The Pivot Perspective - Lakers at Wolves GDT

[60WinTim]

Just win boys

You got your wish!

[Coolbreeze44]

Just win boys

You got your wish!

That's the goal my friend

[DNatagal]

Please Santa, can Jaden play like this the rest of his career please, pretty please?

He makes the entire defense work and he actually rebounded at the level we have all been hoping for.

Please Santa!

[FNG]

A win is a win, right? And I agree with the consensus in this thread that the defense was very active...remindful of last year, But our shooting...ugh. A couple thoughts:

-Some might say we caught a break with LeBron out. But he has been dreadful this season, and there is a lot of evidence the Lakers are much better with him out. He has his first negative rating (-5) in 21 years, and he has by far the worst on/off on the team...he has astonishingly had a positive on/off EVERY season of his career, but this year he is at -19.2! The second worst on the team is Max Christie at -8.3. After a terrific 2023-4 season, Father Time has caught up with James big time...the arguably greatest player of all time is now the worst rotation player on the Lakers. He's been MIA the past week, and I wouldn't be surprised if he never returns. He's done...

-I agree that Randle is tough to watch and a ball stopper, but he can be a very effective player when he wants to be. Rui Hachimura mocked his defense after Game 1, and you could see fire coming out of Julius's nostrils tonight at both ends of the court. He wanted to take Rui to the hoop every time he got the ball (and he was successful 7 out of the 11 times he did), and he was locked in and effective on defense against both Rui and AD. If only we could see this from him every night...

[Wolvesfan21]

A win is a win, right? And I agree with the consensus in this thread that the defense was very active...remindful of last year, But our shooting...ugh. A couple thoughts:

-Some might say we caught a break with LeBron out. But he has been dreadful this season, and there is a lot of evidence the Lakers are much better with him out. He has his first negative rating (-5) in 21 years, and he has by far the worst on/off on the team...he has astonishingly had a positive on/off EVERY season of his career, but this year he is at -19.2! The second worst on the team is Max Christie at -8.3. After a terrific 2023-4 season, Father Time has caught up with James big time...the arguably greatest player of all time is now the worst rotation player on the Lakers. He's been MIA the past week, and I wouldn't be surprised if he never returns. He's done...

-I agree that Randle is tough to watch and a ball stopper, but he can be a very effective player when he wants to be. Rui Hachimura mocked his defense after Game 1, and you could see fire coming out of Julius's nostrils tonight at both ends of the court. He wanted to take Rui to the hoop every time he got the ball (and he was successful 7 out of the 11 times he did), and he was locked in and effective on defense against both Rui and AD. If only we could see this from him every night...

LeBron has been slacking on defense for a long time also as he's gotten older. I think he can be a positive player still, I'm not a LeBron fan or hater so I don't really care. The Lakers need to limit his minutes more so he can simply go harder while he's out there. I think in the end they as a team simply don't have enough without a good LeBron to do anything and they likely don't make the playoffs and LeBron probably retires after this season. You don't want to just hang on as JAG.

It's funny too, I watched this LeBron stat padding youtube video the other day. The reason he was getting "10 assists" was simply the scorekeeper. It was pretty hilarious.

[Lipoli390]

Please Santa, can Jaden play like this the rest of his career please, pretty please?

He makes the entire defense work and he actually rebounded at the level we have all been hoping for.

Please Santa!

The Jaden we saw last night is the Jaden we should see nearly every game. He has the talent. He needs to play at a consistently high level on both ends of the court. Of course, that also means not fouling so he can stay on the court.

Overall, the Wolves won a game they certainly should have won. It’s nice to see the reemergence of last season’s defense. But their offense still isn’t close to where it needs to be.

[kekgeek]

Please Santa, can Jaden play like this the rest of his career please, pretty please?

He makes the entire defense work and he actually rebounded at the level we have all been hoping for.

Please Santa!

The Jaden we saw last night is the Jaden we should see nearly every game. He has the talent. He needs to play at a consistently high level on both ends of the court. Of course, that also means not fouling so he can stay on the court.

Overall, the Wolves won a game they certainly should have won. It’s nice to see the reemergence of last season’s defense. But their offense still isn’t close to where it needs to be.

Do you think we saw great Jaden because he had a super easy defensive matchup tonight. Like it had to be the most energy he has had in a long time because he didn’t need to guard an All Star caliber player tonight

[DNatagal]

We all know Jaden gets super frustrated with those early ticky tack foul calls. If he gets a playoff whistle, his aggression comes out.

[FNG]

A win is a win, right? And I agree with the consensus in this thread that the defense was very active...remindful of last year, But our shooting...ugh. A couple thoughts:

-Some might say we caught a break with LeBron out. But he has been dreadful this season, and there is a lot of evidence the Lakers are much better with him out. He has his first negative rating (-5) in 21 years, and he has by far the worst on/off on the team...he has astonishingly had a positive on/off EVERY season of his career, but this year he is at -19.2! The second worst on the team is Max Christie at -8.3. After a terrific 2023-4 season, Father Time has caught up with James big time...the arguably greatest player of all time is now the worst rotation player on the Lakers. He's been MIA the past week, and I wouldn't be surprised if he never returns. He's done...

-I agree that Randle is tough to watch and a ball stopper, but he can be a very effective player when he wants to be. Rui Hachimura mocked his defense after Game 1, and you could see fire coming out of Julius's nostrils tonight at both ends of the court. He wanted to take Rui to the hoop every time he got the ball (and he was successful 7 out of the 11 times he did), and he was locked in and effective on defense against both Rui and AD. If only we could see this from him every night...

LeBron has been slacking on defense for a long time also as he's gotten older. I think he can be a positive player still, I'm not a LeBron fan or hater so I don't really care. The Lakers need to limit his minutes more so he can simply go harder while he's out there. I think in the end they as a team simply don't have enough without a good LeBron to do anything and they likely don't make the playoffs and LeBron probably retires after this season. You don't want to just hang on as JAG.

It's funny too, I watched this LeBron stat padding youtube video the other day. The reason he was getting "10 assists" was simply the scorekeeper. It was pretty hilarious.

WF, I've never been a LeBron hater either...far from it. He's always been a bona fide superstar and largely well behaved in his personal life. But I don't agree that he can still be a positive player. He has looked totally different to me in the games I have seen him in this season at both ends of the court. I agree that he has slacked on defense for some time, but his size and athleticism has still made him reasonably effective. Last year for instance opponents averaged 5.2 fewer points per 100 possessions when he was on the court (better than any other Laker in the rotation), and this year opponents are averaging 9.5 more points per 100...a 14.7 points turnaround matches my eye test when I have watched him. I think you can stick a fork in him...he's done.

[Q-is-here]

Please Santa, can Jaden play like this the rest of his career please, pretty please?

He makes the entire defense work and he actually rebounded at the level we have all been hoping for.

Please Santa!

The Jaden we saw last night is the Jaden we should see nearly every game. He has the talent. He needs to play at a consistently high level on both ends of the court. Of course, that also means not fouling so he can stay on the court.

Overall, the Wolves won a game they certainly should have won. It’s nice to see the reemergence of last season’s defense. But their offense still isn’t close to where it needs to be.

Do you think we saw great Jaden because he had a super easy defensive matchup tonight. Like it had to be the most energy he has had in a long time because he didn’t need to guard an All Star caliber player tonight

He's actually been playing better for a few games now, but obviously last night he was at his best. And he was still guarding his guy hard.

That being said, I can't wait for the day when Randle is gone and Finch starts experimenting a bit more with having Jaden at the 4 for stretches. I think he can be a very effective off ball defensive presence plus switch on wings the way Randle does now but of course Jaden would be way better at it. I also think he'd be better offensively in that position.

We need to dump the 2-big, stagnant iso-ball experiment.