While Thursday night’s devastating loss to the Thunder and season-ending injuries to Doncic and Reaves have realistically ended the Lakers’ season, there are critical roster building lessons LA needs to learn from the loss.
Regardless of how the rest of the season and playoffs go for LA, the devastating loss and Doncic’s and Reaves’ injuries should not undermine or diminish what JJ Redick and the Lakers as a team accomplished in March. Finally healthy, the Lakers went 16 of 18 in March, transforming a team desperately hanging onto #6 seed in the West into a legitimate contender with a Top-5 offense and Top-10 defense and near lock on the #3 seed.
But March was just the eye in the hurricane of injuries hitting the Lakers as they found out last Thursday night. Suddenly, LA’s remote hopes of even keeping the #3 seed are plummetting with just 5 games left in the season.
The challenge for JJ Redick and the Los Angeles Lakers right now, despite the loss to the Thunder and the injuries, is to show everybody that the transformation of the Laker’s was real and the OKC game an outlier.
That means turning to their championship culture and showing how ‘playing hard’ has become their cheat code and ‘next man up’ their norm. It was not just Luka and Austin pulling off those accomplishments in March.
JJ Redick and the rest of the Lakers now face the fight of their lives. How the Lakers respond over the next 5 games and through the first round of the playoffs could have major impact on what the Lakers do this summer.
The Lakers will have cap space and trading chips to dramatically upgrade their roster this summer. Here are the 3 critical roster building lessons the Lakers must learn from the Thunder loss and untimely star injuries.
1. POWER TRUMPS FINESSE!
…
As we saw during last Thursday’s matchup with the world champ Oklahoma City Thunder, power trumps finesse and overt physicality both on offense or defense has become the new winning strategy in today’s modern NBA.
The path to the NBA Championship over the next decade is going to go through the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs, whom are the two NBA teams the Los Angeles Lakers must build their roster to defeat.
Saying that the Thunder overpowered the Lakers last Thursday would be a gross understatement. Defensively and offensively, from the opening tip to the ending buzzer, the Thunder bullied and overpowered the Lakers.
The killer for the Lakers in their disastrous 1-game take down is they won’t get a chance to see the Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic backcourt in the playoffs before having to re-sign the former to a new near-max contract.
We just saw that power trumps finesse as Austin and Luka were bullied and hounded by bigger, longer, stronger, more physical defenders. Could what LA needs to pair Luka with to beat OKC be Lu Dort and not Austin Reaves?
Ultimately, the Lakers will probably re-sign Reaves but the contract will likely to be closer to $30M per year than the $44M max he’s eligible for. The interesting wrinkle is OKC also has a team option on Lu Dort this summer.
To avoid taxes and create spots for younger, cheaper, and potentially better talent, the Thunder could theoretically allow Lugentz Dort and/or Isaih Hartenstein to become free agents or trade them for future draft capital.
At any rate, the Los Angeles Lakers will need more power both on offense and defense if they want to compete with the OKC Thunder. Reaves unable to play in the playoffs could change how the Lakers approach this summer.
2 . DEPTH IS ESSENTIAL!
…
Today’s NBA has become faster, quicker, and more physical, leading to more players suffering more injuries, missing more time, making deeper and more diverse bench depth not only critical but essential to winning.
The Lakers have always been known as a team that chases superstars and reports have been clear that LA plans to pursue a trade to pair Bucks’ superstar power forward Giannis Antetokoumnpo with Luka Doncic.
Trading what depth they have been able to build for an over-the-hill injury- prone 31-year old, $60M per year superstar Giannis Antetekounmpo would be as bad a front office mistake as trading Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis.
The regular season is a marathon, not a sprint, and the Thunder’s great depth and diversity keeps their players healthy and fresh and reduces injuries suffered by limiting the minutes played and roles players play.
The Thunder run a 12-man rotation that allows SGA to only play 34.4 mpg, while 8 other players contribute between 21.2 and 29.8 mpg and 3 other between 17.9 and 18.7 mpg. The Thunder’s 12 players averaged 23.9 mpg.
Contrast that with the Lakers, whose lack of depth just cost them the game, season, and possibly the future of their Big Three and Big Two. LA’s lack of depth likely contributed to Reaves’ and Doncic’s season-ending injuries.
The Lakers run a 9-man rotation where Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic played 37 mpg, LeBron 34 mpg, Marcus 31 mpg, and 6 other players who contributed between 19.3 to 25.6 mpg. 9 Lakers averaged 27.9 mpg.
LA would be smarter to use their millions in cap space and 3 first picks to build roster depth and diversity by pursuing legitimate two-way 3&D wings like Peyton Watson and Tari Eason than chasing Giannis Antetokounmpo.
3. BIGGER, LONGER IS BETTER
…
The single biggest move the Los Angeles Lakers could make this summer to better matchup with the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs would be to trade Austin Reaves to the Utah Jaz for center Walker Kessler.
At 7′ 2″ with a 7′ 5″ wingspan and 245 lbs of bruising muscle that could make life difficult for the Thunder’s smaller Isaih Hartenstein or the Spurs’ skinnier Victor Wembanyama, Kessler could be everything Ayton is not.
While nobody on the Lakers played well against the Thunder, Ayton posted his usual shrinking and disappearing act, recording 8 points, 1 rebound, 0 assists, 1 steal, 0 blocks, and a -23 plus/minus in 20 minutes of play.
The Lakers have long coveted Walker Kessler but the Jazz have already announced they plan to keep the young center rather trade him, although that may not be realistic after their recent trade for Jaren Jackson, Jr.
Ironically, since Danny Ainge has already expressed interest in pursuing Austin Reaves in free agency, there could be some mutual interest between the Lakers and Jazz regarding a possible Kessler for Reaves mega swap.
Of course, the Lakers would then need to replace Austin Reaves so maybe the Spurs, who seem to have the Thunder’s number, win the championship this season and OKC decides to decline their team option on Luguentz Dort.
The Lakers then trade a pick for Dort, swap Reaves for Kessler, and sign Watson and Eason to roll out a new starting lineup for next season boasting Luka Doncic, Lu Dort, Peyton Watson, Tari Eason, and Walker Kessler.
While the Lakers need wings, their best opportunity to better matchup with the Thunder and Spurs is to trade for Walker Kessler, even if it costs them Austin Reaves. Kessler is the OKC and San Antonio equalizer.
Austin “Wells” is gonna command max or near max money. Kessler not. So the deal is gonna require salary ballast, which will once again find the lakers depth looking like it has with another top heavy roster.
The old saying is – it is the survival of the fittest, but the modern NBA says it is the survival of deepest.
With the locker unraveling without Luka or Reaves it feels like JJ could still end up a scapegoat. We got long guys, he just doesn’t play them, he yanks the role around and is weird about it after games. Stop blaming the players dude…Darvin Ham level coaching for all the folks who ranted and raved against him.