Jalen Hood-Schifino Discussion: Not The Cam Whitmore Thread ;-)

Regarding what I said above about the also "maybe" why "NO" on Whitmore being it made less sense depth wise ..... there's this kind of making the point, from Buha today in the Lakers rotation questions article.

"4. There is a frontcourt logjam
The Lakers have five players who deserve to play at least 20 minutes, at least in the regular season: James, Davis, Rui Hachimura, Jarred Vanderbilt and Taurean Prince. That’s before mentioning Jaxson Hayes, who the team is confident can start and play a prominent role with Davis in two-big lineups."

 

I'm with @KareemtheGreat33 it's not that Lakers passed on Whitmore but they passed him for a guy who I'm just not that impressed with.
This doesn't mean I think JHS is trash but I think it's going to take a lot of improvement for him to become a viable rotational player in the NBA and I don't see any star potential.

The caveat is with JHS and these young picks it's always hard to project as they are so young. Looking thru the Reaves thread, I was definitely impressed with him but would I have said the same thing after one year at Wichita State? OTOH, looks like I had some reservations about Christie but looks like I already thought that he had NBA-level athleticism and defense baked into the cake, and I liked his demeanor/on court presence.

Overall, the scouting department deserves the benefit of the doubt - but even here I'm worried though that JHS maybe more like Lonzo and Randall. Two guys who eventually IMO appeared worthy of where they were picked but took them so long to get there that it took them being on several different teams

 

i don't think when you're picking a 19 year old in the middle of the first round that the plan is to play them at all, tbh. it's all about long-term upside. had we drafted a more established, older player, maybe i buy that rationale, though.

i'm less impressed with jhs than i was with christie last year. i said then i thought he could be another reaves-level find, iirc. still think that's possible, though he's obviously not as far along as reaves was (which is ok, he's much younger).

as you're suggesting, i could totally see what can happen for jhs in a best case scenario--poor man's billups/brogdon/andre miller type--but i think he'll be into his second contract by then.

and again, i really think we wanted to trade this pick and couldn't find our way out. i actually thought the same about the lonzo and randle picks, too. both fine, both not really really the guy we wanted. i think we actually did try to trade lonzo for 5&10 as i wanted to at the time and sac refused. i also think we wanted gordon or smart more than randle, but were fine with julius when he fell. and he's been a good nba player!

anyway, there's not much to talk about right now, so i'm typing way too much about something that's probably of little import. i don't think we missed on a star, and i'm willing to reserve judgment for a while, especially given that there's no place for a rookie on our current roster.

 

Another factor in this for us, we potentially needed a PG. It wasn't set in stone that DLO would be back and Vincent wasn't a lock to sign with us. We flipped the script on negotiations with DLO by locking both Vincent and JHS up, but on draft night there were no guarantees either of those guys would be a Laker after FA settled. Also we knew we might be getting priced out of paying DS what we're comfortable with. While going into the draft, I wanted a wing, we didn't need one as much as we potentially needed a point. It was always a luxury.

 

possibly, but also consider the possibility that houston really sucks at everything?

and i'm still firm in the belief that this pick had nothing to do with the upcoming season. we thought jhs was the bpa, imo. i also think we had him a full tier below the guys taken ahead of him. i think we wanted howard, bufkin, lively, wallace, and all went off the board.

 

I am happy with the JHS pick. It is going to hard for him to stand out right away because we are so stacked but down the road, he is going to be a solid point guard. He just needs to work on his three ball which for guy with his skills that is one of the easiest things to develop. He isn't clanky or robotic, so it is just a matter of putting in the work now that he has the time. It is hard to say for sure what happened to Whitmore. Obviously, when you watch him play who wouldn't want him so the reports that he didn't work out well, interviews were bad (whatever that means) along with health are issue, teams felt these things outweighed his talent. He has the chance to prove them wrong. We are only privy to what we see so here is where we have to trust the scouting department and they have a phenomenal track record. We are on the right path with two-way, talented, high character guys. We are building the right way now for longevity as a contender. Austin is already doing it but Max and Colin (and likely others) whether this year or next will start taking the minutes from the free agents we signed. We made great free agent signings, and the trade was good last season, but teams let them go for reasons. They have flawed games that have to be hidden and disguised. Coaches value confident, hardworking, well-rounded team players. In the NBA you surround two superstars like AD and Lebron with those type of guys you have a good shot at winning.

 

I'm still a bit confused with this draft pick. We just invested 30 million dollars at the PG position, for two guys in their prime. We have two other guys that are excellent secondary playmakers in Lebron and Austin. Then we go out and draft another PG? It still doesn't make any sense to me. Nothing against this kid personally, but the pick just seems out of whack with our roster.

 

no one at 17 was going to crack the rotation, so they went with who they thought was the BPA. it's not hard for me. whether he was actually the BPA will be the open question for a while, but why they didn't draft by need isn't. who was the center you're taking there? the movement shooter?

 

It also helps that there's backcourt versatility with the 3 and that gives you optionality. That wasn't by accident and seemed to be a point of emphasis across the entire roster build by Rob this summer. Ham has a zillion lineup combos to play with this season.

 

I'm not sure that he will crack the rotation 2 seasons from now. If we were just looking to snag and develop talent, I would have went with more size.

I would have been cool with Whitmore, Clowney, Murray, or Whitehead, at that pick. We also could have traded down, and picked up another 2nd rd pick. I liked Kobe Brown later in the draft, there were a couple of other big prospects (4/5) available , that I wouldn't have had any problem drafting later. Nnaji, Geye, Greg Jackson, Vukcevic..

I like size, there's nothing wrong with collecting young talent, that can swing between 3/4 or 4/5 either. That just seems more practical, especially considering that Lebron, is nearing the finish line here soon.

 

I think Lebron shouldn’t be playing PG at this stage except spot duty. Reaves is good in bursts, but not full time. I don’t think DLO is here in 2 years. I guess I see the position very differently. Could also be a great trading chip if we develop him in the G League if we can’t give him any burn.

 

Even at his age, Lebron is still our best threat, to attack the paint off the dribble. He's still one of the best in the League. As long as he's here, he's going to have the ball in his hands a lot. Guards that can hit jumpers, work best with him. I just didn't see the glaring need, to draft another PG as a project.

If we move D'Angelo for another big, it would make more sense. I agree with that

 

Lebron is only playing a couple more years at most. Be nice to have a good plan/prospect waiting in the wings. Makes perfect sense to me.

 

maybe not. but here's where i go with our scouts.

i liked every one of those guys, too, and named all of them pre- and post-draft. but they've all got serious question marks, too. also, we don't know that we didn't try to trade down.

again, don't know what we would have picked up had we traded down. maybe nothing. i definitely wouldn't have taken any of those guys over jhs in a vacuum. feel like he's getting underrated now.

there's nothing wrong with developing talent at any position, and jhs is big for a guard. again, we can talk in two years. maybe clowney becomes a thing. or maybe clowney does what lots of raw athletes do and never develops an nba game.

 

I agree with most of this. I was just watching Sean Davis talking about Lebron playing off ball. Last season I talked about that often. IMO Lebron should be almost exclusively off-ball. A couple of reasons. When he has the ball, the other players often just watch him as he has a tendency to run the clock down and launch a bad shot. The other thing and more important to me is to preserve Lebron. Austin is really good at setting Lebron and others up for easy scores. Take the load off the old dude. The only part I see different is I would make Austin my full-time point guard right now. I also agree that DLO won't be here in two years. I not sure he makes through this season. I've always liked him, but we have players better than he is now. We are stacked with young guys that are going to be steadily taking minutes from the vets. Also, IMO JHS is going to be a good point guard and was a great pick. With all the young guys we got he can take his time developing. Like you said later as a trading chip or a good back up for Austin or if Austin ends up a better two JHS can start. Maybe even at times, Austin, Max and JHS at the same time. In the future those three with AD and Colin would be a tough defensive unit for spurts. We have so many options and Rob has almost fool-proofed our roster from Ham's insane lineups...lol.

 

agree that one can see a three-man rotation among jhs, reaves, and christie at the 1/2 spots (with a 4th ish smith type, imo).

also agree that lebron handling heavily is declining in its viability. too many standing long jumpers that are easy defensive rebounds and break opportunities. get the opposition moving. lebron off the ball does that. he's terrifying at the high post, imo. run a triangle type offense with him and AD on the low sides of the post and dlo and reaves handling. christie and jhs can grow into those roles.