Just a habit , players are taught to drop at the level of the ball so he did It's like when a player is helping on a drive , leaving a shooter open from 3 when his team is up 3 .. just give up the 2 at the rim but players will make the mistake 99% of the time As you said , no awareness
I am an AD advocate but even so I can see why many would like to move away from him. No denying he has tremendous talent but he has some serious flaws as well. It isn't hard for me to accept he will miss x amount of games due to injury. I do expect him to be engaged in the games he does play. He clearly isn't at times. So if he misses 25 games due to injury and takes another 10 games off mentally you are starting to talk about almost half a season. He has the look and actions of a player that does not want to be here in my opinion. I don't want to trade him but I can easily see why the majority seem to want to.
He had a bad end to a game. I’m not 100% sure but I think such a thing has happened to a lot of great players. Who knows maybe the guy is human? I know it’s incomprehensible. So AD took the blame, put it on himself after the game. We’ve got 11 very important games left to secure a spot in the playin. I believe AD will come out focused on that for the remainder of the season and try to put us in the best position possible. I don’t ask him for more than that. I do expect Dlo to play much better than he has these last few games. His fall off after us saying we aren’t going after Kyrie worries me. This is no time to slack. Maybe that talk was too early. He’s still auditioning. He looked great before that obviously.
i watched his post gm interview didnt seem like he owned to anything, the ft miss was meh to him and the end 3pt shot he just said he thought kyrie was going to put up a shot and was going in to grab reb so he obviously did not intend to be attached to klieber at all, very poor awareness of the situation
The book on AD has become, in the absence of Lebron: double him as much as you can. Make other players beat you. Which is why we needed D-Lo and Malik to hit some shots. They didn't...and Kyrie was insane...and we were winning it until 11:59 of the 4th. So AD had a bad end of the game. The loss to DAL was on the team. Too many missed FTs by guys not named AD, our 3s were not going down. Maddening. But not AD's fault. I'd like to suggest that all our hot takes on AD should be a bit more nuanced. And I include myself here. He's really so tremendous (I seriously think so) that when he has a Beast Mode monster game - like the 44/10/4 with 3 blocks against MIL in a win - we celebrate his greatness but assume he has to have that kind of game EVERY time out. (Actually, two days after that MIL game he had 55/17 in another road win: sick!) And I do think the groupthink about keeping him out of BTBs is not his choice: it's the medical staff's advice to Ham and he goes with it. Selective perception is baked into us hardcore fans - that's all of us and certainly myself - and it can lead to extremes. D-Lo was bad (11 dimes but we need his shots to go down). Reaves missed some key FTs. Malik needs to get his 3s to go, etc. Calling AD a "beta" or p**** is blowing off steam but I really don't think it's accurate, and I've called AD "soft" for a long time. Hey: he IS injury-prone, but sometimes we expect him to be otherworldly all the time. I know I sometimes expect him to just take over a game in the 4th with us down by 8 and when we don't win, I look at what he didn't do. Because I expect so much from him. Hell, we've seen him be jaw-droppingly great. Let's try to maintain a fuller perspective on AD. Clearly, the idea of missing the playoffs for a 2nd straight year has us all a bit loopy. It's "only a game" but we are all heavily invested in the Lakers winning. I mean, let's face it. I can't help it: I truly did feel nauseous after the DAL loss. I look forward to the opiate-like euphoria after a thrilling Laker win.
AD is one of the best players in the League when he’s available and engaged. The fact remains: for the past THREE seasons in a row, he’s been available and engaged for less than half of these games. We are all frustrated with this Franchise and just like in every professional sport, the majority of the glory, as well as the scrutiny, fall on the team’s best players. I will be rooting for AD for however long he remains a Laker.
Yeah that’s the thing …. there’s no question AD is among the elitest of the elite players in the league but like after last night and everyone’s own personal grievances with him that show up more than they’d like …. all too often it’s ship his a** out and let’s move on because eff him he’s not “perfect” or available enough of the time and we’ll just find someone “better” to “build around”.
Disregarding all of the emo outbursts regarding last game, there is a very valid and steeped in probability case for moving him for a more durable player. For those who are constantly claiming “we won’t get anyone better,” this is no certainty unless they have a crystal ball. The LeBron/AD pairing has been disastrous for the past three seasons. Trying something else wouldn’t be ridiculous. Risky? Yes. So is continuing on, season after infuriating season, with the hope of both AD and LeBron playing enough games together to have a successful season.
But a literal “superstar” level player to “build around” with the experience and impact AD HAS after LeBron is gone in 2 years when it’s pretty typical now in the NBA that to win a ring you need MORE than one and then a tier below “star” level player at least to go with them. Those TOP guys “currently” are all locked up and we will not be drafting one it’s 99% certain who could be even just ONE of those type players in the next couple of years. We’re literally back to the drawing board when these two guys are gone.
Player movement that nobody sees coming happens every season. Also, when AD is available for only half the games every year, you can’t count on him being one of those guys.
He had some key defensive plays but his offense isn't that good. He's better in a finisher role so Lebron's return will take away a lot of the defensive attention he has been getting.
I know people are going to bash him for the offense but he was again awesome on defense. Him and Dlo are really struggling next to Beasley/Vando - those two are just an anchor to the offense right now
I am so happy we have Ben Wallace on our team. AR can be our Billups. Vando is Prince. We need Sheed and Rip.