Over his 10 year career, he's played 6 years as a PG and 4 years as a SG. Not sure which position fits him better... his stats remain pretty consistent at both spots, but he's a bit small to guard the bigger SG's.
thats interesting that he played PG for 6 years because when you watch him, he is always shoot first, shoot second, pass third type of player. But because of his size (6-1'') he cannot guard shooting guards effectively and matches up with PGs...given the fact that Russell is a big guard, it could work very well with Russell and Lou switching defensive duties. On offense Russell is PG and Lou SG, on defense Russell defends SGs and Lou defends PGs. With that said, neither player is a good defender IMO.
Yeah, definitely a shoot first guard. He's probably better suited as a spark off the bench (ie replacement for Swaggy) I think Clarkson and Russell will develop into better all-around players by year 2 of Lou's contract.
Lou is an undersized SG basically so he's been forced to play PG at times because he's too small to defend SGs. I hope he can improve his efficiency with us. The Raptors a lot of times liked to isolate at the end of quarters and just give the ball to Lou, basically the same thing that helps kill Kobe's efficiency. I'm really pumped about the Lou Williams signing. If he can give us the 6th man of the year performance he gave Toronto we've got a solid rotation right now at PG/SG. I still wouldn't mind getting one more wing for depth, but right now we're at: Russell/Williams Clarkson/J. Brown I like it. I think Jabari is going to surprise some people this year too. Another SG/SF type can help us move guys around on the rotation, but I'm really digging it right now.
After I looked into the numbers further, I've got no issue with Lou's efficiency...and actually this just popped into my head. ~10% of his shots last season, 98 of his 928 attempts, came in the last 10 seconds of a quarter. That's just bananas. He shot like 24.5% on those shots. So if you take those away and his overall shooting % jumps an entire two percent lol. Plus, factoring in his 3 point shooting and free throw shooting, his TS% ends up being higher than dudes like LaMarcus Aldridge. His 2 point field goal % is either just below Cousins or just above it. Very low assist numbers for someone with the ball in their hands that much, though the Raptors aren't really playing the type of ball to get many assists. It gets dumped into Jonas and he's putting the ball on the floor a few times before his shot and I don't think the Raptors really had any type of spot up shooting so it was hard for Lou to get assists anyways. The bigger issue with Lou is that he's seemingly only looking for his own shot most of the time he's out there. This could have been a product of Derozan being injured for a big portion of the last season and the Raptors not having anyone else on the floor at the end of 1st and 3rd quarters that was able to create their own shot at the typical end of the quarter ISO, but I'd love if Lou started pulling it out and resetting the offense. Nonetheless, great signing and a great contract. I hope he starts out the season in our first five so that Russell has something to fight for and him and Lou can battle each other in practice.
I just like the fact that we have a 3 guard rotation that are all interchangeable. Kobe will get very limited minutes. 24 minutes a game probably this season with like 18 at sf and 6 at guard. Swaggy will split time with one of our rookies for the remaining 30 sf minutes.
I think he'll get more than that, that's really low. If we don't add any more pieces at SG, I think he ends up at around 28-30 minutes a night... with a smart coach. I'm not sure what Byron will do, so the range probably ticks up a bit. Still though it's crazy to think how many shot creators we have right now. Guard driven league? I guess so! Sheesh! Clarkson, Kobe, Williams, (unless he gets traded) Nick Young, and Julius Randle are all capable of creating shots for themselves right now in the NBA. Russell's name will probably go with that list too. Heck last year Jabari scored 30 points so he can create for himself at least. Just crazy to see how many guys can go out there and get a bucket when we need it. We're flush with combo guards.
He might get more. I think 24 should be his limit though. To be honest, if we can somehow get a sf in a s&t for Lin or that Chicago thing that was floating around, I'd put a minutes restriction on Kobe at 24 per game and rest him on one of the nights of every back to back. At this point in his career, he's not better than Clarkson. Not hating on him, but his efficiency is dreadful and defensively he is non-existent. God bless him for being out there at 37 (as a 36 year old I know what I feel like in the morning ). We should be using him the exact same way the Wizards used Pierce last season. Regardless, I'm just glad that if he does go down this season, we still have plenty of reasons to watch the team, and I honestly don't think we will miss much of a beat with all the creators we have now on offense.
I don't disagree necessarily, but I think Kobe is still better than Pierce when he's healthy. I think Kobe definitely needs more of the Pierce-ish role, but late in games I expect the team to look his way since he'll rest most of the game. This season will be about teaching the young guys, but Kobe is still Kobe. I'd be shocked if he went quietly into the night with 24 minutes a game... If he's playing that many minutes, I can't imagine him NOT coming back for another year. I mean that's super low. Didn't he say once he'd stop playing once he could only play 20 minutes a game? And I'm not sure I agree he's not better than Clarkson. I need to see him on the floor again before I make that judgement. I think a healthy Kobe is still a very effective player. I just don't know how healthy he is or can or will be this season.
True. I am curious as to how much that rotator cuff was bothering him throughout the year. Was it just a little annoying until he really hurt it, or was his giant drop in shooting %, due to the injury. And I agree hw won't go quietly into the night, but if the team is winning and playing well, I think he would be open to playing less minutes if it meant he could be fresh when the playoffs start. I'm just excited to see what this team will look like come November. I think we could be anywhere from 30 to 50 wins.
I think that injury was a big reason his % dropped. It dropped from every spot on the floor. At the rim, mid range, 3 point land and even at the free throw line.
Kobe should definetely copy one thing from Pierce : the catch and shoot 3 ... One thing I really don't want to see is Kobe backing up his defender for 12 seconds and Russell ball watching at the top of the key
That's the reason we need a couple of 3 and D guys to complement these shot creators ... ala Danny Green
That might be the one skill Kobe never mastered. Catch the ball and shoot it. Without out first making the shot twice as hard and putting in 2-5 jab steps and/or pump fakes before releasing it.
I don't know about 50... Russell and Randle would have to absolutely blow away the league in what is essentially both their rookie season. But I can definitely see 30-40 wins.
I too was impressed with what I saw from Jabari, as was Scott. I think he's got a good shot at making the roster.
