Start Darius Morris

With an All Star caliber PG like Fisher, Morris has no chance to get playing time...

... Oh I just learned that Fisher is not an All Star. What's Stern doing

wcsoldier81 wrote:again ... we are not a lottery team , we don't have time to develop a rookie who is very far from being NBA ready .

Morris has no idea how to run this team which already has a very stagnant offense... yep Fisher is terrible and shoudn't see the floor for one single minute ... but I'd still take him to finish games over Morris

Why would we be a lottery team with Morris playing and not Fish? It's not like Fish wasn't turning the ball over, scoring 10ppg and playing crazy defense. It's exactly the opposite were not getting ANYTHING from Fisher. We have Kobe, Pau, Bynum and you labeled them as a lottery team bc we have a rookie PG who is better than the veteran PG getting minutes. How is he far from NBA ready? He looked pretty good in the preseason game and the limited minutes vs. Utah he made some plays.

Morris has no idea how to run the team? He's never been give the keys to drive, how do you know that? He played SG for most of the game with Blake running the offense. When he tried to push the ball, he practically lapped Luke Walton. Blake and Fisher do not run the offense they bring the ball up the court and the ball goes to either Kobe or Pau/Bynum who read off everything from there on out. Morris would tear teams apart on the pick and roll with Pau or Bynum and he is the only player on the team not named Kobe that can take it to the rim and finish all by himself.

Who said anything about finishing games? You have to earn those minutes so I don't get where that argument is coming from.

Like it or not with Blake out for who knows how long, if the FO doesn't make a move. We will get some time to compare Fisher vs. Morris bc that's the only two PG's we got.

Doc Brown wrote:

wcsoldier81 wrote:again ... we are not a lottery team , we don't have time to develop a rookie who is very far from being NBA ready .

Morris has no idea how to run this team which already has a very stagnant offense... yep Fisher is terrible and shoudn't see the floor for one single minute ... but I'd still take him to finish games over Morris

Why would we be a lottery team with Morris playing and not Fish? It's not like Fish wasn't turning the ball over, scoring 10ppg and playing crazy defense. It's exactly the opposite were not getting ANYTHING from Fisher. We have Kobe, Pau, Bynum and you labeled them as a lottery team bc we have a rookie PG who is better than the veteran PG getting minutes. that argument is coming from.

I may have expressed myself not in a clear way since English isn't my 1st language ... this team is in "win now" mode with All Stars like Kobe, Pau , Drew so we need NBA ready role players to surround them ... the output of this season matters ... if our team was terrible right now and we all knew we were headed to the lottery at the end of the season , I would have been more than OK to take time to develop young players like Morris and Goudelock.
However the current situation in Lakersland is to win right now by adding one or a couple needed pieces and to stay on top for the upcoming years by eventually trading for a Dwight..

I agree Morris has shown some nice things here and there but he has been very hesitant and just dribbled too much ... I don't need to see him play a lot of minutes to know he's far from being NBA ready like I didn't need a lot of minutes to know a Norris Cole can already play at a decent level in the NBA even if he's going to be inconsistent since he's a rookie.

The truth is we badly need a PG for years and if Blake is out for weeks , the degree of this need will be through the roof

Darius looked good early, got in trouble late. Not uncommon for a rookie in his first game. What immediately jumped out was his ability to get to the rim. This team hasn't had anyone that could drive and kick since forever. It would be nice over the season they find some minutes for him, perhaps in the first half of games. Experience will help a lot. He has some talent that is obvious. Just needs to learn and its tough with no off season this year.

Glock on the other hand is what he is. A smallish SG. Best in short spurts he just needs to not do what he isn't meant to do. If your open shoot it, don't try and make a great play. You are a shooter that is what you should be doing.

wcsoldier81 wrote:I may have expressed myself not in a clear way since English isn't my 1st language ... this team is in "win now" mode with All Stars like Kobe, Pau , Drew so we need NBA ready role players to surround them ... the output of this season matters ... if our team was terrible right now and we all knew we were headed to the lottery at the end of the season , I would have been more than OK to take time to develop young players like Morris and Goudelock.
However the current situation in Lakersland is to win right now by adding one or a couple needed pieces and to stay on top for the upcoming years by eventually trading for a Dwight..

I agree Morris has shown some nice things here and there but he has been very hesitant and just dribbled too much ... I don't need to see him play a lot of minutes to know he's far from being NBA ready like I didn't need a lot of minutes to know a Norris Cole can already play at a decent level in the NBA even if he's going to be inconsistent since he's a rookie.

The truth is we badly need a PG for years and if Blake is out for weeks , the degree of this need will be through the roof

Point take on the language barrier. No worries.

Morris needs a bigger sample size of minutes to gauge where he is truly at before comparing him to Norris Cole who is getting a consistent 20 minutes a game. I guess we will just have to agree to disagree on the Morris subject.

Agreed on the needing a PG though is an absolute need now. Two things will come from this. 1.) We will see where Morris is at because the FO hasn't made a move tonight and going up against Kyrie tonight will be a good test for him. 2.) If Morris proves to show he isn't ready yet, the FO will make a move based on the fact Fish would be our only PG.

Doc Brown wrote:

wcsoldier81 wrote:I may have expressed myself not in a clear way since English isn't my 1st language ... this team is in "win now" mode with All Stars like Kobe, Pau , Drew so we need NBA ready role players to surround them ... the output of this season matters ... if our team was terrible right now and we all knew we were headed to the lottery at the end of the season , I would have been more than OK to take time to develop young players like Morris and Goudelock.
However the current situation in Lakersland is to win right now by adding one or a couple needed pieces and to stay on top for the upcoming years by eventually trading for a Dwight..

I agree Morris has shown some nice things here and there but he has been very hesitant and just dribbled too much ... I don't need to see him play a lot of minutes to know he's far from being NBA ready like I didn't need a lot of minutes to know a Norris Cole can already play at a decent level in the NBA even if he's going to be inconsistent since he's a rookie.

The truth is we badly need a PG for years and if Blake is out for weeks , the degree of this need will be through the roof

Point take on the language barrier. No worries.

Morris needs a bigger sample size of minutes to gauge where he is truly at before comparing him to Norris Cole who is getting a consistent 20 minutes a game. I guess we will just have to agree to disagree on the Morris subject.

Agreed on the needing a PG though is an absolute need now. Two things will come from this. 1.) We will see where Morris is at because the FO hasn't made a move tonight and going up against Kyrie tonight will be a good test for him. 2.) If Morris proves to show he isn't ready yet, the FO will make a move based on the fact Fish would be our only PG.

I sure hope you're right and I'm wrong on Morris though because getting a decent PG without moving significant pieces won't be easy ... Lamar TPE is an option but I don't know how many teams would be ok with it
Anyways let's wait for the real evaluation of Steve injury

Doc Brown wrote:

wcsoldier81 wrote:again ... we are not a lottery team , we don't have time to develop a rookie who is very far from being NBA ready .

Morris has no idea how to run this team which already has a very stagnant offense... yep Fisher is terrible and shoudn't see the floor for one single minute ... but I'd still take him to finish games over Morris

Why would we be a lottery team with Morris playing and not Fish? It's not like Fish wasn't turning the ball over, scoring 10ppg and playing crazy defense. It's exactly the opposite were not getting ANYTHING from Fisher. We have Kobe, Pau, Bynum and you labeled them as a lottery team bc we have a rookie PG who is better than the veteran PG getting minutes. How is he far from NBA ready? He looked pretty good in the preseason game and the limited minutes vs. Utah he made some plays.

Morris has no idea how to run the team? He's never been give the keys to drive, how do you know that? He played SG for most of the game with Blake running the offense. When he tried to push the ball, he practically lapped Luke Walton. Blake and Fisher do not run the offense they bring the ball up the court and the ball goes to either Kobe or Pau/Bynum who read off everything from there on out. Morris would tear teams apart on the pick and roll with Pau or Bynum and he is the only player on the team not named Kobe that can take it to the rim and finish all by himself.

Who said anything about finishing games? You have to earn those minutes so I don't get where that argument is coming from.

Like it or not with Blake out for who knows how long, if the FO doesn't make a move. We will get some time to
compare Fisher vs. Morris bc that's the only two PG's we got.

This. Perfectly stated. I'm curious to see what Morris has.

Well, it doesn't matter IMO. Like it or not, Morris and Goudelock are going to get a LOT more playing time with Steve Blake out for 3 weeks.

Not too bad. Let's give him few more minutes.

I definitely liked what I saw in his backup role today. A little over dribbling at times, but nothing that screamed this kid can't play.

His stat line would have been better had it not been for the ice cold shooting that caused the second unit to get yanked so soon. He was getting everyone open, they were just not sealing the deal.

Breakout game tomorrow against the Clips.

3 points 4 assists 18 minutes.

The only bench player that showed up tonight. He would have had more than 4 assists if his teammates knocked down the wide-open shots he created for them.

His first run was productive but his second one was not all that great. He can't seem to penetrate beyond the free throw line and is still dribbling with his head down.

In the open court is where he is comfortable... he was lost a couple of times without the ball on the offensive end.

All in all he was adequate. Tomorrow will be a better test for him. In the preseason game the Clippers embarrassed him and he let it get to him.

If he can give us 4 or 5 points and 3 or 4 assists while limiting his turnovers I'll be happy.

Rooscooter wrote:His first run was productive but his second one was not all that great. He can't seem to penetrate beyond the free throw line and is still dribbling with his head down.

He can penetrate and finish at the rim. But he was a little bit shy at doing it and afraid to create more TOs for the team. With Blake out, he'll figure out how to manage his minutes on the court and will improve a lot in the upcoming weeks.

he needs to penetrate and attempt some lay-ups

re-cage morris. dude's not ready. unfortunately, the lakers have no choice in the matter with blake out. but i think he's going to cost them a game or two, and the bench is really going to suffer on offense (see last night).

earvinfr wrote:

Rooscooter wrote:His first run was productive but his second one was not all that great. He can't seem to penetrate beyond the free throw line and is still dribbling with his head down.

He can penetrate and finish at the rim. But he was a little bit shy at doing it and afraid to create more TOs for the team. With Blake out, he'll figure out how to manage his minutes on the court and will improve a lot in the upcoming weeks.

Well that is a pretty definitive statement...... I have only seen one time that he got deep in the paint..... and that includes the pre-season game. He needs a lot of work to be what most think he already is.....

Put it this way..... He was outplayed by Fisher last night. He didn't hurt us like Goudelock did, but he wasn't very effective in the half court offense. He got out on the break a couple of times and looked comfortable but we aren't a breaking team so he will need to find a way to actually create for his teammates.

He has some tools, but athletically he isn't dominant, he doesn't see the floor very well, he doesn't move well without the ball, his shot is suspect and isn't showing that he can get to the rim. Maybe it's nerves or just feel or maybe he isn't ready yet. I hope he has a gear that he hasn't used yet....... especially now that Blake is out for awhile.

Morris with the beyond half court 3!!!!

He's showing us something tonight

hes getting torched on D but

1st half - Jitters. He was a little nervous to start and through some bad passes. Made that half court shot, but got burned on D a few times.

2nd half - Different player. Had some nice passes, no TO's playing a large chunk of minutes. Defense was about as good as you can get for a rookie on a top PG. He irritated CP3 and was in his grill most of the time. Definitely haven't seen defense like that from our PG's (besides Blake) in some time.

He needs more minutes while Blake is out. 30 minutes a game. Him and Kobe in the backcourt is a good mix of talent. One thing I wish he would do is look for his shot more. He isn't doing that. From the games I saw of him in colleges, not highlights, he would look for his shot when he drove. He needs to let it rip and take some of those shots so the passing lanes open up for him.

Not a bad game for him considering who he went up against.

And he is scrappy and willing to stick his nose in there for his teammates.

That's all I needed to see. When Blake comes back, let him assume his usual spot off the bench. Start Darius in place of Fisher and give him all his minutes.

I don't care what he lacks and what he isn't yet. All I care about is what he has and what he is, and that's alot more than our two other vet PG's. You want relief for Kobe ballhandling and creating? Morris is the answer. To boot, even though CP3 scored alot, Morris' D wasn't bad at all. CP3 just hit some insane shots.

On top of it all, for everything this kid lacks in talent and experience, he makes up with HEART. Dude wasn't fazed AT ALL going head to head against the best PG in the league. He has plenty of upside so now it's time for baptism by fire. I think he can handle it.

Doc Brown wrote:1st half - Jitters. He was a little nervous to start and through some bad passes. Made that half court shot, but got burned on D a few times.

2nd half - Different player. Had some nice passes, no TO's playing a large chunk of minutes. Defense was about as good as you can get for a rookie on a top PG. He irritated CP3 and was in his grill most of the time. Definitely haven't seen defense like that from our PG's (besides Blake) in some time.

He needs more minutes while Blake is out. 30 minutes a game. Him and Kobe in the backcourt is a good mix of talent. One thing I wish he would do is look for his shot more. He isn't doing that. From the games I saw of him in colleges, not highlights, he would look for his shot when he drove. He needs to let it rip and take some of those shots so the passing lanes open up for him.

Not a bad game for him considering who he went up against.

Summed up all my thoughts right here. Excited to see how he continues to play with the extended minutes he's going to get

Saw enough from Morris that I'm officially rooting for the guy.

What I really liked, besides the fire he displayed at the end of the 1st half, was his ability to move his skinny butt over screens really quickly. Great defense over screens.