Amazing! Rui in the first series was such a nice surprise. Lonnie has really changed this series the last two games. He might have just secured a return for next year.
more interesting roster choices coming, but the type of problems you'd rather have than not having enough talent to pick from.
he's internalized a lot of pop psych talking points--which are actually good and healthy, particularly about perspective and control. really glad he got to have this moment. i said i didn't think he deserved to lose his spot after the injury, nor did i think the relation between his good play and the team's bad play was causal. it appears it wasn't. not sure how this is a rebuttal to his point. chemistry is way better minus russ. even though "chemistry" is a subjective term, i'm not sure an argument could be made that the atmosphere isn't just 1000x better since we cut out the problem.
The guys definitely look like they have more chemistry and are rooting for each other out there. I don't see how that can be denied. Whole team looks like they are actually enjoying being out there and playing together. The demeanor of the team has clearly changed.
I was surprised to say the least by Rob signing Lonnie with the MLE as I didn’t know his game at all and was hoping to get a defensive minded SF for that $ if possible. But quickly he turned my head around with his offensive skills! I felt like he was a perfect replacement for Malik Monk - a young, athletic, versatile scorer. I thought he did a great job for us pre-injury as abeer3 said and was surprised he couldn’t get any playing real time after the trades. But Ham obviously had to see what new additions could do like Beasley, who I also like. It’s nice to see Ham remember Walker’s strengths and go with him when others were faltering. I had been hoping that Ham would enlarge the playoff roster instead of shrinking it and he has with this latest inclusion of Lonnie. As mentioned by other posters, we will have some decisions to make this summer but these are the ones you wish to have: too many good and useful players!
this guy is a true pro, didnt cry/moan to media, didn't demanded a trade (thomas bryant) nor sulk throughout his benching (which I found strange). He started off season very well, Beasley taking his PT wasn't earned IMO, Beasley has his 3pt rep but so far its all it is just reputation. Lonnie is so much more diverse with his offense, probably him and Rui our 2 best mid range guy
Lonnie Mfing Walker man. Our team is so fricking deep. He was literally out of the rotation, but stayed ready. Just an awesome story - and tbh, I think he stays in the rotation moving forward ahead of Brown/Beasley. He's more dynamic and he's another guy that can handle the ball and be a playmaker for us.
And plays like this are the real reason I enjoy this squad as much as I do. Great defense seems to be way less appreciated than offense nowadays, but it's still as important as ever. We won our last chip in large part thanks to suffocating defense, let's do that again.
preach. sort of surprising it's lonnie, but he's always had the physical tools to do this stuff. i said early in the year that his physical profile/attributes are a lot like kcp. if he can get it straight defensively, watch out.
Cranjis McBasketball @Tim_NBA · Follow Beas' expected 3PT% thus far in the playoffs has been 4%. Plug LW into that, whose expected 3PT% was much higher in the regular season (& he underperformed), and we shouldn't expect to see a boost. It's key to understand the context around 3-point shooting. It's clear on film. Cookie like the Honey Badger .... she don't give a s*** .... if it's Cranjis McBasketball
If Lonnie can keep playing decent D and improving on that with his athleticism and all the great coaching, and continue to play smart and have the balls to take it to the rim or take big shots if required, as AR and DLO do .... then I am having faith in Klutch possibly having that KCP talk with him .... to take what raise the Lakers can give him for better Bird rights going forward and what it can mean to his career staying here in LA vs maybe more money elsewhere. Unless of course elsewhere offers a LOT more.
i don't think anyone offers lonnie even the full mle. i suppose if he had like, two more games like game 4, mayyyybe someone does. i think we'll be able to keep him if we want. it's looking like we'll probably just cut beasley's contract and pay lonnie and schroder that money.
