http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/mdynasty/Mobile%20Uploads/20171116_103458_zpstzxdwve5.jpg
wait what? ESPN with the meaningless stats again
Lonzo not playing in the 4th isn’t a good look.
Lonzo shouldn’t be starting either but Luke has to or he will lose his job.
I think they just gotta figure out what they are. If they are in rebuilding mode, he needs all the meaningful minutes he can get. Especially if he is the second coming that so many already announced him as. But if he’s hurting Kuzma and they see a brighter future there then by all means.
Meaningful minutes shouldn’t mean max minutes for a rookie especially when he is not even top 5 among rookies
That is the issue Lonzo is the main ticket right now, Magic put all his eggs into the Lonzo basket and is too proud to admit he was wrong. This team is close to a playoff team without Lonzo mucking shit up.
He hasn’t played in the 4th quarter 2 straight games. He doesn’t need max minutes but he needs crunch time minutes.
To put things into perspective, Kobe Bryant averaged 18 mins in his rookie season. And we talking Kobe here
Kobe also came in at a time where rookies were allowed to marinate and grow without massive expectations placed on them.
Ever since LeBron, everyone expects rookies to come in already fully formed.
That’s on the franchises that decide to tank on purpose to get a top pick. No shit you raise expectations when you literally threw away an entire season to acquire said player. People will naturally like to see if the humiliation was worth it or not.
Fuck me I’m agreeing with Po, time to kill myself.
After every Lakers game lately there’s another hot take on Lonzo. 
Blame his father…
But the kobe thing isn’t true. Folks like Garnett, Olowawakandi, Brand,Iverson ect had huge expectations coming into the league before LeBron. Hell I remember Kwami Brown supposedly being the second coming.
You disagreeing that it’s lonzo’s dad’s fault that his son is under so much scrutiny? Or that LeBron created high expectations on rookies?
Either way you’re wrong
Countless NBA Stars in the 80s and 90s before Kobe made instant contributions to their team upon being drafted. A HUGE reason for this is that they stayed in college for more than a year and developed physically and mentally so that they could immediately contribute as the savior and leader their teams needed. Kobe if anything broke the cycle and set a precedent for all of these kids leaving school too early or just skipping college entirely. Yeah, sometimes it worked out like it did with Garnett, Kobe (though he was nurtured in an excellent culture), and years later Jermaine O’Neal and Lebron…but more often than not you got guys like Qyntel Woods, Jonathan Bender, Daries Miles, Kwame Brown, Eddy Curry, etc.
If you want these rookies fully formed, let them stay in school a bit longer.
He didn’t say be instant contributors. He said high expectations didn’t exist before LeBron. Which is factually incorrect for anyone who has followed the game before LeBron came into the league. Worrisome that people actually agreed with him but not unexpected from this thread.
for me, its hard to say if lonzo is a victim or an accomplice of his expectations.
One part of me says his dad put him in a horrible position, jacked up unreasonable expectations comparing him to all time greats when he clearly will not be that.
The other part is lonzo getting the benefit of all these things his dad is doing for him and its just not paying off in any way except promotion. imo, the hate comes along with the overwhelming visibility.
the difficult thing is how many people are already sold on his greatness and so many people are sold on him being a bust.
i called MCW being unworthy of the nba like 3 games into his sophomore season, so i’m not above being a hater either.
ball isn’t going to be MCW. but i dunno how much better. I also know there’s no way he can live up to the hype. .
regardless of what he becomes, his development is hurting now. and if i’m a lakers fan, i wouldn’t want that to also hurt kuzma, who’s ready to play in the nba as much as he physically can. i think ball can’t necessarily come off the bench right now… imagine how much that 2nd unit will struggle. maybe when nance comes back, then it’d be a good time to see how lonzo can grow off the bench. kuzma should have that starting 4 spot locked up.
clarkson/kuzma/ingram has been a super productive trio when they can get on the floor (without ball), so if they are trying to make at least one of their rookies succeed, that should be a lineup that’s played as much as possible.
let ball struggle and learn, and maybe he’ll be productive later in his career. but kuzma… dude’s the truth, and optimizing the team for lonzo and not kuzma at this point in their trajectories seems like a bad idea overall.
even if he wasn’t lonzo but fox or fultz you knew whoever was getting the 2nd overall pick under Magic’s management was gonna be monitored 24/7. Add that Lakers had sucked for some time now, that we got a soccer mom getting free ads on every sports outlet and that the player itself was a good college player you can see why the bar was raised high.
celtics defensed looked juiced. the contested everything.
Good game Celtics. Defense is so much better. Wish this was the bulls.