He's literally one of the worst finishers by volume inside He's sucked at finishing in Detroit, Cle, and LAL On the Lakers he's literally cost the Lakers game by blowing a such a wide open layup/dunk that the players were caught not getting back on defense leading to 4 or 5 point swings. If he can't finish wide open shots now, Lebron isn't going to fix that
Brandon Knight, Jennings, Reggie Jackson, Avery Bradley, Bruce Brown, and Sexton. That's one of the worst 8 year PG groups any top 10 current center has dealt with. Selfish, gunners, combo guards, or one's who have to be coddled and lied to by the staff (Sexton).
The guy hasn't even played 20 games for us yet. He is still adjusting to his new teammates and they are still adjusting to him. He hasn't even played with Lebron yet.
He also played with Delladova and Garland in Cleveland who are classic PG types. I just don't understand anyone who has watched Drummond would want him to get a lot of post touches unless it's obvious post mismatches. He's improved his finishing and still the only person who has a lower percentage at the rim than him is freaking Malcolm Brogdon. He can't make point blank layups with no one within 5 feet of him often, that's how bad of a finisher he is https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nb...the-rim-while-away-from-cavaliers/ar-BB1fzQ5M Plus the more touches he gets, the fewer touches for AD and Lebron in the post who are far better post scorers then him. The Lakers already have trouble countering post defenses against those two now we want to get more reps for a guy who is known terrible finisher as well? https://www.bball-index.com/the-lakers-have-a-post-problem/ Let him concentrate on cleaning up the glass and scoring off dumpoffs, boards. Similar to how Dwight was used. For the love of Kevin McHale, do not run post possessions for this guy or try to force feed him the ball with the exception when teams run midget lineups like the Nets.
There’s a lot more to basketball than a box score. For example, defensive awareness, boxing out, and knowing your limitations with the ball. Drummond doesn’t suck, he may still be useful for us in the playoffs, but he does have serious flaws.
Aw the ole..there is more to the game than just the box score take. ALWAYS used to justify a guy putting up less than ideal numbers. Gasol also has the 8th highest turnover percentage in the NBA too! Marc has some flaws too. That said..we have what we have, they both have usefulness, it depends on the matchups. Also look...If James and Davis didn't want Andre Drummond, he wouldn't be here period. They both signed off on this one, knowing what we already had at the 5. This can not be overlooked is some trivial, let's kick the tires on him signing. Personally I think Drummond is a superior player to Gasol by a wide margin. However Drummond is never going to get the feature player treatment in LA. He must be efficient with his time on the court. Same goes for Gasol, Trez is going to get the short end of the stick. There is more than one way to skin a cat. Whatever works best for AD and Lebron is cool with me.
I didn’t use the argument for a guy putting up less than ideal numbers, I used it because it’s true. There are a lot of nights where Caruso puts up 5-8 points, 3 assists, 2 boards, but his defense, hustle player, and basketball IQ out there is not going to show up in the box score in how much he impacted the game, except maybe in +/-, but that’s a stat I’m not really personally a fan of. Again, I’m not rooting against Drummond, I’m glad we signed him, if for no other reason than we kept him from the Nets, but showing his stats vs Marc’s is way too simple of a case to make for one being better than the other.
You can't just admit that Drummond is better than Gasol..LOL. Stats tell a story too bro..this is how these guys get paid, evaluated, traded or cut. They DO matter. The last two games Marc had 1 point, 9 boards and 7 assists in 35 minutes. Drummond had 22 points 28 rebs and 5 assists in 56 minutes. There is a difference in production there man. It can't just be explained away with the look beyond the box score jazz. They brought him here, for more than just keeping him away from Brooklyn, they felt like he was a better option than Gasol too. The numbers suggest the same. STILL...I think Marc would be more effective against a guy like Jokic, maybe Gobert, most definitely Embid.
Delladova?! Seriously? That's where we're at? A 3rd string PG who is only known by anyone because he's a dirty piece of s*** who should be banned from the league because of a series of dirty plays. Thanks for making my point. Garland is a shooter and more of 2 guard. He has good assist numbers this year, but again... he's a 2nd year player who Drummond only played 25 games with this year. Garland's rookie year, his assist numbers were rather pedestrian. If we're grasping at straws, we can't forget the 19 games a 37 year old Billups played next to him in Drumm's 2nd year. I am by no stretch advocating for us making Drummond a focal point of the offense. I'm saying our ball handling guards are very limited passers (but they're HOF'ers next to most of what he's played with). They're either telegraphing it, throwing it 10 feet above his head, at his ankles, behind him, at the wrong hand (making a spin/counter move challenging), or denying the pass all together even if there a mismatch. There's been angles the guards look at and know they can't make, so they pass the ball around instead. He has weaknesses and often finishes more difficult baskets than the gimmies. Reminder: there was a reason he was on the buyout market. But he's a top 10 C any way you slice it. Yes, if you force feed him you will ultimately take away touches from Bron and AD. But the attention they get will get him open looks and he commands more attention from the opposition than any full time center we've had since Pau. Shortcomings and all, you will see possessions where two and three defenders collapse on him. They respect his abilities for some reason. I think they know more than some who are content with making him the scapegoat for any issues we have.
The last 2 games Gasol has shot NO baskets and made 1 point, Drummond has shot 18 times and made 22 points. If you don’t take shots of course you are not going to score. I’m not taking a side in the whole Drummond/Gasol saga but if you are going to complain about scoring you’ve got to consider whether the guy has even taken a shot.
I don’t think we’re really saying anything different here, I agree that each one is better based on the situation and matchup, and Drummond is better in most areas at this stage of their careers. All I was saying was you can’t judge a player like Marc’s impact on box score alone, not sure why you felt the need to take it so seriously and do the whole “LOL” mocking thing, super mature.
Not taking a shot doesn't shift the narrative, especially when you are hyping a guys floor spacing and three point shooting. I don't follow that logic at all. A big man putting up shots and crashing the boards indicates impact on the game. It shows some physicality because it’s coming from a big too. Not attempting a shot while hanging out on the perimeter does not.
Dumping on Delladova is like non Lakers fans dumping on Caruso: he's a very limited player but he definitely knows how to run an offense. Also Garland is definitely a PG - Cavs fans are torn because both their young guards are small and the anti-Sexton group wants him to be a sixth man so Garland can actually be given free rein as he more of a traditional PG and is a willing passer. The problem with this post is I've seen Drummond play for Cleveland this entire season not just his stint with the Lakers. He's just a bad a finisher no matter the quality of pass he gets. You just said it yourself, he's just as likely to make a difficult shot as an easy one! Yeah does he have a role: I think he does well when he can bully some small ball teams but outside of that his scoring should be off boards, rolling hard to the basket, and not running plays for him. But there is a huge gap between saying Lebron is a great passer so when he gets doubled, Drummond will get more easy looks (ala Dwight role) vs Lebron is a good floor general so he should use his post passing to setup Drummond (ala Embiid role). If it's the former, I think it's a reasonable point but I'm not sure this outweighs the problem with spacing and defensive lapses he makes. If it's the latter, I just disagree
He has Kwame Brown type hands. How many easy lay up or easy dunks he has missed as a Laker, because the ball slip out of his hands.
Come on, let's not get crazy here. No one was worse than Kwame Brown. The WORST Laker to ever wear the uniform. Worse than Samaki Walker, worse than Smush Parker, worse than Ryan Kelly. All of them, I watched them all. No one induced jumping out a 5 story building more than Kwame Brown when he played basketball. The fact that the Lakers made the playoffs in back to back years with that clown as a starter, should add to the legacy of Kobe Bryant ten fold.
what the heck are you babbling about. I'm referring to AD hands in comparison to Kwame, nothing about Kobe's lagacy, or teammates who the played with. Drummon hands are bad offensively. Not only that, how many pick and rolls does he fumble the ball away or offensive rebound getting stolen from opposing team. The Kobe thread is available for your content.
Lebron is going to have that JR Swish you f***ed up big time face a lot with the way Drummond fumbled the ball on his passes against the Pacers. You have to be able to finish off Lebron feeds otherwise you take way his biggest strength
