Wizards are gonna end up regretting the trade in a very big way, they got very solid role players, but Westbrook is a straight killer, looks like he finally realizes that he needs to change the way his shot selection looks.
I doubt they regret it. It didn’t work out over there and next year they have to pay Beal.
They should have at least tried to get picks instead. None of the three players will be a part of their long term plans. _________________ Damian Lillard shatters Dwight Coward's championship dreams:
Wizards are gonna end up regretting the trade in a very big way, they got very solid role players, but Westbrook is a straight killer, looks like he finally realizes that he needs to change the way his shot selection looks.
I doubt they regret it. It didn’t work out over there and next year they have to pay Beal.
They should have at least tried to get picks instead. None of the three players will be a part of their long term plans.
Who (bleep) side are you on bro? Lol _________________ Coach Vogel, Kidd, Hollins
Max slot : Kawhi
Joined: 17 Jun 2003 Posts: 6292 Location: Central Coast
Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2021 5:12 pm Post subject:
Russ is like Kobe, tell him he can't do something, and you really motivate him. Russ being told he needs to shoot better, and he gets to play with his bros like Lebron, Davis, Melo, Howard - he is going to shoot better.
He wants to play here, wants to win a chip, wants to silence the haters...Going to be great for Laker fans and sad times for the ESPN crew... _________________ LAKERS 2019-2020: NBA World Champions!
I have never felt it was RWs shot that held him back. I feel it is his shot selection. Unlike Kobe, who was able to dominate from the mid-range, RW instead tries to dominate from way out using dribble penetration primarily. And defenses take that away from you with doubles/clogging defenses, he then often forces tough shots. Kobe forced tough shots too, but once the Triangle came around, his game was dominant in the iso areas of the Triangle. Just a smooth player like Durant we see these days.
So my thing with RW, is he needs to make an adjustment. He has to be wiling to push the ball and give it up early and expect not to get it back. He has to be willing to take those catch and shoot 3s. Move off the ball. He has a lot of talent, and athleticism, he has a major advantage. He has a 6'8 wingspan. This will not be Houston or Washington where he can control the ball as much as well have that paint area to himself alone.
In Houston, Washington. RW was either the best player or second best on the floor at all times. In LA, he will be the third. He has to change his approach and take advantage.. It's not about fixing a shot, it's about taking the right shots and defending in a way he never has in his career. His load on offense is a lot less on paper, so defensively he can go all out in a way he never has had to in his career.
We will see if RW is truly a winning player this year. Look at guys like Kidd or Rondo. Both guys went to ring level teams later in their careers and developed some outside spot up shooting, and changed their approach on offense. RW has to do the same, only because he's still in his athletic prime, he can play far more minutes at a peak level.
Westbrook is always one of the hardest players to rank in an exercise like this. Seemingly through brute force, Russ is going to put up numbers. If there was ever a chance for Westbrook to own the narrative about his style of play, it will be this season playing alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis. — RN
I have never felt it was RWs shot that held him back. I feel it is his shot selection. Unlike Kobe, who was able to dominate from the mid-range, RW instead tries to dominate from way out using dribble penetration primarily. And defenses take that away from you with doubles/clogging defenses, he then often forces tough shots. Kobe forced tough shots too, but once the Triangle came around, his game was dominant in the iso areas of the Triangle. Just a smooth player like Durant we see these days.
So my thing with RW, is he needs to make an adjustment. He has to be wiling to push the ball and give it up early and expect not to get it back. He has to be willing to take those catch and shoot 3s. Move off the ball. He has a lot of talent, and athleticism, he has a major advantage. He has a 6'8 wingspan. This will not be Houston or Washington where he can control the ball as much as well have that paint area to himself alone.
In Houston, Washington. RW was either the best player or second best on the floor at all times. In LA, he will be the third. He has to change his approach and take advantage.. It's not about fixing a shot, it's about taking the right shots and defending in a way he never has in his career. His load on offense is a lot less on paper, so defensively he can go all out in a way he never has had to in his career.
We will see if RW is truly a winning player this year. Look at guys like Kidd or Rondo. Both guys went to ring level teams later in their careers and developed some outside spot up shooting, and changed their approach on offense. RW has to do the same, only because he's still in his athletic prime, he can play far more minutes at a peak level.
He can just look over to the side and see that Melo changed his game to be more of a spot up shooter, a contributor to the stars, rather than the star, and picked spots to help the team whether by numbers or sometimes emotionally provide what the team needed when Portland had lulls. I don't think he's ever going to be a good shooter, good meaning playoff late game reliable shooter, though. Leave that to the two leaders and whoever among the shooting crew is most trustworthy and that Vogel is playing.
Westbrook is always one of the hardest players to rank in an exercise like this. Seemingly through brute force, Russ is going to put up numbers. If there was ever a chance for Westbrook to own the narrative about his style of play, it will be this season playing alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis. — RN
There isn’t 20 players better than Russ this list is disrespectful. There’s 16 teams that make the playoffs. For the past 5 years Russ has been a guy leading one of those teams. HTF is he 35th best player in the league?
Brandon Ingram and Fox is better than Westbrook? _________________ Coach Vogel, Kidd, Hollins
Max slot : Kawhi
I have never felt it was RWs shot that held him back. I feel it is his shot selection. Unlike Kobe, who was able to dominate from the mid-range, RW instead tries to dominate from way out using dribble penetration primarily. And defenses take that away from you with doubles/clogging defenses, he then often forces tough shots. Kobe forced tough shots too, but once the Triangle came around, his game was dominant in the iso areas of the Triangle. Just a smooth player like Durant we see these days.
So my thing with RW, is he needs to make an adjustment. He has to be wiling to push the ball and give it up early and expect not to get it back. He has to be willing to take those catch and shoot 3s. Move off the ball. He has a lot of talent, and athleticism, he has a major advantage. He has a 6'8 wingspan. This will not be Houston or Washington where he can control the ball as much as well have that paint area to himself alone.
In Houston, Washington. RW was either the best player or second best on the floor at all times. In LA, he will be the third. He has to change his approach and take advantage.. It's not about fixing a shot, it's about taking the right shots and defending in a way he never has in his career. His load on offense is a lot less on paper, so defensively he can go all out in a way he never has had to in his career.
We will see if RW is truly a winning player this year. Look at guys like Kidd or Rondo. Both guys went to ring level teams later in their careers and developed some outside spot up shooting, and changed their approach on offense. RW has to do the same, only because he's still in his athletic prime, he can play far more minutes at a peak level.
He can just look over to the side and see that Melo changed his game to be more of a spot up shooter, a contributor to the stars, rather than the star, and picked spots to help the team whether by numbers or sometimes emotionally provide what the team needed when Portland had lulls. I don't think he's ever going to be a good shooter, good meaning playoff late game reliable shooter, though. Leave that to the two leaders and whoever among the shooting crew is most trustworthy and that Vogel is playing.
We didn’t get Russ for him to become a role player. He’s still a star and shouldn’t be handcuffed and lowered to a role player. _________________ Coach Vogel, Kidd, Hollins
Max slot : Kawhi
I have never felt it was RWs shot that held him back. I feel it is his shot selection. Unlike Kobe, who was able to dominate from the mid-range, RW instead tries to dominate from way out using dribble penetration primarily. And defenses take that away from you with doubles/clogging defenses, he then often forces tough shots. Kobe forced tough shots too, but once the Triangle came around, his game was dominant in the iso areas of the Triangle. Just a smooth player like Durant we see these days.
So my thing with RW, is he needs to make an adjustment. He has to be wiling to push the ball and give it up early and expect not to get it back. He has to be willing to take those catch and shoot 3s. Move off the ball. He has a lot of talent, and athleticism, he has a major advantage. He has a 6'8 wingspan. This will not be Houston or Washington where he can control the ball as much as well have that paint area to himself alone.
In Houston, Washington. RW was either the best player or second best on the floor at all times. In LA, he will be the third. He has to change his approach and take advantage.. It's not about fixing a shot, it's about taking the right shots and defending in a way he never has in his career. His load on offense is a lot less on paper, so defensively he can go all out in a way he never has had to in his career.
We will see if RW is truly a winning player this year. Look at guys like Kidd or Rondo. Both guys went to ring level teams later in their careers and developed some outside spot up shooting, and changed their approach on offense. RW has to do the same, only because he's still in his athletic prime, he can play far more minutes at a peak level.
He can just look over to the side and see that Melo changed his game to be more of a spot up shooter, a contributor to the stars, rather than the star, and picked spots to help the team whether by numbers or sometimes emotionally provide what the team needed when Portland had lulls. I don't think he's ever going to be a good shooter, good meaning playoff late game reliable shooter, though. Leave that to the two leaders and whoever among the shooting crew is most trustworthy and that Vogel is playing.
We didn’t get Russ for him to become a role player. He’s still a star and shouldn’t be handcuffed and lowered to a role player.
I agree with the second and third paragraph in wolfpaclaker's above, and how he builds his argument, whether he's a defined "star" or not. I think he is, I just don't think him fully expressing his game in a ball-dominant way is as important as Lebron and AD fully expressing their games is on a playoff game by game basis.
Russ is like Kobe, tell him he can't do something, and you really motivate him. Russ being told he needs to shoot better, and he gets to play with his bros like Lebron, Davis, Melo, Howard - he is going to shoot better.
He wants to play here, wants to win a chip, wants to silence the haters...Going to be great for Laker fans and sad times for the ESPN crew...
I want him desperately to shoot better but he's been told he can't shoot forever at this point. This isn't a new challenge presented to him. If anything, Lebron's presence is gonna cut down his stupid shots so in a roundabout way his %'s will go up. _________________ KOBE
Joined: 19 Nov 2007 Posts: 4389 Location: Lake Nacimiento
Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2021 8:55 pm Post subject:
jonnybravo wrote:
waterman40 wrote:
Russ is like Kobe, tell him he can't do something, and you really motivate him. Russ being told he needs to shoot better, and he gets to play with his bros like Lebron, Davis, Melo, Howard - he is going to shoot better.
He wants to play here, wants to win a chip, wants to silence the haters...Going to be great for Laker fans and sad times for the ESPN crew...
I want him desperately to shoot better but he's been told he can't shoot forever at this point. This isn't a new challenge presented to him. If anything, Lebron's presence is gonna cut down his stupid shots so in a roundabout way his %'s will go up.
Yeah, the only way his % goes up is if the bad shots get cleaned up quite a bit and there's a very good chance of that happening since he will be sharing the court with Bron and AD. He's def. not an awful shooter like many make him out to be but his supreme confidence has got the best of him for sure with the shot selection from deep. I'm hopeful he can get to at least the 35%ish range on this roster but it's obviously one of the biggest question marks to start the season. If he can be around league average though that takes us to another entire level of possibilities.
I do not think he has to be a role player. But he has to give that ball up earlier, and know that with a team as talented as this, it may not come back, unless he (RW) is wide open. And RW can move off the ball too, like Caruso did. Huge athleticism advantage. So RW can slide in behind defenses off the ball and finish plays that way. It is definitely about his role, not so much being a role player. He does not have to be forcing shots on this team because the team has Lebron and AD. If you look at Dennis Schroder, Bron allowed Dennis to take it to defenses. But Dennis is just not that level of a player. If we give RW the ball like that, he will be more effective. We just do not want him to get overboard. That has been the narrative in his career.
It is why the chemistry of that trio is vital. Bron has to let RW know and understand the higher percentage attack areas.
All that said, we are going from last year's group that had Dennis be the point, an injured AD and Bron coming of an ankle injury. Even then, we were pretty good. I think it's safe to say, we will find ways to be effective. More effective. The only reason to discuss this and be picky, is that the Lakers goal is not to be just very good, but the best, and the champion. So this will require some adjustments from RW.
One of the most important aspects of the game will need to be the RW/AD 2 man game when Bron sits. We did not develop that last year with Dennis. Based on his track record, Westbrook uses bigs well. Those screens from AD and what AD can do, and what Westbrook can do after that screen being set for him, it is a big part of the development and effectiveness of having the 3rd superstar. You just would not get that from Dennis. You could get that impact from Westbrook. No way do I see him as a role player, but his role will be different in LA vs any other place he has ever played.
Russ has never been in this situation before.
Instead of one other superstar there are now two.
And quality players who can shoot well. Melo, Ellington.
Westbrook can work on being more efficient and taking quality
shots.
He doesn't have to carry the team like before.
DB hit it on the nail in my opinion with his comment on shot selection.
The issue isn't actually his shooting form, it is his shot selection and this team doesn't need him to be a high volume chucker....if he plays to his strengths (and I think he is highly motivated to do just that) this is an absolute steal for the Lakers. _________________ Love, Laker Lanny
The first video he shot horribly but he did get a lot of free throws and grabbed 21 Rebs. If he can just shoot better …. _________________ Coach Vogel, Kidd, Hollins
Max slot : Kawhi
DB hit it on the nail in my opinion with his comment on shot selection.
The issue isn't actually his shooting form, it is his shot selection and this team doesn't need him to be a high volume chucker....if he plays to his strengths (and I think he is highly motivated to do just that) this is an absolute steal for the Lakers.
Something to look forward to: going back to the last 5 seasons, Russ has consistently been a better shooter post All Star break. Some of it can be attributed to working his way back from injury early on but defenses shouldn't be able to cheat off him during the 2nd half of the season or they might regret it. _________________ It was reminiscent of one of those Most Interesting Man in the World advertisements: "I don't always shoot 6-for-28 from the field, but when I do, I become the youngest player in league history to score 28,000 career points."
Considering he will not have to carry the team like a franchise point guard, and he should in theory have a lot more energy to give on D, this is maybe the most overlooked part of getting Westbrook. He is not known for elite defense, but the tools are there. Just in comparison to Dennis, he if bigger and has more wingspan. You can switch Westbrook on some match ups. 6'8 wingspan, strong guy and very athletic. Tough.
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