Is it one of those hallucinating AI mode that everyone is complaining ? Hayes took a seat in Tuesday's loss to the Suns, though he'll return for the second leg of the team's back-to-back set. Hayes (rest) will play in Wednesday's preseason game against the Mavericks, Mike Trudell of Spectrum SportsNet reports.
Lakers lose to Mavs 121-94 4th Q outscored 37-8 29% from the 3 line Gabe 22 pts Rui 19 pts Hayes 12 pts 10 boards Koloko 4 pts 7 boards
Lol stop using AI for news, it doesn't work What a beat down in the 4th. Not bad that we kept it competitive with our main guys. I'm noticing Knecht filling out more the stat sheet with rebs and assists. Appreciate the effort, but his shot isn't coming as we expect to
ok, i got to watch the game and have a few thoughts. -i watched knecht pretty closely, and i think the box score was rougher on him than the game was. he had a couple threes that were 2/3 of the way down and would have changed how things looked. all of his misses until the last couple looked good coming out of his hands and were close, and he didn't force much until late. he made a bunch of good passes, not even counting the assists. not sure i saw him make more than a couple good passes all year last year, so that's a development, imo. his defense is still not good, but i'm not sure he gave up anything too easily save for one bad back cut (vando got back cut that badly once, too). there's still some life there, imo. -hayes was another guy i watched pretty closely. you can see the weight gain, but it seems like it's mostly upper body, which i'm not sure is great. he fought on the boards consistently, which was good. i wish he'd attack until the defense commits when we use him in the middle of the zone on offense. he let them off a bit there on a couple occasions. all in all, i'm still pretty happy with him in the role we have for him (~15mpg backup). i don't think he can start nor play more than 20 minutes or so. but at the vet min+, huge bargain. -contrast the above comment on hayes attacking with vando, who's also clearly been told to use the dribble to attack, and he took those orders to heart--albeit with mixed results. that's ok, as the guy who really made him look bad there was lively, and not many teams employ a lively. i like that he's being encouraged to make defenses attend to him by getting the paint with a live dribble, though. -rui continues to look better when he's got the big guns with him. -gabe's out of body start was fun to watch. we should pay an opposing bench player to trash talk him for all games. anyway, those were the most important guys to watch. i'm not sure the deep bench has much to offer us. nick smith looks like a smaller, less athletic monk. not sure we have a need for that, and he's probably the best of that bunch by a good sight. shout out to nate williams, though, he plays hard and pretty smart. not super talented but i could see him finding a role somewhere maybe, but probably in europe. koloko doesn't look as bad as people say, imo, but he's still baby deer-ish at times, and he's not that young anymore. may just be how he is. as for the mavs, i like a lot of their parts, but the whole just doesn't fit. flagg looks like an allstar on day one, imo. there's nothing he can't do, and he can do it against the best. that's a franchise player. lively may be one of the more underrated players in the league. like, imagine if jarrett allen had a MUCH greater offensive repertoire. that guy is everywhere, always in the right place, sets great screens, is stronger than he looks, has great hands. not sure how many centers i'd take over him in the league. jokic and...is wemby a center? he's that good, imo. he just can't stay on the floor so far. anyway, if i were dallas, i'd move AD, klay, and kyrie for whatever i could get and build around those two. they'll have to fire harrison to do it, but that's solving two problems at once. i was a bit envious watching dallas's deep bench/prospects. nembhard is small, but i think he's an nba player. i wouldn't be surprised if he actually takes some of dlo's minutes, as i don't know if kidd has the stomach for the dlo experience (which was on display in this one). this is interesting because i also like brandon williams, whom nembhard has supplanted in dallas. williams is superior to any of our current developmental guards (bronny, smith, davis), and i'd probably play him over jaden hardy in dallas, too. and he didn't get much burn in this one, but that robinson-earl guy looks a lot like a pj washington starter kit. i think he's an nba player right now; dallas just has so many forwards that he won't be able to get a crack there.
