Mistake to cut him, IMO. Sacre is what he is. Upshaw has a much higher ceiling. We're not winning anything this year, so why not give him some time and allow him to develop?
maybe he doesn't want his old habits to rub off on all the impressionable young men on the squad. still, that means more suck-re.
If the decision to cut someone was between Black and Upshaw I'd be fine. But Sacre? You talk about a learning curve on both ends.....and Sacre is the epitome of a high learning curve? This was a financial decision because of Sacre's guaranteed contract. Don't get it twisted.
I too am disappointed, as an outsider looking in it seems a no brainer to keep Upshaw for his upside. BUT....a key thing that struck me was the mention on how much the team liked Sacre's locker room presence.Upshaw is a troubled kid, the other young guys are not, not even one bit, that's a disconnect right there with half the roster.The other half are proven professional veterans, on a team that with one of the worst records last year. They gotta feel like the last thing they want is the distraction of babysitting a rookie with issues, with so many other young guys to tutor. And really how much does it matter? Hibbert's getting 30+ min a night, then use Black...or even Kelly going smallball.
IMO the FO earned some trust from us fans. They know a LOT more than we do and have proven to make the right presonnel decisions. If they deem Upshaw not ready/worthy/whatever, I trust theirt assessment
Bah. I don't like it. As a player, he's raw yes, but I thought at worst a spell in the D league would benefit him as well as see how he holds up on a personal level without putting our A team at risk. I have to accept the fact that we don't know Upshaw's full story, both past and present. Got to assume there were real issues surfacing (since the FO knew what his previous issues were). Still, it's like watching another Bynum go byebye and though there may be good reason(s), not knowing them is tough. I was worried about this happening though after looking over the roster last night, big-heavy and guard-light with 19 people.
I hope he does D League, and convinces everyone he needs to be here. Sounds like he knows he has a lot of work to do, and had a great attitude. He's just a kid, and really needs playing time to develop his abilities. He could look pretty lost out there at times. Hustling for a pick is great, but he was out of position quite a bit when I would have liked to have seen him posting up and demanding the ball too.
I don't know. My (Let's Go Lakers) "eye test" wasn't screaming future impact player last couple of games Upshaw got in and I felt like he shouldn't have come in so f****** heavy for Summer League games with the amount of time since he got booted from his 2nd college program. Are you kidding, he was 25lbs heavier than he needed to be?? Not a "fluid" athlete and certainly not as strong....as say..... Tarik Black or even Sacre. Sacre seemed smoother, certainly stronger, and able to do just about as much on the floor, with the benefit of 2 years already in the system. The thing that sucked the most however was having to edit my signature. I don't like the balance on it now. Seems heavy at the top with needed "Randle People's 2016 ROTY Candidate info and only one player left needing to FIX. And pretty soon Roy is going to be gone from there. Will necessitate finding more copy.
Well guess we'll have to trust the front office on this one. I just really really hope some other team doesn't pick him up and he turns into an impact player down the line thus coming back to bite us in the a**.
Upshaw is the least of our worries there (granted I hoped he would mitigate my next sentence). This guy says, "Hello"
yeah. hopefully Okafor turns out mediocre because we will never hear the end of it unless D'Angelo has a better career. Anyway it's 3 to 5 years down the road.
I hope Okafor turns out to be great, and he walks from Philly in a few years and signs here. That way we get both rookies, no more debate, no more worries.
Doubt he be signing here if he has the choice, after getting crushed by Lakers on national TV when the pick was announced. But yeah, if no hard feelings ..... come ON over! May be an all star by then in this weaker big man era.
I'd absolutely welcome him, but honestly I'm happy with Hibbert. Dude looks like a legitimate building block and is EXACTLY the hand-in-glove fit we were hoping he'd be this summer. Go get boards, block shots, be big, and get whatever offense falls from the rest of the starters. Beautiful. Honestly I'd try to give him an extension if he were up for it.
Well if he was crushed because he didn't get to be a Laker, he CAN be a Laker in 3 years. That's all I'm saying. You know all that losing in Philly and watching all his teammates get traded away for draft picks and more centers is going to get old, crazy old Hinkie.
Like Samuel L Jackson said in Pulp Fiction, personality goes a long way. I see this as the money on Sacre's contract talking. They figure they can scoop up Upshaw if need be later on, and at the moment he is only a third string center. They saw him a lot more than we did, sadly as somebody said Sacre is a sad reminder of our tank years. I think you have to bet on talent. I think a couple of years is plenty run time for Nash's fave Laker ever Bobby "don't call me waived" Sacre.
I can find few reasons for cuting upshaw but i cant find to many talent wise reasons to keep sacre over him So far all i can say that Sacre is better cheerleader... I hope we keep him somehown at d fenders and sign him if he proves himself...
I was pulling for Upshaw, but I'm not surprised by their decision. He made a lot of mistakes in help defense last game. He's just way too raw.
i really don't get the organization's love affair with sacre he is NOT an NBA caliber center. waiving upshaw instead of sacre was a huge mistake
