I don't know. I just want Lonzo to be aggressive and more vocal. The attitude on the court needs to be aggressive but it is suspect most of the time. He still looks tentative and scared to me. Its a mental thing I believe but most players cannot overcome their nature. And his robotic nature just isn't a good recipe for all-star level success. Even when he fills up the stat sheet, it goes mostly unnoticed during the game.
The time to trade both may have passed. Other teams are watching these games, too. I bet SA, in particular, is breathing a sigh of relief.
Of the kids, Lonzo has probably been the best overall. That's concerning, but also I find strange that he's getting hate while guys like Kuzma and Hart are getting more of a pass.
why wouldn't we expect more from Zo? He's the #2 pick and was suppose to be some sort of transcedent star player
and those 2 were the 28th and 30th pick...we should be so fortunate that they turned out as good as they are
Zo is an easy target because his game isn’t flashy, it has obvious holes in it, and because a good number of people didn’t want him to begin with. So it’s almost like some are looking/hoping for him to fail.
Give him more opportunities then. His usage is one of the lowest among starting players in the entire league. When he's playing, he's doing well.
ok: https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/k/kiddja01/gamelog/1996/ so kidd did have some unimpressive box scores in his second year, too. but his highs were also much more consistent and higher than zo's thus far.
He was older, stronger, and had a USG% almost twice as high as Lonzo does now. Give the kid more opportunities!
Kidd also took 6 more shots per game in his 2nd year than he did in his 3rd year. His 2nd year is an anomaly in some regards.
I’d like to see more Lonzo without Lebron on the floor. Same with pretty much all of the rest of our players. Basically, just trade Lebron.
I remember when I mentioned that DAR set the record for most threes at his age for the Lakers someone tried to shoot that down by saying he shot the most too. You don’t get to blame low stats on low usage and denigrate high stats on high usage. Good players will adapt their game to their usage and/or increase their usage by earning it. #doublestandard
I agree with t-rod. Its easy to say give him more opportunities. Opportunities aren't given, they are taken.
I don't disagree, but he's also playing only 24 minutes a game. You can't say he sucks and not also address his usage or lack thereof. A favorite of D'Angelo fans: Lonzo's per36 numbers are similar to last season's except with more points, slightly fewer rebounds, and a couple less assists a game. I'm not a fan of per36, but it supports what I'm saying: he's the same kid we saw last year (a transcendent talent who affects games in a multitude of ways), but he's on the court less than he needs to be. Part of that is his fault, sure, but part of that is Luke not having one of our best all around players playing 30 minutes a game. Lonzo isn't just a shooter or scorer, he's a kid who can play elite defense, be an elite playmaker, and has thus far fixed a lot of his efficiency issues (still a bad FT shooter). I agree he needs to be more aggressive, but my point is he also needs to be on the floor more. For now Rondo has been playing at a very high level as well and the two of them have awful chemistry playing together, but we'll see how the season progresses. I think it's also weird (although not surprising) that Lonzo went out this summer and did what everyone wanted: got stronger and improved his efficiency and there's still plenty of you guys who are still s***ing on him.
^I agree mostly but lets start with the stats per 36 minutes or minutes in general I actually think Russell is a pretty good comparison for this, as was Randle. I have come to believe that players dictate how many minutes they play rather than coaches. You see Randle never played 30+ minutes for the Lakers and we were wondering why BUT nor does he play those minutes for the Hornets with a completely different coach and roster. The same way....Clarkson for example produces almost identical stats whether he plays 35 mpg or 23 mpg. Same applies to D-Lo. We all were wondering why the hell he doesn't play 30+ minutes. He goes to the Nets...and guess what, still ends up with the same amount of minutes. I don't know why that is but IMO its too simplified to assume that the coach doesn't play them more just because he doesn't get it. I'm sure there are metrics and reasons for it. With regard to his improved efficiency...I agree that it has improved quite a bit. But his situation is pretty similar to Ingram's rookie season. It was obvious that he will not continue to shoot 30% from the floor and continue to be the worst player in history. The reason why people (me) still complain about him is that his game hasn't grown. He isn't showing new skills, more consistency, more aggressiveness. He is doing what he did last year, with higher efficiency. That's a very low bar for a potential star especially at such a young age. The biggest jumps are made early, not late. We had a similar issue with Ingram last year, especially after his slow start he was getting killed everywhere. In his 2nd season he started slow but improved steadily and was noticeably more aggressive going to the rim and didn't shy away like his rookie season. You could see noticeable difference/growth. Lonzo IMO has failed to show that GROWTH in his approach to the game. Being a more efficient version of your rookie-self isn't good enough. Expectations are simply higher for me. Last 5 games Lonzo has averaged 7 ppg, 4 rpg, 3.6 apg, 0.4 spg, 0 bpg, 1.8 TOs a game...honestly, just not good enough for me. Sorry.
Looking the same as year 1--which was a bit disappointing, relative to draft class--isn't a positive. Players are supposed to make jumps in year two. Specifically, he's still afraid to take it to the basket, which makes him a player the defense can largely ignore and mitigates his passing game. He's a good defender and a basketball genius, but that alone isn't enough to make a cornerstone player. The lakers have one of those right now, and he's 34.
