NO.. They said "upper respiratory illness", but I'm not buying it. Something was off mentally with BI all tournament.
He keeps exceling at shooting the ball . 59/52/93.8 splits in this tournament . Too bad Ant is not interesting in passing and prefer bricking contested 3's
As good as his offense was during the World Cup, the defense was a real issue. Lithuania attacked him in the post and then Schroeder basically head-hunted him to get him setup 1v1. Schroeder closed out the game once the switch happened with Reaves on him. This might be a product of the switch-heavy system Kerr was running to make up for the lack of prep time with this group. Plus not having any rim protection with Schroeder of all people at PG was a mistake. Needed JJJ in the game at the end instead of going super small because Schroeder is going to put a lot of pressure on the rim. That being said it is what it is - Ham and Reaves need to look at the film and see what the team and he could to mitigate against some fo this. Noticed for example Reaves needed to get into his defensive stance a lot sooner with a guy like Schroeder - seemed to wait to long which allowed Schroeder's first step to cause problems
Looks like the talk now should be about AR taking over the Lakers. Lebron has been wanting to step back (at least that is what he says) but AD hasn't really wanted the keys. Austin will gladly accept them, and AD can just keep being a great player. AD will flourish with someone really looking to set him up and getting the ball to him in the right place. Austin just wants to win and is smart enough to know that means getting full value out of AD plus he is unselfish enough to do that without his ego getting in the way. Playing in the World Cup was huge for Austin. Let the world see what a handful already knew. Now we just need a way to get the Eagle back. If Rob could get that done with what he has already accomplished he would forever be entrenched in Laker Lore.
Yah, he is pumpkin, like he always has been. Maybe if he puts more tattoos and does more hairstyles he can play better next times.
We have seen AR play D in the NBA. He was not the problem or even a problem. There is a HUGE difference if having Vando and AD vs JJJJJJJJJJ and... i don't even know. Dennis is a great 1-1 attacker. There was no way AR could lock him up without team D help. Kerr is an overrated coach, but that is not news.
when folks were saying teams would take advantage of reaves in the post, i said i feared the opposite. this is why i don't want him being the nominal pg; it's a lot easier to get a perimeter iso than a good post catch in the nba. whatever, though, he played great throughout, and it wasn't his fault the us lost. i feel bad for him because this might have been his only shot at a gold, which would be really cool for him.
What @abeer3 said, except the #notapg part, of course. GSW survived years with Steph. AR is NOT a worse defender.
I'm not going to start naming Austin to any all-defensive teams yet, but he is not a bad defender. It took a long time for most to accept he is a good player and the need to nitpick still lingers.
I've been a huge fan since the beginning with Austin: I have the receipts in this very thread but it is not nitpicking when the other team specifically targets him on defense. Its not the end of the world but what you see in the modern game whether international or NBA is the impact Lebron and Le-ISO has had just as much Steph's 3-point barrages. It's not like teams and players never went after a mismatch, teams have always done this but that specific style of play where the apex predator types (lebron, pre fat Harden, Luka) just hunt down you're weakest defensive link with switches and screens is now something you're going to have deal with constantly in elimination games or in the playoffs. The big difference with the Lakers and Team USA is frankly AD. Austin is good enough if he has AD back behind him against a Hedgehog type. In addition, @abeer3 points on position is warranted here - this is a definite point in favor of not him playing PG and keeping at SG. The Lakers in terms of team building should probably emphasize trying to get a Caruso type back who was an incredible POA defender and screen navigator. Basically where I'm going with this - I doubt the DLo with Reave will work in the playoffs after another year together. Would try to flip Dlo for a more defensive minded PG to pair with Reaves (Murray would be ideal)
yes, all this. reaves means your pg doesn't have to be pure pg, but it doesn't mean you don't need a guy who can defend pgs in isolation and handle full court ball pressure from those same guys (imagine murray hounding reaves full court and the effect it has on getting the offense started). schroder and reaves worked ok because schroder could do those things (though ham didn't let reaves direct the half court offense enough in those configurations, leading to DS brainfarts on too many occasions). lonzo would have been a great reaves counterpart, too, imo. lt and toklat have been suggesting christie could grow into that. i'm skeptical, but it would be great. i'd like to see him defend primary ballhandlers before i get excited about it, though. reaves can be used in a lot of configurations, but i like him as a sg that allows flexibility elsewhere.
AD 3 point shooting really has impacted how the Lakers have decided to team build. Schroeder brought a lot of value last year including that chaser role on D where he fought thru a s*** ton of screens but clearly between Vincent, Prince, Wood and essentially flipping walker for more christie minutes, they are going for a lot more shooting. I agree Max has the tools to be a good defender but he seems to big now to put on PG: can Vincent do a Schroeder and Caruso impression on PG's? I haven't really watched him enough to answer that
You make great points as always. I keep Austin at point because I believe keeping the offense running smoothly and AD getting the ball where he wants it is critical to our team's success. If there is some minor drop off on Austin's defense that I'm not really seeing I will accept that. Austin is almost always in good position, blocks out and rebounds which is a huge part of defense, rotates into heIp position well. No one person can stay in front of the quicker point guards. Teams can go at him all they want. Somebody scores on him, or he makes a bad play, and it gets jumped on by detractors but all the times he strips the ball, or the strategy backfires is often not mentioned. I completely agree that a Dlo/Austin combo is not ideal for the playoffs. That is why I keep pushing for Austin and Max Christie together. They are both complete players that compete on both ends and can be left in regardless of the other team's strategy. Use the regular season to prep your team for the playoff is what I like to do. Last season we had to do whatever we could to get in the playoffs but this season we shouldn't have that issue. Max and AR a strong duo from pretty much all angles. But then I'm pushing for Colin to get playing time at the five and 95% of the posters think I'm a nut, so there is that.
Yeah I think Gabe is that type of player. I think Caruso will leave Chicago in the next 2 years, their window is closing and he has more value for other teams. He may be a FA and maybe we can get him if he re-signs for MLE money. He and Reaves would be great together regardless of the post-Lebron star we get, although they would be more suited with another forward. We will have the Eagle back
lol, he said the right things, but i don't have much confidence for the bronze. his body language says they're done. and he's right--i said after i watched the nz game that they got everything way too easily. so did lithuania, and so did germany. some of it is personnel, and some of it is strategy. i guess the saving grace is that canada plays a style closer to ours and has a similar lack of team familiarity.
