I used to hate watching this guy play with his puke green hair when he was a C bag. I’m going to learn to love him. But will we see him rocking purple or gold hair?
Have to like hearing about these players getting into shape and buying into the culture Should make a difference in their health throughout the season
"The Lakers have an intense culture of fitness that permeates into every player at the deepest levels."
Smart needs to start and close games. The entire point of bringing him in is to guard the other team’s primary creator, whether it be POA or on the wing. Those guys are starting and closing games. You could play him the first 6 minutes and the last 4 minutes of each half and nothing else.
I think the downside of smart is he isn’t a great shooter, it’s one of the reasons Jrue was such a tangible improvement on him and helped those Boston teams click. From that point of view, he probably fits better with Luka, Lebron and Ayton when Rui is starting rather than Reaves. But at the same time, I don’t want to bench Reaves in a contract year.
This, but he also has more PG IQ than westbrick or just IQ in general. I don’t see him or any other player thinking it’s a good idea to chuck another one up after going 0/12 from deep after 2 of your teammates are on a hot streak. I dont want it to be like this, im just saying I hope it doesn’t. He just doesn’t have the skill set to catch and shoot. He’s going to have to slash and cut a lot of ball if so. We all know what the other stuff he herrings to the floor. Hustle, your glue guy, defender, disrupts passing lanes. I think there’s a misconception of being a Debbie downer when calling things ok. Luka is fine, but he can but slimmer I don’t think we as a fan or community/team should be ok with players not committing themselves to be slimmer especially after what we’ve seen with shaq, other players in other team getting hurt or worn out due to it, etc etc. With that said in just hoping the worst doesn’t happen, I’m not saying it is or will. But if at and Luka are cold or even one of them a line up with smart/ar/luka/lebron can be great or atrocious. LeBron was closing games late last season but when he pulls up non chalantly like he’s the second coming of mamba or curry just blows my mind, whether we have the lead, tied or down by 10. I can really see brick city happening. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I was thinking about this today. I think you need him to start to set the tempo. Having our best defensive player come in off the bench after their best player is already cooking, is giving him an uphill battle from jump. You can keep him fresh and minutes low by playing him the first 6-7 minutes of each half and the final 5-6 minutes of each half. Depending on what we need out there. He averaged 30 mpg for his career, I'd like that 24-26 minute sweet spot for him. I think we have to start Austin too. He has to be the chaser. Otherwise if we start Rui, we're putting him on SGs and that's going to be ugly. Buha talked a lot about that concept on his last pod. Defensively Bron, Rui and Luke are PFs or much closer to that assignment than two guards.
Really doesn't make sense for Rui to be a starter right now - I get it when you had Hayes or DFS at center to make up for the lack of size. Now though an Ayton, AR, Luka, Lebron, Smart starting is a much more evenly balanced starting lineup with defense matching offense with appropriate size or better at each position. Lakers literally had no legit threat to put up 15 points off the bench to end the year last year so having now Laravia and Rui off teh bench really helps fix that
AR/Smart/Luka/LeBron/Ayton starting just makes the most sense. If LeBron buys into being a jack of all trades type in that group...I think they could be awesome. We tried bringing Rui off the bench at the beginning of the 2023-2024 season and the results weren't great. If I recall correctly, I think he missed some time in training camp/preseason with an injury. I think him struggling in that role at that time had a lot to do with lesser collective playmaking. AR wasn't what he is now and DLo was up and down. If we stagger the lineups such that Rui comes off the bench but is still playing with at least one of Austin, Luka or LeBron, I think he could thrive. He wouldn't be asked to create his own shots in the midrange or post, although he could do some of that stuff. He'd still be playing off at least one high-level ballhandler. Anyways, this is the Smart thread. I actually think he's an underrated passer. The AR/Smart/Luka/LeBron/Ayton potential to be a really nice offensive unit as well.
curious as to why the suns were such a draw for smart. were they promising a starting position next to their two guards? because booker and green have to start. are they going to try to play dillon brooks at the 4? are allen and oneale going to be deep bench guys? also, i just don't see them as a real playoff team. maybe they surprise me, but in a stacked west, they need A LOT of things to break right for them. guess what i'm saying is i think we have the better team, possibly a bigger role, and (currently) the cleaner cap sheet in case he wants to opt out and sign a bigger deal should he be successful. so...why did he even consider phx? milwaukee's got a bit more space but just signed cole anthony (good pickup, i was interested there). i suppose the rest of their guards are young and unproven, though. anyway, here's to hoping smart shows up healthy and in shape!
These articles kill me - Based on this all Luka "strong pitch" was probably dude the Suns are going to stink
Just put Rui in for LeBron, problem solved. Obviously, the ego wouldn't go for that but it would make us unbeatable to have LeBron guiding the second unit against inferior opponents and saving himself for the championship run. Then he could say he was truly a team guy .
lol, right. anyway, we'll see how jj manages the egos here. sounded almost like the initial plan was to play smart off the bench, but i really think he should start in place of rui. rui can still play 30mpg coming off the bench and probably better serves as a bench bucket getter (though i suppose he's functioned well with the starters, too). oh, and lowe phrased this carefully, but... https://sports.yahoo.com/article/zach-lowe-jordan-goodwin-could-160044955.html i hope smart gets his eyes on opinions like these while he's working out this summer...
I'm going to be biased when it comes to Smart, I was really hoping we could draft him. We will see how training camp plays out but from a coaching perspective now, I want him in the starting line up. The man is tough and we need that beyond any stats. A tough guy makes everyone tougher and more confident. Not something the numbers guys will be able to see but he will make LeBron, Luka and Austin better. I'm not dissing LeBron, I actually enjoyed watching him last season. I just want him healthy for the playoffs, lowest minutes he can play and still be on top of his game.
