I think we can agree on this: the kid is talented and he can be coached. But Scott is an awful, awful coach. Russell doesn't have the insight or intelligence to figure this out on his own.
Byron Scott is a worse coach than Jeremy Lin is a basketball player LOL Byron Scott, the worst coach in the NBA. Jeremy Lin, mediocre average NBA player
Byron is gonna ruined this kid. That Lakers team is built to run, but Scott's offense looks like it came straight outta the 90's. Slow paced and endless isos.
The whole problem with the Lakers starts and ends with Jim Buss. The idiot decided to hire Mike D'antoni over Phil Jackson and since then the Lakers have been a mess. After the D'antoni experiment failed he tried to make it up to Laker fans by choosing a head coach with Lakers history instead of going out and hiring the best coach. Now they're stuck with arguably the worst coach in the modern era and all he does is openly criticize his players instead of realizing he's complete garbage at his job. But thanks Jim Buss because no FA will ever want to go to the Lakers as long as you're in charge and not Jeanie!
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">D’Angelo Russell’s at 41.3% FG's, normal for rookie PG’s - Rubio: 35.7; Lowry: 36.8; Westbrook: 39.8; D-Will: 42.1; CP3: 43.0; Curry 46.2.</p>— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) <a href="https://twitter.com/LakersReporter/status/694678859950624769">February 3, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I think Russell will be fine. He's in LA, building a brand and distracting himself from what's really important. I think he's dating Kendall Jenner. Once he calms down and Kobe leaves I think he will be a very good offensive point guard. He's had games where he looks like he will be a star.
Didn't they already have Conley? I think you can excuse Memphis for passing on pgs, unlike Minny who took 2 pgs but picked a bust and missed out on Curry, Jennings and Collison.
Picking for need vs best available is one of the main reasons for busts. It's not an excuse. Besides, Marc Gasol had just completed a very successful rookie year. And Harden was a SG. Memphis was very, very young. PF was their need. Without Griffin on the board, most teams go best-available in their situation. They already had Conley and Lowry, so not afraid to have two fight it out on a young team. Go two deep at SG as well, with Mayo and Harden.
Gasol was better than Conley at that point and still is. So why draft another center? Especially one that looked like an obvious bust? This isn't just hindsight. Even when he was a Rocket, every workout video we ever saw of the guy looked horrible.
In terms of potential Thabeet had a lot more than the rest of the guys drafted below him(also had 99.99% bust rate lol) , Curry and Harden included so most likely in their eyes Thabeet was indeed the best available. Its not like Thabeet didnt produce he averaged 3 blocks in college. Ur right they needed a PF so them getting another center wasnt really a need pick right? Harden iirc was a bit of a late riser in draftboards, at least in clutchfans some posters thought he would be available at low 1st round before he started rising up fast do maybe Grizz were hesitant on him. The problem with wing players is its hard to tell whether the guy is amazing or not, in college they all look like studs only whenthey face nba comp and you see the work habits do you really know if they're gonna be good.
Maybe they just dumb, I'm not supporting Memphis decision I was just saying I can sort of understand why they got thabeet as compared to lakers drafting russel over okafor or Porzingis, Winslow etc.
This thread is starting to look ridiculous given how D'Angelo Russell has progressed this season so far. He just dropped 39 points on 8-12 shooting from 3 pt land. Youngest player ever with 8 threes in a game? Either way his future looks bright. Edit: Courtesy of i3artow i3aller:
Many US Fans have the tendency to declare players a bust after a few games, same with NFL (declaring the #1 pick the biggest bust ever after a few games and one injury), there's absolutely no patience and long-term thinking. A decent amount of players, especially PGs, struggle in their first years, you don't declare anything in that short amount of time. Look up some of the rookie seasons of great players and you'll see how a lot of fans/CFers would do as GMs, trading away future key players after a bad month for a bag of chips.
Always felt it was weird that people, especially Lakers fans, were quick to call Dloading a bust like 2 games into his season. Really? He's not going to be Magic and win you a championship right away lol. Besides the fact that he has a terribad coach he is also playing with the most disgusting back court in the league. Clarkson, Lou, and Nick Young. Gross. He has the share the ball with those guys? No thank you. Maybe Lou.
The kid has been playing much better since the beginning of 2016, and he simply kicked into into another gear in February. His last three games he has scored 22, 22, and now 39. And all of this as a rookie point guard on the second worst team in the league, which features chuckers like Bryant, LouWill, and Nick Young. Clarkson and Randle are certainly ball-clingers in their own right.
I really thought it was obvious that Russell was being held back so to speak for the tank job. The kid can play. He needed consistent time to find his way. And that was a dangerous game, in my opinion. The team was playing games with his development.
