The LeBron James, Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves - 25-26 Thread

[xb3at band1tx]

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[TroubleS0me]

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[Jurassic_Park]

Man lebron better wake up or his 10pt streak will be over

[nzahir]

Cant start Rui and Bron together

And as usual Rui keeps on smoking layups lol

Either gotta start Smart or get another guy to start (Herb, Wiggins, Abaji, DJJ)

[Fadeaway_J]

Cant start Rui and Bron together

And as usual Rui keeps on smoking layups lol

Either gotta start Smart or get another guy to start (Herb, Wiggins, Abaji, DJJ)

Yeah I don't see how this starting lineup is viable defensively.

[dcstanley]

Cant start Rui and Bron together

And as usual Rui keeps on smoking layups lol

Either gotta start Smart or get another guy to start (Herb, Wiggins, Abaji, DJJ)

Rui getting backcut left and right too. You can't be low IQ and lack athleticism/physicality. It's painful to watch him play defense.

[Mos_Heat]

Looked creaky but that's expected

It's unfortunate that Dallas won't trade with LAL in the near future. Any combination of Christie/Marshall/Gaford/Washington would've been helpful

[TroubleS0me]

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[Slava]

Cant start Rui and Bron together

And as usual Rui keeps on smoking layups lol

Either gotta start Smart or get another guy to start (Herb, Wiggins, Abaji, DJJ)

Rui getting backcut left and right too. You can't be low IQ and lack athleticism/physicality. It's painful to watch him play defense.

Yeah it was painful to watch Lauri get a march on him every single time. His only job on offense is to catch and shoot, he could atleast be attentive on defense and grab a few boards for being a 6’10 PF.

[PistolPeteJR]

I wonder if the Lakers have enough for Zubac, given the Clippers’ horrid start.

I’m thinking no.

[LikeABosh]

I wonder if the Lakers have enough for Zubac, given the Clippers’ horrid start.

I’m thinking no.

Zero chance they trade Zubac unless they can get their picks back. They need to be competitive going forward

Lakers are still a bottom 5 team in 3p makes and 3p%. That plus plugging a quality defender into the starting lineup are the priorities imo

[Fadeaway_J]

I wonder if the Lakers have enough for Zubac, given the Clippers’ horrid start.

I’m thinking no.

Sadly, Mike Muscala is retired.

[homecourtloss]

I wonder if the Lakers have enough for Zubac, given the Clippers’ horrid start.

I’m thinking no.

Zero chance they trade Zubac unless they can get their picks back. They need to be competitive going forward

Lakers are still a bottom 5 team in 3p makes and 3p%. That plus plugging a quality defender into the starting lineup are the priorities imo

The Lakers have played one of the most unique first 15 games of a season offensively speaking. They are #2 in eFG despite being in the bottom ten of 3P attempt rate and 3P%, which is absolutely wild given the league environment. They are first in TS% driven by a very high FT rate and an incredibly high 2P%. Historically, TS% and eFG% are by far the highest correlative factors with ORtg.



But the Lakers are only 11th in ORtg due to being dead last in TOV%, bottom ten in three point attempt rate and three point %, and mediocre in OREB%, i.e., 16th in the league.

The Lakers are currently shooting 62.2% from 2P, far and away the best in the league and they’re not doing it because they take all their shots at the rim like they did in 2020 (2025-2026 Lakers are 18th in % of shots at the rim), but because of how efficient they have been from 3-10 ft., 10-16 ft., and 16-3P range.

2P FG%

Lakers, 62.2%
Spurs, 59.5%
Nuggets, 58.5%

Lakers’ rFG% from distance

0-3 ft: 75.7%, +5.3 rFG
3-10 ft. 57.5%, +11.4 rFG
10-16 ft: 53.9%, +10.2 rFG
16-3P: 45.5%, +6.0 rFG

99.9% certain these will regress towards the mean, but I don’t see a path for the team to regress the other way on 3P% or attempt rate without structural changes. On defense, they’ll continue to remain mediocre or even bad as currently constructed.

[JLei]

Was an interesting first game for Lebron.

Seeing how they are using him with this more Luka/ Reaves centric offense.

He was very focused on getting off ball for the most part and made a couple of 3's and was setting screens. He wasn't rolling particularly hard or cutting a lot but mostly picked his spots.

He did most of his damage in early offense as the leak out guy. Luka likes to stay in the paint and steal rebounds on defense. Those kick aheads to Lebron were reminded me of Love to Lebron in the Cleveland days.

It's probably the best way to utilize Lebron talents on offense where he doesn't step on Luka's toes too much in the half court. He has full control of the ball in his historically most dangerous play type while Luka is in the backcourt trailing.

The main thing I don't really like is with Lebron focused on leaking it takes him away from back line defense. And you kind of saw that last night. He wasn't rotating hard to cover paint mistakes by Rui. I mean he was obviously still low on the cardio and maybe was conserving energy but I think it's scheme as well.