NBA September Takeaway: LeBron James and Anthony Davis are the modern day Kobe and Shaq
During the NBA shut down I spent a lot of time going back to watch old NBA Finals games, starting in 1990 and working my way all the way up to today. When I finally got to the Kobe and Shaq teams from 2000-2002, I was surprised at what stood out above the dominance of their superstar duo – it was the role players.
From every NBA Finals game that I watched, spanning over the last 30 years, there wasn’t a single team that had rotational players that were bigger stars in their role than those early 2000’s Lakers teams. Players like Glen Rice, Robert Horry, Derek Fisher, Rick Fox, Brian Shaw, and Tyronn Lue took those teams very good to all-time greats.
The role players for today’s Lakers aren’t on the same level as they were in 2000-2002, but they serve a similar function for LeBron and Anthony Davis. The 2020 role players like Rajon Rondo, Alex Caruso, Danny Green, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Dwight Howard fit so well with their stars for the same reasons that the early 2000’s players fit well with theirs – they are smart players who can be trusted in the biggest moments of the biggest games. It sounds simple, but so many teams have come up short because they don’t have players like that to complement their stars.
LeBron and Davis will put up their numbers in the NBA Finals, but whether or not the role players can continue to play at the level they have this postseason will determine if the Lakers can finish this up in another five-game series or if the Heat can have a real shot to steal it from them.
Their opportunity to help out their stars is most notable when it comes to 3-point shooting. This postseason, the Lakers are 12-0 when they shoot 30 percent or better from three and 0-3 when they shoot below that mark. To some degree, it’s an oversimplification, but if the Lakers’ role players hit shots and play defense at the same level that they’ve done over the past several weeks then they should win pretty easily. If not, the Finals could get very stressful for L.A.