I'm not really worried about his shooting, despite December. I want him to get better at keeping his man in front of him.
No need to sulk, cha is a wasteland of a team, perenial treadmill thats to good to get top picks but no good enough to make even playin consistently, their star Lamelo is made of glass as well
Jordan Goodwin’s play is going to make it difficult for Dalton to have a consistent spot in the rotation because unlike Dalton he plays defense.
Has to be awkward. Rare situation, especially for a rook to find himself in. Body language didn't look great out there. JJ is fantastic communicator, a fellow shooter, and was really high on him when we drafted him. If anyone can pull him out of this, JJ can. If not, he'll be shipped out this summer.
His body language feels a bit negative. At the end of the day, no need to get a chip on your shoulder with your teammates. They didn’t do anything to you, the FO just wanted to use you as a valuable chip to improve the team. It didn’t work out. Now’s your chance to work hard and establish yourself.
Amazing how many people here are like "suck it up butter cup" like the kid isn't human. He is a ball player and he will play ball when he gets a chance. I wouldn't be all giddy flying back after getting randomly uprooted. Lets leave the "body language" sh*t in the psych room. Give the kid a few days to settle back in and get back in with his team.
Meh..hurt his pride a little. He probably bought into all the, we love, value and treasure you jazz, all draft picks get showered with, from the FO, and coaching staff. He'll get over it. Welcome to the League Rook!
It is not about his shooting so much as getting him back in the right mind-set. Scorers score some points they start feeling good about themselves. Psychological thing, not physical.
The most important thing he needs to understand, is that this is a business. You can be doing everything right, and still get traded. You have to develop some mental toughness in the NBA.
I would be, and giddy would not quite cover it. I would be ecstatic to be boomeranged back to Los Angeles, back to the Lakers, and get a chance to play with Luka in games that mean something rather than join the LeMelo Circus show.
This is a common misconception in trades in the NBA. The way the NBA is structured, in order to get players you need to give some and they have to have some value, otherwise the other team won't take them. Trading Dalton was not at all saying we didn't want him. It was just the context where the Lakers lacked a center, had an opportunity to go for it this year and in that context, Dalton was a player with the most upside outside of our 7-man core rotation, resulting in being the best way to strengthen our playoff rotation. It doesn't mean he sucks or that we want him gone. He was just the best way to improve our roster at the moment. I understand this may be hard for him, especially with Charlotte's challenge. The fact that he earns multi-million dollars doesn't change those emotions. We all have problems in our lives but most of us have a home, food and shelter and our problems are smaller than the majority of the world and billions of people. Doesn't mean we don't suffer with them. But yeah, this is his Welcome to NBA moment. I think the vets should play a role here and explain this to him. Hopefully he'll come together post-ASB.
This The vets need to be in his ear and get him to relax and focus on playing basketball Playing for the Lakers is a privilege and he needs believe that
yeah, i watched those clips and was like, if someone randomly found me for 15 seconds on any given day, they might see me not smile or talk to anyone. yeah, could be worse. jhs was traded for an entirely different reason! i wonder if he got briefly excited about the trade simply because he'd probably get 30 minutes per in charlotte with a green light. his best route to a first big post-rookie contract is probably by playing on a bad team, right? i'm still pretty keen on getting him some g league reps. he'll probably be mad about it, but his best chance of doing anything here will be if he learns how to function more smoothly as a cog in team defense and offense. this isn't tennessee anymore. you're like, the 5th best scorer on your team now.
I'm agreeing with you on this He needs more playing time to find his groove and gain back his confidence Plus it should humble him a bit so he understands what it is to play for the Lakers Hard work never hurt anyone
