How The Lakers Can Still Be Effective With Small Ball

well, for the first few games, the rockets weren't even capable of it...they had to drag bzdelik out of retirement because they were concerned about full-on loss of mojo.

i think switching everything isn't a tenable long-term strategy. houston got away with it because nobody else was doing it, and thus nobody was fully prepared to exploit it. as more teams do more switching, you'll see its efficacy drop again, imo.

even so, the OP is correct that it takes certain types to make it work. pj tucker is a very important piece to such a scheme. we have nothing like that on the roster.

 

You're right in that there are nuances I glossed over to get my point across.

Typically if you are playing small ball, you want to switch most high PnRs because otherwise you leave yourself open to a lob threat (if the other team has a big center). It's tough to jump while running backwards. See below in game 2 of the same series. Game 3 is when the Rockets adjusted to switch everything for that reason.



The game will evolve. We'll see scram switching and other counter measures enacted, I'm sure.

Houston has lost its mojo, but they lost key pieces (e.g. Ariza) that helped them play the way they did last year. If they get Butler, they might revitalize things a bit. We can't play like Houston, and we shouldn't, but I used them just as an example to show how being undersized can work to your advantage.

 

Great post, but I think we gave up a critical piece of our small ball lineup when Randle left. Unless LeBron plays the 5, we're better off with a traditional lineup with a 7ft center.

 

Even still, as ferocious of a rebounder Randle was, he was never good at boxing out. Defensively he was much better last year, but he still had trouble with rotations. He looks excellent next to a true center with AD.

If we went small ball to finish the game tonight, we would have lost. Chandler got us multiple possessions and provided steady defense down low.

 

I absolutely love this post @bfc1125roy You wanna coach us? Lol, j/k

Don’t understand how basic basketball is not being ran by our team. For those of you on this board who have actually played know this is like basketball 101. This is the stuff that you learn as a kid.

Our coaching staff needs some fire in them. They’re too passive which makes our team passive in everything we do. I’m Smh often with this team.

Great post and great point about McGee. He needs to stay focused on being that rim protector.