He's playing like an All-Star. I've been saying he's just as good a lot of #3's like Bane and honestly you watch this game and he outplayed Beal and matched Booker
I like how JJ took the ball out of Dlo's hands and placed it in Reave's hands. It will be interesting to see how much of Dlo and Lebron's usage rate will transfer over to Reaves. This is going to be vital for Austin's success on this team. This is logical thinking by JJ, since Austin plays much better with the ball in his hands and Dlo is capable of playing off the ball. I am not sure what Ham was thinking.
Notorious Laker hater Anthony Irwin said quite a while back that Ham just didn’t like Austin for some unknown reason. Glad that clown is gone
Yeah I know. But one could already infer that there was some sort of conflict. Ham said about Austin being taken out of the starting line up was not demotion. Things like that. I forgot who it was trying to spin it like he would be I'm the Ginobolli role. I like that JJ is a realists and knows nba players prefer to start. It's human nature really. So he doesn't mess around and starts the line up that was successful last season, and gives them all 34-36 minutes, which are starters minutes. Very simple stuff, really. Doesn't try to get too cute with it. He doesn't mess around with fake starters and stuff like that. I like that about JJ.
sort of... and reaves got his pocket picked in the back court for a layup near the end of the game last night. this is why people like me say we need dlo or gabe on the floor, even if you want lebron or reaves to run the halfcourt show. note that the next play after reaves gave up a layup, the inbounds was to gabe. not defending ham at all, but not playing reaves as the sole ballhandler is not a bad coaching choice. jj immediately rectified it. playing taurean prince over vando or rui is a bad coaching choice. ignoring AD as anything other than garbage man or bail out iso is a bad coaching choice.
I hope you are not right about Austin not being sufficient enough ball handler to be the primary ball handler. This makes it difficult because his play style is suited for primary ball handlers. His greatest skill is drawing fouls, where he is similar to Harden and Young in that way. Vincent is decent, but we probably need a better shooter than him starting, but also could defend and handle a little, if Austin does indeed need help with that. Someone like Oloveri, or Cason Wallace from OKC?
He can handle in the half court, and most times up the floor. If he needs to pass it ahead or give it off before the center line he can do that too. I wouldn’t worry about this a whole bunch. The biggest negatives about his first 2 games have been some uncharacteristic TOs. Likely he’ll be working on that and the coaches will scheme to help him.
That’s a facet of his game but I sure wouldn’t characterize it as AR’s “greatest” skill of the many he brings to the floor.
in the halfcourt, it's mostly fine. people just really underestimate the impact that being susceptible to back court pressure can be for an offense. when tyus jones was out for phx, the offense just looked totally different. not because tyus jones is a god, but because booker and beal and durant (and even monte morris) aren't really pgs, and nba offenses generally need one. not a ball-dominating floor general--plenty of evidence suggests that is probably not ideal, tbh--but someone whom the opposition wouldn't dare press for fear of creating a fast break out of nothing. phx had booker in reaves's shirt, and booker isn't a very strong defender. and he's the one who stripped reaves in the back court (and made him pick up the ball a couple other times). so yeah, if you've got another plan to advance the ball to the frontcourt in a timely fashion and get into your sets, sure. but relying on reaves to do that is nuts. we don't even ask lebron to do it. for a reason. again, this is a big part of why dlo's addition changed us overnight, imo. yeah, yeah, he sucks or whatever, but teams don't think they can sick a mediocre defender on him and just produce random turnovers.
Okay Okay, well the Lakers seem pretty determined to trade Dlo though, so what should they do? Does this area become more of a priority than let's say, back up center? Hayes seems to be doing better now, and Koloko might be able to help if he gets cleared.
If DLO gets traded, Gabe is perfectly fine for bringing the ball up. Yeah, Austin gets picked occasionally, but he’s not the only ball handler in the NBA who does either. I really like Austin handling it more than DLO because he can do everything an elite PG can do on offense. DLO can’t draw fouls at the same clip, nor can he break his man down and get easy looks for his mates.
Agreed, I look at him and think he is a guy who can give DLO a break in the middle of the game, he can get a little done at PG and handle it for awhile but it isn't a strong suit for the team. But I certainly like that he has some ability to make some good passes and spell DLO for awhile. Finding a better defensive PG who can still shoot some, like DLO, will take a ton of luck.
