2017-2018 Official NBA Regular season

[Al Bundy]

Let's start it... Warriors going for a back to back and 3 out of 4. Yikes for Gordon Hayward.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

And that's obviously what they will do. The Lakers are playing for absolutely nothing in the Western Conference right now. Makes no sense to bench the #2 pick in the draft a dozen games into his career.

The **** it doesn't.

He will stall the development of every other young player on that team and in the process become so hated as a teammate that in 2 years he'll get the Russell treatment.

You cannot watch these guys play and think they're anything but miserable watching Ball mope his ass up and down the floor and the launch a brick. He isn't developing - he's getting actively worse. This isn't 'play through it' bad - it's waaaaay beyond that.

Bench him. He's hurting everyone, including himself.

Oh, and Luke, I'm not sure what Lopez did to you or your pets but Randle is pretty much getting abused by Embiid on both sides of the court. Maybe bring Brook in for a bit?

[tk13]

Embiid with 46/15/7 + 7 blocks. Simmons a rebound away from a triple double. Monster night.

[KC_Connection]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

The **** it doesn't.

No, it actually doesn't. Sitting one of the most talented rookies in the NBA a dozen games into his career in a bunch of games that mean nothing would be the stupidest thing the Lakers could do in this scenario. It will never happen, so you might as well stop asking for it.

[BWillie]

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

Likely ROY Ben Simmons doesn't actually take shots further than 16 feet from the basket. He literally can't do it and knows it. Still finding ways to be a pretty productive player despite that limitation.

Yep. I have respect for him. Marcus Smart could be a poor mans Ben Simmons if it ever got thru his head he cant shoot either and to just stick to what you are good at

[BWillie]

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

No, it actually doesn't. Sitting one of the most talented rookies in the NBA a dozen games into his career in a bunch of games that mean nothing would be the stupidest thing the Lakers could do in this scenario. It will never happen, so you might as well stop asking for it.

Agreed. Personally hes going to shoot ok someday. Way better than Rubio and Rondo. Trust me. His dad didnt do him any favors and quite frankly I think all the pressure, media circus surrounding him etc is just exhausting him, probably hindering him mentally from getting the ball to go in right now. I still think Ball has the potential to be a Top 5 PG in this league. Hes reallly super young.

[dirk digler]

Originally Posted by BWillie

Rondo cant shoot. Literally. His high college FG % was a result of driving to the hoop and getting easy shots. He made 0.3 3FG a game, Lonzo made 2.5 a game. Rondo also shot .570 from the FT line in college

I think you missed my point which was Rondo shot ok in college just like Ball did but this is the NBA. Also Rondo has gotten better shooting (he still isn't very good) without totally over hauling his shot which I think is what will be required of Ball.

If I was Lonzo I would give up for now taking 3's and do what Rondo\Livingston\Simmons and other guards that can't shoot which is drive to the basket alot and get in the lane for easier shots. If he still struggles after that then he needs to come off the bench.

[dirk digler]

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

Likely ROY Ben Simmons doesn't actually take shots further than 16 feet from the basket. He literally can't do it and knows it. Still finding ways to be a pretty productive player despite that limitation.

Fair point.

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

No, it actually doesn't. Sitting one of the most talented rookies in the NBA a dozen games into his career in a bunch of games that mean nothing would be the stupidest thing the Lakers could do in this scenario. It will never happen, so you might as well stop asking for it.

They have already benched him for 2 straight games in the 4th so it is not out of the realm of possibilities. And Walton considers that part of their development.

"Part of the development is that, though," said Walton, who also noted how he played starter Kentavious Caldwell-Pope for only three minutes in the fourth. "The way the NBA's supposed to work and has worked, as long as I can remember, is young players come in and sit. And they watch vets do it, and they watch how vets do it. And they watch how vets train, how they take care of their body. And, they get hungry.

"As they get opportunities, they're more professional because they've learned from people who have done it before them. For any of our young guys to sit there, and if a vet's having a good game like Brewer was tonight, seeing how hard he works and seeing how he stayed ready even though he hadn't been playing big minutes, is part of the developmental plan for them."

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

No, it actually doesn't. Sitting one of the most talented rookies in the NBA a dozen games into his career in a bunch of games that mean nothing would be the stupidest thing the Lakers could do in this scenario. It will never happen, so you might as well stop asking for it.

He does one thing well and right now he can't even do that because his deficiencies are so severe that they impact his ability to do that one thing well.

He presents no threat to hit a shot so teams are simply ignoring him. It's absolutely destroying his ability to pass the ball. He's not able to lead a transition because everyone just runs away from him to challenge guys he may pass it to.

He's hurting his development by playing right now. Worse still, he's hurting the development of his teammates. I'm not saying you never play him; Walton runs a 9-10 man rotation and he can still be a part of it. But he needs to be out there with the 2nd unit trying to get his feet back under him after the first unit gives them something to work with. Instead he's burying the first unit and putting the Lakers in a hole every single game that the 2nd team then has to try to come dig them out of.

He's not learning anything right now. And frankly, he doesn't need 'experience' to get better - he needs a new damn jump shot. Running around hopeless out there doesn't do anything to make that happen.

Clarkson needs to be running the first unit so they can accelerate the development of Ingram (who's on his way to becoming a genuinely dangerous scorer) and Kuzma, who's demonstrating every game that he is simply a better player than Ball right now. Ball needs to be coming in with the 2nd team until he actually earns time with the 1st.

[O.city]

Man, Embid is just fun as **** to watch. If him and Simmons stay healthy, and they can get Fultz to be a legit wing, lookout.


And Ball just can shoot. He can still turn it around but man, it's tough to expect a guy that's not elite physically to be able to get by without being able to shoot

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by dirk digler

I think you missed my point which was Rondo shot ok in college just like Ball did but this is the NBA. Also Rondo has gotten better shooting (he still isn't very good) without totally over hauling his shot which I think is what will be required of Ball.

If I was Lonzo I would give up for now taking 3's and do what Rondo\Livingston\Simmons and other guards that can't shoot which is drive to the basket alot and get in the lane for easier shots. If he still struggles after that then he needs to come off the bench.

Rondo has better first step explosion than Ball and Simmons has strength that Ball will never have.

He's made attempts to get in the lane but he can't do it. He's getting closed off almost immediately. So when he can't slash his way in with speed or bull his way in with power, the best he can do is hope that spacing gives him a way to get a couple of strides and he hits a finger roll or a floater.

So now you have a relatively poor athlete trying low percentage, high athleticism shots as virtually the only tool in his toolbelt offensively. That's just a whole bunch of bad news.

[O.city]

Also, think how good the 6ers would be had they taken Tatum instead of Fultz

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by O.city

Man, Embid is just fun as **** to watch. If him and Simmons stay healthy, and they can get Fultz to be a legit wing, lookout.

And Ball just can shoot. He can still turn it around but man, it's tough to expect a guy that's not elite physically to be able to get by without being able to shoot

I haven't watched Embiid play more than a couple of times, but one thing I noticed is that they let him absolutely abuse guys down low. I mean he beats the shit out of people down there. He gets into the body a ton and wasn't getting called for it. I don't typically mind that, but then he'll get some pretty quick whistles on the offensive end.

He absolutely mind-****ed Randle yesterday. I actually started to feel bad for the kid. Randle wouldn't finish drives and was trying these weird damn runners and stuff that he can't do. He was terrified of going underneath because Embiid was destroying him. Then on the other side the entire 4th quarter was just Embiid catching it at the low block, backing Randle down 2 steps and the choosing how he wanted to beat him.

Walton had two 7 footers on his bench in Lopez and Bogut (Bogut had actually played Embiid tough to that point) and instead he just left Randle out there to die.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

I haven't watched Embiid play more than a couple of times, but one thing I noticed is that they let him absolutely abuse guys down low. I mean he beats the shit out of people down there. He gets into the body a ton and wasn't getting called for it. I don't typically mind that, but then he'll get some pretty quick whistles on the offensive end.

He absolutely mind-****ed Randle yesterday. I actually started to feel bad for the kid. Randle wouldn't finish drives and was trying these weird damn runners and stuff that he can't do. He was terrified of going underneath because Embiid was destroying him. Then on the other side the entire 4th quarter was just Embiid catching it at the low block, backing Randle down 2 steps and the choosing how he wanted to beat him.

Walton had two 7 footers on his bench in Lopez and Bogut (Bogut had actually played Embiid tough to that point) and instead he just left Randle out there to die.

The shaq treatment

He's just an outlier to be that big and that skilled. There are a few players that will come along that you just have to hope they have an off night in order to stop them. He could be the next one.

As some hated it, I loved watching Shaq. He was just dominant and you knew it was coming but it didn't matter.

[lcarus]

Lonzo Ball was awful in his minutes last night. I watched a lot of that game in between Orlando/Portland. Ball is getting outplayed by Jordan Clarkson every night LOL. I mean I'm sure he'll be fine in the long run but jesus.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by O.city

The shaq treatment

He's just an outlier to be that big and that skilled. There are a few players that will come along that you just have to hope they have an off night in order to stop them. He could be the next one.

As some hated it, I loved watching Shaq. He was just dominant and you knew it was coming but it didn't matter.

The difference with Shaq was that officials just swallowed their whistles on both ends. Yeah, Shaq would beat the shit out of guys on defense (especially in his younger days) but they'd also be allowed to whack the hell out of him on offense.

Embiid gets a lot of protection on the offensive side. Now by the end, Randle was just repeatedly reaching in and almost trying to get himself fouled out, but prior to the last 5 minutes or so, he was drawing a whole slew of really weak fouls. I mean for ****'s sake, the guy took 19 free throws. Maybe half of them would've been fouls had they been calling fouls the same on both sides of the court when he was involved.