The Los Angeles Lakers have a serious problem. The immediate help they need to stop the bleeding in the form of injured players returning or a big trade to give the team more size in the front court aren’t happening soon.
The Lakers problem is their key injured players — Ariza and Nunn — aren’t likely to return until mid-December and their top trading chips — THT and Nunn —cannot be traded until December 15 and January 15 respectively. That means Lakers’ head coach Frank Vogel will have to find a way to survive with the existing roster for at least the 9 games before December 15 and possibly for the 22 games on the Lakers’ schedule before January 15.
While the Lakers aren’t in serious trouble yet, the warning signs are ramping up and unless Frank Vogel makes some major changes, the 10–11 Lakers could easily find themselves 15–15 on December 15 or 22–21 on January 15. Vogel is no novice in the coaching business and should know that having a record close to .500 on December 15 or January 15 could easily cost him his job as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. Frank is now on hot seat.
At the heart of the Lakers’ problems is Vogel’s starting lineup that included DeAndre Jordan and Avery Bradley as the two role player starters alongside the three superstars LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Russell Westbrook. While DeAndre Jordan and Avery Bradley clearly fit what Frank Vogel wants as his starting rim protector and point-of-attack defender, both players have not met expectations and have the team’s two lowest net ratings.
How the Lakers fare over the 9 games before December 15 and the 22 games before January 15 will determine Vogel’s fate. So let’s look at what Frank can do to shake up the rotation, win some games, and save his job.
1. Remove Jordan and Bradley from the Starting Lineup
If the Frank Vogel’s going to survive the 9 games until December 15 or the 22 games before January 15th, he’s going to have to replace DeAndre Jordan as the starting center and Avery Bradley as the starting shooting guard.
Vogel’s overreaction to the Lakers’ small ball lineups getting killed on the boards and outscored in the paint was to revert back to DeAndre Jordan starting again at center, despite his negative impact on the team’s spacing. Frank paired the Jordan move with Avery Bradley returning to the starting lineup the last two games. Vogel’s justification for making both moves was to increase the size and improve the defense of the starting lineup.
The results of the two games confirm Vogel did get better defense as Jordan’s 101.5 and Bradley’s 102.4 defensive ratings were best on team. Unfortunately, their 85.1 and 91.3 offensive ratings were worst on the team. While starting Jordan and Bradley created better defense, they stifled the team’s offense. Jordan’s -16.4 net rating was lowest and Bradley’s -11.2 third lowest on the team. Vogel needs to admit his mistake and replace both.
It’s one thing for a coach to want an elite defensive team and to demand players play defense if they want to start but Vogel needs to realize this team strategically sacrificed some defense to get much better on offense.
2. Get Creative with Non-Traditional Starting Lineup
Pelinka’s moves combined with untimely injuries have derailed any roster stability the Lakers had hoped for. The best Frank Vogel can hope for now is to replace Jordan and Bradley with starters who can help the team win.
The above small ball lineup with LeBron James at the five and Carmelo Anthony at the four with three guards is a perfect example of the innovative starting lineups Frank Vogel needs to embrace to get the Lakers rolling. Substitute Anthony Davis for Carmelo Anthony and Frank has his starting lineup: Westbrook, Ellington, Monk, James and Davis. Or Davis and James if you want LeBron to play the five. Either way, Melo comes off the bench.
This is not the 2020 bubble championship roster but it has definite strengths that Vogel can rely upon when retooling his starting lineup and rotations. the roster also has its Achilles Heel in that it lacks small forward sized players. Fortunately, the Lakers do have three healthy quality bigs in LeBron James (36 mpg), Anthony Davis (36 mpg), and Dwight Howard (24 mpg) who could cover the 96 minutes of time at power forward and center each game.
After Friday night’s triple overtime loss to the Kings, Vogel will be under intense pressure from the media and fans to remove both Jordan and Bradley from the starting lineups. The Lakers are a team in need of change.
3. Narrow Rotation to Ten Players Maximum
Besides setting his starting lineup going forward, Lakers head coach Frank Vogel needs to narrow his rotation to ten players by setting up the starter and primary backup for each position. The Lakers need rotational stability.
Here’s the Lakers’ projected depth chart:
PG: WESTBROOK, NUNN, Rondo
SG: ELLINGTON, REAVES, Bradley
SF: MONK, THT, Bazemore
PF: DAVIS, ANTHONY, Ariza
CE: JAMES, HOWARD, Jordan
Starters and primary backups in caps
The problem with Rob Pelinka’s construction of the Lakers’ roster is the obvious lack of size at small forward. While we keep hearing that 6′ 8″ Trevor Ariza is the solution, he has only played power forward the last four years. Frank Vogel needs to realize two bigs is not the answer to the Lakers’ lack of size at the three. That’s a problem the Lakers will have to wait to solve until January 15 when THT and Nunn will both be eligible to be traded.
Meanwhile, Vogel needs to find starting and rotation lineups that can score, defend, and win games with LeBron, AD, and three guards. That’s what his future as the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers will depend upon.
Aloha Tom,
While I agree with you , if DJ and Bradley were our only problems then we would be winning more games. DJ and Bradley only played 11 and 12 minutes respectively and neither were on the floor in the 4th when we blew the lead or in the overtimes. For me the main problems are two fold. first our offense is basically a playground pick up offense. there are almost no plays run. and second there is an a lack of energy and intensity that quite frankly i havent seen from a proffessional basketball team. Last night Malik was the hottest guy on the team and they couldnt find one shot for him in 3 overtimes. this is on the coaches. Lebron was gassed and settled for 3’s. one wonders if Frank is affraid to step on Lebrons toes. well if he doesnt start to run a offense he wont make it to the end of the season.
Aloha, Michael.
There’s no doubt multiple contributors to our problems but that doesn’t mean you don’t immediately address the low hanging fruit such as two starters who are so poor on offense that the Lakers lose ground despite their defense. Replacing DJ and Bradley is the logical starting point. Roll out a lineup with some firepower and win those first and third quarters.
We have multiple problems but the way you attack those is one at a time. Replace the two non-productive players on the starting lineup, while not the entire solution, is right now the most important. They represented 23 minutes at the start of each half for a team that’s struggled in the first and third quarters. Replace DJ and AB and then work on the other rotation lineups. Don’t just quit and run back to the safety of your old school two bigs. Thast’s what pisses me off most.
As starters the last two games, Dj contributed 4 points per game and Bradley 1 point per game. Replacing them with Monk and Ellington at least give us a chance to compete. I could even see Reaves replacing Bradley if Frank wants better defense but his panicked moves back to two bigs is undermining any chance we have of making AD at the five work with what Pelinka gave him.
The problem with replacing Pelinka is whether it would make any difference. Like you said, LeBron determines what this team does on the court. I mean LeBron and Russ are probably the two most consistent players in the league when it comes to style of play. Changing coaches is unlikely to change how either plays. And we all know AD controls how he plays. So why make a change other than to just shake things up?
On the other hand, Frank’s old school mentality that prevents him from fully embracing small ball or stretch five centers and his weird fascination with two big lineups with negative net ratings is becoming fatally unavoidable. The lack of innovation offensively is almost criminal with LeBron nearing the end of his career. In the end, that’s what will determine what happens. Frank needs to adjust to the modern game and the roster Pelinka gave him or he will lose his job just like JaVale McGee, Andre Drummond, and DeAndre Jordan have or will lose theirs.
I’m done supporting Frank. If he doesn’t change the starting lineup, Jeanie and Pelinka should fire his ass.
It’s amazing how in a week Frank Vogel went from secure to being the top NBA head coach candidate to be fired, just a few weeks over a year from when he won the Lakers 17th NBA championship in the bubble in Orlando. I’ve resisted the negativity and continued to support Vogel but his moves to return Jordan and Bradley to the starting lineup are the last straw. Frank needs to throw the towel in on the two bigs lineups and figure out how to get to January 15 as Lakers’ head coach.
Frank Vogel is on the hot seat and needs to change his starting lineup beginning with tonight’s game against the Pistons. His panicked move to revert back to starting lineups with DeAndre Jordan and Avery Bradley was probably the greatest sign of the pressure Frank is feeling because of the imbalanced roster Pelinka gave him and the untimely injuries across the roster.
Jordan and Bradley need to be replaced with Monk and Ellington to give the Lakers enough offensive firepower to win games. A starting lineup of Westbrook, Ellington, Monk, James, and Davis with a 10-player rotation that includes Rondo, Reaves, THT, Anthony, and Howard as primary backups. When Nunn returns, he would replace Rondo as the point guard backup. Ariza will have to prove he can play to break into the 10 man rotation.
Between January 15 and the February 10 trade deadline, the Lakers will need to make moves to either bring in a true starting quality center like Myles Turner or a bigger 3&D wing like Jerami Grant because they cannot win another championship without getting bigger and better as a team.
Great read Tom, whatever shape it takes I think we all agree that some kind of change is needed. I don’t see Reaves moving ahead of Bradley on the depth chart but would welcome Wayne Ellington and Dwight as starters. Or even just swapping Dwight and DJ’s roles. But, ultimately, I agree with Michael in that the larger culprit is a stagnant offense overly reliant on James who obviously wants to save as much as he can for the playoffs. We need to run through Russ more, not less, in late game scenarios as he involves players more and isn’t so iso-dependent. I’d also re-think auto-adding Melo to crunch time line ups or at least try to get Bazemore in on D as much as possible. Melo is a gamer, love what he brings but we need a little more D than he’s capable of. Its also telling that nobodies solution is more THT who, like Kent, has seemingly fallen off a cliff in terms of confidence. We’re going to need THT to play if he’s going to get traded and we’re going to need Kent on down the line. The solution can come from within but a more than a starting line up adjustment is what it’ll take, I think. Still, not a bad place to start (no pun intended)
Thanks, Jamie. Just saw that Frank is sticking with the same starting lineup despite acknowledging that Jordan’s and Bradley’s numbers aren’t good and the team is looking at every option available to turn things around. Sounds like Frank has given up and is going to go out playing his style of basketball even if it costs the Lakers the season and him his job.