real's already explained black's offensive skill: being a threat rolling to the basket. it's probably more useful than occasionally being able to shoot while doing absolutely nothing else ever. the question about a "bad contract" is: what is it preventing that would be better? in this case, very little, if anything. really not sure why it's been a point of contention. did you want the extra money to make a max offer for allen crabbe? the lakers still had the cash to sign bass had they wanted to (or had he wanted to be here?). i think he'll earn most of his cash, relatively speaking, and if not, he'll be easy to unload next summer should it become necessary.
Yeah I think the reality is that @Khmrp doesn't like Black which, I have said multiple times, is totally fine. If you don't like a guy, nobody is here to change your mind. Just say you don't like him though There's not much reason to dislike his contract and critiquing his game for not being versatile is a nonstarter. He's a bench guy for a reason. Still if you still don't like him it's not a big deal.
after months of arguing how terrible Tarik is, the fact that not one other person has spoken up in agreement is usually a pretty decent indicator that you're just wrong. As real said, you're free to dislike him, but there is no basis in fact on claim he's awful.
He covered for Dwight Howard when he was out as a rookie, and was actually doing a pretty solid job. It killed Houston to give him up, but they needed to make room for Josh Smith. I think we should all be ok giving him a chance under better circumstances than bYRON. Did bYRON know how to use anybody???
I have serious questions about Tarik, but I think he's much more the player he was two seasons ago and much less the player he was last season. Lakers' FO agrees, and that's why he's here. I see him as a high energy player who's a backup, and right now I don't want him to be first big off the bench. He could be a borderline starter depending upon role and scheme, however. And I think that's why he's getting what he's getting.
If we thought a guy like Bass was worth more, he was there for the taking. I'd say my faith in the FO is pretty high right now based on recent moves and results. I'd like to see him get some run and see what happens. I think we'll find him to be a reliable, sturdy, steady contributor that will stay within his skill set. He knows who he is, and I think we'll use him in a productive way this year.
I'm indifferent, seems like just cause you don't follow the heard you have to "not like the guy"? I don't see anything worthwhile with Black. He's relatively aloof defensively, even in the limited minutes he got last year there were multiple instances I could count where he got lost on all type of D on his man, from transition to PnR, he's clueless. I have already acknowledge that he is a hustle guy and this all started with Real questioning my opinion he isn't an ideal C sz and compared his sz to no bigger than Randle and his counter was Green, I understand modern day ball is "positionless" but Green has exceptional all around skill, Black does not and he is not a deterent at the basket IMO. I hated the Hibbert trade too and people called me a hater even with how little we paid to get Hibbert, people kept telling me the old adage "he just needs a change of scenery" fluff stuff and used the DPOY canidate from 2 or 3 years ago stuff. So we'll see how it goes, I'm just glad Zubac is looking better than we hoped and will just take all of Black pt sooner than later.
It has nothing to do with a herd mentality and that's a pretty poor argument in my opinion. The fact is you've got no proof for your claims on why you dislike him. Nothing you've provided sticks as a measurable criticism other than "he's short and he doesn't deserve the money" which is your opinion. Which for the last time I've said and I hope I've made clear: that's fine! It's fine if you believe those things, it's your opinion. I think it's wrong. I think there's almost no basis for it and I disagree with the assessment. We're allowed to amiably disagree about things. During the year we'll see fairly quickly which of us is right. All that you've provided is your observations with almost no proof. For instance you've said you remember multiple instances when he got lost on all types of defense. I also remember multiple instances where he made terrific defensive plays. I also remember every single person on our team being lost multiple times last season because it was a horribly coached team and the players were ill prepared. Jordan Clarkson, D'Angelo Russell, very much so Julius Randle, and in the Summer League Brandon Ingram all got lost defensively so that means... what? That they suck and we should have little hope for them? They (and Black) showed enough flashes of brilliance to pique my interest. Again with the size thing. Want more examples besides Draymond Green? In just the last few years with the Lakers: Ronny Turiaf, Brandon Bass, and Josh Powell were all fine as backup big men. Jason Maxiell comes to mind. Ben Wallace obivously. Boris Diaw, Emeka Okafor, Fat Davis, Carl Landry, Chuck Hayes. Leon Powe. Would it shock you to find that Kendrick Perkins was listed at 6'10" but was shorter than that? Some of these guys were starters at points in their career. All of them are Centers by today's NBA standards especially off the bench where you can bring in a guy who is shorter, but athletic and mobile and can change the speed of the game. Zubac has a completely different role on this team. He's going to be groomed to take Mozgov's spot when Mozgov is ready to go. Black's premium value on this team is to be a spark big man off the bench and he has all the tools to excel in that role just like any of our other young players in their respective roles. I'll say it again: your hatred of him is pretty clear even if you don't want to admit it but that is more than okay. Just admit you don't like the guy. We all don't have to agree to everything.
therealdeal said: "He treated her well. I was okay with it." To which: Whoa!! Wait!! With this much laughter and emotion ..... I need to hear what this reference is about. :Josecalderonlink:
In fairness, I believe Khmrp's "herd" reference was in response to wallangong's post stating ".....the fact that not one other person has spoken up in agreement is usually a pretty decent indicator that you're just wrong....." As for my take on Black I'm somewhere in between. I have to admit I was a bit surprised he got that contract. His skillset is very limited so he's like the opposite type of versatile player that Draymond and Randle are. However he's very mobile around the basket and explosive off the floor. He's also very thick, solid...... I think a better reference for his height disadvantage at the C position would be Ben Wallace, without the defense and rebounding of course.
(This quote above. Just being silly) I'm starting not to like this thread as much as Shaq likes ur Mom
The bpm shows black is an overall net negative presence on the court. I dont understand how you @realdeal keep saying I didn't provided any proof and just spewing my opinion as my dislike for him. The ts% is not an indicator of his contributions nor is +/-, that is such a huge misleading stat. If you're blowing out someone or in our case mostly last yr getting blown out, black would be getting garbage pt where the opposing team dont care anymore and ours could be playing harder to reduce the blowout spread, that happens alot and greatly has affect on +/-
I say again: YOU were the one who brought up +/- as a metric. I merely responded in kind. YOU are now bringing it back up and saying it's not a worthy metric. I've said this at least 2-3 times at this point. So when does it become a fair metric and when does it become an unfair metric? Or maybe do you not realize you're doing it? The metric you just quoted- BPM- stands for "Box Plus Minus" which is my point. The metric you're using in your OWN argument is a measure of plus/minus. You're both arguing for and against yourself.
Oh come on let's keep it simple: under any salary cap Tarik Black is a fair deal at $6M per and a decent player. If Mozgov gets injured, Zubac gets injured, we have Black ready to replace. He's no scrub. He has a few serviceable skills. Plus he's a momentum changer. Don't forget in Kobe's last game it was Tarik's monster block late in the 4th that surged our run and gave Kobe his Hollywood ending. We should be glad to have Tarik and we have better things to be upset about than 2/$12M for a guy like him.I think Luke will find creative ways to use him too, unlike the last bonehead.
