After 3 straight heart-breaking losses, the Lakers may have found how to transform their Big Three starting lineup from a struggling fivesome that’s losing the minutes it’s on the court into a legitimate offensive juggernaut.
While the sample size is 2 just games against the undermanned Warriors and Kings, JJ Redick and the Lakers made a concerted effort the last 2 games to surround their Big Three with floor spacers and shot makers. The result was a road thrashing of the Warriors sans Curry 129–101 on Saturday and a home drubbing of the hapless Kings 128–104 on Sunday for a 2-game 129.8 offensive (#2), 104.1 defensive (#8), and +25.7 net rating (#4).
Before this weekend, LA’s Big Three had only played together for 238 minutes in 14 games posting a mediocre 109.6 offensive, 114.5 defensive, and -4.0 net rating. While sample size was small, the results were poor.
This weekend, that same lineup had a 121.7 offensive (#4), 82.9 defensive (#6), and +38.9 net rating (#4) and were #1 in FGA and #2 in FG%, #4 in 3PM and #1 in 3P%, #4 in assists, #5 in blocks, and #1 in fewest turnovers.
That’s a winning formula for the Lakers. Better floor spacing, playmaking, and shotmaking are the keys to unlocking the offensive juggernaut upside of the Lakers’ Luka Doncic, LeBron James, and Austin Reaves Big Three.
We should also see better lineup stability as JJ has now settled on an offense-first starting lineup of Doncic, Reaves, Smart, James, and Ayton backed by a bench of Kennard, LaRavia, Hachimura, Kleber, and Hayes.
With their major rebuild around Luka postponed until next summer, the Lakers are betting their best opportunity to compete for championship this year is to double down on transforming their Big Three into a juggernaut.
BEST WAY TO FIX LAKERS’ DEFENSE IS TO FIX OFFENSE!
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Facing a total roster overhaul and rebuild next summer, Redick obviously decided the fastest and easiest way to help the Lakers’ bottom-5 defense would be to turn his top-10 offense into an legitimate offensive juggernaut.
Unlike baseball where players take turns playing offense and defense or football where offense and defense use totally different lineups, offense and defense in basketball are intrinsically and synergistically connected.
In basketball, how a team plays on offense often determines how they play on defense. Live ball turnovers, bad shot selection, poor ball movement, not getting touches are all offensive failures that hurt the team’s defense.
Because offense and defense play continuously in basketball, offensive mistakes like turning the ball over or missing layups often lead to fast break opportunities that negatively impact critical team defensive stats.
The best way to fix the Lakers’ defense is to fix their offense by increasing assists to 30 per game, reducing turnovers to under 10 per game, and by boosting 3-point attempts to 40 per game and makes to 15 per game.
With their extreme roster makeover postponed to next summer and Luka Doncic the only player guaranteed to to be part of the team going forward, the Lakers’ morale is struggling as half the team are on expiring contracts.
JJ Redick knows that most that players always play better defense when they’re getting touches and shots and are involved offensively. That’s why the Lakers chose to improve their defense by improving their offense.
While they will need better defenders to totally turn around their defense, the quickest and easiest way for the Lakers to fix their broken defense is to fix the specific offensive issues that negatively impact the team’s defense.
TRANSFORMING LAKERS INTO 3-POINT JUGGERNAUT
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The last 2 games, we finally saw what the Lakers’ Big Three starters could do with better spacing, playmaking, and shotmaking as they dominated the 3-point battle with 18.5 made threes out of 40.0 attempted threes per game.
Before the weekend, the Lakers played 58 games during which they made 679 threes for 2,037 points and allowed 777 threes for 2,331 points. At that point, the Lakers had allowed 294 more points or -5.1 points per game.
During 2 games with better spacing, playmaking, and shotmaking, the Lakers made 37 out of 80 attempts from deep for a 3P% of 46.3% while defensively allowing just 18 out of 70 opponent threes for a 3P% of 25.7%.
While the Lakers can’t change their roster, one thing they can change is how they play. The Lakers need to modernize their offense and start calling plays and running sets designed to take 40 and make 15 threes per game.
Flipping their 3-point differential is the biggest way the Lakers can fix their offense. They’re currently taking 33.5 threes per game and making 11.9 for 35.7%. If they could take 40 and make 15 threes per game, they’d be top-5.
Redick also started converting lethal Luke Kennard into a high volume 3-point shooter by playing him with Luka, LeBron, and Austin. This weekend Luke averaged 13.5 points and 3.5 made threes in 26.4 minutes per game.
Another player who had a great weekend and gave Vanderbilt’s 2 DNP’s was stretch center Maxi Kleber. While he didn’t take a three, Maxi averaged 5.0 points, 4.0 boards, 0.5 assist, 0.5 steal, 2.0 blocks in 13.1 minutes per game.
To become a juggernaut, the Lakers must call plays and run sets to create 6.5 more 3-point takes per game and 3.1 more 3-point makes per game. Doing that would flip the Lakers’ 3-point differential from -5.1 to +9.8.
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