Did We Pivot? - Lakers at Wolves GDT

[Q-is-here]

Why on earth is Bronny on the Lakers bench next to his Dad instead of with the G-League team!? What a manufactured joke the whole LeBron-Bronny thing is or was. They aren't even really developing him.

I think he has played in the G-league. Both DLo and Reeves were both out last night, so I don’t blame them for him having up right now. Of course, you can blame them for drafting him…

Bronny has played two out of eight of the South Bay Laker G-League games. He's averaged 5 points on 21% shooting across those two games.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Abe's Not Much to Add DVR Review:

- Divencenzo was incredible. The push-ahead passes on the break. Collapsing the defense and kicking out. Hitting three threes. AND... the defense.

- I know the Lakers were on the back end of a road back-to-back... but this is what it SHOULD look like when playing teams like that. The Wolves smothered the Lakers defensively.

- Since the energy and effort was so drastically different than most of the first 19 games... should we applaud the effort tonight or rip the previous efforts even more than we have? The difference was stark, almost shocking.

- Casual fans must have tuned out early... James, Davis and Edwards each had arguably their worst game of the season. I can't recall seeing James look that awful before.

- Conley has had a bit more bounce... but still not what it was. Maybe it's coming soon though...

- Gobert just kept getting better and better in this one.

- NAW is pricing himself out of Minnesota.

- That's two straight games where McDaniels is the one losing minutes. 22 minutes tonight. 25 last game. 24 the previous game. (and only 1 foul the past two games)

- I saw the stat that showed the Gobert - Reid - Divencenzo - NAW - Conley lineup is off the charts compared to every other lineup. Don't know what to do with that since Edwards and Randle are guaranteed a certain amount of minutes every night.

- Play defense anywhere close to this and the team will rebound and avoid the play-in.

[Q-is-here]

Yeah, NAW may be tough to re-sign. But as much as we love him, the cupboard isn't completely empty behind him. Shannon Jr. and Jaylen Clark are legit NBA talents. I'm not going to say either would be an equal or upgrade to NAW, but I feel better about them than I do the backup Center position, where we have nothing save a long shot like Jesse Edwards.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Yeah, NAW may be tough to re-sign. But as much as we love him, the cupboard isn't completely empty behind him. Shannon Jr. and Jaylen Clark are legit NBA talents. I'm not going to say either would be an equal or upgrade to NAW, but I feel better about them than I do the backup Center position, where we have nothing save a long shot like Jesse Edwards.

Sure.

And a guy like NAW is so valuable because he's only making $4.3M. The return (and expectations) when he's making $18M will change things.

[AbeVigodaLive]

One thing I forgot to mention in the review...

- LeBron James kept his streak of 1,243 games with double digits for points alive. He finished with 10. With about 9 minutes left... the Wolves lead ballooned to 20+... and it was obvious James knew he wasn't in double digits yet.

There was no way he was leaving the court without getting to 10 points. LOL.

[Q-is-here]

Yeah, NAW may be tough to re-sign. But as much as we love him, the cupboard isn't completely empty behind him. Shannon Jr. and Jaylen Clark are legit NBA talents. I'm not going to say either would be an equal or upgrade to NAW, but I feel better about them than I do the backup Center position, where we have nothing save a long shot like Jesse Edwards.

Sure.

And a guy like NAW is so valuable because he's only making $4.3M. The return (and expectations) when he's making $18M will change things.

Agreed. The second his 3-point shot deserts him for a long stretch, we'd consider him overvalued. Jaden is a great example of this.

I also wonder if we are seeing "peak NAW" right now. We might be seeing his version of what DDV did last year with the Knicks. Plus it's a contract year, so we know he's got extra motivation.

I'd hate to see him leave, but it might be necessary in order to preserve the financial flexibility needed to sign other guys.