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Montrezl Harrell

5 Things: Lakers let down in the 4th, Warriors win

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This was a solid “test” game for the Lakers. We’d been beating up on under-talented or imploding teams, as we should be doing, and hadn’t faced a true test since much earlier in the season. While the Lakers didn’t win, thus in some ways ‘failing’ the test, nothing I saw last night derails my thinking that we are the team to beat. In the end, this was a bigger win for Golden State than it was a big loss for LA.

  1. Second half sputter. We had a poor overall showing in the second half. Didn’t score well, allowed the 2nd unit for the Warriors to eat into a big chunk of our lead and had some major defensive breakdowns. These are all fixable. Our transition D and get-back was poor last night, just one of the reason Golden State almost equaled us in points in the paint, done largely without budding star James Wiseman who played a scant 13 minutes due to foul trouble. The coaches will go over the film and the breakdowns will be mitigated or resolved altogether.
  2. Poor three point shooting. Just didn’t have the tough from distance. It happens but on a night when Steph wasn’t Steph it would have been nice to can just one more. LeBron will talk to Kentavious, he’ll let fly with more ease but everyone of the starters struggled from three point land. Plenty of blame for them to share, as they say.
  3. Stu’s Rule: no new superstars. We utterly failed on this letting Eric Paschal shake loose for 19 points (on 11 shots), the struggling Kelly Oubre Jr. to go off for 23 and third option Andrew Wiggins to pour in 18 (on 11 shots). Too much efficient shooting from guys we need to lock down. Credit the Warriors, though, for sticking with their game plan, hitting the open man and those guys for hitting some timely shots.
  4. Anthony Davis and his season long struggle from the stripe. It’s no secret Davis is starting slow, slower than LeBron James. While I sort of expected his defense and overall aggressiveness to take a small hit due to the quick turnaround, his free throw shooting was literally the last thing I expected to see suffer. Especially to the degree that it has so far this season. While he is shooting 75% that is down from his career 80.1% he’s shot for his career and well below his personal best 84.6% he made last season. I doubt he’ll be able to replicate that lofty percentage but he needs to get back on track. AD wasn’t alone, though, we missed some key freebies down the stretch that could have altered the complexity of the game.
  5. No home crowd. We’re seeing a strange, though not wholly unexpected, trend in the NBA this year: no home crowd leading to home team let downs. It sure seemed to effect the Lakers last night and our home record reveals the season long struggles we’ve had winning in an empty STAPLES. As vaccinations roll out I hope the league takes every precaution to maintain everyone’s safety and well-being but man would it be nice to have at least some people cheering the purple and gold on at home. That being said, we’re heading out on the road again for 7 games so we should be good to go. It’s also led to some odd refereeing, I believe, as the intensity is always bland which is an extra hurdle during the regular season.

It’d be easy to say everything that we saw last night will be fixed with time or a couple film sessions and practices. But one thing that troubled me was how ineffective our small ball was against Golden State’s version. This may be partly attributed to the fact we played the team that made small ball a thing but it should be a cause for alarm as the Warriors show everyone that the fork isn’t needed and please don’t stick it in, we’re nowhere near done, yet. Still, all things being as they are, I’ll take the Lakers in 7 over anyone right now. Go Lakers.

5 Things: Lakers continue dominance over Houston

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The Lakers are using the Rockets as a punching bag of late. In a chippy, chirpy affair the Lakers handed the Rockets their hat and saw some really positive developments in the doing. Since the Bubble it’s been nice to see the Lakers have Houston’s number and the best part, for me, was how much work we put in on the defensive end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmwsQ_dHrFM
  1. The Defense showed what it can be but is still a work in progress. Granted, the Rockets are kind of a mess and a big time work in progress. Harden and John Wall are a different version of Russell Westbrook and James Harden. For all our steals, blocks and stops the Rockets outscored us almost 2-1 in points off of turnovers. Like us the Rockets also had 8 blocks and stole the rock 7 times. The best defense came early before AD sat with foul trouble. The Lakers will, at some point, be a better defensive scheme team, but the skill the individuals on the team have are getting the job done early.
  2. Anthony Davis is a nightmare to defend. Silky smooth jumper, cans them from anywhere, footwork on the block, and solid on the break. You have a stretch big shooting a three? He better make it if Davis contests because we have 4 guys on the team that can throw the down court bomb for an easy score and they all rebound pretty well. His step back jumper is quickly becoming an unstoppable weapon. He bodies up and bounces off of contact neutralizing any shot blocking effort. AD had a superlative game marred only by early foul trouble. He also got back on track from the stripe where he’s shooting under 74%.
  3. Talen Horton-Tucker’s career game. In many ways Houston was the team where Talen got to show the NBA world what he could do. Up until those minutes THT was a bucket full of hope and promise and not much more. Horton-Tucker showed us all something in this game. He had 4 steals, he guarded Harden as well as can be expected and he scored within the flow. THT was stellar, probably his best complete game as a pro and if he can play like this consistently with the minutes he’ll get on this team it bodes well for his future. In Kyle, Caruso and Talen we have three young, solid cornerstones to build around or, should the need arise, include in a trade. I don’t get the sense Rob is looking to trade any of those 3, though. Still, it’s NBA, stranger things have happened.
  4. Turnovers holding the Lakers back. The Lakers are going to get better at being less sloppy, key guys are still getting acquainted, but man I can’t wait for the turnover issue to be a thing of the past. Once we clean up un-forced miscues we’ll be a team that is extremely tough to beat.
  5. Boogie! Yeah, yeah he got into it with Markieff, hit LeBron in the head and got ejected but it was still great to see Cousins playing and playing well. Frankly both he and Wall looked pretty good all things considered and that bodes well for Houston going forward. Cousins was rolling, too, so his ejection certainly benefited LA though it was well-warranted if wholly unintentional. The shove on ‘Kieff was all intention. Be interesting to see if any chirpiness lingers in the next one.

All in all a really solid win. Houston is a better team than the record indicates but definitely need to worry about falling far behind early in a loaded West. Golden State is streaking, Denver has yet to find it’s footing, the Spurs are lurking. Feels like only a matter of time that James needs to find another home but whither shall it be? Increasingly it looks like the Heat are the likeliest of destinations. Philly is leading the East and Brooklyn is unlikely to gut the squad. Duncan and Herro could get it done with filler. Not sure that will happen, honestly. James has carved a unique kingdom and Houston and few seem willing to help him move it elsewhere. Interesting stuff.

Have Lakers Traded Championship Defense for Firepower On Offense?

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Watching the Lakers play, reviewing their roster, and analyzing the stats for the first seven games, it’s hard not to wonder if the Lakers have traded the defense-first strategy that won them a championship for better offense.

Anybody watching the games can see the difference. The Lakers no longer have to rely entirely on LeBron James and Anthony Davis on offense but the defense is riddled with holes and once great rim protection is non-existent. Replacing Avery Bradley, JaVale McGee, and Dwight Howard with Dennis Schroder, Marc Gasol, and Montrezl Harrell has clearly turbo charged the Lakers’ offense but the cost may have been their championship defense.

The stats so far tell the same story as the eye test. Offensively, the Lakers rank 3rd in offensive rating, 5th in points scored per game, 2nd in team plus/minus, 2nd in field goal percentage, and 3rd in 3-point percentage. Defensively, they rank 6th in defensive rating, 6th in opponent points allowed per game, 8th in opponent field goal percentage, 6th in opponent 3-point percentage, 8th in blocks per game, and 25th in steals per game.

While championship teams rarely abandon the strategy that helped them win a title, have the Lakers traded their championship defense to get more firepower on offense this offseason or is there something else going on?

The truth is there’s a lot going on that’s caused the defensive problems that have plagued the Lakers through their first seven games, including roster and scheduling changes as well as a major change in defensive philosophy.

Let’s start with the obvious. It’s only been 83 days since Lakers won the championship, they had a shortened 3 week training camp. Their preseason consisted of just 4 games and they’ve only played 6 games this season. Needless to day, it’s unfair to expect the Lakers to be playing defense at the level they did in the playoffs at this point in the season. Like Frank Vogel warned, it’s going to take time for the players to get back into game shape.

While the Lakers returned twelve players from last year’s squad, they also added five new players in Dennis Schroeder, Montrezl Harrell, Marc Gasol, Wesley Matthews, and Talen Horton-Tucker to an already deep rotation. Adding that many players to the Lakers lineups is going to be a challenge that will take time to click, especially on the defensive end where reading schemes and rotating in sync are critical to Vogel’s defensive system.

While it’s the regular season, the Lakers are still experimenting with lineups and players still working to get into game condition. We probably won’t see the real Lakers’ defense until we’re a fourth of the way through the season.

So what will the ‘real’ Lakers’ defense look like? Have we traded defense for offense? Have we sacrificed rim protection for more offense? The answer is defense is still the priority but there’s been a major change in philosophy.

The change in philosophy started in the playoffs last season when the Lakers stopped having McGee and Howard play drop coverage and went to more athletic defensive lineups that could rotate more quickly and challenge shots. There’s no question the Lakers’ rim protection right now is not what it was last year in the regular season when JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard were playing a combined 35.5 minutes and blocking 2.5 shots per game.

But McGee and Howard were not the rim protection formula the Lakers used to win their 17th NBA championship. While Howard was key in the Denver series, both he and McGee became unplayable most of the playoffs. The defensive lineup that won last year’s championship was Davis at the five, Morris at the four, and James at the three, plus two guards. Vogel confirmed last week that lineup was still the Lakers’ core defensive formula.

So the question that needs to be asked is what’s happened to the Lakers’ core defensive formula? Why haven’t the Davis, Morris, James, and two guards lineup had the defensive impact this season they had in the playoffs? The answer is simple. Despite reiterating that AD, Keef, LeBron, and two guards were still the Lakers defensive formula and Death Star lineup to close games, Frank has simply not played them together so far this season.

Instead, Frank has experimented with different lineups and rotations and has only played AD, Keef, and LeBron together in 2 games for just 6 minutes, which is the major reason why the Lakers’ defense has been subpar. The other problem is he’s played Gasol or Harrell at center for 44.4 minutes per game or over 93% of the time, meaning Davis has only averaged 3.6 minutes per game or just 7% of the game at the center position.

Finally, as he has openly admitted himself, Anthony Davis has really not played well defensively so far this season. In fact, his 114.0 defensive rating is the worst of any player in the Lakers rotation through the first six games.

What the Lakers have done is to double down on the defensive formula that won them their championship last year, which was to rely more on speed, quickness, and athleticism to create better defense than size at the rim.

Rather than bring back traditional centers who became obsolete in the playoffs, the Lakers replaced them with centers with defensive smarts and athleticism to defend all over the court and ability to contribute on offense. It’s going to take Marc Gasol and Montrezl Harrell time and experience to learn how to play in Frank Vogel’s defense and that’s why they’re getting the minutes at center right now rather than Anthony Davis or Markieff Morris.

Like McGee and Howard, Gasol and Harrell at the five will be the Lakers’ regular season plan but down the stretch and in the playoffs, Vogel will once again turn to the championship formula of Davis, Morris, and James.

Why the Los Angeles Lakers Envision Anthony Davis as a Stretch Five Center

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At the heart of the Lakers’ vision for the future is Anthony Davis as a stretch five center. That’s why Frank Vogel wants him to shoot more threes per game and why the Lakers dumped traditional centers McGee and Howard.

While the Lakers don’t want Davis to endure the physical wear-and-tear of playing traditional low post centers in the paint, they clearly understand they’re at their best as a team when he is playing the five instead of the four. The stats and the eye test confirm this so the Lakers’ goal is to figure out how they can play him at the five for more minutes or even all of the time. Part of the answer is for Anthony Davis to become more of a stretch five.

While old school traditionalist complain that takes Davis away from the basket and dilutes his impact on offense, the reality is AD is best in space, where he can use his handle and gravity as a shooter to attack defenses. Playing Davis like a traditional low post center on offense presents the same problems as having him defend more rugged opposing centers in the paint. He’s more of a finesse player like Kareem than a power player like Shaq.

Instead, the Lakers have a vision for Anthony Davis where he is a stretch five on offense and a roaming defensive free safety and help rim protector on defense, which requires pairing him with bigs that complement him. Offensively, he needs a big who can stretch the floor like Gasol or Morris to create spacing to attack. Defensively, he needs a big like Morris or Harrell with the size and strength to hold their ground against opposing centers.

While the Lakers will miss McGee’s and Howard’s rim protection, they learned in the playoffs that traditional low post centers who clog the paint on offense and can’t guard on the perimeter on defense were unplayable. Ideally, the Lakers need a modern center like Indiana’s Myles Turner, who can stretch the floor on offense and protect the rim and guard the perimeter on defense. That may be the Lakers’ top priority going forward.

Meanwhile, the Lakers decided Marc Gasol and Montrezl Harrell would be better solutions to complement Anthony Davis than JaVale McGee or Dwight Howard as they obviously did not want to bring back either of them. Gasol has good 3-point shooting and playmaking ability but may not be able to defend in the paint or on the perimeter. Harrell, while undersized, has a mid-range shot and the energy and athleticism to be a plus defender.

While we’ve only played two regular season games, Gasol has struggled to have an impact while Harrell has been even better than the Lakers had hoped, providing relentless hustle and energy at both ends of the court. Hopefully, Gasol will start to play better though he could become this season’s JaVale McGee, who starts the first and third quarters. So far the best solution may be Harrell and Morris sharing time alongside Davis.

We’ve seen the same pattern so far in the Lakers’ first two games when Marc Gasol goes to the bench. Davis plays the five on offense but it’s Harrell or Morris who defend the opposing team’s center, leaving Davis to roam. It’s the perfect strategy to optimize Davis at both ends of the court with minimal wear-and-tear. Offensively, he operates best facing up his opponent in space. Defensively, he plays best as a help defender and shot blocker.

Right now Morris does a better job than Harrell defending the opposing team’s center but expect Trezz to become better as he becomes acclimated to the role and learns how to take advantage of playing alongside Anthony. While Harrell does not have the 3-point shooting stroke to stretch the defense like Morris does, he has his own gravity as a rebounder and shooter who can hit mid-range jumpers from the baseline and complement Davis.

For now, Frank Vogel will continue to encourage Anthony Davis to shoot the three ball and Markieff Morris and Montrezl Harrell will continue to defend opposing centers when Lakers go ‘small’ and AD becomes a stretch five. That’s why all the worry about the Gasol’s slow start and the Lakers letting McGee and Howard walk aren’t important in the short or long term. The Lakers have their plan for the future and it’s Anthony Davis as a stretch five.