Thomas Jr.'s NBA journey is likely to come to an end. On December 17, local time, Thomas Jr. signed a 10-day short contract with the Lakers. Due to health and safety agreements and injury issues, the Lakers were short of manpower, and Thomas Jr., who had a lot of experience in the game, became a firefighter. Thomas Jr. played well in the first two games of the season, averaging more than 15 points per game and shooting nearly 40 percent from three-point range. However, Thomas Jr.'s performance in the last two games has been somewhat disappointing. His defensive problems, offensive uncertainty are constantly exposed, and he even plays as before, often breaking through with the ball and shooting with the ball, which is not his job.
In the last game against the Spurs, under thomas Jr.'s defense, spurs players shot 9 of 12, scoring a total of 24 points. We didn't even count the free throws, which shows how big Thomas Jr.'s defensive problems are.
Tomorrow is the Christmas war, and the Lakers will face the strong team of the Nets, if calculated according to the contract. Tomorrow will be the last day of Thomas Jr.'s contract and possibly his last game of the season. To put it bluntly, even if Thomas Jr. plays the Nets tomorrow and gets a high score of 30 or even 40 points, the Lakers should not leave Thomas Jr. on the team. He should be abandoned as soon as possible.
Thomas Jr. has proven he's not a good NBA player, especially on the defensive end. The Lakers' defense this season has been bad enough, with defensive efficiency ranking in the bottom half of the league. The defensive decline is extremely large, and if a championship team does not have defense as the cornerstone, everything is empty talk. In the game of losing to the Spurs, the Lakers let the Spurs score a high score of 138 points on their own home field. You should know that the intensity of the NBA confrontation this year is generally fierce, and the average score per game of each team in the league has declined a little compared with last season. The Lakers let the opponent score 138 points at home, and has not yet played overtime, which shows how bad the Lakers' defense is.
This season, Thomas Jr. will be targeted by opponents as long as he plays. In the last game, spurs players saw Thomas Jr. almost his eyes lit up, and they all chose to pull away from the singles to eat. Thomas Jr. can't even defend the opponent's eyes when defending, and the effect can be imagined. Thomas Jr. does have some technique on the offensive end, breaking through the fixed point projection feels the same as before, and the consciousness is impeccable.
However, thomas jr. failed to defend this hurdle. Thomas Jr.'s defense is really too bad, if the Lakers give up Thomas Jr. to choose to sign a good interior or forward player, the team's defensive level should improve to a certain extent. The Lakers really can't afford to hurt or wait now. If you don't improve your defense and let James or Anthony play center, the team's defense will only be worse.
If Thomas Jr. is abandoned by the team after his contract expires, it is really cruel, how can this be said? Because tomorrow is the most important holiday of the year in the United States , Christmas , the meaning of Christmas is well known. If it is abandoned at Christmas, I am afraid it will be a great blow to thomas jr. It will not only affect his self-confidence, but also affect his future. So, tomorrow's Christmas battle Thomas Jr. needs to use all the playing time, do a good job of defense and attack, and do so, and possibly win him the next contract. If Thomas Jr. is still as defensively sparse as he has been in the last two games, the offense is sluggish. His NBA journey is basically coming to an end this season. Dear readers, do you think Thomas Jr. can still play in the NBA this season? Feel free to leave a comment in the article comment area.