After Hawks and Jazz, I'm concerned some about defensive intensity and identity, particularly in the starting lineup. But there is no doubt in my mind Ime is gonna drill the guys hard and we'll see a big improvement in the two games next week. The 6-day gap until next Tuesday is a bummer of a wait, but it's probably a good thing. Two games to get their feet wet, a big gap to focus on practice and improvement before a final two-game tuneup.
Lakers get way too much respect for a team that’s underperformed and LeBron out. At least reasonable analysts acknowledge the age, injury potential and loss of DFS for example.
I wouldn’t be worried about the quality of our defense based on practice games. When it doesn’t really matter if you win or lose, you can’t really anticipate players would give high effort in defense. I personally more interested in seeing how our offense flows - ball movement, passes, taking good shots, chemistry between players in different lineups etc. Last year I remember that I wasn’t impressed at all by our offense. Thankfully, when the season started we shifted gear on defense which created more possessions, thus we were able to gain more points. But our ball movement and terrible shots accuracy didn’t improve feim what they were during the practice games. So overall I feel pretty good from the two games we had so far, due to our offense. I’m positive that once that 1) regular season starts and 2) when DFS comes back frim injury, our defense will be fine.
With Fred’s injury I believe the most important factor this season will be if Amen can make the transition to an on-ball player. He doesn’t have to play a traditional high-assist point guard role because we have other guys that can pass and facilitate; Sengun for example. But Amen has to become a positive on-ball player and limit turnovers. If he can do that we will be a real contender. I think it’s gonna be rough in the early going, but I suspect he’ll be settled in by December. My biggest fear is that putting Amen in the point guard role takes away from some of his other super talents. He’s a really good off ball player; especially his cutting, rebounding and front court rim protection. But it’s worth the trade off if he can take care of the ball and make good decisions with the ball. I also worry about his lack of shooting and defenses sagging off him and clogging the paint. Lots riding on Amen’s transition to guard. I’ve always seen him as more of a 3.but I would t put any limits on what this guy can do given his talent, work ethic and bball IQ.
