Props to him for staying ready, that's tough as a rookie especially. It's a tough one to figure for JJ. DK is being hunted like he's a wounded animal found on safari. He's far behind all of JJ's other playoff rotation options on defense. But he has the highest ceiling offensively by a decent margin of those bench options. He can get microwave hot from deep and actually has functional offensive athleticism (Vando's goes MIA on that end). I don't think he can crack the regular rotation of these serious basketball games, but glad JJ is willing and confident throwing him out there to get a different look from time to time. This summer maybe he and Goodwin can workout together. He can help Goodwin with his shot and Goodwin can help him with his defensive effort and give him tips on how to just bust your a** on that end.
It's really great that the coach and teammates have his back with the positive input He seemed kind of butt hurt after the trade and in a funk Hoping he can continue to build on his play and work on defense
The Lakers defense has been atrocious the past 10 games, though. They were the #1 defensive team for a while but now it's just plummeted. Vanderbilt hasn't played good defense in quite some time. He might be better than Knecht on defense but you can beat a team playing good offense and Vanderbilt hasn't provided either to justify the spot over Knecht, IMO.
DK with his athleticism and strength with Jordan's defensive skills, techniques and (hopefully developed) instinct would be frightening. And another star level player next to Luka on a bargain salary.
I’m kind of perplexed as to why our defense has dropped off a cliff. We were so locked in for that winning stretch.
Yeah, me as well. Could be the lower quality of teams the Lakers were playing mixed in with JJ trying to figure out the final rotations for the playoffs. The Lakers had the best 3P% for quite some time during that stretch so it could be that teams were just missing against them that they would normally make. They gotta clean it up, though. You can't win games playing lazy bottom of the barrel defense and hope to become champions. At least gotta try and make the other team work for it.
The fact that our defense focuses more on stopping guys from getting in the paint than letting opponents Jack threes could also be a part of it since in many of the losses, our opponents got hot from behind the arc. This is what scares me a bit of the potential of a first round battle with the Dubbs.
The kid can obviously shoot and I love his aggressiveness in not settling for the 3 by attacking the rim (with authority). I think his big issue, for me anyway, is he tends to get caught in no-man's land on defense where he is between two players essentially leaving both open. Sometimes I wonder how well he knows the defensive schemes. It is possible those lapses are why he doesn't get as much burn as he was early on. I do love how he attacks the boards too. All in all I think this kid has played pretty damn good for us and finishing with Dame Award is a cool feather for the young fella
oh, i don't think this is in doubt. i think he also hasn't known some of the offensive schemes. at this level, it's very much a team game where you can be as strong as your weakest link, schematically. if he grows mentally, he can be very good, like semi-star level--but he has a ways to go there.
There's a shortage of 3/D players in the league so it's wild that players who can shoot can't seem to play good D while players who can't shoot seem to play good D. Imagine if you could combine Vando and Knecht's skillset. That's the exact player the league needs more of. Combine these two skillsets together and this player would be playing 30+ minutes per game on any roster.
