Game Day: Lakers (0-3) @ Suns (1-2), Wed 10/24/18

[djy2j]

I'd give Canaan like 4 more games but he hasn't done anything to warrant keeping him over Harrison. I'm not saying bring Harrison back either. Canaan was supposed to be able to score. Dude's shooting 38% and 30% from deep so far. His defense is bad.

Not sure what's going on with Ryan Anderson. If you play atrocious defense and only shoot 36% and 30% then I can't justify putting you on the floor. And most of those looks are wide open looks. I don't get it.

[ShelC]

Gotta admit, I don't love the offense either. Mixing in the motion/weave stuff every now and then is fine, but we should be playing heavy pick and roll with Ayton. Pick and roll teams to death. I know we don't have a legit PG, but Booker (if/when healthy), Crawford and Jackson all are capable PnR ball handlers who can attack the basket, attack the mismatch,or shoot (JJ the exception). Spread Ariza in the corner, Anderson on the wing and defenders either collapse or stay on shooters. Go double high screen with Anderson and Ayton, Anderson popping and Ayton rolling. Get smalls in the post on Ayton, get bigs on Booker/Craw/Jackson. Simplify things. The current motion offense is easier to scout and defend, guys are staying home on shooters, Ayton's playing too far from the rim and we're not getting post ups. We got a beast, feed him.

[Xylus]

Gotta admit, I don't love the offense either. Mixing in the motion/weave stuff every now and then is fine, but we should be playing heavy pick and roll with Ayton. Pick and roll teams to death. I know we don't have a legit PG, but Booker (if/when healthy), Crawford and Jackson all are capable PnR ball handlers who can attack the basket, attack the mismatch,or shoot (JJ the exception). Spread Ariza in the corner, Anderson on the wing and defenders either collapse or stay on shooters. Go double high screen with Anderson and Ayton, Anderson popping and Ayton rolling. Get smalls in the post on Ayton, get bigs on Booker/Craw/Jackson. Simplify things. The current motion offense is easier to scout and defend, guys are staying home on shooters, Ayton's playing too far from the rim and we're not getting post ups. We got a beast, feed him.

It was really frustrating seeing Ayton guarded by Lonzo down low by himself with no recognition from the ball handler.

[Wormwood]

What would people say to bringing Channing Frye back via a trade? He does the stuff Anderson does, but better. He's also stuck on the bench in CLE.

[Wormwood]

Just waive Canaan already and burn a first rounder for Beverley. This can’t go on. He can’t pass the ball into the post without a turnover.

Beware, Beverly is not looking good, to put it kindly.

Tyus Jones for a protected future first. Make it happen.

[O_Gardino]

Ayton's D is so far down on my list of concerns right now. No, he's not a good defender. But he has all the tools necessary to be a good defender, he seems extremely receptive to criticism from his coach and seems willing to improve. Ayton's D is not even on a Top 10 list of reasons why the Suns are struggling.

Our perimeter defense is just atrocious. It required almost no effort to blow by a Suns defender and get into the paint, forcing Ayton to choose between helping out or staying on his man. Regardless of his choice, it was 2-on-1. Booker looks like he's never played defense in his life. Ariza and Anderson are almost useless. Josh Jackson should be a good defender but gets caught looking the wrong direction far too often. Warren, meh. We need to clone Mikal and play him at the 2, 3, and 4 simultaneously. I felt like Ayton was the only one who really gave a s*** in the 2nd half. He started playing with fire but by then it was too late. The Suns have to score 120 points just to stay competitive because the defense is so porous. We're an amoeba out there.

Completely agree.

[O_Gardino]

Gotta admit, I don't love the offense either. Mixing in the motion/weave stuff every now and then is fine, but we should be playing heavy pick and roll with Ayton. Pick and roll teams to death. I know we don't have a legit PG, but Booker (if/when healthy), Crawford and Jackson all are capable PnR ball handlers who can attack the basket, attack the mismatch,or shoot (JJ the exception). Spread Ariza in the corner, Anderson on the wing and defenders either collapse or stay on shooters. Go double high screen with Anderson and Ayton, Anderson popping and Ayton rolling. Get smalls in the post on Ayton, get bigs on Booker/Craw/Jackson. Simplify things. The current motion offense is easier to scout and defend, guys are staying home on shooters, Ayton's playing too far from the rim and we're not getting post ups. We got a beast, feed him.

It was really frustrating seeing Ayton guarded by Lonzo down low by himself with no recognition from the ball handler.

A couple of times, Ayton got doubled in the high post, and nobody cut or moved to get open. Our perimeter guys clumped together to let the Lakers guys cut off all the passing lanes.

[Cap]

Ayton - 22 pts, 11 reb, 11/14 FG, 3 blk, 0 trn

At least Ayton's stats look good.

http://bkref.com/tiny/n5d7b

Ayton at #15.

Ced Ceballos at #8, between Shaq and DRob.

Mike James at #75, three spots ahead of Jordan.

Doncic at #151, a spot ahead of Kieff.

Carmelo at #2389 out of 2389, with 2 points, 0 rebounds, 0 assists, and 13 FGA.

[In2ition]

The sky isn't falling, but the Suns looked bad last night. I'm still not going to wish for losses this year though.

It sucks to lose Booker. He may be out for awhile, but the silver lining is that at least his hand might be 100% by the time he comes back. Also, it opens up time for Bridges, who seems to be one of the only good defenders shown so far.

I felt like there were so many shots near the rim that Ayton could have contested or blocked, but didn't. It seemed that after Booker went out, someone (maybe Booker) told him to not let the shot get near the rim and then all of a sudden he stuffed the shit out of 3 shots and looked dominate at rim protecting. Where was that the rest of the game or season?!? I certainly hope that it continues. He honestly could have feasted on LA all night, imo.

What happened to Warren last night? I hardly noticed him out there and his stats were pretty weak.

I think things will get better as the team gets more comfortable with each other and the offense and defensive schemes. They are playing slow(just thinking) and it comes off as low intensity(which it could be).

Getting a decent pg will help, but they still have a few gaping holes. The silver lining on Ayton is that it's easy to imagine him making huge strides and improvements from now to the end of the season. Little things like finding his man to box out each time a shot goes up will increase his rb rate by possibly 3-4 rebounds a night. Contesting shots will improve the defense and bring his blocks per game up about 2-3 per game more. And lastly, once he is allowed to, he is going to face up and drive by guys to the rim pretty soon. He had some beautiful simple(Hakeem like) moves in the post that you couldn't help but smile at.

[Superbone]

Can we please just fast forward three years?

[Mori Chu]

Can we please just fast forward three years?

You mean to when Booker has left to play for the Lakers? :'( *ducks*

[bajanguy008]

Man last night was rough
Last season the Game Day threads were short as many weren't about watching tankfest but I gladly watched most of the games mainly to see how Josh was coming along tbh
This season I maybe sip too much of the Kool-Aid and by no means was I thinking Playoffs but that we gonna be competitive most nights. I had to turn off the game then to see on Twitter Book going down and Lonzo getting off the backboard alley oops I was like wtf man

After the Mavs win I said it was so important because last couple seasons the mood would be so negative only a couple weeks into the season. Can't believe we already trending in that direction again

[Superbone]

It's a good wakeup call to how far this team still has to go to become competitive night in and night out.

[INFORMER]

Jackson and Anderson for Kemba and Kaminsky.

That's not enough for Charlotte.

[Mori Chu]

It's a good wakeup call to how far this team still has to go to become competitive night in and night out.

I'm not sure what folks have been expecting. Our best players are like 21-22 years old for the most part. This is not a team that is ready to be good yet. We may have most of the pieces in place, but now we have to watch them grow and learn together. We probably also need to watch a few more transactions go down and/or a few more young pieces get added through the draft. I didn't expect them to come out 4-0 this season.

Even though there are some huge problems with the team, I am infinitely more hopeful than I was last year. Ayton is a breath of fresh air. Booker is back (hopefully the hamstring thing is not a long-term problem). Warren looks like he took another leap forward. Bridges looks promising. Jackson shows flashes. The new young guards like Melton and Okobo seem promising, too. I even like a few of our old vets like Ariza. This team is *WAY* better and *WAY* more fun to watch than last year's. It isn't a good team yet, nor a playoff team. But I like the general direction and think we can build on this.

[Nodack]

Word

[Indy]

It's a good wakeup call to how far this team still has to go to become competitive night in and night out.

I'm not sure what folks have been expecting. Our best players are like 21-22 years old for the most part. This is not a team that is ready to be good yet. We may have most of the pieces in place, but now we have to watch them grow and learn together. We probably also need to watch a few more transactions go down and/or a few more young pieces get added through the draft. I didn't expect them to come out 4-0 this season.

Even though there are some huge problems with the team, I am infinitely more hopeful than I was last year. Ayton is a breath of fresh air. Booker is back (hopefully the hamstring thing is not a long-term problem). Warren looks like he took another leap forward. Bridges looks promising. Jackson shows flashes. The new young guards like Melton and Okobo seem promising, too. I even like a few of our old vets like Ariza. This team is *WAY* better and *WAY* more fun to watch than last year's. It isn't a good team yet, nor a playoff team. But I like the general direction and think we can build on this.

Nobody did. But did you expect them to lose 3 our of their first 4 by over 20 points per game? They haven't looked improved from where they were last season, and that is with having the first ever #1 pick for us on the team. We should be better than this, regardless of age. We are not playing shitty because our young guys suck. Our "veteran" leaders have played worse than our young guys.

[O_Gardino]

It's the effort, Marty. We want to see actual effort.

[specialsauce]

Canaan, Ariza, Chandler, Anderson, Warren are not young guys. They are all playing significant roles right now and we are getting our asses kicked. I don’t buy youth as a reason for the blowouts. We just suck.

[djy2j]

The effort has been pretty poor so far. When a group of guys with this talent and that have everything to prove comes out for 3 straight games and gets outworked it doesn't make anyone feel warm and fuzzy about how things are progressing.

I am fine with making mistakes and taking losses because of mistakes during this learning process but don't get outworked multiple games in a row. That's not acceptable.