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Anthony Davis

How Can the Los Angeles Lakers Win While Anthony Davis Is Not Playing?

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With superstar Anthony Davis tentatively sidelined for at least 2 to 3 weeks, the big question facing the Los Angeles Lakers is can they win without AD? The answer could depend upon whom coach Frank Vogel decides to play.

The Lakers need to embrace “Next Man Up’ and come out and ready to play aggressively and with confidence. When they do that and are having fun, flying around on defense and running on offense, they can beat anybody. Winning games without Anthony Davis will require the Lakers to dominate the 36 minutes during the game LeBron James plays and find a way to hold court and stay even during the 12 minutes per game he will need to rest.

The good news is the Lakers have one of the deepest and most talented rosters in the NBA. While they’ve struggled with rim protection and 3-point shooting, they still have the top rated defense in the league to rely upon. While the Lakers will surely miss Anthony Davis over the next 11 games, they’ve won 4 of the 5 games he’s already missed and 3 of their 5 top ranked lineups and 6 of the 11 that had positive net ratings were without AD.

Coach Vogel needs to tap into the Lakers’ lineups with the best records and play the combinations that have been the key to the team having fun and winning all season long. The time for experimenting must now be over.

So let’s first take a look at the stats for the successful 5-player lineups with LeBron James without Anthony Davis that Lakers’ head coach Frank Vogel should be prioritizing for the next 11 games based on past performance:

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An analysis of these lineups shows James appears 6 times, Harrell 4 times, Morris 4 times, Caruso 3 times, Matthews 3 times, Kuzma 3 times, Schroder 2 times, Gasol 2 times, Horton-Tucker 2 times, and Caldwell-Pope 1 time. The good news is the number of times each player shows up matches well with what the eye test and recent performance tells us. The exception is Markieff Morris whose positional importance is clearly higher without AD.

Frank Vogel is not likely to make major changes to the starting lineup but Gasol, Morris, James, Matthews, and Schroder has been the best non-AD Lakers’ lineup and Matthews is clearly playing better than KCP right now. Considering how Kuzma has been shooting, rebounding, and defending, Gasol, Kuzma, James, Matthews, and Schroder would be a starting lineup with a good chance to get the Lakers off to good starts and winning ways.

Vogel said before Anthony Davis’ injury that he wasn’t going to change the starting lineup ‘anytime soon.’ AD’s injury changes everything. Kuzma is the logical starter to replace Davis and Matthews needs to take over for KCP.

Unfortunately, the Lakers had no positive lineups without one of James or Davis on the court, which means Frank Vogel’s big challenge will be what happens when James, who’s already playing too many minutes, rests.

Caruso, Harrell, Horton-Tucker, Morris, and Caldwell-Pope will be the Lakers’ reserves, even though they don’t make up a viable 5-player lineup. Instead, Vogel is going to have to combine them with two or three of the starters. We’ve already seen the trio of Caruso, Harrell, and Horton-Tucker have had great success. Frankly, I could even see Frank going with an 8-man rotation with Morris and Caldwell-Pope playing minimal minutes as needed.

Defensively, the Lakers are now going to have to go small, which means playing an aggressive trapping, hedging, and doubling style of defense designed to create chaos and turnovers to ignite fast breaks on offense. Transition is going to be critical as the last thing the Lakers want is to play half court basketball. They need to push the ball relentlessly, take wide open threes in transition, and not hesitate to attack the paint or crash the boards.

Hopefully, the injury to Anthony Davis will motivate and empower the team to come out focused and ready to play. That could be the silver lining that gets the team back to playing the kind of Lakers’ basketball we all love.

What Does the Anthony Davis Injury Change for the Los Angeles Lakers?

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Lakers fans can be excused if their hearts were in their throats and minds filled with memories of the Warriors’ championship hopes collapsing as Kevin Durant hobbled off the floor after tearing his Achilles tendon.

Fortunately, it looks like the Lakers dodged a bullet as Anthony Davis’ injury was only a strained calf and not a dreaded torn Achilles. But the injury was still a harsh reminder how fragile championship hopes can be in this league. Missing AD for two or three weeks or more may also force the Lakers to take a second look at what their plans for the season had been before the injury. Here are four big questions the Lakers may suddenly be asking themselves:

1. HOW CONSERVATIVE SHOULD LAKERS BE WITH AD?

This is the easy question to answer. The Lakers are going to be very careful to allow Anthony Davis however long he needs to be 100% healed before returning to action. They’re clearly going to error on the conservative side.

Only 27-years old, the Lakers are not going to risk the future of their young superstar. Anthony will come back only when he’s completely healed and can safely play without worrying about re-injuring the calf or his Achilles.

While he’s not expected to return until after the All-Star break, which means he will miss the next 11 games, the Lakers will not hesitate to hold him out longer if necessary to ensure he will be healthy for the playoffs.

2. SHOULD THE LAKERS RETHINK AD’S ROLE ON THE TEAM?

With the short offseason and the compressed schedule, the Lakers had already dramatically changed Anthony Davis’ role this season, playing him at center just 9% of the time compared to 26% of the time last season.

Part of the reason for the change was to limit the rougher physical play he would face playing more minutes at center but part was strategic to deploy Davis’ defensive talents more often against perimeter players.

Since the issues with his calf have been something Anthony has been struggling with and affected his play all season long, expect the Lakers to continue to the strategy of playing him more at the four than the five.

3. DOES THE INJURY HURT THE LAKERS CHANCE TO REPEAT?

Anthony Davis’ injury definitely raises doubts and may reduce the Lakers’ chances of repeating as NBA champions. While he has played well, AD has not played offensively or defensively at the level he played last season.

Assuming he misses two to four weeks, the Lakers are likely to struggle to play at the same level they’ve played this season. While they’ve continued to win most of their games, they haven’t dominated like earlier in the season.

With Utah leading the West and the Clippers right behind them, the Lakers may find themselves having to play their crosstown rivals just to reach the Western Conference Finals and then maybe the Brooklyn Nets in the Finals.

4. DO THE LAKERS NEED TO TRADE FOR ANOTHER BIG?

The Lakers already allow miss the elite rim protection they received last season from their tandem of centers JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard and have allowed the 5th most points in the paint of any team in the league.

With AD now out for 2 to 4 weeks, the Lakers lack of size become even a bigger issue. With few quality bigs available as free agents and only two centers on the roster, the Lakers may be forced to make a trade.

Ideally, the Lakers would like to add a longtime solution at center who can help their perimeter defense as well as protecting the rim. The big question is who is available and how much will it cost the Lakers to trade for him.

Lakers Fast Break- Lakers -Nuggets Recap and AD Injury Woes!

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The lakerholics.com crew is back with a sad day for Lakers fans as the Lakers lose to Denver 122-105 and lose Anthony Davis to an aggravated Achilles injury. Check out what comes next as Jamie Sweet, LakerTom and Gerald break down the lowlights of the game, what happens with an extended AD layoff, predicting future trades, and more! So enjoy the Lakers fast Break podcast hopefully a LOT better than Gerald “enjoyed” his Valentine’s Day!

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How to Cure the Lakers’ Motivational Problems Against Lessor Opponents!

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The world champion Los Angeles Lakers have a habit of failing to get up for games against lessor opponents as clearly demonstrated by their lucky double overtime win Saturday night against the lowly Detroit Pistons.

That this happened just a week after the Lakers played poorly and lost to the same Pistons by 15 points and just two days after playing their best half of the season to crush the Denver Nuggets only adds to the frustration. While Frank Vogel is not going to lose sleep over the Lakers’ disturbing tendency to play down to the level of lessor opponents, it’s still a bad habit for a team seeking to repeat as NBA champions and needs to be addressed.

Here are three simple ideas Frank Vogel could easily implement to cure the Lakers’ obvious motivational problems against lessor opponents: (1) Make the Game Fun, (2) Respect the Opponent, and (3) Practice Good Habits.

1. MAKE THE GAME FUN

It’s easy for NBA coaches and players to forget the game of basketball is fun, especially during a long and trying regular season without cheering and adoring fans in the stands exulting every play and celebrating every basket. Lakers players seem to have the most fun when the team is wildly flying around trapping, doubling, and rotating on defense and relentlessly pushing the pace and fast breaking on offense. So let them play that way.

Stop the vanilla one-on-one defense that allows other teams to stay close and the boring repetitive isolation offense with everybody standing around and free the players to attack on defense, run on offense, and just have fun.

2. RESPECT THE OPPONENT

Nothing is more disrespectful of an opponent than to treat a game with them as a trap game and that’s exactly what the Lakers’ coaching staff has done too often, sitting star players and forgetting every team can beat you. Game plan for the Pistons like you did for the Nuggets, give Grant and Jackson the same respect you gave Jokic and Murray, and come out and play like the Lakers instead of watering down your offense and defense.

The ‘trap’ in trap games refers to doing things differently due to disrespect, which starts with the coaching staff deciding how to approach the game and ends up with the team playing down to the level of their opponent.

3. PRACTICE GOOD HABITS

NBA teams complain about never having time to practice and how games often become substitutes for practice but the reality is games against lessor opponents usually end up ignoring good habits and practicing bad habits. That’s actually the biggest concern with playing down to the level of your opponent, which is why it’s important for the Lakers to play the same style of basketball against lessor opponents that they play against top teams.

The most important game is always the next game and the most important opponent the next opponent, which is why it’s necessary to play the schedule one game at a time and use every game to practice good habits.

The Lakers are trying build an identity as a team that’s committed to defense first and the aggressive defensive formula they’re deploying is to attack the top stars on each opponent with traps and doubles whether bigs or smalls. While there may be tweaks depending on whom they’re playing, the style the Lakers want to play shouldn’t vary greatly. Attack on defense and run on offense. That’s the championship blueprint they should bring every game.

The Lakers need to to make the game fun, respect the opponent, and practice good habits, which means treating each game and opponent as the most important. If they do that, they won’t have to worry about ‘trap’ games.

What Makes the Lakers’ Aggressive Swarming ‘Attack Dog’ Defense Work?

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In a league where great offense commonly beats great defense, the Los Angeles Lakers have built a championship team around a set of defensive principles that are redefining how defense is played in the modern NBA.

These defensive principles represent a dramatic transformation in how to defend modern analytically driven offenses where unstoppable superstars dominate the ball while surrounded by cadres of dead eye 3-point shooters. While related, these three principles form the heart of the Lakers’ defensive philosophy: defenses need to act rather than react, defenses should leave no man on an island, and defense is just offense without the ball.

The symbiosis behind the evolution of the Lakers’ innovative championship defensive philosophy was the serendipitous pairing of defensive coaching genius Frank Vogel and modern defensive center unicorn Anthony Davis. Just as Draymond Green enabled the Warriors’ innovative switch everything Death Lineup to succeed, Anthony Davis has given coach Vogel the perfect modern center to anchor the Lakers swarming attack dog team defense.

The transition from the passive drop coverage the Lakers’ centers had been playing on ball screens to the aggressive hedging, trapping, and doubling they trusted in the playoffs set the stage for an offseason roster makeover. They replaced older less mobile defenders like McGee, Howard, and Green with younger, quicker, and longer players like Schroder, Harrell, and Horton-Tucker who could thrive in a fast rotating team oriented defense.

So let’s take a closer look at how each of the three defensive principles upon which the Lakers have built their aggressive swarming ‘attack dog’ defense work and how they’ve contributed to the Lakers’ defensive transformation:

1. DEFENSES NEED TO ACT RATHER THAN REACT

This is the core principle Lakers’ head coach Frank Vogel has embraced in his defensive evolution from a coach who before the Lakers had built his career on the philosophy defense started inside-out with rim protection. Abandoning passive drop coverage schemes designed to stop shots at the rim for an aggressive outside-in perimeter defense strategy designed to prevent players from getting into the paint was a revolutionary move .

It also was exactly the kind of innovative defensive scheme that takes full advantage of a modern mobile defensive center like Anthony Davis who can both protect the rim and switch and guard smaller players on the perimeter. More importantly, the Lakers’ swarming ‘attack dog’ defense with its traps, hedges, and doubles is exactly what the Lakers need to disrupt the perimeter focused 3-point dominant offenses that dominate the NBA.

The Lakers’ decision to dump McGee and Howard and abandon drop coverage schemes for an aggressive swarming proactive strategy was a first step to a defense that attacks rather than reacts to offensive actions.

2. DEFENSES SHOULD LEAVE NO MAN ON AN ISLAND

The seemingly unstoppable transcendent offensive skills and talent of the superstar players who dominate the NBA today have transformed the cliche that ‘great offense can beat great defense’ into a harsh every game reality. Throw in the analytics preference for layups and threes and most NBA offenses now focus on getting to the rim for an easy basket, driving and dishing for a dunk, or driving and kicking to an open shooter for a three.

Stopping ball handlers from getting into the paint thus becomes defenses’ greatest priority and most NBA teams do this by having help defenders cheat and create a wall and having bigs play drop coverage to clog the paint. The Lakers have instead decided to trap, hedge, and double ball handlers off ball screens to prevent them from beating single coverage and penetrating and relying on multiple coordinated quick rotations to plug any holes.

It’s a gambling scrambling style of defense that leaves no man on an island and focuses on forcing the ball out of the hands of opposing teams’ stars and forcing offenses to adjust to the Lakers’ defense rather than vice versa.

3. DEFENSE IS JUST OFFENSE WITHOUT THE BALL

The idea that defense is just offense without the ball is the mortar that holds the Lakers’ defensive philosophy together. It’s the guiding principle that transforms activity over passivity and team over individual into a system. Approaching defense as offense without the ball fundamentally refocuses everything a team does on the defensive end. The goal becomes to attack rather than just react, to create advantages in numbers and matchups.

Just as offenses run plays to create 2-on-1 or 3-on-2 advantages, the Lakers’ swarming traps and doubles are plays designed to create chaos and force ball handlers to give up the ball to players not as talented or as dangerous. Like many offenses that ‘hunt’ weak defenders, the Lakers’ defense seeks to take the ball out of the hands of other teams’ best scorers and playmakers and put in the hands of less skilled and more mistake prone role players.

The Lakers’ swarming ‘attack dog’ team defense is just offense without the ball and a defensive style that creates mismatches and forces turnovers that ignite the lethal fast break opportunities that blow games wide open.

It’s important to remember that the Lakers swarming ‘attack dog’ defense is still very much a work in progress and far from the finished product playoff opponents are likely to face. Right now, it’s still in the experimental stage. Coach Vogel is still adjusting the system to accommodate his new personnel. The Lakers also still need a mobile modern defensive center who can both protect the rim and switch and defend smaller players on the perimeter.

Right now, the Lakers are in the same regular season mode as last year with Marc Gasol and Montrezl Harrell mimicking JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard by eating up minutes at the center to save wear and tear on AD. Once the playoffs start, the Lakers will go small and revert to their swarming ‘attack dog’ team defense with a combination of Davis with Harrell or Morris manning the four and five and Marc Gasol becoming JaVale McGee.

This offseason, the Lakers will likely look to make a major move to bring in a modern two way center like Myles Turner, Chris Boucher, or Christian Wood so they can stretch the floor on offense and defend all levels on defense. That’s what the Lakers need more than a third superstar to build another dynasty and they’ve done a commendable job accumulating a portfolio of valuable trading chips to be able to pull off such a trade this next offseason.

In the meantime, the Lakers have a vision for present and the future that’s built upon a swarming ‘attack dog’ team defense that’s the perfect weapon to counter today’s analytic driven, superstar dominated modern offenses.