Luol Deng Discussion: No #Dengdump, Rather Stretched Into Cash

Why? look at his #s from last yr in mia, its not that much better. hes not magically gona turn into anyone worth 18mill thats for dam sure

 

i think rodg posted that he was one of our best in terms of early +/- stuff. deng definitely does some intangible stuff. and i'm an intangibles guy, to be sure. but yeah, for the money, you want him to knock down a couple threes a game and make life tough for the opposition on d. he does the latter, but more in terms of his role in the team scheme (very important, i might add). deng's never been a shut-down guy in isolation, though. he's never been quick enough for that, and age won't help there.

my main concern is that he looks notably slower than even last year. if that's his legs just aging out, man, that contract's going to hurt.

 

I want everyone to key in on him next game.. I've seen him play some dog defense at times, make some clutch 3's but obviously hasn't been consistent in terms of shooting.

I have a feeling the league will slow down a hair after new years and luol will continue to iron the kinks out.

I think by mid season, he'll be in mid season form. Well see, either way... we should be worried with several players making peanuts.

 

i've looked at his number from last year and he got stronger as the year went on, especially after the all-star break. he also missed a chunk of the preseason. i mentioned in another thread, i've been disappointed with Deng as well, but it's far too early to panic.

 

Wouldnt shocked to see gay have big night tonight

 

Didn't he start at PF after the asb?

 

That is correct, but his shooting was significantly better than it has been, which I don't typically view as a positional problem. So while there may be an issue with him defending quicker SFs, the shooting should trend upwards. There have definitely been moments through the first 8 games where he was painful to watch, but I am not overly concerned at this point. He missed a chunk of preseason so I'm hoping he's still getting in game shape and learning his role. If he's playing like this 20-30 games in, then I'm more than happy to change things up.

 

i'd be pretty surprised if gay killed us on isos. he tends to use his length to score, not his quickness. if i were sac, i wouldn't try to iso gay on deng. that just sounds odd...

anyway, if gay goes off, it won't be anything new; he's playing very well so far this season. i'm more concerned about the darren collisons and aaron afflalos and ben mclemores going crazy in a rare nationally televised home game for sac.

i'm glad anthony tolliver's out.

 

Im keying...looks even worse today

 

Did I mention racist Danny Ferry was right?

 

Giving him minutes at the 4 with Nance at the 5 (instead of Black) seems like the "last" solution .

 

Might be time to resuscitate the hero and deng (zero) thread. A few dung garbage sigs might do wonders as well. Otherwise he can play the sf position on the pine, and start using that 18 million for some suits and slacks.

 

What did he say?

 

i'd never actually seen the full quote. ferry's description of deng is troubling if true. connecting with "African"-ness was...a poor choice.

 

He is a 4. Additionally, he will probably be in a bench role sooner than I thought.

We can always waive and stretch him, too...