I still believe Russell will emerge to being our best player, but yeah right now I think you have to go with Clarkson. He's the most well rounded. Hitting the jump shot, both mid range and 3, has that nice little floater, constantly in attack mode and able to finish with contact, nightmare in transition, like last season doing a terrific job on pick and rolls, and he's drawing the defense as well. Defense is a work in progress, but same is true for Randle and D'Angelo. All these kids have tremendous potential and if they reach it and I see no reason to think they won't then I think the Lakers have a great and eventual championship foundation. Also a guy like Lance Jr. is a guy who likely won't be a foundation piece, but could be a good supporting one. I think him and Tarik fit well on that second unit. Give this Lakers FO credit. They bought that second round pick from Washington and took Clarkson with it who clearly has been a steal. They knew a lot of people including Laker fans would be upset passing on a kid like Okafor, but they believed in Russell. In his potential. That he will grow into the eventual franchise player and a superstar point guard, time will tell if that was a wise decision. This past offseason they could've overspent on guys like Rondo and Monroe or traded the farm for Cousins, but they didn't do that. They clearly believe in this young core group of players and that eventfully they can and will mature into one of the better trio's in the game. It's gonna take some time probably 2-3 years realistically at least, but I'm right there with him. I think it's gonna be great for us fans watching this young team grow. There will be frustrating moments, tough losses, numbskull mistakes, but that's gonna be par for the course.
I watched the Dallas game vs the Lakers with a friend, and he was drooling over Randle. I think we'll see a lot of that.
You're not the only one. He's averaging 18 points, shooting over 50% and 46% from the 3 point line. Bear in mind, he's the only one out of the young core that played last year and that experience is aiding his success, IMO.
By the end of the year, I think people are going to wonder how he didn't end up going in the top 5 of his draft if they're not wondering about it already.
I think that by next season's end, Russell, Randle, and Clarkson will be the top three players on this team. In that order, meaning two of them will be better than JC is now.
I think Clarkson has room to improve. We have to look at the full context of his draft situation with him. He was a sure-fire first rounder before his Dad got sick and he went down the crapper at Mizzou. I think part of our expectations for him going forward are STILL being seen through 2nd Rounder Glasses (I am guilty of this). He's was a top 20 talent before his Dad got sick. And I think that if he would have gone, let's say 17th or 18th to us, we would not be putting any sort of limitations on him. As of this moment, he is the best player from the 2014 draft. Look at the players on the all-rookie first and second teams (not counting Noel since he was in the 2013 draft). He is outplaying everyone. Wiggins, the reigning ROY has a PER of 7. 7! He has regressed through these first 6 games. Clarkson has continued his steady climb that started 41 games into last season. If you wiped everyone's memory of who went where in the draft, and re-did the draft right now based on last year's season and this year's up until now, The top 3 picks would be Clarkson, Randle and Wiggins, not necessarily in that order.
I felt like last night shows the difference between Zach Randolph and our young Beast. Zach with his long arms and canny scoring underneath the hoop can manage to find ways to score against taller, longer players. Randle needs work on this. There were a lot of plays that could have been called fouls in his favor down low if he was on his home turf, obviously, but he just couldn't find a way to make buckets down there against their bigs, especially Porzingis' length. He's going to need to refine some go to moves in the future to do so. Now don't get me wrong, Randle is currently my favorite Laker out there, but it was a reality check for sure.
He just needs that jumper to keep defenders honest. Once he gets defenders to commit to guarding his shot, he'll blow by them every time.
A reliable jumper would be excellent. He did hit a nice one from about 17 feet out last night. But he needs a little work under the rim as well to get his shot up against taller, longer opponents. Just some more footwork and certainly a right hand, too, to give him more possibilities. But also something, head fake, up and under move, to get some space and a clearer release when faced with that situation. Again, a certain grain of salt in that he got zero love from the refs - no foul calls all game, despite being hacked under there at least a couple/few times. But when that's the case and they let them play he has to have another way to get that shot up under the hoop than just bully ball.
His footwork in the post isn't as polished as Zach's so it's harder for him to find that space, not to mention his shorter arms. But yeah if he had that jumper then there's absolutely no way Porzingis or Lopez could have guarded him. He's too quick for them so if they stepped out, he'd go right around them. I thought he played very okay. Very, very okay. It's pretty telling that the Knicks were already game planning for him though. This kid is 6 games into his career and people are starting to take notice. Hell yeah.
what happened to that little fade in the lane he was shooting in the preseason? i don't think i've seen it once yet in the regular season. could have used it against ny's paint packing scheme.
He's used it a few times during the season. I think he tried it once yesterday, but underestimated the prodigious height of Porzingis and was either blocked or hesitated.
I never understood the Randolph and Randle comparison. Randolph is not athletic, while Randle is an athletic monster.
not to mention Zach has no neck. It's probably because they're really painful to guard. Not unguardable mind you, just the defender experiencing physical pain after being smack around with forearms and elbow after each game.
