Pop on Walker “He was non compe ive”

[SpurPadre]

Walker was as compe ive as Carroll was last night, tbh.

[TDomination]

https://www.reddit.com/r/NBASpurs/co...m_medium=web2x


I saw this video on Reddit. I don't like Reddit too much but thank you to whoever made this video. The ending is the best lol. It highlights the fact that Lonnie may have made some mistakes like the foul on Kawhi before the ball was even inbounded but i didn't see anything that made me think that his effort wasn't there or that he wasn't "competing."

if we pulled up a video for LMA i'm sure we could find plenty of uncompe ive plays.

Anyways just thought it was interesting. I hope he gets a lot of burn tonight.

[TDomination]

Why? Bc Kawhi wanted out? One guy wants to be traded and now Pop can't command any respect from young players even though everything else about his track record says otherwise. Pop is trying to light a fire under his ass bc he wants Lonnie to go out there and look like a ball player.

Mostly because its becoming a trend in the NBA. "Diva" superstars.
He's not a star yet but I believe he can become one. I guess after everything that happened with Kawhi, i really don't want us to lose another star player or in this case, potential star player.

Losing Kawhi truly sucked and still does. That was our guy. But oh well gotta move on.

[RC_Drunkford]

Lonnie should see at least 20 minutes tonight against the Warriors. They play a bunch of G-League scrubs so he should be able to score a lot. That will determine if we see him crack the rotation rather sooner than later

[drpill]

From the little time that Walker was out there i thought he seemed compe ive but maybe a little lost. To me he looked almost too aggressive on defense, like he wanted to fight the other team lol getting in faces and putting his body right against the people he was defending giving them the type of look that says "i'm going to you up".

I agree with this. He often plays a bit wild and out of control, like his body is almost too much for him to handle. And he probably feels he has a lot to prove on the court in very limited opportunities, which can lead to mistakes. But I don't think fire or willingness to compete are the issue, it's just inexperience (or worst case scenario, inherently poor basketball IQ).

Weird comment from Pop but I guess it's true that this is his current version of yelling at his young players during the game. Lonnie will have to face facts -- he did play badly, and it's on him to play better and figure things out (with help from coaches and teammates). Pop is too stubborn to coach differently at this stage, so this is what we get until he finally packs it in. If Lonnie survives this process and wants to remain a Spur we will have a terrific young player on our hands.

[KobesAchilles]

Optimistic scenario: this is a desperate ploy by Pop to get Lonnie to man up and play important minutes in the future. It means that Pop sees the writing on the wall, that Belli isn’t cutting it anymore (and God knows what’s going on with Carrol) and that the only way to compete in the wide open west is to have Lonnie take that next step...

Pessimistic (realistic) scenario: This is a ty thing by Pop to do. I have no problem calling out Lonnie in a vacuum bc Pop does this to a lot of young players (TP, Manu, Danny, etc) but the difference between them and Lonnie is that they were getting consistent playing time. Lonnie saw 4 minutes of action last night and ZERO the game before.

We had too many things to legitimately complain about besides Lonnie. We turned the ball over 18 times, we missed 9 free throws, we didn’t take or make very many 3s, and LMA (our supposed All-Star) the bed with 5 points. I mean really only 2 players played well for the entire team so it seemed weird to call out the 12th man on the team. Bc that’s what Lonnie is, he’s the 12th man on the team. Any coach would sound ridiculous if you tried to blame a guy averaging 2 minutes a game for the loss. Like what about almost literally everybody else?

Again I have no problem calling out Walker, however it’s a move to do that AND not play him. One should come with the other.

[Chucho]

I think people see how gold was struck with DW and DJ so they figure since LW4 was drafted "highest" since Kawhi, that must mean he's going to be a center piece instead of what he probably is, fringe NBA player. That's very well in tune with an 18th pick. A lot of unfair expectations are being placed on an 18th pick in the NBA draft.

That's like expecting your 5th or 6th round picks in the NFL to become All Pros when you should be happy if they crack rotation and stick in the league more than a few seasons. Success would becoming a serviceable starter for either sport.

[DPG21920]

I think people see how gold was struck with DW and DJ so they figure since LW4 was drafted "highest" since Kawhi, that must mean he's going to be a center piece instead of what he probably is, fringe NBA player. That's very well in tune with an 18th pick. A lot of unfair expectations are being placed on an 18th pick in the NBA draft.

That's like expecting your 5th or 6th round picks in the NFL to become All Pros when you should be happy if they crack rotation and stick in the league more than a few seasons. Success would becoming a serviceable starter for either sport.

I think people see that Marco sucks really bad and that Lonnie at least deserves a shot because he can’t be worse than Marco. Marco is a fringe nba player at this point with zero upside now. Lonnie, may be a bust, but at least there’s potential and if the only minutes lost is Beli minutes then there is zero risk

[phxspurfan]

Trade him then

[exstatic]

Lonnie will be fine. He had a strict upbringing, and his parents were tough on him, and set high expectations, both athletically, and academically.

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

Pop used to bust Tony's chops when he was young because he saw how much potential he had, and was pushing him to be great. Maybe this is something similar...or maybe he's just pissed and hoping for an at ude adjustment.

So far Lonnie's not living up to his potential. He's got the best physical tools on the team.

[monty4329]

Murray got the keys in his second year ... Tony was a starter very early in his career ... Kawhi started within half of a season ... not comparable to what Lonnie is going through. And why? perhaps he is neither Murray, Tony or Kawhi like ... i.e. good

That's the point, Lonnie is not good. There is plenty of rookie and 2nd year players getting minutes all over the league, and doing pretty well. Lonnie is simply not good enough, at this stage. Maybe he will be. Pop was quite rightly pointing out that he needs to take advantage of the minutes he gets, but instead he not only plays like crap, he doesn't even know where to be on offense....

[Mugen]

Pop used to bust Tony's chops when he was young because he saw how much potential he had, and was pushing him to be great. Maybe this is something similar...or maybe he's just pissed and hoping for an at ude adjustment.

So far Lonnie's not living up to his potential. He's got the best physical tools on the team.

Based on 10 minutes so far this season? Either Lonnie is just openly ting on Pop in the locker room or Marco Belinelli is the second coming of jesus during practice scrimmage. Otherwise, makes no sense that he's not getting any meaningful minutes.

[Floyd Pacquiao]

I think people see that Marco sucks really bad and that Lonnie at least deserves a shot because he can’t be worse than Marco. Marco is a fringe nba player at this point with zero upside now. Lonnie, may be a bust, but at least there’s potential and if the only minutes lost is Beli minutes then there is zero risk

Well said.

[timtonymanu]

The suckers have no limits on their excuses. I guess Tiago was crap his rookie season when Pop would yank him out game after game. Oh but I forgot, it wasn’t fair to the others who were healthy in camp.

[TD 21]

I don't buy the motivational/psychological nonsense because he generally doesn't negatively single out individuals. This felt like a shot across the bow, either from a player and/or representative, who's been complaining about role.

If it was, this organization is even more screwed than anyone with a brain realized they were a while ago.

Walker isn't some generational prospect. Maybe he's just the next LaVine or a lesser version thereof, but he's the one possibility of an offensive centerpiece out of all the building blocks and given their determination to avoid rebuilding, it'll be difficult to do better with where they're likely to pick in the next few years. They can't afford to throw him in the garbage before they find out what they even have, so that some senile egomaniac can pretend this is the old days.

After not getting a turn on S bag, I'm also becoming more convinced that something is up with Carroll.

[Mugen]

Running Lonnie out of town and him showing out with legit minutes on another team would be the funniest thing I could think of for Pop and the Suckers tbh.

[JuneJive]

Let the kid grow.

[timtonymanu]

Running Lonnie out of town and him showing out with legit minutes on another team would be the funniest thing I could think of for Pop and the Suckers tbh.

“Who needs Lonnie and his talent when you can have Bryn and his culture?”

[ElNono]

Running Lonnie out of town and him showing out with legit minutes on another team would be the funniest thing I could think of for Pop and the Suckers tbh.

Hate to side with Pop on this one but Lonnie looks more worried about the turd he’s wearing in his head than his game, tbh...

[Mugen]

“Who needs Lonnie and his talent when you can have Bryn and his culture?”

Sad thing is you aren't wrong.

They are going to end up choosing Bryn over DWhite too. Derrick will probably be vocal about not starting and that'll be the death knell for his time as a Spur unless the old man retires already.

[4lifecowboy]

I made this assessment earlier, he doesn't play with enough aggression, he has shown flashes of being a top notch NBA player yet he doesn't attack offensively like he knows that.

[Mugen]

Hate to side with Pop on this one but Lonnie looks more worried about the turd he’s wearing in his head than his game, tbh...

Never thought you'd drink that Sucker-Aid, Nono. Disappointing tbh.

[Mugen]

In all seriousness though, I hope he gets traded to a team that will give him 20-25 mins a game right off the bad.

It'd be funny AF to see the PATFO reaction as he balls out after the Nephew debacle.

[r0drig0lac]

The suckers have no limits on their excuses. I guess Tiago was crap his rookie season when Pop would yank him out game after game. Oh but I forgot, it wasn’t fair to the others who were healthy in camp.