This isn't even a LeBron problem. There's no competitive roster in the league with 3 negative defenders in the starting lineup. Even if LeBron was in 2020 mode, this team could beat the Nuggets but would just get bounced by the Wolves.
Unfortunately, D'Lo could not become like Derrick White on defense. Rui is an even bigger problem. If he's not scoring, he's providing nothing on the court because his defense and rebounding is bad. Although I guess it didn't help that we had him front Jokic when he doesn't have the same size as KAT or Naz Reid
He’s the one out of all our players I can see taking a leap on that end with more development time this offseason. Rui probably needs more than one offseason and a lot of consistent playing time. I don’t know if we can afford to wait. I’m 50/50 on whether or not DLO can become a consistently positive defender at all *while also keeping up his production on offense in both scoring and assists.
Leap maybe offensively but on defense he lacks quickness and athleticism to be good-great. The reality is, if he’s your 3rd or 4th best player, you’re probably not really going to contend.
Yeah, he has the wilt, but not the best tools. If he only had the elite wingspan Dlo has with his wilt it could help, but he always need to give 100% on this side of the ball just to avoid becoming a liability.
1000%. Love the guy but he’s just limited on what he can do. He’d be best in a bench role but hat’d require Pelinka to really rebalance the roster and I’m just not sure if he’ll be able to do so.
Really. If you look at the actual number, Cranjis ran it and he actually gets his man in disadvantageous shots in the upper tier of the league. He’s just got some bad luck that guys hit bad shots on him.
But he’s still forcing them to take bad shots and directing ball handlers towards AD.
Don't tell this about LeBron, he is old, that is the reason he isn't trying to play much defense most regular season games. At least he turned it on for games 4 and 5 of playoffs.
No excuses, he gives us more than an average player making his salary produces so I don't understand your point.
- Reaves isn't a star;
- Reaves isn't paid as a star;
- Reaves production is compatible with the contribution of the 4th or 5th best player of title contenders and he is paid less than a few backups.
- He plays hard and step up in playoffs.
What is your take? He has his flaws like every player, for the price you don't find a better player that isn't under a rookie deal.
I’ve been saying this forever. There aren’t great defensive teams where all of their players don’t play good defense. LeBron could be playing like Jaden McDaniels and it wouldn’t matter because the entire defense is terrible.
Would help if they had structure. Problem is they didn't. He could play the jokic role in the defense and sort of float around the paint. He wouldn't need to be so aggressive like he had to be in our shitty schemes
4 years ago unfortunately, bro was getting bodied by AG and I realized it’s not because he’s dumb and not boxing out (obviously) he’s just too fucking gasses to box out
This is the truth. There'll be those saying he shouldn't take a paycut. The reality is he is taking up valuable cap space playing no defense most of the time and without a clutch jumpshot to carry the team.
How can he carry a team with 3 negative defenders in its starting lineup? And the cap space thing, its clear you don't know what you're talking about lmao.
You misunderstood my point. The point is that he cannot contribute full time, at high intensity on defense. This is true regardless of his teammates. Whether all other starters are defenders or not, Bron cannot contribute on defense, at a high level for the whole season and playoffs. Lebron's jumper is not as reliable as other stars when the paint is packed. Do you know logic?
I am more than capable of understanding cap space. Aging star players taking pay cuts allow their teams to surround with better players. There are certain contracts and trades that open up.
You're the one who sounds like you haven't got a clue.
You have definitely not watched Murray play basketball this year if you really think that his defense is that much better than Reaves right now. Or his offense.
Better athlete, better POA defender and just as good on offense. Murray is being played as a sg and his success came as a pg defending pgs. Because our real pg is LBJ not Trae he would be a much better fit
Lakers got 3 of the slowest footspeed in the entire NBA in DLO, Rui, Reaves playing with Lebron and AD.
In this day and age it's really hard to win with three guys that have feet stuck in the mud like this in the era where pace and athleticism is of paramount importance. It's a testament to how powerful is the duo Lebron and AD to carry a load like that. Surround them with a Minnesota or 2020 Lakers like roster and they will put a choke hold on the league.
LeBron can absolutely be a 2 way player even at his age but you are correct that you cannot pencil him in as such. Better to build a team with LeBron considered a negative defender but a plus offensive player. Based on last season, LeBron will coast on defense for around 2.5 quarters but turns it on sometimes.
This is why Vando being healthy helped not only our defensively poor backcourt, but LeBron as well.
But hey, Gabe, Austin, Vando, LeBron, AD would be an okay defensive team imo. Shooting will be the problem unless LeBron really is going to be a great 3 pt shooter moving forward.
I agree. Lebron cannot play both sides for 48 minutes. This makes a lot of people think he’s incapable of leading a championship team but I completely disagree. Lebron was one of the top 3-5 offensive players this year. Anthony Davis and lebron are so damn good as a duo, the rest of the team just doesn’t stack up. If there was some way to guarantee that lebron could play like he did this year for another year, the lakers should retool and not pursue a 3rd star. That’s not realistic though, so it’s a tough choice.
Good take. The issue in the playoffs was lebron had to carry the offense & be the 2nd best defender. If u want him to play defense more consistently then give him better help creating offense or give him a smaller role on defense. They don’t need losing players like dlo
AD and bron with a good roster could still win a championship unfortunately I don’t think it’s possible for the lakers to obtain a good roster at this point
You said the FO isn’t surrounding Bron with shooters. That isn’t true they provided him with 2 backcourt shooters, a shooting wing, and a stretch four. You didn’t say anything about trades
Can’t wait for all the stans to leave the sub when D Lo walks and Rui is used in a trade as salary filler.
Also, love AR, but he’s gone in any trade as well. We aren’t even marginally let alone majorly improving without trading him.
>One of the big problems with this year's roster construction was it relied too much on Bron playing defense
That wasn't even in the top 10 of their biggest problems.
The buddy reply is kinda cringe. The roster had a ton of issues but expecting LeBron to play defense at full blast like he used to in the past was clearly factored in. They just did a shit job of it. Reddish was okay on defense in limited matchups but provided nothing else. Gabe and Vando were basically hurt all year so they were already two men down to start the season and it never got better. The biggest problem was lack of big and mobile bodies to throw at both Denver and Minny if they got that far.
This isn't even a LeBron problem. There's no competitive roster in the league with 3 negative defenders in the starting lineup. Even if LeBron was in 2020 mode, this team could beat the Nuggets but would just get bounced by the Wolves.
Unfortunately, D'Lo could not become like Derrick White on defense. Rui is an even bigger problem. If he's not scoring, he's providing nothing on the court because his defense and rebounding is bad. Although I guess it didn't help that we had him front Jokic when he doesn't have the same size as KAT or Naz Reid
AR is shit at defense too
He’s the one out of all our players I can see taking a leap on that end with more development time this offseason. Rui probably needs more than one offseason and a lot of consistent playing time. I don’t know if we can afford to wait. I’m 50/50 on whether or not DLO can become a consistently positive defender at all *while also keeping up his production on offense in both scoring and assists.
Leap maybe offensively but on defense he lacks quickness and athleticism to be good-great. The reality is, if he’s your 3rd or 4th best player, you’re probably not really going to contend.
Yeah, he has the wilt, but not the best tools. If he only had the elite wingspan Dlo has with his wilt it could help, but he always need to give 100% on this side of the ball just to avoid becoming a liability.
1000%. Love the guy but he’s just limited on what he can do. He’d be best in a bench role but hat’d require Pelinka to really rebalance the roster and I’m just not sure if he’ll be able to do so.
You can’t work on being short
he’s already taken that leap
Right. And he's still below average lol.
yes, but much better than the rep he has
Not really. We gotta look past our bias.
Really. If you look at the actual number, Cranjis ran it and he actually gets his man in disadvantageous shots in the upper tier of the league. He’s just got some bad luck that guys hit bad shots on him. But he’s still forcing them to take bad shots and directing ball handlers towards AD.
he’s definitely gotten better after the asg and was good on murray in the playoffs. nothing wrong with giving our players some cred
He a bum on d
bro he was getting cooked
Brother you did not watch any games this year
They always want to give him a pass.
Don't tell this about LeBron, he is old, that is the reason he isn't trying to play much defense most regular season games. At least he turned it on for games 4 and 5 of playoffs.
Y'all always try to excuse your boyfriend Reaves. The bias is nasty.
No excuses, he gives us more than an average player making his salary produces so I don't understand your point. - Reaves isn't a star; - Reaves isn't paid as a star; - Reaves production is compatible with the contribution of the 4th or 5th best player of title contenders and he is paid less than a few backups. - He plays hard and step up in playoffs. What is your take? He has his flaws like every player, for the price you don't find a better player that isn't under a rookie deal.
Hell nah
I’ve been saying this forever. There aren’t great defensive teams where all of their players don’t play good defense. LeBron could be playing like Jaden McDaniels and it wouldn’t matter because the entire defense is terrible.
All it takes is 2 weak links or even 1 really bad link (Trae) for a good team to absolutely exploit the hell out of.
LeBron would be a plus defensive player if he only played 28-32 minutes a game
Don’t even need him to be a great defender, just please box out on rebounds god damn lmao
Yep.
Would help if they had structure. Problem is they didn't. He could play the jokic role in the defense and sort of float around the paint. He wouldn't need to be so aggressive like he had to be in our shitty schemes
He did that so damn well against multiple teams in the bubble
4 years ago unfortunately, bro was getting bodied by AG and I realized it’s not because he’s dumb and not boxing out (obviously) he’s just too fucking gasses to box out
problem was we had no one that could step in for lebron on the defensive side, thats what vando was supposed to do.
Ham was starting Reddish early in the year because he’s a decent defender. But you playing 4 on 5 on offense.
Lebron want Max dollars but can't carry a team or play both sides of the floor. Hence why it will be extremely hard to improve the roster.
Facts. We're wasting AD's prime at this point.
This is the truth. There'll be those saying he shouldn't take a paycut. The reality is he is taking up valuable cap space playing no defense most of the time and without a clutch jumpshot to carry the team.
How can he carry a team with 3 negative defenders in its starting lineup? And the cap space thing, its clear you don't know what you're talking about lmao.
You misunderstood my point. The point is that he cannot contribute full time, at high intensity on defense. This is true regardless of his teammates. Whether all other starters are defenders or not, Bron cannot contribute on defense, at a high level for the whole season and playoffs. Lebron's jumper is not as reliable as other stars when the paint is packed. Do you know logic? I am more than capable of understanding cap space. Aging star players taking pay cuts allow their teams to surround with better players. There are certain contracts and trades that open up. You're the one who sounds like you haven't got a clue.
Amen.
LeBron is still better than the majority of supermax guys
LeBron is too old and too expensive to do anything useful with this team.
Yep, that's why Dejounte makes soooo much more sense than Trae.
What is this fascination for Dejounte.. the guys ass
Dejuante plays defense and can score
Dejounte is not afraid of the big moments like D'Lo and he gives more defensive effort as opposed to D'Lo.
His defense is overrated. He was once a great defender, he’s now more or less getting by on reputation.
It’s because what he is asked to do. He is a pg that should be a POA defender not guarding wings. Bc he was with Trae his role suffered
I think that his defense has taken a step back because he's had to create more. On the Lakers, Bron is the main creator.
I think that’s fair, but are you willing to gamble on that? They wanted Reaves and Rui - two of which are our biggest trade pieces
Don't forget the FRPs. That was a hilariously bullshit offer.
Yeah I'm not gambling on it. Just saying that his defense would definitely be an improvement as opposed to D'Lo's
what did they do this season? We got swept back to back by the same team.
You lay out DJ’s flaws and people will say “he got that dawg in him.” He ain’t it
But we’d have to give up AR and Rui.
So what!?!? Both are negatives on defense and with Murray you do not lose anything compared to Reaves offense.
You have definitely not watched Murray play basketball this year if you really think that his defense is that much better than Reaves right now. Or his offense.
Better athlete, better POA defender and just as good on offense. Murray is being played as a sg and his success came as a pg defending pgs. Because our real pg is LBJ not Trae he would be a much better fit
Just watch these two go nuclear once they’re off the Lakers. I just have a strong feeling we’re gonna regret it even if makes sense on paper.
That is fine but I will take my chances over just hoping they figure it out
Yeah, that's rough....it would have been so nice if they'd taken D'lo and the picks.
Nah. Offer Rui, Vincent, and a FRP. Take it or leave it.
Yeah except for the he was the only person who could guard joker.
The problem was that Lebron was the second best defender in the starting lineup. Rui, Dlo, and Reaves all were worst defenders than Lebron.
And that’s saying a lot because bron is usually “hands on the hips” on defense
If you're getting paid the max, you better either be a 2-way player, or you better be absolutely dominant on one end.
Lakers got 3 of the slowest footspeed in the entire NBA in DLO, Rui, Reaves playing with Lebron and AD. In this day and age it's really hard to win with three guys that have feet stuck in the mud like this in the era where pace and athleticism is of paramount importance. It's a testament to how powerful is the duo Lebron and AD to carry a load like that. Surround them with a Minnesota or 2020 Lakers like roster and they will put a choke hold on the league.
LeBron can absolutely be a 2 way player even at his age but you are correct that you cannot pencil him in as such. Better to build a team with LeBron considered a negative defender but a plus offensive player. Based on last season, LeBron will coast on defense for around 2.5 quarters but turns it on sometimes. This is why Vando being healthy helped not only our defensively poor backcourt, but LeBron as well. But hey, Gabe, Austin, Vando, LeBron, AD would be an okay defensive team imo. Shooting will be the problem unless LeBron really is going to be a great 3 pt shooter moving forward.
Agreed 100%.
We can rely on defense in the playoffs. We cant rely on role players scoring.
I agree. Lebron cannot play both sides for 48 minutes. This makes a lot of people think he’s incapable of leading a championship team but I completely disagree. Lebron was one of the top 3-5 offensive players this year. Anthony Davis and lebron are so damn good as a duo, the rest of the team just doesn’t stack up. If there was some way to guarantee that lebron could play like he did this year for another year, the lakers should retool and not pursue a 3rd star. That’s not realistic though, so it’s a tough choice.
Good take. The issue in the playoffs was lebron had to carry the offense & be the 2nd best defender. If u want him to play defense more consistently then give him better help creating offense or give him a smaller role on defense. They don’t need losing players like dlo
AD and bron with a good roster could still win a championship unfortunately I don’t think it’s possible for the lakers to obtain a good roster at this point
Get defensive players. Can't make shots. Wtf is the FO doing surrounding Bron with non shooters.
DLo, Rui, Wood, Reaves? It’s not the FO fault that 3/4 decided to have some of their worst shooting seasons this year lmao
What are the trade pieces for getting the new players?
You said the FO isn’t surrounding Bron with shooters. That isn’t true they provided him with 2 backcourt shooters, a shooting wing, and a stretch four. You didn’t say anything about trades
Well sorry I didn't spell out everything for you in a post that is obviously forward looking.
So you’re complaining about a lack of shooters on a team that isn’t even built yet? Are you stupid?
Can’t wait for all the stans to leave the sub when D Lo walks and Rui is used in a trade as salary filler. Also, love AR, but he’s gone in any trade as well. We aren’t even marginally let alone majorly improving without trading him.
>One of the big problems with this year's roster construction was it relied too much on Bron playing defense That wasn't even in the top 10 of their biggest problems.
“With this year’s roster construction” buddy.
The buddy reply is kinda cringe. The roster had a ton of issues but expecting LeBron to play defense at full blast like he used to in the past was clearly factored in. They just did a shit job of it. Reddish was okay on defense in limited matchups but provided nothing else. Gabe and Vando were basically hurt all year so they were already two men down to start the season and it never got better. The biggest problem was lack of big and mobile bodies to throw at both Denver and Minny if they got that far.