I’ve already heard this phrase a few times this young season: Building. Good. Habits. Sounds like a solid preliminary theme for the season.
– Bron: coasted
– AD: Wasn’t featured as much in 1Q, then quiet in 2Q. He’s a rhythm player so we need him to get going early on.
– Rui: Staying hot from 3. Had a nice drive and kick for a Max 3 – showing self-awareness about his tunnel vision. Rui is a force.
– AR: Playing so aggressive. Love his competitiveness – the foul on Curry, got a tech, then dunked it!
– DLO: Defense. Defense. Defense. Block on Thompson. Took a charge. Solid defensive rotations. Got a steal. Good defensive playmaking. He’s also continuing to play at a faster tempo – accelerating more often and for longer distances.
– Prince: Quiet first half. Got back cut too. 2 half: got early looks and hit 3 3x quickly and Solid defensive playmaking! REMINDER: we. have. depth.
– Max: Couple quick 3s, good for confidence. Demonstrated incredible resilience waiting for that Bron high five. Had good min of D on curry – got steal. Combo of physicality, speed, and length.
– Hayes: Does his job. No surprised good or bad. Seems like steady floor but questionable ceiling.
– Wood: Defense has been meh. Screens are weak. Good offense – 3 level, soft touch. As advertised.
Rooks
– Fino: Still looks uncomfortable. Shot looks almost likes catapulting the ball. Idk. He needs work.
– Hodge: Exceptional D playmaking and then 3 balls. Not afraid to shoot and should keep shooting.
– Fudge: present during basketball game.
– Castleton: Aggressive on boards. Good trailer. Showing defensive chops with blocks and and crashing boards. Doesn’t shy away from contact. Starting to adapt a bit more? – would make sense given age.
– Maxwell: aggressive. Potential 3&D project?
Thoughts?
by LearnedToe
16 Comments
The game ended at the 5 minute mark of the 3rd quarter. I don’t care about anything that happened after that. We looked fantastic. I’m expecting overall defensive effort to go up once the regular season starts, but everything else was great. It looked like this game we were playing a legitimate regular season rotation, which means Wood has fallen out quite a bit. Hayes has looked good and knows his role. Max is going to excel playing with the actual rotation because his role will be defined. Watching him play with the other rookies is such a struggle, because they’re all still learning the NBA speed. Everybody else did what they were supposed to do.
another jhs stinker. but i’m not allowed to call him a scrub lol. -14?!!? he looking like the other #0
Hopefully JHS will not be needed during the regular games cause he sure do not look ready at the NBA level. He definitely needs at least a year (likely more since his jump shot looks very bad) at the G Leagues.
Fudge was good this game, Hodge is KCP without the shooting.
I love this team.
I’d start Prince, he is a lot better than Vando on offense and is also a solid defender. If someone is giving us trouble we bring Vando as our defensive stopper.
James played a pedestrian game for his standards and still scored 12 pts alongside 5 ast. I believe he will be 50 years old still scoring 20 ppg.
Davis impact on the floor is invaluable, he and Dlo have been our best players in pre season.
Reaves is even better than last playoffs playing with more confidence.
I love this Dlo, if he can keep making winning plays on defense I’m going to praise him every game, even when eventually he gets cold. Other aspect I’m loving in his game is the fact he is playing with more pace than usual.
Wood is getting comfortable with the team and the system. Ham really loves him, you can see by the way they talk to each other.
Rui is going to lead the 2nd unit and may feast backups trying to deal with him.
JHS will be fine.
He needs time to get adjusted to the speed of the NBA.
For a rook he made several nice reads and passes today.
One to a wide open Max 3 and another to Castleton for the layup.
He’s able to calmly get to where he wants with hesi’s and change of speeds and that’s HUGE for a rookie PG.
The mistakes will be there and the shot will eventually fall. He just needs some time in the G League.
Not worried about him at all despite all the dumb idiotic haters.
fr jhs does a great job getting into the lane with the pick and roll- nice patience, is struggling with acclimating to nba size and speed- to be expected from a 20 year old rookie with 1 year of college experience. hyped on him for sure
LeBron played the first half, changed into street clothes, and had dinner on the bench. All I needed to see, we have DEPTH. The pieces are all falling together.
Everybody who thinks bron actually was trying this game are deluded lmao
Calling the guys who’s supposed to be the best guy on the team a rhythm player is scary
That L James guy might need to not play with that +/-
For the First time I think that second round pick was Better,Maxwell Lewis is more player than Jalen Hood
I’m kind of surprised on how much JHS is being talked about, given that he’s our 3rd string rookie point guard, and like our 6th ball-handler lol
Bro will be fine and we can just leave him be until he’s actually needed
This team has shooting, length, size, and youth up and down the lineup.
2 older players in Lebron and AD (and he’s only 30), while everyone else is young, under 30, and developing. It’s a FAR cry from the 2022 opening day roster, where all the money was locked up in 3 max deals and no flexibility. Regular season it will make a MASSIVE difference and the team’s solid roster will likely get a top 4 seed placement.
This team is primed to allow Lebron and AD alternate load manage throughout the season, still win games, without having them force to go full throttle the 2nd half of the season and potentially injure the 2 superstars.
Exciting to see how well the team will do this year.
Prince needs to start imo. Rui would be a perfect 6th man.
I was impressed with Castleton, offensively he’s not great but defensively and rebounding he’s really solid.