He'll play a very limited role at the beginning of the season. If we're out of the PO's by March/April, I'd let him get some heavy minutes the last 12-15 games.
Well yeah, that would be the normal expectation for most 19 year olds. Just sayin' ..... what if, and we will see over the next couple of weeks with the pre-season games ..... he looks better than Yi? I think it's entirely possible .... maybe defensively for sure as well as his skills offensively. Was Yi ever any good at all on defense? Tarik is more of a small ball center. We'll see. Can't wait to see what these guys do in the pre-season.
If he looks considerably better than Yi, then you play him over Yi. Accordingly, it'd work that way over any other positional battles that we are going to potentially have; you have to play to earn your spot.
However Yi was getting after it and banging pretty hard on man to man D in the key, in one of the sets in that last scrimmage in Santa Barbara posted today. He's fighting for his NBA career. That's what I'm saying with the depth of our Size at the center position, and with Boom Boom as well who is strong as an ox.
I'll add in competition at that position as well. Those guys will benefit from going at each other everyday in practice. They also offer some versatility that we can put out on the floor depending on the matchups/teams we are facing. Our talent has improved at the 4 & 5, and I don't want to undervalue that. I think what you point out is a valid point. Randle/Nance/Deng Mosgov/Yi/Black/Zubac I think that's a definite upgrade over what we've had the last 2 or so years.
What?? You're not feeling well today? I finally got an agreement on my BIGs point from you? Thank you Sir!!
I had an awesome conversation with Zubac where he described his use of YouTube to learn the moves of Hakeem Olajuwon and Marc Gasol: http://www.lakersnation.com/lakers-...marc-gasol-hakeem-olajuwons-moves/2016/10/03/
Enjoyed this as well...Zubac telling me and my Lakers Nation colleague the story of why he started working on the sky hook: http://www.lakersnation.com/lakers-center-ivica-zubac-tells-the-story-of-his-sky-hook/2016/10/04/
No problem, Zubac was probably the main guy I wanted to talk to, just to ask about the sky hook. He really is a big kid, even in the shy side.
i'm skeptical of the sky hook, but i do like a lot of what he's already shown. i think one reason the sky hook hasn't come back (other than it's really freaking difficult) is zone defenses. it's a shot that requires commitment to the move and leaves not much in the way of counters. if a double comes, it's harder to really punish it. iirc, kareem would wait for an iso chance many times; those are just fairly rare these days.
I did like the hook shot he used last night, it's very smooth, comes out naturally, and it's pretty much impossible to stop. He just needs to be less nervous about it, but hey... it was his first real NBA game. He'll figure it out soon.
LOL ..... his trunks for calf muscles look like under the long shorts they could be skipping the knee joints and attaching straight to his quads.
nice to see it on the baseline with the left. seems like a more likely shot to occur in game situations (as opposed to the sweeping hook across the center of the lane). zubac actually looks a little more nimble than mozgov in that clip. though mozgov clearly has more polished footwork and better attends to his balance. those things can be learned.
