In retrospect, the Lakers need to rethink what they need from the center position because signing JaVale McGee, Dwight Howard, Marc Gasol, and Montrezl Harrell as the team’s centers the past two years was a mistake.
The Lakers should look at Anthony Davis, their prototype modern center who can shoot threes or attack the rim on offense and protect the rim or guard the perimeter on defense, to see what they need from their centers. What the defense-first Lakers don’t need are old school low post defensive or offensive centers who can’t stretch the floor with 3-point shooting or play the trapping, doubling, and rotating championship defense the team plays.
JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard proved to be unplayable against most opponents in the playoffs last year as they lacked the mobility, speed, and quickness the Lakers needed to trap, switch and defend on the perimeter. Marc Gasol and Montrezl Harrell face a similar fate in the playoffs this year as their inability to block shots and protect the rim leaves them vulnerable to being played off the court defensively despite their value on offense.
The problem is the Lakers don’t appear to have learned from their mistakes picking centers the last two seasons as they are now supposedly pursuing centers who’ll solve rim protection issues but be unplayable in the playoffs. The Lakers need to trade for a starting center like Myles Turner or Nerlens Noel rather than settling for another team’s discards like Andre Drummond or Hassan Whiteside who can solve one problem but then create another.
Drummond and Whiteside might be able to help hold down the fort for the three to five weeks until Anthony Davis returns but both have the same perimeter defensive liabilities that ultimately doomed McGee and Howard. Signing one of them is like applying a band aid to a badly broken bone. After Anthony Davis’s recent injury scare, there’s no way the Lakers want to see him again playing 50% of his time at center come this year’s playoffs.
Myles Turner and Nerlens Noel are two trade candidates who are talented and young enough to be permanent rather than temporary solutions to the Lakers’ need to find a center to complement and protect Anthony Davis. Both are top-five rim protectors who are younger than Anthony Davis and have the physicality, athleticism, and toughness to protect him from having to defend bigger bruising centers like Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid.
Besides being top-five shot blockers, Turner and Noel have diverse offensive or defensive skill sets that set them apart from limited one dimensional centers like McGee, Howard, Gasol, Harrell, Drummond, and Whiteside. Turner is the prototype modern offensive center who can shoot the three and throw down lobs while Noel is the prototype modern defensive center who can both protect the rim and switch onto and defend smaller players.
In short, they simply can’t be played off the court defensively in the playoffs like the old school centers the Lakers signed over the last two years or are looking at from the buyout market, which is why they’re worth trading for. While it’s always difficult to break up a top-ranked defensive team, the Lakers know they will need a better rim protector in the playoffs than Gasol or Harrell or adding Drummond of Whiteside will be able to provide.
Defending their championship against the Los Angeles Clippers, Utah Jazz, or Brooklyn Nets will be a tougher challenge than the Lakers had to face in the bubble against the Houston Rockets, Denver Nuggets, and Miami Heat. The Lakers need a solution to their center conundrum that works in the regular season and the playoffs. Andre Drummond, Hassan Whiteside, or some other candidate from the buyout market is not the right answer.
The Lakers would be smart to trade for Myles Turner or Nerlens Noel to permanently solve their rim protection issues, add a young starting center to protect AD, and double down on their championship caliber defense.
In short, no.
I think that even in a guy like Damien Jones, we’ve seen value in simple areas of basketball: running screen and roll at the top of the key and lobbing the ball to a super athletic big man. Same play we ran a ton of with both Howard and McGee last season. In the playoffs I’d be astounded if both Davis and a Noel/Howard/McGee style center played big minutes together. But let’s say that they would, for arguments sake. Are the player’s you’re looking for even available?
Nerlens Noel: Doesn’t sound like it unless you want to vastly overpay in terms of picks and/or young players which, let’s be honest, you tend to do. Been reading Knicks blogs today to gauge the barometer of how they’re vibing on Noel. To put it simply the vibe is strong and positive. While that’s not to say that’s where the Knickerbocker front office is at looking at it through the lens of their team it doesn’t make a ton of sense to trade him. Mitchell Robinson is still recovering from surgery on his hand and has only today been cleared to practice with contact. That means he’s probably a week or two from seeing the floor. Hard to see New York blinking on a Noel trade at this point with the deadline a week out and Robinson not yet back from his surgery. Even if they deemed Nerlens expendable, he’s making $5 mil, no biggie to let him walk along with a slew of their other role-players, re-up with the ones they like, at a raise, and come back better with an even more improved Randle. I think they Noel both for insurance and because he’s a solid back up who is familiar with what they’re doing. In all honesty I don’t really even see Nerlens Noel as much of an upgrade over Damien Jones. Sign the kid for the rest of the season and you don’t have to give away any talent in the doing.
Myles Turner: Indy could be in a sellers market. They’re clinging to the final play-in spot and I expect that they’ll be passed by Toronto who is currently decimated by injuries. Indy is pretty much healthy now and Caris LaVert coming back adds another body to their starting five. The biggest issue I see with a trade is that they really don’t need to make one. Pacers will not be over the cap this summer, Turner is under contract for 2 more seasons after this one, the only core players w/expiring deals are McConnell and McDermott. So…why make a trade for an expiring Trezz and KCP unless they are super-dooper high on KCP? Holding onto Trezz will be hard for any team. He has no rights and will be a UFA this summer no matter where he goes. THT added in…maybe? But where does he slot in for them and is that enough to move one of the top defenders in the league? I would say no if I was Indy’s GM. Now…would I like to see Myles in a Laker uni? Sure, makes a lot of sense for us (cost-controlled, should pair nicely with Davis and James, etc.) but the issue is more with why would Indy make this trade now than fit on our team.
A couple other things I don’t think get enough consideration when it comes to trades this season.
-Little to no practices means starting over with whomever you bring in. New York was lucky that they brought in 2 vets that know what Thibbs likes to facilitate on-court learning curves and impact play on the court. Trading a player this season for a miniscule talent upgrade is akin to throwing away time. If you’re in contention this isn’t really the season to embrace roster upheaval, if anything it goes against the idea of winning now philosophies to a large degree.
-The cap next summer. It will be lower. Maybe it’ll be partially inflated via artificial means or something but the truth is the BRI and thus the salary cap is going to take a hit. With that in mind I would imagine teams with expiring deals for low-key players aren’t going to want to bring in hard to hold onto players (like Trezz and THT and eve to a lesser degree Caruso) or jeopardize the cap space they’ve carved out. This will be especially true for small market teams.
-There are potentially a ton of big names that can be free agents this summer. I don’t see Leonard staying on the Clippers if they don’t at least get to the NBA Finals. He’s not there to break a Clipper curse but to add to his legacy and getting to the western conference finals (no guarantee) won’t be enough. CP3 might stay in Phoenix…or not. John Collins, DeMar DeRozan and future Laker in waiting Victor Oapdipo will all be on the market, or likely to be should they decline their options in order to leave the situations they are in. With all of the above in mind I tend to side with the NBA rumors and reports that has this being a slow trade season, that the uncertainty of the summer cap situation, the potential to upgrade in free agency with the player of one’s choosing and the fact that there will be, what…two, maybe three practices by teams before the playoffs means that the buyout market will be hot and the trade market not.
Could I be wrong about all that? Sure, wouldn’t be the first time. But the practice issue is a legit one as is the cap this summer. It’s easy to proclaim that the Lakers want to win now and will do whatever it takes and Jeannie said she’d be willing to pay a luxury tax (which was already a sure bet) but those are just that: proclamations and notions. My two bits.