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5 Things: The Defense

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Summer has brought on the dog days and the new CBA has somewhat dulled player movement to the degree we’ve seen I. Summer’s past. Since I’m not seeing king happening on the trade front I thought now would be a good time to talk defense.

The following assumes decent health for the team overall and isn’t accounting for player not currently on the roster. Those are exercises for the imagination, not reality.

1) What might our defensive identity look like? The Laker defense has 2 main issues, besides limiting the opponent’s scoring, “hiding” DLo effectively and reducing wear and tear on LeBron James.  Of the 2 hiding DLo is the bigger challenge. With his decent size and average strength and overall speed (although he is quicker than most give him credit for) a 2-3 zone where he’s not the point of attack defender (when possible) where DLo and LBJ are responsible for the corner zones and AD is in the middle makes sense, especially if Vando is a starter and pressures half court, or even full at times.  Having LBJ man a corner zone means he can maybe crash the glass a little more and get the offense going off the break in addition to potentially reducing his responsibilities on that end. A 2-3 zone w/AD in the middle could lead to rebounding issues, which we had plenty of last season as we all know, but you have to give up something in the NBA and the zone helps reduce individual break downs, keeps pressure on the perimeter and at the rim, and if we battle we can minimize the impact of giving up offensive rebounds.

2) Why not man-to-man or switch everything? In short because we lack the horses to run that race. DLo, Reaves, Rui and even LeBron at this point are fairly one-dimensional and all of them have pretty glaring weaknesses on D. DLo simply underwhelms, feels like he could be decent/average but the short version is he is who he is. Reaves can get bullied off his man, Rui is game but lacks the instincts and awareness to maximize his side and speed like the elite two way SFs do. LBJ is old. Very old, he’s not going to put forth Olympic effort every game. So we need to get creative in how we deploy him in D to save him for offense. Man to man defense only will see all of the players above get abused in various situations and plays. Switch everything requires players we don’t have and chemistry I haven’t seen develop, yet. Vogel had a keen mind for defense and got Kuzma to buy in and had Caruso and Green as fail safes. This team has Vando, maybe Vincent and they’ve never played together. I’m not saying we won’t see any man or switching but I don’t think it should be our main defensive identity.

3) Reducing three point efficiency has to be key. I don’t necessarily mind giving up a lot of 3 point shots, I do want to reduce 3 point makes. With so many guys being able to get shots off in the blink of an eye it feels sillier every season to say we’ll contain shooters. Contesting shots at a high level feels more realistic.  Since we’re not the tallest/fastest team we need to be better about defensive positioning and reacting, not having sub par defenders get abused off screen actions is another reason I favor a zone as our main go-to defense identity.

4) AD featured. Going zone hells feature AD on defense and maybe helps him get a DPOY trophy. This is not really important but anything that highlights overall defensive performance w/AD in the middle of it all can’t be bad. If AD is in the convo for DPOY it means the defense isn’t awful on a basic level.

5) Identifying our best 2 way lineups. This one is crucial because, based on reputation, we don’t have a ton of two way players. We’re probably going to lean on Vando and Vincent to ball hawk and pressure playmakers on the perimeter as well as being the first helpers. We’re going to have to hope guys like Hayes and Reaves can take a step forward and address individual concerns. Reaves could stand to add some muscle and work on his ability to use his length to disrupt the dribble. Hayes and AD could be a dominant defensive tandem, in theory, but Hayes needs to bit foul and be better at hedging and his recovery defense. There are other guys who can step into a bigger role if these 2 can’t rise to the challenge but for all concerned it would be best if they found another level. As it stands today I’d say my top defensive lineup would be Vincent, Vando, Rui, LeBron and AD. I’d love to see Hayes or Reaves supplant LeBron, though. We’re going to need a lot from The King on offense and it’s simply unrealistic to expect him to put forth high effort on both ends for 82 and be fresh for the playoffs.

 

What are your thoughts on a 2-3 zone as a main identity, not the be all end all but the primary option, and your favorite defensive 5?

Happy Birthday, Kobe!

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Jeanie Buss Speaks On Lakers’ Hiring Of JJ Redick

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In an interview with Petros and Money on AM 570 LA Sports, Lakers owner Jeanie Buss spoke on the hiring of Redick for the first time and why she has already been impressed with him and his staff:

“We wanted to kind of think a different way. Really, he’s got a vision. I’m not comfortable talking about the basketball stuff, but we were looking for a candidate that would bring something different. And really invest in developing young players. JJ is the right person for us. Again, I just want to work to really speak for itself. So I don’t want to hype it and say it’s gonna be a home run. We have to give him time to establish what he wants to establish. I’m really impressed with his staff. Right now, it’s not mandatory for the players to come in and practice but players are coming in and working out. The coaching staff with Nate McMillan and Scotty Brooks, there’s a lot of experience that will be there for him to make that adjustment to being a head coach. Certainly a 12-year career in the league, he’s got a lot of experience. He knows what this league is about and I think he’ll be a great leader.”