Trade & FA 2023-24: Stein-Ingram Trade Inevitable| LAL Want Lebron Back On Any Terms

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For the Hardy people, in particular, here's what I see:

1) Lots of hype around him and how excited they are about him this season.

2) They ask him to play PG during summer league, while not really having another option at 3rd PG.

3) He didn't come close to impressing as a PG during summer league. Pretty disappointing, actually.

4) They respond by signing Exum.

Personally, I believe there's a train of causality there. I could be WAY wrong, but I feel like those events are linked.

I think they feel Hardy needs a little functionality as a PG to break in, and I kind of don't blame them. He isn't really a PG (yet) but he's also not an off-ball guy. Almost everything he brings to the table involves him having the ball. To me, it's logical to expect the guy with the ball in his hands to be able to set others up, not just himself. That's not to say he needs to be Chris Paul (he never, ever will be) but on this team, he'll probably need to learn how to run a pick and roll. Like JET did, for example. Ask yourself, do you really believe that on a team with Luka and Kyrie Irving, they are planning to slice off parts of the game every night and say "everyone get out of the way while Hardy plays iso ball"??? I don't imagine that would go over very well.

On the other hand, if the plan is for him to play off-ball, then both THJ and Curry are VASTLY superior to him at the moment, and probably for the next couple of seasons.

Jaden Hardy will mostly play off-ball with either Kyrie or Luka on the floor as the primary ball handler.  Jaden's 3-point percentage last season was almost exactly the same as Seth Curry's.  His ability to handle the ball and get to the rim gives us some offensive versatility that Curry does not.  I don't think they want him dominating the ball like Luka does.  I think they can let him iso periodically though.  I don't think we want Luka having to create every single possession while Kyrie is off the floor.  

Jaden is also bigger and more athletic than Curry-  with experience, he should be less of a defensive liability.  Admittedly, his defense was bad last season but so was Curry's.  Jaden is likely to improve while Seth's is likely to continue to decline as he is both small and lacks athleticism (and 33 years old). 

I don't think Jaden's poor showing at PG in summer league means anything other than he won't be our 3rd PG this coming season.

We have some good data from the end of last season where Jaden Hardy looked great on offense while playing against actual NBA competition.

His numbers post-All Star break were as follows:

20.1 mpg     12.8 ppg       45.9 percent from 3 (on 5 attempts per game)       2.7 rpg    2.4 apg

That's pretty awesome for a rookie.  That's a young player who deserves continue playing time over Seth Curry.

I hope they do try to develop his pick and roll game.  I think with experience, he'll be better than Seth Curry at that as well.

I don't actually know what Jason Kidd will do this coming season.  It's possible that he will play Seth Curry more than Jaden Hardy.  I think that would be a terrible decision though.  Jaden may disappoint but the player we saw post-All Star break looked like a potential future star.  I hope Jason Kidd was paying attention.

As for THJ, I think that will be a tougher decision. THJ is a decent defender so that calculus is more complicated. I anticipate THJ playing more or similar minutes to Jaden this season.