Reed Sheppard will be a much better basketball player than Dalton Knecht. There are a few other prospects that could be better than him (Castle, Carrington....maaaaybe Risacher) but Dalton will not be. People were fawning over Chris Duarte a few years back and I think he's on his 3rd team now.
it's been like 15 games lol; are you guys clickbait Youtube guys all of a sudden? Are we really doing a redraft 15 games in?
It's too early to tell for sure. I do think there's merit to Knecht though. I was hoping we'd get him at 9 (before the lottery) and wished we traded down for him because I didn't think any prospect was a lock this year. We have to start seeing ourselves as a contending team who doesn't need another project, and Reed is a project. He's younger than Dalton and quite possibly could be better down the line, but for the next two or three years, I think Knecht will be much better, and we could have used that on this team.
Yep and in those "just 15 games " Knecht, Edey, Clingan and Castle are making huge waves in the league. They are even making big end of game plays while our #3 picked rookie will need time in the G league.
I think most of the forum is just bored. The constant negativity about our young players has finally kind of petered out and everything is wait and see. The one’s still dishing out the same tired opinions are not getting the troll reactions they used to. We are winning. There is a contingent that has to have something to b**** about. The only thing at all interesting is what trades or changes in rotation we need to make to further the goal of being true contenders. Who starts and Ime’s rotations are about the only thing worth talking about nowadays.
The knock on Dalton was never that he couldn't shoot. It was - could he play defense well enough to stay on the court. Against bad teams, the answer is obviously yes(this clip as proof) but I don't think Dalton is proving anyone wrong here so far. He has been more effective out of the gate than his younger counterparts(no surprise - older players often do) and his defensive limitations are largely hidden against good teams provided AD is sitting at the rim playing like a legit MVP candidate and Lebron is cleaning up the rest. I don't think I have seen anything so far that say he isn't still a role player though. He still looks pretty bad on defense against good teams - it's just Utah isn't one of those teams exposing that weakness.
Reed gets picked up as soon as he enters games. You actually like the defense sags off like he can’t shoot. Would Dalton take tari or amens min? Maybe brooks and we give up 10 more points a game. Most likely he would be in the g league and we would be saying damn we have to figure out how to bring him up.
Lakers are good until AD or Lebron goes down. If/when either goes down they won’t even make the playoffs. If it happens sooner, rather than later the NBA will pull out all stops to get them in the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes. Knecth is a forever role player, but could be the best out of this draft, but my money is on Castle.
Let's go ahead and run a quick exercise of all the players who made "huge waves" in their first 15 games and see where we end up. Some of y'all need more demanding jobs/hobbies. Good god.
....we can always use shooting - but how much are you willing to give away on defense to get that shooting? Offense is only half the game.
Yah - 100% agree. I know it's a broken record but AD is really a game changing MVP caliber player when he is healthy - like people are underestimating just how dominant he is in those 30/40 game spurts of good health he has a year.....but it's really hard to rely on a 40yr old performing like an all star and a forever injured AD being an MVP talent when he has been healthy in only half of available games for LA since he joined 5+years ago - especially in the West where even the bad teams have legit talent who can turn a game for you. Dalton will likely struggle mightily in those periods where AD and Lebron aren't there to hide the limitations.
Not without the opportunity. I know you don't know much about basketball, but when you only get 3 minutes on the court, twice per game, and you are surrounded with guys only interested in getting off their own shot... there's VERY little opportunity available.
knecht looks great but stats say he's still a negative on defense. reed is a positive but a negative on offense.. I think the offense part is easier to fix than the defense. So I still have hope for him
