Walton got a fairly young team to 26 wins last year and is only in his second year.
Here are their young guys:
Ball - one game in
Ingram - 2nd season, underwhelming thus far but super young
Randle - had a solid season last year, showed flashes
Zubac - looked good last year, but didn't play last night
Kuzma - late first that has looked good
Nance - definitely better than his draft slot
Am I missing anyone? As far as Magic, the guy's had two draft picks? Ball and Kuzma? Maybe we wait more than a game before jumping to conclusions on his talent evaluation?
As far as stars joining them... I've been off that ship for a while, so we agree there.
You're getting on me for being overly negative and overreactionary but there's a mountain of evidence backing my side on this. Every guy from that Lakers team last year that you mentioned except for Nance was one of the very worst players in the league and has shown minimal improvement this year.
- Ingram was historically bad last year and has looked to have made minimal improvement. His physical tools are wildly overrated because of his length. His calling card was shooting and his jumper is borderline broken.
- Randle is a low IQ, bad defense 4 without 3PT range or elite physical tools. He's been a massive negative through 2 seasons and has looked bad now as well.
- Nance is an okay backup 4. Decent pick, but in the grand scheme of things he's irrelevant.
- Zubac was also a massive negative last year and his skill-set/physical tools do not project him as anything more than a solid role player, if that.
- Magic I was talking historically. His takes are frequently awful...MCW = Kidd 2.0, Brandon Knight = #1 pick, trading Russell but claiming Ingram will average 20 ppg this year and won't trade him for Paul George, etc.
- What creativity has Luke shown schematically? His rotations are awful, his management of player egos is suspect and shows blatant preferential treatment, is allowing Ingram to go on the completely wrong path in terms of style of play, etc.
Lonzo I’ll agree it’s super early. But I don’t see why that means we’re not allowed to have an opinion on him at all. Like being young doesn’t put you above talent evaluation. He’s a PG in 2017 who doesn’t have great handles, doesn’t have blow-by speed, doesn’t run the PnR, can’t shoot off the dribble, has no midrange game. So far he has shown the ability to make quick passes and throw it ahead. Explain to me what it is about him that screams future top 10 player?
This is my issue with these types of discussions - it always turns into "it's too early"...a player being young does not mean they are above honest talent evaluation. Just because a player is young does not mean we're not allowed to have an opinion on them beyond "wow, upside!"
