Officially becoming a Lonzo-stan

Young Padawan

A trade requires at least one of the parties wanting the player

Well that's not entirely true, but he can't be the centrepiece of the trade

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just dont know how you take him away from zion

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I was feeling this way before tonight

and now I definitely feel this way

can't separate them yet

I'm back on the bandwagon. Let's ride Zo

If they keep Zo they need to move some guys and get a shooting guard. They also need a guard rhat can go to the rack. Zo just doesn’t go to the rack and he needs to. He’s be dangerous if he would start doing so but unfortunately that is not in his game

They have their shooting guard on the team, BI. Get a tough, defensive minded wing in at the 3 and a knock down shooter and we’re set.

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I’m def on board with Bled being gone. Lonzo tonight may look nothing like Lonzo next game. That’s the problem.

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To be fair to Lonzo, in the month of february:
15 games
13 games shooting >40% from 3
6 games attempting 10+ from 3; 5 of those being >=40%

if he continues to produce nearly that level of production march/april/may, you gotta keep him

I really hope we can trade Bledsoe soon. Maybe we can package his contract and a few of our future firsts for a legit SG?

I’ve led the trade Zo train, but if BI and Zion are lobbying, and Zo has accepted his place on this team, you need to figure out the contract.

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You guys are so wishy washy man.

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If you don't think Lonzo is playing substantially different than before then you must not be watching. This isn't just a hot shooting streak from 3

- Better shot selection taking more open - wide open 3s.
- He's defending better this year than last year.
- His turnovers are down significantly while his usage has increased.
- He's driving to the basket more and finishing better.
- He's shooting 77.5% from the FT line.

Whether he's worth his next contract is still very much debatable, but to sit on your high horse and stick with your previous opinion in the face of very different data isn't being principled, it's being stubbornly stupid. We have new data, discuss it rather than thinking your old opinion based on old data is somehow still relevant.

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- Better shot selection taking more open - wide open 3s.

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His 3 point shot selection has been great for the most part this year.
I still don't like him coming down the court, not passing it once, and taking a mid range jumper. He just doesn't look comfortable or confident shooting that shot, and one thing we've learned with Lonzo, if he's not confident doing somethign, he's going to suck at it. He's not getting a good follow through on those shots, which i can understand as he's been working so much on 3 point shots, it can be difficult to find that groove where you're 15 foot jumper has the same motion and finish as your 25 foot jumper.

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- He's defending better this year than last year.

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I guess, but i'll be honest i don't think he's an elite defender. He can't guard the big 3's in the league, he doesn't fight through screens much at all, and i don't expect him to keep any of the top guards in the league at bay, not that that's some easy task, but he's still an above average defender for the 1 and 2 position.
Last night Billy hollered at him late in the game to go under a screen since it was being set so high above the 3 point line on Mitchell, and Lonzo just sort of ran right into the screen and stuck to the screener for a while, leaving Billy in no mans land against Mitchell, who missed an open 3 luckily. We've heard it all year where the big is telling the guard what to do, and they simply don't do it. I've even heard Jaxson make the right call and the defender not follow through. I think a lot of our defensive faults lies on our perimeter defenders simply not using their brain and listening. We go under picks when we should go over, we go over when we should go under, the defensive awareness on the court is pathetic most of the time by our perimeter defenders. One on one defensively, Lonzo is a great defender, but there's more to defense than just playing one on one.

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- His turnovers are down significantly while his usage has increased.

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This one is a big positive for him. Goes back to the 3 point shooting, as he is simply making better decisions on the court.

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- He's driving to the basket more and finishing better.

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He's showing signs of it definitely, but still doesn't look confident most of the time, and is usually looking to make a pass when he gets in there.

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- He's shooting 77.5% from the FT line.

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He still doesn't shoot enough FT's for me to care about his FT %. Of course it's great its better than it used to be, but for someone that shoots so few of them, the only ones that matter are the ones late in games. He's 6-9 in the 4th quarter this year from the line, so that's good for him, but still pretty insignificant. He's played 94 games for us, and he's taken more than 2 free throws in a game 14 times, with the vast majority of that more than 2, being 3 or 4 free throws.


He keeps this up for the rest of the season and a 4/$85 deal is easily what he would get, it's who is willing to offer him more than that, and do we match it, and what is our plan for the future if we do match it.