One of the most exciting developments this Lakers’ season has been Frank Vogel’s recent small ball lineups with LeBron at the five and Melo at the four, which have shown great promise both offensively and defensively.
Last week I wrote Could the Evolution of LeBron James Be Small Ball Stretch Five for Lakers?Today I want to talk about why the Lakers should start playing more LeBron James at the five, even when AD is in the game. LeBron James is a basketball unicorn who can truly play all five positions. In his storied 19-year career, he has played point guard 6% of the time, shooting guard 7%, small forward 60%, power forward 26%, and center just 1%.
After the success of several lineup experiments with LeBron at the five and Melo at the four, Frank Vogel announced the Lakers will be incorporating variations of the what he calls their ‘centerless lineups’ in their repertoire. The Lakers’ ‘centerless lineup’ with Westbrook, Ellington, Monk, Anthony, and James showed great promise in two of the last three games and variation where Howard replaced James in the lineup was equally promising.
Assuming the Lakers play their ‘centerless lineup’ with LeBron at the five for 6 minutes in the first half and 6 in the second half, LeBron could end up at spending 12 minutes or 30% of his 40 minutes per game playing the five. Considering LeBron’s success at the five and AD’s preference for the four, the obvious next question is whether the Lakers should consider a variation of their ‘centerless lineup’ that has James at the five and Davis at the four?
Could the Lakers truly be an even better team with LeBron James at the five and Anthony Davis at the four? Could LeBron James actually could be the better center and Anthony Davis the better power forward for this team? Nobody sees the game the way LeBron James does and starting his move to what will ultimately be the logical lineup position to finish his career could end up being transformative for the Lakers’ current rotation and lineups.
The Lakers urgently need a catalyst to set a fire to their season and playing LeBron James at the five could be that catalyst. Here are six reasons why the Lakers could be a better team with LeBron James playing the five:
1. LeBron Is the Lakers’ Best Option as a Stretch Five Center
No player on the Lakers is better suited to play stretch five than LeBron. His volume 3-point shooting and low post power game enable him to play small or big. He would become the LA Lakers version of Nikola Jokic.
2. LeBron at Center Excels in Organizing and Directing Defense
LeBron at the five is about defense. It’s about LeBron playing Minister of Defense for the Lakers like Draymond Green does for the Warriors, calling out opponents’ plays and choreographing the Lakers defense shifts.
3. LeBron at Center Is More Engaged and Plays Better Defense
There’s no question playing center gets LeBron James more engaged in the game defensively since he acts like the team’s middle linebacker. The bonus is playing James at the five unleashes LeBron to play superstar level defense.
4. LeBron at Center Does a Better Job Boxing Out and Rebounding
As good as AD is as a rebounder, he rarely boxes out his man. LeBron, on the other hand, is one of the few Lakers who usually do a great job rebounding. Nothing beats LeBron starting a fast break with a rebound.
5. LeBron Has Low Center of Gravity to Defend Bigger Centers
Having a low center of gravity that makes you essentially unmovable is the biggest asset LeBron James has over Anthony Davis. His combination of size, smarts, power, and athleticism enable him to defend any kind of center.
6. LeBron Willingly Plays the Five But AD Prefers the Four
Anthony Davis does not want to play the five. His game is more finesse than power and he prefers to face up his defender rather than post him up. LeBron, on the other hand, loves to post up or shoot threes over centers.
NBA players usually want to play the position they think best fits what they think of themselves. Some guys are point guards, some are shooting guards, some are wings or small forwards, others power forwards or fours, and finally centers, the forgotten position that despite modernizing itself is still undervalued.
Point guards get paid most, shooting guards the least, centers second least, pulled up by a few highly paid centers. Just look at the mess the Lakers have made of the position the last few years, the money spent was never great, unless you count AD as a five, which I’ve tried to do but more and more it doesn’t seem to fit. AD is not a center, doesn’t want to play center, so be it.
Short of trading for Turner, the Lakers should be looking for LeBron to play center for all of the reasons I detailed above. It could be the catalyst that wakes this team up and gets it to play elite defense again, led by LeBron, whose defensive effort was the key to those ‘centerless lineups’ working so well. When he plays the five, LeBron is truly the ‘center’ of attention.
Situationally I think it makes tons of sense. Trying to etch anything in stone this season feels foolhardy. There are some teams that this really won’t work for, we get killed on the boards in the LeBron at the 5 minutes and that’s a concern as well. Good tool to keep in the shed and I’m in favor of anything that limits DeAndre Jordan minutes to zero so he can work on his high fives and celebrations. Unleash Dwight.
At any rate, I like that Frank is open to trying things he’s been hesitant to embrace in the past. Outside of creating solid defensive schemes Frank’s shown a decent ability to embrace change. Some things seem resistant to it but even in the last game we saw DAJ benched in favor of more Howard minutes and it paid off in spades. In that game. Nothing works perfectly in every game, in every scenario, against every single team. So having yourself be open to using the tools at hand in the best possible manner is as much as a fan can hope for.