The Lakers had a bench 'death' lineup last season with Lou, Jordan, Ingram, Nance and Black. For a time there that was the most productive lineup in the league. Lou is a better defender than Thomas but both have to be hidden.
Nance and Black were mobile, defensive bigs and Ingram has great length. LA still has Ingram who is slightly improved as a defender but no longer has Black or Nance. Now we have Randle, Lopez, Kuzma, Frye, Zubac and Bryant as options at big. _________________ Austin Reaves keeps his game tight, like Kobe Bryant on game night.
Joined: 16 Jun 2005 Posts: 40345 Location: Dirty South
Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2018 5:28 pm Post subject:
Laker's Fan wrote:
Lou is a better defender than Thomas but both have to be hidden.
Lou is better than Thomas....yet I see some LG users saying we should sign him on a bargain contract next year....and numbers like $12 & $15 Million mentioned. Lue just signed for $8 Million a year....and the 3rd year is not even guaranteed.
Lou is a better defender than Thomas but both have to be hidden.
Lou is better than Thomas....yet I see some LG users saying we should sign him on a bargain contract next year....and numbers like $12 & $15 Million mentioned. Lue just signed for $8 Million a year....and the 3rd year is not even guaranteed.
Lou obviously really wanted to stay with the Clippers to have accepted that crazy deal. Way under what he could've gotten.
It's pretty obvious that his ability to make it rain buckets offset his defensive shortcomings and there are winning scenarios associated with his floor time.
You seem determined to respond to an argument that no one is making. Who is saying that IT can't score? The topic of the thread is whether you can hide his defense. You can't.
There are some players whose offense is so good that they are stars even though their defense is atrocious. IT was there last year. Harden has been there. Nash lived there. Scoring is the most valuable skill in the game, and there is always demand for it.
But that does not make the defensive problems go away. It just offsets them, hopefully. Last year, IT had a net RPM of +1.83. That's good, but it's not clear whether he can duplicate his offensive numbers after his injury. If he can't, he's a liability, because his defense isn't going to get better. If he can, we sure as hell aren't signing him to some cheap contract to play a sixth man role.
IT is better than Lou Williams. I don't think that one is up for debate. This is coming from a guy who wanted to bring Lou back. _________________ Coach Vogel, Kidd, Hollins
Max slot : Kawhi
Harden is a bad defender but IT is on a different level of bad when it comes to defense. He has no chance to even be a deterrence.
Harden wasn't bad when he came in the league. He became bad.
I was just saying this the other day. In OKC he was the guy who took the challenge of guarding Kobe (definitely more than Durant and Westbrook). It’s anazing how he went from that to literally just watching guys blow by him.
Watching some of the post-game interviews, it seems like the team and Luke agree that the biggest problem on defense was a lack of communication, guys weren't talking. I've heard Larry say he took it upon himself to direct the defense when he was out on the floor. We probably missed him a lot. And maybe the guys just got discombobulated with the change in lineups. I expect Luke will drill down on this for the next game. It might not be as bad. God, I hope so.
Joined: 16 Jun 2005 Posts: 40345 Location: Dirty South
Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2018 10:23 pm Post subject:
mookielala wrote:
Watching some of the post-game interviews, it seems like the team and Luke agree that the biggest problem on defense was a lack of communication, guys weren't talking. I've heard Larry say he took it upon himself to direct the defense when he was out on the floor. We probably missed him a lot. And maybe the guys just got discombobulated with the change in lineups. I expect Luke will drill down on this for the next game. It might not be as bad. God, I hope so.
like every time IT died on a screen, nobody yelled out "Napoleon down"...or when he would go 4 feet under a screen to avoid all contact when guarding a shooter, nobody yelled out "little dude bailed".....or was it the many times his guy went right past him, the helper did not communicate "tiny matador"?
There were so many times that he got beat on defense and Dallas simply failed to score.....if they score on those possessions at just league average, we get blown out.
Watching some of the post-game interviews, it seems like the team and Luke agree that the biggest problem on defense was a lack of communication, guys weren't talking. I've heard Larry say he took it upon himself to direct the defense when he was out on the floor. We probably missed him a lot. And maybe the guys just got discombobulated with the change in lineups. I expect Luke will drill down on this for the next game. It might not be as bad. God, I hope so.
like every time IT died on a screen, nobody yelled out "Napoleon down"...or when he would go 4 feet under a screen to avoid all contact when guarding a shooter, nobody yelled out "little dude bailed".....or was it the many times his guy went right past him, the helper did not communicate "tiny matador"?
There were so many times that he got beat on defense and Dallas simply failed to score.....if they score on those possessions at just league average, we get blown out.
I admit, he looks ridiculous out there sometimes. Dude is too short to guard NBA players. I'm just hoping they can figure it out. I mean Orlando killed us too. If we get blown out by the Pelicans, then we definitely have a problem. In that case, I just hope the solution is as simple as taking IT out. If it turns out we somehow gutted our defensive scheme by trading two players, then we are screwed for the rest of the season.
We won't be able to hide him. We can only hope to play him against other teams bench guys and put him on the worst perimeter scorer. Hopefully he can out score his opponent coming off the bench. If IT can score 20 PPG and only give up 18 PPG that wouldn't be too bad.
Joined: 24 Dec 2007 Posts: 35813 Location: Santa Clarita, CA (Hell) ->>>>>Ithaca, NY -≥≥≥≥≥Berkeley, CA
Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2018 10:57 pm Post subject:
So did Isaiah even have anything to do with Boston's success last season? Sure, he averaged 29 points, but how many did he give up? I think even last season, his overall impact was pretty much that of a borderline all-star despite the fact that his name was in the MVP discussion.
I still can't believe the Cavs gave up Kyrie for this guy and the Brooklyn pick. _________________ Damian Lillard shatters Dwight Coward's championship dreams:
So did Isaiah even have anything to do with Boston's success last season? Sure, he averaged 29 points, but how many did he give up? I think even last season, his overall impact was pretty much that of a borderline all-star despite the fact that his name was in the MVP discussion.
I still can't believe the Cavs gave up Kyrie for this guy and the Brooklyn pick.
Adding to that, when IT went down last year in the playoffs, the Celtics played better without him.
I don't blame the Lakers' poor defensive effort against the Mavs on IT, but their problems are fixable. IT? Maybe if he can grow to 6'5.
Watching some of the post-game interviews, it seems like the team and Luke agree that the biggest problem on defense was a lack of communication, guys weren't talking. I've heard Larry say he took it upon himself to direct the defense when he was out on the floor. We probably missed him a lot. And maybe the guys just got discombobulated with the change in lineups. I expect Luke will drill down on this for the next game. It might not be as bad. God, I hope so.
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