not sure what advice to give. part of me understands why he'd stop shooting--it's been embarrassing lately. but i really don't like how fragile he's seemed mentally in his first year. he talks a good game in the press and does the stoic expression, but his behavior gives him away. he's doubting himself.
He's a rookie. I'm not worried about anything from him. These games are frustrating, but it's par for the course with a rookie. You take the good times and you try to emphasize them and through the bad times you address the problems as they come. He had 6 assists in the span of 6 minutes or something. Then the rest of the game he disappeared. I actually think he was one of, if not the, main culprits in this loss, but it happens. One of his big problems is he has trouble finishing around the rim/through contact right now so when his shot isn't falling, he has run out of "go to" moves offensively that he's comfortable with. Some hard work in the summer and those problems get fixed pretty quickly and easily. But these games are why I'm absolutely fine with the two max player concept. Games like tonight happen with young guys all the time and the reason we're so hard on him is because we have little else to hang our hats on right now. If we had a deeper, more talented roster, he could develop at his own speed. Look at how the media is still treating Jayson Tatum.
Trae Young is no scrub. He's a solid prospect. There's a chance Trae is the next Buddy Hield, but he's a really solid PG prospect in the Steph Curry mold.
I didn’t see it as clowning, he was just messing around. My friends and I would often imitate nba players shots when shooting around for fun, he even said “he can make it though”, sort of marveling at him being able to shoot like that ha ha. Plus, Lonzo thought it was funny.
I like that Lonzo doesn't take offense to pretty much anything. Kobe would have added him to the list to destroy him the next time he saw him, so maybe I don't like it lol.
Yep ... I think one factor which is not enough brought up to explain his struggles is he ran very few PNRs in UCLA ( feel free to correct me if I'm wrong as I don't follow NCAA ball but this is what I read several times) As LFR explained in his video , he has a lot of work to do in terms of individual skills ( such as footwork , body control) and reading the different PNR coverages opponents are throwing at him . He'll get there with hard work . Nothing new though . Being able (or not) to punish the defense enough as a scorer when he has to will define his ceiling in the league . We all knew that already
Even in that last game he had 2-3 wide open layups that he passed up for no good reason. I understand when his shot isn't falling, he starts losing confidence in it BUT that means he needs to take it to the rim with some aggression. The problem is... he's built like a handful of old cucumbers stuck together with putty. He needs a lot of work in the off-season on his body and his ability to take and create contact. That's a big one. Then of course he needs to find a floater, he needs to get more and more reps in from deep, he needs to continue to work on his different reads in the pick and roll. With (hopefully) at least one max guy coming, I think the priority should be his body and his outside shot. He'll be needed as a floor spacer so he needs to have more confidence that he'll make those shots and with more strength, he'll feel more comfortable attacking close outs.
LOL. Probably why his shooting sucks. Has been spending the extra time working on his Lithuanian summer rap tour moves (rappers look like that right? ... though mix in a package grab or two) ..... instead of shooting FTs and 3 pointers overtime.
Fun read: Lonzo picks from 10 plays that Ding provides and ranks them 1-10 Then of course his buddy Kuz had a comment
Regarding Young: I didn't see it as a criticism of Ball, but what do I know? By the way, is the Hield comparison a bad thing? He's at 13 PPG in his second season, and he has hit 298 threes in two seasons (40.5% - 10th best among all active players). If Young comes into the NBA and just becomes one of the best three-point shooters ever, that's not a bad thing, and it's worthy of a lottery pick.
