If Max locks down a starting positions and any of the rookies get rotation minutes, it will be because they earned them and I’m totally fine with that. The base rates suggest that they won’t because it takes time for rookies to develop. Once again not because of some bias against rookies but just because they need to understand the NBA game and they need to develop an 82 game stamina. College is just a different game. I also want to point out that physical primes are generally 27-32. So 19-23 year olds are going to struggle right out of college physically too. In my opinion, your frame of reference is from the point of view of a coach who clearly empowers youth and understands how much more advanced they are with all the development the sport has gone through over the last 20 years, and you also get what belief and a long leash can do for one’s development. But this is the NBA and it’s a bit harder for rookies here than in lower leagues. Austin Reaves is the exception and not the rule. So I wouldn’t take his development and now apply it to others as proof. That’s just setting them up for failure.
I"m not excited about him potentially starting as I agree very remote chance of that. I am excited about him and Prince as options to throw at the Murray, Bruce Brown, and KCP's of the world. Guys who are too big for Vincent/Schroeder but too quick for Rui were a problem as teams unfortunately were able to expose Vando's lack of offense to good effect. Having Prince and to me I'm pretty sold on Christie as guys who can defend and you have to guard answer a huge hole. Reaves's offense has gotten to the point that you really don't want him having to burn as the Lakers primary defensive guy either. Still need a big to throw on Jokic: still not completely satisfied (in a realistic manner: not like Lakers have the assets to get a guy like Lillard w/o decapitating the team) till we at least have a body to throw on him. Amazing how great a signing and what a way how one thinks about a career when Dwight joined the bubble team.
dam his SL performance has ruined his card prices for me, 3-5x higher than few weeks after season ended
@ Pioneer10....Good lord man..you are relentless with that Vanderbilt lack of offense stuff. You have mentioned that over 50 times in multiple threads. That kid plays 20 minutes a game. D'Angelo's lack of offense and defense,, cost us that Denver series. As close as those games were, if he would have just been average, we would have been OK. Somehow you seem to gloss over that, and continue to talk about Vanderbilt. SMH But I digress.. Max..I like this kid..reminds me of a young Kobe. He has that bounce, glide, he exudes confidence, he has some "It factor" to him. The future is bright IMO...I'm not sure he's ready yet for prime time, on a Championship caliber team though. Austin cut his teeth on a team going nowhere, and we were willing to let him play and feel his way through . This isn't the same situation for Max, the stakes are higher, the mistakes are magnified. He's going to get his shot tho, we cleared the deck for him at 2, letting Malik and Lonnie walk. I think the expectations should be tempered some, spot minutes and regular rotation minutes are not the same thing.
It's a problem because Vando is really good on defense, if he was effective all (at the playoff level: and we have evidence from 3 straight playoff series that teams played him off the floor because the Lakers offense ground to a halt with him in there) on offense, the Lakers probably would have won the title last year. And I've been just as critical of Dlo. Not really sure where the idea is I'm sort blaming Vando for the Lakers losing last year in the WCF. The thing is like both of them: I like watching Dlo ball when he's on - he's like a poor man's Kyrie Irving. Vanderbilt is a joy to watch on defense if you're an NBA fan - he's not only gives effort on D but he's also very intelligent in his reads, etc. At the end of the day though, I rate "roleplayers" who can finish games in the playoffs more highly then Vando or Dlo. A guy like KCP who is 1) smart 2) a good defender but not as good as Vando and 2) a decent offensive player particularly with his jumpshot who also is not as "good" as Dlo on offense, I rate much higher because he won't be run off the floor in the 4th quarters of playoff games for a contending team. I can't remember which poster attempted to mock me about bringing up KCP BEFORE the Nuggets series that I thought the Lakers were a shoo-in if they still had him. Of course he turned it be just like with the Bubble Lakers a key part of the reason the Nuggest were able to win because if you're aren't reasonably good on both ends and you aren't a uber talent, you're going to get schemed to death. The Lakers have AD, Lebron, Reaves set at 3 spots. Against certain teams Rui works into the 4 spot, Schroeder also worked into the 1 spot against other teams. The Lakers needs to find a few more of these guys: Vincent fits that bill to replace Shroeder but now hopefully you have Prince who seems like a good 2 way player to me, and I'm excited about Max for this very same reason. Max doesn't have as much upside as some of these other players in the summer league but he has the advantage is I see another KCP type of versatile player in him. Need those two-way guys
If D'Angelo simply played to his career averages, we win that series plain and simple. In the playoffs you aren't ever going to win all your matchups. Jarred is a 20 min a game player, I didn't think anyone went into the series with the intent of targeting him. They did target D'Angelo, and he just failed to respond against Denver. That team could have beaten Miami as is, Russell is the only one that failed to show up IMO. Then we got absolutely nothing from Beasley or Bsmba, it's difficult to beat a good team short handed, it's still possible, if all your key guys show up though.
This is absolutely insane to me: Memphis, GS, and Denver specifically targeted him as the weak link in the Lakers offense. Three straight series where the opposing coaches where one of the big adjustments was here you go Lakers try to score 4 on 5 and we'll live with Vanderbilt with getting whatever and it worked as his minutes were cut. But as I noted the Lakers needed Jarred on the floor and if he was any sort of threat on offense, his minutes should be higher because of the Lakers needed his defense but he got schemed out. Denver won with 6 guys with a game here or there with Jeff Green or Braun stepping up. Outside of that it Jokic, Murray, Brown, KCP, MPJ, Gordon. It's insane Green had 66 minutes and Braun only 20 minutes. The big thing about those 6: at least reasonably good on offense and defense
Jarred Vanderbilt has been a 20-25 min a game player for his career, once he started getting serious playing time man. That's fine, some guys are specialists, and play their whole careers like that. He's 23 years old, he's not a scorer, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. D'Angelo on the other is former 2nd overall pick, starting point, former All Star. Teams go into a series looking to scheme HIM, not Jared Vanderbilt. Did you somehow miss, that every team we played, targeted D'Angelo Russell? I mean damn, you are going to great lengths, to keep circling back to Vanderbilt, when the obvious weak link was D'Angelo. D'Angelo got schemed out, once he failed to score the ball, his defense has always been weak. Memphis targeted him when he was in Minnesota, in the playoffs last season. I'm just not getting your position here, Vanderbilt isn't going to lock any high end scorer down, for whole games. Most defensive guys aren't great on offense, that's why you have to have scorers on the court with them. Every team we played, lit our perimeter guys up, it is what it is. That's why Hamm brought AD up out on the perimeter more, to shore up our perimeter defense. Austin and D'Angelo aren't exactly a defensive duo at all. They can score the ball though, and when they are doing that, we are at our best. Denver was the top offensive team in the playoffs, they didn't have a bunch of great defensive players. They were competitive on D, but they consistently scored the ball, and if you couldn't match that, you got beat. The guys that they played, played their roles, and their stars played up to their abilities. D'Angelo was the only guy we had, that failed to play to his role period. That wasn't on Jarred Vanderbilt. 6pts, 3 assists and 17% from 3, is a huge drop off, for one of your main offensive guys. That's a series losing type of drop off. I still think that you are continuing,to look in the wrong direction, with this Vanderbilt stuff. Yeah he might could have hit a few more shots, but if D'Angelo wasn't absolutely terrible in that series, we'd be Champions again today.
Shrug..I said Jarred could have hit a few more shots. If Jarred would have produced slightly above his regular season averages, we still lose that series. If D'Angelo had played slightly below his regular season, or even slightly below his previous two series averages, we win. Big difference.
I don't want Vando playing more than 25 minutes. He's great in those minutes but don't need more. Possibly 20. We have Rui and now Prince to also eat minutes and give the team different looks
He had some poor judgement on a couple of second half drives but on the whole he's just way too unselfish for summer league. On the good side, he's playing exactly the role he is being prepared for the real team. But it's frustrating watching Boston just decide to double-team him and he's become neutralized. Yeah it's a definite complement as he was the one Laker Boston decided to double but got to keep him going on offense. Defense and on the glass terrific again. Two poor TO's on drives but tries to make the right play for the most part. He had one box out against the Center, dribble out, full court pass for an easy layup was exactly what the Lakers need for him on the senior team
Yep. I've seen enough. He struggled some against Walsh (teams are going to regret passing on him), but kept after it and settled into another really good overall game.
Keep it up Max. Love that he’s been mixing it up more with the mid range game. His work ethic alone shows he already has the Mamba Mentality.
