If Magic is serious about attracting Lebron and Paul George in 2018, he should advocate that Kuzma starts.
BI can develop on the bench although I am not a fan of the ball stopping tendencies of BI and Clarkson. Perhaps have Bogut run the offense from the elbows?
I actually wouldn't mind a bench of
C - Bogut
F - BI, Deng
F - Ennis, Clarkson
I expect Deng to play much better as a backup 4. If he or Bogut struggles, bring in Nance/Zubac. If Clarkson struggles, bring in Hart.
Lost in all the scoring hoopla is that Kuzma has also been playing defense well, at least in that last game he was always on his man and contesting shots, always active and moving and helping out teammates. He could end up being one of the Laker's better defenders. _________________
If Magic is serious about attracting Lebron and Paul George in 2018, he should advocate that Kuzma starts.
BI can develop on the bench although I am not a fan of the ball stopping tendencies of BI and Clarkson. Perhaps have Bogut run the offense from the elbows?
I actually wouldn't mind a bench of
C - Bogut
F - BI, Deng
F - Ennis, Clarkson
I expect Deng to play much better as a backup 4. If he or Bogut struggles, bring in Nance/Zubac. If Clarkson struggles, bring in Hart.
Who knows if PG and Lebron are still coming next summer, but if they do, Kuz is a natural fit alongside those 2 - not to mention his great synergy with Lonzo.
Lost in all the scoring hoopla is that Kuzma has also been playing defense well, at least in that last game he was always on his man and contesting shots, always active and moving and helping out teammates. He could end up being one of the Laker's better defenders.
He held position well against Sac and has played with a lot of energy on the defensive end even in the games where he was overmatched physically.
Joined: 02 Jan 2011 Posts: 36081 Location: 502 Bad Gateway
Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 9:47 am Post subject:
RCS926 wrote:
Zubolo wrote:
If Magic is serious about attracting Lebron and Paul George in 2018, he should advocate that Kuzma starts.
BI can develop on the bench although I am not a fan of the ball stopping tendencies of BI and Clarkson. Perhaps have Bogut run the offense from the elbows?
I actually wouldn't mind a bench of
C - Bogut
F - BI, Deng
F - Ennis, Clarkson
I expect Deng to play much better as a backup 4. If he or Bogut struggles, bring in Nance/Zubac. If Clarkson struggles, bring in Hart.
Who knows if PG and Lebron are still coming next summer, but if they do, Kuz is a natural fit alongside those 2 - not to mention his great synergy with Lonzo.
Super sub sixth man is how I would use him. You can go small with Lebron at center for stretches and have all three of them on the floor.
Joined: 14 Apr 2001 Posts: 144432 Location: The Gold Coast
Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 10:11 am Post subject:
Jordan-esque wrote:
Lost in all the scoring hoopla is that Kuzma has also been playing defense well, at least in that last game he was always on his man and contesting shots, always active and moving and helping out teammates. He could end up being one of the Laker's better defenders.
He has good awareness and effort but is weak physically against bigger players, he gets pushed around easily. A year of development will help with that. _________________ RIP mom. 11-21-1933 to 6-14-2023.
Lost in all the scoring hoopla is that Kuzma has also been playing defense well, at least in that last game he was always on his man and contesting shots, always active and moving and helping out teammates. He could end up being one of the Laker's better defenders.
He has good awareness and effort but is weak physically against bigger players, he gets pushed around easily. A year of development will help with that.
If Magic is serious about attracting Lebron and Paul George in 2018, he should advocate that Kuzma starts.
BI can develop on the bench although I am not a fan of the ball stopping tendencies of BI and Clarkson. Perhaps have Bogut run the offense from the elbows?
I actually wouldn't mind a bench of
C - Bogut
F - BI, Deng
F - Ennis, Clarkson
I expect Deng to play much better as a backup 4. If he or Bogut struggles, bring in Nance/Zubac. If Clarkson struggles, bring in Hart.
Who knows if PG and Lebron are still coming next summer, but if they do, Kuz is a natural fit alongside those 2 - not to mention his great synergy with Lonzo.
Super sub sixth man is how I would use him. You can go small with Lebron at center for stretches and have all three of them on the floor.
I agree. A starting 5 with Lopez, Lebron, Kuzma, PG13 and Lonzo will be tough for any team to deal with including the Warriors.
My point is even though it would be very hard to attract Lebron and PG13 as it is right now, we stand a much better chance using Kuzma rather than BI as the other star attraction along with maybe Lonzo.
I'm still pretty optimistic if we were to take that route. I'm giving BI 5 to 10 more games to show me something.
Joined: 14 Apr 2001 Posts: 144432 Location: The Gold Coast
Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 10:18 am Post subject:
Chronicle wrote:
venturalakersfan wrote:
Jordan-esque wrote:
Lost in all the scoring hoopla is that Kuzma has also been playing defense well, at least in that last game he was always on his man and contesting shots, always active and moving and helping out teammates. He could end up being one of the Laker's better defenders.
He has good awareness and effort but is weak physically against bigger players, he gets pushed around easily. A year of development will help with that.
And why he should play SF!
I agree _________________ RIP mom. 11-21-1933 to 6-14-2023.
If Magic is serious about attracting Lebron and Paul George in 2018, he should advocate that Kuzma starts.
BI can develop on the bench although I am not a fan of the ball stopping tendencies of BI and Clarkson. Perhaps have Bogut run the offense from the elbows?
I actually wouldn't mind a bench of
C - Bogut
F - BI, Deng
F - Ennis, Clarkson
I expect Deng to play much better as a backup 4. If he or Bogut struggles, bring in Nance/Zubac. If Clarkson struggles, bring in Hart.
Who knows if PG and Lebron are still coming next summer, but if they do, Kuz is a natural fit alongside those 2 - not to mention his great synergy with Lonzo.
Super sub sixth man is how I would use him. You can go small with Lebron at center for stretches and have all three of them on the floor.
I agree. A starting 5 with Lopez, Lebron, Kuzma, PG13 and Lonzo will be tough for any team to deal with including the Warriors.
My point is even though it would be very hard to attract Lebron and PG13 as it is right now, we stand a much better chance using Kuzma rather than BI as the other star attraction along with maybe Lonzo.
I'm still pretty optimistic if we were to take that route. I'm giving BI 5 to 10 more games to show me something.
lol thats it huh. 5 to 10 games. if you were the one in charge a lot of guys that are solid to very good ballers would be dead in the water. Thats all you give kids that come in at 19 yrs of age. You give them 1 season and 10 regular season games. if they dont prove to you that they can score(the hell with anything else they have shown they could do).. and thats it huh? wow laker fans.
I just want to remind you.
steve nash didnt look like much of anything for a few years in the nba.
and he didnt look like mvp nash until him and MDA hooked up years into the nba.
So if this is how us laker fans are going to judge players. its going to be a tough hard/long road ahead. if you're not kobe status out the gate then NEXT.. sheesh.
I mean Kawhi wasnt a monster until a few years in as well. sure he's a much bigger guy, so he wont get moved around as easily as BI. so that helps. But Kawhi was playing alongside TP, GINO and Timmy D..while he had time to basically be the 4th fiddle and no one paid attention to him defensively. meaning he was always going one v one if not just him vs no one with wide open looks since you better guard those other 3 proven vets. BI is on a team and has been on a team full of not so savvy young guys. no one is drawing a double on this team at all. which means any one of them can be bottled up by a team defense shifting towards them if they try to make a move. they wont care if they leave the other lakers open. Being on a young/bad team early on is a gift and a curse. its a gift for some guy is a born scorer(BI is not that kind of player. he's a do all guy). born scorers can put up a ton of points on sorry teams and lose a lot of games. but learn how to go at the nba and deal with double and triple teams often. then if they move on to a better team or get help later on in their careers. they are already use to being jumped by the defense, so life is now so much easier with the extra help. Vs if you're not a born scorer and you end up on a sorry young team. its going to be awhile before you look like anything special. young guys with upside do better on teams with savvy vets that are winning games. so they can pull attention away from the rooks..so the rook can ease his way into scoring vs nba talent.
If Magic is serious about attracting Lebron and Paul George in 2018, he should advocate that Kuzma starts.
BI can develop on the bench although I am not a fan of the ball stopping tendencies of BI and Clarkson. Perhaps have Bogut run the offense from the elbows?
I actually wouldn't mind a bench of
C - Bogut
F - BI, Deng
F - Ennis, Clarkson
I expect Deng to play much better as a backup 4. If he or Bogut struggles, bring in Nance/Zubac. If Clarkson struggles, bring in Hart.
Who knows if PG and Lebron are still coming next summer, but if they do, Kuz is a natural fit alongside those 2 - not to mention his great synergy with Lonzo.
Super sub sixth man is how I would use him. You can go small with Lebron at center for stretches and have all three of them on the floor.
I agree. A starting 5 with Lopez, Lebron, Kuzma, PG13 and Lonzo will be tough for any team to deal with including the Warriors.u
My point is even though it would be very hard to attract Lebron and PG13 as it is right now, we stand a much better chance using Kuzma rather than BI as the other star attraction along with maybe Lonzo.
I'm still pretty optimistic if we were to take that route. I'm giving BI 5 to 10 more games to show me something.
How ridiculous is that.... Were u a master of your craft at 20 years old? Kuzma is an awesome find. But he hasn't played a single meaningful game yet. Not even a minute. People down on BI after struggling in a few preseason games need to chill.
If Magic is serious about attracting Lebron and Paul George in 2018, he should advocate that Kuzma starts.
BI can develop on the bench although I am not a fan of the ball stopping tendencies of BI and Clarkson. Perhaps have Bogut run the offense from the elbows?
I actually wouldn't mind a bench of
C - Bogut
F - BI, Deng
F - Ennis, Clarkson
I expect Deng to play much better as a backup 4. If he or Bogut struggles, bring in Nance/Zubac. If Clarkson struggles, bring in Hart.
Who knows if PG and Lebron are still coming next summer, but if they do, Kuz is a natural fit alongside those 2 - not to mention his great synergy with Lonzo.
Super sub sixth man is how I would use him. You can go small with Lebron at center for stretches and have all three of them on the floor.
I agree. A starting 5 with Lopez, Lebron, Kuzma, PG13 and Lonzo will be tough for any team to deal with including the Warriors.u
My point is even though it would be very hard to attract Lebron and PG13 as it is right now, we stand a much better chance using Kuzma rather than BI as the other star attraction along with maybe Lonzo.
I'm still pretty optimistic if we were to take that route. I'm giving BI 5 to 10 more games to show me something.
How ridiculous is that.... Were u a master of your craft at 20 years old? Kuzma is an awesome find. But he hasn't played a single meaningful game yet. Not even a minute. People down on BI after struggling in a few preseason games need to chill.
Why is that ridiculous? Nobody is talking about cutting BI--they are just talking about putting the best players out for the starting lineup. Do you think he should be guaranteed a starting role just because he was the #2 pick a year ago?
Joined: 14 Apr 2001 Posts: 144432 Location: The Gold Coast
Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 11:38 am Post subject:
And again it isn’t about the best players it is about best fit. Nance is starting tonight, does anyone think he is a better player than Kuzma and Randle? No, but he seems to be a better fit with Lopez. Randle and Kuzma have shown good chemistry on the court, they can do well against other second units and finish games for us. We want an unselfish team and this is players being unselfish. _________________ RIP mom. 11-21-1933 to 6-14-2023.
Joined: 12 Jan 2008 Posts: 3820 Location: Anaheim, CA
Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 11:44 am Post subject:
venturalakersfan wrote:
And again it isn’t about the best players it is about best fit. Nance is starting tonight, does anyone think he is a better player than Kuzma and Randle? No, but he seems to be a better fit with Lopez. Randle and Kuzma have shown good chemistry on the court, they can do well against other second units and finish games for us. We want an unselfish team and this is players being unselfish.
Really? You're going to push this best fit agenda? Problem with this is Kuzma fits better in any lineup than Nance does. What exactly does Nance provide better? Defense? I'm sorry but no defender on this team is worth playing over the scoring Kuzma provides.
Joined: 12 Jan 2008 Posts: 3820 Location: Anaheim, CA
Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 11:46 am Post subject:
justsomelakerfan wrote:
I'm coming around to Kuzma in the Lou Williams role
See thats the problem. Luke is in love with this non sense of having firepower off the bench. Problem with that is it doesn't matter how much your bench can score if they have to come in the game already in the hole. It's a (bleep) dumb idea. Start your best players. Play the guys that will provide the best opportunity to either keep up with the other team or outscore them.
Joined: 14 Apr 2001 Posts: 144432 Location: The Gold Coast
Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 11:54 am Post subject:
Lakers 4 eva wrote:
venturalakersfan wrote:
And again it isn’t about the best players it is about best fit. Nance is starting tonight, does anyone think he is a better player than Kuzma and Randle? No, but he seems to be a better fit with Lopez. Randle and Kuzma have shown good chemistry on the court, they can do well against other second units and finish games for us. We want an unselfish team and this is players being unselfish.
Really? You're going to push this best fit agenda? Problem with this is Kuzma fits better in any lineup than Nance does. What exactly does Nance provide better? Defense? I'm sorry but no defender on this team is worth playing over the scoring Kuzma provides.
I guess if you choose to ignore defense. But then you don’t win many ball games. I am glad to see that our coaches aren’t doing that. They understand that the NBA has always been about matchups. _________________ RIP mom. 11-21-1933 to 6-14-2023.
And again it isn’t about the best players it is about best fit. Nance is starting tonight, does anyone think he is a better player than Kuzma and Randle? No, but he seems to be a better fit with Lopez. Randle and Kuzma have shown good chemistry on the court, they can do well against other second units and finish games for us. We want an unselfish team and this is players being unselfish.
If Magic is serious about attracting Lebron and Paul George in 2018, he should advocate that Kuzma starts.
BI can develop on the bench although I am not a fan of the ball stopping tendencies of BI and Clarkson. Perhaps have Bogut run the offense from the elbows?
I actually wouldn't mind a bench of
C - Bogut
F - BI, Deng
F - Ennis, Clarkson
I expect Deng to play much better as a backup 4. If he or Bogut struggles, bring in Nance/Zubac. If Clarkson struggles, bring in Hart.
Who knows if PG and Lebron are still coming next summer, but if they do, Kuz is a natural fit alongside those 2 - not to mention his great synergy with Lonzo.
Super sub sixth man is how I would use him. You can go small with Lebron at center for stretches and have all three of them on the floor.
I agree. A starting 5 with Lopez, Lebron, Kuzma, PG13 and Lonzo will be tough for any team to deal with including the Warriors.
My point is even though it would be very hard to attract Lebron and PG13 as it is right now, we stand a much better chance using Kuzma rather than BI as the other star attraction along with maybe Lonzo.
I'm still pretty optimistic if we were to take that route. I'm giving BI 5 to 10 more games to show me something.
lol thats it huh. 5 to 10 games. if you were the one in charge a lot of guys that are solid to very good ballers would be dead in the water. Thats all you give kids that come in at 19 yrs of age. You give them 1 season and 10 regular season games. if they dont prove to you that they can score(the hell with anything else they have shown they could do).. and thats it huh? wow laker fans.
I just want to remind you.
steve nash didnt look like much of anything for a few years in the nba.
and he didnt look like mvp nash until him and MDA hooked up years into the nba.
So if this is how us laker fans are going to judge players. its going to be a tough hard/long road ahead. if you're not kobe status out the gate then NEXT.. sheesh.
I mean Kawhi wasnt a monster until a few years in as well. sure he's a much bigger guy, so he wont get moved around as easily as BI. so that helps. But Kawhi was playing alongside TP, GINO and Timmy D..while he had time to basically be the 4th fiddle and no one paid attention to him defensively. meaning he was always going one v one if not just him vs no one with wide open looks since you better guard those other 3 proven vets. BI is on a team and has been on a team full of not so savvy young guys. no one is drawing a double on this team at all. which means any one of them can be bottled up by a team defense shifting towards them if they try to make a move. they wont care if they leave the other lakers open. Being on a young/bad team early on is a gift and a curse. its a gift for some guy is a born scorer(BI is not that kind of player. he's a do all guy). born scorers can put up a ton of points on sorry teams and lose a lot of games. but learn how to go at the nba and deal with double and triple teams often. then if they move on to a better team or get help later on in their careers. they are already use to being jumped by the defense, so life is now so much easier with the extra help. Vs if you're not a born scorer and you end up on a sorry young team. its going to be awhile before you look like anything special. young guys with upside do better on teams with savvy vets that are winning games. so they can pull attention away from the rooks..so the rook can ease his way into scoring vs nba talent.
You make it sound like I am talking about waiving Ingram. It goes without saying that Kuzma has been significantly better and his game is much more polished than Ingram's at this point.
If you want to consider fit, I like his ability to space the floor for Randle. Lopez does the same. Randle complements both with his ability to rebound.
That said, there is nothing wrong with allowing a player who is not yet there in terms of potential.. or rather seems far from being there to develop off the bench while the superior player starts ahead of him.
As long as he weighs less than 200 or in that ballpark and he doesn't have a consistent jump shot, it is going to be very difficult for Ingram to have an impact offensively. Kuzma simply does just about everything better.
Another 5-10 games I think is enough time to pull the plug NOT on Ingram's career but in his current role as a starter over a clearly superior player. ESPECIALLY if the goal is to have the best record possible before the end of the season i.e. no incentive to throw away games.
Walton says he's considering starting Kuz in one of the remaining pre season games. Well, pretty obvious he would consider that anyway.
Hmm, I actually just watched the clip where he says this... He said "it's on the discussion table" but sounded a lot more interested in bringing him off the bench to provide scoring.
It's just so suspect because the starting lineup is starving for scorers, and Kyle's gonna be fighting for touches with Clarkson in that second unit.
Luke has a strange fixation on having the best bench in the league rather than putting out the best lineup (even if it involves mixing and matching the starters with the bench at points in the game).
He has a warm spot for the bench players, because thatch all he ever was. Its unfortunate Mitch put such a horrible squad around Kobe to the point where Luke had to be his starting SF for a stretch.
And again it isn’t about the best players it is about best fit. Nance is starting tonight, does anyone think he is a better player than Kuzma and Randle? No, but he seems to be a better fit with Lopez. Randle and Kuzma have shown good chemistry on the court, they can do well against other second units and finish games for us. We want an unselfish team and this is players being unselfish.
Ingram and Caldwell-Pope have both struggled shooting. If they need to start Ingram, they can play him at shooting guard. At this point, they have to start Kuzma at small forward.
PG Ball / Clarkson / Ennis
SG Ingram / Caldwell-Pope / Hart
SF Kuzma / Brewer
PF Randle / Nance / Deng
C Lopez / Bogut / Zubac / Bryant
I think playing with Bogut will help Caldwell-Pope more than Ball or Randle.
Ingram and Caldwell-Pope have both struggled shooting. If they need to start Ingram, they can play him at shooting guard. At this point, they have to start Kuzma at small forward.
PG Ball / Clarkson / Ennis
SG Ingram / Caldwell-Pope / Hart
SF Kuzma / Brewer
PF Randle / Nance / Deng
C Lopez / Bogut / Zubac / Bryant
I think playing with Bogut will help Caldwell-Pope more than Ball or Randle.
Not only are all the players in this lineup slow for their position (except Randle), who is going to play defense? This is a train wreck waiting to happen.
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