Anthony Davis Discussion: Thanks For The Ring AD!!!

Nope. You STILL continue to misconstrue my position on that subject. The Lakers have never won consistently in the Lebron era, without he and AD playing together a lot period. We fall apart right now without Lebron on the court, not much has changed. I guess we have more likeable players today, they will still lose at a good clip without James and Davis playing regardless.

 

Oh don’t start seriously! Come on Slick I thought we were past this stuff finally. You’re a smart BBall fan and better that this. There’s not one single person here that didn’t get that about not winning anything without those two. We were talking about Russ himself and how Jeckyl and Hyde (good and bad) he plays the game. TWO SEPARATE ISSUES. What do LeBron and AD have to do with Ty Lue having the same problems and before Beard got there, last year and this year …. figuring out he often needed to bench him key minutes in 4th quarters because Hyde often shows up at the worst times both sides of the ball?? Not a damn thing.

 

Thank you!!! One current problem though …. unlike Vogel who at least agreed with you and welcomed playing those guys next to AD start of halves and proper moments …. Darvin has his preferred 5 out offense where he’d be loathe to play those guys in the starting lineup.

 

this again? AD can play pf to start halves, but the rest of his minutes should be at center unless we're playing a bear like jokic. i think AD's down with that, but as LT said, ham's offense basically doesn't allow it.

 

I don't know man..Darvin pretty much plays whatever he has available to him IMO.

You have to consider two things here as well. 1. Wood and Hayes aren't 5's like Javale and Dwight. They are both power forwards. They don't bring that same level of physicality.

2. They are both on minimum contracts, and we have a lot of money invested in Rui, D'Angelo and Vincent. Those guys are going to play a lot if they are healthy. This changes the outline of your rotations.

This is still a Lebron centered roster IMO. We threw AD a little consideration, getting him two live bodies to play with. However both are on minimum contracts, and we spent our MLE and mini on perimeter players. It seems like augmenting Lebron, remains the more important roster consideration. This may very well turn out to be the right idea. I'm not 100% sold on it though.

On another note..I put this out here...IF Cam and Reddish mesh well together. We are going to need to rethink some things, roster wise moving forward IMO. Those guys are both 24 years old, on cheap contracts, and are ideal compliments to AD defensively. If they can score at a decent clip from the perimeter, it could make a few guys expendable.

 

I agree in general but WTH are the Lakers to do when AD is just not the same player he was in the Bubble?
AD was clearly 1b to 1a in Lebron and was the last big to clearly outplay Jokic.
He not only does not shoot 3's anymore, he doesn't shoot from mid range much anymore. That guy has disappeared

You need to have a center like Lopez to be able to play AD at the PF nowadays (and that was on reason I've been a supporter of the Wood signing)

 

SMH this Westbrook stuff refuses to go away...Yes..they are two separate ISSUES I agree. The difference in our opinions on the subject, was that I considered it, a lost cause regardless, without Lebron and AD! I didn't think Russ balling out to your or others expectations, would have made the team much better at all. Maybe it would have made people, think better of him as a player or something. IMO..we still weren't going to win s*** either though! It doesn't excuse everything he did here, and I never said it did.

Now..I'm not sure if Lue has the same opinion of Westbrook as you do LT. You throw a guy like him, on a team at the end of a season, it's going to be an adjustment period. They are still trying to adjust to fatboy right now. They made him their leader didn't they? However I can't blame them for rolling the dice on fatboy. Harden could still be a high-end player, it's looking rough at the moment tho.

He only played 21 games there before the playoffs. Now in the playoffs... he avg 23pts 7 assists and 8 rebs. Ironically he also turned out to be a lot better, on defense for them in the playoffs. He elevated his game all around, that's far from some kind of washed up player.

We are benching D'Angelo or Austin, for key stretches of the 4th quarter right now aren't we? You have to knock down jumpers, if you are going to play opposite of Lebron man. I don't care if they call you a PG or not. You must be a proficient 2 with Lebron, because he will always be, the actual PG when he's on the floor. Austin and D'Angelo are better fits, when they are hitting their shots.

Vogel and Ham both stuck Russ out there with Lebron, like he was going to be OK as a two. It wasn't going to work, he can't shoot. Ham tried to stagger him and Lebron. I have no idea why the F we traded for Bev to this day tho. Shrug we moved on..AND ultimately we got Lebron and AD, back on the court together for the playoffs run. That part solves a whole lot of issues for me.

Anyway..I believe that we'll see those cats in the playoffs. We'll find out how bad of a fit, he turns out to be over there. I think Westbrook would eat D'Angelo up myself, but D'Angelo might not be here by then.

 

The structure of the team is different than the chip team too. We made a strong effort to let AD touch the ball, more on offense with that team. Lebron and Rondo looked for him, almost every time down the court. That doesn't always happen now. The only area that he's fallen off some is scoring. If you ask the guy to pick up the rebounding and Blks, while being pretty much your defensive savior every night, it's not unrealistic to expect his scoring to dip some. Lopez or Turner..are different from Wood in one key aspect. They are legit 5's that can shoot from deep. Christian is a 4..so we benefit from his size some with Anthony, but AD remains the only real banger on the team.

Tbh..Frank didn't want to play Dwight or DeAndre much either..the philosophy had shifted to spread the floor, shoot more from the perimeter, and we could get by with AD playing mostly 5. IDK..If D'Angelo hadn't gone MIA against Denver, it might have actually worked. So..I guess we just decided to tweak it a little bit. We'll see if it pays off.

 

They had no chance. He was aggressive, calling for it on offense and constantly at the basket to deter or swat the Pistons. Crashed the glass, fighting for rebounds.

Guess Bron's message got through to AD and DLO, both looked more aggressive against this borderline D League team.

 

OKC doesn't really play a 5, so AD should feast on those guys. Gobert had 17pts 16 rebs and 4 blks, 6-10 from the field

 

I wish he did this against Philly, but Embiid is a top 3 center in the league.

I like Chet Holgren running against Wemby for ROY, but please don’t fold against Chet man… Idc if he is taller than you and is a true stretch 5.

 

Dominant game…

 

he set the tone in the first, imo. after an ugly first 3-4 possessions on each end for us, it looked like AD saw what was happening and decided not today.

 

I agree with this .. A.D kept repeating he didn't like playing as a center but the Lakers FO didn't care .

-I guess part of the decision was Lebron couldn't play the 3 anymore defensively as he used to be .

-AD isn't mobile as he used to be either ( which is logical)

-Lakers never found the vertical spacing they had with Javale and Dwight again

- Rondo was great at finding AD for easy buckets
Am I the only one finding the Bron-AD connection dissapointing in that aspect/area ?

 

Ham wasted a good game, too bad AD and LeBron should have rested in this one.

 

Please don’t ever, ever compare Christian Wood to Brook Lopez again.

 

I’m there with you regarding a sub par two man game between LeBron and AD. Am I remembering it differently in the Bubble? I guess them being younger and having that rest had a lot to do with it.
Even still, since LeBron is still a great passer, I would think that they would get more easy looks off of one another. I bet having a good offensive coach could have remedied this situation. It seems like we are stuck with Pimple Pocket Hands for awhile. Oh well, at least they won One Chip together The one that I will forever know was Harder than any other because of the strange situation- not because of my bias, but because of what the players from various teams actually said about it.

 

AD would be so much more consistent offensively if he had a jumper.



His jump shot has tanked since 19-20

 

Hey ….. can’t consistently hit short Js is MY AD gripe. SMH the plagiarism around this place. Like also “pimple” getting thieved from Zenmaster.

 

better to look at the whole picture:



the 19-20 year for which everyone pines is the highlighted row. the only place he's way down this year is 16-23, where he doesn't take many shots. one possibility is that that could be driving the low percentage. look earlier in his career--took more, made a higher %--practice.

to me, the issue is that the nba, in general, has moved away from the 16-23ft shot, perhaps wisely. at his peak, AD only shot 43% from there. for comparison, midrange master demar derozan shoots 40% for his career from that distance. it's only recently that dd has topped 45% a couple times (and he shoots 1/3 of his shots from there).

so my theory is that AD has gradually gravitated to his most effective spots (takes more in the paint and at the rim) and generally gotten better there, too.

the perceptions about his shot are derived entirely from long twos (which he barely takes) and threes, which now constitute 3% of his shot attempts.

seems like 19-20 was just aberrant year for his distance shooting (also the last time he was fully healthy, really), and that his percentages track his shot volume from spots, which is logical and could be causal in either direction.

and yes, that's why he's only a 25ppg guy instead of a 30ppg guy.