Yeah people don’t realize that he missed all the summer personal workouts and scrimmages in addition to team related practices and pre-season. That’s a lot of basketball missed.
He doesn’t completely suck. His shooting hasn’t been good but he’s been active on the defensive side and did a pretty good job on guys like Wemby. He’s scrappy and long which makes it difficult for opponents. Hopefully he gets his shot back.
I think you are giving him too much credit I think he is just coming off injury similar to Adams before. I remember Adams also looked like a massive mistake cuz we waited a year for him and he was barely better than Jock.
Just posted about this in another thread - The money that should have been diverted into Guard XYZ was what they gave DFS. They were fine without him the first 30ish games and he's not moved the needle in any of the games he has played. No, you were far from the only one .... Terrible signing then, terrible signing now - lets just hope Stone can turn it into a productive player.
The real problem is that coming into the season, you only had one known starting quality guard in FVV, you were banking on two young guards to make a leap and fill the rotation and had no backup plan in case of injury and you sign DFS - then that one reliable guard gets injured and you are stuck leaning into the two young players who have shown they just aren't capable of filling that void - one of them having proved he just isn't a guard at all. The Forward spots were already a strong point having brought in Durant along with Amen, Jabari, Tari, Green and Tate. So much so that there have been starting lineups that feature 4 forwards on the floor at once. You improved your shooting with Durant but have no point guard and you didn't replace Jalen's ability to break down a defense off the dribble either (and we all know I'm no big fan of Jalen). The hedge shouldn't have been at a position of strength, it should have been at a position of relative weakness - the guard spot that was a glaring weakness before the FVV injury. The team had a .630 winning percentage thru the 27 games that DFS didn't play to start the season, and he really hasn't contributed much if anything since coming back, averaging 2.8ppg on while shooting 30% from the field and 25% from deep and has an on / off of -8. Essentially no positive impact across the 264 minutes he's played. That money should have been spent on a guard to begin with - Stone needs to rectify that by parlaying that contract into a useful guard before the deadline.
One of the worst contracts given out this past offseason because not only has he been a complete nothing, Stone hardcapped the team. Literally outside of him being out the entire season, the way he is playing now is the worst case scenario. We couldn't even offload his now albatross contract on the tanking Bulls. I can't remember one good game or even one good stretch he's had since he's came back. I would "give him time" if showed anything or gave us reason for optimism but he has shown NOTHING.
He has been a worse version of Tate. Tate has actually looked playable the last few weeks. JT only fans unite!
Not only that, even if he will eventually recovers - overall he’s like what, a 8-9 ppg type of player, who also guards decent? I mean, it’s not like he’s even a young gun that could suddenly explode and provide a unique combination or anything, he’s 32 y.o.!! That’s a pretty big f*** up by either our med. Staff or Stone - how could you sign him with such a limiting injury?? Or how could you not evaluate how severe the situation was? (Assuming the doctors are the ones to blame).
Up to speed? Dude can't even dribble. Just was a Luka - Lebron Scrub got contract off being a open shot because they were doubled teamed . Bad signing
The Lakers GM Rob Pelinka was literally warning teams about how debilitating his ankle was and how he would need major surgery. DFS agent caught wind and then went to Stone to give him a contract. I guess Stone thought Pelinka was either bluffing or exaggerating...but nope it was exactly like Pelinka warned. Lakers fans are laughing at us now.
This was proof that Stone has zero connections in the league. The word around the league was how bad DFS medicals were and Stone still signed him. He's like that guy at the party who shows up but no one knows who he is. There's a reason why this dude can't make a single trade at the deadline.
