Welcome Zach LaVine!
- Thread starter whitechocolate
- Start date
QWERTYLICIOUS
Starter
He's already a Sacramento legend!
bball_nomad
Bench
That's why I rated the job Monte did before the trade line as A+. With the measly Bulls Zach alone won many impressive games. On the road against Bucks, Celtics and couple other elite teams. Zach now has a green light from the coach to do whatever he wants to do and it shows results. Scoring? Sure. He was and is a willing passer. Zach will result in some turnovers. Especially it was an "issue' with the Bulls, but just because talent around him was on such lower level compared to what he has around him in Kings. I said previously that Zach actively looks to feed bigs in the paint. Not only that. When Zach drives and attacks - defense have to "honor" it and try to do something. Guys in the paint are available, but paint is already packed. Option B - hit shooters on the perimeter. He does that and Lyles, Monk, Keegan, Ellis have an open shot.
First 4 games Zach played with Kings were mehh, atypical for him, but what we should expect? JV adjusted to the new team easily (JV is big, long, strong with soft hands - everything a C should be). Last 4 games Zach played like he played all his games with the Bulls. Nothing extraordinary to be fair. Still, foolish turnovers, but it will go down.
I'll repeat myself - JV as a back-up C is a luxury. JV started ~800 games for the teams with the winning record. Game against Jazz was what JV is. When JV started in the league, refs usually would reward him with fouls on even slightest occasion. Thus the pressure not to get the team as a whole into early foul troubles. Now JV doesn't care if he fouls out in 10+ minutes.
LaRavia is a peach. Offense will come, but when Jake is on the floor - he is always around the hottest place on the D and it ends up with positive outcome.
Zach attack. Explosive, picks up speed like a rocket.
JV - I said everything. ~90% on FTs, can hit long ball with the smile too. Better defensive and offensive rebounder than Domas, just can't play the same minutes as Domas does.
Jake - rave on D. Very high bbiq.
Fultz - started for Orlando last season in play-offs. Exceptional bbiq. True PG.
BTW, against Hornets and Jazz we saw a happy, smiling, relaxed Kings team. Not only players who were in the game, but other guys around them. Assistant coaches, other personnel.
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iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
Filipowski looks pretty good I’d say. He plays tougher than I expected coming out of college.
I think Lavine can be an average defender, we just can’t surround him with 2 more average defenders at the 1 and 3.
You're being generous calling Monk and DDR average defenders.
iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
Zach has been better than I expected so far. Last year when we discussed trading for him I was a no because of the injuries and 3 years left on the deal plus I didn’t want to stunt Keegan’s growth. When we made the Fox trade, I was ok with it because Zach only had 2 years left on the deal and had a better year than Swipa. After a bunch of bad turnovers early he has really settled in and played outstanding. Efficient basketball. Unselfish. Wet jumper. Injury risk will always hang over his head a bit but the more you loon around the league the more you see that a ton of players have extensive injury histories
.Really can't wait for Domas and LaVine to drill some 2-man game reps together this off-season. His scoring ability at all 3 levels should just be absolutely filthy with how Domas creates space for shooters. They've talked about it a little bit where they're still unsure about where and how to work off each other.
So this must have something to do with his disappearing act and personal issues?
What do we actually know? Is his newborn healthy?
