Los Angeles Lakers: Is LeBron enough to overcome the team’s deficiencies?

Are LeBron James and Anthony Davis, alone, enough to overcome the Los Angeles Lakers’ team deficiencies heading into the season?

Okay, so that didn’t exactly go as planned, did it? I mean it sort of did, but the amount of twists and turns along with the time it took to get this Los Angeles Lakers roster together was more convoluted than expected. It was anticipated that prime targets would join the team either last summer or this, just not exactly in this manner.

I suppose there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about this group, especially from a Lakers fans perspective. From an objective point of view, though, I definitely have a lot of questions regarding the current team structure.

First and foremost is quite obviously LeBron James‘ age. Now, if anyone in the history of sports was likely to defy the age deterioration constant for a longer period of time, it would be this guy. Despite this, though, you can clearly see differences in James’s game.

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He isn’t as fast or explosive as he used to be, insert someone showing me a dunk from last season, and his defense is lacking. But are these really even bad things? These adjustments have required him to become more of a shooter and he’s done a remarkable job at that. Though he was never Ben Simmons, I never saw LeBron as a prolific converter off the jump shot.

Now though, he’s up there with other pure bucket getters in that category. Think of Kobe Bryant Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, and the way these guys make faders and highly contested mid-rangers with ease. This is essential because if you combine this new portion of his game with the already outstanding finishing, vision, and intellect, you have a player who can definitely continue to succeed at age 35.

A second concern is simply defining roles. The big two are LeBron and Anthony Davis, which goes without saying. Who’s the third option though? DeMarcus Cousins just sustained a torn ACL in practice, which is terrible for him but we know this means he may not play until the playoffs. So is it on Kyle Kuzma to play a pure scorers role and fill that void? If Kyle manages to have a career year and fully flesh out his potential that’s still an oddly weighted lineup.

Your scoring is all in one spot in the paint/mid-range area. I’m not pretending LeBron isn’t shooting the 3 better now than any point in his career, or that Kuzma and AD aren’t capable, but you know they aren’t perimeter players. How many minutes do they play them together? Can AD stay healthy for 60-70 games? They did add some quality players outside of the aforementioned Anthony Davis, but on a title-contending team, we know that role-players often go underutilized and things get top-heavy.

Consider the additions of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Avery Bradley, Quinn cook, Rajon Rondo, and Danny Green. All of these are quality veteran players at this point in their careers. These guys are all great in a vacuum, but how will the Lakers use them here? They aren’t great shooters, (aside from DG) and none of them generally score on their own.

This team basically has no elite guard play whatsoever. There is no guard with a handle on this roster that I can consistently look at and say “yeah, that guy can get us a bucket.” Clearly, the argument can and has been made that LeBron is essentially a guard himself as well as a playmaker, so that won’t matter. Well…yeah but…LeBron isn’t Kyrie, and something like that is what I’m looking for.

Obviously, he is someone who can get you points in the clutch, but it’d be nice to have a second option, right? Don’t try to tell me Anthony Davis is that guy. Yes, big men can be clutch and hit big shots in the right scenarios, but more often than not it’s who? A player that handles the ball is far more capable and responsible for making a critical shot, that’s simple. Neither AD, Danny Green, nor Kyle Kuzma is going to be bringing the ball up the court very often, nonetheless initiating the offense.

This basically leaves us with LeBron, obviously, Rondo, KCP, or Quinn Cook. The best shooter outside of LBJ here is Quinn and he’s never seen a high usage rate outside of his fill-in for Stephen Curry late last season.

It’s either LeBron or a bunch of catch-and-shoot guys when it comes down to clutch time. This all may not even matter at all, because the top tier talent on this team is that elite. However, when problems or question marks arise, and you can be sure they will, this is something that should come up. It isn’t even necessarily the Lakers fault that it shook out this way. They got the best players they could with the money that they had, and by the time Kawhi was off the market so was pretty much everyone else.

Lastly and probably overlooked a little is the coaching staff choices made by the already questionable front office. Jeanie has already made a few interesting decisions in her time as owner, and Rob Pelinka is definitely on that list.

Either the rumors swirling about him were false and they’ve resolved things internally, or this is just one weird situation. Though he did well in free agency and negotiations overall, refusing to give LeBron’s coach a deal over length of the contract was petty. It’s as if they want to turn the team over to James, but…not really.

That doesn’t usually work well, you either relinquish control and trust his NBA acumen or don’t bring him in. (i.e. David Blatt) that being said, Frank Vogel seemed to be a very competent coach. I mean, can we really hold the Magic against him? Whether or not this works comes down to the relationship between him and LeBron.

All potential pitfalls taken into consideration, the Lakers did what was in the best interest of not only their brand but of their chances at success in the near future. Even if their prize acquisition in James ages out and doesn’t secure them a championship, they just landed the next generational pillar of the franchise in Anthony Davis.

They’re simultaneously attempting to win now while also building for the future, which is something not many teams age alignment allows them to do. Despite the tenure of Buss or Pelinka and whether it is long term or not, I would suspect this team to remain in its prominence. Also, don’t be surprised when Magic Johnson is involved again down the road.