As always, context matters in the preseason. The Lakers lost again Thursday, but played without LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook, Kendrick Nunn, Patrick Beverley, Dennis Schröder and Troy Brown Jr.. Doesn’t matter if you think this season won’t be that good, if you remove those seven dudes from any game the results will be ugly. Particularly since the Wolves used their regular rotation. Still, there were highlights, including the season debut of Lonnie Walker IV and a bust out game for Thomas Bryant.
Walker was given a lot of responsibility, running the offense in addition to trying to spark it, and broadly the results were positive. A couple highlight reel plays mixed in with some surprisingly good passing. He finished with three assists, but it rightly should have been much higher. This was not a Lakers squad that capitalized on every opportunity to give a teammate a dime.
Moreover, Walker was praised by Darvin Ham for his effort and intensity on defense. His give-a-bleep factor (especially regarding attention-to-detail stuff like off ball positioning, etc.) on that side of the ball hasn’t been high enough to this point in his career, by his own admission. If he’s gonna play this year, he’s gonna have to at least TRY to defend. That’s the minimum.
Bryant, meanwhile, hasn’t had a ton of steady playing time, but nonetheless this was his best game of the three. 10 trips to the free throw line – making eight, which already makes Bryant an outlier relative to last year – plus seven rebounds in 26 minutes of play. More games like this can help make Ham’s rotation choices difficult, and the more hard choices Ham has to make the better. (Affirmative choices, obviously. “I don’t want to play any of these clowns” isn’t what anyone wants.)
HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky
SEGMENT 1: AD doesn’t play, again. Any concern? Walker makes his debut.
SEGMENT 2: The good and bad of Walker, focusing on the better-than-expected passing.
SEGMENT 3: A good game for Bryant, helping bolster a center rotation that hasn’t quite hit expectations to this point.
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22 Comments
MAN I WAS HIGH ON HUFF (that's my problem smoke'in too much ganja….dude can't play)
Been watching LW4 play ball for a while now (I went to U of Miami, where he played and, even though I’m a Lakers fan, watched Lonnie play a lot with the Spurs). Lonnie is good for a jaw-dropping play every game, and it is so easy to convince yourself, when he’s jumping out of the gym, that he’s a really good player. He isn’t. He’s an absolutely awful defender (he will get some steals, but that is because he gambles a lot) and an underwhelming shooter. I was mystified that he got our MLE.
GIVE LONNIE RUSS MINUTES…
Schroder troy brown
I like the backcourt ,somebody going have to wait there turn that's a good problem to have tho
Sorry guys, I dont want to be delusional to your usual opening Claim, but I Always keep your show for last.. p.s. that's a compliment..
Please don't force Lonnie Walker IV to be a SPOT-UP SHOOTER when you know his best strength is using his athleticism off the dribble for layups. 👎 Better find some new 3-point specialists because Cole Swider has been awful at it in back-to-back games:
3 for 11= 27% for 3-pointers against the Minnesota T-Wolves.
0 for 5 = 0% for 3-pointers against the Phoenix Suns.
It's official now, don't even try to look at Austin Reaves as a double-digit scoring guard because he's not built for that.
Very good passer though.
Surround slasher-style guard Lonnie Walker IV with Kendrick Nunn & Patrick Beverley. 👍 Both 3-point shooters.
Why can't people understand that ???
• Walker can get US 15+ a Game and Hopefully His Defense and Jump Shot improve as His Conditioning improves.
• Jones & Bryant will split time & AD will finish Games @ Center. (Jones will start and is more Athletic however, TB’s time will grow if He can hit the 3.)
• Christie is getting Better
• Pippen/Swider are G League Players this Season
• Huff/Bacon/Ryan won’t make it into the Regular Season and that 15th Spot will be left Open.
• Reaves’ Progress/Growth is Disappointing/Underperforming and it doesn’t look like His game has Improved from the 21/22 Season.
Guard Rotations in My Opinion:
• Russ & Nunn will Start.
• Schroder & Walker will come of the Bench.
• Pat Bev will be that Combo Guard, that will fill in as Needed (based on Performance of other Guards and Opposing Team Matchups) and will finish Games.
* Similar to Jrue Holiday, Russ should play a lot of His Minutes with the 2nd Group so, He can be more Ball 🏀 Dominant.
If AD would play Center , would open up way better possible rotations. Esp Where we have positional redundancy.
Some people put too much emphasis on winning in the preseason, sure it's fun to win, but with a new team and a new coach, smart teams us this time to see which lineups look and work the best with each other, so a lot of experimenting and switching players combinations is going on with different positioning of players as well during the game. So winning becomes secondary to me, the important part is getting a feel of what looks like it will work during real game situations and I'm liking what I've seen glimpses of so far. #lakers4ever
Honestly guys it’s PRESEAON…none of these SUPERSTARS really want to play, what they [AD & LEBRON] said about playing more games was just good PR
I disagree, I think Jones has looked good especially on defense. He's been changing shoots around the rim. Just needs to rebound better.
Lakers should be pretty good. Maybe we get past Ciips, Suns and Griz. Hard for us fans to except that at our peak potential, we never gets us past GSW.
Some of these players just need more G league time.
Of course Dennis has visa problems. The Dennis tax
The year the Lakers won the title, they shot poorly from 3 during the regular season and had more shooting success in the playoffs. The year the Bucks won the title, the same thing occurred. Fixing our defense and finding the right tempo to play at should be out priority.
It's just impossible to play 7 guards in a game, period.
Normally you only need 4 guards for a game. If you stretch it hard, the best you can do is to play 5 guards. No way you can play more than 6 guards.
Also, what makes it more complex, among all these guards, some of them are too small like Schroder and Nunn, some can't shoot 3 well, you can't put players with similar flaws on court together.
So the question is, which of the players can Walker replace to get some meaningful minutes: Westbrook, Schroder, Nunn, Beverly, Reeves?
Jones has outplayed Bryant, thus far, Idk how anyone could disagree
The Downfall of 2020 World Bubble Champions/ Disney Land Championship AKA Mickey Mouse Championship.
This season is going to be like Draymond Green mental state.