O_6 wrote:#1 A legitimate stretch 5.
Dwight and Javale put in a lot of effort for their roles, their respective athleticism was a clear plus for the Lakers. Losing two true centers with excellent jumping skills is definitely going to be a loss. Javale has his shortcomings but dude was very good around the basket offensively, especially when he’s not doing something dumb lol. Javale is a special type of player. Dwight doesn’t have Javales size but he’s stronger and significantly smarter which is why he got the minutes when it mattered. Gasol isn’t as athletic as Dwight or Javale which is a negative, however he brings so much more to the table from a BBIQ/Passing/Shooting perspective.
“LeBron with space” has been the scariest thing to hear for a decade now, but this is the first time he’s getting a stretch 5 who can bang with the biggest dudes on the low post defensively and be an overall plus on D. IF “major IF” Gasol has gas left in the tank, he’s going to be a an awesome addition due to the spacing + defense he provides. LeBron + Davis with a stretch who’s a plus defender and plus 3pt shooter and plus passer? Major upgrade if Gasol isn’t toast.
2. Harrell replacing McGee
Due to the timing, people looked at Harrell and saw him as replacing Dwight. But honestly, Gasol is the one replacing Dwight and Harrell was just replacing Javale. There is no way possible that you can look at the McGee to Harrell upgrade and think anything else besides “major upgrade”. McGee was a poor defender, he was getting roasted by Jokic himself. Harrell is so much better at creating his own offense and dribbling in general, the entire LA offense will be significantly more complete because of it. AD vs. Giannis remains an intriguing comparison, AD was a beast in the playoffs but Giannis doesn’t have LeBron ‘effin James on his team either. But one clear advantage for AD is that his jumper provides spacing, Harrell seems like he’ll be better on the Lakers than the Clippers because of ADs uniquely dominant skillset on both ends. His jumper will provide space for Harrell inside while his rim protection will help cover Harrells defensive shortcomings. LeBron as a creator will undoubtedly help Harrell get better looks as well. I think Harrell with be an important role player due to his scoring skills, better than most expect.
3. Schroder vs. Regular Season Rondo vs. Playoff Rondo
The funniest thing to happen to Lakers fans last year was watching them change up their opinions on Rondo. He was considered an absolute joke in the regular season and then he was arguably their 3rd most important player in the playoffs. Rondo is a very interesting kinda player, he’s a possible HOFer (I think he still has things to do to be a HOFer) who is truly a brilliant mind with experience. Schroder does not provide such experience and intelligence or passing, he provides quickness and scoring. It will be a different dynamic. It’s almost impossible for this dynamic to be worse in the regular season but playoff Schroder vs. playoff Rondo will be a storyline that hangs over the Lakers’ heads throughout the entire year including the playoffs. Can Schroder maintain good enough defense and good enough scoring/creating in a playoff setting?
There are certainly questions, the stuff I’ve mentioned plus other things (Matthews’ ability to cover for Danny Green being another). But to me, these Lakers have the potential to be an absolutely dominant team. They could push a 65 win/8 SRS pace imo; and they’ll be the best team in the league barring Harden going to Brooklyn (even then that team will be a ?).
LeBron has never had a better team on paper. This is a dominant looking squad in a wide open (besides potentially the Nets) league (as of now). LeBron is a true GOAT candidate right now, whether he can capitalize on rings remains to be seen. A repeat at this stage in his career would be massive. It’ll be fascinating to see if he can still be the best player in the league and get it done.
I think gasol filling that dwight role for situational matchups against top physically imposing centers, arguably better than he did himself, is huge. Added ability to do well blitzing the p and r (vs curry 2019) and his overall defensive ability being higher and stretching the floor are all added bonuses, and i think they all more than make up for that lost athleticism
Harrell is interesting because lookkng at it more and more, it looks like hes defensively more suited to be a 4, and he NEVER played at the 4 in the clippers. He played like, 20 minutes with zubac their only true center.
His defensive problems are
1. Rim protection at the 5 spot
2. Low post defense at the 5 soot
3. "Switchability".
1,2 become strengths at the 4 potentially, while i think theres a shot he ends up as a switchable type defender based off some stuff ive been seeing from 2019. His p and r defense wasnt bad, its more so the clippers ran the wrong coverages and so it looks like its his fault
Offensively he and schroder work really well, and his fit with AD is great for him, although i prefer AD with spacing harrell is a genuine all star level scorer at times.
Schroder doesnt have the team defense playoff rondo had huut he makes up for it by being a significantly better on ball defender, and while his overall playmaking isnt as good hes more of threat as a scorer and cant be left open, and is better at getting to the and being a scoring threat in the pick and roll. Rondo was great in the playoffs but at times he was still stagnant with the ball, and if we were running man he got targetted, although when we ran zone he was great. With schroder i expect it to be the other way around but its not gonna be a huge disparity, he'll be great when we run man D and decent when we run more zone switchy stuff.
Matthews probably isnt as good as rs green but hes a better defender on ball, not as good off ball
Otoh, i like having more on ball defenders rhan help defenders. People fall into the trap that team defense is always more valuable when its a situational thing. Typically if you dont have that team defense guy it sucks, but when you have 2 of the best at it jn their position in bron and AD, sure having more helps but you want more guys able to guard the point of attack allowing them to do their thing
Schroder is a good on ball defender for guards, caruso is good at it in general as well. Now we add matthews whose good at it and also good at guarding wings. Hopefully we see kuz continue his growth in that regard, he looked really good defensively in the bubble at times
The thing is, the fit could be quite good and from a talent perspective we replaced 2/4 guys we replaced were situational pieces,1 had a bad playoffs, 1 was good in the playoffs but horrible in the RS and did have a few stinkers in the postseason as well, with 3 guys that are legitimately goot enough to be a top 3-6 player on a contender, and a solid 3 and D llayer that might fit us better than he did the bucks
Harrell talent wise was the clippers 3rd best player, he was "exposed" in the sense that he cant guard centers that even guys like AD have their hands full guarding.
Marc is a year off from being a starting center for a championship team, was able to stay on the court with the warrors and good at blitzing p and r, and even though his offense was bleh during the bubble he was genuinly one of their most impactful defenders over the past two years (actually was the best in net def rtg in the playoffs 2019 outside of the 76ers series which is cuz he matched minutes with embiid, worth noting embiids numbers in the few minutes with him off the court were amazing iirc)
Finally, schroder was statistucally okc's 2nd or third best scorer, probably behind only gallo and cp3. He was a solid piece defensively and was just overall a good player for them.
Theres some downside to every signing, schroder's shooting could regress, harrell could be bad, matthews and marc are older, but theres alot of upside and potentially we have a roster where our 8th best player is as good as a typical contendor" 4th best player, and that doesnt even bring up how kuz and tht pan out.
We get underestimated historically because of the bubble performance last year. At the end of the day we were a 64 win team pre bubble trending upwards, our srs at the time around 7.4-8 ish, and RS wise we went waaay up in talent
Not only that, but we'll be a team like that with 1 player that goes up from great to KG Duncan tier defensively in the playoffs, and the other player is lebron
The nets are scary, the bucks if they figure things out, clippers are always threatening with kawhi
But then again last urar was supposed to be the most competetive year ever, our closest series was a 6 game series where we were chilling the whole time, and we probably had the second best offseason (the bucks got jrue, jrue is INSANE)
