2017-18 NBA REGULAR SEASON THREAD PART 1 ALL OF AMERICAS FAVORITE TEAMS ARE BACK

wait .673?

iirc UCLA tried to change lonzo's shot bcuz he has trouble getting it off while off the dribble, especially going in one direction, i forget which. lavar blew up at steve alford and they scrapped it. so i don't think his shot is perfect or fine, just that i'm confident he'll be able to hit open jumpers at an acceptable clip which is far more than ricky rubio can do, to bring it back to the point.

here are my thoughts on lonzo's shot:

1) he seems like someone who has practiced specific shots but has not really worked on general shotmaking. he's got the stepback 3 and the open 3 at least. i bet he'll make the open 3 at a decent clip.

2) related to lack of shotmaking, he's going to take a lot of weird floaters and stuff because i don't think he can line up his jumper on the move.

3) he bricked two free throws last night and both appeared to have sidespin on them, which is...not what you want.

per espn stats the lakers averaged .48 points/possession when beverley guarded lonzo last night

teenage rookie guards tend to be very bad iirc, i'm sure he'll struggle a fair bit

in a league where point guards are relied on so heavily to break down their defender and increasingly to generate and hit quality 3s off the dribble im just not sure how this guy who has trouble beating his own man much less penetrating the second level of D and who has a shot that he cant take going left unless he steps way back fits in, also its kinda weird that everyone is just accepting the it goes in story abt that jumper after 200 college attempts, he may be some sort of basketball genius but how much is that worth if you dont have the fundamental skills to express yr genius, dangelo russell put up 30 in his first game btw

wait .673?

― ciderpress, Friday, October 20, 2017 11:03 AM (eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah this too

kinda funny how both fultz and ball put up great numbers from 3 but sucked from the line, suspect their 3 percentages will turn out to be a least partially fools gold

UCLA had great spacing but lonzo got the rim in college. he doesn't look like a great one on one player obv but i still think he should be pretty good as a high pick and roll player. as long as guys can't go under picks on him every play (i.e. can he hit moderately deep wide open threes) i think things will mostly lock into place for him given his passing ability.

kinda funny how both fultz and ball put up great numbers from 3 but sucked from the line, suspect their 3 percentages will turn out to be a least partially fools gold

― lag∞n, Friday, October 20, 2017 11:13 AM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark

i do wonder if the NBA three point revolution means that the old correlation between FT% and true shooting ability will be less strong if every kid coming out of high school now is shooting 100 three pointers a day in practice or whatever.

this is rly good https://www.si.com/nba/2017/10/20/lonzo-ball-lakers-debut-patrick-beverley-clippers

i just went through the box scores of all the games ball has played as a pro summer/pre/regular season and hes currently 14 for 57 from three or 24%, he took 194 total threes in his college career

dedicated hater i like it

the conventional wisdom on ball just doesnt match up with conventional reality, which is why people seem to need to bring out unconventional descriptors like basketball genius to justify ball, the only explanation i can find is people must really like to see perimeter passes delivered a beat earlier than usual

like court vision is a secondary nba skill, its not worth much on its own

I keep seeing this thread title as "all of america's favorite teams are black" and thinking "yeah, true"

lol

good set of games tonight

I still like the jazz for some reason I can't really explain it

well, the reality of lonzo is that he was very good statistically in college and has now played like 3 meaningful games ever maybe as a professional so we'll see.

nb i always said i would take de'aaron fox over him but i think lonzo has a very high floor and will almost certainly be a contributing NBA starter unless something crazy happens like all the pressure and attention due to his dad breaks him mentally. and court vision is one of the reasons why i think that! it's hard to not at least be a good rotation player if you have elite court vision.

contributing nba starter is a massive whiff for a #2 pick! especially in a draft thats looking as strong as this one

pretty happy with the tatum pick so far

mee too man

it's not a massive whiff. a massive whiff is like hasheem thabeet or ben mclemore. it would be far from the ideal outcome but it at least gives you something to bank on.

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Lost in the Lonzo talk was that Brandon Ingram had a really rough game. You worry that he just doesn’t generate enough easy shots.

i think this is a bigger problem for the lakers anyway. it's possible ingram is not very good.

re: fox taking small guards that high in the draft seems so risky idk

eventually the nba, america, and indeed the world is going to have to own up to the fact that lavar balls hype machine worked on them

the idea of lonzo ending up as decent to good but being considered a massive whiff is why i continue to think about ricky rubio in relation to him, as a super hyped PG with supposed preternatural court vision who is sort of a rorschach test in terms of how good he ended up being in the NBA but isn't bad (probably)

good point

eventually the nba, america, and indeed the world is going to have to own up to the fact that lavar balls hype machine worked on them

― lag∞n, Friday, October 20, 2017 12:00 PM (three minutes ago) Bookmark

well again he was one of the best statistical players in power conference college basketball last year as a freshman so it's not like there's nothing backing it up

ppl still can't decide if Rubio is good

I think lonzo will become one of those players

5 years from now no one will agree on whether he's good or not still

i just went through the box scores of all the games ball has played as a pro summer/pre/regular season and hes currently 14 for 57 from three or 24%, he took 194 total threes in his college career

― lag∞n, Friday, October 20, 2017 8:33 AM (thirty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i wonder if some players have a hard time transitioning to the NBA ball.

the nba ball is the best ball!

yeah of course im just saying no one talks about how different it feels to the crap composite squishy ones every grows up with and are used in HS/NCAA

everyone*

ncaa shd shell out for some dece balls wth

they used an all leather Wilson ball in the 90s, it was really nice, had me a couple. Somewhere along the way they adopted the Wilson Evolution and then the HORRIBLE Nike balls. ugh. now every team or conference uses whatever their sponsors makes them play with.

SEC being sponsored by nerf koosh has really hurt them

well again he was one of the best statistical players in power conference college basketball last year as a freshman so it's not like there's nothing backing it up

― J0rdan S., Friday, October 20, 2017 12:04 PM (eighteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

idk his stats are pretty easily contextualized which they demand to be considering he shoots the ball from the wrong side of his head and is generally weird, not that all stats shdnt contextualized, also his ft shooting stat was bad which shdve worried ppl, also his teammate tj leaf had arguably better stats and went 15 spots later

Fun lineup theodisic, pat bev, gazelle, Blake, DJ

― Spottie, Thursday, October 19, 2017 10:59 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Def their best. I'm not personally that invested in lonzo ball yet (though he's a lot bigger than I realized) but pat Beverly giving him the fuck u rook treatment was hilarious to me

the only explanation i can find is people must really like to see perimeter passes delivered a beat earlier than usual

― lag∞n, Friday, October 20, 2017 11:40 AM (fifty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes this is one of the best things besides dunx

i laughed out loud when he popped him his first time up the floor

it's possible ingram is not very good.

― J0rdan S., Friday, October 20, 2017 11:58 AM (thirty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

wld be so beautiful if none of ingram/ball/randle end up allstars, also if russell does, and if the celtics get a franchise player w lakers pick

Speaking of bigger than I realized that pj tucker contract is a real bargain on a per pound basis amirite

wonder how long the lakers can be terrible before their star starts to wane

theyve been good for basically their entire LA run

I am unconvinced that ingraham is anything other than like the new age version of guys like rasho nesterivic where they just look like a center so they get made a center, except ingraham is long and gangly so everyone goes u look like Durant so go ball

there is def something tantalizing abt him except the ball doesnt go in