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Jazz @ Grizzlies 6:00pm (MST) on ESPN

Rebounding is an issue, sure. But it's not a reason why we lost yesterday. It's mostly because our offense sucked. Conley's shooting was bad (but he said after that it was the most difficult game he ever played so it really was very emotional for him). In general we seemed like we didn't click on offense, often didn't know what to do. I think that we still have plenty of potential on the offensive side and once it starts working like it should it may compensate for the lack of rebounding.
 
Rebounding is an issue, sure. But it's not a reason why we lost yesterday. It's mostly because our offense sucked. Conley's shooting was bad (but he said after that it was the most difficult game he ever played so it really was very emotional for him). In general we seemed like we didn't click on offense, often didn't know what to do. I think that we still have plenty of potential on the offensive side and once it starts working like it should it may compensate for the lack of rebounding.

Yeah we need one of Conley, DM or Bogey to shoot halfway decent to win... I think most nights we get 1-2 of those things to happen.

Larsen has a 4 stars theory that if only one of our offensive stars plays well we lose... Rudy, Conley, DM, Bogey are the offensive “stars” for us. I think he’s on to something... if 3 out of 4 of those guys have average or better than average nights we win the vast majority of our games.
 
Rebounding is an issue, sure. But it's not a reason why we lost yesterday. It's mostly because our offense sucked. Conley's shooting was bad (but he said after that it was the most difficult game he ever played so it really was very emotional for him). In general we seemed like we didn't click on offense, often didn't know what to do. I think that we still have plenty of potential on the offensive side and once it starts working like it should it may compensate for the lack of rebounding.

That’s looking at it through rose colored glasses.

Couldn’t one also argue that had rudy not player so exceptional that we wouldn’t have even been in contention to win the game? Rudy just had arguably his best game in inarguably the best stretch he’s ever had in the league and we still lost.

So while I understand the argument that we struggled offensively last night, I don’t understand why we’re missing the fact that Rudy went nuclear and Mitchell had a pretty good game and we still lost to a sub .500 team in which has been an too common theme: Jingles struggling with his role, Conley/Mitchell not meshing, and not getting anything out of our 4/5 position outside of Rudy.
 
That’s looking at it through rose colored glasses.

Couldn’t one also argue that had rudy not player so exceptional that we wouldn’t have even been in contention to win the game? Rudy just had arguably his best game in inarguably the best stretch he’s ever had in the league and we still lost.

So while I understand the argument that we struggled offensively last night, I don’t understand why we’re missing the fact that Rudy went nuclear and Mitchell had a pretty good game and we still lost to a sub .500 team in which has been an too common theme: Jingles struggling with his role, Conley/Mitchell not meshing, and not getting anything out of our 4/5 position outside of Rudy.

Whole bench played poorly yesterday. And I still believe Conley will mesh well with this team. That's the room for improvement I meant. Your narrative that we lose because of the lack of true power forward is also too simplifying. And I definitely don't see how keeping Rubio and Favors which you advocate would make that team any better than balancing between the 1st or 2nd round exit in the playoffs.
 
These aren't real concerns to me. When hasn't Lebron been the primary creator off the bounce? I guess he had Kyrie once. But for most of his career he’s being the point forward. That’s his greatest strength, being Karl Malone with point guard skills. He’s got Rondo now, last I checked he’s still pretty decent. Caruso is good too, He’s better Exum or Mudiay.

I think the shooting isn’t much of a concern either. In the playoffs he’ll have Davis, Kuzma, and Danny green. Granted, it’s not the warriors a few years back, but that’s still plenty of shooting. Lebron has more shooters around him than Kawhi did last year. The Lakers with that super size will enable them to wear people down inside in the playoffs. So they won’t need to win 3 point shooting contests. They’ll win ugly, which is what Lebron james teams tend to do.

Lastly, I wouldn’t look at their regular season stats too much. Again, they’re pacing themselves for the summer. They’re 10-2 despite Lebron playing the lowest # of mins per game in his career and davis playing the lowest since his rookie year.

The Lakers are the team to beat. Our current backup 5 position isn’t an nba player, Green is a player who’s played with half the teams in the association for a reason, and I’m unsure about davis. If we don’t get bigger, longer, and better at the 4 and/or behind Rudy, the Lakers will dump us no matter how well our 1-3 positions play.

The issue isn't that LeBron is their primary creator, its that he is their ONLY creator. Check again on Rondo. He's not anywhere near what he once was. Plus, his lack of a shot makes him basically unplayable in any of their main lineups. The Caruso hype around here is out of control. He's shown that he can be an okay bench piece and that's about it. He's shooting under 40% from the field this year and 26% from 3. If he's the second creator then I'm not scared. Mudiay has looked much better than him this year and Mudiay is what... our 5th shot creator?

Davis is a career 31% three point shooter. Kuzma is a career 33% three point shooter. They are shooting 32.4% from three as a team, 25th in the NBA. That is not "plenty of shooting". When the playoffs begin it is a real problem. Defenses tighten up. Gameplans force opponents into shots they don't want. It will be easy for a good defense like the Jazz/Clippers/Bucks/76ers have to shut **** down in the paint if you can't spread the floor.

Saying Ed Davis is not an NBA player makes me question a lot of what you say. He's literally been one of the best backup C's in the NBA for a few years.

The Lakers look like a contender for sure. But they aren't any type of clear favorite imo. They have flaws like every other team.
 
Is it just me or does Mike seem to shoot better after a search/rythym dribble? Maybe the stats don't support that idk but it feels like he makes more shots when he dribbles into them

Anybody have the stats on this?
 
The issue isn't that LeBron is their primary creator, its that he is their ONLY creator. Check again on Rondo. He's not anywhere near what he once was. Plus, his lack of a shot makes him basically unplayable in any of their main lineups. The Caruso hype around here is out of control. He's shown that he can be an okay bench piece and that's about it. He's shooting under 40% from the field this year and 26% from 3. If he's the second creator then I'm not scared. Mudiay has looked much better than him this year and Mudiay is what... our 5th shot creator?

Davis is a career 31% three point shooter. Kuzma is a career 33% three point shooter. They are shooting 32.4% from three as a team, 25th in the NBA. That is not "plenty of shooting". When the playoffs begin it is a real problem. Defenses tighten up. Gameplans force opponents into shots they don't want. It will be easy for a good defense like the Jazz/Clippers/Bucks/76ers have to shut **** down in the paint if you can't spread the floor.

Saying Ed Davis is not an NBA player makes me question a lot of what you say. He's literally been one of the best backup C's in the NBA for a few years.

The Lakers look like a contender for sure. But they aren't any type of clear favorite imo. They have flaws like every other team.

who said Ed Davis isn’t a nba player?
 
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