Film Room: Lonnie Walker IV's growth shown in two plays

[gameFACE]

Of the young core LWIV has the potential to impact the team way more more than Murray and White long term. And I like the latter. Not taking sides. Hopefully LW can develop into a 2006 Dwayne Wade type who plays defense.

[exstatic]

I don't have time to dissect the defensive clips, but I will later. But if you look at the play with Leonard, watch Forbes. Lonnie is moving over to pick up Autist, and Forbes throws his right arm out to signal that he's got the sideline, and Lonnie moves back toward the middle of the floor. Forbes' job at that point was to do just that - cut off the sideline and force Autist back toward the middle. Instead, Bryn takes up inside position and sags, and the play goes to from there.

It's bad D by Lonnie, but the root cause is the worst defender in the league. And if you back a few seconds and look closely, it's pretty obvious that Kawhi came down the floor looking for Forbes, the victim of choice for offensive players everywhere.

While you're at it, look at the other clip around the 10 second mark. Exactly what the is Bryn doing putting his right arm out onto Lonnie's right hip? Then keep watching Forbes. If anything, he gets in the way of Lonnie staying in front of Harden. And finally, that "unfortunate" whistle was on Bryn for reaching and grabbing Harden's arm in a futile gesture.

If anyone needs to be benched, and if benching can really make a player improve, Bryn Forbes needs to have a wood-grain ass.

You don't let the defensive player dictate that action. Lonnie knows his cover. Simply take Load Management, and wave Bryn off.

[BillMc]

Of the young core LWIV has the potential to impact the team way more more than Murray and White long term. And I like the latter. Not taking sides. Hopefully LW can develop into a 2006 Dwayne Wade type who plays defense.

Gotta agree on this. White (like Forbes) is relatively old for a "young" guy and I think he's nearer to his ceiling. White just needs to get healthy. Murray, while I like his leadership and rebounding, has now had 4 seasons to work on shooting and his playmaking instincts. Is he really much better than his 2nd year? Even with the injury setting him back, he's getting perilously close to plateauing. As Bill Parcels once said. "Eventually, he is what he is." Hope I'm wrong.

Lonnie, if he's got the drive, has star potential. KJ and Luka, words still out on them of course.

[Trill Clinton]

Good . It was evident early on that Lonnie was nervous whenever he entered the game. He was lost on offense at times and nowhere as aggressive on offense as he had been in SL. Glad he took the spanking from Pop and learned from it. Hopefully he can keep it up.

[Amuseddaysleeper]

Awesome stuff. I’ve actually come away far more impressed with his defensive potential than what I initially gave Lonnie credit for.

[BillMc]

Awesome stuff. I’ve actually come away far more impressed with his defensive potential than what I initially gave Lonnie credit for.

Me too. I thought he was a defensive liability despite his physical gifts. But he proved me wrong. Really like the way he manned up and covered Harden. Lightyears from hiding from Nephew. Pop got through to him.

[JeffDuncan]

...
If anyone needs to be benched, and if benching can really make a player improve, Bryn Forbes needs to have a wood-grain ass.

Thou speakest wisely, oh god of the thunderbolt.

In addition to what you mention, in the Clips game where Lonnie made the pass, it was to Beli at the arc, with both a wide open passing lane, and a wide open shooter. The pass was the right move, in more ways than one.

In the clip where Lonnie took the ball on in, the potential pass recipients were DDR - pass the ball out to DDR at the arc?? Rofl! - or Forbes in the corner. There were defenders in each of those passing lanes. The path to the basket was open, as you have so ably elucidated, and the passing lane to Forbes was blocked.

[RD2191]

Lonnie will be a star one day, hopefully he'll get a coach that doesn't hold him back soon.

[timvp]

Nice write-up.

Is it possible that Lonnie has had the light bulb turn on in his head since that Clippers game? Or is it really on on Pop?

I'd give credit to Lonnie first. It looks like Pop might have had something to do with it but it's impossible to know for sure.

[Sugus]

You don't let the defensive player dictate that action. Lonnie knows his cover. Simply take Load Management, and wave Bryn off.

Precisely this. No matter how the plays went, it's obvious Lonnie was tasked with defending both Kawhi and Harden. He settled with letting Forbes, defender, take up Kawhi for an obvious score, which is what Pop meant by non-compe ive. But during the Rockets game, he called for Harden on every defensive play - I don't think I saw anyone else guard Harden without a pick set to hinder Lonnie. The difference in at ude is very clear, and I hope we can see this kind of effort from Lonnie consistently.

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

It certainly appears to me that Pop made an impact. Some of it is certainly Lonnie's growth in knowing where to be on the floor, but defense it effort, and I think your example of him guarding Kawhi vs. Harden clearly shows that he's efforting way more on than he had been previously. Whenever I played on a new team, if I was still uncertain on offense, my goal was to crush it on the defensive side of the ball until I got my offensive footing. Lonnie was lackadaisical on both offense and defense in that Clips game which makes me think Pop's tough love really was effective in getting Lonnie to understand what it takes.

[timvp]

In the first play, against the Clippers, Jakob has given up position to Montrezl Harrell and is already all but out of this play. This is exactly the thing that you (TIMVP) and I both commented about in that game thread that winds up with Jakob giving up offensive boards. On this play, it also means that he will be able to do nothing to help Lonnie get to the rim.

Poeltl has Harrell sealed; look at the first pic you posted. Walker takes the wrong angle to the basket. Not only is he wide open on the perimeter the moment he catches the ball, he remains wide open until he drives into the defender. If Walker goes baseline, Poeltl has the seal and Walker gets a layup/dunk.

Do you really think if Walker had the same opportunity in the Rockets game that he would have passed it despite having no one within 15 feet of him trying to defend him?

But if you look at the play with Leonard, watch Forbes. Lonnie is moving over to pick up Autist, and Forbes throws his right arm out to signal that he's got the sideline, and Lonnie moves back toward the middle of the floor.

Yeah, that's not how it works when you're specifically assigned to the other team's star defensive player. Walker should have done what he did against the Rockets: shoo away Forbes and guard the player he's on the court to guard. Can you imagine Bruce Bowen getting waved off by Brent Barry when he's heading over to defend Kobe Bryant?

If you're a defensive stopper, rule number one is to actually guard the guy. It happened multiple times in the Clippers game where Walker was caught hiding from Leonard. It turned out to be a good learning experience and Walker appears to now understand what it means to take on that role

[JeffDuncan]

Precisely this. No matter how the plays went, it's obvious Lonnie was tasked with defending both Kawhi and Harden. He settled with letting Forbes, defender, take up Kawhi ...

But that was Forbes' fault. Forbes is a regular starter, and there is a status on the team that goes with that. Like it or not. A lowly bench player, who has hardly played at all, will not argue with a starter out on the court while the action is running. You just don't do that. When Forbes indicated, "I got this," Lonnie gave it to him, of course. It's Forbes who should be condemned for what he did, not Lonnie. Basically, Forbes failed to rotate - again! - and what was Lonnie supposed to do, kick him?

[timvp]

Precisely this. No matter how the plays went, it's obvious Lonnie was tasked with defending both Kawhi and Harden. He settled with letting Forbes, defender, take up Kawhi for an obvious score, which is what Pop meant by non-compe ive. But during the Rockets game, he called for Harden on every defensive play - I don't think I saw anyone else guard Harden without a pick set to hinder Lonnie. The difference in at ude is very clear, and I hope we can see this kind of effort from Lonnie consistently.

This brings up a good point in that even when the Rockets were setting picks to get Walker off of Harden, Walker stubbornly fought over the picks and went right back to defending Harden. Walker's pick-evasion was really impressive. Obviously not at the level of Bowen or Danny Green yet but impressive for a 20-year-old.

[Arcadian]

That's what happens when you're allowed to play more than 3 minutes in a game.

[DPG21920]

Good . It was evident early on that Lonnie was nervous whenever he entered the game. He was lost on offense at times and nowhere as aggressive on offense as he had been in SL. Glad he took the spanking from Pop and learned from it. Hopefully he can keep it up.

I don’t blame him honestly. You know how it must feel trying to play knowing you literally only get 2 minutes and that if you make a mistake, even the same mistakes as everyone else, you get pulled with no hope of coming back?

It’s why GINO struggled at times until Pop learned to let him be him because he had the talent.

[DPG21920]

Me too. I thought he was a defensive liability despite his physical gifts. But he proved me wrong. Really like the way he manned up and covered Harden. Lightyears from hiding from Nephew. Pop got through to him.

Did yall not watch any of the G-League or Summer League or Pre-Season? Lonnie showed tremendous one-on-one defensive potential all the time; he struggled in team defense concepts, but his one on one ceiling was very evident IMO.

[BillMc]

Did yall not watch any of the G-League or Summer League or Pre-Season? Lonnie showed tremendous one-on-one defensive potential all the time; he struggled in team defense concepts, but his one on one ceiling was very evident IMO.

No, I did not watch summer league or g-league. I did watch almost every regular season game and he looked lost (which is obviously team defense) when he got time. I also watched him seem to not want to take on Nephew. So, as I said, I am thrilled to watch him show desire to guard Harden and do it well.

[Mugen]

Yeah, the biggest improvement is that he's gotten actual minutes. That's pretty much it. The cult of Pop would of course say otherwise but we could have been at this point 10-15 games ago but I'm just happy he might actually get regular minutes now....

We'll see though tbh.

[Kobe'sAchilles]

If Lonnie breaks out into a star then there is still the problem of building around him. It's really hard to build around shooting guards. As far as I know it's only been done like twice successfully. We have one issue solved where we have an All-NBA defender paired with him that can take the best team's opposing guards. But we need a 3 desperately. Almost impossible to win otherwise.

[timvp]

Did yall not watch any of the G-League or Summer League or Pre-Season? Lonnie showed tremendous one-on-one defensive potential all the time; he struggled in team defense concepts, but his one on one ceiling was very evident IMO.

That's quite a condescending response to our guy BillMc, especially considering it's not really true. Walker's defense wasn't anything special in G League last season (average or below average, if we're being honest), in summer league it was decent but far from "tremendous" and in preseason he had a few good possessions against Harden but still nothing close to his potential.

[Mugen]

If you ask any Sniffer, Pop has never made a move/adjustment too late tbh

"Edgelords" were calling for Cunningham to be benched, Pau to be moved, The Golden God to actually play in 2011, DWhite to get more time last season, Lonnie to finally crack the rotation....and countless other examples....way, way before Pop actually made those moves.

And without fail, the response is always:
"Pop had no choice but to make the move when he made it or who cares when he actually did it, just be happy he finally did."

Again, I'm happy Lonnie might be getting some regular minutes, just cracks me up

[Sugus]

If Lonnie breaks out into a star then there is still the problem of building around him. It's really hard to build around shooting guards. As far as I know it's only been done like twice successfully. We have one issue solved where we have an All-NBA defender paired with him that can take the best team's opposing guards. But we need a 3 desperately. Almost impossible to win otherwise.

Ideal scenario for this season is that, through a trade of either LMA or DD or both, we get a high enough pick where we can tank this season, and grab both a 5 and 3 close to the lottery next season. I see Luka developing into a starting 4 so I wouldn't be hurried to draft one with such a high pick, we're much thinner at these two positions, especially SF. Then next season you roll out DJ-DW/Lonnie/Lottery3/Luka/Poeltl-Lottery5. There's a lot that could go wrong with this, it's just a dream scenario, but I think a single season tank could fill out the holes in our young core. Now, as for which prospects fit this bill, I have no idea...

[Sugus]

If you ask any Sniffer, Pop has never made a move/adjustment too late tbh

"Edgelords" were calling for Cunningham to be benched, Pau to be moved, The Golden God to actually play in 2011, DWhite to get more time last season, Lonnie to finally crack the rotation....and countless other examples....way, way before Pop actually made those moves.

And without fail, the response is always:
"Pop had no choice but to make the move when he made it or who cares when he actually did it, just be happy he finally did."

Again, I'm happy Lonnie might be getting some regular minutes, just cracks me up

To be fair, "edgelords" were also praising the Belinelli signing, though I'm sure that's not something you'd bring up as you write the narrative.

[r0drig0lac]

If Lonnie breaks out into a star then there is still the problem of building around him. It's really hard to build around shooting guards. As far as I know it's only been done like twice successfully. We have one issue solved where we have an All-NBA defender paired with him that can take the best team's opposing guards. But we need a 3 desperately. Almost impossible to win otherwise.

He has Oladipo potential., I don't think building around a two-way combo guard (if that really happens) is harder than building around a center or a power forward.