The Lakers do not have to wait 30 days to trade a drafted player. Teams get around that problem by trading the draft rights on draft day. That’s what the Lakers did with their #28 pick last year. They made the pick for the Thunder and then traded the rights to the player plus Danny Green to OKC for Dennis Schroder. 30 days later the Thunder sign the player to whom they held the rights. That’s how teams circumvent the Septian rule for trading first round picks two years in a row and not having to wait 30 days to trade a drafted player.
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AD likened back-to-back against same opponent to playoff series
In many ways, I agree with Wallace. I think everybody knows what LeBron is going to bring to the playoffs but the Lakers need Anthony Davis to play like he did in last year’s playoffs if the LA is going to repeat as NBA championships. The truth is AD’s play so far this year has not been close to his elite performances in the playoffs last year, especially his jump shooting from midrange and three. Also, his defense has not been at the level it was last year regular season and playoffs.
SHAQ wants to know: Who is the best center of all time?
Give Shaq credit for saying it isn't him. It could have been and he could have been the greatest player of all time but that's a discussion for another day.
— Laker Central (@LakerCentral365) January 5, 2021
This is between Wilt and Kareem and either will do. https://t.co/X1RIMt9pT7
LeBron Sure Doesn’t Seem to Be Taking It Easy
At @ringer/@ringernba: I decided to go off the beaten path a bit this morning and write about an unsung hero — a real Basketball Twitter/League Pass diamond in the rough.
On LeBron, who is, as it turns out, *not* taking the first month of the season off: https://t.co/5CXA34jAkj
— Dan Devine (@YourManDevine) January 5, 2021
So much for coasting. In his 18th season, and just three months removed from winning a title, the 36-year-old James is doing anything but resting on his laurels.
…
“He sets a tone for this Laker organization, this team. That’s the standard,” new Laker Wesley Matthews told reporters after the win. “When the best player is setting and exceeding that standard, I mean, obviously everybody else comes along.”
And maybe that—the importance of setting that standard, even at a time when nobody would fault you for taking it easy—is why a season that seemed poised for a cruise-control start will instead see LeBron push hard enough that the Lakers can cruise.
“I love it,” Vogel told reporters. “We’ll manage his minutes and all that stuff in a responsible way, but when he’s out on the floor, that’s who he is.”
Which is to say: the best player in the world, still, and maybe a better bet to snag that fifth MVP trophy than we might’ve thought before the start of the season. Because LeBron James, it seems, doesn’t take it easy. He just makes it look that way.
Have Lakers Traded Championship Defense for Firepower On Offense?
Watching the Lakers play, reviewing their roster, and analyzing the stats for the first seven games, it’s hard not to wonder if the Lakers have traded the defense-first strategy that won them a championship for better offense.
Anybody watching the games can see the difference. The Lakers no longer have to rely entirely on LeBron James and Anthony Davis on offense but the defense is riddled with holes and once great rim protection is non-existent. Replacing Avery Bradley, JaVale McGee, and Dwight Howard with Dennis Schroder, Marc Gasol, and Montrezl Harrell has clearly turbo charged the Lakers’ offense but the cost may have been their championship defense.
The stats so far tell the same story as the eye test. Offensively, the Lakers rank 3rd in offensive rating, 5th in points scored per game, 2nd in team plus/minus, 2nd in field goal percentage, and 3rd in 3-point percentage. Defensively, they rank 6th in defensive rating, 6th in opponent points allowed per game, 8th in opponent field goal percentage, 6th in opponent 3-point percentage, 8th in blocks per game, and 25th in steals per game.
While championship teams rarely abandon the strategy that helped them win a title, have the Lakers traded their championship defense to get more firepower on offense this offseason or is there something else going on?
The truth is there’s a lot going on that’s caused the defensive problems that have plagued the Lakers through their first seven games, including roster and scheduling changes as well as a major change in defensive philosophy.
Let’s start with the obvious. It’s only been 83 days since Lakers won the championship, they had a shortened 3 week training camp. Their preseason consisted of just 4 games and they’ve only played 6 games this season. Needless to day, it’s unfair to expect the Lakers to be playing defense at the level they did in the playoffs at this point in the season. Like Frank Vogel warned, it’s going to take time for the players to get back into game shape.
While the Lakers returned twelve players from last year’s squad, they also added five new players in Dennis Schroeder, Montrezl Harrell, Marc Gasol, Wesley Matthews, and Talen Horton-Tucker to an already deep rotation. Adding that many players to the Lakers lineups is going to be a challenge that will take time to click, especially on the defensive end where reading schemes and rotating in sync are critical to Vogel’s defensive system.
While it’s the regular season, the Lakers are still experimenting with lineups and players still working to get into game condition. We probably won’t see the real Lakers’ defense until we’re a fourth of the way through the season.
So what will the ‘real’ Lakers’ defense look like? Have we traded defense for offense? Have we sacrificed rim protection for more offense? The answer is defense is still the priority but there’s been a major change in philosophy.
The change in philosophy started in the playoffs last season when the Lakers stopped having McGee and Howard play drop coverage and went to more athletic defensive lineups that could rotate more quickly and challenge shots. There’s no question the Lakers’ rim protection right now is not what it was last year in the regular season when JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard were playing a combined 35.5 minutes and blocking 2.5 shots per game.
But McGee and Howard were not the rim protection formula the Lakers used to win their 17th NBA championship. While Howard was key in the Denver series, both he and McGee became unplayable most of the playoffs. The defensive lineup that won last year’s championship was Davis at the five, Morris at the four, and James at the three, plus two guards. Vogel confirmed last week that lineup was still the Lakers’ core defensive formula.
So the question that needs to be asked is what’s happened to the Lakers’ core defensive formula? Why haven’t the Davis, Morris, James, and two guards lineup had the defensive impact this season they had in the playoffs? The answer is simple. Despite reiterating that AD, Keef, LeBron, and two guards were still the Lakers defensive formula and Death Star lineup to close games, Frank has simply not played them together so far this season.
Instead, Frank has experimented with different lineups and rotations and has only played AD, Keef, and LeBron together in 2 games for just 6 minutes, which is the major reason why the Lakers’ defense has been subpar. The other problem is he’s played Gasol or Harrell at center for 44.4 minutes per game or over 93% of the time, meaning Davis has only averaged 3.6 minutes per game or just 7% of the game at the center position.
Finally, as he has openly admitted himself, Anthony Davis has really not played well defensively so far this season. In fact, his 114.0 defensive rating is the worst of any player in the Lakers rotation through the first six games.
What the Lakers have done is to double down on the defensive formula that won them their championship last year, which was to rely more on speed, quickness, and athleticism to create better defense than size at the rim.
Rather than bring back traditional centers who became obsolete in the playoffs, the Lakers replaced them with centers with defensive smarts and athleticism to defend all over the court and ability to contribute on offense. It’s going to take Marc Gasol and Montrezl Harrell time and experience to learn how to play in Frank Vogel’s defense and that’s why they’re getting the minutes at center right now rather than Anthony Davis or Markieff Morris.
Like McGee and Howard, Gasol and Harrell at the five will be the Lakers’ regular season plan but down the stretch and in the playoffs, Vogel will once again turn to the championship formula of Davis, Morris, and James.