and then he went back to the bench
and then he went back to the bench
Yeah, I posted this in the other thread, but after that game, he went on to play 12 minutes, the lowest out of any Spurs players that day. The mysteries of Pop
Them there some BIG dogs
Yeah, knowing that he’s a big human, you can understand how big they are.
The sad thing about huge dog breeds is that they don’t live long.
Lonnie has really delivered given the amount of touches. I think he’ll more touches in the 2nd unit when White returns.
Yeah, Patty's been great as the 6th man and our sparkplug off the bench but that should be Lonnie's role if/when Derrick returns.
I don't see White starting at this point. He's going to have to be on restricted minutes for at least this year if the team can afford it, and the second unit desperately needs a lead guard. With Vassell playing well enough to warrant 10th-man minutes even in a healthy rotation, White coming off the bench just makes the most sense.
Murray, Mills
Walker, White
DeRozan, Vassell
Johnson, Gay
Aldridge, Poeltl
That looks pretty clearly like SA's 10-man rotation barring trades.
I agree with White while he gets back to 100%. Yet Walker in the starting lineup seems to be limited in touches. He’s shown in the absence of Demar that he can score quick, and he is not even a finish product yet. He needs touches to develop, get used to scoring, being a go to guy. He gets that with the 2nd unit, prepare him if ever Demar leaves.
Lonnie is the guy with the highest upside among our youth (with the possible exception of Samanic, who still looks far from reaching his potential). If he puts it all together, he could be an all-star, IMO.
franchise player. He's the only one with that kind of potential. He can become a legitimate first option
What I want to see more of, from Lonnie, is ball-handling. Not just in terms of playmaking, as we've seen so far, but possessions where he's tasked with running sets, running PnRs, and just putting his handle to the test of NBA defenses. Right now, it's far too easy for him to take a lightning bolt drive into the paint, quick dribble, two steps, and just jump into the hoop and score. I would really like for him to develop that consistency, patience, and determination that being a primary ballhandler entails, though. It'd help his overall game, learning patience and having the game slow down to his personal speed, and would also make him more confident in his role in the team and "authority" in terms of taking over games.
Just wishful thinking - we've seen plenty already from him this season. But to truly break out into a star, he can't be constantly depending on secondary penetration and a non-set defense, nor outside shooting. He's got to be able to handle (eventually) a late-game, 1-on-1, score-or-go-home kind of situation before he can truly rise as a first option. Hopefully Pop makes it a point of emphasis, just like he's clearly making it a point of emphasis to improve his man-to-man defense by tasking him to D up the other team's scorer.
I always thought KJ & White were the guys & that because Lonnie struggled with team defense (In particular switching) & how timid he was, but he's getting more assertive & it's good see. It'd be good to see him take more 3's: I've never seen a 40% 3 point shooter pass up so many open looks.
I have a take on Lonnie that I won't share because I don't want to be called a Debbie Downer. It's time to be supportive, tbh.
I'm sure everybody regrets not being able to read your take.
I don't like to be too up or down. Balance is required. Whatcha got?
It is more sensible than your take on Bertans, tbh. Supported by metrics, at least, tbh.
that's actually called usage rate
Yeah, basically. Isn't usg rate though, just the amount of time you're holding the ball? I don't necessarily want for Lonnie to hog the ball all that much more (and he wouldn't be able to do it even if he wanted to, once DD gets back); I want him to start focusing on creating his own offense and involving others in it, being the initiator of plays (even if it's a simple PnR or PnP with LMA), that sort of stuff. Whatever it's called, I want him doing that
Shoot it, Daffy, tbh. You get a free pass after the Marfan Demigod predictions
No, usage rate is the percentage of possessions a player ends with a shot, turnover, or FT attempts. 20% is average, and ball-dominant stars are usually in the 30s. Lonnie is at 20.3% on the season, but put up a 23.7 against OC, equal to DeRozan's 23.7 average for the season.
For more details, DeRozan's USG% was 27.9% two years ago, 26.3% last year, and 23.7% so far this season. Aldridge: 26.9, 23.4, 24.4.
The team average for USG% will be over 20% because players miss games, so Lonnie's 20.3 this season is actually a bit below average. I haven't done a thorough analysis on USG% for these 3 seasons, but it definitely appears that it was very top-heavy two years ago (DeRozan and Aldridge), much less so last season, and even less so now.
It's not a perfect proxy for ball dominance, of course. Last night I saw several possessions down the stretch where Murray and Aldridge played a two-man game, and the ones where Aldridge shot the ball wouldn't count towards anyone else's USG%, even though Murray handled the ball a lot that possession and nobody else touched it. Still, USG% is the best proxy I can find for that.
Lonnie needs to improve his man-to-man defense. I don't think he makes his guy "feel" him enough. It might be due to his size, but still.
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