I like Lonzo because I think he fills our needs in a very specific way. A few problems we have that are difficult to rectify with current personnel:Am I the only person who thinks Lonzo isn't very good? The Jazz essentially need one player, just one really, and that's a long, athletic wing so that Royce O'Neale either moves to the bench or to the 2 next to Mitchell.
- Length and defensive ability in main lineups (the reality is that your closers will limit you to only having Royce be your defensive guy [sans Rudy]).
- If we move on from Mike, this playoffs did show the importance of having another ball handler to take pressure off Donovan.
- The only way to defeat small ball is to be able to punish it, and the only way to do that is with using him as a lob threat.
- We suck at rebounding. I don't care what stats say over the course of the season. In the crunch we can't pull down clutch rebounds.
So with Lonzo you address these in a few days...
- You're putting a guy at PG who's 6'6" and effectively is the SG on defense or could guard 1-3 or 1-4 depending on the matchup. He could be the default defender, and being able to go from 6'0" to 6'6" is huge.
- He's a ball handler and distributor so it's not like you're finding another non PG guy who has wing size and then putting all the ballhandling burden on Donovan.
- He's a better rebounder and you'd get more bang for your buck by upgrading the rebounding from that position than elsewhere (not that that's where you're seeking it out).
- I think the effect he'd have on Rudy would be pretty big. He's big enough to be able to throw the lobs to Rudy and I think this is an unlocked part of our offense.
- Lonzo has actually been hitting the three pretty well and on good volume the past couple years.
- LaVar brings the entertainment.