Yeah... Had a rough shooting night, but... this man works. FTs. Crucial rebound and a score on the other side. Defense. I don't know what I would have done if they traded HIM.
Galactically better scheme above than putting AR back on the bench. For far lesser advantages than what he brings as a starter with the Big 3 to get us off to great starts to halves more often.
The assumption is that offensively we are better with Luka - AR - Lebron on the floor. This may very well be true. But there’s a fair assumption that we are better defensively with AR on the bench, and another assumption that you can’t play 3 ball dominant players at once because there isn’t enough ball and plays for equal touches. At the end of the day, all I want is a good defence to go along with what will be a good offence. I would also like Reaves’ touches to not go down since he is playing so well. I’m not sure why coming off the bench is such a negative in the NBA. If you’re getting 30+ mins and closing - who cares if the team is winning more?
You can keep making your case and wanting it for some good reasons. JJ is NOT going to do it for IMO far better reasons.
I’m not the coach of the lakers for a good reason. I’m not a basketball genius… so most likely they won’t do what I suggest. But surely you can admit the following two points: AR isn’t our best defensive player and playing three ball dominant players means one of them will have less usage, touches and shots.
I see it not as three ball dominant players all needing their touches but rather more like JJ having the opportunity to create marvelous basketball such as in an Olympic competition with all star caliber players feeding off each other and dominating.
i definitely see reaves as a manu, and he played great off the bench, and it was good for him and his team. and he closed games and had the ball in big situations. that said, i don't think we have the defender that would make sense to insert into the starting lineup in his place. had we kept max, i think i'd be arguing to move austin to the bench right now. but i don't know that gabe is the right guy, nor are vando or DFS. i suppose gabe is closest because he can knock down an open three and chase pgs, but still...not quite what it would take for me to justify it. lol...maybe the maxed out version of bronny?
i don't see it quite as three ball-dominant players, either. i really see it as one ball-dominant player (luka). lebron does it, but shouldn't at this stage. he'll look better when he's not having to orchestrate, imo. and we've been using reaves this way a lot (lots of dribbling), but he might be better off if we scaled that back a touch, too. i'd like to at least see an extended attempt before i shut it down. and again, i'd like to see the right guy to replace him with the starters.
Yeah, if Gabe was like 5-10% better (so Caruso-ish?) I'd actually be mad if JJ didn't bring AR off the bench. But with our actual version of Gabe, I'd personally bring Austin off the bench but I don't feel that strongly about it. I think we'll be more than fine if we keep starting him. There's also the counterargument that you want to fast-track the chemistry between Luka/LeBron/AR if they're going to be closing games together, so play them together more.
we may need to bring him off the bench to truly maximize him...I don't want Reaves standing in the corner with LeBron/Luka dominating possession... but I'm also fine with reaves/luka/lebron trading off each possession to keep the defense guessing... we'll probably see reaves start alongside luka to begin and then go from there. I believe Reaves is good enough to figure it out even if he's not handling the ball as much...he can cut, he can hit the 3 ball...and he can also act as a decoy. I like having high IQ players on the court together - usually really great and magical things happen when you have them out there at the same time!
You have done such a magnificent job in this thread of laying this out I'm just going to shut up and leave. Nice work.
I agree with this. I don’t want Reaves standing in a corner while Luka and LeBron take turns running the PnR with Williams or each other. I also don’t want him defending the other teams best guard non stop and zapping him. If anything, I want Reaves to have the same freedom he has had over the last 20 games where he is averaging 20/8.
I'm fine with AR moving to the bench to playmake for the second unit. Would be nice to not have any significant drop off in that regard. Whatever JJ wants to try and whatever works ultimately. I feel like we have a lot of really good parts for our roster now. Having picked up a legit starting Center and adding in Luka is pretty undeniable now in terms of filling in the holes of the roster. We have tons of versatility and ways to bring players in and out. We've got 10 strong now without a significant hole. Even backup 2 is ok with Shake IMO. Not the greatest but an NBA level player. Maybe the starters are: AR, Luka, Lebron, DFS, Williams and bench: Gabe, Shake, Rui, Vando, Hayes Or if you want a different look for the starters maybe it's Gabe at PG and Rui at the 3. Or maybe Hayes continues to start for a while until Williams learns the system. If we are healthy we are good in terms of the roster. Maybe even Wood comes back at some point to give us a third Big who can play alongside Luka.
