Talen Horton-Tucker Discussion: Growing Pains

Guys, the kid is 21 years old.

 

Yup, issue is, he has value and if the Lakers want a prime young player who can fit right now, they have to give up something.

 

Age became irrelevant in terms of expectations when we paid him and the front office, Vogel, and Bron promised us in training camp that he was ready to be our 4th most important player on the roster.

 

So this dumpster fire of a team can maybe win one more playoff game? No thanks.

 

They will need to 2018 Cavs it. But then again, this is the West. Lakers would need to get lucky like the Suns got lucky last year to avoid somethings.

 

If you replaced Dame with Westbrook, hypothetically, I know that's not possible, the Lakers would start winning regularly immediately.

 

I enjoyed this Dr Seuss-iness!

 

short term, grant’s a big upgrade who could help give us a puncher's chance.

 

It's not THT's bad few games lately that I'm down on, it's his overall growth as a player. Early on, THT displayed some vision & stop-n-go movement that would make him a fantastic point guard. I envisioned him like a revved-up Andre Miller who can score and defend. This season I see him as a predictable, inefficient scorer who can't get to the line. He has no business trying to dunk most of his drives to the rim. Between him and Westbrook I've never seen so many dunks spike out of the rim. He may be good defensively, but it's hard to notice when the team is bad defensively.

I'm not ruling out THT developing into a good player. In fact I think the odds are that he does become a good impact player in the future. Like many have mentioned, it takes time for players to become good. I'm just saying in the context of a "championship level" team, choosing to pay the prospect who isn't currently panning out is a hard pill to swallow. Especially when you let key players go.

 

THT situation (and really also Westbrook) is a classic example of sunk-cost fallacy.

 

So we’re giving away a promising young player, in order to get a little bit better, knowing we have to count on major injuries to the teams we will face, not the strength of our team, in order to go far in the playoffs?
I’m sorry, but that is just foolish.

 

Lakers are about titles today. Not build for tomorrow.

 

This is not a title contending team.

 

Exactly, and THT's 1-13 shooting is one of the reasons.

 

I get both sides.

THT is having a bad season. The fit is awful, coaching isn't helping. But I think it's too harsh to blame the youngster of the team when Westbrook doesn't work, AD is not dominating and pretty much all players are underperforming in the season if their name is not Lebron. We are having a bad season and I think THT is not one of the top 5 reasons
On the other hand, there were aspects of the game that I was expecting him to develop, specially on the defensive end. He does seem to have gotten better in defense but not good enough to make an impact.
Then the offense is pretty basic. He does bad reads and with the ball in the hands, usually the outcome is not good for us. He also doesn't seem to show good basketball IQ.

But there's the other side. He has potential and in the next 2 years it's not fair to expect him to be a top player in the squad. He's not that good. We should know that when we extended him, specially instead of Caruso. I don't think Grant or whoever we can get for him will turn the needle. This is just a dysfunctional roster and Warriors, Suns and East top 3 would beat us easily in a playoff series, barring no star injuries

 

no, the offense isn’t the issue with this team. The fact that they give up the third most points shows you it’s the DEFENSE.

 

Soon to take a quantum leap if we get our guys back, now with Ariza and Reaves and Johnson and maybe even Grant.

 

Lot harder to play defense when the opposition is getting rebounds off all our bricks and able to push the tempo. Mentally it’s harder to stay engaged defensively if you finally dig in and get a few stops, are trying to make a push, but then can’t convert on offense to steal momentum.

I agree that defense is our main problem, but when we’re playing guys who are a black hole on offense, that can contribute to our defensive woes too.

This month, I think THT has basically averaged the third highest minutes and field goal attempts per game on our team, and he has been abysmal on offense while being a mediocre to average defender.

He needs to play and/or shoot less.

 

Okay, if offense is king, and if you are going to value a player based solely on one aspect of his game, then DJ, and D12 should both be shooting more than everyone else on the team because they both shoot over 60% from the field.

 

you really blaming tht for the losing? and i agree with other guy, this team is not a contender as it stands and Grant doesnt change that