The Lakers Great Reimagining
A masterful mid-season trade has completely reorganized Los Angeles' roster, and things are finally starting to make sense.
The Los Angeles Lakers entered the year a mess. A series of nonsensical offseason signings left the team laughably light on shooting in particular. Prior to a shakeup at the trade deadline, 64% of the Lakers total minutes played were allocated to sub 35% three-point shooters.
What Los Angeles’ front office was thinking when it assembled the team’s original roster for the year is unclear. The Lakers non-shooters didn’t provide much utility in any areas of the game. LeBron James and Anthony Davis were consistently asked to operate in phone booths throughout the first half of the season, without any payoff in the form of defensive ability, rim finishing, or facilitation from the teammates that were responsible for such offensive cramping.
The Lakers’ record prior to the trade deadline reflected the incoherence of their roster. They lacked an identity beyond hoping James and Davis would submit super human efforts and praying Russell Westbrook didn’t turn the ball over too often.
That changed after a series of midseason moves. Vice President of Basketball Operations, Rob Pelinka - previously deserving of harsh critique - pulled off a series of masterful moves. When the dust cleared, Westbrook, Patrick Beverley, Thomas Bryant, Juan Toscano-Anderson, Damian Jones, Kendrick Nunn, and a coveted (though top-4 protected) first round pick were all shipped out.
In return the Los Angeles received D’Angelo Russell, Jarred Vanderbilt, Malik Beasley, Mo Bamba, and Rui Hachimura. In a vaccum, the collective talent of the players the Lakers netted at the deadline isn’t overwhelming, but their ability, fit, and willigness to play supportive roles relative to the players the team sent out represents a massive upgrade.
Los Angeles didn’t completely solve its shooting problems, but it made meaningful progress. That percentage of total minutes played by sub 35% three-point shooters is down to 52% (still too high) and the Lakers have maintained their level of overall offensive efficiency (ORTG of 113.2), despite the fact that LeBron James has been sidelined for almost the entirety of the post-trade-deadline portion of the season. Los Angeles should see a nice boost when James returns and has actual shooters to spray the ball to.
And perhaps most importanly, the Lakers have recommitted themselves to the kind of defensive effort that landed them a championship back in 2019. In pairing Davis with Vanderbilt they’ve created a terrifyingly athletic, long, switchable, duo of bigs. Lineups featuring both have surrendered just 108.4 points per 100 non-garbage-time possessions, ranking in the 94th percentile league-wide, per Cleaning the Glass.
James should only add to what Los Angeles is capable of on that end of the court as well. He’s an enormous basketball super computer that has basically encountered every conceivable situation. If he’s healthy the Lakers could make for a formidable postseason opponent, assuming they make it there at least.
Los Angeles currently sits in 10th place in the Western Conference, still clawing their way out of the hole they dug for themselves early in the year. The West is wide open though. The Lakers are just two games out of fifth, with matchups against the Thunder, Wolves, Jazz (twice), and Clippers still to come, all of which they are battling for playoff positioning.
It’s not impossible for Los Angeles to work their way out of the play-in, though doing so would likely require a good deal of luck in addition to a very strong close to the year. That feels significantly more likely than it did prior to the trade deadline. Since making their moves, the Lakers have posted a 64% winning percentage. That would have them second in the conference if it was their mark for their year.
Los Angeles is still a bit of shooting and non-James creation away from being a real threat, and nothing will matter if he can’t come back from injury at full strength. The fact that the Lakers could even be considered as a potential cinderella-style contender is remarkable.