The 40-point whipping the Los Angeles Lakers dropped to close out the Memphis Grizzlies Friday night was a warning to the rest of the NBA that their new roster could be even better than the bubble champs’ roster.
It’s obviously premature to compare the current Lakers squad, which just posted its first series win in the 2023 playoffs, with the 2020 roster that went 16–5 on the way to the team’s 17th NBA championship in the bubble. But the similarities almost scream to be compared as both teams boasted healthy and available superstars in James and Davis, peaked right at the start of the playoffs, and totally dominated their first round opponents.
The challenge for the new-look Lakers, who’ve only had a couple of months together, is to grow and get better every series and develop the chemistry, and continuity needed to legitimately compete for an NBA championship. They understood when they madeover the roster at the trade deadline that it was likely to be next season before the team had enough time together to compete but the changes have been so good they’ve raised expectations.
While the new-look Lakers still have a long way to go, let’s look at how the two rosters compare when it comes to the superstars, starting lineups, and roster depth and what roster upgrades the Lakers still need to make.
Comparing Superstars
NBA championships are about superstars and the big question is how do LeBron James and Anthony Davis compare to the version of themselves that won the 2020 championship in the bubble two and a half years ago?
LeBron James at 38-years old has definitely lost some athleticism since October 2020 but as we saw from Friday night’s big win, he can still take his game to another level, although not as frequently or as often as before. Back in the bubble, James was a top-5 player. Today, he’s probably slipped to a top-10 player and his role has changed because the Lakers no longer need him to post 30/20/10 every game. They’ve diversified their offense.
Anthony Davis healthy at 30-years old has evolved into a more effective and impactful version of the player he was in the bubble. He’s traded his power forward position and love of jump shot to play center in the paint. And like LeBron, Davis does not have to score 30 points and pull down 20 rebounds per game for the Lakers to win. The difference is he’s become the best overall rebounder, rim protector, and defensive anchor in the league.
While Father Time has slowed James down, Davis has become even more dominant in the paint. As long as they are healthy, LeBron James and Anthony Davis are still the premier superstar duo in the entire NBA.
2023 Superstars = 2020 Superstars
–2023 James < 2020 James.
-2023 Davis > 2020 Davis.
Comparing Starting Lineups
There’s a good argument the Lakers’ current starting lineup of D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, LeBron James, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Anthony Davis could be better than that of the 2020 bubble championship team.
The first round starters for the Lakers’ 2020 championship team were Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Danny Green, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and JaVale Mcgee. They had 134.4 OffRtg, 102.3 DefRtg, and 32.0 NetRtg. The current Lakers roster has only been together for two months compared to a full year for the 2020 roster but still posted a 113.2 OffRtg, 94.0 DefRtg, and 19.2 NetRtg, which should get better as they move on.
The major difference between the current Lakers’ starting lineup and the 2020 bubble lineup is D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves, combo guard who dramatically expand the team’s playmaking and 3-point shooting.
The Lakers other non-superstar starter is Jarred Vanderbilt, who starts at power forward and whose role is the team’s best perimeter defender who guards the opponent’s top scorer. Against Memphis, that was Ja Morant.
While 2023 James and Davis may be close to their 2020 versions, Russell, Reaves, and Vanderbilt are a more complementary trio of players to start alongside the Lakers’ superstars than Caldwell-Pope, Green, and McGee.
2023 Starters >>> 2020 Starters
–2023 Russell > 2020 Caldwell-Pope
-2023 Reaves > 2020 Green
-2023 James < 2020 James
-2023 Vanderbilt > 20 Morris
-2023 Davis > 2020 Davis
Comparing Roster Depth
While the current Lakers starters are a better starting lineup than the 2020 title starters, the bubble championship bench was deeper and stronger than the current Lakers bench, which has struggled some in the playoffs.
The Lakers essentially played a 10-man rotation in the first round of the 2020 bubble championship with team’s main backups being Rajon Rondo, Alex Caruso, Talen Horton-Tucker, Kyle Kuzma, and Dwight Howard.
The Lakers’ current backups include Dennis Schroder, Malik Beasley, Troy Brown, Jr., Rui Hachimura, and Wenyen Gabriel, although Ham narrowed the rotation to 8 players by taking Beasley and Brown out of the rotation.
The Lakers’ bubble reserves averaged 39.3 points per game, spread over all five backups. The Lakers’ current reserves are averaging 39.7 points per game with Schroder and Hachimura producing most of the points.
In head-to-head comparisons, Rondo, Caruso, and Howard are probably better backups than Schroder, Beasley, and Gabriel. Similarly, Hachimura and Brown, Jr. are likely better backups than Kuzma and Horton-Tucker.
While both lineups have their strengths, the 2020 bubble championship reserves are probably slightly better than the Lakers’ current reserves, although there’s still a chance other reserves could surprise everybody.
2023 Back-Ups < 2020 Back-Ups
-2023 Schroder < 2020 Rondo
-2023 Beasley < 2020 Caruso
-2023 Troy Brown, Jr. > 2023 Horton-Tucker
-2023 Hachimura > 2020 Kuzma
-2023 Gabriel < 2020 Howard.
And The Winner Is…
As promising as the new-look Lakers 2023 roster has been, they’ll have to win an NBA championship before there can be any conversation whether they are better than the purple-and-gold’s 2020 bubble championship team.
If this version of the Lakers can somehow grow enough on the fly to win the franchise’s league leading 18th NBA championship, they would have to at the least be considered to be the equal of the 2020 bubble champs.
It’s more likely the Lakers will have to wait until next season when they add a legitimate 3&D wing starter and quality backup rim protector before they actually have a roster that’s better than the 2020 championship team.
With the Warriors beating the Kings in Sacramento this afternoon, the Lakers’ current roster will now have to go through the current NBA champions to win the title this season, a challenging gauntlet at best.
In the Lakers favor is 4 days off and a history of matching up pretty well with the Dubs this year, having won the last three of the four games between the two teams this season, although the personnel has varied.
In the end, what’s not to love about 38-year old LeBron James again having to go through 35-year old Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors to lead his Los Angeles Lakers to their league leading 18th NBA championship.
https://twitter.com/LakerTom/status/1652818300903235584
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Very well-written post!! I enjoyed reading every bit of it.
Thanks, Buba. Warriors are going to be a monster challenge to overcome but I think Lakers are primed and ready for them. Think we have a chance to steal Game 1 if we can shoot well.
Thanks for reading another in our “Way Too Early But We’re Writing About It Anyhow” series of Laker articles. I think you wrote this same article like two months ago and came to a slightly different conclusion based solely on Malik and Mo’s ability to hit the threes and glowingly proclaimed that this roster was WAY better than the 2020 one.
Anyhow, it still doesn’t matter. We beat an injured, beat up and self-inflicted beat down Grizzlies team and face an NBA dynasty in the next round. Without Stephen Adams this was not a good test for the Lakers and they beat a team just about everyone outside of Tennessee thought they should beat.
Luckily the Kings weren’t a good test for this version of the Warriors, either. Inexperience, youth and fractured finger on De’Aaron Fox’s shooting hand gave the Warriors a huge lift that set the stage for Steph’s historic shooting. Sabonis should have been taking those open 20 footers for weeks and started in game 7. Bad coaching there on Mike Brown.
Now, throw it all out and start at 0. Lakers need to win at least one in Chase Center, might as well make it game 1. Personally I think the upcoming series hinges on pace and rebounding. Take care of the ball, get out when we can, and don’t let Looney become the second-coming of Dennis Rodman and we have a really good shot at moving on.
In terms of comparing anything to The Bubble…frankly it’s just plain silly. There was zero travel which means everyone got right to treatment, film and next game prep. Very little actual media, just Zoom. Environment was like NBA Summer Camp with the fishing, card games, Jimmy’s tasty (and likely over-priced) coffee, and so on. That ain’t ever happening again.
Guys who did well in The Bubble have shown they can either bring it to the big lights or they can’t. Brooks, who was lethal in the quiet of the Bubble, wilted under big lights and real pressure of home crowds out in the real world. The Steph’s and Lebron’s have that mental edge few possess. AD hasn’t been close to Bubble AD except for small stretches in the regular season, as just one example. His defense, though, has been elite in both environments and that’s what the Lakers need.
In some ways, if you combine Michael’s post down yonder and this one it really accurately surmises where the Lakers at and what we’re all hoping for. We’re hoping for a guy or two to play beyond their value (thus likely pricing them off the team this summer), we’re hoping an unheralded player, like Caruso before them, can rise to the challenge and deliver quality minutes on both ends.
The Bubble is a one and done thing, it has to be considered that. No asterisk, just the reality of not flying across country (and you can hear LeBron himself touch on that in his last post-gamer when asked about both potential teams they could face before it was decided: he only mentioned the travel). I’m glad we won it, but it was never a barometer for future success and should not be taken as such now. What these Lakers are doing will be more impressive both because of LeBron’s age, AD’s internally created inconsistencies, and the general inexperience in the playoffs this current roster has.
That’s how I’m looking at it, anyhow. This was a team that stood at 2-10, seemed destined for a lottery pick that would then be sent packing to NOLA, and has turned itself around both inside and out. Quickly. How complete and utterly they continue that journey is what will define them. Not the past.
Thanks for reading and commenting.