With the Lakers ready to start Anthony Davis at center, the question is will Frank Vogel truly embrace small ball and unleash its full array of powers by transforming how the team plays in transition and offense and defense?
Russell Westbrook’s arrival was the catalyst that forced the Lakers, head coach Frank Vogel, and superstar center Anthony Davis to rethink their positional strategy and finally embrace their evolution to a small ball team. But simply sliding LeBron and AD to the four and five is not enough. The Lakers must fully optimize small ball by playing faster in transition and using ‘five-out’ sets on offense and ‘switch everything’ lineups on defense.
Over the next four preseason games, we should get a preview of whether Frank Vogel is going to fully embrace small ball or revert to his traditional resume as a coach who believes offense and defense start at the rim.
THE LAKERS NEED TO PUSH THE PACE IN TRANSITION
The Lakers’ top priority as a small ball team is to rebound and run according to Frank Vogel as the team looks to return to one of the formulas that led them to their 17th NBA championship in the bubble less than a full year ago.
The Lakers finished 21st in the league last season with a pace of only 98.85, down from their 11th best pace of 101.20 during their championship run. Top pace last season was the 104.67 posted by Westbrook and the Wizards. With Russ relentlessly pushing the pace, the Lakers should top the NBA in pace next season, maybe even breaking the 105.51 pace set by the Bucks during the 2019–20 season. Lakers will be looking to reprise Showtime.
Of the three ways to optimize small ball lineups, increasing the pace seems to be the one change in style on which Lakers’ head coach Frank Vogel has no problem embracing. Lakers will lead the league in pace this season.
THE LAKERS NEED TO PLAY FIVE-OUT SETS ON OFFENSE
While the Lakers may set a record for transition points this season, they still will have to generate more than 75% of their points from half court offense. That’s where Frank Vogel’s coaching tendencies could get in the way.
Vogel’s long been a fan offensively of positioning a big in the dunker’s position, which plays into the hands of opposing defenses by making it easier to pack the paint to keep Lakers’ superstars from getting to the rim. What the Lakers need to do to optimize small ball lineups is play five-out sets with five capable 3-point shooters positioned behind the arc. That’s the lineup that opens up the paint for Russ, LeBronk and AD to attack the rim.
Half court offense has been the Lakers’ Achilles heel in the past, especially when LeBron rests. With three superstars and five-out sets, the Lakers small ball attack will put so much pressure on the rim that it will be unstoppable.
THE LAKERS NEED TO SWITCH EVERYTHING ON DEFENSE
One of the keys to the Lakers winning their 17th NBA championship in the bubble was the ability of LeBron James and Anthony Davis to switch and guard any player on the other team regardless of the position they played.
While Russ isn’t the elite individual defender LeBron and AD are, he’s still a player with amazing athleticism and energetic motor who has no problem switching and defending smaller or bigger players anywhere on the court. Add an elite pair of 3&D players in Trevor Ariza and Kent Bazemore and the Lakers suddenly have a 5-man closing lineup that could switch everything like the Golden State Warriors ‘Death Lineup’ did to win three titles.
If the Lakers want to take advantage of playing small, they need to run a lot more five-out sets to generate drive-and-dish opportunities. It’s the best way for the Lakers to execute Vogel’s favored ‘Paint to Great’ style of basketball.
THE ARRIVAL OF FIZDALE COULD HELP OPTIMIZE SMALL BALL
One unknown factor that could impact how willing Frank Vogel is to fully embrace the Lakers’ small ball on steroids lineups is the addition of David Fizdale as the lead assistant coach replacing the departed Jason Kidd.
Fizdale will hopefully give Vogel an assistant coach who not only has good experience coaching LeBron James but also has a background as more of an offensive oriented coach than Vogel or the other assistants on his staff. Fizdale won two championships as an assistant on James’ Heat teams and is the highest paid assistant in the league. Hopefully, his involvement will help Vogel make the right decisions to optimize the Lakers’ small ball lineups.
The bottom line is Frank Vogel needs to push the ball in transition and incorporate ‘five-out sets’ on offense and ‘switch everything’ lineups on defense to take full advantage of the Lakers commitment to play small.
We’ll hopefully learn what Frank Vogel is going to do with the small ball roster Rob Pelinka has given him. Will he still try to give Dwight and DeAndre major minutes at the five with AD at the four? Or will he embrace the power of small ball and make the necessary changes to take advange of small ball in transition, on offense, and on defense.
Frank has received considerable criticism for his Lakers offense but now that Russ has forced the Lakers to go small and AD has accepted the challenge, the big question is how far will Frank go? Will he use five-out sets to create drive-and-dish opportunities? Or will he instead try to throw the ball into the post to start possessions? Will he switch everything on defense, especially to close games with elite defenders who can guard multiple positions? Those are the answers we will eagerly await over the next few days.
My guess is we will see Frank go part way. He did play a lot of five-out possessions in the playoffs when we won the championship and they were basically unstoppable. We also saw lots of situations where the Lakers closing lineup did switch everything to make it harder for teams to take advantage of pick-and-rolls. Now with some rim protection, we should see even more aggressive perimeter defense from the Lakers.
Right now, the ball is in Frank’s court. Make the right moves and you win another rings and get a new longterm contract. Stay conservative and refuse to adapt to the modern NBA and you could end up without a job next summer. Up to you, Frank.
Based on pre-season game 1 we’re starting traditionally and finishing with the scrubs! I jest, based on post-practice interviews it sounds like DAJ has been starting alongside AD which doesn’t bode well for the LakerTom 24/7/365 small ball center philosophy. I can understand the desire to see the best line ups out of the gate, as much as possible, but I think it also bears mentioning that the players we will be counting on in the post-season need to play out the regular season in a manner that leaves them healthy enough, and with enough stamina, to finish out the playoffs strong.
So, to that, I’m not completely bummed that we have not seen the small ball line up out of the gate…yet. With LBJ, Russ, ‘Melo and Trevor sitting there wasn’t a lot of size to distribute throughout the line up in preseason game 1 and I fully expect to see AD start at least once prior to the season at the five just to see how it goes.
Thanks for reading and commenting, Jamie. Much appreciated.
Much as I complain about Frank Vogel and his love for twin towers bigs, I do like and appreciate his defense first philosophy. I still have confidence in him as the Lakers head coach and would have given him more than just a 1-year token extension. Frank showed in the bubble championship that he understood the Lakers best defensive lineup was with AD at the five. So while I complain and worry about his moves during the regular season, I trust him to put the right players on the floor when it counts.
Having said that, I’m a stong believer that the regular season is important and that teams risk losing if they think they can just flip a switch or change how they play for the playoffs and still win. The regular season is about building patterns and habits, learning how to adjust agaisnt certain defenses. I’ve never liked the idea that you can play one way during the regular season and then switch it up in the playoffs. I think that’s a faulty premise. We have a small ball lineup and should play a style that takes advantage of the roster we have built.
Flipping the switch might have worked in the bubble but that was under very different and dramatic circumstances that we won’t face this coming season. I think Rob made masterful moves. Now it’s up to Frank to make similar moves to optimize the roster Rob gave him and win #18.
I guess that’s how I believe Frank sees the situation: we don’t change how we play, just who we play. Small or big it’s going to start with LeBron and Russ, everyone else will find an open spot since we know the Lakers play a flow-based offensive concept (no plays called by the coach, or at least very few). When LeBron and Russ both sit, which ought to be very few minutes/game, we might see some sort of offensive structure, maybe.
Since the Lakers don’t really run an offense based on a structural concept it’s a difficult thing to quantify and thus a difficult thing to debate. In terms of flipping a switch it’s going to come down to a few players not named LeBron, Russ or AD. Those guys aren’t adapting, the rest of the does.
It sometimes appears as if Frank has a tendency to want to play the same way regardless of personnel. He’ll definitely change who plays more easily than how we play.
Personally, I think it’s smart coaching to keep the same lineups and rotations during the regular season. It creates stability and lets everybody know what their role is. It builds familiarity and confidence. It’s actually exactly like I coach kids during the regular season. I pick my starting lineup and stay with it come hell or high water.
While you could argue that’s great for kids but not for pros, I would counter that confidence is everything in basketball no matter what level of play. But Frank has impressed me by taking the other road entirely in the playoffs and matching up or forcing other teams to matchup against us.
In the end, Frank wants the best defense on the floor and that is always going to AD at the five and LeBron at the four. That’s a double defensive anchor no other team can match. That’s wny in the end when push comes to shove, Frank is not going to start DeAndre or Dwight because they are NOT the Lakers best defensive option.
For me I expected AD to start at the 4 because all of our Power Forwards sat. That is one problem we have because We don’t have a lot of forwards with size. AD did play some 5 towards the end of the quarter. We will have to wait and see what the rotations look like once all of PF are available.
We really could have used a stretch four instead of another guard although I think signing Reaves was partly a financial rather than talent move. With three power forwards out – LeBron, Melo, and Ariza – we had no choice but to play DeAndre and Dwight, Problem was zero spacing for the offense with one of them on the floor most of the time.