Lakerholics

For millions of Kobe Bryant and Los Angeles Lakers fans, there’s no doubt the Black Mamba somehow watched over and inspired the team’s successful quest for their 17th NBA championship in the bubble in Orlando, Florida.

Nor is there any question Kobe’s Mamba Mentality and iconic Lakers’ legacy was passed to LeBron a year ago today when Bryant, his daughter Gigi, and seven others perished in the tragic helicopter crash in Southern California. Bryant’s ghost has been hovering over and driving the Lakers’ greatness from the moment LeBron took the leadership mantle from Kobe a year ago to the ‘Mamba on Three’ cheer the team still uses to break every huddle.

You can see it in the way every single roster move Kobe’s agent and best friend Rob Pelinka makes seems to be golden and every major strategic adjustment head coach Frank Vogel makes seems to be work out perfectly. The Lakers are on a roll. Coming off a dominating championship run that overcame unprecedented challenges, the Lakers look poised not only to repeat but also to position themselves for another championship dynasty.

The Lakers are and will always be Kobe Bryant’s team and that’s a legacy LeBron James has full heartedly embraced, still wearing Mamba’s number 24 on his left ring finger for every game for the year after Kobe’s tragic passing. While LeBron’s never struggled to find reasons to self motivate, his love and respect for Kobe and everything he meant to the Lakers and the game of basketball is straight from the heart and not just another motivational ploy.

There will always be something mystical and celestial about how the torch of Lakers’ basketball greatness was passed from Kobe Bryant to LeBron James at Staples last January as if it were a scene from the movie Heaven Can Wait. Maybe it’s just coincidence but it’s hard not to imagine the basketball gods balancing the scales and infusing the spirit of Kobe Bryant into the heart and soul of LeBron James and telling Father Time he’ll just have to wait.

How else can you explain how a 36-year old, 17-year veteran like LeBron James, who has played in 1,283 regular season and 260 playoff games, can continue to be the best player on the planet and leading MVP candidate? What’s even more surprising and unbelievable is LeBron may even be better right now than any time in his long career. He’s currently on pace to enjoy the best season in his illustrious career shooting the three-ball at 41.2%.

Last night, we saw King James go off for 46 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 7 threes, 2 steals, and 2 blocks in leading the Lakers to a 115–108 road win in his first visit to Cleveland since donning the purple and gold two years ago. This followed superstar teammate Anthony Davis’ scintillating 37 point, 6 rebound, 3 assist, 2 steal, and 1 block game in Saturday night’s game in his hometown Chicago as the Lakers bulldozed the hapless Bulls 101–90.

Tomorrow night, the Lakers seek to remain undefeated and win their 11th game on the road in a statement matchup against Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, and the 76ers in Philadelphia, the hometown of Kobe Bryant. Look for LeBron James to do something special to honor Kobe Bryant, like wearing a Lower Merion #33 jersey when he walks into Wells Fargo Center. The Lakers won’t forget that Philadelphia is Kobe Bryant’s hometown.

Games like tomorrow night’s against the Sixers are the games LeBron James and Anthony Davis mark on their calendars. Expect the Lakers to bring their A-game and the legacy of Kobe Bryant to inspire them to pull off the win.

Trying to find a trade for the champion Lakers that makes them better is a major challenge, especially since Kyle Kuzma’s extension included a poison pill provision and the rest of the trading chips are critical rotation pieces.

Frankly, I’m a huge fan of Talen Horton-Tucker and believe he’s going to be a future star. The idea the Lakers might consider trading him seems like a nightmare only a Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak front office would consider. Honestly, I’m not even sure as I write this article whether it’s an idea I will endorse or reject by the time I publish it but I do think Chris Boucher could be a rare commodity that might be both an attainable and catalytic target.

It’s rare for teams trade promising young prospects like Talen Horton-Tucker and Chris Boucher but the Lakers need a young rim protector and the Raptors need a young star guard to replace 34-year old Kyle Lowry.

WHY SHOULD THE LAKERS TRADE HORTON-TUCKER?

The decision whether to trade Talen Horton-Tucker ultimately relies on two assumptions:(1) the Lakers do not need him to repeat as champions and (2) trading him could give the Lakers valuable front court depth and diversity. While Rob Pelinka and the front office have done a terrific job upgrading last season’s championship roster and Frank Vogel and his staff an equally superb job revamping the defense, the Lakers still lack elite rim protection.

There’s an argument the Lakers don’t need to add a third center or can sign one for the veteran minimum once the prorated annual salary falls below their hard cap but neither of those options are how you win championships. While the 20-year old Horton-Tucker has star potential, he’s still years away from that right now whereas the 28-year old Boucher is ready to contribute immediately at a position the Lakers desperately need a long term solution.

Boucher is enjoying a breakout season and is a leading candidate for Most Improved Player. He not only is third in the league with 2.3 blocked shots per game but is also shooting 48.3% from deep on 3.6 attempts per game. While it’s early, the 6′ 9,” 200 lb center is averaging 14.8 points, 6.5 boards, and 1.1 assists as the Raptors’ backup behind Aron Baynes and would give the Lakers a modern center who can stretch defenses and protect the rim.

While the Lakers would be giving up an elite prospect in 20-year old Talen Horton-Tucker for a relatively unproven 28-year center, Boucher could be the perfect long-term center to pair with Anthony Davis in a Lakers dynasty.

WHY SHOULD RAPTORS TRADE FOR HORTON-TUCKER?

With their championship run now in the rearview mirror, the Raptors have a decision to make before the March 25th trade deadline: Who’s going to replace Kyle Lowry and is Chris Boucher the answer as their starting center? Now that the Raptors have locked up Siakam, Anunoby, and VanVleet, they need to find a future star guard to replace 34-year old veteran free agent Lowry and a quality center to replace departed veterans Gasol and Ibaka.

Masai Ujiri has been a master at keeping the Raptors competitive while still building a talented young roster but his contract is up at the end of the year and there will be several franchises looking to lure him away from Toronto. Adding a guard with elite star potential like 20-year old Horton-Tucker to a nucleus of 26-year old Siakam, 23-year old Anunoby, and 26-year old VanVleet would give the Raptors a bright future and competitive present.

The Raptors were hopeful Aron Baynes would be able to fill the void left by losing Gasol and Ibaka to free agency but the results have been mixed. Baynes has played well defensively but has struggled shooting the three. While Boucher has played well, he’s undersized and seems destined to coming off the bench to back up Baynes and Anunoby at the five and four. After cutting Alex Len, the Raptors may be seeking more size at the five.

While Chris Boucher has developed into a valuable player off the bench, he does not project as a future starter for the Raptors. The time may be right to sell high and bring back a player who could a future star for the franchise.

Trading a budding star like Talen Horton-Tucker for a promising unproven undersized center like Chris Boucher is a gamble worth taking for a Lakers team looking to win multiple NBA championships before LeBron retires. Boucher’s an elite shot blocker who’s pogo stick hops would be a perfect fit as a small ball center alongside Anthony Davis at power forward and give the Lakers a pair of pterodactyls to stretch the floor and protect the rim.

The Lakers would have to include Wesley Matthews as salary filler for the trade to work but swapping two guards for a center would not only balance the roster but also allow Frank Vogel to finally settle on a 10-player rotation. While there likely would come a time when the Lakers might regret trading a future star like Talen Horton-Tucker, the hope is the three or four more championships won in the meantime would serve as fair compensation.

While I love the long term upside Talen Horton-Tucker represents, the immediate reward of adding a modern young center who is an elite shot blocker and 3-point shooter like Chris Boucher is worth the gamble.

Fresh off a comfortable statement win over the Milwaukee Bucks last Thursday night, the Los Angeles Lakers look to extend their 8-game road winning streak to 9 games in tonight’s rematch with the Chicago Bulls.

Lakers 9.5 point favorites. LakerTom’s prediction: Lakers 117–96

The key to the game will be the champion Lakers playing up to their level rather than down to their opponent’s level. Hopefully, the Lakers will remember how they almost lost their first game against the Bulls in LA. Chicago not only won the points-in-the-paint battle 62–42 but also beat the Lakers in fast break points 13–7, two areas the Lakers failed to win against the Bucks despite winning the game last Thursday in Milwaukee.

Lakers Record: 12–4 overall, 8–0 on the road, won 6 of last 7 game.
Bulls Record: 7–8 overall, 2–3 at home, won 3 straight games.

Lakers #1 Net Rating, #1 Defensive Rating, #4 Offensive Rating.
Bulls #22 Net Rating, #27 Defensive Rating, #11 Offensive Rating.

Previous Matchups: Lakers beat Bulls 115-113 on Jan 8th in Los Angeles.
Zach LaVine scored 38 points. LeBron James 28 points. No Anthony Davis.

Wendell Carter, Jr. out for Bulls. Jared Dudley out for Lakers. LeBron James listed as questionable.

Legendary college basketball coach Bobby Knight once said “defense is just offense without the ball” and that’s the perfect description of the style of defense Frank Vogel has the world champion Los Angeles Lakers playing.

Defense in the NBA is usually by definition a passive and reactive response to what the offense does and most schemes are built around philosophies designed to defend pick-and-roll actions and protect the paint and rim. Despite an upgraded offense that no longer has to rely entirely on LeBron James and Anthony Davis, Frank Vogel has fully embraced Bobby Knight’s mantra and transformed the Lakers’ defense into a deadly lethal weapon.

What we’re seeing from the Lakers’ defense is the expansion and evolution of the suffocating schemes Frank Vogel unveiled in last season’s playoffs that dominated opposing offenses on the way to winning the championship. The Lakers’ weaponized defense includes aggressive traps and hedges to attack on-ball screens and prevent ball handlers from getting to the rim plus a versatile array of individual defenders who can shutdown elite scorers.

Rob Pelinka and the Lakers’ front office and Frank Vogel and his coaching staff deserve praise for their vision and courage in dramatically changing their base defensive strategy and the front court personnel to implement it. They replaced the drop coverage strategy and traditional low post centers that anchored their regular season defense with more aggressive trap and hedge schemes and smarter, more versatile defenders at center position.

The Lakers’ regular season defensive strategy was a remnant of Frank Vogel’s successful stint coaching the Indiana Pacers and Roy Hibbert where elite defense started inside-out with verticality rules and rim protection. Anchored by traditional centers JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard, the Lakers drop coverage defense dominated the regular season by forcing shooters to take pull-up jumpers from midrange and beyond the arc.

Faced with a gauntlet of elite pull-up jump shooters like Damian Lillard, James Harden, Jamal Murray, and Tyler Herro in the playoffs, the Lakers benched McGee and Howard and abandoned their drop coverage defense. Instead, they opted to trap, hedge, and double the lead ball handler off screens to prevent them from shooting or getting to the rim, relying on a faster, quicker, and more athletic lineup to rotate to protect the rim.

What made the Lakers new outside-in defense work was Markieff Morris playing the four to free up Anthony Davis to play the five. The rest is history. The Lakers dominated the playoffs and won their 17th championship. Having watched their traditional low post centers become unplayable in the playoffs, the Lakers didn’t hesitate to make a change, replacing JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard with Marc Gasol and Montrezl Harrell.

While Gasol and Harrell are not the elite rim protectors that McGee and Howard were, they’ve both excellent positional defenders and the Lakers overall defense and rim protection has been even better than last season. Besides the impressive boost they’ve given the Lakers’ offense, Gasol’s physical size, toughness, and high basketball IQ and Harrell’s quickness, athleticism, and ability to draw charges have upgraded the Lakers defense.

While the sample size is still small, the Lakers right now have the best record in the league at 11–3, the best defensive rating at 104.0, and the best net rating at 11.0 — all numbers dramatically better than last season.

The second way the Lakers weaponized their defense this regular season is by better utilizing their upgraded portfolio of individual defenders who are capable of shutting down elite scorers like Damian Lillard or James Harden. This was part of the Lakers’ defensive strategy during the playoffs when we saw LeBron James and Anthony Davis volunteer and personally take the responsibility for defending the other team’s star player or red hot scorer.

We saw that last night when Anthony Davis took over guarding the Pelicans’ Brandon Ingram after he exploded for 17 points on 8 of 9 shooting in the first half. Davis held him to 3 points on 1 of 6 from the field the second half. The willingness of James and Davis to defend the other team’s best player gives the Lakers an advantage over other teams like the Bucks or Nets who have superstars who are reluctant or unable to defend opposing superstars.

In the end, great team defense still requires players who can play great individual defense and that’s a big reason why the Lakers’ defense is such a lethal and powerful weapon, especially at games’ end and in the playoffs. Alex Caruso, Kyle Kuzma, Markieff Morris, Talen Horton-Tucker, LeBron James, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Marc Gasol, and Montrezl Harrell all have defensive ratings that are below the Lakers team best 104.0 rating.

What’s scary for Lakers’ opponents is that Anthony Davis is just starting to play up to the level of a DPOY, having only a 104.9 defensive rating for the season but posting an impressive 91.3 defensive rating his last four games.

What’s remarkable about the Lakers’ defensive evolution this season has been how Frank Vogel has modified his long held belief that defense starts inside-out with protecting the rim and embraced this outside-in strategy. Vogel’s ability to adapt to changes in the game is a remarkable and frankly an unexpected development that’s been an important aspect of the Lakers’ championship run last season and their chances to repeat this season.

That Frank Vogel made this defensive change in strategy in the heat of the playoffs and then doubled down on it for the regular season by replacing both McGee and Howard with Gasol and Harrell is even more remarkable. While it’s still early and the sample size is small, the Lakers have shown no sign of abandoning their ‘defense first’ identity. In fact, there are foreboding signs they may have weaponized their defense to be better this season.

Teams hoping the Los Angeles Lakers traded their championship defense for offensive firepower may end up being extremely disappointed because it looks like for this team ‘defense is just offense without the basketball.’

When the LA Times Lakers Blog imploded back in 2012, Val (AKA Nuggets Country) was the first person I turned to in my quest to build what eventually became Lakerholics.Net and now Lakerholics.Com.

Val and I along with several other passionate LA Times Lakers Bloggers played with different ideas, formats, and platforms for the new site. Among them were Mike (AKA CyberCosmiX), Lew Mariano (AKA Lewsters), and Kenny Marks. I don’t know whether it was a continuation of the controversy that plagued the LA Times Lakers Blog or just five guys with different visions but In the end, Mike and Kenny decided to go one direction with TrueLakersFans and Val and I decided to go another with Lakerholics.

Val just emailed me that he has a severe case of Covid-19 and I asked permission to reveal his real name and let his longtime blog friends know of his situation so they could wish him well and include him in their prayers. Val retired many years ago after a highly successful business career and is presently the Mayor of Woodland Park, CO. You can check his exploits at https://www.valcarrwp.com/.

In the meantime, it was inevitable that Covid would strike one of our own so join me in wishing Nuggets Country a fast recovery so he can join us in celebrating the purple and gold’s 18th NBA championship this summer. Stay strong and fight hard, Val. You’re in our hearts and prayers.