Defensively, he's going to be a beast. He's playing two-way ball (some occasional mistakes on D), but at his age? Kid is going to only get better and he's already strong. Got to keep getting him minutes.
^THT NEVER uses his left, eventually teams will scout that. I saw that after the preseason, doesn't matter where he is at the rim he will always go to his right hand to finish. One of those things that a good coach would have developed with him early on, now it's an instinct thing for him to always go with his dominant hand - will be hard to fix but I'm sure Handy is on it.
Yeah, mentioned this a while back. One of the reasons he reminds me a little of Manu offensively is that he will always find a way to bring it back to his dominant hand. It makes for some twisty finishes at times, which was a Manu trait, as well.
CP3, as well. THT is young enough to still develop his off hand, though. _________________ On Lakersground, a concern troll is someone who is a fan of another team, but pretends to be a Lakers fan with "concerns".
^THT NEVER uses his left, eventually teams will scout that. I saw that after the preseason, doesn't matter where he is at the rim he will always go to his right hand to finish. One of those things that a good coach would have developed with him early on, now it's an instinct thing for him to always go with his dominant hand - will be hard to fix but I'm sure Handy is on it.
Yeah, mentioned this a while back. One of the reasons he reminds me a little of Manu offensively is that he will always find a way to bring it back to his dominant hand. It makes for some twisty finishes at times, which was a Manu trait, as well.
CP3, as well. THT is young enough to still develop his off hand, though.
He does not use his left but he ALWAYS uses his body to shield defenders (always does a sort of reverse layup). You would think the entire league would know about this in their scouting.
Defensively, he's going to be a beast. He's playing two-way ball (some occasional mistakes on D), but at his age? Kid is going to only get better and he's already strong. Got to keep getting him minutes.
Imagine THT with a decent mid-range game and slightly better 3-shooting (33 now, 37+ target). Both are well within reach given he's only 20. That's not a 6th man ceiling some are projecting, that's a star(ter).
The answer has been to play more AC/THT off the bench, not bench DS.
I think DS is beginning to adapt to his role behind AD/LBJ.
THT is stepping up to the bench playmaker (when LBJ is sitting). I think THT hasn't even scratched the surface yet as a playmaker. Just hope Vogel doesn't yank his minutes around to placate some of the other vets who aren't playing as much anymore. _________________ From 2-10 to the Western Conference Finals
The answer has been to play more AC/THT off the bench, not bench DS.
I think DS is beginning to adapt to his role behind AD/LBJ.
THT is stepping up to the bench playmaker (when LBJ is sitting). I think THT hasn't even scratched the surface yet as a playmaker. Just hope Vogel doesn't yank his minutes around to placate some of the other vets who aren't playing as much anymore.
I thought the same watching last night. THT is the secondary playmaker imo and Vogel would be wise to let him run with that and gain all the reps and experience before playoffs begin.
Last year, he was the 3rd best playmaker behind LBJ and Rondo. He has all the potential and can take on that Rondo role off the bench.
Great job by THT not falling for that petty (bleep) like Trezz.
What? Looks like they are having a good chemistry out there. THT is always looking for harrell. I dont think they have a beef anymore.
THT will pass to Trezz and Trezz has gotten a lot of easy baskets off of THT assists.
Trezz won’t pass to THT. Even if THT is wide open, he doesn’t pass to him. It is obvious that this is intentional at this point.
I saw your post after the game last night. So, just to be certain, I went back and watched it again. His "obvious" and "intentional" avoidance of passing THT the ball simply isn't true.
No doubt there was tension there, but it seems most here are trying to keep it going by micro-focusing on those two. Please, lets move on.
Kid is our future long term guard. I've already seen enough to know this fact at this point. He has that "it factor". Now, besides the fact he was freaking impressive yet again, I want to talk about what he should work on to expand his game.
What the kid has right now is already really good, and his progress has been outstanding. Yet there are a few things I've noticed that he should look to improve on:
- Midrange Jumper. I swear, I don't think I've EVER seen him take ONE midrange jumper, or a pull up from the free throw line either. His offensive game currently is either shooting the 3, or driving hard to the basket. Funny enough, he is the PERFECT player for Mike Dantoni as the new James Harden.
However, I think THT's game would open up A LOT MORE with a pull-up jumper. It would make him a lot less predictable on offense. If he can develop one through the likes of players like Demar DeRozen, Jimmy Butler, Kawhi Leonard, Chris Paul, etc. He doesn't need to be as good as those guys at it, nor does he need to shoot them as much as they do, but being able to catch a defense slippinf by faking going to the whole and pulling up from the free throw line? You're gonna score a lot more points kid. Plus it even opens up more passing opportunities as you can potentially create an even better shot for someone else.
- Develop a left hand. Most here have probably already noticed, but pretty much all his layups have been right handed. Whether it's a simple straight line, his signature reverse scoop layups he loves to do, even when he drives to the left, he will use his right hand. Granted, he's succeeded very well with it and he's got GREAT control with that right hand. However, good teams later in the season WILL scout him out, and will eventually figure it out.
Now granted, this is a very common problem even with someone of the great players in the league and throughout history, but because of how aggressive he is in going to the basket, I really would like to see him develop that left hand better. Make him near un-blockable. This is where Lebron James should take THT under his wing and work on those fundamentals. THT has some similar traits that Lebron can teach him and make him better at it. He's got the physical gifts of both strength, and length. That's not something you can teach.
The fact THESE are probably my only two things for him to work on, at age 20, as a 2nd round pick, is dare I say, incredible. He's so gifted physically and knows just how to use it. His defense is already very solid and gives even some of the best players headaches to go through because of his wingspan. Obviously he makes some mistakes here and there, but nothing that indicates low IQ on that front. Just mistakes you would expect a 20 year old kid to make right now.
I'm rooting so hard for THT. I truly believe he's the future here. If he were a number one option on a bad team, I believe he would average some pretty spectacular numbers (this was also said by some experts around the league, he's being noticed by more people now). I'm also so glad Vogel has finally decided to make Wes and Markieff bench warmers until further notice for THT. He deserves those minutes. _________________ Darvin Scam: https://media.tenor.com/images/3c15249955860a4b16b59e8ae035fb75/tenor.gif
THT has taken Wes Matthews minutes and our 9 man rotation no longer includes Matthews it seems.
Starters:
Dennis Schroeder
KCP
LeBron James
Anthony Davis
Marc Gasol
Bench:
Alex Caruso
THT
Kyle Kuzma
Montrezl Harrell
Players 10-14 is Kieff, Matthews, Dudley, Cook and McKinnie
Two-Ways are Cacok and Kostas. _________________ How NBA 2K18 failed the All-Time Lakers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxMBYm3wwxk
The answer has been to play more AC/THT off the bench, not bench DS.
I think DS is beginning to adapt to his role behind AD/LBJ.
THT is stepping up to the bench playmaker (when LBJ is sitting). I think THT hasn't even scratched the surface yet as a playmaker. Just hope Vogel doesn't yank his minutes around to placate some of the other vets who aren't playing as much anymore.
I thought the same watching last night. THT is the secondary playmaker imo and Vogel would be wise to let him run with that and gain all the reps and experience before playoffs begin.
Last year, he was the 3rd best playmaker behind LBJ and Rondo. He has all the potential and can take on that Rondo role off the bench.
Last year, he almost didn't play. He was almost all year with South Bay
He does not use his left but he ALWAYS uses his body to shield defenders (always does a sort of reverse layup). You would think the entire league would know about this in their scouting.
YEP!
THT is a master at the reverse layup. He can contort his body in a number of ways to shield off a defender.
The answer has been to play more AC/THT off the bench, not bench DS.
I think DS is beginning to adapt to his role behind AD/LBJ.
THT is stepping up to the bench playmaker (when LBJ is sitting). I think THT hasn't even scratched the surface yet as a playmaker. Just hope Vogel doesn't yank his minutes around to placate some of the other vets who aren't playing as much anymore.
I thought the same watching last night. THT is the secondary playmaker imo and Vogel would be wise to let him run with that and gain all the reps and experience before playoffs begin.
Last year, he was the 3rd best playmaker behind LBJ and Rondo. He has all the potential and can take on that Rondo role off the bench.
Last year, he almost didn't play. He was almost all year with South Bay
Yep and he was still the 3rd best ball handler in the organization whether he played with the small amount of minutes with the Lakers or was in South Bay.
That’s how much we lacked ball handling last year. It was basically LBJ and hoping Rondo could stay healthy to lessen the burden on LBJ.
This season we are legitimately 3 deep with LBJ, Schroder and THT. Caruso has also improved in this area.
8 PPG
3.2 REB
1.0 AST
1.2 STL
54% Field Goal
66% Three Pointer
17.8 MPG
Giving us some solid bench numbers for what he's asked to do. He's played in 5 straight games as well. It seems he may have played himself into the rotation over Wes. _________________ How NBA 2K18 failed the All-Time Lakers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxMBYm3wwxk
Imagine THT with a decent mid-range game and slightly better 3-shooting (33 now, 37+ target). Both are well within reach given he's only 20. That's not a 6th man ceiling some are projecting, that's a star(ter).
He has a lot of areas to improve in his game right now, but I think his upside is higher than just being a starter. I think he can be star. His ability to get to the basket, use his body and finish is very good. If he can develop his off hand, and improve his jumper he can be a 20 point a game scorer.
Joined: 19 Nov 2007 Posts: 4377 Location: Lake Nacimiento
Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2021 4:31 pm Post subject:
LakerSD wrote:
lakerican wrote:
LakerSD wrote:
yinoma2001 wrote:
The answer has been to play more AC/THT off the bench, not bench DS.
I think DS is beginning to adapt to his role behind AD/LBJ.
THT is stepping up to the bench playmaker (when LBJ is sitting). I think THT hasn't even scratched the surface yet as a playmaker. Just hope Vogel doesn't yank his minutes around to placate some of the other vets who aren't playing as much anymore.
I thought the same watching last night. THT is the secondary playmaker imo and Vogel would be wise to let him run with that and gain all the reps and experience before playoffs begin.
Last year, he was the 3rd best playmaker behind LBJ and Rondo. He has all the potential and can take on that Rondo role off the bench.
Last year, he almost didn't play. He was almost all year with South Bay
Yep and he was still the 3rd best ball handler in the organization whether he played with the small amount of minutes with the Lakers or was in South Bay.
That’s how much we lacked ball handling last year. It was basically LBJ and hoping Rondo could stay healthy to lessen the burden on LBJ.
This season we are legitimately 3 deep with LBJ, Schroder and THT. Caruso has also improved in this area.
Yeah, agree 100% he was the 3rd best last year regardless of how much he played.
This year you add Dennis and like you mentioned Caruso has made a pretty big jump along with Kuzma as well with there ability to have a couple nice passes each game and are always willing to swing the ball quickly for the hockey assist as well. AD is still improving here as well and I just heard him mention how he is constantly asking Gasol and Lebron questions and trying to get better there as well. Basically a ton of unselfishness going on with this current roster and they are still figuring each other and for some even themselves out.
If THT keeps getting plenty of burn in this regular season I have full confidence he can help spell Lebron for a few minutes each half in the Playoffs like Rondo did for us last year as far as facilitating goes and keeping things running smoothly. kind of funny how many hoped Dennis would be that Rondo replacement but in reality it looks like it could very well be THT. Dennis is still a beast just a bit of a different role and it's a great thing we don't have to try and force him into something he's not.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
