Yeah he's not playing well. Not even in garbage time. He played much better in preseason, especially earlier. He was able to chase down guards attacking the paint and haven't seen that. Apart from rebounding, he's failing in every area. I'm still high on him, he shows a lot of stuff that indicates he's a good player. Probably just going through the motions and adjusting to everything. He needs time. But I understand we may not have it so we have to find a middle ground in this. Vando getting back would help A LOT
no two ways about it, he needs to improve. i actually like that jj hasn't pulled out the hook yet, though. we know what reddish can and can't do. we can dust him off in case of injury and/or emergency. we have to give max a chance to work it out.
if he doesn't play well or improve, he's an untradeable 8 million on the books. Can't imagine we have anyone beating down our door asking about Max at this point. The contract changes everything.
The Wizards might be interested in a Max/Lewis trade for Valenucius. He could play a lot in Washington and we snag a legit 5 without really giving up much.
I really thought this would be at least a low key breakout year for Max. Still time, but not a promising start.
we'd have to give them something they want - not JV is worth a protected first round pick at this stage of his career
he's been atrocious and he's making Darvin Ham look good right now for not playing him enough. I hated Taurean Prince but he was at least a threat offensively. We were banking on him being a legit rotation player and he's been JHS-esque if anything
Ham was a s*** coach but he was absolutely correct to play Cam over him last year. People didn't like hearing it but his basketball IQ is crap and he's so robotic on both offense and defense that he's bringing the team down. I'd much rather work thru Knecht's growing by giving him his minutes till Vando comes back
agreed @Pioneer10 we need to give all of Max's minutes to Knecht until we have injuries or something, then Max can get in
I'm not giving up a 1st rd pick for Valenucius. He only signed for 10M. That's like saying Gabe is worth a 1st rd pick.
A blind, three legged midget could diagnose that Max Christie blew a** at NBA basketball. No need to give Darvin Ham the credit there.
Prince is an upgrade over Max at this stage in their careers; people on this site got it right when they said Prince shouldn't have been a starter. He did okay off the bench and would have served a nice role here if he hadn't followed Ham to Milwaukee.
BUT .... someone gets to Max with some sense to his brain and tells him to stop trying to dunk the ball ..... go for blow byes and "lay ups" instead, and if he were to start hitting a few shots as he's shown he can do in the past .... and continue with his improved staying with guys defense and good rebounding for his size, at 21 years and 8M ..... and that statement is another over the top career capper. This isn't JHS(so far). The above is entirely possible even if he's not the brightest basketball IQ guy.
This team currently constructed has negative time to wait for some mop headed 21 year old who got overpaid to do the same s*** a perennial G-Leaguer could do. Lakers do not have time to wait for anyone or player. This team needs to win and win now and they need a couple more guys to help before AD and Lebron burn out before the end of the year. I'm not here for waiting or feel good stories. If you are here for that s***, the Hallmark Channel has them every Christmas for a month.
with the way the cap's going to increase over the next few years, his current salary will probably be like the tpmle/bae range in a couple years. from his agent's perspective, they were giving up shots at more future earnings and probably asked for the PO in return. we also probably didn't want to mess with RFA just in case someone got clever. it's easy to say now that he's been bad to start the year, but internally, they weren't expecting this.
He's awful on defense and offense. Just awful no clue how to defend: guys just blow past him, can't hit the broad side of a barn and constantly does dumb stuff. Everytime he comes in teams seem to go on a run and the opposing players get into a groove. Hopefully Cam and Knecht take all his minutes
shocked at how bad he's been...unfortunately, it seems like Cam Reddish is going to take his minutes at this point, and that's NOT a good thing because Cam Reddish SUCKS
