The '22/'23 Laker trade chatter by some continues to focus on the wrong thing

[joeblow]

It seems to me that people's ideas (including the front office so far for the past two seasons) as to what they think the Lakers need to become legitimate contenders while we still have Lebron and AD playing at high levels are getting it completely wrong. It's made even more obvious (IMO) when some express that a player like Bojan would be a better fit here than a player like Kuzma.

I wish some out there would open up their eyes and realize that this isn't half-court basketball where the Lakers only need to worry about putting the ball in the hoop to win games. I mean, there is a second half-court where the Lakers need to also stop the OTHER team from putting the ball in the hoop as well!

If our squad had the exact same W/L record that they do now, but instead a lot of the games we lost were something like 83-85 or 88-94 or 92-102, etc, then I could understand the argument to push for transactions that gives the team more scoring. However, that hasn't been our overall Achilles heel.

Consider that our LAL had two terrible stretches earlier this season through Nov. 11 where there were two losing streaks of five games each for a variety of reasons (new squad, poor health, terrible play style choices, bad roster make up, etc.). That's over the first 12 games.

But since Nov. 13 (sixteen games played), the Lakers have the highest scoring average in the entire league! So why are people still constantly complaining about the lack of scoring? It's poor TEAM DEFENSE that is the second most important reason keeping us from being a serious contender for a title right now (team health is #1, as always).

What is it specifically about our team defense that's lacking? The guys go out there with good energy more often than not (though some like Lebron are slacking in defensive effort off and on), and it's also clear that we have flashes of a decent battle plan for stopping opponents from scoring (one on one and as a team). I don't think that's it.

The main defensive issue for two years continues to be the small size of 2/3rds of the roster, which is insane that it remains a fully unaddressed problem considering we still have two stars capable of contending to win it all.

Ten of our fifteen players are 6'6" or shorter, the traditional sizes of guards. We barely have enough centers to cover a 48m stretch (AD / Bryant are fine, D. Jones is too small). However, the huge gaping holes on the team are the back up forward slots because they lack enough defensive size.

Two seasons ago we won the championship by playing bigger than all the other teams. The back up Laker forwards next to Lebron and AD were Kuzma and Morris, two players with legit size for their positions. Right now, only 6'9" Gabriel is tall enough to be used in a similar way. By being the height of traditional forwards and having defensive skill to go with it, those two in 2020 were tremendously helpful in guarding the perimeter and helping defend the paint, grab rebounds, and interfere with passing lanes.

How is that not a priority for the front office to emulate a mere 26 months after raising the O'Brien trophy?! If wasn't broke when it worked two seasons ago, don't fix it now. "Oh, but we need more 3P shooting!". The Lakers were second to last in 3P% out of all playoff teams when we won it all, so stop it.

In the same sixteen games this year since November 13 where we've led the league in scoring, the Lakers have given up 116 points a game. That's too high despite being our best stretch of the season (we gave up 107 ppgs in 2020). Watching the action on the court shows at least one reason why... oftentimes opponents have no problem shooting clean shots over our small players (especially the four-guard defensive lineups Ham puts out there). These little Lakers are also easier to post up.

Increasing the average size of our five-man rotations on the court (taking out one guard-sized player and replacing him with one forward-sized defender) would improve this situation significantly. That requires, of course that we add one or two more defensive back up forwards at least 6'8" to pull it off. Kuzma's name comes up a lot lately... if he came back, right away it the L.A. squad gets better from a defensive stand point alone, which is where we need help the most.

Why argue about his offensive role and mindset being a detriment to the team? Anything he (or any other legit defensive forward brought in to help) provides on that end of the floor is icing on the cake. The cake itself is gimping the other team from scoring as easily as they've been doing so far if we want a chance to get to championship #18 this season while Lebron and AD are still capable of doing so.

[venturalakersfan]

I posted last week that the Laker defense is failing and going in the wrong direction but as you said, people seem interested in adding offensive players that will further weaken the defense. While Kuzma is taller than our guards I don’t see him as any kind of defensive improvement. Playing without AD will obviously weaken our defense and I don’t see any easy solutions out there.
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RIP mom. 11-21-1933 to 6-14-2023.

[LakerDYnasty72]

Average to small by bball length & position: Nunn, Beverly, JTA, Schroder

Good: Reaves, WalkerIV, Westbrook, Brown jr,

Very good:James, Davis, Bryant, Jones(who doesn't play), Christie, Gabriel

Excellent: None

Factoring those measurements into the defensive side of the court, we are indeed undersized. It was evident before the year began because it followed a pattern.

It was evident even last year when one of our best, and now quickly departed signings, Malik Monk, was great on the offensive end, but was always too smallish like Nunn, Beverley, or Schroder to make an impact on both ends of the court.

That's always been Pelinka's achillies heel: if they can play offense (Carmelo, Harrell) they can't play defense (Monk, Matt Ryan), and more examples I don't have the will to list.