go-ahead bucket, an offensive rebound that resulted in a dunk, was made possible by Vanderbilt keeping the possession alive and tipping it up toward Davis’ vicinity. He’s an expert at timely cuts, both into the dunker’s spot, where he’s a high-percentage threat to finish, and for offensive rebounds. The career 28.8 percent 3-point shooter has the rare ability to make teams pay for ignoring him, preventing his lack of gravity from being a death knell to the Lakers’ spacing and offense. Los Angeles’ two most important locker-room voices, James and Davis, sang Vanderbilt’s praises postgame. “He knows guys like to play off of him and make him shoot and he knows how to play off of it,” Davis said. “He knows with his corner cutting and crashing to the glass, getting us extra possessions, his value for our team, you can’t even put it into words what he brings and does for us. So, having a player like that definitely helps us.” James added: “His basketball IQ and his intelligence of being guarded this way for so long, he’s used it to his advantage. … Teams are not accounting for him when shots go up, so you saw the eight offensive rebounds that he had. His energy, his effort alone, he knows where to be on every single possession. And he knows how to utilize teams not accounting for him as an offensive threat. That is basketball IQ in its own right and that’s what makes him the player he is.” Vanderbilt’s per-game averages are exactly in line with a high-end role player: 8.3 points, 8.8 rebounds, 1.6 steals, 69.2 percent shooting. But his impact extends far beyond the box score. In the three games he’s played with James and Davis, the Lakers have outscored opponents by 40 points, the second-best mark on the team. The Lakers (29-32) are 4-1 since his arrival, with Vanderbilt playing an instrumental role thus far. Vanderbilt wasn’t the headliner of the three-team Westbrook-Russell trade, but he might end up being the most impactful addition to the deal. He’s one of the few Lakers under contract for next season, and at $4.3 million this season and $4.7 million next season, he’s shaping up to be perhaps the steal of the trade deadline. “We’re just happy to have him,” Ham said. “He’s that tall, that lanky, physical, live body that we’ve been looking for and now we have him.”
yeah, and we can survive on offense--especially if the guards are russell and beasley. further: oh, the shade is pretty dark here if you read between the lines.
Last night, instead of doing stuff I knew needed to be done, I re-watched the 2nd half and kept my eyes on Vanderbilt for every second he was in the game. It was nuts. Luka was shooting 20% when Vandy was on him. Dude has a 6th sense about where the ball's going. He's like Plastic Man on D. Whatever his wingspan is - and it's something - his effective wingspan is like 13 feet or something. When the Mavs got near the paint and both AD and Vandy were there, it was lights out for the Mavs. Crazy good defense. I think the Rodman comparison is valid. This was like Rodman at his very best. Maybe I'm just high off a comeback from 27 down, but if you DVR'd it, see for yourself. His 3rd Q was one for the ages. Just watch him in the 3rd Q. I feel like I'm dreaming. Are we on Candid Camera? How did we pull this off? I watched 4-5 Jazz games this year and never noticed him. Either he was a gem unappreciated, hiding in plain sight or didn't like playing in Utah (I can easily see that), I dunno. We haven't had a dude who plays D at this level for awhile. Kobe made the NBA All-Defensive team 12 times, but he was from some other planet. It's been a small sample size and we'll see what his limitations are, but I feel like he's Michael Cooper, one of my all-time fave Lakers. Coop could hit the spot-up 3, and I don't see Vandy doing that, but he does just about everything else. If he makes a bunch of thread-the-needle passes to guys who are cutting for easy deuces, I'm going straight to heaven. Prediction: this previously "unknown" guy will make NBA All Defensive First Team at least 3 times. What I do know: it feels like xmas, and we got damned near everything we asked for, thinking we might only get a new pair of socks.
Ariza the first time around, 2007-2009, yea. Ariza was a better outside shooter, but Vandy's other skills more than make up for that. Someone here wrote Vandy could be a future DPotY, and I now do not see that as hyperbole.
you still crediting Brick even when he isnt here anymore, .500 for 3 max player is absolutely a failure...fact that you dont seem to understand or acknowledge what Brick presence on the court meant to rest of the team speaks volume of your love for Brick...whats BEST for the team was NEVER trading for Brick in the 1st place, the way you making it out as if trading for Brick n trading him away 1 yr n half later was ALWAYS in the plan
We acquired an asset to play with Lebron and AD, for guys we wanted to move on from. We never got to see them play much together either. We moved that asset for more valuable pieces than we gave up for him. That's absolutely doing what's best for the team. Rob wasn't to blame for Lebron and AD missing games..Westbrook either. Meh...it's all irrelevant now anyway. No Lebron and AD playing together, means no consistent winning period. SMH..3 seasons in a row, there will be something else to blame next season. 28, 21, now 25 games..it's all a bunch of idle chit chat, about things other than the real issue here.
utah focused too much on what he can't do (shoot) and not nearly enough on what he can. they claimed his shooting meant he had to be a center, and to me, that's just not creative. someone with his size, athleticism, motivation (it's a skill), and hoop iq should be able to play in any system. unless you're like, dantoni, or something dumb like that. i also think he'll do enough on offense to mitigate his shooting, as AD and lebron were discussing above--he makes you have to account for him with his movement and passing abilities. he's good enough to be a 25-30mpg guy on a contender, imo. super pumped we've got him under contract next year.
I can think of at least two Champ teams that had a player like Vando starting. The obvious one is the Bulls with Rodman. But the Showtime Lakers had first, Rambis, and then AC Green. Neither of those guys was a scorer. They were active dirty work defenders who set screens, crashed the boards, ran the floor, and took the tough defensive assignments.
