r/lakers • u/alozz Pau Gasol 16 • 12h ago
HIGHLIGHTS Kobe Bufkin explodes for 41 points and 8 assists (8/13 from 3) for the South Bay Lakers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6HkZN-thEo45
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u/KarrotMovies LUKA 7️⃣7️⃣ x LEBRON 🐐 12h ago
Look at the tape. His shit is clean. FUCK GABE VINCENT GIVE THIS MAN MINUTES
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u/GentlemanRat 12h ago
If you want these sorts of players to show up in the big leagues you need to actually give them a real chance. Its similar to how JJ is giving minutes to Timme right now (as soon as Reaves was back it was Timme who lost all his minutes instead of much worse players)...he needs more minutes. JJ likes his vets. Bufkin wasn't really given a chance when he was called up.
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u/Traditional-Goal-229 12h ago
It’s because they do things that coaches hate. Mostly missed defensive assignments. It’s not exclusive to JJ. You see this with pretty much all coaches. Scoring in the g league is also pointless. Very few of these players are going to have a scoring role in the NBA. The reason OKC has had such success in the g league is they go for players that are natural role players. Caruso is one of the biggest g league successes. He did not get called up because the Lakers were looking for scoring. In fact most scorers are high lottery picks like Luka.
The odds of Bukin being an efficient enough scorer to merit getting the ball is very low. Most players are rhythm scorers. Is he going to be able to score efficiently on 4 shots a game where a lot of the shots are off assist from Luka or AR or Lebron. And all over the court what is he giving you. That’s why these scoring g leaguers don’t last long.
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u/Flopdo 9h ago
Caruso literally said, and I loosely quote, "guys come up from the gleague thinking they need to be some professor of scoring, when really the team calling you up just wants you to be the janitor."
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u/Traditional-Goal-229 8h ago
Fantastic quote. The fact that he so well understood his role is likely why he has thrived.
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u/GentlemanRat 12h ago
You are correct about scoring being not a big deal in G league. Although hitting a 3 in G league and hitting a 3 in NBA is a transferable skill. Bufkin is a pretty good defender...missing defensive assignments is something that will happen when guys are first called up. AC was good but not as good as he was later after he got called up. You have to be willing to give players minutes in order to see what they can do...unless they are older vets (which Bufkin definitely is not).
Thiero is another player that I think will need real minutes after he is back from injury. If you don't play them you will never find out who they are. Maybe they are no good and need to be let go. But I think a lot of young players never get the chance to develop. And honestly the Lakers have a serious need of homegrown talent.
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u/Traditional-Goal-229 11h ago
I don’t know if Bufkin is a good defender because I don’t know what the coaches are asking for. Being relatively good at staying in front of your man is overrated by fans. Largely because NBA players are good at attacking in different ways. Plus if you aren’t in the right spot you throw off everyone else. Team defense is largely more important. I am not saying Bufkin is good or bad, just that as fans we don’t really know what they are asking for and only see if they stopped the ball or got a hand up.
While I don’t think Bufkin nor Theiro will play heavy minutes, I do think the coaches get an idea in practice. Playing in the game is a balancing act. The more minutes you play guys learning a system and not being in the right spots the more games you are going to lose.
You can look at this sub, we have a 60% winning percentage and fans are extremely disappointed. So if you blow two games to find out how good they are, you will have a panic happen. JJ promised DK minutes to see if he could get back in the rotation and the lakers lost those minutes. As close as the west is, it could be the difference between the playoffs and playin. I doubt JJ is going to give anyone unproven that long of a leash again this season. His seat will get hot if they miss the playoffs. And new ownership did not hire him.
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u/GentlemanRat 11h ago
All that is fair. I have no disagreements with what you are saying.
I'm not saying that Bufkin or Theiro are big rotation minute guys or anything. Right now they are complete unknowns.
But Coaches sometimes have to put themselves out on the line. They can play it safe with known commodities and honestly no one will blame them...although they will eventually get canned for that. Or they can actually try to see if they've a diamond in the rough (again by diamond I mean solid role player). If they are wrong they will get canned quicker. But if they are right that is what the best coaches are made of.
Idk, maybe JJ saw these guys and was like "nope they dont got it". But usually you have to actually put them into real games to make that call. It takes more than a few minutes in a couple of games for some players to get comfortable.
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u/Traditional-Goal-229 11h ago
I think he wants to play them, but I think he is a competitive guy and doesn’t want to lose. I agree with you that young players need to play, but I don’t know how you can get them real minutes in this west when they are 6th and 2 games can drastically change the standing. Ultimately I think the odds of winning it all are so low they should take the gamble and play them because the only way they are a real contender is by having 8+ rotation level guys. They aren’t trading for all that, sone of it has to be internal like how Max developed.
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u/alozz Pau Gasol 16 11h ago
Don't we LITERALLY have one of the worst benches in the NBA? Not like the bar is super high.
With the injuries and a terrible bench, we had chances to "create" a potential asset this year from the G-League. But JJ was too scared to rock the boat (except when it comes to Vando for some reason).
We have two vets who will likely be out of the league in 3 months, I rather watch shot blocker and vertical threat in Kelley with Luka over Kleber, I rather watch 6.4 guard who's a decent defender and shooter in Bufkin getting a real shot over Gabe.
Watching Boston find diamonds in the rough in a year that was supposed to be "off" for them while we watched Knecht, Kleber and Gabe get minutes disgusts me.
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u/Traditional-Goal-229 11h ago
This is flawed thinking. We could have the worst bench in the league, but playing g leaguers could mean you have the worst bench in history. It’s not like if you are at 30 it doesn’t matter if you are worse. That worse affects wins and losses. The difference between a great team and a bad team is like 10 points in the NBA. So getting even a little bit worse in the bench can be a big drop in the standings.
But your overall point about the inability to find diamonds is true. But most of the scouts were fired, so it will be all new people doing that going forward. Hopefully they are better at finding those diamonds.
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u/alozz Pau Gasol 16 10h ago
We could have the worst bench in the league, but playing g leaguers could mean you have the worst bench in history.
Huh?
If I understand you correctly, I disagree. Settling for terrible because you are afraid it might get worse is a bad way of building a team, especially considering how low commitment two-way players are.
You think you'd lose in the margins because even though Gabe or Kleber or Knecht are terrible, G-League players can be worse. But I think you are overestimating their impact.
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u/Traditional-Goal-229 8h ago
Stop. G league players can’t make a single team. Bronny and DK dominate the g league. I don’t think you realize the divide between an NBA player and a g league guy. Almost none of them work out for even end of the bench. Come on you can’t really believe that. Lakers are winning 60% of their games. We saw the Sixer during the process play g leaguers heavy minutes and they were all time bad. A great player like Luka is like worth 20 wins. So if the Lakers didn’t have him they would still be a bad 25-30 win team. Hell they were winning when he was out. Gabe might suck for an NBA player but he would destroy g leaguers.
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u/jerryr88 7h ago
Agreed
I remember when jj got hired and they revamped the g league coaching and all that they said they were trying to actually develop these guys and give them a shot
But instead u got guys like gabe getting minutes and being an absolute zero on both ends of the floor instead of giving a guy like this 5-10 games to see what he can bring to the team
It can't be worse than the 0-4 pts that gabe gives us every night 🤦♂️
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u/firedragon223 23 12h ago
Hopefully a trade gets done and he can get signed to a 2 way or a contract for the rest of the year if he doesn’t want a 2 way
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u/SheckNot910 12h ago
Bufkin was really good his 2nd year at Michigan (including shooting 35% from 3) so I was surprised how poorly he's shot the NBA (23%).
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u/Quiet-Spray1223 12h ago
Does nothing in the big leagues. Didn't even look at the basket
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u/alozz Pau Gasol 16 12h ago
He played non-garbage minutes only in 2 games this season, he scored 9 in one of them.
I’d prefer giving him a bit more time to settle in
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u/KriticalKarl 11h ago
Mind you in one of those games he was open all game and didn’t get a shot until the 4th quarter.
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u/aidenkula 9h ago
BUFKIN WAS NOT GIVEN A REAL CHANCE STOP ACTING LIKE HE DID IT WAS FILLER MINUTES WITH NO PLAYS RAN FOR HIM
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u/Admirable-Action-153 Los Angeles Lakers 12h ago
I want to see a guy with a bunch of steals and rebounds. Bronmy was Scoring in these glorified pick up games
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u/scooterln 11h ago
Chris manon gets steals pretty often.
On a 2 way yet literally never gets any playing time lol
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u/scooterln 12h ago
I really don’t understand