Lebron is a 4 at this stage of his career, so he needs to stay at the 4. AD is obviously a 5. In this day and age, a player has no business playing anything other than the 5 if he can't shoot. I know the Lakers did well with the twin-towers approach in the bubble, but that is 5 years ago now! Bron was what, 34? AD was 27ish? At that point, they had the speed to play the 3 and 4 respectively, but now with their advanced age, and the rapid evolvement of the game, LEBRON CLEARLY BELONGS AT THE 4 and AD CLEARLY BELONGS AT THE 5. Honestly, I think this causes a little bit of a passive aggressive rift between AD and Lebron because AD wants to play the 4 so bad. Forget about getting a stretch 5 to appease AD. If he doesn't like it, then trade him. Instead, Lakers should concentrate on the following: 1. A shooting guard who could sufficiently defend opposing point guards, allowing Reaves to play point guard on offense, and shooting guard on defense. This player needs to be at minimum a 35% three-point shooter and 2 three-pointers made per 36 minutes, and this also must be primarily a catch-and-shoot/off ball type player. This player would be utilized as a second ball handler only, so they must show the ability to do that decently, but not dribble too much/have high usage, etc. It would also be helpful if this player is quick and athletic (because Reaves is not). 2. A CLEAR CUT small forward that could shoot the three ball at a minimum of 35% and 2 three-pointers made per 36 minutes. This player must also be primarily a catch-and-shoot player. This player must also clearly be able to defend the opponent's best wing player because Reaves or Lebron shouldn't be. So, there should be no question about whether this player is better utilized defending 3s or 4s, like how we have with Rui, Taurean, and Lebron. This guy needs to clearly be a small forward defender (think Vando or Reddish with shooting ability). We need to be careful with this acquisition. A possible error on Rob's part could be being stuck in the past, and getting DFS thinking he is still good at defending 3s, even though he is a 4 at this point in his career, etc. 3. A backup center who could sub in for AD for 12-15 minutes per game, and also have the ability to start 15-20 games (with AD possibly out due to injury and/or load mgmt.). I will leave some flexibility for this spot, because I know the market for quality backup centers is somewhat limited. The Lakers could try to go with a guy that has somewhat similar attributes as AD (in terms of rim running, defense), or they could go for as big and bulky as possible, to try and contain the Jokic types. 4. Max Christie must be re-signed. He could be the long-term fit at either number one or number two on the above list.
feel like we've been talking about this for almost 4 years? both of our top players really play the same position. no, you don't trade AD if he doesn't want to play the 5. honestly, you know who should play the 5? lebron (he's basically horford's size). but he doesn't want to, either. you must deal with it. player 1 is kcp and/or caruso, and it sucks that we dumped both. don't know how to acquire similar at this point. you'd have to dig one up that people missed on. can you name an archetype for player 2? previous robert covington? btw, i actually hate the idea of just catch and shoot guys around lebron and AD. i know reaves is a connecter, but you need one more guy who can really put pressure on the defense via penetration, imo. reaves ain't it against top teams. player 3 is the guy we were all screaming for last summer and are still screaming for now. except that i think you can start them and play AD at the 5 to close halves, like we did to win a title and like dallas used to do with dirk and san antonio did for years with duncan. i don't know what to think about christie. i think he can be player 1, but we're on a short timeline. people forget how young he still is. some of these young guys killing it in the playoffs were still two years older/more experienced than him. but yes, we need to just re-sign him and see if he can develop into that even if it's not in time to contend. feel like this belongs in the offseason thread, though, as it's really about what we need. i think we need an athletic two-way backcourt partner for reaves (murray's probably not happening, but like this) and a legitimate big body that we can rely on for 20mpg. those two things whilst retaining most of the core (lebron/AD/reaves/rui/vando) is about the best we can hope for, imo.
Player 1: The Carter kid in the draft. He is a tenacious defender, good three-point shooter, does not need the ball in his hands, and is super athletic. Player 2: Mikal Bridges would be ideal, but realistically this spot could go to Christie. He fits the criteria. Player 3: Missi would be ideal, but not sure if we could get both him and Carter. Missi rim runs and protects the rim, sort of AD like in that regard. Of course, he does not have the diversified offensive game AD has, but we really don't need him to do all of that. Maybe we end up with Wiseman here.
This is by no means a 100% win-now-at -all -costs approach. It is more of a building for the future while simultaneously trying to compete now with players that fit approach. We likely make other trades and/or signings to also bolster our bench, but we also have to shave some salary to get under the second apron. Carter is already 22 years old, and seems to be NBA ready. Max is going into his third season. Both of these players could play defense and make NBA threes. Carter has shown deep range. I know it's not the sexiest team build, but this roster could have a ton of depth, with potentially having starters from this past season(Russell, Rui) coming off the bench.
What team in the NBA contended with rookies in their lineup? Or even playing big minutes? There was Lively this year, who still came from the bench. Mavs really hit gold there as he fit the ideal center to play with Luka, but they still went on to get Gafford, where they really started to click as a team. There was Braun before, but he was the 7th guy in Denver. It almost never happens. And you just can't get Carter AND Missy. We already need to trade up for Carter. I think Gabe is the player 1. Prince player 2. Wood player 3. That was the idea this past off-season. Unfortunately it didn't work out. We are shorter on flexibility this year, compared to last year. Unless DLo walks, which creates a new problem (have a scorer and bonafide shooter that gets hot and/or buckets at will) to add to those. I think our best available shot is to kinda run it back with a new HC. Add 1 or 2 guys with the available exceptions and vet mins we can convince. Have the continuity we didn't have last year. We get lost in narratives, but this team with either Vando or Rui in the lineup is like a 60 to 70% wins. Like, factually. Ham was just a moron to get away from that almost all season. We also need Reaves to get closer to 20ppg next season. LeBron manages his production during the regular season and we need him and Rui to step up big next year
I don’t feel like we ever truly knew what we had since we had Ham as a coach. I just literally feel like he did not know how to use his lineups, and our success was in spite of him.
Lebron and AD only playing the 4 and 5 is the main reason we're 1-12 against Denver since May 2023 but sure ..
