Could Lakers’ Defensive Dominance Change Trade Deadline Strategies?

Finally healthy, the Lakers’ defensive dominance while winning four of their last five games has catapulted them to a 14–9 record tied for fourth in the West and could change how they plan to approach the trade deadline.

With Anthony Davis dominating everywhere, Cam Reddish emerging as the team’s starting defensive stopper, and Jarred Vanderbilt finally returning from injury, the Lakers have suddenly become a defensive juggernaut.
Over the last five games, the Lakers’ defense has posted a league-best 103.1 defensive rating that combined with their 114.6 offensive rating enabled them to generate a +11.5 net rating, which was second best in the league.

With backup point guard Gabe Vincent scheduled to return when the Lakers play the Knicks at home on December 18, the Lakers will finally have their full roster healthy for the very first time this entire season.
While D’Angelo Russell has been having an excellent season and is shooting 40.5% on 5.5 attempts per game, Gabe Vincent has the long term contract and is considered to be the better defender between the two.

How the Lakers play the rest of December will have a major impact on their ultimate trade deadline decisions. L.A. has 11 games remaining before December 31st and are unlikely to make any moves before then.
Should they continue to win games, dominate defensively, and rise in the standings, however, the Lakers may ultimately decide to stand pat or only make minor moves on the margins before the February 8 trade deadline.

Let’s take a look at how the Lakers’ defense has emerged as a dominant force, why the 11 games remaining in December could change Lakers’ midseason strategy, and what the Lakers are likely to do at the deadline.

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LAKERS’ DEFENSIVE DOMINATION

Injuries muddied the Lakers’ early vision of a big, long, and athletic bully ball defense that could dominate the paint,control the rim, and shrink the court and with their overwhelming positional size, length, and physicality.

Give Lakers’ head coach Darvin Ham credit for the bold move that ignited the Lakers’ defense by moving Austin Reaves to 6th man and making Cam Reddish the team’s starting shooting guard and de facto defensive stopper.
In the 12 games since that change, the Lakers record is 10–2 and their defense has consistently ranked among five best in the league. Reddish has also played well offensively and appears to be a lock as starting two guard.

But the return of injured forwards Jarred Vanderbilt and Rui Hachimura triggered a second wave of improvement for the Lakers size and defense. Now when Cam Reddish leaves the court, Jarred Vanderbilt comes in.
There was kind of a consensus Taurean Prince was simply a placeholder for Jarred Vanderbilt. While that could still turn out to be the case, being able to have an elite perimeter defender all 48 minutes is a killer weapon.

And that’s exactly what the Lakers threw at Tyrese Haliburton every minute he was in the game. Haliburton noted in his postgame presser thankfully “Not every team has Anthony Davis and a bunch of 6′ 8” and 6′ 9″ wings.” Every time the Pacers tried to pull Anthony Davis out of the paint with a Haliburton pick-and-roll, the Lakers counter by trapping and doubling Tyrese and forcing him to make tough passes that James was waiting for.

The Lakers’ defensive domination is real and should only get better when 6’3″ point-of-attack defender Gabe Vincent returns to action next week. Lakers plan to ride their #1 defense to a league-leading 18th NBA title.

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LAKERS’ DECEMBER CHALLENGE

The Los Angles Lakers’ December challenge starts with 4 winnable games, including 1 road game against the Mavs without Kyrie, 2 road games against the Spurs, and 1 home game against the Knicks without Mitchell Robinson.

Then comes the most challenging part of the Lakers’ December schedule as they depart on a 7-game road trip. From December 21 to 30, the Lakers play the Timberwolves twice and the Celtics and the Thunder once each.
Ideally, the Lakers should sweep the 3-game Texas road trip and 1-game homestand versus the Knicks to raise their record to 18–9. Should L.A. be able to go 5–2 on that road trip, it would leave them at 23–11 at year end.

A 23–11 record should be good enough for #2 seed in the West, assuming the Timberwolves continue to hold the #1 seed. Were the Lakers to win both of the teams’ games in late December, Lakers could even be #1.
While the Lakers continue to prove defense can carry them, they need better and more 3-point shooting to loosen up opposing defenses if they want to win the championship. Right now, it’s limiting their ceiling.

The numbers behind the Lakers’ poor 3-point shooting are telling. Lakers rank #30 with 10.2 makes per game while allowing 13.5 makes per game, which means they are losing the 3-point battle by 9.9 points per game.
The Lakers counter that by winning the points-in-the-paint battle by 6.5 points per game and the made-free-throws battle by 5.5 points. That’s the Lakers’ game plan and at this point, it’s working and Lakers are winning.

How the Lakers handle this December challenge will influence what the team does at the trade deadline. They’ll clearly have to shoot better than they did against the Pacers to survive the December challenge.

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LAKERS DEADLINE NEEDS

The Los Angeles Lakers are simply the worst 3-point shooting team in the league. They make the fewest threes of any NBA team because they take the second fewest attempts and shoot the fifth worst percentage of any team.

However, the Lakers have been better during the last 15 games of the season, when they’ve gone 11–4. During those 15 games, the team raised it’s 3-point percentage from 34.3% to 36.8%, which ranked 14th in the league.
The problem is that 2.5% increase in 3P% only worked out to be 1.8 more points per game because they still took less than 30 3PA per game. The Lakers will need to make a trade to solve their 3-point shooting problem

In the modern NBA era, the NBA championship has never been won by the team that is the worst 3-point shooting team in the league. The Lakers would have to make history to the NBA championship shooting so poorly.
Nor is the answer is Zach LaVine or Trae Young, who are both too expensive and fragile. More than anything, the Lakers need a proven lethal 3-point shooter who will torch teams every time they try to double LeBron or AD.

But the Lakers will need to trade for a volume 3-point shooter if they want to cut down on the massive negative 3-point differential that they face in almost every game. The current roster can’t shoot their way out of this. Pelinka may even have to spend a valuable draft pick to get a player who can shoot near 40% and takes 7 to 8 threes per game. Adding a lethal shooter like Buddy Hield or Bojan Bogdanovic could be the missing piece.

The Lakers essentially need a high volume, high percentage 3-point shooter as fifth starter next to LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Cam Reddish and either D’Angelo Russell or Gabe Vincent. Someone like Bojan Bogdanovic.