There’s nothing wrong with the Lakers’ top rated defense that getting back a healthy, conditioned, and defensively engaged LeBron James cannot fix. LeBron James is why the Lakers ‘D’ did not miss a beat after trading AD.

The Lakers held the #1 NBA defensive rating for two straight months until LeBron was injured in a loss to Boston in early March. Since then, L.A. has lost 7 of their last 10 games and slipped from #2 to #4 seed in the West. During that 10-game slide, which included 8 games LeBron missed and 2 where he struggled, the Lakers once top rated defense slipped from #1 in the league to #23 as the team desperately missed its Director of Defense.

After a pair of lackluster games, especially defensively, the Lakers need the LeBron James who, after passing the offensive baton to Luka Doncic, took over as the team’s defensive leader and best defender from Anthony Davis.
During that two month reign as the NBA #1 defense, it was LeBron James’ leadership orchestrating the Lakers’ team defense, calling out plays and switches, and taking on major roles defending opponents’ best players.

Teams have adjusted their spacing to make it harder for the Lakers to deploy their trap, rotate, and swarm defense. There will still be times when poor shooting teams like the Magic will beat the odds and shoot lights out.
The West is tough and LeBron and the Lakers need to get their defensive mojo back. They can’t allow 3 losses to turn into a 6-game losing streak.

So let’s take a closer look at what the Lakers need from LeBron James as their Director of Defense to beat the red-hot Pacers who have won 5 straight and the sizzling Bulls who’ve won 3 straight in a Wed/Thu B2B.

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Better Point-of-Attack Team Defense

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In JJ Redick’s new defense, LeBron James’ role is similar to that of a middle linebacker or free safety in football. He’s the Lakers’ Director of Defense, the play caller who anticipates, directs, and choreographs the defense.

Preventing ball handlers from penetrating the defense and getting into the paint is the first principle of any successful defensive strategy. In a team point-of-attack defense, primary and help defenders need to work as one.
The primary defender needs to stay in front of the man he is guarding and the help defenders on each side need to shade towards the ball handler to build a potential wall to keep the ball hander from getting by his defender.

One of the strengths the Lakers defense has missed during the last 10 games has been LeBron James ability to be a primary shut down defender, especially on mid-range jump shooting wings like Leonard or Booker.
The Lakers also missed LeBron’s ability as a helper to anticipate what’s going to happen and jump into the passing lanes to make a steal to ignite a fast break or draw a charge or make a game-saving chase down block.

The Lakers clearly need a fully engaged LeBron James if they’re going to get their defense back to playing like a #1 defense in the league. Hopefully, the disappointment of the last 2 games will increase the Lakers’ urgency.
The Lakers need everybody not only to be 100% healthy but also 100% engaged. Teams have obviously adjusted and are spacing the floor to make it harder for the Lakers to rotate in time to prevent wide open 3-point shots.

It would be great if LeBron could take his time to get back into full game condition but losing the last 3 games and 7 of the last 10 has unfortunately put the Lakers’ strategy of valuing playoff health over seeding to a real test.

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Better Guard And Wing Rotations

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The Lakers’ defensive strategy of doubling, rotating, and swarming when teams try to switch hunt their weaker defenders requires the five defensive players to act as one unit with everybody working together like on a string.

Playing an aggressive proactive type of defense like the Lakers are doing requires elite communication and coordination between all five defenders, which is something often takes seasons to teach, develop, and establish.
To work best, it needs the same thing any good offense or defense needs: players who believe in the system, have the smarts and anticipation to run the the system, and talent and athleticism to properly execute the plays.

As the Director of Defense, LeBron has been able to be the choreographer of the Lakers’ trapping, rotating, and swarming half-court defense. You can see him calling out the play and directing players to start their rotations.
Playing this kind of a defensive system, JJ has been able not only to give high basketball IQ players like Reaves and Doncic a defensive system that takes advantage of their smarts but also protects them from being hunted.

The Lakers trapping, rotating, and swarming team defense is designed first to stop the ball handler from shooting a three or getting into the lane. While that is happening, the team’s other defenders must start to rotate.
Ideally, they know ahead when the team is going to trap or double so they can anticipate where the next pass is going to go and hopefully be there to deflect or intercept it to ignite an easy fast break or transition bucket.

Finally, while LeBron James will never be the shot blocker or rim protector that Anthony Davis was, he’s already shown that he can take the torch from AD and become the Lakers’ defensive anchor and Director of Defense.

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Better Shot Blocking & Rim Protection

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While Jaxson Hayes has been outstanding as the Lakers’ starting center, coach JJ Redick has been hesitant to commit to either Christian Koloko or Trey Jemison as the backup center, despite being bulled at small ball.

Unfortunately, the small ball lineups JJ Redick has opted to play have not enjoyed much success against teams with a big physical low post center, especially when his best small ball five in LeBron James is not available.
The Lakers would be smart to convert young two-way center Christian Koloko to a standard contract so the team could have a legitimate 7-footer to backup Jaxson Hayes whenever he had to go to the bench to rest.

Until LeBron was injured, the Lakers were 16th in the league with 4.0 blocks per game and allowing just . Over the last 10 games, the Lakers shot blocking dropped to 30th in the league with just 2.9 blocks per game.
Same with opponent points-in-the-paint. When their defense was #1, the were 2nd in opponent points-on-the-paint. Last 10 games, they fell to 17th. Size and length matters in the NBA. Lakers need Koloko to backup Hayes.

The Lakers would be smart to backup Jaxson Hayes at center with Christian Koloko to give Luka and LeBron a quality lob target and also with LeBron James as a small ball five surrounded by four dead-eye 3-point shooters.
When the Lakers need a bruiser with a big body at center, LeBron James will still be JJ Redick’s preferred option to play small ball five if they opt to play a small ball lineup. LeBron James is still lethal as a point center.

The Lakers need to shore up their shot blocking and rim protection when their staring center goes to the bench by either backing up Jaxson Hayes with Christian Koloko or with LeBron James playing as small ball five.