Post#23 » by R-DAWG » Mon Jan 23, 2023 11:15 pm
This team was always going to be as good as Lebron and AD are. Lebron has been great. AD has been great. But they haven't been on the court enough together. Combined they have missed 32 (Davis 22, James 10) out of a possible 94 games. So the fact that they are 2 games out of the 6th seed - with a real chance of getting there if they can stay healthy - is I guess a good thing. But when you have Lebron and AD, you expect to be competing for home court advantage.
But look at the positives on the roster - they have an NBA level backcourt that can support their front court. The combination of Schroeder as a starter and Westbrook as 6th man has worked well. Walker has been an average starting level SG and Reaves has played himself into rotation caliber as a backup SG. Could you upgrade, of course, but there is more than enough in the backcourt to complement a James/Davis frontcourt. For context, the backcourt of the bubble team was Green, KCP, Carusso, Rondo. I will make the argument that the difference between this years group and that group isn't overly significant, although that group was better defensively and better shooting, but lacked playmaking/ballhandling.
And Thomas Bryant and Troy Brown have provided capable reserve minutes brining some size.
Now, the challenge has been that Pat Bev has essentially been the starting SF, and the roster lacks size on the wing. In some ways, Rui should help. But the issue remains that they still have too many undersized guards in the lineup, need more size on the wing, could use another situational rim protector and a little more shooting.
In a perfect world, you would move Schroeder out of the rotation when everyone is healthy and roll with this lineup:
Bev/Walker/Brown/James/Davis
Westbrook/Reaves/Rui/Bryant
But you might be better off looking to turn bigger wing like a Josh Richardson and keeping Schroeder as the starting PG
Schroeder/Walker/Richardson/James/Davis
Westbrook/Reaves/Brown/Rui/Bryant
If James and Davis can stay healthy and be dominant for an extended playoff run, this team could be interesting. Long shots to go super deep, but interesting non the less.
Under the circumstances, the Lakers are in a solid place. Why they are under these circumstances is a different conversation.