Lakerholics

A Lakers Fan Community

Posts

Lakers should trade D’Angelo Russell for Lonzo Ball

By 4 Comments

It feels like a lifetime away when Lonzo Ball was the talk of the basketball world. He was believed to have the potential to be a generational point guard. Seven years on and we are yet to see that version of him.

There have been glimpses here and there throughout the course of his career. But it has always felt like one step forward and three back for Ball.

Injuries have been the main reason behind that. After making a bright start with the Chicago Bulls, he has missed two-plus seasons of basketball due to a knee injury and undergone three surgeries during that period of time.

The hope is that Ball will be back on the court next season. The Bulls are already prepared if he does not, with Josh Giddey set to be their starting point guard moving forward.

The best-case scenario for Ball right now is to get back on the court and prove that he is healthy enough to still be an asset to a team, whether that be the Bulls or someone else.

According to Nathaniel Holloway on GIVEMESPORT, the Los Angeles Lakers should pursue a trade to bring back Ball. He wrote further regarding his suggestion: “Ball is a much better playmaker and passer than Russell and would fit well in a lineup that includes both LeBron and Davis. Russell is more of a shoot-first point guard who took away shots from the All-Star duo last season.

“Ball is a more traditional point guard who looks to pass first but can still knock down shots when given the opportunity.

“Ball is also a much better defender than Russell.”

On paper, Ball does look like a better fit to play alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis for the Lakers. The questions are not about his ability on the court though, they are about his ability to stay on it. Also, if he did succeed in returning, would he be the same player?

Of course, the Lakers were the ones who drafted Ball second overall in 2017 and he spent two seasons playing in Los Angeles before being traded to the New Orleans Pelicans as part of the Davis deal.

Any team pursuing a trade for Ball in the future would be taking a major risk. But with the Lakers needing to shake things up to be contenders again, will they be open to the idea?

Can JJ Redick finally convince the Lakers to shoot more threes?

By 7 Comments

After years of steering away from the 3-point line, the Lakers’ new head coach, JJ Redick, will attempt to reroute the team’s offensive course.

As the rest of the NBA continues to inch further out on offense, the Lakers remain one of the few teams still pushing inward.

Last season, Los Angeles had the second-highest shot frequency percentage (36%) at the rim in the league. a statistical marker that has become the bludgeoning trademark of the LeBron James and Anthony Davis era.

Since the star duo linked up in 2019, the Lakers have never ranked lower than sixth in the number of shots generated within four feet. Given the individual and combined strengths of James and Davis, alongside the value that attempts at the rim still carry, the strategy makes sense.

However, the scales may have moved too far in one direction.

A direct result of the team’s paint-heavy approach has been their inability to keep up with the rest of the league’s perimeter shift. Whether due to roster construction or gameplan, the Lakers have yet to finish outside the bottom ten in 3-point shot frequency during James and Davis’ tenures.

Last season, they arguably hit rock bottom as they finished with the second-lowest rate in the league despite posting arguably their best 3-point shooting season in franchise history.

The team’s continued aversion to the deep ball is not so much a faux pas within the current basketball landscape but an Achilles heel that has put a mathematical ceiling on their championship outlook.

Even the most ornery skeptics of analytics have to admit there is a correlation between the three and offensive success. This past season, the Boston Celtics exemplified this as they shot their way to a championship.

Beyond just Boston — who attempted more threes than any other team in the NBA last year — the postseason also highlighted the impact spacing still has for several clubs, including the Dallas Mavericks, who attempted the second-most threes.

In an article back in June, Tom Haberstroh pointed out that teams that won the made 3-point column went 60-17 this postseason. That’s the highest mark since the NBA moved the 3-point line back in 1998. The Celtics, specifically, went 15-0 in such games.

This is not to say the Lakers should abandon bullying teams in the paint, but rather, strike a careful balance of modernizing their profile. An aim that is likely at the top of mind for the team’s new head coach, JJ Redick.

Redick, a prolific shooter in his own right, has already been vocal about what he envisions for the Lakers’ offense and the role that 3-pointers will play. Beyond signaling he will use “math,” Redick has also namedropped which individual players he wants to let it fly more often and the type of system he wants to install.

Perhaps the most interesting breadcrumbs to Redick’s philosophy can be found within his comments regarding James’ utilization

With James set to turn 40 in December, Redick will attempt to walk the tightrope of managing his star’s workload while convincing him to alter his game in the process. The most prominent change potentially is James embracing a more off-ball role, which Redick hopes results in more threes.

While it remains to be seen if this transpires and to what degree, before he was hired as head coach, Redick and James had a spirited discussion about the role of analytics and the value of 3-pointers on their “Mind the Game” podcast.

The conversation, which was interesting on several levels, is even more compelling now as it was a sneak peek at the exact types of dialogues Redick will need to have with his team to modify their approach heading into the new season — James included.

There will be expected pushback, as James had during the podcast, but the key for Redick and his staff is to find an important middle ground.

“(You) certainly have to get buy-in and talk to him about how he wants to play,” Redick said about James. “Him and I have joked about this, but he shot over 40 percent from three this year. Like, I want him shooting threes.”

Outside communicating his point with his players on a human level, Redick will also have to reconfigure the Lakers’ offensive system schematically to manufacture more looks from deep.

Beyond their volume issue last season, Los Angeles also lacked versatility in their 3-point attack. Behind no consistent downhill threats, the Lakers had the second-lowest assist percentage off drives, which forced them to create from the inside out, highlighted by them finishing with the second-most post-ups per game.

It is also worth pointing out that despite their improved efficiency, the team’s shooters often were exclusively standstill options. As a team, the Lakers had the third-lowest percentage of off-screen chances, according to the league’s tracking data. Individually, they did not have a single player crack the top 50 in attempts.

While dramatically improved in the second half, the Lakers’ offense still felt predictable as a result. And at times, one-dimensional.

“One of the things last year with this team, they played a lot of random,” Redick said during Summer League. “If you look at the efficiency numbers, when they played random versus when they played out of sets, the sets had a much higher efficiency.

“It’s not that we’re going to call plays every time, but we’re going to put them in environments where they can make reads. Look, we have LeBron and AD on our team. Those guys are obviously going to be offensive hubs, but we are going to play with more movement, more cutting and we have to certainly get buy-in from all players to play that way.”

From a personnel perspective, there should be optimism that the Lakers can replicate their improved shooting last season and, with the right level of buy-in, as Redick stated, could also be more dynamic from a shooting and offensive standpoint. The latter is important for a team that has only one top-ten finish in offensive rating in the last five seasons.

Although the Lakers have had a love-hate relationship with the 3-point line in the past — mostly hate — at some point, the team will have to adapt or risk getting left behind.

Redick will have to wear many new hats as a first-time coach this upcoming year, but how well he can be the team’s 3-point whisperer and matchmaker could prove his most important.

Lakers trade options right before 2024 NBA training camp

By 3 Comments

Jerami Grant – Portland Trail Blazers

Any scenario to land Grant would likely involve Rui Hachimura, Gabe Vincent, and either Christian Wood or Cam Reddish, but none of these players truly benefit Portland in any way. This now leads to the Lakers having to find a third and fourth team to potentially facilitate the trade, which would be near impossible this close to training camp. Aside from figuring out the logistics of making the money work this season, the Lakers would be very pressed for cap space and tax relief moving forward if they were to add Grant.

The idea is appealing to the Lakers, but it is hard to imagine that a deal involving Grant will come to fruition right now.

Cam Johnson – Brooklyn Nets

The question is whether or not the Lakers have the draft assets that the Nets are searching for in trade talks this offseason. Los Angeles can’t trade a first-round pick until 2029 at the earliest, and it is unknown if Pelinka would want to sacrifice what could wind up being a valuable asset in the post-LeBron era. The Nets have been asking for multiple draft picks in proposals for Johnson, leading to the belief that the Lakers may not have the capability to pull off this type of trade.

Kyle Kuzma – Washington Wizards

Perhaps the biggest assessment here regarding the Lakers possibly exploring the idea of bringing back Kuzma is the fact that he very unlikely wants to play with Davis and James again. With the Lakers, Kuzma was put into a box and had to play a catch-and-shoot role on the perimeter. Since joining the Wizards, Kuzma has showcased his full offensive repertoire and has proven that he can be a focal point for a team. Unfortunately, that is not the role he held in Los Angeles, and it isn’t the role he would hold upon possibly returning.

This is certainly a long-shot scenario. Nonetheless, Kuzma remains on the trade block and will hear his name in rumors once again leading up to the 2025 trade deadline.

Bruce Brown – Toronto Raptors

If the Lakers were to seriously pursue Brown between now and the start of the 2024-25 season, they would undoubtedly need to include Hachimura in trade discussions with the Raptors due to the fact that he is only 26 years old and presents upside as a scorer at the power forward position next to Scottie Barnes. Last offseason, the Raptors did show interest in Gabe Vincent, sources said. It is unknown at this time if the Raptors would still be interested in Vincent after trading for and extending Immanuel Quickley.

From the Lakers point of view, Brown would be the ideal type of player to target due to the fact that he is in the final year of his contract and can wear multiple hats next to James and Davis.

Nikola Vucevic – Chicago Bulls

The best part about pursuing Vucevic from the Lakers’ perspective is that they wouldn’t need to break the bank to acquire him. Chicago isn’t going to be getting first-round picks for the veteran center, so Los Angeles could potentially get him at a discounted rate of Rui Hachimura and Christie Wood.

Overall, the Lakers upgrade their frontcourt and scoring depth while also remaining below the second apron tax line. Attach two second-round picks to a deal that includes both Wood and Hachimura, and all of a sudden, you have yourself a deal that the Bulls would likely accept.

Jordan Clarkson – Utah Jazz

Any trade that Los Angeles would look to make with Utah would certainly involve at least one other team due to Hachimura and/or Gabe Vincent likely being on the move — two players the Jazz would hold zero interest in.

As far as bench scoring and extra depth in the backcourt goes, Clarkson is certainly an option on the trade market for the Lakers and any other team that would be looking for a veteran scoring guard.