Today we look at the Los Angeles Lakers, a team that is somewhere in the middle as it prepares for the inevitable day when LeBron James is no longer in the building
LeBron James has been in the NBA for over two decades. During his illustrious career, the team that employs him often has to come to grips with the reality that they will always be doing whatever it takes to elevate their roster with veteran players that make sense around his skillset. This has usually meant that veterans that can shoot threes and defend would be targeted in free agency. This year, however, as LeBron enters his 22nd NBA season, the Lakers have been surprisingly quiet on that front. Instead, their main priority has been to re-sign James, which they did on a 2-year $101 million deal.
The sheer absurdity that LeBron James at the age of 39, who will turn 40 during this next season, is not lost on me nor should it be lost on you. He is still performing at an elite level and is still one of the best players in basketball despite being the oldest active player in the NBA. As he returns for another season, he is accompanied once again by Anthony Davis who is coming off a stellar season that was mostly devoid of injury where he was named to the All-Defense First Team and All-NBA Second Team. It is clear that the Lakers still believe in their dynamic duo to get them into the postseason.
Around their two stars, the Lakers have retained players like D’Angelo Russell, Rui Hachimura, Austin Reaves, and Jarred Vanderbilt. There was a moment where the team was trying to attract Klay Thompson from Golden State and have LeBron take less money, but that fell through and instead Klay is a Maverick today and LeBron has a near max contract. The Lakers, like many other teams this off-season, have been committed to avoiding the first apron luxury tax that came into effect from the new collective bargaining agreement. This would likely explain why they have been mostly quiet in free agency.
Instead, the Lakers have opted to draft a couple of young prospects that they feel can contribute right away: Dalton Knecht and Bronny James. Knecht was a lottery talent, a player that can score a lot of points, yet he slipped outside of the Lottery where the Lakers were more than happy to draft him at 17. At 23 years old, he is a slightly older prospect by NBA standards but with that college experience he brings physicality and above average shot making ability. If the Mind the Game Podcast with LeBron James and now Lakers head coach JJ Redick is any indication, we are likely to see some actions implemented with the sole intent of getting Knecht open looks. I would not be surprised if Knecht ends up being one of the best players in this draft when all is said and done.
The second player that was selected was Bronny James, who is of course LeBron James’ oldest son. LeBron has been adamant over the years about wanting to play on the same team as his son in the NBA, and now he gets his wish. The wide range of opinions on this subject are vast where many are crying nepotism while others are applauding how cool it is to see a player and his son share the court together. From a basketball perspective, if Bronny gets time this year I would imagine it is because of what his ceiling could be defensively. He is undersized at 6’1” and doesn’t possess natural ball handling ability to slot in as a point guard. But he does have decent defensive attributes to give him an opportunity as a rotation player throughout the season. If nothing else, the Lakers have a fun PR story that will run across various outlets.
The Lakers are in a precarious position in not knowing what the future holds in regards to the long-term vision of their franchise. The skill level of LeBron at this age is unprecedented. Players simply are not this good at 40 years old in the NBA. Michael Jordan averaged the most points per game with 22.4 points as a player over 40 in 30 games for the Wizards. After him that number drops off substantially with Karl Malone averaging 12.4 points. James is still the number one option for a team with playoff aspirations and there is not a precedent for this, and that means that the fall off could happen at any time.
To combat this, the Lakers kept their team together. And despite James being 39 and Anthony Davis being 31, the rest of the team is relatively young. Rui Hachimura, Austin Reaves, and Jarred Vanderbilt are all under 27 and have a lot of high level basketball left in them. Both D’Angelo Russell and Christian Wood are expiring deals that could be leveraged at the deadline to get more shooting around the team. In that sense, the Lakers are somewhat equipped for any potential fall-off or injury to their aging stars, or at least as well prepared as a team can be when they employ LeBron James.
The Lakers were in the Play-In this past season and are likely to be in that same position this coming season. The Western Conference continues to get better with teams continuing to improve their rosters. It will be tough to compete in the West, but the Lakers still have two players that can win a lot of games. I don’t think we are looking at banner 18 in Los Angeles, but at the very least they will be a competent team which is often very difficult to assemble when you have a superstar inching closer towards the end of their career.
Comments