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During a meeting last week with LeBron James, Darvin Ham revealed how he plans on having the Los Angeles Lakers' offense run through Anthony Davis.

James concurred with the idea.

The Lakers have been encouraged by the work Davis has put in this offseason and they believe he will be able to avoid serious injuries and carry a heavier load.

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/268236/Darvin-Ham-Plans-On-Running-Lakers-Offense-Through-Anthony-Davis

Running the offense through AD is a great idea, imho. He’s in his prime, our next franchise player. It is time that we shift our basketball focus to him. I’m surprised to read that LBJ agrees, and we’ll see who gets the ball in crunch time and so on; but for the regular season this will 1) keep AD away from high injury risk in the low post which will allow him bigger minutes which is great, 2) utilize LBJ as a spot up 3PT shooter (he’s improved lots in that area), 3) allow for easy back door cuts by our athletic youngs.

I imagine / hope that coach Ham will finally be the one to use AD as the high post SF that he naturally is at 7’0”(!!!) And I hope he does so in a semi-triangle set. He used to play the point, don’t let his size confuse you. LBJ is best serving the team in a low post PF role. Add a defensive stretch C like BroLo to that and imagine the space for LBJ and the youngs to cut.

I like this plan by coach. What do you guys think of it?

stan francisco wrote:

During a meeting last week with LeBron James, Darvin Ham revealed how he plans on having the Los Angeles Lakers' offense run through Anthony Davis.

James concurred with the idea.

The Lakers have been encouraged by the work Davis has put in this offseason and they believe he will be able to avoid serious injuries and carry a heavier load.

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/268236/Darvin-Ham-Plans-On-Running-Lakers-Offense-Through-Anthony-Davis

Running the offense through AD is a great idea, imho. He’s in his prime, our next franchise player. It is time that we shift our basketball focus to him. I’m surprised to read that LBJ agrees, and we’ll see who gets the ball in crunch time and so on; but for the regular season this will 1) keep AD away from high injury risk in the low post which will allow him bigger minutes which is great, 2) utilize LBJ as a spot up 3PT shooter (he’s improved lots in that area), 3) allow for easy back door cuts by our athletic youngs.

I imagine / hope that coach Ham will finally be the one to use AD as the high post SF that he naturally is at 7’0”(!!!) And I hope he does so in a semi-triangle set. He used to play the point, don’t let his size confuse you. LBJ is best serving the team in a low post PF role. Add a defensive stretch C like BroLo to that and imagine the space for LBJ and the youngs to cut.

I like this plan by coach. What do you guys think of it?

For the 15 games he's actually on the court, I'm sure it will be fine.

You gotta love the 2nd half of that article:

"The Lakers have been encouraged by the work Davis has put in this offseason and they believe he will be able to avoid serious injuries and carry a heavier load. The Lakers are also hopeful Russell Westbrook will improve his three-point shooting from the corners."

Sounds like alot of fairy-tales and rainbows to me.

I read this as wanting to go back to the 2020 dynamic, where AD was the leading scorer and got a lot of mid-post iso opportunities while LeBron was more point guard than wing scorer. Seems like the right idea.

Our next franchise player? He's been with us for 3 years, and when have we not attempted to run the offense through AD when he's not injured? He's good for a few games then back to the injury list again with Lebron running the show.

Beethoven wrote:Our next franchise player? He's been with us for 3 years, and when have we not attempted to run the offense through AD when he's not injured? He's good for a few games then back to the injury list again with Lebron running the show.

Well, LBJ has behaved as if he’s all that. And it’s hard to argue that LBJ is not our franchise player when AD is in street clothes. I still agree this is the right approach.

Let’s hope he stays healthy…

Well, fwiw, I heard somewhere that this announcement is perhaps a red herring (to perhaps better leverage for a kd+kyrie=ad+westbrook trade)

danfantastk32 wrote:You gotta love the 2nd half of that article:

"The Lakers have been encouraged by the work Davis has put in this offseason and they believe he will be able to avoid serious injuries and carry a heavier load. The Lakers are also hopeful Russell Westbrook will improve his three-point shooting from the corners."

Sounds like alot of fairy-tales and rainbows to me.

AD had not taken a shot for 2 months. Maybe he was so determined to get his body condition right and recovered during that time. We don't know.

What I see is that Ham doesn't not want to put that heavy load on James - handle the ball, run the offense, attack the basket / shoot and doing all the things by himself. Father time is coming and his body not as healthy as 5 years ago. Lifting workload from him meets more workload on AD. Westbrook? Not someone they would rely on heavily unless both AD and James go down.

Beethoven wrote:Well, fwiw, I heard somewhere that this announcement is perhaps a red herring (to perhaps better leverage for a kd+kyrie=ad+westbrook trade)

I hope you’re right.

In b4 Injury happens and it's running through Bron

LMAO

stan francisco wrote:

Beethoven wrote:Well, fwiw, I heard somewhere that this announcement is perhaps a red herring (to perhaps better leverage for a kd+kyrie=ad+westbrook trade)

I hope you’re right.

Yes please ... I hope it's right as well Doubt it, but I'd do that. Throw in the picks to make it happen

SlimShady83 wrote:

stan francisco wrote:

Beethoven wrote:Well, fwiw, I heard somewhere that this announcement is perhaps a red herring (to perhaps better leverage for a kd+kyrie=ad+westbrook trade)

I hope you’re right.

Yes please ... I hope it's right as well Doubt it, but I'd do that. Throw in the picks to make it happen

KD wants to play for Celtics or Sixers, he says. Not sure if he’d say no to play with LBJ but I doubt it’ll be to the eastern conference when he gets traded.

I like it. He should be playing a bulk of his minutes at PF while finishing the 1st, 3rd and 4th quarters at C.

G - Westbrook/Nunn
G - Walker IV/THT
F - James/Reaves/Brown Jr.
F - Davis/JTA/Johnson
C - Bryant/Jones/Gabriel

danfantastk32 wrote:

stan francisco wrote:

During a meeting last week with LeBron James, Darvin Ham revealed how he plans on having the Los Angeles Lakers' offense run through Anthony Davis.

James concurred with the idea.

The Lakers have been encouraged by the work Davis has put in this offseason and they believe he will be able to avoid serious injuries and carry a heavier load.

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/268236/Darvin-Ham-Plans-On-Running-Lakers-Offense-Through-Anthony-Davis

Running the offense through AD is a great idea, imho. He’s in his prime, our next franchise player. It is time that we shift our basketball focus to him. I’m surprised to read that LBJ agrees, and we’ll see who gets the ball in crunch time and so on; but for the regular season this will 1) keep AD away from high injury risk in the low post which will allow him bigger minutes which is great, 2) utilize LBJ as a spot up 3PT shooter (he’s improved lots in that area), 3) allow for easy back door cuts by our athletic youngs.

I imagine / hope that coach Ham will finally be the one to use AD as the high post SF that he naturally is at 7’0”(!!!) And I hope he does so in a semi-triangle set. He used to play the point, don’t let his size confuse you. LBJ is best serving the team in a low post PF role. Add a defensive stretch C like BroLo to that and imagine the space for LBJ and the youngs to cut.

I like this plan by coach. What do you guys think of it?

For the 15 games he's actually on the court, I'm sure it will be fine.

good one.
I really think AD have these little cracks in his body that gets bigger whenever he gets hit. Shoulder, Ankle, knees etc etc esp after 15 straight games.

Not sure I'd center anything on a guy we can't 50 healthy games out of....

Davis isn't the next anything IMHO. Without LeBron he's be an All Star on a last place team. He's not a leader and can't carry a team through a season like true superstars do.

AD was always an oversized SF in playing style. He’s a 7’ wing player who used to be a point guard. Don’t play him at Center, coach. Not until the finals game 7.

I’d prefer using him primarily as a 3 and 4. Offensively I’d make LBJ our starting PF and AD our starting SF, switching positions on defense.

I just want us to stay healthy this year

Holy crap. There goes the season

As if playing AD at the 4 as opposed to the 5 will make much of a difference. Most of AD’s injuries have next to nothing to do with banging in the paint. I can count one hand how many physical bigs there are at the 5. It’s misguided to build your offense around a guy who’s always hurt. Outside of pure luck, AD will miss a significant number of games this season… not pessimistic, just following the data.

This is the logical thing to do especially if you want to prolong Lebron's career. I'm pretty sure nobody here wants to run the offense through Westbrook. Plan B is to run it through Bron if AD gets injured.