I see us addressing Center and Small Forward in FA first, and the only way JC is traded is as part of a major upgrade. Otherwise, I think it's a mistake to give up on him too soon. He was solid under Byron, but what can he do with a real coach?
I'm glad he didn't get invited to the Select team with Randle and Russ and I hope they talk all about it during camp, pre season, and the regular season. Let that chip on his shoulder get bigger, it's what drives him, keeps him hungry, and makes him who he is.
Yeah I assumed the reason Clarkson didn't get invited was because he was working with Team Philippines. Still though, I'm actually glad Clarkson won't be there either so Julius and D'Angelo have a chance to bond just the two of them. I know Jordan and D'Angelo are close and I know both of them like Julius, but we haven't seen a ton of evidence of how close D'Angelo and Julius are. This is a great chance for them to grow together.
That was after the Rising Stars game. Someone had asked them a question bringing up how infrequently they got to play together in the Lakers line-up at that point in the season, and Clarkson muttered under his breath warning Russell not to "say anything crazy", implying they were both trying to contain their frustrations with Byron's dumb line-ups.
I still don't get how many ppl say that jc is done with his potential and that he plateaued. I think the man is just getting started, a lot of great players are late bloomers, look at Steph, Nash, etc. Jc can still improve defensively and outside shooting
Mostly it's because this last season he didn't show much growth outside of his three point shot. His defense got worse and nothing else about his game improved drastically. That's not to say he can't. Last season was hopefully an aberration for all our young guys, but it's not crazy to think he's hit a plateau. A plateau doesn't mean he's done completely.
State conditions... 1. how will we determine that one is better? 2. will we compare them in two years or JC in 2 years vs. DDR now? 3. if they are, God forbid, on the same team - how do we cancel their inter-impacts? 4. what should we do in case of an extensive injury time?
1. Objective statistical analysis. We have at least 2 people on this site who are great with numbers, we can nicely ask them to help. 2. We'll compare three things: 1) them at the same age 2) them in the same season and 3) them in the same timeframe as a professional. 3. Contract is null and void. 4. Contract is null and void.
Alright. So... draft day 2018 we do this? What are the stakes? Side note: It will be really hard to compare the two, given a vastly different situation (e.g. Byron like environment) that may be in. We have to normalize that somehow... I am not sure your 3 items cover that. What I mean is - my claim is that we can skip on DDR and IF we let JC take his role (SG-ish) - he will be better in 2 yearsm that DDR would have been. Now, signing Barnes would impact that tremendously...
