CoolBreeze44 wrote:WildWolf2813 wrote:I agree nearly 100% with what Robson wrote.
So what's your contribution?
He looks the part. That's all he does. And the funny thing is that for every person who defends LaVine, half of them want D'Angelo Russell to block his development. Personally I just don't think there's anything to develop with him, but not only have we been bad, but we've also been a tough watch. We didn't have athleticism. We didn't have guys who can make highlight reels, so I can understand why people wanna hold onto a guy whose only positive contribution is his athleticism.
Not that I'm really interested in his demeanor, but yes, he's confident, he wants to be great and thinks he has the tools to be great. That's nice. There's also plenty of young guys who have that kind of confidence who suck. Austin Rivers and Dion Waiters have the confidence of Kobe Bryant yet they stink. Given what we have now and what we may have later, it's gonna be impossible to have someone like that feel reduced to the idea of being someone's sixth man, unless of course, he stinks.
Of course we're gonna assume he's gonna make these incredible improvements and he'll massively improve his body and fix his jump shot and hope the facilitating improves so maybe he can find PT at PG. Call me cynical, but I heard the same stuff with Shved. It never happened and he was better than LaVine. Jamal Crawford in 15 years of pro basketball has probably gained 10 pounds of muscle total. LaVine's gonna have to do everything short of popping steroids to get to Jamal Crawford's frame and I don't know if LaVine's frame can handle that kind of bulk anyway, but of course that's to be determined.
If Zach fails it won't all be his fault. Flip's done a crappy job developing guys so far. The only 2 that have seemed to learn anything all year have been Wiggins and Muhammad and in Muhammad, it's all been in spite of Flip as he's done him no favors. Flip still plays Zach at the point because Flip wants to salvage the idiotic comments he made about LaVine when he picked him. It really is hilarious to see him play Zach at the PG, witness the deficit balloon and see the anguish on Flip's face as he has to yank LaVine for not doing what he hoped he could at the PG spot, and the crazy thing is, some of you guys defend this too. The idea of, "well he'll learn playing tougher unfamilar positions and sets so when he's in his natural comfortable spot the game will be easier." I've heard this before too. Remember Jonny Flynn and how the triangle was gonna make him tougher?
If I'm wrong down the line I'll gladly admit I was wrong, but I don't see him succeeding. It was the most Oakland Raider-esque pick Flip coulda made. He took the guy who had the best combine not the guy with the best chance to succeed. The absolute highest ceiling I have for him is that it takes years for him to learn how to play and maybe when he hits his prime he can be a serviceable rotation player somewhere on his 5th or 6th team, but looking at it that way, I shouldn't have any investment in his development because most likely we won't see the best of it. The best asset he can provide us that hopefully someone still thinks he's the 2nd coming of Russell Westbrook (and yes, people have that opinion) and sell high.
