The LeBron James - 21-22 Regular Season Thread - New Thread Soon Part 2

[trickshot]

Lakers are a good team, they really are but they're carrying too many players who are total liabilities defending the perimeter. Individual defense got cooked but Lavine and Derozan were cooking. You can't do much against some of those contested shots. Was the team defense that was unnecessarily bad. Some matchups where they don't have a chance at even keeping the score honest. They can't contain any team with 2 or more perimeter threats and/or decent passing. Lebron and AD are going to miss having guys who defended with their brains. These guys need instructions barked on every possession or they'll pick up the wrong man or not even know it's their rotation next.

[dcstanley]

Derozoan has been a net negative player literally his entire career and now is playing defense and hitting threes. This is absolutely wild.

Never understood why he wasn't a more capable three point shooter. He has such great shooting touch in the midrange, you would think it would translate behind the line.

[GSP]

If Tht keeps producing like this and making plays on the ball the Russ contract looks infinitely worse. He was already a much better defender. So youll have 2 players with him and Bron youd rather have the ball with than Russ.....what is his role? An offball guard that cant shoot? And defensively a roamer who has gotten torched offball his whole career?

[Mos_Heat]

The are now 25th in point diff (-4.6), 24th on offense(104.8 ) and 18th on defense (109.4). In the last 2 weeks, since Lebron injury, they are 26th in point diff(-9.5), 26th on offense(102.0) and 19th on defense(111.5)

With Lebron on the floor +3.6 point diff (approximately 11th), 110.6 Ortg(8th) and 106.8 Drtg (13th)

All in non garbage time minutes

[Mos_Heat]

Spoiler:

Nunn isn't a defensive liability though and you still need guards

He is a great catch and shoot guy and you still want creators

Monk and maybe even Ellington may not even be playable come playoff time against a lot of matchups

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You are right about the salaries, but not sure I would move Nunn unless we really think Ellington can almost be Nunn on D and won't get picked on come playoff time

I would move Monk and package with Rondo/DJ or even Bazemore if needed

Russ to OKC with our 2027 1st is probably the only way we can move him this year if we want anything of value (the trade exception). Doubt that happens

I know that he's decent defensively but they desperately need a big body, especially with the way Bazemore looks. Even if Ariza gets back to his previous form, they can't rely on a wing rotation of 37yo Lebron, 37yo Melo and 36yo Ariza

You don't think Monk, 2nds, and an expiring like Rondo/DJ fetch a bench guy?

Danuel House?

It probably would, but the only useful player in this salary range is House, and I don't think Pelinka will act proactively. Also I don't think this team is one wing short, they need at least 2

Who are you even eyeying with Nunn?

Justin Holiday, Kyle Anderson, maybe Temple

There's also another path, just go all in and trade unprotected first for a guy like Dort, Reddish, PJ Washington or TJ Warren. But that would make the Lakers super expensive, that would also mean Westbrook stays for another year

[Gooner]

Lakers played 12 home games already and they are only 8-7. That's worrying.

[Fadeaway_J]

Lakers are a good team, they really are but they're carrying too many players who are total liabilities defending the perimeter. Individual defense got cooked but Lavine and Derozan were cooking. You can't do much against some of those contested shots. Was the team defense that was unnecessarily bad. Some matchups where they don't have a chance at even keeping the score honest. They can't contain any team with 2 or more perimeter threats and/or decent passing. Lebron and AD are going to miss having guys who defended with their brains. These guys need instructions barked on every possession or they'll pick up the wrong man or not even know it's their rotation next.

What evidence do we have that they're a good team? A good team wouldn't have all the defensive liabilities you're talking about...

[Colbinii]

Lakers played 12 home games already and they are only 8-7. That's worrying.

Yup.

The positive is LeBron is the king at using the regular season as a giant practice to prepare his teams for the post-season. As long as the Lakers make the post-season and see steady growth throughout the regular season then the regular season will be a success.

[JLei]

This team is ollllddddd.

No legs and no chance (without Lebron) on 2nd night of a back to back.

Melo goes from Olympic Melo to Houston Melo lol. Ellington couldn't make a shot and Bradley and Rondo looked close to retirement.

Now for the good. THT looks real good. That was his career high in takes and makes for 3's (and couple of those misses were jacks), definite improvement in mechanics. If the shooting gets to be passable all of his other unique qualities become assets in a closing lineup around AD, Bron, Russ.

AD, Bron, Melo, THT, Russ with Ariza/Bradley/ Nunn going in and out for offense/ defense on paper looks to have enough on both ends to be deadly in the playoffs.

Team is still shiet right now. But remember they are 4-2 and basically won at a 70% clip with AD/ Lebron in since 2019.

[Fadeaway_J]

This team is ollllddddd.

No legs and no chance (without Lebron) on 2nd night of a back to back.

Melo goes from Olympic Melo to Houston Melo lol. Ellington couldn't make a shot and Bradley and Rondo looked close to retirement.

Now for the good. THT looks real good. That was his career high in takes and makes for 3's (and couple of those misses were jacks), definite improvement in mechanics. If the shooting gets to be passable all of his other unique qualities become assets in a closing lineup around AD, Bron, Russ.

AD, Bron, Melo, THT, Russ with Ariza/Bradley/ Nunn going in and out for offense/ defense on paper looks to have enough on both ends to be deadly in the playoffs.

Team is still shiet right now. But remember they are 4-2 and basically won at a 70% clip with AD/ Lebron in since 2019.

This would be more encouraging if we were dealing with prime LeBron and a more reliable second option than AD.

All signs point to 2019-20 being an outlier in terms of how much you can bank on both of them being healthy and producing at a top three level.

[JLei]

This team is ollllddddd.

No legs and no chance (without Lebron) on 2nd night of a back to back.

Melo goes from Olympic Melo to Houston Melo lol. Ellington couldn't make a shot and Bradley and Rondo looked close to retirement.

Now for the good. THT looks real good. That was his career high in takes and makes for 3's (and couple of those misses were jacks), definite improvement in mechanics. If the shooting gets to be passable all of his other unique qualities become assets in a closing lineup around AD, Bron, Russ.

AD, Bron, Melo, THT, Russ with Ariza/Bradley/ Nunn going in and out for offense/ defense on paper looks to have enough on both ends to be deadly in the playoffs.

Team is still shiet right now. But remember they are 4-2 and basically won at a 70% clip with AD/ Lebron in since 2019.

This would be more encouraging if we were dealing with prime LeBron and a more reliable second option than AD.

All signs point to 2019-20 being an outlier in terms of how much you can bank on both of them being healthy and producing at a top three level.

I mean last year you had a pretty shiet AD and they still were pretty unbeatable when both were in (21-6 when he went down the first time). And AD despite his soft looking moments has been much better than he was last year (obviously not to 2019-20 level though)

[Greatness]

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[Fadeaway_J]

This team is ollllddddd.

No legs and no chance (without Lebron) on 2nd night of a back to back.

Melo goes from Olympic Melo to Houston Melo lol. Ellington couldn't make a shot and Bradley and Rondo looked close to retirement.

Now for the good. THT looks real good. That was his career high in takes and makes for 3's (and couple of those misses were jacks), definite improvement in mechanics. If the shooting gets to be passable all of his other unique qualities become assets in a closing lineup around AD, Bron, Russ.

AD, Bron, Melo, THT, Russ with Ariza/Bradley/ Nunn going in and out for offense/ defense on paper looks to have enough on both ends to be deadly in the playoffs.

Team is still shiet right now. But remember they are 4-2 and basically won at a 70% clip with AD/ Lebron in since 2019.

This would be more encouraging if we were dealing with prime LeBron and a more reliable second option than AD.

All signs point to 2019-20 being an outlier in terms of how much you can bank on both of them being healthy and producing at a top three level.

I mean last year you had a pretty shiet AD and they still were pretty unbeatable when both were in (21-6 when he went down the first time). And AD despite his soft looking moments has been much better than he was last year (obviously not to 2019-20 level though)

The fact that we keep hearkening back to "21-6" in a 72-game season is the point.

Adding Russ was supposed to create some margin for error to reduce the reliance on the two superstars, but here we are waiting for 36-year-old LeBron to come back and fix everything.

[PistolPeteJR]

They're doubling AD a lot in this 3rd. Vogel gotta come up with some sort of solution for how much double teams bother AD

Every team is doubling him nowadays. The scouting report is clearly out leaguewide. Tbh, I'm happy with it because it should force him to improve on that from now with a ton of time before the playoffs.

[thebigbird]

Lakers are so stupid. By far the most incompetent organization LeBron has played for in his career. So many good options and they end up with gd Russell Westbrick.

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[homecourtloss]

Lakers are so stupid. By far the most incompetent organization LeBron has played for in his career. So many good options and they end up with gd Russell Westbrick.

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To be fair, from an analytics standpoint, DD didn’t make much sense (i.e., negative defender, doesn’t shoot threes, good shot creator/driver). His first 14 games or whatever are the biggest performance over expectation given 10 years of data that I’ve ever seen (along with DRose maybe the last two years).

But of course, he makes more sense than Westbrook that never made sense ever.

[thebigbird]

Lakers are so stupid. By far the most incompetent organization LeBron has played for in his career. So many good options and they end up with gd Russell Westbrick.

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To be fair, from an analytics standpoint, DD didn’t make much sense (i.e., negative defender, doesn’t shoot threes, good shot creator/driver). His first 14 games or whatever are the biggest performance over expectation given 10 years of data that I’ve ever seen (along with DRose maybe the last two years).

But of course, he makes more sense than Westbrook that never made sense ever.

I’ve never been a big Derozan fan, largely because he can’t shoot threes, but he looks like an efficiency god compared to Westbrook. 22 ppg on 59% TS last year and 22 ppg on 60% TS the year before. He can’t shoot threes, but unlike guys like Westbrook who can’t shoot threes, Derozan at least doesn’t jack them up.

I’ll absolutely never understand the Westbrook trade. He’s as bad of a fit with this team as you can possibly get. The only reason to bring him in is to carry the load when LeBron is out, but he hasn’t been able to do that either. Ugh.

[trickshot]

Lakers are a good team, they really are but they're carrying too many players who are total liabilities defending the perimeter. Individual defense got cooked but Lavine and Derozan were cooking. You can't do much against some of those contested shots. Was the team defense that was unnecessarily bad. Some matchups where they don't have a chance at even keeping the score honest. They can't contain any team with 2 or more perimeter threats and/or decent passing. Lebron and AD are going to miss having guys who defended with their brains. These guys need instructions barked on every possession or they'll pick up the wrong man or not even know it's their rotation next.

What evidence do we have that they're a good team? A good team wouldn't have all the defensive liabilities you're talking about...

They are talented but are several restructures away from being a title contending team. It looks like Carmelo, Monk and Ellington in a rotation can barely win quarters against strong teams but their shooting is so strong it's kinda hard to tell people one of them needs to be moved or benched. We just saw an injured name come back and make no difference to the level of defensive liability their combined presence causes. The team performance as a whole sucked on execution but guys are consistently giving away freebies when the team is trying to claw back into games. Truth is Rondo is also a major liability. It won't matter how many positive guys return when 3-4 of the rotation feature these names extensively.

As for the offense it's kind of hard to diagnose without saying the obvious Lebron will fix it or Vogel needs to run more sets. Westbrook had a stretch in the 1st half where he kept them in the game but I thought his playmaking was a disappointment and showed why it hasn't translated against great defenses. AD was AD and hot bettered by doubleteaming. You can't draw doubles for three quarters and finish with one assist.

[nzahir]

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I wish he was ready for the Bucks game as that is winnable with them being hit hard by injuries and covid

[trickshot]

Lakers are so stupid. By far the most incompetent organization LeBron has played for in his career. So many good options and they end up with gd Russell Westbrick.

[tw?s=21

To be fair, from an analytics standpoint, DD didn’t make much sense (i.e., negative defender, doesn’t shoot threes, good shot creator/driver). His first 14 games or whatever are the biggest performance over expectation given 10 years of data that I’ve ever seen (along with DRose maybe the last two years).

But of course, he makes more sense than Westbrook that never made sense ever.

I’ve never been a big Derozan fan, largely because he can’t shoot threes, but he looks like an efficiency god compared to Westbrook. 22 ppg on 59% TS last year and 22 ppg on 60% TS the year before. He can’t shoot threes, but unlike guys like Westbrook who can’t shoot threes, Derozan at least doesn’t jack them up.

I’ll absolutely never understand the Westbrook trade. He’s as bad of a fit with this team as you can possibly get. The only reason to bring him in is to carry the load when LeBron is out, but he hasn’t been able to do that either. Ugh.

Derozan would have been huge. Would have fit so well with AD. By contrast AD/Westbrook pick and rolls are so useless to the team's offense. Opponents back off, go under and give Westbrook the open 2 every time, it's a win-win for the opponent. It brings a 2nd defender to AD and gives an inefficient shot to an already inefficient scorer. Think about this for a second. How can a PnR with 2 stars be a win-win for the other team? It's also how that AD screen handoff play that KCP and Bradley used to run don't work with Westbrook.

I'm even certain AD isn't enjoying the Westbrook experience. It's now 2 blowouts in a week he has found a way to avoid finishing the game. Even his body language no longer hides disapproval on some of Westbrook's more baffling decisions.

edit it should also go without saying but a lot of Laker's defensive problems would be so so much fixable if Westbrook gave positive effort in his 30 minutes a game. I never saw a player so consistently turn his back to his assignment to go stand and stare elsewhere. This isn't the type of team that can cover up those kinds of mistakes. I can't understand how a so called superstar's game can be so detrimental to his own team's ceiling.