Two absolutely SICK moves. That last clip .... his crossover .... the special footwork and jukes he sets it up with before dropping the radical angle and velocity of the crossover itself on the defender ..... has to be in the rarest of "nasty" moves ever. LOL at me .... just watched it again, it wasn't even a crossover per se. More of a behind-the-back crossover. Those are a lot easier.
love that lebron and AD recognize in real time what reaves does. he's not "sneaky good", he's just good.
f***ing A, Darv! Some quick background on Irwin's sourcing. So I'm not sure who he's in with on the Lakers, it's not Larsuel, but he's got legit sources right now inside the team (at least two + Larsuel). He had the DLO for Vando swap 36 hours before the local beat guys and national (Shams and Woj). On their pod together yesterday, Larsuel said he was getting questions from media (local and national) and from within the team on who Irwin's sourcing was. Larsuel said only 10-15 people knew about that roster shakeup at that time.
Emm effing Ham. Held Austin back all last year and then finally starts him much later than should have been. AR delivers rest of season and proves he belongs as a starter through 3 freaking rounds of the playoffs, further proves his mettle in FIBA international ball lauded be Kerr and Grant Hill. Sends him to the bench and and now is back to playing him less minutes than he can handle and wants to play, once past the FIBA dead legs. With the effect likely seeming to Reaves as now another back to undeserved pecking order BS due to coach still experimenting as if it’s camp or pre-season games. One of DLO or Reaves needs to be in the starting lineup and at this point it’s clear AR is the more consistent performer on offense and a better and more consistent defender than Russell. Just my guess but AR at this point must feel like how many damn times does he have to prove himself to this same coach and the guy is jerking with his career at this point now for arbitrary and poor decisions. LeBron and AD also chirping plus the others as noted like 10 days ago, so it’s not AR being some individual problem.
I thought Ham did a good job coaching last year if we take into account the playoff run we had; I thought he was excellent against GS. Then, we ran into a better team in Denver and coach Mike Malone, and we were swept, which wasn't alarming to me since Denver went onto to win the title. However, one of the things he was most known for is being a players coach. If he is having trouble with Reaves and Players are saying they don't know their role on the team 30 plus games in, that's a problem. These next stretch of games are very important. Let's see how this shakes out.
wonder what the nature of the beef is. tbh, i agreed with moving reaves to the bench and am not sure it doesn't make sense to keep him there (pending roster changes). i do wonder if there's some asymmetric accountability issues--beyond lebron, which is basically a given. like, why does prince get to play through slumps? it's the wrong thread, but one could argue prince has been as or more up-and-down than dlo, but dlo gets demoted very quickly, while prince seems to be immune to any jostling. like he's the third member of the big three or something.
Still think if Ham wanted to improve his defense with the starting lineup and have a competent initiate the offense person other than LeBron included so LeBron can play in best attack position, that Reaves is better choice than DLO. Bigger, better defender, more consistent on offense and CAN play the point. Has been doing it much in every game all year. Watching Rui or god help us Vando or Cam or Prince try to do that so Bron can set up in an attack position is an utter fail. Bron outside having to be the PG again and lanes clogged on him from BOTH Vando and Cam in the lineup is not going to begin to fly in the playoffs as a “starting” lineup. Guaranteed. The sooner we stop wasting time with it now and continuing to fall behind in the 1st quarters …. the better.
If I'm Austin and being told that they need to breakup the AR/DLO backcourt because it's not working in the starting 5 and then I see DLO come sit next to me on the bench... I'm going to have thoughts. Irwin and Buha have both said players and some in the front office expected/thought the team would run back the lineup and offense that was the most effective when the lights were the brightest; instead they have played ONE minute together this year. There's frustration there, I'd venture a guess that Austin is one of those frustrated with that. If I had to guess, there's a communication problem and I don't know how or why. That's Ham's calling card and has been his strength until recently. Ham came up with the arbitrary minute restriction and pulled that out of his a**, surprising Austin and the front office with that one. Then a few days later says this... Ham's all over the place with inconsistencies regarding Austin.
“With Cam Reddish out, Darvin Ham said Austin will "get a boatload of minutes" vs. Charlotte. Added that Austin's one of the guys they're trying to see if they can get more minutes.” DUH!!! Jack*** …. he’s your 3rd best player on the team. Potato Part Deux!
yeah, my contention would be to keep dlo in the starting lineup, as jsm alludes to in the next post. i agree with everyone that it's totally weird that the dlo/reaves/vando or rui/lebron/AD lineup basically hasn't been tried. it's the thing we know can work!
i actually think he's in hotter water than he might realize. if we don't win 2/3 of our upcoming games, i'm guessing the chirps will start getting really loud.
Why DLO over AR? AR is bigger, a better defender by some level at least, certainly bodied up against bigger players on switches, better rebounder, more consistent scorer game to game and yeah more clutch when DLO’s inconsistency, and shrinking in play offs record is looked at. The slight nod initiating an offense DLO has does not override all of that. And it can’t still be the handles angst. We need him to be the “connector” again in the starting lineup. Let DLO get his offense going off the bench for a try.
3 times, teams won Championship while fireing a coach mid season. Lakers did it twice and Cavs once... with Lebron. What can go wrong?
i hesitate to say it once again, but reaves isn't a pg. dlo is. despite the fact that reaves claims he is and dlo claims he isn't, lol. now, reddish, vando, and prince aren't pgs, either. hence the confusion about demoting dlo in favor a forward. who starts doesn't have to be who finishes.
