xb3at band1tx wrote:This feels like LeBron's best team top to bottom on paper
Something thats interesting is i dont think people quite get how good we were
Keep in mind each series we got progressively better
During the RS, pre bubble, we had a
113.7 offensive rtg, 106.3 defensive rtg
And a 49-14 record, having one of the toucher schedules in the league.
So we were the #3 offensive and #3 defensive team in the RS
From christmas day to end of pre bubble, this changes to
115 offensive rtg and 107.3 defensivw rtg
25-7
17 of those games were against playoff teams though, and the ones that werent were against
pelicans thrice, Memphis twice, pheonix twice, warriors twice, nyk twice, spurs, sacramento, and detroit, and cleveland
So 17 games were vs playoff teams, and of the 15 that werent, 9/15 were vs bubble teams. (And obv played a bunch of the top west dogs and the bucks in that stretch) yet our net rtg increased
So we had a pretty hard schedule but as rhe season went on we clearly got better
Its important mentioning that while their defense varied, EVERY SINGLE team we played in the playoffs were arguably "the best" offensive team in the nba, in a way.
Portland were by the metrics since the bubble started, houstan had been great offensively agter the capela trade aside from the last bubble games where not all of them played, and they were hot from three vs us, denver were a top 5 offensive team that replaced jamal murray with super saiyan jamal murray, and the heat had just decimated every single defense including the historically good bucks one
Caveats to each but as a whole we were great in the playoffs.
Now our net rtg of 7.2 in the playoffs, a 117.1 offensive rtg and 109.9 defensive rtg looks pretty good taking this into account, but that doesnt tell the full story
In games decided by 10 or less, we were +34 in the fourth quarter
In games decided by more than 10 points, we were -66 in the fourth
So in the 8 games where the score was lopsided, they were -66 (garbage time) and in the 12 where it wasnt so lopsided they were +34 (4 games were by exactly 10 btw).
Obv its not that simple since in a 2 of those games that were lopsided it the fourth quarter was a big deal for why they lost but it doesnt nearly make up for it. Because of sample size using advanced stats for clutch data isnt greT, but while the lakers clutch net rtg was negative (-3.7) they won 6/10 games they were in the clutch which is prolly more significant in small samples
(Im using nba daya vs bball ref from here on out)
The lakers net rtg for the first three quarters was +11.8, in the 4th it was -8.3, fully from garbage time
The 2017 warriors had a net rtg of 11.3 through the first three quarters for comparison,they didnt follow the same garbage time trend
Now its not that simple, aometimes they won or less by ten because of what happened in the fourth (although in the lakers case since they only lost 2 games by 10 or more its pretty valid), but its worth mentioning their pure net rtg doesnt show how good they were because of this, and this trend doesnt repeat (in lopsided scores resulting in them being big negatives in the fourth quarter)
I didnt look at every team but this doesnt seem to be a common thing, to this extant and we clearly see then hella take their foot off the gas with insurmountable leads
Given that the lakers basically played like a team with a +10-12 net rtg when it mattered
Aa far as i jnow here are the teams since 1998 with a +10 playoff net rtg
2014 spurs
2017-2018 warriors
2001 lakers
The lakers when they were "trying" essentially played at a level only 3 teams in the past 22 years have reached.
Its worth mentioning the spurs and warriors and 01 lakers didnt follow this trend, 01 lakers and 18 warriors
Specifically annihilated teams in garbage time
As much as people rag on the lakers competition, and obv it was a death gauntlet, in twrms of avg quality of teams they faced while they didnt play any ATG great team and miami was hobbled, i would definatley argue that portland is a pretty damn hard first round matchup, houstans a difficult second round matchup esp conaidering their hot, the nuggets were a solid team and the heat were hobbled but were also good and deserved to be there (compared to the competition during other dominant runs)
So this lakers squad is arguably one of the best ever i feel in terms of pure dominance. Keep in mind while its fair to say it was noise, our two key players, AD and Lebron both step up their game in the playoffs
Lebrons done it enough times that its a given.
AD stepped it up arguably just as much but i see why some might think his shooting was flukey. But keep in mind defensively not only did he step it up, but his defensive game is also built in a way that it elevates in the playoffs when we arent just spamming drop coverages
So we replaced rondo with 6MOTY candidate schroder, while playoff rondo was good, ESPECIALLY vs the rockets, he had a few bad games here and there and his defense overall was still suspect and targetted when we didnt play zone, whereas schroder is a solid two way player, can function off ball as a cutter and shooter too.
We replaced green with matthews. While thats a 50-50, green was kind of bad in the playoffs, and while matthews isnt the team defender green is (although hes not a liability in that regard), green was bad at shooting in the playoffs and matthews is a better man defender which we need vs teams with multiple strong wings
We replaced dwight, who was great but only really did anything in the denver series to stop jokic, with marc, who is arguably better defensively but fits really well on offense and is a year removed from being starting center on a championship contender
We replaced mcgee, whose a tall body, that basically didnt play, with 6MOTY harrell, who at first glance doesnt fit but clearly has upside defensively and is legitimately one of the best roll men finishers in the nba as well as able to make his own shots
Not to mention horton tucker and kuzma are gonna improve, dont know by how much but we'll see
But essentially on a move by move basis, we replaced someone whose role (dwight) was literally only be a body and be there to stop jokic, with someone that is 95th percentile in post d ppp for the three years in a row (0.57 ppp, last year. for comparison, gobert is at 0.76ppp, which is second best for him in 5 years, and best percentile wise, howard and AS both at 0.67ppp). Not to mention hes one of the better (one of the best?) playmakers at his position
A guy that was there for the locker room and his bball iq and ability to handle the ball and pass, but was left open and killed spacing because of his unwillingness to shoot even when he was making them, and often held the ball too long and didnt mesh well with bron together, along with being our worst man to man defender with a 6moty level pg that is coming off of a strong 3 point shooting season, can attack drop coverages and apparently is a good cutter off ball and a strong defender on ball
Replaced our 3 and d shooter that couldnt shoot in the playoffs with another 3 and d shooter thats better at guarding our weakspot losing a bit in team D
And finally, we replaced mcgee, a literal body so AD doesnt get hurt, with a 6MOTY who was a deserved winner. Even though he has targettable weaknesses, if he pans out defensively and it turns out he can switch on to smalls which is possible considering he was praised for it in the past, wont be functionally playing defensive center as much with AD on the court, and the chip on his shoulder we have frank vogel factor
Like disregarding everything else, just that upside alone is insane, we can take a top 5 team of the past 20 years and replaced a literal body with a 6MOTY guy that could pan out to be waaaay better than he was last year.
Keep in mind. Harrell is a legitimate force offensively despite the awkward fit. If hes switchable and becomes a + defender we are talking star level player (not superstar but way bettee than nothing)
Literally the only guy that hasnt been replaced from last year is kieff and we might/probably will still sign him
Even from an RS perspective, our bench lineup (schroder i think will start but he'll be heading the second unit too), we went from rondo, who sucked in the rs, and dwight, who was solid but limited, to the top 2 6MOTY guys in schroder and harrell, caruso, who alot of us think was a top 5 most important laker player last year, and kuzma, who still has potential but regardless is faaaar better than most teams 8 or 9th guy (and talent wise hes obviously really talented).
We undoubtedly have the best top tier stars in the nba, arguably the 2nd best player long with inarguably the best player.
And we might have the best supporting cast for the starters in the nba AND bench in the nba as well
Like its kind of insane lol
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