Lakerholics

A Lakers Fan Community

Marc Gasol

Time to Bench the Rent-a-Centers and Play Small Ball With James and Davis

By 5 Comments

Is there anybody out there who still believes the Los Angeles Lakers are going to repeat as NBA champions this season with Andre Drummond, Marc Gasol, or Montrezl Harrell starting and closing games at center?

The bad news is the grand plan to upgrade the center position so Anthony Davis could play his preferred power forward position full time has been a failure and should force the Lakers to rethink their playoff plans at center. The good news is the Lakers still have the best two-way center in the NBA in 28-year old 6′ 10,” 253 lb Anthony Davis who can dominate offensively and defensively in the paint, from midrange, or beyond the 3-point line.

It’s time for the Lakers to admit they need Anthony Davis to repeat his role from last year’s playoffs and devote half of his 36 minutes per game playing center rather than relying on Drummond, Gasol, and Harrell to play the five. The plan could have worked if the Lakers had traded for an elite center like Myles Turner, Chris Boucher, or Christian Wood last offseason but not with Rent-a-Centers like Andre Drummond, Marc Gasol, or Montrezl Harrell.

Sticking with the Drummond and Harrell center rotation in the playoffs would be a mistake. Both pack the paint and make it difficult for LeBron and AD to get to the rim. Both are subpar shot blockers and poor rim protectors. Frank Vogel needs to realize starting Andre Drummond vs. the Nugget’s Nikola Jokic in the first round or the Jazz’ Rudy Gobert in the second round of the playoffs would be playing right into the Denver’s and Utah’s hands.

Anthony Davis is the only center the Lakers have who can match up with Nikola Jokic and play Rudy Gobert off the court by pulling him out of the paint. The Lakers should start and finish playoff games with AD at center. The Lakers are better at both ends with Anthony Davis at the five as they proved in last year’s playoffs with their 5-out sets opening up the floor on offense and their trapping and rotating defense suffocating offenses.

Frank Vogel and the Lakers know the recipe for the Lakers winning in the playoffs is starting and closing with Anthony Davis at center. Like last year, the Lakers need to plan on AD playing at least half of his minutes at the five. Assuming he plays 36 minutes per game like last playoffs, Davis could play center 18 minutes per game or the first and last 4 to 5 minutes of each half, leaving the remaining 30 minutes to be split between the other centers.

Starting and closing games with a ‘small ball’ lineup of Davis, Morris, James, Caldwell-Pope, and Schroder allows the Lakers to create space by spreading the floor on offense and trap, switch and rotate on defense like last year. One of the problems with the 3-headed center the Lakers used this season to limit Davis from having to play big minutes at the five is he’s only played 7 minutes per game at center, which could hurt us in the playoffs.

While it’s easy to understand why the Lakers would like to minimize AD’s minutes at the five, Vogel also needs to realize that Drummond, Gasol, and Harrell are not going to be favorable match ups in the playoffs this year. Davis had no problem playing half his minutes at center last playoffs. He should be well rested and ready to do the same in this year. It would be a huge mistake for the Lakers to try to rely on anybody but Davis at center.

Heading into the playoffs, the Lakers need to start and close halves and games with their best center. If AD plays 18 of his 36 minutes per game at center, there would still be 30 minutes for Drummond, Gasol, and Harrell. The Lakers should spend valuable minutes these last 11 games playing small ball lineups with Davis at the five and Morris or even James at the four to get ready for the playoffs rather than devoting that time to the Rent-a-Centers.

While I expect Vogel to continue to try and start games with Drummond and to play all three centers in the playoffs, I expect to see a repeat of last year’s playoffs when McGee and Harrell became unplayable and were benched. Hopefully, Frank will be as decisive and proactive as he was in last year’s playoffs and he’ll make similar moves for Anthony Davis to take over the center position both as the starter and closer once we’re in the playoffs.

The path to this year’s NBA championship is going to be one of the toughest in years and the Lakers will need to be better than last year to repeat. The only way they can do that is to prioritize Anthony Davis at the five.

Will Not Wanting to Play Center Keep Anthony Davis From Becoming Great?

By 5 Comments

Anthony Davis’ desire to play power forward instead of center is the only thing that could prevent him from joining Shaquille O’Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Wilt Chamberlain and becoming the next great Lakers’ center.

Anthony Davis is a enigma in that he’s a basketball player who does not want to play center, the position at which he’s arguably the best at in the world. He believes playing power forward is better for his game and career. The truth is center is Davis’ best position and more that he plays center, the better the Lakers become as a team. AD always said he would play center when needed and did so for 50% of his minutes in last year’s playoffs.

Since signing Davis, the Lakers have worked hard to accommodate their superstar’s preference not to play the five. They’ve tweaked their roster so he’s only had to play center 7% of the time this season versus 25% last year. The Lakers also signed 27-year old center Andre Drummond from the buyout market to play big minutes in these playoffs and protect Davis from having to spend half his time at center like he did in the playoffs last year.

Coming off a calf injury that cost 2 months and 30 games, Davis and the Lakers will both be looking for ways to continue limiting his minutes at center in the playoffs, though that might not be the smartest thing to do.

THE MODERN PROTOTYPE CENTER

Anthony Davis is the prototype modern NBA center, a gifted physical big with the skills and tool set of a guard. He’s a superstar who can score and defend buckets at all three levels: at the rim, from midrange, or from three

A modern center trapped in a world where positionless basketball has made traditional low post centers obsolete, Anthony Davis’ unprecedented skillset on offense and defense have freed him up to redefine what centers can do. Not limited to scoring and defending in the paint, Anthony’s range enables him to extend his skill set to the full court, making and blocking shots at the rim or taking and challenging jumpers from midrange and three.

While Davis is the ultimate unicorn in game of basketball, his preference to play power forward rather than deal with the physicality and banging of playing center full time has dominated the Lakers’ roster building efforts. From last year’s tandem of JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard to this year’s hybrid duo of Marc Gasol and Montrezl Harrell and recent signing of Andre Drummond, the Lakers have struggled to find a center to pair with Davis.

Rather than trying to accommodate his preference to play power forward, maybe the Lakers should focus on figuring out how to optimize Anthony Davis superstar potential by empowering him to play center all of the time.

EMPOWERING DAVIS TO PLAY CENTER

Is Davis not wanting to play center blasphemous or simply recognition centers in the modern NBA have evolved into a multi-positional players who have to be versatile enough to able to play and defend the four and the five?

Let’s be honest. It’s not that Anthony Davis doesn’t want to play the five. He just doesn’t want to be tied down to playing ‘old school,’ low post basketball where he doesn’t have freedom to utilize his full skill set as a modern center. He just doesn’t want to have to bang in the paint and defend bigger physical centers, which is something the Lakers could address like they did in the playoffs last year when Davis played the five and Markieff Morris the four.

If center is Davis’ best position and the Lakers are at their best when he plays center, shouldn’t the priority then be to figure out how to make that work rather than futilely chasing different options to replace him at center? Traditional centers who clog the paint on offense and lack the mobility to switch and rotate on defense are not the answer as the Lakers found with McGee and Howard last year and Drummond, Gasol, and Harrell this year.

The Lakers’ goal should be to free Anthony Davis to play the five. The only ways to unleash his potential is to go small and pair him with a stretch 4 power forward who can defend like Markieff Morris or even LeBron James.

AD MUST PLAY CENTER IN PLAYOFFS

Regardless of the addition of Andre Drummond and the desire to limit AD’s minutes at the five, the Lakers are going to need Anthony Davis to play the center close to half of the time if they hope to repeat as NBA champions.

The Lakers’ likely playoff opponents are the Denver Nuggets, Utah Jazz, LA Clippers, and Brooklyn Nets, which means Anthony Davis’ likely center opponents are Nikola Jokic, Rudy Gobert, Ivica Zubac, and Blake Griffin. None of these are centers whose physicality and banging in the post should deter Anthony Davis from defending them and all of them are centers who’ll struggle mightily to defend Davis outside of the paint or from deep.

Anthony Davis and the Lakers need to realize that limiting the minutes that he plays center is the last thing they should be doing in the playoffs. They need to be strategizing how to get Davis more minutes at center not less. Playing Davis at the four with Drummond, Gasol, or Harrell at the five only weakens the Lakers defensively as none of their three centers are elite rim protectors and Drummond and Harrell lack the ability to space the floor.

Going big doesn’t work when none of your bigs can protect the rim or rotate quickly enough to play the aggressive defense Vogel prefers. The Lakers need to change gears and look to go small in the playoffs with AD at the five.

The Lakers efforts to accommodate Anthony Davis’ desire to play the four are threatening to undermine the Los Angeles Lakers’ chances to repeat as NBA champions because none of the centers on the roster complement AD.

If the Lakers are going to win the championship, they need to abandon the mistaken idea that Andre Drummond, Marc Gasol, or Montrezl Harrell will be capable of giving them what they need from the center position to win. Anybody watching this team can tell you right now that Drummond, Gasol, and Harrell don’t have the defensive mind set or skill sets the Lakers need. Anthony Davis is going to have to play center if the Lakers want to win.

While Anthony Davis may not want to play big minutes at center, the Lakers are going to need him to do that in the playoffs this year just like last year. The sooner they realize this and make the needed adjustments, the better. Should that mean that the Lakers go small with Davis at the five and James, Morris, and/or Kuzma at the four, then so be it. The Lakers are not going to win the championship with Drummond, Gasol, or Harrell at the five.

Anthony Davis playing center is the key to the Lakers winning their 18th NBA championship and Davis joining Shaquille O’Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Wilt Chamberlain and becoming the next great Lakers’ center.

How Much Better Will Anthony Davis Make the LA Lakers Without LeBron?

By 2 Comments

Anthony Davis to the rescue. After missing two months with a calf injury, Anthony Davis returns to the court tomorrow night when the Los Angeles Lakers meet the Dallas Mavericks in a crucial Western Conference series.

The big question everybody will be looking for answers to in Dallas is how much better will the return of Anthony Davis make the LeBron-less Lakers? Will AD’s return elevate the Lakers and stop any slide lower than 5th seed? Considering Davis will be on a minutes restriction and hasn’t played in two months, will his addition be enough for the Lakers to dominate and sweep the 2-game series with the Mavs and doom them to the Play-In Tourney?

The Lakers are in 5th place in the Western Conference with a 35–23 record with 14 games left in the regular season. The Mavs are now in 7th place with 30–26 record, 1 loss behind the 6th place Blazers and 3 behind the Lakers. The 2-game back-to-back series between the two teams is critical for playoff positioning as the Mavs are desperate to move up to 6th place to avoid the do-or-die Play-In Tournament between the 7th through 10th place teams.

With LeBron James not likely to return until the first week of May, the Lakers are facing a challenge heading into the playoffs similar to last year, when the league resumed play with 8 regular season games before the playoffs. Despite only having a few games to get ready, the Lakers had no problem getting their conditioning and chemistry back and having both superstars fully healthy and rested proved to be a huge advantage in the playoffs.

There’s a good chance a rested and healthy LeBron James and Anthony Davis could give the Lakers a similar advantage in the playoffs this year, considering how tough the short offseason and schedule have been. However, major changes in the Lakers’ roster, especially the addition of Andre Drummond, and a tougher path to the NBA Finals than last year combine to make the Lakers repeating as champions a bigger challenge.

Anthony Davis only played 8% of his minutes this regular season at center versus 40% last regular season and playoffs so one of the big unanswered questions is how many minutes will AD play the five in this year’s playoffs. Last playoffs, head coach Frank Vogel was forced to bench centers JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard as their inability to defend on the perimeter essentially made them unplayable against many of the Lakers’ opponents.

Frank Vogel will certainly face a minutes crunch at center in the playoffs this year as Drummond, Harrell, and Gasol all have serious defensive issues inside and outside that can only be fixed by Anthony Davis playing center. Like last year, I think we’re going to see Vogel alternate starting Drummond and Gasol depending on the matchups and closing most games with Davis at the five. Odd man out in the minutes crunch may be Montrezl Harrell.

How well Drummond and Davis play together is going to be a critical key to whether the Lakers can repeat as champs. Opposing defenses have been able to focus on and force Andre to take bad shots or turn the ball over. With AD on the court, teams aren’t going to be able to easily double and contain Drummond. With AD and LeBron on the court, the Lakers hope Drummond can become the wild card to allow them to dominate teams.

Tomorrow night’s game will be the first test of whether the Lakers can reprise their brilliant closing run of last year and ride a fully healthy and rested LeBron James and Anthony Davis to win the NBA championship.

5 Things: Lakers scrubs beat Utah scrubs

By 2 Comments

The Lakers will take all the wins they can get while AD and LeBron get closer to returning. This is a quantity not quality state of affairs. In terms of how the team fared I would say they acquitted themselves well enough. It took a little luck, a lot of hard work and some clutch play but they got the job done. Still have some mountain left to climb, though.

  1. Dennis Schroder doing a little bit of everything. There have been some real forgettable games from the Laker starting point guard since the superstar duo went out with injuries. This wasn’t one of them. Schroder scored, defended, assisted and pretty much made all the right plays in this gritty win. He was aggressive in terms of looking for his shot (24 attempts, 6 from three) if not incredibly accurate (only 11 made shots, 1 from three). But the fact that he was aggressive made it harder for Utah to set their defense to guard the team. Schroder applied that much pressure. The key for him is keeping his turnovers low and if that means a few less extraneous passes, so be it.
  2. Andre’ Drummond playing big. It could be argued that we should have found a few more FGA for Dre’. He was a solid 10-15 and made 7-8 from the stripe. With no Gobert there was no Godzilla for Kong to fight and so the one man monster destroyed the interior defense that Utah could muster. He pulled down 8 rebounds, dished 3 assists and nabbed 2 steals with a block. The steals both resulted in highlight plays in which he took the ball the length of the court for easy scores. As LRob noted when we first acquired Drummond the man has extremely quick hands for a big man. The other thing he does well is play to his size, nothing more annoying than a true big man who can’t play big. Don’t think we’ll ever say that about Andre’. The man moves little dudes out of his way with legal moves and the only thing I wish he would do more of is finish strong. Fewer hookity-flip shots and more rim-rattling dunks.
  3. Laker front court was aggressive on the offensive glass. Every front court starter had 2+ offensive rebounds and ‘Kieff had a whopping five which helped give us an 11-5 edge in that department. Morris and Drummond were more aggressive on offense than Kuzma was tonight (in the first half Utah did a solid job of forcing Kyle to pass which he did) but they all did solid work rebounding the ball and giving us second chance opportunities or limiting the Jazz to one.
  4. Managing the turnovers. While it certainly started with Dennis Schroder the team in general did a solid job keeping the turnovers to a respectable level, especially against a tough, defensive minded team like Utah. 15 for the game is good, not great, but certainly an improvement over the 20+ turnover games we’d been having of late. Turnovers are a part of the game and this Laker team takes risks with downcourt passes and a lot of interior paint passes. Those have a high turnover potentiality but they’re also a part of what makes this team unique. If those passes find the mark they’re often going to result in open shots and easy buckets. The key is lowering the rate of failure.
  5. The Standings. None of this would have mattered if we had been able to establish a larger cushion in regards to the play-in tournament. If we were still sitting 5 or 6 games out of a play in spot we could cough up more games down the stretch with nary a worry. As it is we’re still just 4 games up on the Mavs (who lost Friday, thanks Julius Randle and the Knickerbockers) so we need to pull a few more wins along with a rabbit or two out of the magic top hat. Sounds like Donovan Mitchell will be out a couple more games and it’s imperative that we capitalize on this opportunity. No tears are shed for teams with injured players, injuries are a part of sport. Just because a team has injuries doesn’t mean they’re going to lay down for you, the Lakers need to learn this once and for all, now, and seize this moment and beat Utah tomorrow night. If they get Conley, Gobert or Favors back it changes nothing. Play harder, compete better and go get that win.

We needed this game a lot more than the Jazz who, even if they fall behind Phoenix in the standings, are situated very well seeding-wise. One way or another, barring some sort of epic collapse they’re playing one of the tourney teams. Not too sure there will be much difference between who ends up being 7 and 8 after the play-in rounds. Could still be any one of 5 or so teams, hard to even come up with a game plan which is an odd advantage to being 3-6 in the seeding game. You know who you’re gonna play but the 1 and 2 seeds need to plan for several different scenarios. Just another odd thing about the NBA, pay it no mind.

Should the Lakers Consider Switching to Marc Gasol for Next 5 Big Games?

By 10 Comments

Following 2 dismal games by Andre Drummond and Montrezl Harrell and facing a key 5-game stretch that could determine playoff seeding, should the Lakers be considering reinstating Marc Gasol as their starting center?

On the surface, it looks like the league may have figured out that packing the paint and forcing Andre Drummond and Montrezl Harrell to go against two or three defenders is the smartest strategy to shut down the Lakers’ centers. The Knicks and Hornets not only held Drummond and Harrell to 3.5 and 3.0 points per game respectively but also outrebounded the Lakers 47–33 and 45–38 and dominated them in points in the paint 54–38 and 50–32.

The defensive tactics exposed a major weakness in both Drummond’s and Harrell’s games in that both struggle to score when surrounding by multiple defenders. That resulted in the Lakers being totally dominated in the paint. The Lakers return home to a critical 5-game stretch that starts with a single game against the Celtics, following by a pair of 2-game back-to-back series against the Jazz and Mavs that could determine their playoff seeding.

Realistically, the Lakers need to split their 2-game series with Utah and Dallas. Sweeping the Jazz or Mavs is unlikely without LeBron James or Anthony Davis but getting swept could dump them into the play-in tourney. The Lakers are 5th in the West, 1 loss behind the 4th place Nuggets and 3 behind the 3rd place Clippers but only 2 ahead of the 6th place Blazers, 3 ahead of the 7th place Mavs, and 4 ahead of the 8th place Grizzlies.

With just 17 games left in the season, the next 5 games could determine the Lakers’ playoff seeding and there’s a good argument that Marc Gasol could be a better fit because he can pull opposing centers out to the 3-point line. The NBA is a copy cat league and Celtics coach Brad Stevens, Jazz coach Quin Snider, and Mavs coach Rick Carlisle saw what Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau and Hornets coach James Borrego did to shut down the Lakers.

Starting Gasol could enable the Lakers to pull opposing centers out of the paint and create space for Schroder and Horton-Tucker to get to the rim. Gasol is also a better passer and playmaker than Drummond and Harrell. Over the 7-game road trip, Gasol’s 97.0 defensive rating was best on the Lakers and his 4.8 net rating the best of the team’s centers. He averaged 8.0 points, 5.5 boards, and 3.5 assists in 19.7 minutes shooting 60% from three.

While Vogel’s notoriously reluctant to change his starting lineup, the Lakers are at a point where starting Gasol instead of Drummond could be their best option to survive the next five games and remain in the top 6 in the West.