That's my point. Byron and Luke have come to the same conclusion for whatever reason with D'Angelo and that's to sit him down at least temporarily. Byron was stupid about it and alienated D'Angelo by calling him out in public. What I'm saying is more simple: "D'Angelo is a fantastic player. We have faith he's going to be something special in this league, but I think it's fair to say he doesn't always have the right focus. We've got to get him to a point where he takes every possession in his control. We've seen it, we know he's got it, we know he can do it, and we just need to see it every night from him". I don't know. That's how I'd approach it. Maybe you're right. Maybe by saying it has nothing to do with his performance in the public forum, it's better for his trade value or something. I don't know.
I think the eyes are on Laker nation to see how we will be doing things differently. I always admired how Mitch maintained total professionalism at all times, and now leadership is wanting to put the Lakers back on the map as the leading franchise in all of sports that athletes want to play for. I don't think that can happen if you badmouth your own athletes in the press. (Perception)
To me, that's not badmouthing. Criticism can be important feedback. Constructive criticism is something I thrive on and if I'm not doing something right, I'll be the first to raise my hand and admit it. Going to the press wouldn't bother me because I already know. It doesn't seem that would work on Russell, but then again nothing has so who knows?
Like how Luke took the heat in the press for the rushed out of bounds play. He's protecting his young player from unnecessary public grief. The guys get plenty of public grief at such a young age already, that I'm thinking it's almost company policy to make sure management does all they can to not add to it.
Benching him adds to it anyway. And the kid deserves some grief! They all do! I understand protecting players, but I'm not here to baby them. This is a business and they're not being professional. The only justification I can see is that the FO is obviously desperate to be a "player's" team so if that's the case then there won't be much negativity at all about individual players coming from the FO, but I still don't think I'm being unreasonable. If the kids aren't going to be professional and approach this like a job instead of a hobby, then I'm not going to sugarcoat things for them.
Constructive criticism is one thing. To the media it's completely different. How many of us have our annual job reviews presented to national press?
82+ times a year... I think I've come to the conclusion that developing young players requires a lot of patience. It's something the Lakers and their fan base have had very little experience with. And on top of that, when your team is depleted of talent, you NEED to see major growth from the young players in order not to suck. Our previous regime just didn't pull that off very well regardless of conditions. So here we are approaching the lottery again. Good times.
Nice post by Chuck Lee (fiendishoc) over at LG. What Chuck suggests very well may be true, but I still think it comes down to the same issues I've mentioned already. He doesn't recognize situations on either end of the floor. Teammates can communicate to him, but if he doesn't understand what's going on then he won't understand what they're telling him. Also, if he doesn't understand what's going on, what can he tell his teammates? I appreciate the fact that his effort is somewhat more consistent and he doesn't seem to have ADD like D'Angelo does, but this is his 3rd year in the league. He should have figured out the speed of the NBA game by now. He should be able to see what's going on out there.
I haven't watched his footwork specifically, but i wouldn't be surprised. Most of our young guys make mistakes with details like that. I'm also not sure I've seen him get beat more than D'Angelo, but I haven't been looking for it. That sounds right though. D'Angelo usually doesn't get beat in one-on-one situations, D'Angelo gets beat mostly on back doors (our team off the ball might as well be napping). Clarkson tries really hard, that much is clear, but he's just not that smart of a player. He's almost like a way-more-talented version of Vujacic.
LMAO. Talk about burnt out Lakers fans. I had to go rescue Jordan from freaking page 2 over an hour after he goes for 35 points, 13-20 and 8-10 from 3 with 5 assists, several miraculous shots, 5 assists and 1 turnover. Gotta go find Julius too now before he hits page 2.
He has two possessions in the third where he bullet passed down the sideline to Ingram (?) for a three and then the next possession drew two defenders with some fancy dribbling and then hit Randle for the three. Back-to-back creating looks for others. It was refreshing. A lot of his scoring was pure luck, but I at least commend him for being our hardest working kid out of the Randle, Russell, Clarkson, Nance Jr., Tarik crew since the All-Star break. Clarkson's defense is still awful, but I always appreciate effort.
